In addition to advising the president, the FAC places representatives on a wide range of university-level committees, councils, and taskforces charged with making important recommendations on all areas of institutional governance. The FAC, therefore, plays a vital role in promoting and facilitating shared governance and ensuring that faculty interests are adequately represented within decision-making processes. Consequently, the FAC also operates as an important avenue through which faculty members can become involved in university-level service.

The FAC also operates as a medium of communication between the faculty and the administration. Because of its involvement in the governing processes, the FAC can bring issues before the administration that individual faculty members may feel uncomfortable raising themselves. For this reason, the FAC maintains open lines of communication with all faculty members. All FAC meetings are open to all faculty members to attend, and any faculty member may petition the FAC’s Executive Committee for permission to directly address the full FAC.

Each college or school is represented proportionally within the FAC. The FAC is reapportioned every other year to ensure that one member from each school or college is appointed by the president, and at least one member is elected by the faculty of that unit. Every spring semester, each college or school holds general elections, as needed, to place representatives on the FAC for two-year terms. All fulltime faculty members below the level of department head are eligible to vote for and become members of the FAC. Once a FAC member has served a two-year term, he/she is ineligible to serve on the FAC the following academic year but may be reelected after the second anniversary of the last day of his/her most recent term. The president appoints the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Business Manager of the FAC.