Steward's Council

NLC Stewards Councils

The goal of the NLC Stewards Councils is to create an effective mechanism for collective student voice for NLC undergraduate students. We believe this approach builds on a system familiar and comfortable to all of us — a steward system — and uses that as a base to communicate issues and proposals to the administration in a manner that represents the wishes of NLC students throughout each semester.

The NLC Stewards Councils structure should in no way be construed as preventing students from communicating directly with faculty, staff or administration.

Procedures for the NLC Online Courses Stewards Council

The assistant to the NLC Provost and Deputy Provost sends an email to each student in the 100% online NLC courses asking for a volunteer from each class to serve as the Course Steward by the end of the fourth week of the semester. Volunteers are asked to reply to the email with their course name and number. If more than one student volunteers for a class they are asked to work together.

The stewards send an email to their classmates to ask for comments and feedback about the course.

The NLC provides a site on Blackboard for the Online Courses Stewards Council each semester. The Provost facilitates the discussion board. The stewards post a summary of the comments and recommendations they receive to the site discussion board. The NLC administration works to resolve any issues or implement recommendations.

Procedures for the NLC Week-In-Residence Courses Stewards Council

On Monday of the week in residence elections are held by secret ballot. The ballots are counted in the classroom by an NLC staff person, who announces the decision to the class.

Once the election is held, the faculty member designates 10 minutes — at some point before the end of the Monday class — for the steward to gather comments and feedback from the class, which are brought to the Monday evening Stewards’ Council meeting.

The NLC provides a faculty advisor to the Council — an instructor not involved in the week-in-residence — to help organize the discussion and take notes. The advisor oversees the election at the end of the meeting to choose 2-3 Chief Stewards throughout the week in residence and the rest of the semester.

The Chief Stewards have a follow up meeting with the Provost and Deputy Provost to formally bring issues, concerns, recommendations, and anything else that the Stewards Council deems important. Where feasible, the administration works to resolve any issues or implement recommendations during the week-in-residence. Additional meeting time – either before or after the follow up meeting – is scheduled if necessary. The Administration will also meet with the entire Stewards’ Council upon request.

The NLC provides a site on Blackboard for the week-in-residence format courses Stewards Council each semester.