Staff Advisory Council

The first meeting of the Swarthmore College Committee on Staff Procedures (COSP) was held June 9, 1989. Roughly parallel to the Committee on Faculty Procedures, it advised the College President on staff issues, appointed staff to campus-wide committees, and identified issues of concern to staff and referred those concerns to the appropriate administrative area. Early documents clarify that COSP's role was procedural rather than substantive, and that it should be concerned with policy issues, not individual concerns or conflict resolution. Members of COSP were elected by staff.

In 1998, COSP was restructured as the Staff Advisory Council (SAC). SAC differed from COSP in several significant ways. SAC was enlarged, with nine members versus six, elected from nine geographically and departmentally oriented "circles." SAC was newly empowered to elect its own moderator and secretary, and that moderator was responsible for convening meetings and setting the agenda. SAC is still an active committee as of 2015.