Welcome from College Senate Chair Jack Lechelt
My name is Jack Lechelt, your Chair of the College Senate. I’m also a political science professor at the Loudoun Campus. I’ve been at NOVA since 2006. If you want to know more about my boring life, you can read this brief bio.
This is a busy time of year and we’re all getting situated, but I want to let everyone know that the College Senate has a lot of opportunities for you to get involved in our shared governance structure. NOVA’s College Senate represents everyone at NOVA: students, staff and faculty. The Senate comprises representatives from all areas of NOVA, including all campuses, Pender and anywhere else NOVA exists. Each campus has a kind of “mini-Senate” called a forum council. There is also a collegewide body called the College Staff Forum Council for College staff who are not on a campus. Watch Spring elections for forum councils. Winners serve two-year terms on their forum councils. Just after those elections, the forum councils elect a few of their members to serve on the College Senate for a one-year term. The College Senate then selects its leaders for the year. This past spring, the College Senate elected John Sound as vice chair, Beth Lanthier as your secretary and I chose Ashlie Warnick as the parliamentarian. These are wonderful people and we look forward to working with you. Keep your eyes open for fall special elections: we need to fill several vacancies on several forum councils. If you’re curious about what that will entail, please contact me or any of the Forum Council chairs listed above.
Beyond forum councils and the Senate, there are committees of all sorts to ensure our College leaders hear your opinions and ideas. I cannot promise you that our efforts carry the day, but we are heard. Our effectiveness depends on a lot of factors, some of which are beyond our control, but your involvement is the one factor you have control over, and I am certain that you can help us help NOVA and our students.
Here is some useful information you can refer to later:
- Jack Lechelt, Chair of the College Senate, Teaching Faculty, Loudoun, PLS, jlechelt@nvcc.edu
- If you would like to receive my weekly “Senate Chair Chat” email, send me an email and I’ll add you to the list.
- You can find my past Senate Chair Chat emails here.
- Click here for a collection of “Links of Value” that can help you understand the College Senate and other aspects of our shared governance system.
- For an outline of the main responsibilities of the College Senate from the College Forum Constitution and Bylaws (NOVAnet).
- For a primer on the committees the College Senate plays a role in.
- NOVAnet (often referred to as Sharepoint) has all the information you need to find out who your Forum Council representatives are, who your Senators are and the College Senate meeting schedule (with Zoom link). The first meeting is Thursday, Aug 29 at 1 p.m.
- Keep an eye out for solicitations to run for Forum Council seats and to fill committee vacancies.
Title/Group |
Name |
Email Address |
Chair, College Senate |
Jack Lechelt |
|
Vice-Chair, College Senate |
John Sound |
|
Secretary, College Senate |
Beth Lanthier |
|
Parliamentarian, College Senate |
Ashlie Warnick |
|
Chair, Alexandria Forum Council |
Sue Jean Cho |
|
Chair, Annandale Forum Council |
Alex Bohn |
|
Chair, College Staff Forum Council |
Jamie Ellis |
|
Chair, Loudoun Forum Council |
Mike Polcen |
|
Chair, Manassas Forum Council |
John Sound |
|
Chair, Medical Education Campus |
Nick Zefran |
|
Chair, Woodbridge Forum Council |
Tony Smith |
|
Chair, Personnel Services Committee |
Donna Minnich |
|
Vacant for the moment |
The world is a bit crazy right now. Lots of international tension and a national election season is upon us. As a political scientist, I care about all of that. But I find that getting involved in more local issues is a great way to meet nice people who want to do good things. I hope you’ll consider doing good things with us.
If you have ANY questions or concerns, please reach out to me at jlechelt@nvcc.edu.
Submitted by:
Jack Lechelt, Chair of the College Senate, JLechelt@nvcc.edu