Program on Justice and Peace

The Georgetown University Program on Justice and Peace (PJP) is an interdisciplinary unit dedicated to teaching and research in the area of Justice and Peace Studies. Justice and Peace Studies as it exists at Georgetown University can be usefully broken down along three dimensions: the methodological, the topical, and the level of analysis. Methodologically, the PJP aims to investigate and teach about justice and peace from empirical, cultural, historical, normative and theological perspectives. Topically, one can utilize any of these approaches to study: the causes and consequences of violence and injustice, methods for reducing both structural and direct violence, and the values, norms, movements and institutions of peace and justice. Finally, any of these topics can be studied under any of these methodologies at the individual, the social or the international levels of analysis.

Governance
PJP is structured around a number of different groups of faculty, administrators, and students with different responsibilities.

I. Advisory Board
The Advisory Board is responsible for deciding all administrative, curricular, and governance matters referred to it by the Steering Committee.

A. Membership. It is a self-sustaining board of approximately 15 members which attempts to maintain participation from each department closely connected to the program, from relevant administrative sections of the university, and from students. The Director of the Center for Social Justice will serve ex officio on the board. Although any member of the Board can propose a nominee, ordinarily, new members are nominated by the Program Director and approved by a majority of the current members voting at the spring meeting. There will be two student members; one will be a rising sophomore or junior, nominated by the director and elected by a majority of the members voting at the spring meeting; the other will be a senior, enrolled in the senior seminar and selected by students in that seminar as early as possible in the fall semester. Students will have full status with other Board members. Members who have three consecutive unexcused absences from Board meetings will be understood to have resigned from the Board.

B. Responsibilities. The Board shall determine the Program's goals and direction and shall meet to vote on matters placed before it by the Steering Committee. It will elect new members (see I.A., above) and the director (see IV.C., below). It may also instruct the Steering Committee and the Director to perform certain tasks

C. Procedures. The Board shall meet at least once each semester; the Director shall preside. Except in emergencies, the Director shall give notice at least two weeks in advance of the meeting and publish the agenda in advance. For each meeting the PJP Coordinator shall be responsible for taking minutes and distributing them to members in a timely manner. Every effort shall be made to reach decisions by consensus. When this is not possible, a motion shall be passed by a majority of those voting. 

II. Steering Committee
The Committee shall be composed of at least five members who regularly teach in or help to administer the Program, along with a student representative who is also a member of the Advisory Board. Membership is proposed by the director (after soliciting expressions of interests from members of the Advisory Board) and approved by a majority of the Advisory Board voting. It shall meet at least once per semester to decide (based on the Director's recommendations) on curriculum and staffing for the subsequent semester, to advise the Director in all other administrative, curricular and governance matters, and to prepare agenda for consideration of the Advisory Board.

III. Faculty Advisors and Mentors
A. The Program attempts to provide a principal advisor, usually a member of the Advisory Program Board, in each relevant academic department to whom students can be directed for consultation regarding the construction of their academic program in Justice and Peace.

B. The mentor is the primary overseer of the student's senior thesis project which is carried out in conjunction with the senior seminar on justice and peace.

IV. Program Director
A. Duties. The Program Director is responsible for the regular maintenance of the program, including advising students, scheduling courses, maintaining contact with the relevant deans, bringing issues to the Steering Committee and Advisory Board, and maintaining contact with the students in the program. The Director helps each student develop a coherent set of courses meeting the requirements for the program and, along with the professor of the Senior Seminar (JUPS 303), works with the student in constructing a senior project with a suitable faculty mentor.

B. Eligibility and Term of Appointment. The Director must (1) be a Main Campus faculty member (including SNHS) in a credit-granting department or program, (2) have a full-time appointment at Georgetown, and (3) have a reasonable expectation that he or she can serve the full three years of the term. The Director is ordinarily drawn from members of the Advisory Board and/or faculty who have regularly taught PJP core or cross-listed courses. The Director serves a three-year term, with a two term limit.

C. Nomination and Election Process. The Director is elected by majority vote of the Advisory Board and is appointed by the Dean of the College.

1. At the beginning of the semester in which the election is to occur, the PJP Steering Committee appoints a Nominations Committee, consisting of a Chair and two additional members. In accepting this appointment, the Chair of the Nominations Committee agrees not to stand for election.

2. The Chair of the Nominations Committee sends an e-mail to the whole Advisory Board asking for nominations. Two weeks are allowed for this stage of the process. Nominations can be made either by email or hard copy, and should be sent to the Chair of the Nominations Committee.

3. The Chair of the Nominations Committee contacts those nominated to determine if they will stand for election. If a member of the Nominations Committee is himself or herself nominated and agrees to run, she or he will leave the committee.

4. Those willing to stand for election are placed on a ballot, which is distributed by both email attachment and campus mail to all members of the Advisory Board.

5. Within two weeks, hard copies of the ballots must be returned in a signed, sealed envelope to the Chair of the Nominations Committee. The entire committee will meet to count the ballots, inform the nominees of the results, and then publish the results to the Advisory Board and to the Dean of the College.

6. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority vote of PJP Advisory Board members voting. In the event that there is no majority reached on the first ballot, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be removed on the second ballot. This process will be repeated until there are two nominees, at which point ballots will be issued until one achieves a majority.

V. Amendments to the By-laws
Any member of the Board can propose amendments to the By-laws. Proposed amendments must be submitted to all members of the Board at least two weeks before a meeting called to discuss those amendments. The amendments shall be adopted by a majority of the members voting.

Revised April 27, 2005