SUBJECT: GUIDELINES FOR FACULTY PARTICIPATION IN INSTRUCTIONAL UNITS

APPLICABILITY: FACULTY

Because the strength of any university resides in the quality of its faculty, it is imperative that this strength be utilized to its fullest capacity. To achieve this aim, each faculty member must be able to express themselves in an atmosphere that is receptive to individual opinion and that encourages the free exchange of views. Only in such an atmosphere can a university flourish and develop its potential.

The existence of a democratic atmosphere, however, is possible only when each faculty member feels that he or she is a participant in the activities of his or her unit and that the administration of the unit, as well as that of the university as a whole, is interested in his or her contribution to university and departmental governance. It is to be understood that participation also involves the assumption of individual and collective responsibilities for the orderly administration of the university at all levels.

Faculty participation below the university-wide organization calls for a variety of patterns indicated by the sizes of the instructional units and by their academic demands, and by the professional needs of the faculty members involved. Any plan for faculty participation at these levels must take this need for variety and flexibility into account. It should be broad enough and flexible enough to accommodate the variation and experimentation that are essential to an emerging university. In small departments and divisions the entire faculty may operate, if it wishes, as a committee of the whole. In larger units, however, a more elaborate structure may be required.

If a plan for faculty participation is to have meaning, safeguards for democratic procedures within the university structure must be assured, while the necessity for flexibility is also taken into consideration. Therefore, such a plan should concentrate on certain fundamental controls and procedures, and should leave structural details to the unit faculties concerned. The controls and procedures summarized below are hereby initiated to facilitate faculty participation in university governance at the departmental, divisional and school levels, and at the same time provide flexibility to permit full variation among units with differing interests and requirements.

1. The term "department" shall refer to departments and divisions in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Community Service, departments in the College of Business Administration and the College of Education, divisions in the College of Music and the School of Visual Arts, and to schools as a whole in the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management and the School of Library and Information Sciences; and it includes new departments or divisions when such are created in the College of Arts and Sciences or in any of the professional schools.

2. All full-time faculty members of each department will be guaranteed the right to vote on all matters brought to a full departmental vote. Unless otherwise specified, the term full-time faculty members will refer to tenure track faculty, tenured faculty, and librarians. Departments may extend the right to vote on departmental matters to other faculty members (such as temporary faculty or those on modified service) by faculty approved departmental policy.

3. The chair is the chief executive officer of the department. In his or her administrative capacity, it is his or her task to carry out with the advice and counsel of the departmental faculty the administrative and educational policies of the department and the university. The chair’s duties include such responsibilities as presenting budgets, appointments, promotions, severances, courses and schedules for approval by the administration. His or her authority is exercised with the assistance of departmental committees established according to the regulations stipulated subsequently in these guidelines. In making recommendations to the administration, the chair, if requested by the faculty members involved, shall report the final numerical results of departmental or relevant committee voting on contested issues. Members eligible to vote on the matter at hand may request to see the chair’s recommendations. Dissenting opinions shall be filed at the request of the dissenting faculty member(s).

4. Departmental chairs shall be appointed by the appropriate dean from nominee(s) submitted by a search committee including faculty from the school or college, some of whom must be elected by the faculty from the school or college. The procedure for selection of a new chair (including chairs of the divisions) shall include a search committee elected by the department involved to work with the administration. In cases of small departments and divisions, the entire unit may serve as the search committee. In cases where the chair is nominated from within the department, prior to transmission of the recommendation(s) the acceptability (as opposed to preference) of the nominee or nominees to the members of the department shall be determined by a secret and confidential balloting of the department, the sealed ballots to be mailed to the appropriate administrative official.

5. All academic deans shall be appointed by the Board of Regents upon recommendation by the president of the university from nominees submitted by a search committee including faculty from the school or college, some of whom must be elected by the faculty from the school or college.

6. Elected departmental committee(s) shall participate in decision making in the following areas: academic planning, tenure and promotion, recruitment and selection of new members, salary, review of grievances, and any other matter considered critically important by the departmental faculty. Each department shall have an elected Executive Committee, at least half of whom shall come from the upper two ranks. The chair of the department shall serve as the chair of the Executive Committee.

7. All elected faculty committees shall be selected by secret balloting of the departmental faculty. Elections for standing committees shall be held during a fall or spring semester.

8. Regular meetings of the entire departmental faculty must be held at least once each semester. Meetings also may be called by the chair or upon the request of one-third, but in no cases less than two, of the departmental faculty. Minutes including minority reports and exceptions shall be distributed to all members of the department.

9. The departmental faculty may bring any issue affecting the unit to a vote by petition of one-third, but in no cases less than two, of the departmental faculty.

10. In consultation with the deans, the provost and vice president for academic affairs shall be responsible for establishing the procedures, criteria and calendar for periodic departmental review and evaluation. This review will assess the operation of the department, its leadership, its progress, the quality of its faculty and their activities, and its contribution to the wider community. Once the procedures, criteria and calendar for departmental review have been established, consideration of a special review also may be given at any time upon the request of at least one-third, but in no cases less than two, of the full-time departmental faculty.