Chapter Three

Sec. 3.3.1 Membership and Appointment

All persons with full-time faculty appointments who are appointed for at least one year and a part of whose work for the current year is in a particular academic unit shall be members of its faculty except in the case of those units which define faculty membership differently in their bylaws.

The Board of Trustees shall be responsible for the appointment of all full-time faculty members. It may make these appointments on the recommendation of the President of the University or it may delegate appointing authority to the President. These appointments shall have been recommended to the President or President's designee by the dean of the unit after recommendation by the appropriate faculty or faculty committee, in conformity with Section 2.5.2.A. In departmentalized units, the dean's recommendation shall be made on the initiation of the departmental chair after recommendation by the departmental faculty or faculty committee. [Sentence added 25 June 2001] A majority of full-time faculty in any academic unit shall be probationary or tenured.

Sec. 3.3.2 Jurisdiction and Purposes

Except as otherwise provided, each faculty shall have general legislative powers over all matters pertaining to its own personnel policies, criteria, and procedures, to its own meetings, and to the admission requirements, curricula, instruction, examinations, and recommendations to the Board of Trustees for granting of degrees in its own academic unit. All such actions shall be consistent with enumerated policies of the Board of Trustees.  For interdisciplinary degree programs and tracks, academic authority will be shared among the faculties of the participating units as specified in the Bylaws of the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies.

The Faculty Senate, after proceeding in the manner stated in Section 3.4.2.A may state its disapproval of any action of the faculty that seriously affects the general interest of the University, and may recommend appropriate action to the President as chief educational officer of the University.

Questions of academic jurisdiction between faculties of academic units shall be resolved by the President or President's designee in consultation with the Faculty Senate or affected faculty bodies.

Sec. 3.3.3 Faculty Meetings

The dean of each academic unit may at any time call a meeting of the unit faculty, but the dean shall be required to do so upon the written request of one-fourth of the members of that faculty, unless a lesser number is specified in the bylaws or actions of that faculty.

Minutes of all actions taken by a faculty shall be transmitted to the Office of the President and to the University Archives and shall be available for inspection.

Sec. 3.3.4 Bylaws of the Units

The faculty of each academic unit shall enact a set of bylaws by which the unit shall be governed. Those bylaws and all amendments shall be approved and preserved in the manner indicated in Section 3.1.3 of this Redbook.

Sec. 3.3.5 The Divisional or Departmental Officers

A. Appointment and Tenure

1. The chair of any division or department and the director of any institute or school within a unit shall be appointed by the Board of Trustees upon the recommendation of the dean after approval of the Executive Vice President and University Provost and President of the University. Such officers serve at the pleasure of the Board of Trustees and may be removed at any time upon the recommendation of the President.

B. Selection

1. Searches for divisional or departmental officers may be limited to internal candidates at the discretion of the dean. In such cases, the departmental faculty shall submit a slate of candidates to the dean, from which the dean may strike any candidates. Before making a recommendation, the dean shall seek the concurrence of the departmental faculty by one of two methods: Method 1: The departmental faculty may vote on all acceptable candidates. Method 2: The departmental faculty may vote on the candidate tentatively selected by the dean. When the dean and a majority of the departmental faculty concur on a candidate, the dean may recommend that person via the Executive Vice President and University Provost for approval by the President and Board of Trustees. If there is an impasse in this process, the dean and departmental faculty shall each submit written reports to the Executive Vice President and University Provost, who shall recommend a departmental officer to the President and Board of Trustees.
2. Searches for divisional or departmental officers open to both internal or external candidates shall be conducted by a search committee, the majority of whose members shall be full-time faculty of the unit involved. The candidate selected by the dean shall be acceptable to a majority of the departmental or divisional faculty. If there is an impasse in this process, the dean and departmental faculty shall each submit written reports to the Executive Vice President and University Provost, who shall recommend a departmental officer to the President and Board of Trustees.

C. Duties and Responsibilities

1. The officer of a department, division, institute or school within a unit shall be the educational and administrative head of that group. The chair or director of any department, school, institute, or division shall be immediately responsible to the dean of the unit for work and progress of the department or division. The faculty in each department, led by the department chair, shall develop a mission statement and specific goals and objectives for the department's academic mission, which shall be approved by the dean. Such officers shall be responsible for implementing the mission statement and specific goals and objectives through administration of faculty workload plans, space, equipment, staff, budgets, and other resources in the department, consistent with university policy and the law. In units participating in graduate education programs, the chair or director shall be responsible for executing graduate programs in accordance with the Minimum Guidelines for Graduate Education and appropriate unit guidelines.  Policy matters relating to graduate student education will be coordinated with the Dean of the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies.

D. Evaluation and Review

1. The performance of all chairs and directors shall be reviewed annually by the dean with input from appropriate senior administrators and faculty. A written summary shall be prepared of each evaluation indicating compliance with policies and objectives.
2. After every five years of service, the performance and effectiveness of each chair or director shall be reviewed on a cumulative basis by a broad-based committee established with the concurrence of the departmental faculty. The officer under review shall be informed of the basis of all conclusions and offered an opportunity to respond before the report is completed. The chair or director may be retained or removed on the basis of a committee recommendation with which the departmental faculty and dean concur. In the event of an impasse on the outcome of a review, the dean and the departmental faculty shall each submit a report with that of the review committee to the Executive Vice President and University Provost for a final decision. All such reports are preliminary recommendations and shall be kept confidential. The criteria, procedures, and a substantive summary of the findings shall be made available in confidence to the faculty of the department or division involved. The summary shall be written by the committee in consultation with the dean or dean's designee.

3. Deans may conduct special reviews of administrative subordinates at any time as may be necessary to assure effective leadership and may recommend removal of a chair or director at any time for any reason that is not illegal or arbitrary.

   A majority of departmental faculty may request a special review of a chair or director at any time. If, after consultation with the departmental faculty, the dean does not support such a request and the faculty do not recede from the request, the matter shall be referred to the Executive Vice President and University Provost for a decision after consultation with all parties.