Article II. Faculty Assembly
Section 6. Powers and Duties
Section 7. Composition
Section 8. Election
Section 9. Term of Office
Section 10. Presiding Officer
Section 11. Meeting Procedure
Section 6. Powers and Duties.
All the powers and duties of the Faculty shall be exercised by the Faculty Assembly, except when a petition to hold a referendum on a decision of the Assembly is presented under the provision of section 4, or when the procedure for calling a special meeting of the entire Faculty is invoked under the provisions of section 5.
The Assembly may identify topics for the Dean, the Executive Committee, or the Educational Policy Committee to report back to the Assembly with information or recommendations, which come to the floor as motions already made and seconded.
The purpose of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Assembly shall be to serve as the representative body of faculty in the College, to speak for the faculty on matters of importance to the College, and to consider and act, or recommend action, as appropriate, on all matters affecting the academic and professional concerns of the faculty. The Faculty Assembly provides a means of participation by the faculty in the CLAS decision-making process affecting academic matters and provides a forum for the expression of concerns regarding faculty welfare.
Specifically, the Faculty Assembly may:
A. Discuss and deliberate on issues of importance to CLAS faculty, including • faculty welfare (tenure and promotion, review policies), • education (undergraduate and graduate education), • diversity, and • CLAS facilities (classrooms, research and teaching space, technology)
B. Discuss and make recommendations on matters referred to Faculty Assembly by the Dean, Executive Committee, or Educational Policy Committee.
C. Identify topics for the Dean, the Executive Committee, or the Educational Policy Committee to consider, with the expectation that these groups would report back to the Assembly with information or recommendations.
It is the responsibility of elected members of the Faculty Assembly to solicit input from their constituents with regard to both setting the Faculty Assembly agenda and matters under consideration by the Faculty Assembly. Optimally time would be set aside at departmental faculty meetings to provide an opportunity for exchange of ideas on Faculty Assembly agenda items.
Section 7. Composition.
The Assembly shall be composed of (a) 6 faculty members elected by and from each of the three electoral groups defined in section 18 for a total of 18 persons from the electoral groups, with no more than two elected from any one voting unit, plus (b) 1 faculty member appointed by and from each voting unit.
The voting units are (a) each school and department in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and (b) each program in the College that has budget line faculty and offers courses in the College. To be eligible to vote or be a candidate in CLAS elections, a faculty member must hold an appointment of 50 percent or more on the budget of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. All voting faculty are eligible to serve on the Faculty Assembly, including those currently serving as DEOs.
Voting units that meet any of the criteria listed above but have fewer than five faculty members shall be combined with another unit or units after consultation with and approval by the Dean and the Executive Committee.
Units outside the College that offer an undergraduate major for which the degree is granted by Liberal Arts & Sciences (i.e., Biochemistry, Economics, Education, and Microbiology) are eligible to appoint a unit representative to Faculty Assembly.
Section 8. Election.
All members of the Assembly shall be elected by secret ballot. Units that will continue to have two electoral group representatives on the Assembly will be marked on the ballot as ineligible for nomination. Other units will be allowed to have only as many nominees on the ballot as there are remaining positions on the Assembly without exceeding two representatives from that unit.
Members of the Assembly to be elected by the electoral groups defined in section 18 shall be nominated by the faculty in each group who shall select by secret ballot from among the faculty members in that group. The number of nominees shall be twice the number of representatives to be elected. Each member of the Faculty may vote for as many persons as are to be nominated, and those candidates with the highest number of votes shall be the nominees. Candidates who have been nominated shall be advised thereof by the Dean prior to the preparation of the ballots for the election of members of the Assembly and shall be considered candidates for election unless they inform the Dean in writing of their unwillingness to serve. If a person elects not to be a nominee, that person shall be replaced on the ballot by the person having the next highest number of votes. Faculty members in each of the electoral groups shall vote among the candidates who have been nominated by their electoral group, voting by secret ballot for as many candidates as they wish. Candidates with the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
Members of the Assembly to be elected by the voting units shall be nominated and elected according to the procedure adopted for that purpose by each voting unit. Such elections shall be held following the announcement of the results of the election of members of the Assembly elected by the electoral groups defined in section 18. Prior to each election, each voting unit shall report the members belonging to its unit to the Office of the Dean. Each unit shall elect a member and an alternate member, the latter to attend and vote in the Assembly when the regular member is unable to attend. A faculty member may vote in only one unit and may be elected as a representative only from the unit in which he or she votes. A faculty member who belongs to more than one unit may choose the unit in which he or she shall vote.
Section 9. Term of Office.
All elected members of the Faculty Assembly shall serve for terms of three years and until their successors have been elected and taken office. They shall take office at the beginning of the academic year following their election.
If a member of the Assembly who has been elected by one of the electoral groups resigns, the nominee in that electoral group with the next highest number of votes in the previous election shall serve for the remainder of the term. If no nominee from the previous election is available and willing to serve as a member of the Assembly, the resigning electoral group representative shall nominate a replacement, who with the concurrence of the Assembly’s elected officers shall serve for the remainder of the term.
If a member of the Assembly elected by a voting unit resigns, that voting unit will elect a new member to serve for the remainder of the term
Section 10. Presiding Officer.
The officers of the Faculty Assembly are the past chair, chair, vice chair, and secretary. They become members ex officio of the Assembly. Their terms are for one year and begin with the adjournment of the Assembly's organizational meeting, held toward the end of each spring semester. Then the Assembly elects a vice chair and a secretary from its members. The previous vice chair becomes chair at the end of the organizational meeting. No one may hold any two of these offices simultaneously.
The chair may appoint ad hoc committees to help with aspects of the Assembly's work outside the purviews of the Executive Committee, the Educational Policy Committee, or other standing committees of the College. The vice chair presides when the chair is unavailable, the secretary when the vice chair is unavailable, and the Dean when these officers are unavailable. The chief academic officer of the University may call meetings and preside at them.
Candidates who expressly agree to serve may be nominated from the floor at the organizational meeting. Toward the start of each spring semester, the chair, the vice chair, and the Dean each choose a tenured Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty member to form a three-person nominating committee. It acts to insure that there will be at least one candidate nominated for each open office, and the nominating committee's recommendations come to the floor as nominations already made and seconded.
If the office of chair becomes vacant, the vice chair presides for the remainder of that term and continues as chair in the next term. If the office of vice chair becomes vacant, it remains so until the end of the term, when the Assembly fills both offices anew by election. If the office of chair becomes vacant when the office of vice chair already is vacant, the Dean convenes a special meeting of the Assembly within fourteen days to elect a chair to serve the rest of the vacated term. The person elected chair then is eligible for election as chair for the next term. Otherwise no person may serve as an officer the year after serving as chair.
Section 11. Meeting Procedure.
The chair prepares and sends an agenda to each Assembly member and the Dean at least one week before each meeting, except in emergencies. Any voting member of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty may propose items for the agenda. It includes as a motion already made and seconded any item proposed through a previous vote of the Assembly, the Executive Committee, the Educational Policy Committee, a meeting of the entire Faculty, or through a petition signed by at least ten percent of the voting Faculty. It also provides for the Dean to have officials of the College address matters of interest.
A majority of the Assembly members constitute a quorum. Meetings are open, and Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty who are not members may address the Assembly with the permission of its presiding officer. At least two regular meetings are held each semester. Additional meetings may be called by the chair, the Assembly, the Dean, the Executive Committee after consultation with the Dean, the chief academic officer of the University, or petition from at least ten members of the Assembly. If a question of procedure arises, the chair and the Assembly resolve it according to this Manual and standard parliamentary rules.
The secretary prepares minutes of each meeting for approval by the Assembly. The secretary sends approved minutes to members of the Faculty, the Registrar, and the Office of the Dean, which keeps them in a permanent file.