Faculty
5.01. Department
5.02. Departmental Restructuring – Guidelines and Criteria
5.10. Departmental Faculties: Membership
5.11. Departmental Faculties: Functions
5.12. Joint Governance Appointment
5.13. Affiliations
5.14. Faculty Transfers Between Departments
5.20. Departmental Executive Committees: Membership
5.21. Departmental Executive Committees: Functions
5.22. Delegation of Authority of the Executive Committee
5.30. Departmental Chair: Selection
5.31. Departmental Chair: Duties
5.40. Department-like Bodies
All university faculty members as defined in 1.02. holding probationary appointments, tenure appointments, or joint governance appointments in a department shall have the right to vote and otherwise participate in the governance of that department. The departmental executive committee may extend the right to vote and participate in departmental meetings to members of the academic staff (see 1.03.). The departmental executive committee also may invite members of the academic staff and university staff to participate in the annual preference balloting for department chair. Invitation to participate in departmental governance is not itself a faculty, academic staff or university staff appointment within the meaning of UWS 3 or 10, or policy UW-5020, and therefore is not subject to notice and nonrenewal procedures. Invitation to participate in governance is for a specified term of not greater than one year and is made only by the executive committee (see 5.22.C.). Invitations to participate in governance are renewable.
The immediate governance of the department is vested in its departmental faculty (as defined in 5.10.) which has jurisdiction over all the interests of the department, including authority to determine all departmental questions that are not vested in the departmental executive committee by 5.20. and 5.21. The faculty of the department shall be responsible for teaching, research, and public service. Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11th edition, shall be the default parliamentary manual for all meetings of departments and for their executive committees, but in case of conflict between Robert’s and any rules adopted by those bodies, the latter shall take precedence. Meetings of the departmental faculty shall be consistent with the provisions of the state’s Open Meetings Law.
A joint governance appointment allows a person who has an appointment to the faculty (under UWS 3) or the academic staff (under UWS 10) in one department to participate in the governance of another department without a continuing commitment or tenure relationship with that department. A joint governance appointment is not itself a faculty or academic staff appointment within the meaning of UWS 3 or 10 and therefore is not subject to notice and nonrenewal procedures. A joint governance appointment is for a specified term of not greater than three years and is granted only upon the affirmative recommendation of the departmental executive committee to its dean. Joint governance appointments are either “joint executive appointments” or “joint departmental appointments” as defined below. “Continuing commitment appointments” are governed by the provisions of 7.19. of these rules.
An affiliation allows a faculty member or a member of the academic staff to be associated with a department without governance rights or a continuing departmental commitment. Affiliations may be granted by the departmental executive committee to probationary and tenured faculty and to academic staff for a specified term of not greater than three years.
A faculty member may request transfer of their department’s continuing commitment in their tenured appointment on professional or academic grounds. In considering such a transfer, those involved should take into account the programmatic interests of the faculty member, the affected departments, and the school(s) or college(s) concerned.
A transfer of a department’s continuing commitment to a faculty member requires the concurrence of the faculty member proposing the transfer, the executive committees of the respective departments, and the approval of the appropriate administrative officer(s). When a proposed transfer involves a single school/college, the dean is the appropriate administrative officer. When a proposed transfer involves a unit outside a single school/college, in addition to the deans and executive committees, the approval of the chancellor or their designee must also be sought. In the event that the executive committees or dean(s) directly affected do not agree, the chancellor or their designee will seek to negotiate a final settlement after consultation with the University Committee and the appropriate academic planning council(s). In no case, however, can a continuing departmental commitment to a faculty member be made without the consent of the majority of the accepting departmental executive committee.
A. Each department or its functional equivalent has an executive committee consisting of:
B. Members of an executive committee who are on leave may participate in its decisions insofar as participation is feasible in the judgment of the executive committee.
C. Faculty members who retire and are appointed subsequently by the department in which they held tenure to an academic staff position totaling at least 20% of a full-time academic year appointment may be granted, by that departmental executive committee, membership on the executive committee during the academic year in which they hold that academic staff appointment. (See also 7.31.B.)
A. The departmental executive committee has authority to make recommendations concerning faculty appointments, recruitment, leaves, nonretentions, dismissals, promotions, and salaries and other departmental budget matters, which are transmitted through the chair to the dean.
B. In schools in which departmental structures do not exist, executive committees shall have the same authority to make recommendations to the dean concerning appointments, nonretentions, dismissals, promotions, salaries, and other budget matters, as departmental executive committees described in subsection A.
C. Departmental executive committees shall have the power to review and make recommendations concerning the appointment, recruitment, nonretention, dismissal, promotion, appointment to indefinite status, or salary of academic and university staff and other persons appointed within the department itself; or, for duties not departmentally administered, whenever those personnel actions affect the instructional activities or budget of the department.
D. Department executive committees also do the following:
E. The departmental executive committee shall ensure that affected probationary faculty members shall be kept informed of any changes in departmental goals or other circumstances which alter the opportunity for promotion to tenure.
A. The executive committee may, by annual vote, delegate to a subcommittee or to the chair the authority to make recommendations with respect to any or all of the following matters, except as noted in 5.22.C.:
B. The departmental executive committee may delegate to the full professors of the department the responsibility to communicate the department’s expectations for promotion to the rank of full professor, and the authority to make such recommendations.
C. The executive committee may not delegate to a subcommittee or the chair the following:
A. All members of a department as defined in 5.10. and 5.20. and those members of the academic staff and university staff who have been invited to participate in the annual preference balloting, shall be given the opportunity to express their preference for chair each year by secret ballot, and all ballots shall be transmitted by the departmental chair to the dean. The department may by annual vote authorize a committee to count the votes before the ballots are transmitted to the dean. A voting member of the departmental faculty who is on leave is eligible to participate in the balloting, but not by proxy.
B. If the dean does not wish to appoint the faculty member who received at least a plurality for chair, the dean – after consulting the department, the chancellor, provost, and the University Committee, and with approval of the provost after they consider the recommendations of the University Committee – may appoint a chair from among the tenured members of the department, or may appoint a tenured member of the faculty who is not a member of the department. In exceptional cases, following consultation with the department, the chancellor, provost, and the University Committee, and with approval of the provost after they consider the recommendations of the University Committee, the dean may appoint an assistant professor. The dean shall discuss the reasons for their action with the department, the University Committee, and the provost.
C. If the chair is an assistant professor, or not a member of the department, ad hoc arrangements shall be made in consultation with the dean, the provost, and the University Committee for the operation of the executive committee.
D. The term of office of a departmental chair is one year, but there is no limit to the number of terms that may be served.
E. A unit which is not a department, but which functions as a department for budgetary or faculty personnel matters under 5.01.B. or C. and/or 5.21.B. may have an administrative head who is not subject to the previous provisions of this section. The faculty members of such units may, at their option, have the opportunity to evaluate their administrative head. Such evaluation shall be in a form and procedure agreed to by the unit faculty and shall provide for anonymity.
The chair of the department has the following duties:
A. Serves as the official channel of communications for all matters affecting the department as a whole, between the department and the chancellor, the dean, other university officials, or departments.
B. Calls meetings of the departmental faculty and of the executive committee and presides over the meetings. They shall call a meeting at the request of any two members of the department. Each department shall meet at least once every semester.
C. Has charge of all official correspondence of the department and of all departmental announcements in the catalogue or other university publications.
D. Determines that all necessary records of teaching, research and public service of the department are properly kept and are always accessible to the proper authorities.
E. Reports to the dean regarding the activities and needs of the department.
F. Has responsibility for all departmental supplies.
G. Submits new courses, major revisions of existing courses, and deletion of courses proposed by the department for action by the school/college and the University Curriculum Committee.
H. Takes action in case of emergency pending a meeting of the department or its executive committee.
I. In general, acts as the executive of the department.
A group of faculty who are not all in the same department but who share responsibilities for departmental functions as defined in 5.11. or departmental executive committee functions as defined in 5.21. constitute a department-like body. Every such body shall observe the relevant provisions of Chapter 5. Questions concerning the interpretation of this provision shall be resolved by the University Committee.
UW-801 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 1 – The University Faculty
UW-802 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 2 – University Faculty Senate
UW-803 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 3 – Faculties of the Colleges and Schools
UW-804 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 4 – The Faculty Divisions
UW-806 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 6 – Faculty Committees
UW-807 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 7 – Faculty Appointments
UW-808 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 8 – Faculty Rights and Responsibilities
UW-809 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 9 – Discipline and Dismissal of Faculty for Cause
UW-810 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 10 – Layoff or Termination
UW-811 Faculty Policies and Procedures Chapter 11 – Summer Term
11-07-2022, 5.30.A amended
11-07-2022, 5.10, 5.22.C.4. amended by Fac doc 3044 rev
12-07-2020 “he/his” and “she/her” gender pronouns replaced with “they/their” by Fac doc 2921
02-06-2017, amended by Fac doc 2666
12-07-2015, amended by Fac doc 2583a