Faculty Senate Bylaws
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  1. Membership
         
  2. Meetings 
         
  3. Officers & steering committee
         
  4. Faculty Assembly delegates
         
  5. Committees

    Appendices

Election procedures for autonomous faculty committees

  1. Each year the Senate Steering Committee shall elect one of its members Elections Officer, who shall be responsible for conducting elections for the autonomous faculty committees and the Faculty Assembly delegates. Duties, membership, and terms of office for the three autonomous committees can be found in the Faculty Senate Bylaws.
       
  2. Membership qualifications
    1. Hearings Panel (HP): Thirty-two members, eight from each division.
      1. Must be tenured faculty member.
      2. May not hold emeritus status, be administrator, or be chairperson.
      3. May not hold concurrent membership on FPRC or CRTP.
      4. May serve no more than two terms in succession.
      5. No more than three members from the same department or the School of Nursing may serve concurrently.
    2. Faculty Professional Relations Committee (FPRC): Eight members, two from each division.
      1. Must be a full-time faculty member.
      2. May not hold emeritus status, be administrator, or be chairperson.
      3. May not hold concurrent membership on HP or CRTP.
      4. May not succeed self.
      5. No two members from same department (Div I-III) or same school (Div IV) may serve concurrently.
      6. All professorial ranks (assistant, associate, full) must be represented
    3. Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion (CRTP): Eight members, two from each division.
      1. Must be tenured faculty member.
      2. May not hold emeritus status, be administrator, or be chairperson.
      3. May not hold concurrent membership on FPRC or HP.
      4. May serve no more than two terms in succession.
      5. No two members from same department (Div I-III) or same school (Div IV) may serve concurrently.
           
  3. The Elections Officer shall be responsible for updating the faculty information database in consultation with the chief academic officer, the Office of Institutional Research, and department chairpersons.
    1. Name
    2. Rank (especially promotions in effect for the next academic year)
    3. Department and/or school affiliation
    4. Full-time/part-time
    5. Tenured/non-tenured
    6. Retiring or not returning
    7. Whether or not:
      1. an administrator (half-time or more)
      2. a chairperson
      3. current membership on: FPRC, HP, or CRTP
           
  4. Following a schedule established by the Steering Committee each year, the Elections Officer distributes to the appropriate segments of the voting faculty a list (generated by the database described in 3) of the potential candidates for each vacancy in each voting division. (See item 14 below.)
       
  5. One week is allowed for verifications (including first name preferences) and for challenges and withdrawals from any or all lists. Any such communication should be submitted in writing to the Elections Officer.
       
  6. Having processed any such responses, the Elections Officer issues a nominating ballot for each divisional vacancy to the voting faculty in that division.
       
  7. Each member of the voting faculty in a division may nominate up to three (3) persons per vacancy in his/her respective voting division. One week is allowed for the return of the ballots.
       
  8. The Steering Committee counts the ballots.
    1. For divisional nomination to the Faculty Professional Relations Committee or the Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion, the three individuals receiving the highest number of votes become the candidates as long as no more than one (1) faculty member is nominated from a single department or school. Should more than one of the three highest vote-getters be from a single department or school, only the highest vote-getter from that unit shall be nominated; the other(s) shall be replaced by the next highest vote-getter(s) not from that unit.
    2. For divisional nomination to the Hearings Panel, the twelve individuals receiving the highest number of votes become the candidates as long as no more than three (3) faculty members are nominated from a single department or the School of Nursing. Should more than three of the twelve highest vote-getters be from a single department or the School of Nursing, only the three highest vote-getters from that unit shall be nominated; the other(s) shall be replaced by the next highest vote-getter(s) not from that unit.

    In case of a tie, the Steering Committee will determine the nominee by a random selection procedure. If the same individual is nominated for more than one committee, the Steering Committee will ask his/her committee preference. The next highest vote-getter thus becomes the nominee for the other committee.

  9. The Elections Officer prepares election ballots containing the names of the three (3) candidates for each vacancy in each voting division and distributes them to all voting faculty. Each voting faculty member votes for one candidate for each vacancy in every voting division.
       
  10. The Elections Officer and a member of the Steering committee count the ballots. In case of a tie, the Steering Committee will determine the winner by a random selection procedure.
    1. For vacancies on the Faculty Professional Relations Committee or the Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion, the candidate in each division with the highest number of votes is elected.
    2. For vacancies on the Hearings Panel, the four candidates in each division with the highest number of votes are elected, with the proviso that no more than three from the same department or the School of Nursing may serve concurrently.
         
  11. The UNC Code requires that the membership of the Faculty Professional Relations (Grievance) Committee ". . . shall be elected by the faculty with members elected from each professorial rank" (Section 607). In order to insure compliance, should the returning members of the committee not include all ranks, the Elections Officer shall assign the missing rank to a voting division for that election. The nominating ballot for FPRC in that voting division shall include only persons of that rank. The burden of electing a predetermined rank, when needed, shall be rotated among the voting divisions in the following order: Divisions I-IV. If a division is not electing a member to the FPRC in a year in which it would otherwise be assigned a predetermined rank, that responsibility shall pass to the next division in the rotation and the imbalance corrected in a subsequent year. The status of the rotation shall be reported each year in the minutes of the senate meeting at which the election results are announced. The Steering Committee shall be responsible for interpreting this policy.
       
  12. All election results shall be announced at the next senate meeting following the counting of the ballots. At the discretion of the President of the Senate, written notice of the results may be sent to all voting faculty at an earlier time also. While the members of the Steering Committee are not to discuss the results with anyone, questions about the election mechanism may be answered by the Elections Officer or the President of the Senate, or referred to the Steering committee.
       
  13. If a member of an autonomous faculty committee resigns after the beginning of the final semester of service, that vacancy is not filled. Otherwise the Steering Committee will appoint the next highest vote-getter from the appropriate division in the most recent election for that division. Persons so appointed shall serve the unexpired term and shall not be, on this account, disqualified from candidacy in the subsequent regular election.
       
  14. Voting divisions

    Departments are assigned to one of four voting divisions as follows:

    • Division I: Art & Theatre, Creative Writing, English, Film Studies, Foreign Languages & Literatures, History, Music, Philosophy & Religion
    • Division II: Biological Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Mathematics & Statistics, Physics & Physical Oceanography
    • Division III: Anthropology, Communication Studies, Health & Applied Human Sciences, Political Science, Psychology, Randall Library, Social Work, Sociology & Criminal Justice
    • Division IV: Cameron School of Business (Accountancy & Business Law, Economics & Finance, Information Systems & Operations Management, Management & Marketing), Watson School of Education (Curricular Studies, Specialty Studies), School of Nursing
         
  15. Nominating and voting
    1. Nomination for candidates for autonomous committees will be made by faculty within their voting division, i.e., nominations restricted to one's own division (Steps 3-8 above).
    2. Voting for candidates for autonomous committees in all divisions is done by the entire faculty. Thus all voting faculty vote in all divisional elections to elect one candidate for every vacancy in each division (voting across divisions).
         
  16. Terms of the committees
    1. Members of the Hearings Panel and the Faculty Professional Relations Committee serve two-year staggered terms (within divisions).
    2. Members of the Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion serve three-year staggered terms (across divisions).
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Updated 10/15/2006