Faculty Governance Review

Purpose:

Per the revised HOP 2-1310, the faculty of an academic department or other academic unit that hires and evaluates faculty must review their faculty governance at least once every three years. As a departmentalized college, the governance reviews must include a dean's level review before routing to the Provost's Office for final review and approval.

This article describes the process for conducting and reporting review results for faculty governance.

Relevant Definitions:

Faculty Governance Committee: per the revised HOP 2-1310: "A committee that offers recommendations to the unit supervisor for faculty employment and faculty review. The two kinds of Faculty Governance Committees are Budget Councils and Executive Committees. A Graduate Studies Committee is not a Faculty Governance Committee. (See HOP 9-1240)."

• Budget Council (BC): a committee made up of all tenured Full Professors of the department.

  • Per the revised HOP 2-1310, this mode of governance committee is only available to academic departments with at least five full professors.

• Executive Committee (EC): a committee that may be made up of tenured, tenure-track, or professional-track members; each unit governance's document must describe the composition of this committee, how it is formed, and its responsibilities. 

  • Extended Budget Council (EBC): This form of governance committee is no longer recognized as its own type of governance mode, but is considered a form of EC.

Governance Review: Governance committees must be reviewed at least once every three years. Therefore, a current approved governance committee must be reviewed by its relevant faculty no later than its third academic year of operation. Governance committee and voting rules approved by the unit must then be approved by the dean and EVPP as well.

Governance Document and Voting Policy: a written description of the unit’s mode of governance committee, the responsibilities of the governing committee, voting requirements and practices for the different advisory tasks (hiring, promotion, etc.), and the method by which said rules or practices will be adopted, reviewed, or amended by the unit. 

• This document is required to be submitted for Provost's Office approval as part of the governance review process.

• The Provost's Office has established a set of requirements for faculty governance committee and voting policies, available here.

Department: For the purposes of this article: the person(s) responsible for communicating on behalf of an academic unit within our college.

• Note: Prior to the revision of HOP 2-1310, Faculty Governance Committees were not explicitly required by non-department academic units, but as of AY24-25, all units that hire and evaluate faculty are required to have a faculty governance committee and voting policy approved by EVPP.

COLA: the person(s) responsible for communicating on behalf of the Dean’s Office; for this process, this is currently Ann Kelble.

EVPP: The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, a.k.a. the Provost's Office; this particular process is managed by a subset of EVPP called Faculty Affairs.

AY: Academic year; Aug. 16 through Aug. 15

FY: Fiscal year; Sept. 1 through Aug. 31.

Process:

**General Note: The procedure described here is currently weighted towards addressing the changes due to the revised HOP 2-1310 and less of a "standard" procedure. This will shift (a.k.a., be tweaked) as the changes normalize.

COLA Deadline: June 30 (of the FY in which approved mode of governance expires)

1. Units whose governance is set to expire at the end of the academic year should prepare a review of their governance mode and voting policy.

   1. To check expiration, please refer to the table below. 

   2. *Note: As of Spring 2024, academic units that hire and review faculty but who do not currently have a provost-approved governance model must establish a faculty governing committee and voting policy compliant with the new guidelines. These new governance documents are due to COLA by August 31, 2024. Once established, these governance committees will follow the typical June 30 deadline.

2. The chair or other appropriate department contact should notify those responsible for undertaking the review. Most likely this is done by the existing governing body.

   1. Historically, the tenured faculty of a department voted to determine whether they wanted to renew or revise their governance form, but with the 2024 revisions to HOP 2-1310, all departments with expiring governance will need to make at least some revisions to remain compliant.

3. The review committee will need to use the new (2024) Faculty Governance Committee Structure and Voting Policy Checklist to evaluate their existing governance document to ensure that it meets all requirements. Units that do not already have an approved governance document and/or written voting policy document will need to create one, using the checklist as a guide. Here is an abbreviated list of the requirements for quick reference (refer to the EVPP document for complete details):

   1. The name and unit type of the unit;

   2. The type of faculty governance committee (BC or EC);

   3. Who will chair the committee, along with details about the chair's election or appointment;

   4. Describe the voting eligibility of the committee chair;

   5. If an EC, specify constitution of membership and terms (the checklist includes many questions on this point that will need clear answers);

      1. Note: Per HOP 2-2420, faculty on modified service may not serve on a faculty governance committee.

   6. A list of all of the responsibilities of the BC/EC and the voting eligibility–including faculty title series, rank, affiliation, and percent appointment--for each responsibility. At a minimum, the document must include voting policy information (i.e., who is allowed to vote) for each of the following committee responsibilities–though there are several additional responsibilities that could and should be addressed, if applicable:

      1. Tenured and tenure-track faculty hiring (dept-only);

      2. Tenured and tenure-track faculty compensation (dept-only);

      3. Tenured and tenure-track faculty reviews overseen by the committee (dept-only);

      4. Recommending list of candidates for (non-mandatory) promotion review;

      5. Recommending nominations for emeritus appointments; 

      6. Continuation of or changes to the governance and voting policy.

   7. Must specify and allow synchronous, remote participation and voting by faculty approved to work remotely;

   8. Must include some required legal verbiage (see #8 on checklist); 

   9. List any ex-officio member(s) and clarify their role(s);

   10. An effective date;

   11. An expiration date (usually 3 years later).

4. Once the review committee has confirmed that the unit's governance committee and voting policy document has met all of the criteria, they must circulate the document to the unit's faculty.

   1. The faculty must be allowed to have at least one week for this review.

   2. The faculty must be told who is eligible to vote on the governance proposal.

5. The unit shall have an in-person meeting of the faculty eligible to vote on the governance proposal, including those on professional leave (allowing synchronous remote participation by faculty approved to work remotely). 

   1. The vote on the proposal should take place during the meeting, after discussion.

   2. The proposal to create, continue, or modify the faculty governance committee and voting policy requires a majority vote for recommendation.

6. Once the proposal has been voted on, the unit head should provide a recommendation as well.

7. The Department should notify COLA of the results of the governance review by June 30*, as follows:

   1. Send an email to COLA HR with the subject "20YY UNIT Governance Review"; "20YY" is the year of the review; "UNIT" is the name of the department, center, or program.

   2. State the results of the faculty recommendation vote on governance review (creation/continuation/modification of the faculty governance committee), as well as the unit head recommendation.

   3. Include the date of the faculty vote.

   4. Attach the unit's faculty governance committee and voting policy document.

8. COLA will send the information to the dean for the dean's review and recommendation.

9. After dean's review, COLA will submit the unit's faculty governance committee and voting policy document to EVPP for final review and approval.

10. COLA will notify the Department once the governance document and voting policy has been approved and will update the college's records (and table below).

Important Note: Since departments don’t have to wait until their governance is due for renewal to review or make changes, please notify COLA HR with the above information (Step #7) if the faculty decide to make off-cycle changes to their governance structure. These changes will need to be routed through the dean and formally approved by EVPP just as they do on the normal (3-year) cycle.

Current COLA Department Governance Modes:

Policy:

HOP 2-1310: Faculty Governance Committees

Related Policies:

HOP 2-1010: General Faculty Membership 

• Defines the general faculty of the university, their responsibilities, and their voting rights

HOP 2-1020: Colleges, Schools, and Departments 

• Describes the roles of these units and general information about voting rights and membership within

HOP 2-2160: Recommendations Regarding Faculty Compensation, Faculty Promotion, Tenure, Renewal of Appointment, or Nonrenewal of Appointment 

• Describes several faculty governance committee responsibilities, though this policy is under active review of EVPP Faculty Affairs.