I. Purpose. The faculty shares responsibility for participating in the governance of the School of Engineering and helping to shape its future and has primary responsibility on academic issues. To help fulfill these responsibilities, the faculty will be represented through an elected Council.
II. Name. The elected Council will be called the Faculty Council of the School of Engineering Engineering Faculty Council.
III. Principles. The dean is committed to look to the Council for advice on the most important issues facing the school, to provide it with necessary information, and to consult with it.
The faculty is committed to look to, nominate and elect to the Council the colleagues whose judgment they most value – junior and senior faculty whom they most respect as teachers and scholars, who reflect the diversity of the school and who have a concern for its overall interests.
IV. Role. The Council will:
A. advise the dean and faculty on the central academic and institutional issues of the school with such reports, deliberations and nomination as it chooses,
B. act jointly with the dean to suggest, and to advise and consult on the appointment of, the chairs and members of all school committees,
C. call special meetings of the faculty or conduct faculty polls,
D. advise the dean and faculty by functioning as a planning committee for the School.
E. represent the School Faculty in the Academic Senate,
F. maintain an archival website that lists EFC meeting minutes, approved resolutions, and other important EFC documents in accord with a posted EFC website policy that the EFC has duly approved.
V. Composition.
A. The Council will have elected representatives from each department of the School as follows: One representative for every nine full-time regular faculty members whose primary appointment is in that department, inclusive of such faculty members on sabbatical or special leaves, exclusive of such faculty members on a terminal leave of absence or in phased retirement, rounded to the nearest whole number. Departments with fewer than five such faculty members are entitled to one representative, but may elect to forego this entitlement from time to time.
B. The term is 2 years, with half elected each year and serving until successors are elected. (For purposes of service on the Council, a year runs from July 1 to June 30 the first Council meeting in early September to the start of the next such meeting in the following September.) No member may serve more than two terms consecutively. (In the start-up year, half the elected councilors, as determined by lot, will have one-year terms, but will be eligible to serve two additional full terms.) Council members serving partial terms as the result of special elections to fill vacant positions will be deemed to have served a full term if their service spans more than one academic year. Council members completing a partial term consisting of no more than one academic year remain eligible for two addition consecutive terms of service.
C. The associate deans for academic affairs and for administration, and the chair of the Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Committee of the School, and the immediate past-chair of the Council are additional members of the Council, but are non-voting.
D. Council meetings may be called, and agenda items added, by the dean, the chair, or the Council itself.
VI. Nominations and Elections
A. Fairness.
The nomination and election process is supervised by the outgoing Council. The dean’s office on request of the Council will provide all needed secretarial assistance. The dean on request of the Council will encourage persons to accept nomination.
B. Nomination.
In February a questionnaire will be circulated to all faculty inviting nominations and self-nominations. Nominations may be made by full-time regular and nontenure-track faculty members whose primary appointment is in the School of Engineering. Nominations may be cross-departmental.
C. Balloting.
The election will be conducted by a secret written ballot sent to all full-time, regular faculty faculty members, inclusive of such faculty members on sabbatical or special leaves, exclusive of such faculty members on a terminal leave of absence or in phased retirement, and the results tallied by an Election Committee and forwarded to the faculty and the Academic Faculty Senate Office. All those self-nominated or nominated who consent to run will be listed on the ballot.
Voting will be by academic department.
In voting, each person may cast as many votes as there are vacant seats to be filled.
Should a vacancy occur, a special election may be held, to be initiated by the Council.
D. Eligibility. Those eligible to vote, and run, and serve are all any full-time regular faculty member whose primary appointment is in the department in question. Individuals holding Special Faculty titles, as enumerated defined in the Faculty Handbook Academic Senate Constitution, are eligible neither to vote nor to serve on the Faculty Council.
Since department chairs and faculty associate deans already have a formalized advisory role with the dean, they are not eligible for membership on the Council during their administrative terms of service as chairs, but are counted for purposes of departmental representation, and are eligible to nominate and vote.
Faculty members who are more than half-time University administrators at the University are not eligible to nominate, to vote for, nor or to serve as members of the Council, but are counted for purposes of departmental representation.
VII. Election of Council Officers and Academic Senate Alternates Chair.
The Council member elected by the council will be Chair for one academic year (July 1 to June 30.) At the first Council meeting in early September, to be convened by outgoing Chair, the new Council members will elect by separate secret ballots the Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary of the Council. These officers will serve a one-year term until the start of the next such Council meeting in early September of the following year. The new members shall also elect from the School full time regular faculty a Webmaster and up to two Senate Alternates who will serve as Alternates (for the Chair and Vice Chair) to the Academic Senate of the University. Each alternate will serve in this capacity for one year.
The runner-up will be Vice-Chair.
The Chair’s title will be “Chair of the Faculty of the School of Engineering.”
VIII. Relations with Other Schools.
The members of the elected Council will simultaneously be members of the Faculty Senate. (Currently only Chair and Vice-Chair are voting members of the Academic Senate.) The Council’s Chair and Vice Chair shall serve as the School’s voting members in the Academic Senate. The Council’s duly elected Senate Alternates may vote on behalf of either the Chair or Vice Chair if the Chair or Vice Chair are not present at a Senate meeting when the Senate President calls a vote.
If the number of Council members is larger than the number of Senators the school is entitled to, the appropriate number of candidates on the ballot who receive the most votes will be the Senators, to the extent consistent with the Constitution and By-Laws of the Faculty Senate.
If the number of Council members is smaller than the number of Senators the school is entitled to, then the Council members will simultaneously be Senators representing their home departments, and the additional Senators will be those who receive the next-largest numbers of votes from their respective departments.
If the Academic Senate establishes a smaller inter-school coordinating body, thenis established the Chair of the Council will be the sSchool’s representative, with any additional representatives the sSchool is entitled to selected by the Council from its members or from the School full time regular faculty.
IX. Adoption and Amendments. These by-laws are adopted by majority vote of the faculty of the School of Engineering by secret ballot. They are amended by the same method.
X. Rules and Procedures.
1. All major meetings will be conducted under reasonable parliamentary procedure as presented in exemplified by the most recently revised edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (1970). If a conflict arises between Robert’s procedure and established Council practice, then Council practice shall prevail.
2. No official business may be conducted by the Council unless a quorum is present. A quorum consists of a simple majority of elected members of the Council. The Council will hold a meeting each month of the academic school year.
The monthly meeting will normally be held during the first week of the month except in January when it may be held in the second week. The meeting is traditionally a luncheon meeting on the first Wednesday of the month (except January). The Chair shall distribute a proposed meeting agenda for the monthly meeting at least one week in advance and shall make every effort to allow other EFC members and interested members of the School, including the Dean, to propose agenda items.
3. Voting. Official actions by the Council may be taken only upon majority vote of elected members present and voting at a meeting at which a quorum has been established. In special circumstances (typically where time is of the essence) the Chair shall have the authority to call for electronic (e-mail) votes from Council members on specific motions if (1) the Chair gives all Council members adequate electronic notice of the proposed vote on the motion and adequate time to reasonably debate the proposed motion and (2) the Chair has made a reasonable attempt to present the proposed motion at either the Council’s monthly meeting or at a specially called Executive Session. Other Council members may not call an electronic vote but they may call for a special Executive Session as detailed in X.4. below. The preference shall always be for in-person votes on resolutions at the monthly EFC meeting.
4. Two or more members may request that the Council meet in Executive Session. Only elected Council members or special guests whom the Chair invites may participate in Executive Session.
5. Other than Executive Sessions, all meetings of the Council are open to any and all members of the faculty as guests. Guests may not vote. However, if specifically invited by the Chair to do so, guests may address the council and/or engage in discussions of the Council and may propose motions.
6. Proxy voting is permitted only if (a) the proxy instruction is in writing, (b) the person designated to cast the proxy vote is identified, and (c) the position to be taken with respect to a particular issue is specified.
7. Minutes of each Council meeting will be approved at the following meeting, and then distributed to the faculty of the School of Engineering and posted on the EFC website.
8. At the end of each academic year Council’s one-year term, the Chair of the Council will report to the entire faculty of the School, providing a comprehensive review of the activities of the Council during the year. This report should include all major (non-confidential) Council documents from the past year. The outgoing Chair shall promptly deposit all appropriate EFC documents with the Academic Senate, and provide access to mailing lists to the next elected EFC Chair.
9. At its first meeting of the new academic year, the members of the Council will elect a Chair by secret ballot. The runner-up in this election will be the Vice-Chair.
The Chair will preside over business meetings of the Faculty Council, and will represent the Council in communications with the Dean of the School, with the Academic Senate, and with the faculty of the University.
The Vice Chair will preside at business meetings of the council in the temporary absence of the Chair and other tasks as the Chair may delegate during the Chair’s temporary absence.
9. Removal of officers, Senate alternates, and Council members. If the Chair should leave this position permanently, or for more two or more months, for any reason during an academic year, the Council shall elect a new Chair.
The Council shall promptly elect a new Vice Chair or Secretary if either officer resigns his or her position or abandons such position for two consecutive months, unless a majority of Council members vote to retain such officer. The same shall apply to Senate alternates who miss two consecutive meetings of the Academic Senate. The Council shall vote on the continued participation of Council members who miss two consecutive monthly Council meetings. The Chair will contact the relevant department chair to inform the department chair of the member’s absence. The Chair shall contact the home department chair of any member who resigns or abandons his or her position and conduct either a vote for a new Council member or a temporary alternate. The Department may choose not to replace the member for that Council term.