COLLEGE OF COASTAL GEORGIA FACULTY SENATE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL ( THE PPM )

Transcription

1 COLLEGE OF COASTAL GEORGIA FACULTY SENATE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL ( THE PPM ) TABLE OF CONTENTS OFFICERS... 2 Chair... 2 Chair-Elect... 2 Secretary... 2 Parliamentarian... 2 Past-Chair... 2 ELECTIONS... 2 Special Notes... 4 MEETINGS... 4 Who and When... 4 Agenda Items... 5 Voting... 5 Public Comment Sessions... 5 COLLEGE-WIDE COMMITTEES... 6 Senate Committee Memberships... 6 Senate Committee Operations... 7 Non-Senate Committee Memberships... 7 COMMUNICATION... 8 Archived Materials... 8 POLICY CHANGE... 9 Amending Senate Policy... 9 Recommending College Policy (to the administration)... 9 APPENDIX: DUTIES OF THE CHAIR... 9 Advocating for Faculty Interests Developing Senate Participation and Leadership Fostering Communication Securing Resources to Ensure Senate Success

2 The Policies and Procedures Manual (PPM) is meant to explicate the Faculty Senate Bylaws by elaborating upon the necessary policies and procedures to operate. The PPM should be used as a supplement to the Bylaws, which should be read carefully before referring to this document. Note that the Bylaws, which are more formal in nature, require approval by the full faculty, VPAA, President, and the USG BOR. In contrast, the PPM is meant to be fluid in nature, responding to changes in the day-to-day operations of the Senate. Changes to this PPM need only be approved by the Faculty Senate. OFFICERS CHAIR The Chair is the head of the Senate and represents all faculty. The Chair serves on the President s Cabinet and is a liaison between the administration/staff and the full faculty. The Faculty Senate Chair meets regularly with both the VPAA and President to keep them apprised of and seek their guidance/assistance with Senate activities. Other duties of the Senate Chair are listed in the Appendix. The practice is that the Chair should be given one course release per semester of service as Chair. CHAIR-ELECT The Chair-Elect oversees the election process for new Senators and the selection process for Senate Standing Committee membership in the spring of each year. SECRETARY The Secretary takes meeting minutes and archives those minutes, along with other relevant documents, in the FacultySenate folder on the Faculty & Staff network drive. After the Senate votes on documents, they should be filed both chronologically and topically. PARLIAMENTARIAN The parliamentary authority for conducting Senate meetings is the Robert s Rules of Order, overseen by the Parliamentarian. The Parliamentarian should familiarize him/her-self with Robert s Rules of Order ( PAST-CHAIR The Past-Chair is encouraged to attend all Senate meeting in an advisory capacity. He/she should also serve as the Senate s Historian. The Historian coordinates the maintenance of the web site- ensuring that the Senate s correspondence, minutes, records of Senate elections, finances, activities of ad hoc committees, or other significant records that are central to the CCGA College Faculty Senate are collected and collated. ELECTIONS There are four different election processes that may occur each year: 1. the election of Secretary and Parliamentarian; 2. the election of Chair-Elect; 3. the election of Senators and the USGFC Representative; and 4. any special election when one of the above offices must be filled midterm. 2

3 The election of Secretary and Parliamentarian is an election within the Senate that occurs during the first Senate meeting of the year. The Chair shall put out a call for nominations among the Senators at least two weeks prior to the first Senate meeting. The call for nominations should end one week prior to the first Senate meeting and the Chair should ask the nominees if they accept the nomination. The election should be held during the meeting and it should be held by secret ballot, even if only one candidate for a given office. Only current Senators are eligible to hold one of these positions. The Chair-Elect shall be first elected by the Senate at the first Senate meeting in the spring of the previous year. The Chair shall put out a call for nominations among the Senators at least two weeks prior to that meeting. The call for nominations should end one week prior to the first Senate meeting of the spring semester and the Chair should ask the nominees if they accept the nomination. During the meeting, the election should be by secret ballot, even if there is only one candidate running. The candidate for Chair-Elect must then be approved by the full faculty at the next available Faculty Meeting. Although it is not a requirement, it is recommended that a faculty member nominated for the position of Chair-Elect have tenure. As the Chair-Elect will become Chair and may have to work with the administration on controversial issues, having tenure will allow for a greater ease in the communication process. In the event that no current eligible Senators are willing to serve as Chair-Elect, the Senate will open the position up to any full-time regular faculty member who, by the start of the next academic year, will have served as a Senate representative in good standing for at least one full term. Those interested would have to go through the same election process as any other Chair-Elect. Once elected, he or she would be expected to attend all Senate meetings as a non-voting member for his or her tenure as Chair-Elect. Elections for senators and the USGFC Representative shall take place in March. All positions are for two year terms. Nominations/Elections for: senators representing the Department of Mathematics and School of Education & Teacher Preparation should be held in early March of odd years. at-large senate positions should be held in the late March of odd years. senators representing the Departments of Arts & Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences, along with the Schools of Nursing & Health Sciences and Business & Public Affairs, should be held in the early March of even years. the USGFC Representative should be in late March of even years. The rotation of senators is intentional it allows for a balance of experience. When new senate positions are created (as the college s organization chart changes and the school grows), this staggered rotation of elections should be kept in mind. Furthermore, all senate positions representing a specific department/school must be fully determined before nominations/elections for at-large senate positions or the USGFC representative may take place. All full-time regular faculty members whose primary duty is teaching may vote in the elections for at-large senators and the USGFC representative. Only those faculty members within a given department/school can vote for the senator who will represent them. It is the job of Chair-Elect, with guidance from the Chair, to work with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness to coordinate these elections using a Qualtrics survey. Instructions for voting using this modality and a time frame for voting will be distributed to the faculty in an appropriate time frame prior to the election. Elections will be done in two phases: (1) nominations and (2) elections from among the nominees. Nominees must first be asked to accept and must then accept their nomination in order to be put on the ballot for election. Administration and configuration of electronic balloting will be managed by Institutional Effectiveness or a person agreed to by the 3

4 Senate whose name and position will be included in the senate minutes. For Qualtrics surveys, there are two options for administering: (1) an open link where anyone can submit and vote and (2) a personalized link tied to an individual address. The open link takes less time to create and is recommended for the nomination survey. However, the personalized link is recommended for the election survey to prevent individuals from casting multiple votes. Voting totals will be viewed by the entire senate for purposes of determining electoral results. To be elected to the office of senator for an academic unit, a simple majority (more than 50%) of votes is required. at-large Senator, a candidate must be one of the top vote-recipients corresponding to the number of open positions (e.g., if there are 3 open positions, then the 3 top vote-recipients would be elected). Note that there can be no more than one person elected to the position of at-large Senator from a given academic unit. USGFC Representative, a plurality (highest percentage of votes) is required. If the election for an office cannot be determined by the above, the candidates with the highest numbers of votes will participate in a run-off election. The run-off election will have faculty cast votes using the Borda count (ranked voting) voting modality. If a winner of the run-off election cannot be determined using only those candidates ranked as 1 on each ballot, then the full rankings will be utilized. If a winner still cannot be determined, the Senate will hold an election specifically within the Senate to determine the winner. Procedures for any special elections that may take place throughout the year should mirror the regular election for that position. SPECIAL NOTES It is suggested that current senators mentor the new incoming senators. The Chair-Elect should orchestrate this pairing. Efforts should be made to pair new senators with those from other schools. An elected senator who is engaged in any type of professional activity making it impossible to carry out Senate responsibilities for a period exceeding three consecutive months, excluding June, July and August, may resign if he or she wishes, but otherwise shall be replaced by an alternate to fill the period of time that the senator will be absent from the Senate. The Faculty Senate bylaws state that no faculty member may serve on the Senate in a voting position, i.e., Senator or Senate Chair (who votes in the case of a tie), for more than 5 consecutive years. Occasions may arise where the Senate votes to make an exception to this policy. Specifically: o No other member of an academic unit wishes to serve as Senator or a simple majority (over 50%) of regular full-time faculty from an academic unit does not wish to have any other faculty member as Senator. o If the current Chair steps down and the Chair-Elect does not wish to step forward, then the immediate Past Chair is asked. If the Past Chair has just served for 5 years (4 as Senator and 1 as the Chair), then serving as Chair again could force a 6th consecutive year of service. MEETINGS WHO AND WHEN Meetings typically occur once per month on a Wednesday at 4:00 pm and last approximately 1.5 hours, except for the months of June, July and August. The Chair and the Senate may choose to have more frequent regular meetings 4

5 or, on occasion, may hold a special meetings (e.g., if time-sensitive issues arise or for summer retreats). The chair presides over all meetings of the Faculty Senate. In his/her absence, the Chair-Elect presides over the meetings. Meetings are open to everyone. However, for unusual circumstances, meetings or portions of meetings may be closed to various persons or groups. Closing a meeting or a portion of the meeting may be accomplished by either an announcement by the chair or by a motion from the floor. Any motion or recommendation to close a meeting must specify the person(s) to whom it is closed, the reasons for closure, and the business to be transacted during the closed period. By his/her choice, the College President typically attends 1 2 Senate meetings per year (though he/she may exercise the right to attend and preside over all Senate meetings) while the VPAA generally attends every Senate meeting. The Chair should extend an invitation to the President at least once per semester. All senators are expected to attend every Senate meeting. Senators should work with their department chair/school dean to prevent a conflict with their teaching schedule. If a senator is going to miss or has missed more than three consecutive months worth of meetings, he/she should resign and a new senator should be elected in his/her place to complete the term of office. In the event that a person misses more than two or more senate meetings in a row without reasonable cause or if the Senator is consistently late to meetings, the Chair of the Senate should talk with the Senator about his/her behavior. AGENDA ITEMS It is the responsibility of the Senators to ask their respective constituents for items that they wish to be placed on the agenda for the Faculty Senate meeting. Such agenda items must be presented in writing by the Senator to the Senate Chair no later than one week prior to the scheduled Senate meeting. While the agenda item must be in writing, the author of the request may be anonymous. The Senate Chair may decide to include the item for a vote, bring to discussion, or delay to a specified date. As the Chair, he or she may also decide to not bring the item up for discussion. VOTING For any vote within the Senate, each Senator is encouraged to discuss the matter with his/her constituents before casting a vote. If the Senate is asked to vote on an issue that is known to be controversial or will have widespread impact, then the best practice is for the Senate to bring forth the issue to the full Faculty before voting as a Senate. Under normal circumstances senate voting is done at regular senate meeting. In unusual circumstances or situations involving pressing issues, senate voting may be done by with a simple majority determining the outcome of the vote. A quorum is necessary, as it would be in a normal senate meeting. Under normal circumstances proxy voting is discouraged. If there is a need for proxy voting at a regularly scheduled Senate meeting, the name of the proxy, i.e. the person voting in the place of the absent Senator, the vote, and what was at issue in the vote are all to be recorded in the minutes of the Senate meeting. PUBLIC COMMENT SESSIONS While the Senate meetings are open, only those items on the stated agenda will be discussed. The Senate may elect to open the meeting for a Public Comment period. No voting can occur during this time. The following guidelines pertain to speakers who will be addressing the Senate during the Public Comment Sessions. 5

6 Individuals who wish to address the Senate are requested to place their name and the subject they wish to address on the speakers sign-in list, physical or electronic. Speakers are requested to address items on the Senate agenda or topics relevant to CCGA. Please respect the time limit allotted to each speaker (announced at the convening of each public comment period). The Chair will indicate when your time has expired and the next speaker will be invited to begin. Three or more individuals may pool their time for one speaker. The amount of time given to that person will be less than the combined time available to the individuals separately. For example, if individual speakers have 3 minutes each, a representative for a group of 3 or more speakers may be given a total of 7 minutes. Allotted times may be adjusted at the discretion of the Chair. When the Chair invites you to speak, please indicate if you intend to pool your time with others for a group representative. Those speaking on behalf of others who have yielded their time may be called on after those speaking as individuals. Unused portions of individual allotted times may not be yielded to other speakers. Efforts will be made to accommodate each individual who has signed up to speak. However, given time constraints, there is no guarantee that all who have signed up will be able to address the Senate. Written comments and materials brought forth to the Senate by speakers will be accepted during public comment and will later be made available to the Senate. Any speaker who, at the direction of the Chair, is escorted from the meeting room will not be readmitted for the remainder of the day. COLLEGE-WIDE COMMITTEES SENATE COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS Faculty Senate standing committees will consist of a Faculty Senate representative as well as faculty from each academic unit, as appropriate. The Faculty Senate representative for each committee shall be elected by a simple majority vote by the Senate at the first Senate meeting following March elections. The assignment of senate members is generally by preference and need; however, it is standard practice for the Senate Chair to sit on the Curriculum committee (in addition to a senator) and the Chair-Elect to sit on the Faculty Affairs committee. Selection of faculty to serve on standing committees will occur after Senate representation on the committees is decided. The Chair-Elect will contact each school/department, inform them of which committee their Senator(s) are serving on, and request faculty members to submit their committee preferences to their Senator. The Senator for each academic unit will be the point-person to facilitate appointment of faculty members to the standing committees. After the Senator receives the requests from each faculty member, then the decision of which faculty member will serve on which committee can be decided in various ways, for example: The academic unit can, as a whole, make the recommendation (either in a meeting or electronically) The Senator can make the recommendation, based on preferences and previous memberships, and then hold a vote (physical or electronic) to receive simple majority approval of the academic unit The Senator should submit recommendations to the Chair-Elect by May 1 st of each year. The Chair-Elect, in consultation with the Past Chair, will ensure committee memberships meet Bylaw requirements. If any changes are made, the Chair-Elect will contact the Senate representatives and the individual faculty as soon as possible. 6

7 At the beginning of each academic year, standing committees will meet to appoint a committee chair and secretary. It is suggested that the Senate representative serve as secretary to facilitate the communication and posting of minutes to the Senate. It is recommended that a committee chair not simultaneously be a member of the Faculty Senate. If no faculty member on a committee is willing to serve as chair (including the Senate representative), the committee s Senate representative should immediately contact the Senate Chair. The Chair will then ask previous committee chairs or committee members if they would be willing to serve. Occasionally, there may be a need to form an ad hoc committee to perform a task that does not fall under the purview of our current committees (e.g., updating the PPM or bylaws or updating the Faculty Handbook). This committee may consist solely of Senators or may consist of Senators, faculty, and others from the campus community depending on the nature of the committee. When there is a need to create an ad hoc committee, the Senate Chair will put it on the agenda of the next Senate meeting. The Senate will then vote on the following: Creation of the committee Duration of committee Membership of committee (i.e., committee size and criteria for membership) Chair of committee Mission of committee If an ad hoc committee exists for more than 3 years, it will become a permanent standing committee of the Faculty Senate and the bylaws will need to be updated. SENATE COMMITTEE OPERATIONS The Senate Chair is responsible for notifying the Senate liaison or committee Chair, who is then responsible for notifying the originator of a resolution (e.g., curriculum proposal) of the final outcome of the proposal. This notification would indicate the outcome of Senate and presidential considerations, as appropriate. Standing committees will operate using a majority vote system in the presence of a quorum. Standing committees will keep regular minutes through the appointment of a Secretary that will be made available to the full Senate and posted on the FacultySenate network folder as appropriate in a timely manner. In March of each year, the chairs of each standing committee should create an annual committee report. The report should include a summary of the committee s results, including any rationale, and accomplishments for the year, as well as recommendations of tasks for the committee to work on in the following year. Occasionally, a standing committee will be tasked with work over the summer. As most full-time regular faculty members are hired on 10 month contracts, summer committee work is strictly on a volunteer basis. If the work required will be overly time-consuming, the Senate can request (of the VPAA) summer pay for those committee members. NON-SENATE COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS The Senate Bylaws give the Faculty Senate the right to recommend faculty to serve on committees created by the College Statutes. Those committees are: Student Affairs Council Institutional Review Board (IRB) Intercollegiate Athletic Finance Committee Student Activity Finance Committee 7

8 Student Technology Fee Committee Student Fee Committee However, there are a large number of other committees on campus, including advisory committees for many offices on campus. The Office of Academic Affairs and the Faculty Senate maintain lists of these committees. Many of these committees have informally requested the Senate make recommendations for faculty to serve on their committees. With the above in mind, when the Chair-Elect sends out the requesting recommendations for faculty to serve on the Faculty Senate standing committees, the Chair-Elect should also request a list of all non-senate committees individual faculty wish to serve on. The Chair-Elect, in consultation with the Past Chair, should then reduce the lists of faculty interested in each non-senate committee to the number requested by the leadership of the committee and forward those lists to the appropriate person(s). COMMUNICATION The Senate will communicate with the Faculty and the general body of the College through various means. These include, but are not limited to: Updating the Senate Web page Updating the Senate Folder on the All Faculty and Staff network drive with recent minutes from Senate and Standing Committees Updating the faculty regularly at the various department and school meetings Posting of Senator Office Hours for the specific purpose of communicating with constituents Senators are encouraged to post 1-2 Office Hours per week, designated for constituents and Senate activities, or something equivalent. ARCHIVED MATERIALS To better communicate with faculty/staff and for accreditation purposes, all minutes and other important work products of the Faculty Senate and its Standing Committees are archived in the FacultySenate folder on the All Faculty and Staff network drive. At the start of each academic year, The Chair-Elect will create a sub-folder within the Official Documents subfolder of each of the folders for the Senate and its Standing Committees for the academic year (e.g., ). He or she will then create additional sub-folders, as appropriate, for minutes and other important work products (e.g., "Minutes," "Agendas," "Curriculum Proposal Approval Sheets"). The Chair-Elect will submit a Help Ticket to IT to update folder permissions to the FacultySenate folder and each of the committee subfolders. In practice, o All members of a committee have access to the Working Documents subfolder within a committee s folder. All faculty and staff have access to the Official Documents subfolder within a committee s folder. Senate representatives of the Faculty Senate standing committees will maintain a file within their committee folder of all planned meeting dates and will also ensure that approved minutes and other work products of said committees are archived there within 7 days of their approval. 8

9 POLICY CHANGE AMENDING SENATE POLICY When the Senate Bylaws or the PPM should be changed, the Chair should be alerted and then he or she will add the item to the next Senate meeting agenda. If the change(s) is/are agreed to, the Senate should vote to create an ad hoc committee to investigate the recommended change(s). If the changes are to the PPM, a committee of Senators can work to make those changes and then bring it forth to a Senate meeting for approval. If the Senate approves the changes with a two-thirds majority approval of Senators present, the changes will take effect. If the changes are to the Bylaws, a committee of Senators should work together to make the changes in consultation with the Vice President of Academic Affairs and/or his or her designee. Once the committee and Vice President of Academic Affairs are satisfied with the proposed changes, voting shall occur as required by the Bylaws (first within the Senate and then to the full faculty). Voting of the full faculty will be moderated by the Chair either at a faculty meeting or electronically, in conjunction with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness through a Qualtrics survey. RECOMMENDING COLLEGE POLICY (to the administration) College policy can only be changed or created by the President s Cabinet. However, the Senate has the power to recommend policy. If it is believed that the Senate should propose the creation of and/or changes to college policy, the Chair should be alerted and then he or she will add the item to the next Senate meeting agenda. Should the case for change be made, the Senate would then vote either to designate the task to an existing standing committee or to create an ad hoc committee tasked with exploring and recommending the change(s). Once the designated committee has produced a document with the recommended policy change and the committee has voted with majority approval, the document should go before the Senate at the next Senate meeting for approval. The Senate shall also vote to decide if the document should go before the full faculty or directly to the appropriate administrators for their review and consideration. APPENDIX: DUTIES OF THE CHAIR Beyond those duties specified in the Faculty Senate bylaws, the Chair has the following responsibilities. Familiarize yourself with the College Statutes to see the context in which the Senate operates Protect and honor the governance responsibilities that include but are not limited to providing representation on all college and district committees related to Ed Code and Title 5 mandates: 1. degree and certificate requirements 2. curriculum including establishing pre-requisites and placing courses in disciplines 3. grading policies 4. faculty roles and involvement in accreditation processing including self-study and annual reports 5. educational program development 6. standards or policies regarding students success 7. district and college governance structures as related to faculty roles 8. policies for faculty professional development activities 9. processes for program review 9

10 10. process for institutional planning and budget development 11. others as mutually agreed upon Observe the letter and spirit of all applicable laws, especially the Open Meetings Acts. Ensure the timely publication of the senate agenda to comply with the Open Meetings Acts. Disseminate other documents (minutes, reports, supportive evidence, etc.) pertinent to committee or senate discussion and action. ADVOCATING FOR FACULTY INTERESTS Serve as the official spokesperson and advocate for the faculty in academic and professional matters. Provide initiative in identifying and pursuing important institutional issues. Meet regularly with the President and the Vice Presidents and with other administrative staff as needed. Work to ensure the effective participation of staff and students in the areas that have substantial effect on them. DEVELOPING SENATE PARTICIPATION AND LEADERSHIP Provide an Orientation Manual to new faculty senators so that they are familiar with their duties and responsibilities. Conduct orientations of new faculty to explain the functions of the local senate. Meet with new senate members once a semester for the first year to discuss any problems and to further familiarize them with collegial governance. Encourage other faculty to participate in the events sponsored by the Senate. Provide leadership to senate, college, and district-wide committees to ensure productive and efficient completion of tasks and regular reporting to the senate as a whole. FOSTERING COMMUNICATION Engage in ongoing discussions with faculty on the issues of the day. Facilitate in developing and communicating faculty views. Facilitate communication among the faculty and with administration. Ensure that minutes of the local senate meetings are published in a timely manner. SECURING RESOURCES TO ENSURE SENATE SUCCESS Assure adequate resources for the Senate and manage them. Develop agendas for and conduct meetings of the academic senate. Archive senate and college materials, using both chronological and topical filing systems to preserve institutional memory; compile a master list of senate files, and employ a check-out system for faculty who wish to "borrow" documents or files. Assist in the orderly transfer of authority to the Chair-Elect. 10