Governance
UAF Faculty Senate
Rev. 5/07BYLAWS
of the
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS
FACULTY SENATE
Sect. 1 (ART III: Membership)
A. The membership of the Faculty Senate, hereinafter referred to as "Senate,"
shall consist of approximately 41 members plus one non-voting presiding officer.
Approximately 35 members shall be elected by and from the faculty and will
have voting privileges. Six non-voting members will be selected by and
from other university constituencies as follows: one non-graduate student
and one graduate student selected by the ASUAF; one professional school
dean and one college dean selected by the Deans' Council; one staff
representative from the registrar's office; and one additional staff member
selected by the Staff Council. If the staff representative from the registrar's
office is APT, the second staff member must come from the classified staff ranks.
If the staff representative from the registrar's office is classified, the
second staff member must be APT. Three additional non-voting members will
be selected by and from the unions as follows: one elected official each
from United Academics-AAUP/AFT, ACCFT, Adjunct (United Academics)-AAUP/AFT.
Terms shall be for two years and staggered, with approximately one-half of
the Senate elected each year.
B. Representation shall be by academic or research unit and based on the number of full-time
faculty equivalent (FTFE) in each unit as described below.
1. A unit is a single school or college or a collection of schools and/or
colleges or collection of research institutes (see item 7).
2. For representational purposes only a faculty member shall be
defined as one who holds academic rank or special academic rank.
3. Each faculty member whose annual academic appointment equals or
exceeds 1560 hours will be considered 1 FTFE.
4. Each faculty member whose annual academic appointment is less
than 1560 hours will be considered a fractional FTFE with the
fraction being the number of hours of annual academic
appointment divided by 1560.
5. Each unit will elect the number of representatives to the Senate
equal to the number of FTFE in that unit divided by the total UAF FTFE,
multiplied by 35 and rounded to the nearest integer.
6. A faculty member having appointment split between units shall
be included in each unit in proportion to the respective appointment
for the computation of item 5.
7. All schools or colleges whose representation under item 5 is
zero shall be grouped into the conglomerate group and this group
shall be treated as a single unit for purposes of the computation
of item 5. If a unit which would have been grouped in the
conglomerate group decides instead that the unit would be better
served by joining with another school or college, it may do so upon
the mutual agreement of those units.
8. Re-apportionment will be done for the elections held in even
numbered years or upon two-thirds vote of the Senate.
9. Each unit will have at least 2 representatives.
C. Election Procedure
1. Election shall be held by the academic units or the Senate office for the
research institutes to provide representatives to the Senate according
to Article III of the Senate Constitution. Elections and election procedures
are the responsibility of the units, subject to the following:
2. A faculty member may vote for Senate representatives in only
one unit. That unit must be the unit of primary appointment or,
in the case of evenly split appointment, the unit of the faculty
member's choice.
3. Units with full-time permanent faculty based on other than the
Fairbanks campus should elect Senate representatives in a number
that is at least equal to the proportion of the non-Fairbanks
based FTFEs.
4. Units with faculty who teach in associate, certificate, or noncredit
programs should elect representatives in proportion to such faculty.
5. Units with senior faculty should elect associate and full professors
as Senate representatives in a number that is at least equal to the
proportion of such faculty.
6. Units with graduate programs should elect at least one graduate
faculty member.
7. Each unit shall elect at least half as many alternate representatives
as representatives.
D. Vacancies
1. In the case of death, resignation, or transfer of an elected
representative of the Senate, an alternate shall immediately
become the representative. The president of the Senate will appoint a
replacement with the concurrence of the affected constituency, and
the consent of the Administrative Committee.
E. Absenteeism
1. When elected members are unable to attend the meetings, their
alternates will serve.
F. Recall
1. Unethical and/or unprofessional conduct by any elected officer or
member of the Senate may constitute a cause for a vote of no
confidence and hence a recall. In order to recall an elected officer
or member, the Senate must have a 2/3 majority vote of its total
membership.
Sect. 2 (ART IV: Officers)
The President of the Senate shall be an ex-officio, non-voting member
of all elected and appointed committees of the Senate. The President-Elect
of the Senate shall be chairperson of the Administrative Committee of the
Senate and shall be an ex-officio, non-voting member of such elected and
appointed committees of the Senate as the President of the Senate shall direct.
Sect. 3 (ART V: Committees)
A. An Administrative Committee will be composed of the chairpersons of
all standing Senate committees and of permanent Senate Committees.
The Provost of UAF shall be an ex-officio, non-voting member.
Specific duties of the Administrative Committee in its obligation
to fully prepare the agenda and materials for efficient operation
of the Senate are:
1. Receive reports from the president of the Senate, the Provost,
and, as deemed timely, other individuals, on issues of current
and future importance to the Senate;
2. Accept and review the motions of standing and permanent committees,
and from members of the Administrative Committee;
3. Make certain that the motions are ready for Senate action to the
maximum degree possible, and if not, refer them back for further
work and/or direct them to other relevant committees that may not
have considered the motions;
4. Move the motions to the Senate's agenda;
5. Review and approve other items of the Senate's agenda,
as deemed necessary;
6. Review reports of all committee work in progress; and
7. Discuss other issues, that may or should lead to later
committee and senate actions.
In addition,
8. Within the scope of authority granted by the Senate at the
last meeting of the spring semester, the Administrative Committee
will represent the Senate from the close of the last Senate meeting
in the spring until the opening of the first Senate meeting of
the fall semester; and
9. At the first meeting in the fall semester make a report of all
actions carried out in the name of the Senate since the last
meeting in the spring semester.
B. Membership on standing and permanent committees will be for two
years except as noted below with the possibility of re-appointment.
The initial appointment or re-appointment is made by the Administrative
Committee or as specified in the definition of a Permanent Committee
and confirmed by the full Senate. Senators are limited to serving
on a maximum of one standing committee at any one time. To provide
continuity, terms will be staggered and an initial appointment may
be made for one or two years as determined by the Administrative
Committee based
on need.
C. Standing committees will be constituted entirely of Senate members.
Permanent committees can be constituted without Senate members.
D. All permanent and standing committee chairs will be elected from
and by the members of their respective committee and must be
full-time faculty at UAF.
E. The standing and permanent committees of the Senate are:
STANDING
1. The Curricular Affairs Committee will deal with curricular and
academic policy changes on all levels except the graduate level.
2. The Faculty Affairs Committee shall review issues dealing with
faculty prerogative and recommend policy changes to the Faculty
Senate. Issues of faculty prerogative include academic freedom,
faculty ethics, research and creative activity, and legislative
and fiscal issues that may impact faculty concerns at the university.
The committee will act as a faculty advocate with legislators and
candidates. In its concern for fiscal issues the committee shall
monitor budget appropriations to the university and evaluate any
notice to the faculty of financial exigency. In performing these
duties, the committee will coordinate as necessary with the relevant
officers (and/or their representatives) of the extant collective
bargaining units who serve as non-voting members of the Senate and
ex-officio members of this committee.
3. The Unit Criteria Committee will review proposed unit criteria for
evaluation of faculty submitted by the various peer-review units of UAF,
and to work with the heads of those units (or their designees) to ensure
that their criteria are consistent with criteria defined in the UAF Faculty
Appointment and Evaluation Policies and Regulations "Blue Book".
The committee will also review proposed changes to the "Blue Book."
To ensure that perspectives from across UAF are represented,
membership will consist of faculty senators, with one member
drawn from each of the following schools/colleges: CLA; CRA/CES;
CSEM; SFOS; Engineering; and one from SNRAS, SOEd, or SOM.
PERMANENT
1. The Graduate Academic & Advisory Committee will include ten
faculty members. The Dean of the Graduate School, Director of
the Library, the University Registrar, and two graduate student,
are non-voting ex-officio members. The committee will be
responsible for the review and approval of graduate courses,
curriculum and graduate degree requirements, and other academic
matters related to instruction and mentoring of graduate students.
The committee will also have responsibility for oversight, review
and approval of all professional degree courses and programs
including 500-level courses. The committee will advise the Dean
of the Graduate School and the Provost on administrative matters
pertinent to the operation and growth of graduate studies at UAF,
including financial and tax-related issues and dealings with other
universities.
2. The Student Academic Developmental and Achievement Committee will include
one representative from each of the following units of the College of Rural
and Community Development: Bristol Bay Campus, Chukchi Campus,
Interior-Aleutians Campus, Kuskokwim Campus, Northwest Campus,
and Tanana Valley Campus. One or more of these should be from rural
campus student services. The committee will also include one
representative from the Department of Developmental Education; two
representatives from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics:
one from the Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Geology, or Physics), and
one from Math; one from the College of Liberal Arts English Department;
and one each from Rural Student Services, the Academic Advising Center,
and the Student Support Services Program.
The Student Academic Developmental and Achievement Committee shall
consider policies concerning student development and retention. This
committee will function as a curriculum council review committee
for all developmental education courses and other courses facilitating
student progress. Discipline based developmental education courses
and courses facilitating student progress will be reviewed by the
appropriate college curriculum council before submission to this
committee for review and coordination.
3. The Faculty Development, Assessment and Improvement Committee
will be composed of faculty members and a representative from
the Office of Faculty Development to be selected by the Provost.
This committee will deal with faculty and instructional development
and evaluation.
4. The Faculty Appeals and Oversight Committee shall be composed of
two tenured faculty members, elected from each college/school and
confirmed by the Faculty Senate.
Faculty appeals will be dealt with in accordance with the appropriate
union contract.
The committee will act as a pool to be drawn upon to act as the
United Academics representatives to the Appeals Board. The chair
of the Faculty Appeals and Oversight committee will select, from
the committee, members of the United Academics bargaining unit who
will serve on the particular Appeals Board.
Committee members shall oversee the process of evaluation of
academic administrators.
5. The Curriculum Review Committee evaluates proposed substantive
undergraduate course and program additions, changes, and deletions
submitted by the appropriate school/college curriculum committees.
Among the topics of its review are number and duplication of courses,
credit assignment, establishment of need for new programs, and
resource impacts of curricular changes. Decisions of the Curriculum
Review Committee may be appealed to Curricular Affairs by the
department submitting the proposal. The Committee shall be composed
of the chairs of the college/school curriculum councils, the University
Registrar or the Registrar's designee, and shall be chaired by a
member of the Curricular Affairs Committee.
6. The Core Review Committee reviews and approves courses submitted by
the appropriate school/college curriculum councils for their
inclusion in the core curriculum at UAF. The Core Review
Committee coordinates and recommends changes to the core curriculum,
develops the process for assessment of the core curriculum, regularly
reports on assessment of the core curriculum, monitors transfer
guidelines for core courses, acts on petitions for core credit,
and evaluates guidelines in light of the total core experience.
This committee will also review courses for oral, written, and
natural science core classification.
The committee shall be composed of one faculty member from each of
the core component areas: (Social Sciences, English, Humanities,
Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Communication, and Library Science)
and one faculty member from a non-core component area. Membership
on the committee will include an undergraduate student.
7. The Committee on the Status of Women. Membership will consist of nine
people, two of whom will be a senator, the others to be elected at large
from among UAF faculty.
The purpose of this committee is to monitor the status of women faculty at UAF
and to work proactively for gender equity.
Such actions will include, but are not limited to: Maintaining lists of women
faculty with hire, tenure and promotion dates; Organizing and supervising surveys
on the status of women and assessing the cultural climate of the university as
it pertains to women; Recommending policy to address the needs of women faculty;
Supporting mentoring of women, both new and mid-career faculty, including running
workshops on mentoring, promotion & tenure, negotiating techniques and other
forms of faculty development identified as necessary; Addressing family-work
issues, such as child care, parental leave, spousal/partner hire; Coordinating
with other campus and university groups which deal with women's and gender issues;
and any other issues which would help women to achieve equity at UAF.
F. Any standing or permanent committee may create subcommittees to assist the
committee.
G. The Senate President may create and appoint the members of any ad hoc
committee necessary for conducting Senate business. Ad hoc committees are
subject to later ratification by the Senate.
H. Committees must forward any legislation which involves the setting or
altering of policy to the full Senate for approval. Committees which
are specifically charged with applying policy to make decisions may do
so without having the Senate approve those decisions. A review by
the full Senate may be requested by the reviewing Senate committee.
A request to the Senate Administrative Committee for a further Senate
review may also be submitted by individual Senators if the question
has policy implications. The committee chair is responsible for the
presentation of the committee's motion to the Senate at the meeting in
which it will be considered.
Sect. 4 (Art. IX Parliamentary Authority)
Majority and supermajority votes of the Senate shall be counted on the basis
of a majority or supermajority of the votes cast by members present, with
abstentions not counting as votes.
5/07