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Article 1 - Faculty Council

Last Amended August 2022

Section A. Membership

Voting members of the Faculty Council shall be (1) those full-time employees of the university with teaching included as 50% or more of their appointment and (2) professional librarians. Adjunct faculty and visiting faculty are considered nonvoting members of the Faculty Council. All questions concerning membership in the Faculty Council shall be resolved by the elected officers of the Faculty Senate, subject to appeal to the Faculty Senate.

Section B. Academic Components

  1. While some faculty governance positions are elected at-large, members of the Faculty Senate and certain standing committees of the Faculty Senate shall be elected by their academic components. For the purposes of faculty governance, each voting member of the Faculty Council will be assigned to exactly one academic component.
  2. Members of each college within the University will constitute an academic component. All other voting members of the Faculty Council who are not assigned to a college will be assigned to an academic component (either a college or additional component(s)) by a majority vote of the Faculty Senate.
  3. Members will be assigned to an academic component as identified as their primary area of duty on their contracts. A list of faculty council members with their area of assignment will be provided to the Chair of the Faculty Senate at the beginning of each semester by the Provost's office. Questions of which academic component a particular member is assigned will be decided by the elected officers of the Faculty Senate subject to appeal to the Faculty Senate.
  4. In the event that a voting member of the Faculty Council is reassigned to a different academic component for the following year, he/she will be assigned to the new academic component for the purposes of the Spring elections.
  5. In the event that an elected member of the Faculty Senate or a standing committee is reassigned to a different academic component than the one who elected him/her then he/she will continue to represent the component which elected him/her until the beginning of the next academic year at which time he/she must resign that position.
  6. In the event that a person ceases to qualify as a voting member of the Faculty Council he/she will immediately cease to have voting privileges and will immediately resign from the Faculty Senate and all its committees if applicable.

Section C. Meetings

The Faculty Council shall meet during the first 15 business days of the fall semester. Special meetings may be called as the Senate deems appropriate. The Senate shall also call special meetings within fifteen working days of receipt of a petition signed by at least ten percent of the faculty. Other special meetings may be called by the Chancellor or the Provost.

Section D. Voting

  1. The Faculty Council will vote at large only on items presented to it in one of the following manners:
    - An item is referred to the Faculty Council by a majority vote of the Faculty Senate.
    - An item is referred to the Faculty Council by a petition signed by at least 15% of the voting membership of the Faculty Council.
    - On standard election and bylaws changes as detailed in this document.
  2. Voting by the Faculty Council on any item will be overseen by the Elections Committee and will take place electronically in a manner to ensure a secret ballot.
  3. Polls will be open electronically for a period to include four work days.
  4. Votes of the Faculty Council at large will take precedence over actions of the Faculty Senate and any standing committee but cannot violate these bylaws.
  5. Minutes of Faculty Council meetings will be approved by the Faculty Senate.