Faculty Meeting By-laws

for Procedures at Arts and Sciences Faculty Meetings (1991)

NOTE: This information is also available as a PDF: By-laws for Procedures at Arts and Sciences Faculty Meetings.pdf

Unless stated otherwise, Robert’s Rules of Order will be followed.

A. Voting Members:

Voting members shall be those individuals who hold tenured or tenure-track teaching and or research appointments (at least half time) and those who hold appointments as Clinical/Lecture Track Faculty in the College.

B. Frequency of Meetings:

There shall be a minimum of one meeting each semester (except summer) of which written notice shall be sent to all faculty members beforehand. Additional meetings shall be held at the call of the Dean. The Dean must issue a call and hold a meeting within a week (excluding summer) of the receipt of a petition signed by no fewer than twenty-five percent of the voting membership.

C. Presiding Officer:

The Dean of the College or his/her designee shall preside at Faculty meetings.

D. Agenda:

There shall be an agenda distributed at least three working days prior to a meeting. A state of the College report by the Dean shall constitute the first agenda item for the first meeting of each academic year. For any meeting, matters may be placed on the agenda by the Dean or by written request of fifteen members of the faculty at least ten days before a meeting. In these cases, the motion(s) to be presented should be distributed with the agenda.

E. Quorum:

A quorum shall consist of thirty percent of the voting membership.

F. Records:

The Dean shall ensure that full minutes of the motions voted on at the faculty meetings are recorded and distributed to each department. A fuller record of discussion shall be made and preserved in the Office of the Dean.

G. Provision for Suspension of the Rules:

These rules may be suspended for the duration of, or any portion of, a meeting by two-thirds of those voting members present. 

H. Provision for Amendment of the By-Laws:

A motion to amend these by-laws must be submitted in writing to the faculty at least thirty days before the meeting in which it is to be considered, amendment requires approval by two-thirds of those voting members present.

I. Ratification:

Ratification of these by-laws shall be at a regular faculty meeting after circulation three days in advance.

An amendment adding clinical/lecture track faculty as voting members was approved unanimously on Thursday, October 21, 2014.