East Carolina University Faculty Manual
APPENDIX A.
FACULTY CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
BY-LAWS OF THE FACULTY CONSTITUTION OF EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
IV. Faculty Senate, Academic and Administrative Committees, Membership, and Structure
Membership
Membership of Faculty Senate Committees and Academic Committees shall consist of faculty holding academic rank (instructor, assistant professor, associate professor and professor). The Chancellor and the Chair of the Faculty are ex-officio members of all committees.
Members of committees serve in accordance with their ability, training, and experience rather than as representatives of their electoral unit.
The process for election of academic and selective administrative committees will be as follows:
1. The Academic and Administrative Committee preference forms will be distributed to all faculty, by the Committee on Committees with assistance of the office personnel in January. The completed forms are due in the Faculty Senate office in February.
2. The Committee on Committees will review all preference forms and present to the Faculty Senate a slate of one or more nominees as there are vacancies to fill. Nominations may also be made from the floor of the Faculty Senate. Election of Academic and Administrative Committee members will take place at the Faculty Senate Organizational Meeting in April. Election will be by majority present and voting.
Members are elected to staggered three-year terms, which may extend to the beginning of the fall semester; faculty members are generally not elected to more than one academic committee. Service on a single academic or administrative committee is limited to election to two consecutive 3-year terms with ineligibility for election to the same committee for at least one year. Student members are nominated by the Student Government Association for appointment by the Chancellor.
Faculty Senate and Academic Committees meet on a standard schedule, set and revised by the Committee on Committees. When a Faculty Senate academic committee deals with matters which directly concern any administrator these matters should be discussed with the administrator during the development of a proposed policy. Further, the administrator should have adequate input before the finished resolution is presented to the Senate. This not only would involve ex-officio committee members but also would involve working with any administrator involved in a particular policy under consideration.
All University Academic Committees are Standing Committees of the Faculty Senate. Information relating to each committee is available in the Faculty Senate office and electronically on the Faculty Senate web site.
Officers: Officers of each committee are elected from the membership of the committee, excluding ex-officio, by the members of the committee, for a term of one year. Previous service as a committee officer shall not prejudice a member's election to any committee office. Under normal circumstances each committee shall have a chairperson, a vice chairperson, and a secretary. Upon organization of the new committees, at the Committees' Organizational meetings beginning in the Fall, the former chairperson if available will turn over committee records to the new chairperson. The Chair of the Faculty may declare an elected member's seat vacant upon the occurrence of three consecutive absences of that member. The Chair of the Faculty will appoint faculty members to fill vacancies of any University Academic Committee that may occur during the academic year. Interim elections may be held to fill an office that has become vacant or to replace an officer that two-thirds of the full committee membership deems is not fulfilling the obligations of the office.
The charge of each Faculty Senate and academic committee is on file in the Faculty Senate office and available electronically on the Faculty Senate web site. Many administrative committee charges are available on the East Carolina University web site.
Each committee shall operate according to the latest version of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised. Minutes of each committee are on file in the Faculty Senate office and available electronically on the Faculty Senate web site and shall be sent to members of the committee and Chair of the Faculty.
A file on each committee's activities, minutes, and other records shall be maintained in the Faculty Senate office. All committees and subcommittees, unless prohibited explicitly by the committee's charge, University policies, or state statutes, shall hold their regular and special meetings in open session in accordance with the North Carolina Open Meetings Law, and the chairperson of committees shall inform the Senate office of the time and place of such meetings so they may be placed on the Senate calendar and publicized in order that interested faculty may attend.
The committees' annual reports shall be composed by the committee officers according to the official form and submitted to the Faculty Senate office for duplication and distribution to the Chair of the Faculty, the Chair of the Committee on Committees, the present members of the committee, and the new members of the committee whose terms begin next academic year. Copies of the committees' annual reports will be kept on file in the University Archives, Faculty Senate office, and made available electronically on the Faculty Senate web site. Upon request, copies of committees' annual reports shall be made available by the Faculty Senate office.
The Chair of the Faculty shall each year compile the Annual Report of the Faculty Senate. This report, among other things, shall contain a summary of Senate and Senate committees' activities for the immediate past year.
The Annual Report of the Faculty Senate will be distributed to the Chancellor, academic Vice Chancellors and made available on the Faculty Senate web site. Copies of the report will also be kept on file in the University Archives and the Faculty Senate office. In addition, copies of the Annual Report of the Faculty Senate will be distributed to the members of the Faculty Senate not later than the first regular Faculty Senate meeting of the next academic year.
Currently there are two Faculty Senate committees (Agenda Committee and Committee on Committees), five appellate committees (Due Process Committee, Faculty Grievance Committee, Grievance Board, Hearing Committee, and Reconsideration Committee), and eighteen academic committees as follows:
Academic Awards Committee
Academic Standards Committee
Admission and Retention Policies Committee
Calendar Committee
Continuing and Career Education Committee
Educational Policies and Planning Committee
Faculty Governance Committee
Faculty Information Technology Review Committee
Faculty Welfare Committee
Libraries Committee
Research/Creative Activity Grants Committee
Student Academic Appellate Committee
Student Scholarships, Fellowships, and Financial Aid Committee
Teaching Grants Committee
Unit Code Screening Committee
University Athletics Committee
University Budget Committee
University Curriculum Committee
As the need arises, additional committees are created, by the Committee on Committees to assist in the academic policy-making process.
