By-Laws Ratification

November 2022

 

There are two proposals listed below. 

 

 

Proposal: Revising the size of the Committee on Assessment of Institutional Effectiveness (FAM V,3,B,15.a)

 

Specifically on p. 25 of the FAM (2021-2022) under V.3.15.a. it states:

 

15. Committee on Assessment of Institutional Effectiveness

a. Composition: Nine faculty members. In addition, the following are ex-officio non-voting members: the Provost or their designee and the Senior Vice President for Institutional Research. (Rev. Aug. 2018).

 

 

Proposed Revision (in bold) passed by the Senate in March 2022:

 

15. Committee on Assessment of Institutional Effectiveness

a. Composition: Seven faculty members. In addition, the following are ex-officio non-voting members: the Provost or their designee and the Senior Vice President for Institutional Research. (Rev. Nov. 2022).

 

 

Rationale

A committee size of 9 faculty is difficult to convene as one group and is larger than the workload expectations. A committee size of 7 is more manageable for efficiency and effectiveness.

 

 

 

Proposal: Amend language to the FAM to allow for midterm reapportionment

 

Specifically the FAM Article IV Section 2.A states the following about the composition of the Senate.

We do not propose any changes to this section and include it here only for your understanding.

A. Composition. There shall be 50 Regular Faculty Senators (as defined in Article IV, Section 2.D.1), apportioned by the percentage of regular faculty [as defined in Article I, Section 1, (1) and (2), and excluding all those qualifying as ex officio regular faculty members under provision (3)] in each school (the library shall be considered a school for this purpose) and 3 Adjunct Faculty Senators with voting privileges. There shall be one Faculty Senator elected by each academic department, with the remainder of a school’s senators elected at-large by the faculty in that school. If a school should have more departments than its apportioned senators, then all of that school’s senators shall be elected at-large by the faculty in that school. (Ins. Dec. 2009) The Adjunct Faculty Senators shall represent at least two different schools (including the library) and three different departments. (Rev. Aug. 2015, Aug. 2016)

The FAM Article IV Section 2.H states the following about how reapportionment is handled. The proposed changes to the by-laws center around this section and are detailed after the paste.

 

Proposed revision (in bold) passed by Senate in September 2022:

The By-laws Committee recommends that Article IV Section 2.H reads ‘Reapportionment.” The previous Article IV Section 2.H language moves down to Article IV Section 2.H.1. Article IV Section 2.H.2. is the new language stating that a midterm reapportionment should take place for the creation of a new school. If the motion passes, the Faculty/Administration Manual will read:

H. Reapportionment

1.     Every three years, beginning in the fall semester of 2015, the Committee on Nominations and Elections shall request from the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs the current number of full-time tenured, tenure-track, Instructor, or Senior Instructor employees in each School, based on the October report to the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. Based on those numbers, the Committee on Nominations and Elections shall use the Huntington-Hill methods of apportionment to determine and report, at the January meeting of the Faculty Senate, the allocation of Faculty Senators for each School to be effective at the start of the next fall semester. In the event that a School loses more at-large Faculty Senate seats than it is slated to elect in the spring elections then the at- large senator who has the lowest seniority in terms of service will be removed first; if two or more at-large senators have the same seniority in terms of service, the order of removal shall be based on lowest number of votes when elected; in the event of a tie, removal is to be decided by lot. For each reapportionment, the Faculty Senate Secretariat shall record the allocation of Faculty Senators, and the basis of that allocation (number of regular faculty by department and school). (Ins. Aug. 2016)

2.     If a new school is created at any point in the three-year cycle, then the Committee on Nominations and Elections will execute the reapportionment process in the fall of the following academic year. The timeline of the next regularly scheduled reapportionment will remain unchanged by this midterm reapportionment.

Rationale

As the by-laws are currently written should the College form a new school, that entity will not have a voting member on Faculty Senate until the next regularly scheduled reapportionment as defined by the FAM in Article IV Section 2.H. This could mean that the new entity is without a Faculty Senator(s) for as many as three years. This amendment will allow the Committee on Nominations and Elections to perform a midterm reapportionment which will result in the new school having elected senator(s) for the following academic year.