A. College Bylaws
The college bylaws and revisions to the bylaws must be approved by the College Faculty Council, the college dean, and the Provost or designee.
Each college will have written bylaws that will describe the roles, procedures, and membership of all college standing committees. The bylaws will provide a procedure for the approval and amendment of such bylaws by a majority vote of the permanent, full-time faculty of the college to be taken by a secret ballot.
An up-to-date version of the bylaws will be posted on the college website and linked to the college homepage in a conspicuous way.
The bylaws will provide for College Faculty Council to be constituted in a way consistent with the parameters outlined below. The College Faculty Council will operate as an ad hoc body until the bylaws have been developed and approved.
B. The College Faculty Council (CFC)
The Role and Purpose of the CFC
The CFC is advisory to the college dean, who holds decision-making authority at the college level.
The purpose of the CFC is to promote collegiality and effective shared governance of the college by increasing the transparency and two-way communication between the faculty and the dean with regard to the development of policy and to increase communication about the implementation of policy. The following areas are examples of issues upon which the CFC may advise the dean:
- Strategic planning
- Annual budgeting
- Hiring
- Space and resource allocation
- Reassign-time
- Salaries and raises
- Appointment and reports of ad hoc committees
Additional areas may be determined in each college on a yearly basis through discussion between the dean and the CFC.
Implementation and Membership of the CFC
Each college will establish an Implementation Committee to coordinate and oversee the establishment of its CFC. That same committee will also initiate the establishment of written bylaws in cases where such bylaws do not already exist. Membership of the Implementation Committee will be the members of the college’s delegation to the Faculty Senate plus the chairs of the college’s Curriculum Committee and Promotion and Tenure Committee.
The Implementation Committee should work with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee to address problems arising in its work that may require external assistance.
Composition of the CFC
A CFC will consist of at least four members. Each department in each college will have at least one representative on its CFC elected by the permanent, full-time faculty of that department. The college bylaws may specify additional members, for example at large members or additional members for large departments.
CFC members must be tenured members of the department they represent, if the department has tenured members who are willing to serve. If not, they should be tenure-track members.
Representatives will serve three-year terms after the first cohort, which will be elected to staggered terms. A department may recall any representative by a 2/3 vote.
The method by which the department will select its representative(s) to the CFC will be determined by vote of permanent, full-time faculty of the department (i.e., instructors, lecturers, tenure-track, and tenured faculty).
The college dean will be an ex-officio, non-voting member of the CFC. The dean will respect the council’s desire, on occasion, to meet without the dean or members of the dean’s staff.
Department chairs are not eligible to vote for or to serve as representatives to the CFC.
Alternatives to the CFC
The body performing the functions here outlined for the CFC may be constituted differently, if the faculty so desire, but any such alternative body must:
- Be composed of a majority of the faculty who are elected by the permanent, full-time faculty of the department represented,
- Be chaired by a tenured faculty member, who is elected by vote of the elected members of the body,
- Clearly acknowledge in the college bylaws the prerogative of the elected members, when those members wish, to meet without the dean, dean’s staff, or appointed members,
- Be clearly identified in the college bylaws as performing the functions of the CFC, and
- Be initially approved and then reaffirmed annually by a majority vote of the permanent, full-time faculty members of the college by secret ballot as their preferred alternative to a CFC, as outlined elsewhere in this document.
CFC Leadership
The chair of the CFC must be an elected department representative who has served on the council the previous year. The year-of-service requirement does not apply to the first cohort.
Operation
Consistent with its purpose of providing greater transparency and two-way communication between the faculty and the dean, the CFC will have the right to reasonable access to college information, consistent with privacy rights, in the areas identified in The Role and Purpose of the CFC section.
Once the CFC is established in a particular college, the CFC should work with the Provost and/or the Ombuds to address problems arising in its work that may require external assistance and should notify the Faculty Senate Executive Committee for information purposes.
All CFCs will open their meetings to the public except as required by law or written KSU policy, publish agenda and meeting times in advance, and publish minutes or a meeting summary that, at a minimum, records attendance and all actions, decisions, or recommendations of the CFC within one week of the end of the relevant meeting.
Frequency of Meeting and Summer CFCs
The CFC should meet as often as deemed appropriate by the council membership with a minimum of two meetings per semester. Each meeting will be called by the chair of CFC. The dean or any other member of the CFC can request a meeting by contacting the chair of the CFC.
Each CFC will take necessary measures to assure continuing function of the CFC during the summer months. These may include, but are not limited to, establishing a reduced quorum requirement, allowing each member to name a proxy from among the tenured faculty of the respective department, and the election of an acting CFC chair. Determining the best mix of such necessary measures will be the decision of the CFC itself, based on immediate circumstances and without outside intervention. Such a “Summer CFC” will be recognized by the administration as the legitimate representative of faculty interests in the shared governance of the college during the summer months and consulted accordingly.
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