Article III: Executive Committee of the Faculty

Article III - THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE FACULTY


Section 1    Purpose

The purposes of the Executive Committee of the Faculty are:
    
(a)     To consider and develop policy concerned with the academic programs of the College
         and to recommend to the Dean methods for implementing these policies.
    
(b)     To advise the Dean on other matters of concern to the College.

Section 2    Membership

(a)    The Executive Committee of the Faculty shall be composed of the following voting members:
  • The Dean of the College
  • The Chair or Acting Chair of each academic Department at the College
  • Directors of Institutes recognized under Article VI
  • Ten (10) representatives from the Steering Committee of the Faculty of the College                                        
(b)    Chairs of the Standing Committees of the Faculty shall be non-voting members of the Executive Committee.

(c)    If a Department Chair or acting Chair is unable to attend a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Faculty, he/she may delegate such responsibility to a senior member of the Department.  If a representative from the Steering Committee of the Faculty is unable to attend, he/she may delegate one of the elected alternates to attend in his/her place.  The Committee Chair must be notified prior to a scheduled meeting if an alternate is to represent a regular member of the Committee.

(d)    A quorum shall consist of at least one half of the voting members of the Executive Committee.

Section 3    Officers

There shall be a Chair, a Vice Chair, and a Secretary.  The Dean shall be the permanent Chair.  The Vice Chair shall be elected by the Committee from the Chairs of the academic Departments and the Secretary shall be elected by the Committee from the representatives of the Steering Committee of the Faculty at the first meeting of the academic year. 

(a)    The duties of the Chair shall be to preside at all meetings of the Committee and to report Board of Trustee matters to the Faculty.

(b)    The duties of the Vice Chair shall be:
(1)     To assume the duties of the Chair in his/her absence.
(c)    The duties of the Secretary shall be:
(1)     To keep a record of the minutes of the meetings.

(2)     To send out notices of meetings.

(3)     To report the Committee's actions to the Faculty.


Section 4    Vote

Each voting member (as defined in Section 2(a) above) is entitled to one vote.  Staff members, attending on invitation of the Dean, shall have no vote. 
Unless a voting member objects, the Executive Committee of the Faculty may also take action without a meeting of the Committee by voting electronically via e-mail or by some other written method authorized by the Dean. To be decided in this manner, the action must receive an affirmative vote from ana  absolute majority of the members of that Committee with the right to vote. Committee members must be given at least ten (10) business days to discuss, vote on or object to any action being taken without a meeting.

Normally such electronic voting by the Executive Committee of the faculty will occur after a discussion of the topic at a regular meeting, at which a final decision was not reached. The Dean, at his or her discretion, may also hold such an electronic vote between meetings without prior discussion by the Committee.


Section 5    Function of the Committee

In the conduct of business the Executive Committee should:

(a)    Act on Faculty appointments and promotions.

(b)    Serve as a forum for the discussion of policy matters referred by the Dean, by members of the Committees or by individual members of the Faculty, and formulate recommendations for policy. These should be referred to the Dean for executive action.

(c)    Receive and act upon reports from standing Committees of the College as defined in Article VIII.

(d)    Table until the next meeting any question of academic policy in which there is disagreement between a majority vote of the Executive Committee of the Faculty and the Dean.  If, on reconsideration, agreement between the Dean and a majority of the Executive Committee of the Faculty is not reached, the matter shall be referred to the President who will attempt to mediate. If agreement is still not reached, the President will refer the matter to the Faculty of the College or to the Board of Trustees, whichever he/she deems appropriate.


Section 6    Meetings

(1)    The number of meetings of the Committee shall be determined by the Chair but shall not be fewer than nine meetings per academic year. A schedule for the projected meetings for each year shall be drawn up by the Committee at its meeting in June.  The dates and time of these meetings shall be furnished to each Committee member.

(2)    Special meetings of the Committee may be called by the Chair whenever he/she deems it  necessary, and must be called by the Chair on petition by a majority of the members of the Executive Committee of the Faculty.