Revised October 27, 2008
I. General Powers
1. The College faculty is responsible for all matters relating to the educational and administrative affairs of the College of Arts and Sciences for the purpose of governing the College. The College Senate represents the faculty in governance in conformity with the University Charter, the Trustee Bylaws, and the University Senate Bylaws.
2. The College faculty shall 1) provide for the establishment of curricula and courses, 2) determine educational and academic policies of admissions to the college, 3) determine the requirements for degrees and recommend candidates for diplomas, degrees, and certificates, 4) recommend educational and academic policies relating to the administration of university services (e.g., university library, computing center, etc.) as they pertain to the College, 5) adopt regulations governing its own procedures, 6) determine the duties which it will delegate to the College Senate, 7) make recommendations for conduct of formal exercises and public functions held under the auspices of the college.
3. The College faculty is free to 1) consider matters of general interest to the College and to make recommendations thereupon; 2) consider and make recommendations to the Dean about policies governing appointments, promotions, tenure, dismissals, and salaries.
4. Nothing in these bylaws shall annul any provisions of written consent authorized by the Board of Trustees and existing prior to the adoption of these bylaws.
II. Dean of the College
1. The Dean of the College, as chief representative and executive officer of the College, shall have general administrative authority over College affairs. The Dean shall exercise leadership in the formulation of policies, in the introduction of educational ideas and proposals, and in the stimulation of College discussions leading to improvement of the educational program of the College. The Dean's responsibilities shall include both strengthening the College and its programs, and interpreting these to the University and to the community.
2. The Dean, as chief executive officer of the College, shall have final authority to make budgetary recommendations to the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Dean shall consult with department chairs, center directors, and program directors on matters, which affect those units, and will receive recommendations from the College Steering Committee.
3. The faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences shall consist of the Dean of the College and other administrators holding faculty appointments and all Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Lecturers who hold full‑time appointments in the College. The voting privileges of those College faculty members holding joint appointments with another unit of the university will be adjudicated by the Senate.
III. College Faculty Meetings
1. The Dean of the College shall chair general college faculty meetings. An Associate Dean shall preside in the absence of the Dean or when the Dean takes the floor. The Secretary of the College Senate shall also serve as Secretary of the College Faculty and shall keep minutes of general College Faculty meetings and perform other functions that may be assigned by the faculty or by the Dean.
2. Special meetings of the faculty may be called by the Dean, by a majority vote of the College Senate, or by petition of fifteen percent of the full‑time membership of the College faculty presented to the Secretary of the College Senate. At these special meetings, the College faculty shall automatically assume all the powers vested in it under Article 1 of these Bylaws.
IV. College Faculty Meeting ‑ Rules of Business
1. One‑third of the full‑time membership of the College faculty shall constitute a quorum. The faculty shall abide by its own rules of procedure, but in cases where it has no explicit rules, or where applicability of, or interpretation of, rules is in doubt, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern.
2. The agenda of the faculty meeting shall be established by the College Senate Steering Committee. A college faculty mail ballot may be called for on any non‑procedural motion by a one‑third vote at any time during the meeting. The ballots shall be prepared, distributed, collected, and counted by the Senate Committee on Committees and Nominations (COCAN) in cooperation with the Secretary of the College Senate and the Dean's Office.
3. Motions acted upon by the College Senate but not previously acted on by the faculty may be introduced as old business provided the faculty receives written notification of said motion in the call to the meeting. Such motions shall appear first on the agenda.
V. Faculty Senate
1. Mission Statement
The Faculty Senate of the College of Arts and Sciences is a democratic forum responsible for the creation and review of policies concerning curriculum, promotion and tenure, and student academic issues. The Senate integrates disparate department and program interests and represents college-wide interests to College administration, the University Faculty Senate, and the University Administration.
2. The College Faculty Senate shall consist of department representatives and representatives of programs which have their own faculty lines (one representative is to be elected by each department or eligible program of the College), six senators-at-large, the president, the president-elect, the chair of the Committee on Committees and Nominations (COCAN), secretary, and one undergraduate and one graduate representative selected by the duly authorized University student government. Academic programs without faculty lines of their own may each send a non-voting representative to the Senate by filing a request with the Steering Committee.
3. Senators shall have been members of the College faculty for at least one year and shall have the rank of Assistant Professor or above. However, each department shall have a representative.
4. The term of a departmental or at‑large senator shall be two years. Terms will be staggered so that about half the College Senate is elected to office each year. College Senate officers serve a term of one year. There shall be no limit on the number of terms that senators or officers may serve. Any senator, who has more than two unexcused absences from Senate meetings in any one semester, shall be deemed to have forfeited office. When a vacancy occurs, the respective department chair will be notified and asked to provide a replacement. If an at‑large senator forfeits office, the first alternate [defined as the at‑large candidate with the highest, non‑winning ballot count] shall be immediately appointed to complete the term.
5. Faculty holding administrative appointments at the level of department chair or higher are ineligible for election to the College Senate.
6. Representatives to the Senate must hold a full‑time appointment in their departments. Each department must be elected through secret ballot by a majority of votes cast by full‑time Arts & Sciences College faculty of their department as defined in Bylaw II, 3. Such elections will be held in May of each year with term of office following in September. Should a vacancy occur, the department shall elect a new representative as soon as possible, preferably not later than thirty days after the vacancy is reported.
7. To be eligible for at‑large Senate seats, a faculty member must hold a full‑time appointment within the College of Arts and Sciences. The Senate Committee on Committees and Nominations (COCAN) will prepare a slate of candidates. The total number of nominees should be at least twice the number of at‑large positions to be filled. The ballots shall be prepared and distributed from the Dean's Office to the college faculty. Returned ballots shall be counted by theCOCAN and said committee shall make announcement of the election results to the College Senate.
8. The College Senate shall meet at least twice each semester during the academic year. Meetings of the College Senate shall be open to all members of the University Community and invited guests. However, only elected senators or, in their absence, formally designated departmental alternates, may vote. Senate Officers for the coming academic year must be elected at the final spring meeting of the Senate.
9. A quorum in the Senate shall consist of a majority of the membership. The Senate shall establish or amend its rules of procedure by a majority vote, provided that any change in its rules of procedure be presented in written form to the Senate at least one month before its consideration. In cases not addressed by the rules of procedure set out in these bylaws, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised shall be the parliamentary authority. The president of the Senate may appoint a parliamentarian.
10. The Senate is empowered to discuss and make recommendations regarding any matter of interest to the Dean or to the College Faculty. Motions are approved by the Senate, if more than half of the Senators voting express approval. The College faculty shall have the right of petition. Confirmation of any Senate motion must be made by a mail ballot vote of the College faculty if at least 15 percent of full‑time College faculty members petition the Senate within two (2) weeks of the mailing of the Senate minutes that announced approval of the motion. Mail ballots should be distributed to the College faculty within two (2) weeks of receipt of the petition and ballots must be returned within four (4) weeks of the receipt of the petition. The motion will be approved if more than half of the faculty voting express approval.
11. Matters may be brought before the Senate by the Dean or at the request of any individual faculty member or group of faculty members.
12. The officers of the Senate shall consist of a president, a president-elect, and the Chair of COCAN. Each serves a one-year term and the president-elect will become the president of the Senate for the academic year following his/her term as president-elect. Nominations for these offices may be made from the floor or by writing the COCAN. The election of officers for a new Senate session will occur at the last regular meeting of the old Senate each May. If there is a vacancy before an officer's term has expired, a special election must be held. The replacement officer then will serve out the remainder of the unexpired term.
13. The president of the Senate shall conduct Senate meetings. In his/her absence the president-elect shall preside. The president-elect may be assigned duties by the president. The secretary shall take minutes at all College Senate and College Faculty meetings and shall be responsible for their prompt distribution
Senate Steering Committee
14. The president, the president-elect, the secretary, the Dean of the College, or his or her designee, and chairpersons of the standing committees, shall constitute the Steering Committee. The president of the Senate shall conduct meetings of the Senate Steering Committee. The secretary shall take minutes at all Steering Committee meetings and shall be responsible for their distribution. The Committee on Committees and Nominations (COCAN) shall select all members of all committees except the chairs of the committees. COCAN will recommend the names of the chairs of all Committees except that of COCAN to the President-Elect who will then appoint them. COCAN will also create the slate of candidates for President-Elect and Chair of COCANfor the following academic year. The COCAN Chair and the President-Elect will be elected in the April meeting of the Senate. The Secretary of the Senate will subsequently be appointed by the newly elected President-Elect. The Steering Committee shall have the following authority and responsibility:
A. To receive communications about matters that may be placed on the agenda of the Senate;
B. To establish the agenda for Senate meetings; however, any Senator at a meeting of the Senate may petition the body to consider a particular matter;
C. To refer appropriate matters to a standing committee of the Senate;
D. To call special meetings of the Senate;
E. To make recomendations for the development of physical facilities and related matters as they affect the College.
F. The non-administrative Faculty Members of the Committee shall investigate any condition within the University judged to affect the academic freedom of the College or any of its members. The Committee shall report its findings to the faculty and its Senate
G. To discharge any other responsibility or authority assigned to the Steering Committee by the Senate.
Other Standing Committees
15. Senate standing committees shall deal with questions of policy and procedure in their areas of jurisdiction. Subcommittees of Senate standing committees may be appointed with Senate approval to carry out the procedures approved by the Senate and the College faculty. Senate standing committees shall be free to take up on their own initiative matters within their respective committee jurisdiction. Terms shall be two years and should be staggered so that no more than a simple majority of the committee will need to be appointed each year. Standing committees shall be constituted and their new members confirmed no later than the beginning of the Fall Semester. The Chair of COCAN will replace a committee member who is on sabbatical, or other, leave with someone who will serve out the remainder of the unexpired term of the original appointee. Faculty members who serve on standing or ad hoc Senate committees do not have to be Arts & Sciences College senators. Department Chairs may not serve on standing committees, but may serve on ad hoc Senate committees.
16. Standing committees of the Senate are:
A. The Committee on Committees and Nominations (COCAN) whose jurisdiction shall include the preparation and presentation of a slate of nominees for President-Elect and COCAN Chair in time for a College Senate election in April of each year. There shall be at least two nominees for each elected Senate office and each ballot should allow for write‑in candidate votes. The committee shall also prepare and present a slate of nominees for the At-Large Senators to be elected by the College faculty in a given year. The committee further selects all members of all committees except the chairs of the committees. COCAN will recommend the names of the chairs of the Committees to the President-Elect who will then appoint them. Finally, the committee reviews and makes recommendations of amendments to the College faculty bylaws, the Senate bylaws, and related matters. The COCAN shall have five faculty members. The staffing of senate committees by COCAN for the new academic year should be completed by the end of the preceding spring semester. To ensure the timely appointment of committees, the Senate President will request nominations from all College faculty and Department Chairs at the beginning of the spring semester. The COCAN committee will meet in the middle of March to determine appointments and to select a number of alternates should the original selection be unable to serve. At this time chairs of the various committees will be determined for the following year.
B. The Committee on Educational Affairs whose jurisdiction shall include
1) courses and curricula, including the review and evaluation of new or provisional College-wide academic policies and degree requirements; 2) changes in structure of the academic program; 3) developments in teaching and curricula that may affect the college; and 4) related matters. The committee shall be composed of seven faculty members and one voting member from the Dean's Office.
C. The Committee on Promotion and Tenure whose jurisdiction shall include 1) maintaining continuous oversight of departmental criteria for promotion and tenure and notifying departments when criteria are vague or insufficient; 2) representing the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences in reviewing dossiers regarding promotion and tenure, forwarded for its attention by departments or candidates for compliance with stated departmental criteria; and 3) related matters. In carrying out its duties, the committee will, upon reaching a decision, communicate that decision to the Dean in writing. The Dean may consult with the Committee after the Committee has made its decision on a candidate. The Committee on Promotion and Tenure shall have seven tenured faculty members, including a minimum of two from the natural sciences and mathematics, two from the arts and humanities, and two from the social sciences and history. No department is to have more than one member on the committee. The membership of the committee shall reflect, to the greatest degree possible, the diversity of the College in terms of academic disciplines, gender, and ethnicity. * The Chair of the Committee shall be a Full Professor. Terms of service will be two years and are not renewable. Members may not serve again until two years have elapsed.
D. The Committee on Advisement and Retention shall 1) propose ways to improve and maintain the quality of the academic program in the College and the University in consultation with faculty and department officials of the College; 2) identify educational issues and needs implied by the changing characteristics of the student body that may require a College response; and 3) provide faculty supervision for the advisement of students with no declared major, and for other academic issues pertaining to such students. The Committee will have three faculty and two student members.
E. The Committee on Grade Grievances shall implement procedures for student grievance hearings and shall have the responsibility for the conduct of such hearings. The Committee shall be composed of five faculty members. Two students will be appointed to the Committee at the time of a grade grievance.
F. The Committee on Faculty Awards whose jurisdiction will include 1) representing the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences in reviewing dossiers regarding college awards to faculty in the areas of teaching, scholarship, advisement and service; 2) representing the faculty of the College in reviewing dossiers of College nominees for the University of Delaware Alison Award; 3) making recommendations to the Dean concerning faculty awards. The Committee on Faculty and Student Awards shall have five faculty members.
G. The Committee on Diversity: Recruitment and Retention: The committee's charge is to serve as advisory to the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences with regard to the recruitment and retention of minority faculty. The committee is charged with working with the dean and the Arts & Sciences Faculty Senate to develop programs and activities that iwll enhance the diversity of the College faculty. Because of the focus solely on College faculty, the committee wil complement, but not duplicate the efforts of the President's Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity, the University Senate Committee on Diversity, and the Affirmative Action Office.
17. Temporary or ad hoc Senate committees may be formed to consider business judged by the Steering Committee and the Senate to be outside the usual jurisdiction of the standing committees. Such actions require a majority vote of both the Steering Committee and the Senate. Chairpersons and members of ad hoc or temporary committees may be selected from members of the faculty or other persons by the Steering Committee with the consent of the Senate.
VI. Departments
1. The department, as established by the Board of Trustees, shall be considered the basic organizational unit of the College. Proposals to add, abolish, combine, or split departments of the College shall, after full consultation of all the members of the groups directly concerned, be referred by the Dean to the Senate for review and recommendation.
VII. Amendments and Implementation
These bylaws may be amended by the faculty at a College faculty meeting, provided previous notice of intention to amend has been given in the call for the meeting in which proposed amendments are to be considered, or by the faculty in a mail ballot after a majority vote in the Senate has approved the proposed amendments. In either case, two‑thirds of the votes cast by the faculty are required to amend the bylaws. Ballots shall be prepared and distributed from the Dean's Office, and shall be tallied under the direction of the Senate COCAN Committee. Amendments may also be made by a two‑thirds vote of the Senate.
* This is in the spirit of the university's commitment to assuring equal opportunity to all persons and not discriminating on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran, age or handicap.
Bylaws adopted December 1969, including amendments and revisions of March and April 1972, February 1974, May 1974, 1976, and 1977, June 1980, May 1982, September 1983, May 1984 and 1985, November and December 1989, March, April, May, September, October, November of 1990, June 1992, June, September of 1994, May of 1996.
The current Bylaws pertaining to the College Senate were adopted in May 2002, and revised in September and October 2002; April 2003; October 2008.