Bylaws
of the Faculty of
The
School of Computational Sciences of
George
Mason University
Adopted
November 20, 2002
Section 1.
a. The faculty of the School of Computational Sciences (hereafter referred to as the faculty) comprises all persons holding faculty rank (as defined in the George Mason University Faculty Handbook) in the School.
b. Except on issues concerning promotion and tenure, the right to vote shall be held by all members of the faculty who are not studying for a degree within the School, and who:
1. have a tenured or tenure-track appointment in the School; or
2. have a long-term part-time appointment in the School; or
3.
have a research
faculty appointment made by the Dean with the advice and consent of the faculty;
or
4. hold a courtesy appointment made by the Dean with the advice and consent of the faculty.
The right to vote on issues concerning promotion and tenure shall be restricted to faculty with tenured status and of appropriate rank. Faculty members studying for a degree within the School are ineligible to vote.
Section 2.
The Dean of the School, prior to the first faculty meeting of each year, shall certify to the faculty in a written form the names of all persons holding academic rank and whether they have voting rights.
Section 3.
a. The Dean of the School of Computational Sciences shall be the Chair of the faculty.
b. The Dean shall have the right to appoint Associate Deans and/or Assistant Deans.
Section 4.
a. The School will comprise a number of Academic Programs each consisting of faculty of the School having common areas of interests in education and research. Faculty may belong to more than one Academic Program in the School.
b. With advice from the faculty of the Academic Program, the Dean shall appoint a Chair for a fixed term for the Program. The governance of the Academic Programs must adhere to the Bylaws of the School as well as to the University Faculty Handbook.
c. Academic Programs will have representation on various committees of the School, as prescribed in Article IV, and will conduct the first-level review of faculty within the Program for promotion and/or tenure.
d. Faculty who belong to more than one Academic Program in the School must designate a primary Academic Program for purposes of promotion and/or tenure considerations.
Article II—Responsibilities of the Faculty
Section 1.
a. The faculty shall have responsibility for general educational policies and processes for degrees, certificates, and minors in the School of Computational Sciences.
b. Teaching responsibilities of the faculty include teaching regular classroom courses, teaching individualized reading courses, teaching distance-learning courses, advising graduate students, directing doctoral dissertations, participation on doctoral committees, and/or leading seminars and study groups.
c. The faculty are expected to conduct research leading to the advancement of the state of knowledge in their fields and to disseminate the results of their research through scholarly publications and by participation in conferences.
d. The faculty are expected to participate in activities of learned societies and other professional associations within their academic fields.
e. The faculty are expected to serve the School and the broader University in the development and administration of courses or programs of study, in the governance of Academic Programs, in the governance of the School and of the University, and in other activities relating to University life.
Section 2.
It shall be within the province of the faculty, generally through empowered committees, or through Academic Programs:
a. To propose, review, and approve matters affecting the development of courses and curricula in the School of Computational Sciences.
b. To propose, review, and approve academic requirements for degrees, certificates, and minors.
c. To authorize conferral of those degrees, certificates, and minors upon students who have been certified by the registrar to have fulfilled the requirements set for them.
d. To propose, review, and approve regulations governing evaluation and acceptance of credits transferred from other institutions.
e. To propose, review, and approve policies pertaining to standards of undergraduate and graduate student admission to the School of Computational Sciences;
f. To review and make recommendations to the Dean regarding organization of Departments or Academic Programs within the school;
g. To review and make recommendations regarding general governance issues relating to the school;
h. To review and provide advice regarding selection of the President of the University, Deans, other administrative officers, and department chairs;
i. To review and make recommendations regarding matters of faculty welfare such as professional conduct, hiring, tenure, promotion, and grievance.
Article III—Meetings of the Faculty
Section 1.
Meetings of the faculty shall be conducted according to Robert's Rules of Order (revised) except as the rules and procedures described therein have been or shall be modified by adoption of these or of future bylaws or standing rules. The presiding officer of all meetings of the faculty shall be the Dean as Chair of the faculty, or such member of the faculty as designated by the Dean.
Section 2.
a. Meetings shall be open to all members of the faculty as defined in Article I, Section 1, paragraph a.
b. The quorum for the faculty meetings shall consist of not fewer than 33 percent of the voting members of the faculty as defined in Article I, Section 1, paragraph b.
Section 3.
a. Any person invited by the Dean to meet with the faculty may participate in the discussion of any item of business brought forth upon the floor.
b. All members of standing and ad hoc committees may be present at the meeting(s) of the faculty during consideration of a report from their respective committee(s) and may participate in such consideration.
c. Freedom of discussion shall be the rule.
Section 4.
The faculty may go into closed session by majority vote. Only members of the faculty may be present during a closed session.
Section 5.
a. The Dean of the School shall prepare the agenda and shall distribute it in a timely manner (generally at least 48 hours prior to the meeting) to all members of the faculty, and appropriate administrative officers of the University.
b. Any member of the faculty may submit items of business for inclusion on the agenda. All items submitted at least 5 days prior to the meeting shall be placed on the agenda.
c. Explanatory or background information on all agenda items shall be prepared by the sponsor of the item and shall be attached to the agenda. Agenda items submitted for faculty actions shall be in writing and accompanied by the text of all principal motions to be put on substantive matters and shall be circulated with the agenda in accordance with Section 5 a.
Section 6.
a. As a general rule, meetings of the faculty will be convened at least once every fall and spring semester.
b. When the agenda of a scheduled meeting is not completed on the scheduled date, the meeting shall be recessed or adjourned and shall be reconvened as agreed upon and the agenda should be completed at the next meeting.
Section 7.
a. The Dean shall call a meeting of the faculty in response to a petition signed by at least twenty-five percent of the voting members of the faculty and should normally call such a meeting within eight days of receiving the petition.
b. The written call to the meeting shall include a statement of the purpose of the meeting and shall be distributed to all members of the faculty at least seven days before the meeting.
c.
Only that business stipulated in the call to the
meeting may be transacted at such a special meeting.
Section 8.
a. Ballots may be conducted at faculty meetings or by mail. In all ballots, voting members have the option of voting “abstain.” In a faculty meeting, upon the affirmative vote of a majority of the voting members present and voting, any matter may be submitted to a vote by mail ballot. If a mail ballot is authorized at a faculty meeting, the ballot must be submitted to the faculty within seven working days of the faculty meeting. Faculty may be notified of the ballot by electronic or campus mail.
b. A ballot at a faculty meeting shall be by voice vote or by secret ballot. Any voting member upon request may cause a secret ballot to be taken. An absentee vote may be counted only in cases when a motion has been stated prior to the meeting and the motion comes before the meeting substantially unchanged. Absentee votes do not count for purposes of establishing a quorum for the meeting. Proxy ballots are not allowed. Except for motions that concern the Bylaws, a motion at a faculty meeting that has a quorum of the faculty shall be approved if the majority of votes, both by voting members present and absentee votes by voting members, are in favor of the measure. If the number of votes in favor of the measure exceeds the number of votes against the measure, but does not constitute a majority of all votes including abstentions, the motion shall be tabled until the next meeting, unless there is an affirmative vote of a majority of the voting members present and voting, to submit the motion to a vote by mail ballot.
c. For a mail ballot, votes may be submitted either by electronic mail, campus mail, or by hand delivery to the office of the Dean. There shall be a mechanism that allows individuals to vote in secret. A deadline for voting must be imposed, but faculty must be given a period of at least one week to submit their votes. Votes not received by the deadline will be ignored. The Dean shall report the results of the balloting within one week of the deadline for voting; this report may be distributed orally at a faculty meeting, or in writing by electronic or campus mail.
d. For a mail ballot, a motion shall fail to pass if less than one-third of the eligible voting members vote either "aye" or "nay" or if the number voting "nay" exceeds the number voting "aye".
e. A mail ballot on a motion may also be initiated outside of a faculty meeting by submitting a petition to the Dean signed by at least twenty-five percent of the voting members of the faculty. The ballot shall be submitted to the faculty within seven working days of the petition being submitted, according to the rules and procedures described in paragraphs c and d above.
Section 9.
Items of new business not appearing on the agenda may be introduced from the floor by any member of the faculty after consideration of all agenda items has been completed. Disposition of any item introduced without prior notice and information may be carried over to the next regular meeting of the faculty if at least 33% of the voting members present support a motion to carry it over. A motion carried over under this provision shall appear on the agenda of the next regular meeting as an item of old business and shall be supported by background information as provided in Section 5 of this article.
Section 10.
Minutes of all meetings of the faculty shall be prepared in a style that will convey the essence of discussion on each item of business considered. The minutes shall be distributed to the faculty of the School, and appropriate officers of the University. At least one copy of the minutes of every meeting shall be preserved in a minute book as part of the permanent archives of the University. The minute book shall be kept in office of the Dean and shall be open for inspection by any member of the academic community. The minutes may be distributed to faculty via electronic mail, or by notifying faculty of an online source for the minutes.
Article IV—Committees
Section 1.
a. "Standing committees" shall be those permanent committees whose faculty members, except for designated ex-officio members, are elected by the faculty, appointed by the Dean, or appointed by the Academic Programs. The Dean is an ex-officio member of all standing committees of the faculty of the School. Generally, the term of the memberships on all School standing committees is three years and members may succeed themselves.
b. "Ad hoc committees" shall be those established by the faculty or the Dean, as appropriate, for consideration of special or transient issues. If no term is specified, the committee is deemed to serve until it issues a final report or until the committee is dissolved, generally in the same manner in which it was appointed.
Section 2.
a. Unless otherwise specified, each faculty committee shall elect its chair from among its own membership. Each committee shall establish a quorum for its own function. Each committee may determine procedures for maintaining appropriate records of its activities.
b. Committees shall normally serve during the academic year; however, all committees are authorized to function as necessary during the entire calendar year.
Section 3.
The faculty may authorize student representation on any standing committee. The faculty, or the Dean, may authorize this in the case of ad hoc committees.
Section 4.
Any faculty committee may be required by majority vote of the faculty to report to it at a specified later meeting any matter referred by action of the faculty to the charge of that committee. (The report may be distributed in paper form, by electronic mail, or by notifying faculty of an online source for the report.) Upon receipt of its report, the committee may be discharged of further responsibility for the matter by majority vote of the faculty.
Section 5.
Standing
committees shall include the following.
a. Promotion and Tenure Committee—This is an advisory committee that receives the results of the first-level evaluation concerning promotion and tenure that is conducted by the Academic Programs(s). Based on an independent evaluation that includes review of the first-level evaluation, the Promotion and Tenure Committee arrives at a common recommendation, which is submitted to the Dean and Provost. The Promotion and Tenure Committee will consist of at least nine (9) members of the tenured faculty of the school. Each Academic Program in the School will appoint one member to the committee, and the Dean will appoint two members to the committee. The remainder of the members of the committee will be nominated and elected by the faculty of the School. Any member of the Promotion and Tenure Committee who participated in the first-level review of a candidate for promotion and tenure does not participate in the evaluation of that candidate by the other members of the Promotion and Tenure Committee. The Dean shall appoint the chair of this committee.
b. Curriculum Committee—The principal tasks of this committee are to review and provide advice concerning academic degrees and courses. This committee will have representation from all Academic Programs. The Dean shall appoint the chair of this committee.
c. Administrative Council—This committee is advisory to the Dean and is responsible for strategic planning and leadership in the School. The Dean will appoint the members of the council. The members will generally be chairs of Academic Programs of the School, Department Chairs from other units of the University, other University academic administrators, and other senior faculty, as appropriate. The Dean chairs the council.
d. Grievance Committee —The purpose of this committee is to hear faculty concerns and issues. This is a committee both of the faculty of SCS and an advisory committee to the Dean, as appropriate in a particular instance. It will include, if possible, one tenured full professor appointed by each Academic Program. In the absence of a full professor in a particular Academic Program, if possible, a tenured associate professor from that program will be appointed to the committee. Otherwise, faculty from other programs may be asked to represent that program. A faculty member who wishes to have the grievance committee examine an issue will ask the Dean to convene the committee. Generally a faculty member should request this as soon as possible after informal efforts to remedy the presumed violation have failed. Normally this will be within 10 days. Should unusual circumstances necessitate a delay longer than 10 days, the burden will be on the faculty member to justify the excessive delay.
Article V—Faculty Senate
Section 1.
a. The faculty of the School of Computational Sciences shall elect members to serve on the Faculty Senate.
b. Eligibility of faculty to serve as senators shall be determined by the policies of the Faculty Senate.
c. Procedures and policies for the election, term, and conduct of senators shall be determined by the policies of the Faculty Senate.
Article VI—Effective Date and Amendment
Section 1.
This revision of the bylaws shall become effective if approved by a two-thirds majority vote carried out in accordance with the rules and procedures described in Article III, Section 8 of this document.
Section 2.
All motions to amend these bylaws shall be read and discussed at regular meetings of the faculty. Amendments to the bylaws shall become effective only after discussion at two consecutive meetings of the faculty and if approved by a two-thirds majority vote carried out in accordance with the rules and procedures described in Article III, Section 8 of this document.