Charter

1. Each Divisional Executive Committee consists of seven (7) Faculty members.  Members of the Divisional Executive Committee are elected by the Divisional Faculty for staggered three-year terms and may not succeed themselves.  They are eligible for election again after two (2) years. No more than one (1) member shall be from a single department in a departmentalized school or college.  
   1. No more than one (1) member from a single non-departmentalized school or college shall be allowed membership on the Divisional Executive Committees of the Divisions of Natural Sciences or the Social Sciences.
   2. In the Division of the Professions no more than two (2) members shall be from a single school, and no more than four (4) members shall be from a single college.
   3. In the Division of Arts and Humanities no more than four (4) members shall be from the same college.
2. Whenever a Divisional Executive committee is considering the case of a candidate for tenure and/or promotion in closed session, no currently-serving Divisional Executive Committee member of the candidate’s department shall be present except as a departmental Executive Committee representative [see 3.12(5)], and in no case shall such a member be present during the deliberation and voting on the Committee’s advice.  The Divisional Executive Committee shall invite the Executive Committee of the candidate’s department to designate one of its members who is not currently serving on the Divisional Executive Committee to observe the deliberation and voting on the committee’s advice.
3. After service on a Divisional Committee, each past member shall be eligible to serve as an alternate member.  When a member is unable to be present, or unable to review a candidate for promotion and/or tenure because the member is also a member of the candidate’s department, or has any other conflict of interest, as determined by the Divisional Executive Committee, the Committee may replace the unavailable member(s) by ad hoc appointment(s) from the pool of eligible alternate members.  Whenever possible, alternates shall be randomly selected from those members who served during the previous five (5) years.  There is no limit on the number of ad hoc appointments for a given alternate; however, each ad hoc appointment shall be in accordance with rules regulating the structure of Divisional Executive Committees as specified in Section 3.04(l).

1. Nominations of Faculty from each Division for election to the committee shall be by the Nominations Committee and by the Faculty in accordance with the regular procedures for elected Faculty committees.  Elections shall be conducted in the same manner as for other Faculty committees.
2. Nominees for Divisional Executive Committees shall have an opportunity to provide a listing of previous committee work as well as a personal statement which will be included with the ballots distributed to Faculty members of each Division.
3. A ballot containing the names of the candidates will be distributed to each Faculty member of the Division.  Those candidates receiving the largest number of votes will be declared elected. Ties will be broken by a device of chance.
4. In circumstances not anticipated in these rules, the Divisional Executive Committee shall seek the advice of the University Committee.

Ordinarily tenured Professors and tenured Associate Professors eligible to vote in a Division may serve on its Divisional Executive Committee.  However, the University Faculty or the Faculty Senate may designate Faculty members of other Divisions and/or other units as eligible to serve.

Each Divisional Executive Committee annually elects one (1) of its members Chair. The Chair shall report annually to the Divisional Faculty.

A member of a Divisional Executive Committee unable to serve for two (2) consecutive semesters during their term of office shall be replaced by the available candidate who had the next highest number of votes at the last election.  If there is no available nominee, the vacancy is filled by an appointee of the University Committee.  If the term of office extends beyond the current academic year, an election for the unexpired term is held at the time of the next regular election.  An unexpired term of more than one (1) year is considered a full term.  A person serving in such an unexpired term is not eligible to serve again until two (2) years have elapsed after the end of such service, except as provided for in 3.04(2).

A Divisional Executive Committee meets at least monthly throughout the academic year unless the Chair considers there to be insufficient business.  The schedule of meetings is published at the beginning of each academic year.

The Chair may call a special meeting of the Divisional Executive Committee at any time. The Chair must call a special meeting at the request of any three (3) members of the committee.

A quorum of five (5) members who are eligible to vote is required for the transaction of business at meetings of Divisional Executive Committees.

1. Divisional Executive Committees shall annually distribute to the Faculty, and file with the Secretary of the University, a copy of their operating procedures and criteria regarding tenure and promotion.  These procedures and criteria shall conform to the affirmative action policies and procedures of the University, as well as facilitate a balanced consideration of all work and accomplishment that express a Faculty member’s academic interest.
2. Divisional Executive Committee consideration of changes in the criteria and procedures shall take place in open meetings and involve opportunities for consultation with and input from Faculty members in the Division.  The agenda detailing the proposed changes shall be distributed to the Faculty members of the Division in advance of the meeting.
3. Divisional Executive Committees shall take departmental Executive Committee criteria for promotion and tenure [4.05 (l)] into consideration in their deliberations regarding personnel from given departments.  Should a Divisional Executive Committee or departmental Executive Committee perceive an apparent conflict or misunderstanding between the respective sets of criteria, representatives of the two bodies shall arrange to meet shortly after Divisional Executive Committee’s criteria are published and communicated to the department to identify the differences and seek a resolution.
4. If a Divisional Executive Committee requires additional information on a candidate for tenure or promotion, other than that originally provided by the department, it shall request that the candidate’s department provide such information.  Whenever a Divisional Executive Committee receives unsolicited information on a candidate additional to that provided by the department, the Divisional Executive Committee is required to send that additional information and its source(s) to the candidate’s departmental Executive Committee and the candidate.  The only material or information that will be considered in the evaluation of the candidate is that which comes to the Divisional Executive Committee from the department Executive Committee.
5. Divisional Executive Committees will provide an opportunity during the evidentiary phase of Divisional Committee considerations for member(s) of the candidate’s department to present the candidate’s case.  The member(s) shall be selected by the departmental Executive Committee and may include a currently-serving Divisional Committee member who is also a member of the candidate’s department [see   3.04(2)].