Bylaws
February 7, 2024
Table of contents
Article I: Vesting of departmental authority and supercession
The authority and responsibility of action on all matters properly the concern of the Department of History as a whole (except as provided by the statutes and regulations of Wayne State University and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, under an applicable collective bargaining agreement) shall reside in the faculty of the department. Nothing in these bylaws is intended to be inconsistent with present or future Board of Governors statutes, or executive orders, or other university policies or regulations that have been duly issued, or any applicable collective bargaining agreement. Where there may be an inconsistency between these bylaws and present or future Board of Governors statutes, other university policies or regulations or policies that have been duly issued, or any applicable collective bargaining agreement, the latter shall prevail.
Article II: Officers
Section 1: Chairperson
A) The departmental chairperson (herein, “chairperson”) is the chief administrative officer of the department, who also works within the university and broader community to advance the interests of the department.
B) The chairperson is appointed through the process specified in article XVIII of the collective bargaining agreement.
C) The department favors rotation of executive responsibility. The chairperson normally serves no longer than two full terms without formal discussion by the Departmental Assembly of alternatives to additional service.
D) The appointment of a new chairperson, or reappointment of an acting chairperson, shall proceed in accordance with article XVIII of the collective bargaining agreement.
E) Duties of the chairperson include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Serves as the chief administrative officer of the department
- Chairs departmental meetings
- Appoints chairs of all committees except as otherwise specified in these bylaws
- Sits ex officio on all committees and serves as chair of the Salary (with vote) and Personnel (without vote) Committees
- Appoints, in consultation with the Executive Committee, the directors of graduate and undergraduate studies, who serve at the chairperson’s pleasure
- Serves as chief fundraiser, manages donor relations, and serves as point of contact for Alumni Relations and Development
- Manages all department funds and accounts
- Prepares course schedule
- Supervises academic and non-academic staff
- Represents the department to the university and college administration and to the public
- Coordinates department communications, publications, and marketing
- Addresses and decides student grievances, according to university policy
- Guides strategic planning
- Plays a leadership role in the appointment of new faculty; in mentoring all faculty members, especially junior faculty; and in the promotion and tenure process
Section 2: Director of graduate studies
A) The director of graduate studies (DGS) implements policies approved by the Departmental Assembly and supervises the administration of the department’s graduate degree programs and other matters pertaining to graduate majors. The DGS presides over the Graduate Committee and serves ex officio on the Undergraduate Committee and the Executive Committee.
B) The DGS is appointed by the chairperson in consultation with the Executive Committee and serves at the pleasure of the chairperson. The department encourages rotation of this position to provide faculty members with opportunities for service and to develop leadership experience. The DGS will typically serve one three-year term with the possibility of renewal for a second consecutive term (or some portion thereof).
C) The duties of the DGS shall include: implementation of policies approved by the Departmental Assembly; organization of the agenda of the Graduate Committee; advising graduate students on plans of work, program guidelines and regulations, and career development; overseeing master’s and doctoral program admissions, recruitment, and retention efforts; serving as academic advisor to the History Graduate Student Association; graduate curriculum development and revision; coordination of graduate student awards and internships; updating the graduate handbook; writing assessment reports for annual submission to the Provost’s Office, reaccreditation, and the department’s academic program review; and oversight of departmental graduate policies.
D) The DGS serves as the communications officer for graduate program matters with the college, the Graduate School, the Provost’s Office, and the American Historical Association, and oversees updates of the Graduate Bulletin and the AHA’s graduate program and dissertation databases.
Section 3: Director of undergraduate studies
A) The director of undergraduate studies (DUS) implements policies approved by the Departmental Assembly and supervises the administration of the department’s undergraduate degree program and other matters pertaining to undergraduate majors, minors, and departmental honors students. The DUS presides over the Undergraduate Committee and serves ex officio on the Graduate Committee and Executive Committee.
B) The DUS is appointed by the chairperson in consultation with the Executive Committee, and serves at the pleasure of the chairperson. The department encourages rotation of this position to provide faculty members with opportunities for service and to develop leadership experience. The DUS will typically serve one three-year term with the possibility of renewal for a second consecutive term (or some portion thereof).
C) The duties of the DUS shall include: implementation of policies approved by the Departmental Assembly; organization of the agenda for the Undergraduate Committee; advice on the membership of the Undergraduate Committee; routine career and academic advising to students, including history honors majors; academic advisor to, and campus representative of, the History honorary society, Phi Alpha Theta; the development of the major program, including the writing of grant proposals; the development of recruiting and retention strategies; oversight of undergraduate course offerings; the monitoring of course proposals and learning outcomes; coordination of student awards and the museum internship program; organizing the Sterne-Lion Colloquium; updating the undergraduate handbook; writing assessment reports for annual submission to the Provost’s Office, reaccreditation, and the department’s academic program review; and oversight of undergraduate policy that applies to tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track faculty. The DUS also represents the undergraduate program to the college, Provost's Office, Honor's College, Phi Alpha Theta, and other university offices.
Section 4: Academic advisor
The academic advisor provides administrative support for the Undergraduate major and its students. The duties of the academic advisor shall include: shepherding students from first contact at high school or community college events, through admissions, orientation, and first registration; the routine advising of students’ academic requirements; overseeing the growth of the major program; the processing of graduation certifications; regular communication with majors and minors, including the use of individual and small group meetings; participation in recruitment events, student data collection, course scheduling, review of transfer credit agreements, and reaccreditation.
Article III: Departmental Assembly
Section 1: Membership
Membership in the Departmental Assembly includes all full-time faculty employed by Wayne State University holding the ranks of assistant professor – teaching, associate professor – teaching, professor - teaching, instructor, visiting professor, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and distinguished professor of history. tenured, tenure-track, and associate and full professors – teaching shall be eligible to vote on matters before the departmental assembly. Tenured, tenure-track, and associate and full professors – teaching shall be eligible to vote on matters before the Departmental Assembly.
Section 2: Activities
The Departmental Assembly shall consider recommendations from the Executive, Personnel, Undergraduate, and Graduate Committees, and may approve, disapprove, or postpone consideration of all issues properly brought before it. Where the appropriateness of an issue is in doubt, a majority of the Assembly determines whether a question shall be addressed.
Section 3: Personnel matters
The Departmental Assembly considers and votes on recommendations from search committees and/or the Personnel Committee about potential hires. Personnel matters brought before the Departmental Assembly shall be decided by a two-thirds affirmative vote of the eligible membership. All members of the Assembly may participate in discussions about all potential hires, but no member of the Assembly shall vote on an appointment to a rank higher than his/her current rank.
Section 4: Presiding officer
The chairperson shall preside over the Departmental Assembly, with vote, except in personnel matters.
Article IV: Departmental meetings
Section 1: Frequency
The faculty shall meet at least once a term at the call of the chairperson and shall meet as often as necessary to determine matters of academic policy. A departmental meeting may be called at any time upon petition of 20% of the Departmental Assembly as defined in article III, section 1.
Section 2: Procedures
Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall apply to all meetings held under the auspices of the department, except where inconsistent with these bylaws, in which case the latter shall prevail. A quorum for a departmental meeting is defined as a majority of the department’s full-time faculty not on leave in a given term. Matters of departmental policy and procedures brought before a meeting of the department shall be decided by majority vote of the faculty present and eligible to vote, unless otherwise specified herein.
Section 3: Presiding officer
The chairperson of the department shall preside at departmental meetings. The chairperson shall distribute a meeting agenda to all faculty members at least 24 hours in advance of departmental meetings.
Section 4: Minutes
Meeting minutes shall be recorded by a secretary (either a member of the departmental staff or a faculty member), to be designated by the chairperson. The chairperson checks the minutes for accuracy and distributes unabridged copies to the full-time departmental faculty in due time. All persons eligible to attend departmental meetings have liberty to speak for the record, except in settings where these bylaws expressly prohibit participation by individuals or groups.
Section 5: Parliamentarian
The Executive Committee shall recommend a departmental parliamentarian to the Departmental Assembly for election by a majority of that body. The parliamentarian may serve successive terms, is expected to master the most recent edition of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, and has authority to intervene in any departmental proceeding to inform participants of procedural violations and to redirect the proceedings.
Article V: Standing committees
Section 1: General procedures
A) The standing committees: There are six standing committees among which the regular work of the department is distributed; these Committees are an important part of shared governance. Three are appointed by the chairperson in consultation with the DGS and DUS (the Graduate, Undergraduate, and Assessment Committees), and three are elected in accordance with articles IX and X of the bylaws (the Salary, Personnel, and Executive Committees). On both appointed and elected committees, the department favors diversity of rank and gender among members.
B) Terms of office: The term of service for the Undergraduate, Graduate, Assessment, and Salary Committees is one year. The term of service for the Executive and Personnel Committees is two years; members will be elected for staggered two-year terms. In the first year, the top three vote-getters shall serve for two years, and the remaining two for one year. Faculty who serve two-year terms on elected committees shall not be eligible to serve on the same committee until two years have passed. No one is required to serve on more than one elected committee at one time, or on more than two standing committees total, and may remove themselves from consideration to additional standing committees at their discretion once they are appointed/elected to two committees.
C) Election and appointment of committee members: In the spring, the chairperson will create a list of full-time faculty eligible for election or appointment to the standing committees the following year. The chairperson, in consultation with the DGS and DUS, shall appoint the Undergraduate, Graduate, and Assessment Committees. The chairperson will present the list of appointments to the appointed committees for the following year to the Executive Committee for review before the end of winter term, at which time the Executive Committee may provide suggestions for additions or amendments. No faculty member shall be appointed to more than one appointed standing committee, the Election Committee shall run sequential elections for the Executive Committee, the Personnel Committee, and the Salary Committee, determining eligibility before each election.
D) Release from standing committees: Faculty members who have accepted substantial service roles for the department, and which are not otherwise compensated financially or with a course release, may request to be released from service on any or all of the standing committees except the Salary Committee. Affected faculty members should make a request in writing detailing the reason for their request and submit it to the chairperson and the chair of the Executive Committee in advance of standing committee appointments and elections. The Executive Committee will consider the request and make a recommendation to the chairperson, with whom lies final authority to approve or decline the request.
Section 2: Graduate Committee
A) Duties: The Graduate Committee shall review the department’s graduate degree programs and events and make recommendations to the Departmental Assembly. It may, when practicable, choose to send major curriculum revisions first to the Executive Committee for review and comment. It shall also make decisions with respect to admissions to the graduate certificate, master’s, and Ph.D. programs, fellowships, assistantships, approval of new graduate courses and course alterations, and awards for graduate majors.
B) Composition: The chairperson, in consultation with the DGS, shall appoint as committee members an appropriate number of graduate faculty (normally three, but up to five when necessary to conduct business before the committee). The academic advisor serves as an ex-officio member of the Graduate Committee, without vote.
C) Presiding officer: The DGS is the presiding officer for the committee.
Section 3: Undergraduate Committee
A) Duties: The Undergraduate Committee shall review the department’s undergraduate degree program and events and make recommendations to the Departmental Assembly. It may, when practicable, choose to send major curriculum revisions first to the Executive Committee for review and comment. It shall also make decisions with respect to undergraduate courses and course alterations and awards for undergraduate majors and may be asked to participate in assessment activities.
B) Composition: The chairperson, in consultation with the DUS, shall appoint as committee members an appropriate number of full-time faculty (normally three, but up to five when necessary to conduct business before the committee). The academic advisor serves as an ex-officio member of the Undergraduate Committee, without vote.
C) Presiding officer: The DUS is the presiding officer for the committee and oversees the undergraduate program.
Section 4: Assessment Committee
A) Duties: The Assessment Committee will conduct assessment activities for all Graduate and Undergraduate programs. Its work in relation to the undergraduate program will be to evaluate papers completed for relevant courses, using rubrics provided by the DUS. Its work in relation to the graduate program will be to evaluate, in a multi-year rotation to be determined by the graduate committee and using rubrics approved by that committee, the completed dissertations, theses, essays, and other assessment benchmarks of the various graduate degree programs.
B) Composition: The chairperson, in consultation with the DGS and DUS, shall appoint as committee members five full-time faculty members.
C) Presiding officer: The DGS and DUS shall serve as co-chairs of the Assessment Committee and preside at meetings.
Section 5: Salary Committee
A) Duties: The Salary Committee shall be guided by department “statement on factors” and general university criteria and factors and shall convey its decisions to the chairperson as to selective salary adjustments for eligible members. The committee shall advise the chairperson, according to procedures described in the collective bargaining agreement, as to the initial salaries of prospective members of the bargaining unit.
B) Composition: Only faculty members with continuing employment contracts and whose selective salary evaluations are made by the Salary Committee shall be eligible to vote for or serve on the Salary Committee. Full-time faculty with one-year employment contracts are ineligible. The Salary Committee shall consist of four members, at least three tenured. Committee members may not serve for more than two consecutive years. Members shall not simultaneously sit on the college Salary Committee.
C) Presiding officer: The chairperson shall preside over Salary Committee meetings, with vote.
Section 6: Personnel Committee
A) Duties
- The Personnel Committee shall annually evaluate the “Statement on Factors” delineating as far as possible those factors that shall be considered in the evaluation of potential candidates for promotion or tenure. The statement shall be based upon excellence in teaching and scholarly professional achievement, while consideration shall also be given to non-instructional service to the department, college, university, or the historical profession. All revisions of the “Statement” shall be submitted to the Promotion and Tenure Committee for consideration, possible modification, and final approval. Major revisions must be approved by the Departmental Assembly, and then submitted for approval by the Dean’s Office.
- The committee shall evaluate all potential candidates for promotion or tenure, including new appointments to tenured positions, and shall make recommendations thereon to the Promotion and Tenure Committee.
- The committee shall oversee the departmental mentoring program for non-tenured faculty members. Each tenure-track faculty member of the department shall be assigned a tenured mentor who shall advise and assist such members as they prepare for third-year review and tenure. The mentor shall be appointed by the chairperson after consulting with the Personnel Committee, the mentor, and the mentee. The appointment shall take place before the end of the non-tenured member’s first semester in the department, whether the new member is in residence or not. A non-tenured faculty member may request, at any time and without explanation, that they be assigned a different mentor. Non-tenured members of the department are encouraged to actively seek the advice and counsel of their mentors. They may also seek the advice and counsel of other individuals within the department, college, and university.
- The Personnel Committee shall prepare a written review by the end of each academic year for any bargaining unit member holding a term appointment. The committee shall consult with the member’s mentor in advance of such review. The committee shall forward all written reviews to the chairperson for distribution to the affected faculty member and to the Promotion and Tenure Committee for its consideration. Copies shall be placed in the member’s personnel file.
- The committee shall undertake a review of each candidate for advancement toward tenure during his or her third year (hereafter designated the third-year review). The purpose of the third-year review is to assist non-tenured faculty in advancing toward tenure. For administrative purposes, the Review is advisory; it does not bind the department, or any of its committees, to any future course of action. The chairperson shall inform affected department members in writing of review procedures at the start of the fall semester. Affected department members shall compile a full dossier, analogous to the Tenure Review dossier but without external letters. Third-year reviews shall be submitted at the time of selective salary evaluation during the third year; the mentor shall assist in this process. The chairperson shall deliver the third-year review to the member before the end of classes in the third year, in writing and in conversation. A copy of the Review shall be placed in the non-tenured faculty member’s personnel file. The non-tenured faculty member shall be permitted to respond in writing to the review, and a copy placed in his or her personnel file.
- The committee shall evaluate all sabbatical leave applications.
- The committee shall periodically evaluate part-time instructors and shall make recommendations thereon to the chairperson.
- The chairperson shall seek the advice of the Personnel Committee, as far as practicable, in making appointments for non-tenure-track professors of teaching.
B) Composition: The Personnel Committee shall consist of five tenured members; at least three must be full professors. Members shall not simultaneously sit on the college Promotion and Tenure Committee.
C) Presiding officer: The chairperson shall preside at meetings, without vote.
Section 7: Executive Committee
A) Scope and function: The Executive Committee is a consultative and advisory body intended to increase democratic governance, create transparency, and cultivate leadership within the department. It is an autonomous committee that provides input into how the department is run; it is guided by, but independent from, the chairperson. It shall respond to the chairperson’s requests for advice and assistance, and it has authority to bring matters to the attention of the chairperson for deliberation, action, or referral to other university entities. The committee’s advice is not binding; but, if the chairperson disregards the advice of the Executive Committee, he or she must inform the department of the decision during the next regularly scheduled departmental meeting, with explanation and discussion.
B) Duties: The Executive Committee shall assist and advise the chairperson on all matters relating to the present or future teaching, curricular, research, and service missions of the department, including, but not limited to, the following subjects: departmental procedures; curriculum and programming; fundraising and finances; and drafting, reviewing, or rewriting policies for consideration by other departmental committees. Specific responsibilities include:
- Periodically reviewing and revising departmental Strategic Plan (typically every four years)
- Preparing materials for reaccreditation review
- Periodically reviewing and revising departmental bylaws (typically every three years)
- Serving as Budget Advisory Committee
- Consulting with chairperson regarding budget priorities
- Consulting with chairperson regarding hiring priorities
- Consulting with chairperson regarding appointment of DUS and DGS
- Consulting with chairperson regarding appointment of Search Committee chairs
- Reviewing and commenting on major curriculum revisions proposed by the Undergraduate and Graduate Committees when called upon to do so
- Nominating departmental parliamentarian
- Providing advice to chairperson to ensure fair and equitable distribution of departmental service
- Considering requests for release from standing committees
- Assisting with organization of departmental events
- Performing duties arising which are not assigned to other standing or ad hoc committees
C) Composition: The committee shall include five members, to be elected by the Departmental Assembly. All elected Committee members may vote. The DGS and DUS are not eligible for election to the committee. The chairperson serves ex officio, without vote. The DUS and DGS serve ex officio, with vote.
D) Presiding officer: The committee chair shall preside over Committee meetings; the office will rotate each year, with a term beginning with the second meeting of the academic year and ending after the election of a new chair at the first meeting the following year. The chairperson may not serve as committee chair.
E) Budget Advisory Committee: The Executive Committee shall also perform the functions of the Budget Advisory Committee as described in article XXXI of the collective bargaining agreement. In this capacity, the committee shall gather information about the financial affairs and situation of the department and advise the chairperson as appropriate. The chairperson shall make available on a quarterly basis (excluding spring-summer terms) any accounting reports or institutional records that the committee might require to exercise its responsibilities intelligently. The committee also shall work to expand the pool of monies available to the department and to use such resources to advance the department’s teaching and research missions.
F) Procedures
- The committee shall meet at least twice a semester during the academic year; its first meeting shall be held in advance of the first departmental meeting of the year. It may be called to meet at other times by the chairperson, the committee chair, or a plurality of its members.
- Members shall elect a committee chair and select meeting dates at the committee’s first meeting.
- The committee chair and the chairperson shall jointly set meeting agendas, which the committee chair shall circulate to the committee at least 24 hours in advance of a meeting.
- The committee chair shall designate a secretary (either a committee member or a member of the departmental academic staff) to take minutes for the record. Committee members shall check the minutes for accuracy and the chairperson will distribute them to the Departmental Assembly with the agenda for the next departmental meeting.
- Faculty members or staff may approach committee members with questions, ideas, or problems for the committee’s consideration. The committee member shall raise the issue during the next regularly scheduled committee meeting and inform the faculty member of the result.
- The Executive Committee may create additional permanent or ad hoc sub-committees from within its own numbers, or call on other members of the faculty, to advance its work.
Article VI: Promotion and Tenure Committee
Section 1: Duties
The Promotion and Tenure Committee shall vote with finality on all recommendations emanating from the Departmental Assembly for granting promotions and tenure.
Section 2: Composition
The committee shall consist of all tenured faculty, excluding administrators above the unit and in the reporting line. If the unit has three or more non-tenure-track faculty, at least one member of the committee must be a non-tenure-track faculty member.
Section 3: Voting
All recommendations for granting promotion or tenure require a vote of two-thirds of the ballots cast. All votes must be cast by secret ballots. No member of the committee may participate in or vote on recommendations for promotion to ranks higher than his or her own rank, and non-tenure-track faculty may not vote on recommendations for tenure-track faculty. Absentee ballots may be cast. Failure of eligible members to cast ballots shall not be regarded as negative and shall not affect the outcome.
Section 4: Presiding officer
The chairperson shall preside at all meetings, without vote.
Section 5: CLAS Promotion and Tenure Committee
A member of the Promotion and Tenure Committee shall be elected by tenured and tenure-track faculty, excluding administrators above the unit and in the reporting line, to serve as a spokesperson before the College of Liberal Arts and Science Promotion and Tenure Committee. If the first spokesperson disagrees with a particular committee recommendation, an alternative spokesperson shall be elected.
Article VII: Advisory boards
Section 1: Alumni Advisory Board
A) The Alumni Advisory Board shall oversee the department's alumni communications and activities. The board shall advise the department on its educational programs, assist, when possible, with recruitment, and make recommendations about how the department might best meet the needs of the department's students. The board will meet at least once annually.
B) The chairperson, in consultation with the Executive Committee, shall appoint as Alumni Board members an appropriate number of faculty and alumni representatives. The appointed faculty members should include at least one representative each from the Undergraduate and Graduate committees. New faculty members are eligible at once. The board will also include one emeritus faculty member and at least one (but no more than two) student representative(s). The chairperson will be an ex-officio member of the board (without vote).
C) The term of service for Alumni Advisory Board members will be one year for faculty and student appointees, with the possibility of renewal, and three years for alumni members, with the possibility of reappointment.
D) The members of the board shall elect a chair from among the faculty appointees.
Section 2: M.A.P.H. Advisory Board
A) The M.A.P.H. Advisory Board shall provide advice on the development and coordination of the M.A. program in public history (M.A.P.H.). It shall assist, when possible, with marketing and recruitment, and make recommendations about how the department might best meet the needs of M.A.P.H. students. The board will meet at least once annually.
B) The M.A.P.H. coordinator shall appoint as M.A.P.H. Board members appropriate faculty, alumni, and community representatives. The appointed faculty members should represent to the extent possible departments who contribute courses to the interdisciplinary program, as well as History faculty with a scholarly interest or professional experience in public history. The board shall also include one student representative, who shall function as secretary and record meeting minutes.
C) There is no term limit for M.A.P.H. Advisory Board members.
D) The M.A.P.H. coordinator shall serve as board chair.
Article VIII: Other committees
Section 1: Search committees
A) Composition: When the college authorizes the department to make new appointments to tenured or tenure-track positions, the chairperson shall appoint appropriate tenured, tenure-track, and/or non-tenure-track faculty members to committees that shall conduct those searches. The chairperson shall appoint committee chairs in consultation with the Executive Committee. Tenure-track faculty may participate on search committees, but may vote only on appointments at the rank of assistant professor or assistant professor of teaching. The chairperson may participate as an ex officio member of search committees, with vote.
B) Duties: The Search Committee shall write a job description, solicit and review applications, and interview qualified candidates. The committee shall solicit written feedback on finalists from members of the Departmental Assembly, and it shall present its recommendations to the faculty. Eligible faculty members shall vote on the committee’s recommendations; if the vote is affirmative, the chairperson shall forward the candidate (or ranked list of candidates) to the dean for consideration.
Section 2: Election Committee
Elections to departmental committees shall be supervised by a two-person Election Committee, at least one of whom is tenured, and who shall be appointed by the chairperson in advance of the first departmental meeting of the academic year. The committee shall conduct an election each spring and on other occasions as requested. The Election Committee shall be guided by article X in providing for the election of members to department committees.
Section 3: Ad hoc committees
The chairperson may appoint additional ad hoc committees as necessary to conduct departmental business.
Article IX: Marketing
Working with the chairperson and academic advisor, faculty members on a voluntary basis maintain the department website, produce the department newsletter, manage social media accounts and department listservs, and develop marketing and promotional materials. While this work is voluntary, it constitutes service to the department and shall be considered on the same terms as committee work for the purposes of tenure and promotion and selective salary review.
Article X: Departmental elections
Section 1: Procedures
The chairperson shall convey to the Election Committee information about the eligibility of faculty to serve during a given academic year. The Elections Committee shall prepare a list of eligible faculty and academic staff in advance of elections and distribute it to all full-time faculty and academic staff. The department’s preference is for online voting using the single transferable voting (also known as preferential voting) system. When employing this option, eligible faculty shall have at least 48 hours to cast their vote. The Elections Committee shall confirm results and report the result of balloting to the body participating in the election. To be declared elected, each candidate needs to gain a majority of the ballots cast. Voting tallies shall be saved for one year after the election and then destroyed. For each committee, the first runner-up shall be declared an alternate and shall replace the elected person if unable to serve a full term.
Section 2: Replacement of elected committee members
If a committee member resigns during the academic year, she or he shall be replaced by the alternate. In the event a committee has rank distribution requirements, the Election Committee shall declare elected the person at that rank with the most votes. If a member at that rank is not available, this requirement is suspended.
Article XI: Voting eligibility
All full-time faculty members may participate in departmental decisions and vote within departmental meetings or convocations, except where specifically excluded herein. Voting on promotion and tenure, new appointments, and elections to committees will be conducted electronically; and all eligible full-time faculty members may participate.
Article XII: Peer review of teaching
Section 1: Purpose
In compliance with article XXIX of the AAUP-AFT contract, faculty in the Department of History shall establish a process for the peer review of teaching. The purpose of the peer review process shall be to support the professional development and teaching effectiveness of faculty and thus to enhance student success. The evaluations therefore should be considered formative, not summative, wherein formative evaluations assist the faculty member being evaluated in improving classroom teaching, while summative evaluations are often incorporated into such formal evaluation processes as merit salary reviews, annual evaluations, or evaluations for tenure and/or promotion.
Section 2: Procedures
Under the peer review process, at least once every three years each faculty member shall invite a faculty peer to conduct a peer review of his or her teaching. The peer review shall consist of a review of course syllabi and supplemental course material, classroom observation, and any other review activities the reviewer and reviewee together deem necessary. Within a week of the classroom observation, the peer reviewer shall deliver to the reviewee, orally or in writing, comments on the reviewee’s teaching.
Faculty may make use of any evaluative rubrics or guidelines that both the reviewer and reviewee deem appropriate and useful in assisting the review process, but the actual reviewer observations resulting from the review are intended to be qualitative, rather than quantitative or quantifiable, in both form and in content. As part of the peer review process, reviewer and reviewee shall meet to discuss the reviewer’s comments after the classroom observation.
Section 3: Formative evaluations
The formative evaluations provided by the faculty reviewer are confidential between the faculty member being reviewed and the peer reviewer. This shall not preclude faculty members, on an entirely voluntary basis, from including separate teaching evaluations or recommendations from faculty peers who, under this article, have reviewed their teaching and presenting said separate evaluations or recommendations as part of their promotion-and/or-tenure portfolios or other summative teaching-evaluation processes.
Section 4: Reporting
Faculty members shall inform the chair (or faculty member designated by the chair) in writing whenever they have completed a peer-review-of-teaching process.
Section 5: Untenured faculty
The peer review of teaching as performed under this article shall be separate from any other summative evaluations of the teaching of untenured faculty members as mandated in these bylaws, but untenured faculty may opt to be exempted from the peer-review process in any year in which their teaching is subject to either a summative and/or a formative review mandated by the departmental Personnel Committee.
Article XIII: Amendment of bylaws
Proposed amendments to these bylaws must be submitted in writing at least one regular departmental meeting prior to the vote. Approval requires the vote of two-thirds of those voting, provided there is a quorum.
Approved: February 7, 2024.
Revised: October 2011; April 2014; September 2014; December 2014; December 2016; November 2018; April 2020; January 2024.