Bylaws
Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
As amended January 2022
Article I: Membership
Academic personnel assigned to at least half-time duties in the Department of Psychology at instructor or professorial levels and having contracts at Wayne State University extending for at least the current academic year shall be considered regular members of the Department of Psychology and shall enjoy complete voting franchise in affairs of the department. For any faculty member with less than half time, but with quarter-time or more duties, the Personnel and Salary Committee will determine whether voting franchise in affairs of the department will be included in the appointment at the time of the appointment. The Personnel and Salary Committee may review and modify this decision at its discretion.
Article II: Governance
The department shall meet at least once each term (fall, winter) on call of the chairperson. Other meetings shall be called at the discretion of the chairperson or upon written request of 25% of the department.
The department shall decide questions of departmental policy. Assuming that a quorum (one-half of the voting department members) is present, decisions shall be by a majority vote of the department members present and voting. Recommendations to the Departmental Chair Search Committee for appointment of a chairperson shall be decided by a three-quarters vote of the regular members of the department.
Elections shall be by secret, written ballot. Secret ballots on other questions shall be ordered by a majority vote or by general consent.
The chairperson may vote on all questions at his/her discretion, but always in the case of a tie vote.
Article III: Departmental Administration
1) Departmental chairperson.
The department chairperson is appointed by the dean of the college in accordance with the constitution of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). He/she is the administrative officer of the department and his/her duties are those required by the college regulations.
2) Administrative associates.
The department chairperson, with the advice of the Policy Advisory Committee, may appoint one or more administrative associates to assist him/her with specified functions of the day-to-day administration of the department. These administrative associates shall work within the guidelines as set up by the Policy Advisory Committee and the other committees of the department.
3) Area organization.
The department shall be divided into five areas for administrative purposes. These areas shall be the following: behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, developmental psychology, social-personality psychology; and industrial"organizational psychology. New areas may be created and existing areas altered or abandoned by majority vote of the regular members of the department.
a) Area chairperson.
Each area shall elect a chairperson. Area chairpersons will be elected for two-year terms. In the event the area chairperson is to be absent for more than one academic term, the area membership shall elect an Acting chairperson to serve until the regular chairperson returns; if the absence is for less than one academic term the area chairperson will appoint one of the Area Committee members as acting chairperson.
Area chairpersons shall be members of the Policy Advisory Committee. Each area chairperson shall be responsible for distributing reports to members of the area of all official actions taken by the Area Committee, except recommendations on tenure, promotion and salary increases. He/she shall forward a report of all official actions taken by the Area Committee to the department chairperson. He/she will also file official actions of the Area Committee with the department chairperson's office.
b) Regular faculty.
The Regular Faculty of the area shall review curriculum, evaluate applicants for graduate study, make recommendations to the department regarding hiring needs and assist the appropriate department committees in the faculty recruitment
process. Each area shall, in addition to the foregoing, include two graduate student representatives, elected by the graduate students in that area, who will participate in discussions regarding matters of curriculum, course additions and deletions, area standards and requirements for graduate students and other matters pertaining directly to graduate student affairs for that area except for those matters concerning individual graduate students. No graduate student shall serve simultaneously as representative to both the Graduate Committee and an Area Committee.
c) Area tenure and promotion committee.
The Area Tenure and Promotion Committee is composed of the tenured faculty in the area. This committee shall make recommendations on tenure and promotions of area members to the Department Tenure and Promotion Committee. Recommendations regarding promotion from Associate to Full Professor shall be made by those members of the Area Committee holding the rank of full professor.
4) Policy Advisory Committee.
The Policy Advisory Committee shall be composed of the area chairpersons, the chairs of the Graduate and Undergraduate Committees, an untenured faculty member if one is selected by a vote of the untenured faculty and a faculty representative of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-Racism (IDEA) Committee. The committee shall advise the chairperson in decisions on new appointments, policy and budget issues and academic matters such as new courses and other curricular modifications proposed by the Area Committees. It will receive and act promptly upon communications from department members.
A written record of all official actions will be maintained. All official actions will be promptly distributed to department members. Where requested by committee members, a record of the voting on any issue will be recorded.
5) Personnel and Salary Committee.
a) The Personnel and Salary Committee shall be responsible for faculty personnel matters, including, but not limited to, annual evaluations for salary increase recommendations, evaluation of sabbatical applications and review and recommendations for hiring new faculty
b) The Personnel and Salary Committee shall consist of a total of seven members elected by the department as a whole. At least five members must be tenured. At least three members must be tenured full professors. There will also be one untenured member unless no untenured member wishes to serve.
c) At least one member shall be elected from each area.
d) Members shall be elected for a two-year term, with eligibility for reelection for one additional successive term. After serving a total of two successive terms, a faculty member may not serve on the committee again for at least two years.
e) The terms of members of the committee shall be staggered so at least three members of the committee will be elected by the department each year.
f) In the event that a committee member cannot serve for a period of time, a replacement will be elected by the department for the period of time the member cannot serve.
6) Tenure and Promotion Committee.
a) The Tenure and Promotion Committee shall consist of all tenured members of the Department Personnel & Salary Committee for purposes of evaluating and making recommendations regarding tenure and promotion of assistant professors and tenure of associate professors. Only those members of the Tenure and Promotion Committee holding the rank of professor shall evaluate and make recommendations regarding promotion of faculty holding the rank of associate professor.
b) The Tenure and Promotion Committee will conduct a yearly review of the professional performance of each non-tenured faculty member. This review will be conducted independently of the review for merit considerations. The Tenure and Promotion Committee will prepare a written evaluation and this will be provided to the non-tenured faculty member and to the chair of the department. The chair may add information and will schedule a meeting with the non-tenured faculty member. The Tenure and Promotion Committee may send a representative to that meeting.
7) Space Committee.
The department chair, in consultation with the Space Committee, is responsible for making decisions regarding the allocation of department office, teaching and research space. At least two weeks prior to making appointments to the Space Committee, the chair shall invite nominations (including self-nominations) from the faculty. The chair of the department shall appoint a Space Committee chair and four additional members, who will be selected to represent the full range of research space needs, such as laboratory animal, human experimental, survey research, funded research and non-funded research.
8) Graduate organization.
a) The chairperson of the Graduate Committee shall be appointed by the chairperson of the department, with the approval of the Policy Advisory Committee, for a three-year term. He/she shall be assisted by a committee composed of one representative from each area, elected by the area members.
b) One graduate student representative to the Graduate Committee is to be elected by the regularly admitted graduate students to sit in on discussions of curriculum, structure of the final written qualifying examination and student regulations. This representative will have full membership privileges (including voting) in these areas and shall serve for one year. (Where committee action may affect a student member of the committee, the committee may select a replacement for that action only.) The graduate student representative shall be elected each year. The graduate chairperson shall be responsible for making certain an open meeting is scheduled for this action.
c) The duties of the Graduate Committee include review of the graduate curriculum, admission of new graduate students, directing the preparation, administration and evaluation of all final written qualifying examinations; and preparation of literature describing the graduate program with its opportunities for research, teaching and financial assistance in the various specialty areas. The Graduate Committee shall also obtain from the areas an evaluation of each graduate student at least once a year to determine whether his/her academic record is satisfactory and whether he/she is progressing at a satisfactory rate; this evaluation will be transmitted to the student, his/her advisor and placed in the student's permanent file; evaluations showing unsatisfactory work will also be transmitted to the department chairperson. In order to make clear the criteria by which this last activity is guided, academically unsatisfactory work and unsatisfactory progress shall be defined; these definitions shall be circulated to all faculty and all graduate students. Any student who is considered to be academically unsatisfactory or to be progressing at an unsatisfactory rate shall, together with his/her adviser, be informed of this and shall be given the opportunity to discuss the matter with the Graduate Committee (and department chairperson if the student requests) before final action to drop him/her is taken by the Graduate Committee.
9) Undergraduate organization.
a) The Undergraduate Committee shall be headed by an Undergraduate chairperson appointed by the department chairperson, with the approval of the Policy Advisory Committee, for a three-year term. He/she shall be assisted by a committee composed of a minimum of four members appointed by the chair of the department in consultation with the chair of the Undergraduate Committee, one of whom shall also serve as the coordinator of the department's introductory psychology course. At least two weeks prior to these appointments, the department chair shall invite nominations (including self-nominations) from the faculty for these positions. The committee will seek the views of undergraduate majors on relevant issues and may add undergraduate representatives as deemed appropriate.
b) The duties of the Undergraduate Committee shall include review of the curriculum, recommendations on major requirements, advisory services to undergraduates and other matters relevant to undergraduate education in psychology.
10) Measurement Committee.
a) The Measurement Committee shall be appointed by the department chair with the approval of the Policy Advisory Committee for a three-year renewable term. Committee members shall generally be those faculty who teach courses in the quantitative methods and measurement areas, but others may be appointed by the department chair in consultation with the Policy Advisory Committee.
b) The duties of the Measurement Committee will include: 1) review of curriculum (undergraduate and graduate levels) in the areas of statistics, measurement, math psychology and computer applications; 2) setting course requirements for the measurement (quantitative) minor; 3) recommendations to the chairperson and policy Advisory Committee on new faculty, part of whose duties would fall in the quantitative area.
11) Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Antiracism (IDEA) Committee.
The Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Antiracism (IDEA) Committee shall be appointed by the department chair with the approval of the Policy Advisory Committee for two-year renewable terms. The committee, at a minimum, will be made up of one faculty chair, one staff member and at least two graduate student leaders.
The mission of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Antiracism (IDEA) Committee is to ensure that diversity, in all its forms, is respected and valued by fostering and maintaining an open, non-discriminatory and empowering environment of inclusiveness within the Psychology department. In support of this mission, the psychology department's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Antiracism (IDEA) Committee aims to:
- Advocate for, promote and support diversity within the Psychology department to help recruit and retain a diverse student body, faculty and staff
- Provide a safe environment to discuss and address issues related to inclusion and diversity
- Further diversity and inclusion awareness and competency through programs and events open to students, faculty and staff
- Assess and address student, faculty and staff experiences related to diversity issues
Article IV
Bylaws amendment procedure
a) These bylaws shall be approved by a two-thirds vote of the regular members of the department.
b) Proposed amendments to the bylaws shall be submitted in writing to all voting department members at least one week before the department meeting scheduled to consider the amendment. Amendments to the bylaws shall be passed by a two-thirds vote of the entire voting department members.