Bylaws of the College

As amended and adopted by the LAS Faculty on November 17, 1976, and further amended by the LAS Faculty on February 28, 1978; February 5, 1980; April 24, 1984; January 31, 1985; January 28, 1987; May 7, 1987; October 26, 1988; November 7, 1990; October 1, 1992; March 30, 1994; October 16, 1996; March 4, 1997; and November 12, 2003.

Article I: Membership
Article II: Officers
Article III: Meetings
Article IV: Committees
Article V: Parliamentary Authority
Article VI: Amendment and Revision
Endnotes

BYLAWS OF THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

ARTICLE I

Section 1. Membership in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is composed of the Statutory members.¹

ARTICLE II

OFFICERS

Section 1. The officers shall be the Dean, the Secretary of the College, and a Parliamentarian.

Section 2. The Dean shall preside at all meetings of the College or designate a presiding officer.

Section 3. The Secretary shall be elected for a one-year term by majority vote of those members present and voting at the first regular meeting of the academic year.

Section 4. A Parliamentarian shall be appointed by the Dean and shall continue at the pleasure of the Dean.

Section 5. The Dean shall have authority to designate marshals, tellers, and other officers on an ad hoc basis when the Dean shall deem such assistance to be necessary.

ARTICLE III

MEETINGS

Section 1. Regular meetings. One regular meeting of the College shall be held each term, excluding the Summer term, with the dates to be fixed by the Dean in consultation with the Executive Committee. The academic year shall be understood to begin on the sixteenth day of August of each year and conclude on the fifteenth day of May of the following year. The summer term shall be understood to begin on May 16th and end on August 15th.

Section 2. Special meetings.

a. The Dean may call special meetings whenever the Dean feels that such a meeting would be desirable. Upon written or electronic request of a majority of the elected members of the Executive Committee, the Dean must call a special meeting within ten days of receipt of the request. Upon receipt of a petition signed by thirty members of the College, the Dean shall convene a special meeting within ten days of the receipt of such petition.

b. The agenda items for special meetings must be confined to the items listed on the call for the meeting. This limitation may not be suspended to allow additional items to be acted upon at a special meeting.

Section 3. Quorum. A quorum shall consist of 25% of the membership or 51% of the Quorum Committee. Each department shall designate three members to be included on the Quorum Committee. The names of these members shall be transmitted regularly by the executive of the departments to the Secretary of the College. The members of the Quorum Committee shall have no prerogatives not also available to any voting member of the College, except that presence of a majority of the Quorum Committee shall be deemed sufficient for a quorum.

Section 4. Agenda. An agenda for all meetings shall be delivered to the departmental officers no less than five calendar days before such meetings, except that, with the consent of a majority of the elected members of the Executive Committee, a special meeting may be called with shorter notice but in no event less than 24 hours from the time that written or electronic notices are delivered to department offices or sent by e-mail to all faculty.

a. The agenda for each regular meeting shall include approval of the minutes of preceding regular and special meetings, a report from the Dean, reports from each standing committee, together with a provision for old and new business. Additional items may be included on the agenda as specified by these Bylaws.

b. Members of the College who wish to include items on the agenda of a regular meeting of the College shall submit these items to the Dean three weeks before the scheduled meeting. The Dean, in consultation with the Executive Committee, shall consider inclusion of these items on the agenda. This provision shall not abrogate the right of any member of the College at any regular meeting to bring matters to the attention of the College under the appropriate heading of "old" or "new" business.

c. Items introduced as new business at any meeting shall be referred by the Dean to the appropriate committee. Matters referred to a committee must be reported on at the next regular meeting, except that the College may stipulate otherwise.

In the event new business involves College action establishing an ad hoc committee, the Dean shall appoint such committee within fourteen days after its authorization. Items submitted to committees by individuals or departments may be reported on at the discretion of the committee, except that any member of the College may introduce a motion under the heading of new business to compel a committee to report on a given matter at the next regularly scheduled meeting.

d. When proposals for issues falling under the purview of the Educational Policy Committee are to come before the College, the Chair of the Educational Policy

Committee or the executive officer of the department concerned, may give notice of intent to make such proposals at the regular meeting preceding the meeting for introduction of said proposals.

ARTICLE IV

COMMITTEES

Section 1. There shall be three standing committees: an Executive Committee, an Educational Policy Committee, and an Elections Committee.
Ad hoc committees may be created by the College, by the Dean, or by standing committees.

Section 2. Committee Memberships, Structures, and Charges.

a. The Executive Committee

1) Membership. The Executive Committee shall be composed of nine faculty members holding the rank of Associate Professor or higher, elected by the Faculty for a two-year term. Terms are staggered so that approximately one-half of the Committee shall be elected each year. Each of the three areas of LAS (Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences) shall be represented on the Committee by three members.² The Head or Chair of a Department or Director of a Program shall be ineligible for Committee membership. No one may serve two consecutive terms on the Committee and no more than one member from the same department or other academic unit may serve simultaneously on the Executive Committee.
The Associate Deans shall be ex officio members of the Executive Committee without vote.

2) Structure. The Dean is ex officio a member and chairs the Committee.³ Immediately after the first regular meeting of the Executive Committee in the Fall semester, the elected members of the Executive Committee shall meet to elect the chairperson prescribed by the Statutes, Article III, Section 2, Clause f. This chairperson shall also report on behalf of the Executive Committee to the College.

3) Charge. The Executive Committee shall advise the Dean of the College and transact such business as may be delegated to it by the Statutes of the University of Illinois, by these Bylaws, or by the Faculty of the College. The Executive Committee may study and make recommendations to the Dean or to the College on such matters as the Committee may consider appropriate.

b. The Educational Policy Committee.

1) Membership. The Educational Policy Committee shall be composed of nine tenured or tenure-track faculty members holding the rank of Assistant Professor or higher, elected by the Faculty for three-year terms, staggered, so that three members of the Committee are elected each year. Each of the three areas of LAS (Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences) shall be represented on the Committee by three members.⁴ No one may serve two consecutive terms on the Committee, and no more than one member from the same department or other academic unit may serve simultaneously on the Educational Policy Committee. The Assistant or Associate Deans with responsibility for academic programs and student academic affairs or their designees, shall be ex officio members of the Educational Policy Committee without vote.

2) Structure. The Educational Policy Committee shall elect its own Chair and other officers as it may deem appropriate from the elected members of the Educational Policy Committee. The Educational Policy Committee may create subcommittees including people not on the Educational Policy Committee to assist the Committee in any of its duties. Such subcommittees shall report to the Educational Policy Committee.

3) Charge. The Educational Policy Committee shall serve as the agent of the College for studying the educational programs of the College and special problems referred to it by the Dean or by the College. The College may delegate to the Educational Policy Committee, authority to act in the name of the College on matters of course and curriculum approval, excepting those matters concerning graduation requirements. Such delegation is not to be construed as permanent but may be revoked by the College at any time.

c. The Elections Committee.

1) Membership. The Elections Committee shall be composed of five tenured or tenure-track faculty members holding the rank of Assistant Professor or higher, elected by the Faculty for two-year terms. Terms are staggered so that approximately half the Committee is elected each year. No more than one member from the same department or other academic unit may serve simultaneously on the Elections Committee. The Dean shall appoint a member of the Dean's staff to serve the Committee and to act as a member ex officio without vote.

2) Structure. The Elections Committee shall select its own Chair from among its members, and shall select other officers as its deems necessary.

3) Charge. The Committee shall cause to be conducted the annual elections for the standing committees of the College and the faculty members of the University of Illinois at Chicago Senate. It shall prepare and submit to the several departments and other academic units necessary instructions and regulations governing nomination and election procedures. The Committee shall obtain certified lists of eligible voters and eligible candidates. The Committee shall validate the ballots cast and shall transmit to the Dean the results of such elections. Tallies of all elections shall be available for public inspection in the College Office. The Committee shall decide appeals concerning election results, with the exception of appeals concerning election to the Elections Committee which shall be decided by the Executive Committee. The Committee shall conduct in like manner any special elections mandated by these Bylaws or actions of the Faculty.

Section 3. Election Procedures.

For purposes of defining the faculty electorate, faculty members are defined as academic staff members on A, 1-7, N, Q, W, or T contracts with the rank of instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, or professor, including clinical, research, or adjunct titles and holding appointments of 50% time or greater in the College. Not included are lecturers, teaching and research associates, teaching and research assistants, and visiting and emeritus faculty members. In addition, faculty members of the electorate may, by majority vote by secret ballot at a regular meeting of the College, add other categories of faculty members, regardless of salary source or percent time, to the faculty electorate.

Nominations for College committees shall be conducted in the fall, and elections to the College committees shall be conducted in the spring semester of each year. Newly elected members shall assume office on the sixteenth day of the August following their election.

Nominations for the College committees shall be made by the departments or other academic units. A department or other academic unit may nominate as many as three candidates for each committee. The nominees need not be restricted to members of the department making the nomination. Upon written request of any department member, departmental nominations shall be conducted by secret ballot. In addition, eligible voters may nominate any eligible member of the College by means of a petition containing at least thirty signatures of eligible voters. The petition must be addressed to the Elections Committee. The Elections Committee shall specify in the call for nominations the deadlines by which both departmental and petition nominations are to be received. In the event that no Faculty Senator has been nominated for the Elections Committee, the Elections Committee shall ask the Executive Committee to supply such a nominee.

The ballot shall carry the names of the nominees, the departmental affiliation of the nominees, and the name(s) of the department(s) making the nomination, except that petition nominees shall be identified on the ballot as petition nominees. The voting shall be by mail ballot. In each of the three areas of LAS (Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences), the candidates for vacant positions on the Executive Committee receiving the highest number of votes and the candidates for vacant positions on the Educational Policy Committee receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected. Candidates for the Elections Committee receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected. In the event that these procedures produce more than one member from any department for a given committee, the one receiving the largest number of votes shall be declared elected, and the Elections Committee will declare elected the candidate(s) with the highest number of votes from among remaining eligible candidates. In the event that these procedures result in a tie between two or more candidates from the same department, or two or more candidates for the last position to be filled, the elected Executive Committee shall break the tie by secret ballot; if the Committee vote results in a tie, the tie shall be broken by the Dean.

Vacancies occurring during the session shall be filled through appointment by the Executive Committee of any eligible member of the faculty or by special election, at the discretion of the Executive Committee. Such appointee(s) shall complete the remaining portion of the vacated term.

ARTICLE V

PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY

These Bylaws and any special rules of order the College may adopt together with applicable rules contained in the current edition of Roberts Rules of Order, newly revised, shall govern the deliberations of the College. The Presiding Officer, with the advice of the Parliamentarian, shall determine which rules of procedure are applicable to govern College deliberations. This provision shall not be construed to abrogate the right of the College to appeal from decisions of the Chair regarding parliamentary rules.

ARTICLE VI

AMENDMENT AND REVISION

Section 1. Amendments to the Bylaws may be proposed by any voting member of the College by filing such proposal with the Secretary of the College at least two weeks before a regular meeting. The Secretary shall cause such proposed amendment to be circulated among the members at least five days prior to the meeting where it is to be formally introduced and considered. A majority vote of those present and voting shall be sufficient to approve an amendment. Every five years the Dean shall appoint a committee to examine the Bylaws and propose for Faculty consideration such revisions and seem desirable.

Section 2. The procedural requirements of these Bylaws may be set aside for any one meeting by two-thirds vote of those present and voting, except that this provision shall not apply to the amendment process or to provisions of the committee elections.

END NOTES

1. The relevant portion of the Statutes is Article II, Section 3 (a and b) which reads as follows:

SECTION 3. FACULTY ROLE IN GOVERNANCE

a.1) The faculty of the University and any of its units except for the Graduate College consists of those members of the academic staff with the rank or title in that unit of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor who are tenured or receiving probationary credit toward tenure, and those administrators in the direct line of responsibility for academic affairs (persons who hold the title director or dean in an academic unit, provost, chancellor and president). Administrative staff not in the direct line of responsibility for academic affairs are members of the faculty only if they also hold faculty appointments. The bylaws of any academic unit may further mandate a minimum percent faculty appointment in that unit for specified faculty privileges, such as voting privileges.

2) The bylaws of a unit may grant specified faculty privileges to selected faculty of other units. The bylaws may also grant specified faculty privileges to members of the academic staff of the unit or of other units who are not included in subsection 1 above (i.e., neither tenured nor receiving probationary credit toward tenure), and who have the rank or title of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, or lecturer. The bylaws may also grant specified faculty privileges to members of the academic staff of the unit or of other units who have the rank or title of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, or lecturer modified by the terms "research," "adjunct," "clinical," "visiting" and/or "emeritus" (e.g., "research professor," "adjunct assistant professor," "clinical associate professor," "visiting professor"). Only academic staff with titles listed above may be extended faculty privileges. Voting on these provisions of the bylaws is limited to those named in subsection 1 above. a. The faculty of the University and any of its units except for the Graduate College consists of those members of the academic staff with the rank or title in that unit of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor who are tenured or receiving probationary credit toward tenure, and those administrators in the direct line of responsibility for academic affairs (persons who hold the title director or dean in an academic unit, provost, chancellor and president). Administrative staff not in the direct line of responsibility for academic affairs are members of the faculty only if they also hold faculty appointments. The bylaws of any academic unit may further mandate a minimum percent faculty appointment in that unit for specified faculty privileges, such as voting privileges.

b. As the responsible body in the teaching, research, and scholarly activities of the University, the faculty has inherent interests and rights in academic policy and governance. Each college or other academic unit shall be governed in its internal administration by its faculty, as defined in subsection above. Governance of each academic unit shall be based on unit bylaws established and amended by the faculty of that unit. The bylaws shall provide for the administrative organization and procedure of the unit, including the composition and tenure of executive or advisory committees. Except that they may not conflict with these Statutes, or other specific actions of the Board of Trustees, or with the bylaws of a unit which encompasses it, the details of the bylaws are left to the faculty of the unit.

The Executive Committee has interpreted voting rights as being extended to all individuals on a 50% appointment or more who hold their academic rank within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

2. The three area division of LAS units is to be that used by the UIC Senate.

3. While the Executive Committee is in session to prepare its advice on appointment of the Dean, or to review the Dean's performance, the Dean shall not be a member and the Committee shall be chaired by a Committee member elected by the Committee for that purpose.

4. The three area division of LAS units is to be that used by the UIC Senate.

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UIC Senate URL: http://www.uic.edu/depts/senate/

LAS Senators URL: http://www.uic.edu/las/college/faculty/lassenators.shtml