Description

Faculty Ethics Committee (FEC)

CLASSIFICATION: Faculty Senate Committee

REPORTS TO: Chair of the Faculty Senate

CHARGE: The Faculty Ethics Committee serves as a screening and hearing body for any faculty member who wishes to lodge a charge of unethical professional practice against another faculty member. A charge may also be filed against an administrator with faculty rank only in relation to those responsibilities assigned as a faculty member. ‘Unethical professional practice’ is defined as a violation of the Faculty Code of Professional Ethics (3342-6-17 of the University Policy Register). The Committee may also serve as a hearing body for faculty members who wish to request a hearing to respond to charges made against them.

COMPOSITION: The Committee shall consist of thirteen (13) faculty members. Four members shall represent the non-tenure eligible faculty. Two tenured members shall represent faculty at-large. One tenured faculty member shall represent each of the following units: 1) Colleges of Architecture and Environmental Design and the Arts; 2) College of Arts and Sciences; 3) College of Business and Entrepreneurship; 4) College of Communication and Information; 5) College of Education, Health, and Human Services; 6) Regional Campuses (college and departmental affiliations shall be ignored); and 7) College of Aeronautics and Engineering, College of Nursing, College of Public Health, University Libraries.

QUALIFICATIONS OF FACULTY MEMBERS: Faculty nominated for election to this Committee must be full-time, holding senior rank (associate or senior lecturer, or associate professor or professor). Tenure-track faculty representatives must have achieved tenure in order to serve.

In all cases, tenured faculty members shall constitute a majority of the members of the Faculty Ethics Committee. Non-tenure eligible faculty members who are appointed to the Faculty Ethics Committee shall not participate in any case in which a tenure-track faculty member is named as a respondent.

TERM: Committee members will serve for two (2) years, with half the Committee elected in any year. Newly elected members shall begin their duties on the Committee on September 15.

MEANS OF APPOINTMENT: At least two candidates shall be nominated for each vacancy for an elected position. At-large tenured members shall be nominated and elected from and by the Faculty Senate. The tenured representative members shall be nominated by the advisory councils of their respective units prior to March 15. Should units fail to nominate candidates prior to the deadline, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee shall nominate representative candidates. Representative members shall be elected by the full-time faculty of the unit or units they represent. In the case of Units 1, 6 and 7, each of its advisory councils shall nominate one candidate prior to March 15. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee shall ensure that nominees are from distinct Colleges/Regional Campuses. The faculty of each unit shall vote to select the unit’s representative to the Committee.

Non-tenure eligible faculty representatives will be nominated by the Committee on Committees, in consultation with the Non-Tenure Track Provost’s Advisory Council, and appointed by the Chair of Faculty Senate.

ALTERNATES: Alternates for unit and tenured at-large representatives shall be listed in descending order based on votes received. The term for alternates shall be for the remainder of the elected term.

CALL: The Committee shall be convened at the call of the Faculty Senate Chair shortly after the terms of the new members begin on September 15.