The Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC)

The FAC is structured and operates as described in the applicable Collective Bargaining Agreement. The FAC is convened and chaired at least once per term by the Chair who, in consultation with the FAC, sets the agenda for its meetings. FAC members may request that items be added to the agenda. Additional meetings of the FAC may be called by the Chair, as needed, or upon a request by at least one-half of the members of the FAC. The FAC elects one (1) member to act as the Department representative to the College Advisory Committee (hereinafter “CAC”).

Role of FAC—Specific Areas

• Issues concerning reappointment, tenure, promotions, and dismissal, as well as appointment of new faculty, including issues of rank and salary parameters.

• Review of full-time NTT faculty.

• Allocation or reallocation of faculty positions and academic staff positions, including new and vacant positions.

• Program development, restructuring, and/or discontinuance.

• Evaluations relating to faculty salary increases and other salary adjustments, when and if applicable.

• Departmental planning and budget priorities, including review of requests for new funding and allocation of discretionary resources.

• Selection and structure of committees, including search committees.

• Issues relating to teaching assignments and class schedules, including appropriate application of workload equivalencies.

• Faculty professional improvement, research, and other leaves.

• Procedures for the establishment, review, and appropriate revision of the academic unit Handbook.

• Issues related to the advising and retention of students, insuring that instructional standards are followed. 
• Procedures insuring that class and other duties of all faculty are met.

Membership of FAC.

Members are elected annually to serve one-year terms, from the start of the fall semester through late August. In order to recognize the various aspects of the Department’s mission, the different responsibilities in the kinds and amounts of teaching, as well as the necessarily different mixes of teaching and research, all constituencies – i.e., all ranks on all campuses – should be represented on FAC. An FAC quorum (the minimum number of members who must be present at a meeting for business to be legally transacted) is at all times during the year one-half of the voting members plus one.

Ex officio, non-voting members.  

The Chair of the Department, who Chairs FAC, the Chairs of the Committees on Graduate Studies, Undergraduate Studies, and the Writing Program, The Assistant to the Chair, the Regional Campus Coordinator. Chairs of these committees, the Assistant to the Chair, and the Regional Campus Coordinator, however, may stand – if they wish – for election in their appropriate ranks and constituencies; if elected, they will have voting rights. There shall also be one non-voting representative of the graduate students, selected by the Association of Graduate English Students (AGES).

Elected Members.

Two (2) full professors to be elected by the full professors of the Department on all campuses; one (1) associate professor from the Kent Campus to be elected by the associate professors on the Kent Campus; one (1) associate professor from the Regional Campuses to be elected by the associate professors on the Regional Campuses; one (1) assistant professor from the Kent Campus to be elected by the assistant professors on the Kent Campus; one (1) assistant professor from the Regional Campuses to be elected by the assistant professors on the Regional Campuses; one (1) full-time (NTT faculty member to be elected by all faculty in this unit on all campuses; one (1) at-large full-time TT faculty member at any rank from the Regional Campuses to be elected by all TT faculty on all campuses; one (1) full-time TT faculty member from the Kent Campus to be elected by all TT faculty on all campuses; one (1) at-large faculty member at any rank from any campus to be elected by all TT faculty on all campuses; and one (1) non-voting part-time faculty member to be elected by all part-time faculty on all campuses. (Note: Full-time instructors in TT positions will vote with the assistant professors and may stand for election with those at that rank or for at-large positions.) All elected members of FAC will serve one-year terms.

Role of FAC.

FAC may study any matter relevant to the Department’s mission, interests, and operations, particularly those defined in the Governance Article of the CBAs for full-time TT and NTT faculty. In its advisory and recommendatory role, FAC will endeavor to assist the Chair to identify problems, invite suggestions and seek solutions, reconcile opinions, and inform the Department as a whole of matters germane to its interests. The Chair of FAC normally shall determine those agenda items or, in certain instances, meetings which may be inappropriate for attendance by committee members who are not full-time TT faculty.  However, the committee will go into executive (i.e. closed) session only on passage of a formal motion to that effect.

In its advisory and recommendatory role, FAC will endeavor to assist the Chair to identify problems, invite suggestions and seek solutions, reconcile opinions, and inform the Department as a whole of matters germane to its interests. The Chair of FAC normally shall determine those agenda items or, in certain instances, meetings which may be inappropriate for attendance by committee members who are not full-time TT faculty. However, the committee will go into executive (i.e. closed) session only on passage of a formal motion to that effect.

FAC normally will be consulted as to the agenda for Department Meetings and will have the opportunity to make recommendations for the agenda. Three voting members of FAC may also call a meeting of the whole committee; in such cases, the members calling the meeting shall have responsibility for setting and distributing the agenda in a timely manner and for notifying the Chair, who may attend the meeting if he or she wishes. The CAC representative elected by and from the FAC may also call the members of FAC together in accord with procedures outlined in the CBA for full-time TT faculty, though no action may be taken at such a meeting.

In order for FAC to discharge effectively its role (as defined in the Governance Article of the TT CBA), it is to be kept informed regularly of the activities of other departmental committees.

FAC, as an advisory and recommendatory body, shall act for the faculty in advising and consulting with the Chair, particularly regarding any major policy matter. However, members of the FAC should consult with the faculty as a whole on major policy matters and may at its discretion take non-binding straw polls of the faculty before making its recommendations to the Chair.