Departmental By-Laws

Introduction

All departments are required to have up-to-date by-laws that describe the basic departmental procedures and governance.  These by-laws must be approved by the Dean of CLAS and the Provost and be on file in both of these offices. These by-laws are not only important to the regular functioning of the department, but are also increasingly being challenged in personnel grievances and court actions.  It is therefore of vital importance that departments have up-to-date, appropriate, and officially approved by-laws, and that the by-laws are followed, particularly in personnel decisions.

Note: Departments use different names for their by-laws.  Some refer to them as the Departmental Constitution, or Faculty Governance Rules, or other names.  In addition, some departments separate their governance by-laws from the rules for promotion and tenure.

Required Components:

The following items must be in all department by-laws.  These are procedures or rules that are required by the university or the college, and are proscribed by the Faculty Governance Guide, the AAUP-PSU Collective Bargaining Agreement, the University Tenure and Promotion Guidelines, and other university, college, or State of Oregon official rules or procedures.  These include procedures for chair selection, procedures and guidelines for promotion and tenure, and procedures and guidelines for the annual review of fixed-term faculty.

Election of Department Chairs

The process for the selection of the department chair is described in Section I - Department Chairs: Selection and Duties and is repeated below.

CLAS chairs and directors are appointed for three years, with appointments typically starting on September 1 at the beginning of the fall term and ending three years later. The authority of departmental faculty to elect their department chairs and the process by which this election takes place is proscribed in Section 4, Article III of the Constitution of the Portland State Faculty Senate, described in the Faculty Governance Guide.  Departmental by-laws may further delineate the chair selection process for individual departments.  In addition, CLAS strongly recommends that chairs be senior members of the department, be tenured, and have experience in faculty governance.  The essence of the chair election process is as follows:

• Chairs are elected for three-year terms;

• They can be reelected for additional three years terms subject to departmental by-laws;

• Departments have the authority to elect their chairs and to use their own procedure, as long as the chair election procedures are specified and have been approved by the full-time members of the department in a secret ballot.  

• Any changes in the departmental chair election procedure must be implemented by April 15th of the department chair's third term.

• After electing a new chair, or reelecting a sitting chair, the department submits its choice to the Dean, who will then send it to the Provost, who will consequently send the recommendation to the President.  The Dean and the Provost may comment on the department's selection, but they may not change the selection.  The President will then approve the choice or ask the department to try again.  Ultimately, department chairs serve at the pleasure of the President.

Departmental By-laws must describe how the chair is to be elected and the process for determining or altering the procedures for electing the chair.  The departmental by-laws may add additional procedures and rules regarding the selection of the department chair, as long as they are consistent with and do not contradict the Constitution of the Portland State Faculty.

Promotion and Tenure of Tenure-Track Faculty

All department by-laws must have rules and procedures describing the tenure and promotion process for tenure track faculty, as described in the  University Promotion and Tenure Guidelines. These guidelines state:

The department as a whole shall establish its general guidelines, including the criteria to be used for recommendations for promotion and tenure, and shall ensure that these guidelines fulfill the minimum standards of the University guidelines, which have priority. The responsibility for evaluating and documenting an individual faculty member's performance rests primarily with the department. The criteria to be used for promotion and tenure must be consistent with university and college or school policy and must be formulated early to allow maximum time for making decisions.

Approval of departmental procedures and criteria by the dean and provost is required. If a dean disapproves of existing or newly revised departmental criteria, then he orshe will submit both departmental recommendations and his or her objections or amendments to the provost for resolution.

After approval by the provost, the guidelines must be distributed to all members of the department faculty and to the academic dean. Department chairs should distribute these guidelines to new faculty upon their arrival at Portland State University.

In addition, the University Promotion and Tenure Guidelines assume that each department has a promotion and tenure committee.  This committee may be a standing committee, that is, a committee specified in the departmental by-laws to deal with promotion and tenure, or a committee appointed on an ad hoc basis.  In either case, the formation of the committee must be described in the departmental by-laws. The guidelines state:

All recommendations for promotion and tenure originate with formally established departmental committees; for example, an elected advisory committee, or an elected committee on promotion and tenure. The department as a whole shall determine the composition of the committee and the method of selection of its members and chairperson. Student participation in the consideration of promotion and tenure is mandatory. When a faculty member has been involved in interdisciplinary teaching and/or research, the departmental promotion or tenure committee will include a faculty representative from a mutually agreed upon second department or program.  The department chair must not be on this committee.

Evaluation of and Promotion of Fixed-Term Faculty

The rules for evaluation and promotion of fixed-termed faculty are described in Article 18, Section 3 of the AAUP-PSU Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Article 18 requires that all departments establish in their by-laws guidelines for the review of fixed-term instructional and research faculty, and guidelines for their promotion.  These guidelines, as with the other required parts of departmental by-laws, must be approved by the Dean and the Provost.  Departments should read Article 18 carefully.  In addition, Vice Provost Driscoll has written a very helpful and witty example of what these departmental guidelines might look like:   Example Department Guidelines for Review of fixed-term instructional and research faculty.

Annual Reviews of Fixed-Term Faculty:  Departments are required to establish and maintain in their by-laws guidelines for the review of fixed-term instructional and research faculty, which should include the following:

• Each department shall identify the departmental committee responsible for the review of fixed-term instructional and research faculty. This does not mean that departments must appoint a special committee just for this purpose, but may assign the task to an existing standing committee (for example, the departmental P&T committee).
• Departmental guidelines shall specify that at least on fixed-term faculty be appointed to this committee.
• For positions that are completely grant-funded, the grant PI and one fixed-term research faculty from the bargaining unit may serve in place of the review committee.
• The departmental guidelines shall provide a variety of evidence to be used in the review process.  This evidence must include a personal narrative or self-evaluation and an annual report of relevant activities. For fixed-term instructional faculty, "departmental guidelines shall require the review of quantitative summaries of teaching evaluations and narrative reviews by departmental or other appropriate faculty of teaching materials and course materials."  For research faculty, departmental guidelines shall provide for the submission of a narrative review from the principal research supervisor.  Other material may be submitted.
• Departmental guidelines shall include the review of other responsibilities and duties at the university and professional service as described in the position description.
• The departmental review committee is expected to identify areas of strength and areas needing further development for each fixed-term faculty being reviewed.
• The review committee will make recommendations to the chair.
• These reviews are to be completed by March 15.

Promotion of Fixed-Term Faculty:

Fixed-Term Faculty may be eligible for promotion from instructor to senior instructor or to assistant professor. Departments are required to establish guidelines and criteria for this process.  Article 18 requires that:

• In no case shall the development of guidelines and criteria for promotion of fixed-term faculty be the sole responsibility of a single administrator;
• Guidelines shall be developed by an elected committee including fixed-term instructional and/or research bargaining unit members.
• Guidelines must be reviewed and approved by the dean and provost.

Curriculum

The control of the curriculum of the University rests with the faculty.  At the university level, the curriculum is the responsibility of the Faculty Senate and the Faculty Senate committees assigned to review and approve curricular changes.  At the college level, the curriculum is the responsibility of the CLAS Curriculum Committee.  At the department level, the curriculum is the responsibility of the faculty as a whole.  Most departments have a curriculum committee and many have two; a graduate committee and an undergraduate committee.  One way or another, departments must have in their by-laws a description of how curricular decisions are made, including the introduction of new classes or programs, the changing of major or minor requirements, and the elimination of courses or programs.  This task may be assigned to a standing committee dedicated to that task, or to a committee that does a number of tasks.

Suggested Components of Departmental By-Laws

Department Membership

Almost all departments have a variety of types of faculty, include tenured faculty, tenure-track but not tenured faculty, fixed-term faculty, adjuncts, and graduate student TAs.  In addition, in some departments outside members of the community may play a role in the department.  It is not necessarily important that the departmental by-laws specify all of these ranks and status and what role they play in the department, although this would be useful, but it is important that departmental by-laws specify who participates in departmental governance, especially who is considered a member of the department, who votes, and in which decisions.  

The Constitution of the Portland State Faculty defines faculty membership in Article II. 

The faculty shall consist of the Chancellor, the President of Portland State University, and all persons who hold State Board appointments with the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, or instructor, and whose full-time equivalent is at least fifty percent teaching, research, or administration at Portland State University.  Unclassified members of Portland State University who are certified by the Provost to have academic qualifications sufficient to justify appointment at one of the above mentioned ranks and whose full-time equivalent is at least fifty percent teaching, research, or administration at Portland State University shall also be included in the faculty regardless of title.  The University Faculty reserves the right to elect to membership any person who is employed full-time by the Oregon University System.

Departments have the ability to further define departmental membership and the roles and responsibilities of faculty of various rank and FTE.  Departmental by-laws should, therefore, specify who is a member of the department and, if they wish, mechanisms by which persons who do not fit the above definition of faculty may be afforded department membership.  In addition, it is recommended that department by-laws state how the faculty of various ranks participate in departmental governance.  Some departmental decisions are more important that others.  It is strongly suggested that only tenure-track faculty vote on promotion and tenure decisions, chair elections, and on the hiring decisions of tenure-track faculty.  Some departments may wish to have yet a higher standard.  For instance, in some departments only the tenured faculty can vote on the promotion and tenure decisions.

Departmental Roles or Positions

Some departments, especially larger departments, have additional administrative positions.  These may include an assistant chair, a graduate advisor, an undergraduate advisor, or other such positions.  The duties of these position, how they are selected, and other descriptions of these positions should be described in the departmental by-laws.  It is important to point out, however, that unless these positions are identified in the department budget as prepared by CLAS, there is no salary or other monetary compensation for these positions from the CLAS budget. If departments chose to grant those who take these departmentally defined positions course release time or other compensation available to departments, they must do so within the departmental budget limits and be able to meet the departmental enrollment goals.

Standing Committees:

Departments that have enough faculty members may consider specifying standing committees in the by-laws.  The following is a sample of some of the standing committees some departments have.  Whether or not any of these committees work in your department depends on its size, mission, and other factors.

Graduate Committee

Departments with graduate programs often have a graduate committee.  This committee works with the graduate advisor, if the department has one, and performs such functions as graduate admissions, assigning graduate thesis or dissertation committees, preparing comprehensive exams, and in general overseeing the graduate curriculum.

Executive Committee

Some departments have an executive committee to meet with the chair to discuss issues of departmental governance and direction.  The executive committee is constituted in a variety of ways. In some cases the executive committee is composed of senior faculty, while in others it is made up of the chairs of the standing committees.

Development Committee

The committee is assigned to raise money.  This committee may work on its own or with the department chair to identify and cultivate potential donors, to put on events for the alumni or donors, and to work with the CLAS development officers to raise funds for the department.

Public Relations Committee

A public relations committee may perform some of the tasks of a development committee, but in addition, it make the work of the department, including the faculty and the students, known to the community and to Portland State. 

Curriculum Committee

The curriculum committee has the responsibility for the curriculum of the department.  In departments with graduate programs, the graduate curriculum is often dealt with by the graduate committee.  This committee should review and even initiate curricular changes, review the current course offerings for outdated or low-enrolling courses, and in general oversee the curriculum.

Hiring Committee

Some departments have a standing hiring committee, while other departments create the hiring ad hoc when a hiring opportunity appears.

Promotion and Tenure Committee

The Committee is required by the PSU Faculty Constitution.  Departments must have explicit rules for the formation of the this committee when it deals with the promotion of tenure-track faculty.  However, departmental by-laws vary regarding who does the annual reviews of tenure-track or fixed-term faculty, who evaluates classified staff, and who does third-year reviews.  These tasks can be assigned to the Promotion and Tenure Committee, or be done by the chair or another committee.

Departmental Meetings

Another item the by-laws might include is a section on departmental meetings. This section could include how often meeting should be held, who can attend, how the meetings are called, and how the meetings are run (i.e. Robert's Rules of Order, consensus, or other rules of meeting procedures).  Also, some departments have it in their procedures that an agenda must be prepared and passed out before a meeting can be called.  As a caution, the Dean's Office suggests that departments not write rules that tie the department to specific procedures or schedules that might become burdensome, but rather specify preferred or recommended procedures that are more flexible.

Student Roles

Another item that could be included in the by-laws is how the department deals with students.  This could include the role of students in departmental governance, student clubs and honor societies, and student advising.  Students are often eager to participate actively in departmental affairs and can provide useful input in departmental committees.

Chair Impeachment

It is probably wise to have a clause in the by-laws that allows for the removal of the chair, and maybe the removal of other leaders.  Most departments have effective and responsible chairs, but remember that by-laws are written for times when things go bad.  It is always wise to have procedure on which everyone agrees for the time that, hopefully, will never come.  The procedure to remove a chair should include rules regarding how a removal decision might arise, how the department will meet and vote, and how an interim or temporary chair will be selected.