August 2011

Development of the Faculty Handbook for August 2011

On April 5, 2010, the University Faculty Council (UFC) voted to approve the Faculty Handbook. The next step is to determine if there are any challenges to this action by the UFC.

The Board of Visitors must approve the Handbook before it becomes official. This action item is on the Board’s agenda for their meeting on April 14-16, 2011.

Any full-time faculty member who wanted to challenge a specific portion of the revised Handbook as approved by the UFC had the opportunity to do so by sending the challenge electronically with accompanying documentation to Ernie Ackermann, UFC Chair. The deadline for receipt of challenges was by noon on Thursday, April 7, 2010.

NO challenges were received. The Handbook as approved by the UFC will be presented to the Board of Visitors for their final approval.

The new faculty handbook as approved by the UFC is available below, provided as pdf files for each of the sections of the next Handbook.

These are KEY MILESTONE and DEADLINE DATES in the process for adopting the new Handbook:

• March 15, 2011 — Approval was obtained from each college of various sections of the Handbook (as required by current procedures specified in the 2010-11 Faculty Handbook, §2.3.3)
• April 5, 2011 — The University Faculty Council voted to approve the Faculty Handbook
• April 8, 2011 — Possible General Faculty Meeting (if called to dispute Handbook decisions)
• April 16, 2011 — Action by the Board of Visitors to approve the Faculty Handbook at their April Business Meeting
• August 16, 2011 — New Faculty Handbook takes effect

A document summarizing major changes to each section of the Handbook is available HERE. This serves as a guide to easily locating “what’s new” in the August 2011 Handbook. (This document was last updated on April 5, 2011.)

The August 2011 University Faculty Handbook

As approved by the university faculty council on April 5, 2011

Some small changes in these documents may occur as typographical errors and other editing mistakes are discovered and corrected. NOTE: contact John Morello to identify mistakes that need to be corrected.

Section	Title
1	Mission, History, and General Organization	Section 1 draft
2	Governance	Section 2 draft — updated to reflect action by the UFC on March 15, 2011 to amend §2.4.3.4 . Modest adjustments to election procedures in §2.5.2.1-2 as directed by the UFC on March 22, 2011 are also included. On April 5, the UFC adopted a modification to the faculty membership of the University Faculty Affairs Committee (to make its membership appointment process similar to that of other appointed committees).
3	Faculty Appointments, Ranks, Search Procedures, and Benefits	Section 3 draft
4	Procedures Regarding Termination of Faculty Appointments Before the End of the Appointment Term, and Sanctions for Violations of Policy	Section 4 draft
5	Faculty Rights, Responsibilities, and Policies	Section 5 draft — updated to reflect action by the UFC on March 15, 2011 to amend §5.4.7. On March 24, §5.6.5 was added to make faculty aware about a statement in the Code of Virginia about textbook policies. §5.1 includes a new modification that the UFC adopted at their meeting on April 5, 2011.
6	Faculty Evaluation Procedures	Section 6 draft
7	Promotion and Tenure Procedures	Section 7 draft
8	Faculty Titles, Awards, and Services of Interest to the Faculty	Section 8 draft
App. A	Faculty Performance Evaluation Forms	Appendix A draft
App. B	Honor Constitution	Appendix B draft
App. C	Policy and State ments on Academic Freedom	Appendix C draft
App. D	Procedure for a Student Grievance Against a Faculty Member	Appendix D draft
App. E	Faculty Handbook Style Sheet	Appendix E draft
App. F	Rules of Order for the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Faculty Senate and CAS Faculty Committees	Appendix F draft — Updated to reflect actions taken by the CAS Faculty Senate on March 9 and April 6, 2011
App. G	Rules of Order for the College of Business (COB) Faculty Senate and COB Faculty Committees	Appendix G draft — as approved by the COB Faculty Senate on April 6, 2011
App. H	Rules of Order for the College of Education (COE) Faculty and COE Faculty Committees	Appendix H draft
App. I	College of Arts and Sciences Promotion and Tenure Procedures	Appendix I draft
App. J	College of Business Promotion and Tenure Procedures	Appendix J draft
App. K	College of Education Promotion and Tenure Procedures	Appendix K draft — updated to reflect action by the UFC on March 15, 2011 to amend §K.1.2
App. L	University Faculty Council Rules of Order	Appendix L draft
App. M	General Faculty Meeting Rules of Order	Appendix M draft

The Faculty Handbook passed by the University Faculty in March 2010 and then approved by the Board of Visitors in April 2010 was stipulated as a one-year Handbook. An Advisory Committee, appointed and charged by the University Faculty Council in September 2010, has produced the draft of the next Faculty Handbook.