Cherry Blossoms

Standing committees

Dean's Office contacts: Divisional Dean, Ivy Mason-Sharrah

In order to ensure robust personnel evaluations, the College Council of the College of Arts and Sciences requires the participation of at least three eligible departmental faculty in all faculty personnel decisions, including new appointments, reappointments, and tenure and promotion cases. For all decisions other than new appointments, eligible departmental faculty are those senior in rank to the faculty member about whom the personnel decision is being made. When a unit does not have three full professors, a Standing Committee of at least three full professors (with one acting as committee chair) is appointed by the Dean to act in cases where there are fewer than three eligible faculty. The members of the Standing Committee shall not have regular faculty appointments in the unit but may hold adjunct appointments.

A Standing Committee acts in addition to the departmental faculty. It is advisory to the Dean and the College Council, and reports directly to the Dean. It meets with the unit faculty only on personnel matters for which there are fewer than three eligible faculty in the appropriate rank, but it deliberates independently and submits its advisory vote independently to the Dean and the College Council. In addition to providing this advice to the Dean and the College Council, the Standing Committee is available to advise faculty in the unit in areas of professional development, including, but not limited to, instruction and scholarship.

The Standing Committee shall also annually consider associate professors for possible promotion. The Standing Committee shall communicate its recommendations about possible promotion to the department chair, who shall share them with the faculty member(s) in all formal personnel communications. If the department chair is an associate professor, the Standing Committee reports its assessment to the full professor(s) in the unit.

The Standing Committee may participate with the appropriate departmental faculty in the deliberations leading to a personnel recommendation, but the two groups—Standing Committee and department—provide independent votes and recommendations.

When a unit needs a Standing Committee, its chair/director, in consultation with the Divisional Dean, shall make recommendations to the Dean for appointments to the Standing Committee. These recommendations shall be reviewed by the College Council, after which the Committee shall be appointed by the Dean. Standing Committee members will serve for renewable three-year terms.

In the event that a unit temporarily meets the criterion for the appointment of a Standing Committee, because of faculty leaves or other absences of permanent faculty, a short-term Standing Committee shall be appointed for personnel matters. When a unit no longer meets the criterion for the appointment of a Standing Committee, i.e. when it has a minimum of three full professors, the chair/director shall notify the Dean, who shall then disband the Standing Committee.

Approved by the College Council 11/03/2003