Faculty
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT BYLAWS
The purpose of this document is to describe the organizational structure of the English Department at New Mexico State University.
ARTICLE I. CONSTITUTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
A. In the broadest sense, the faculty of English is made up of everyone who teaches in the department. These subdivide into four major categories. First is the tenured and tenure- track faculty; there is no distinction in departmental governance between tenure-track and tenured faculty except for the constitution and duties of the Tenure and Promotion Committee. The term “tenure-track” in this document shall refer to both groups, with the terms “tenured” and “untenured” used where a distinction needs to be made. The second group is the college-track faculty: these are faculty with on-going positions but who are neither tenured nor eligible for tenure. The third group is comprised of a variety of adjunct faculty including emeritus faculty who continue to teach after retirement, who might occasionally teach in the department, faculty hired on a visiting basis for a semester or a year, and temporary instructors hired on an emergency basis for no more than four semesters. The fourth group is comprised of the graduate assistants who teach in the department. Of these four groups, obviously the tenure-track faculty have the primary responsibility for departmental governance; however, all those teaching in the department are free to contribute to the department’s deliberations over policy and procedures, especially in areas of the department’s programs in which they are personally involved. Some of the formal ways in which they can contribute are specified in these bylaws.
B. The department will be administered by a Department Head. The Administrative Policies and Procedures of the University will govern the choice of the Head and will outline his or her responsibilities and the procedures by which the Head will be evaluated.*
C. The Department Head has broad supervision over all the programs in the department. However, detailed administration of the writing program, the undergraduate program, and the graduate program will be the responsibility respectively of different members of the faculty, each of whom will be appointed by the Department Head and will be evaluated by him or her as part of the regular annual evaluation process. The Associate Department Head will serve as Writing Program Administrator and will supervise all general education writing courses. Supervision over the undergraduate majors and minors will be the responsibility of the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and supervision over the graduate programs will be the responsibility of the Director of Graduate Studies.
ARTICLE II. FUNCTIONS OF THE ASSOCIATE DEPARTMENT HEAD
General responsibilities as Associate Department Head:
- representing department and serving as Acting Department Head in absence of Department Head
- helping to plan schedule and advise Department Head on staffing
- helping with departmental administration, advising, and registration of new students during summer
Specific responsibilities as Writing Program Administrator include:
- curriculum development, staff development and teaching supervision for all G-writing courses (at present, 111G, 111H, 203G, 211G, 218G, 311G, and 318G)
- evaluation of graduate assistants teaching G-writing courses
- outcomes assessment for G-writing courses
- student placement, exit testing and portfolio evaluation in G-writing courses
- instructor-student consultations for G-writing courses, including general dispute mediation and grade appeals involving courses taught by graduate assistants
- membership on the department’s General Education Committee
- Writing Across the Curriculum outreach
- general supervision of the Writing Center
- department liaison to University General Education Committee (including periodic program evaluation, monitoring course registration and seat availability, and coordinating outcomes assessment)
ARTICLE III. FUNCTIONS OF THE DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
The Director of Undergraduate Studies administers the undergraduate program of the department and supervises and advises undergraduate majors and minors. The DUS is appointed by the Department Head for a three-year term and can be re-appointed to a second term.
Specific responsibilities of the DUS include:
- describing the undergraduate program in English to prospective majors
- advising all majors for semester-by-semester registration
- working with majors on undergraduate degree plans
- working with majors and non-majors on undergraduate minors in English
- completing all substitution and waiver forms for undergraduate majors
- reviewing all degree checks for undergraduate majors
- working with students on applications for graduate and professional schools
- working with students on career planning
- conferring with students on progress in individual courses
- preparing documentation to support undergraduate majors nominated for college and university awards
- advising the Department Head on undergraduate course offerings in the department
- serving as a member of the Undergraduate Studies Committee
ARTICLE IV. FUNCTIONS OF THE DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES
The Director of Graduate Studies administers the graduate programs in English. The DGS is appointed by the Department Head to a three-year term and can be re-appointed to a second term.
Specific responsibilities of the DGS include:
- overseeing matters concerning admissions to graduate programs and the selection of
graduate assistants - assigning advisors to incoming graduate students
- conferring with students on routine inquiries about departmental programs (NOTE: Student grade appeals and conflict mediation will be handled by the Department Head.)
- serving as the “advisors’ advisor” by informing faculty of policies and procedures which affect the graduate program
- supervising the administration of M.A. written and Ph.D. qualifying examinations
- supervising the annual evaluations of Ph.D. students
- implementing program changes as recommended by the Graduate Studies Committee and approved by the graduate faculty
- advising the Department Head on graduate course offerings in the department
- serving as a member of the Graduate Studies Committee
ARTICLE V. STANDING DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEES
The English Department has six standing committees. Each of these committees has an area of responsibility and a specific makeup defined in these bylaws. Each committee is vested with the responsibility to consider issues germane to its area of responsibility and to make recommendations to the department as a whole. Each committee except for the Advisory Committee will elect a chair for the year at the first meeting of the year. The chair will be eligible for re-election as chair. Ordinarily, each committee will meet at least once a month during the academic year, though committees are not obliged to meet if there is no pressing business just to satisfy this rule of thumb. The time and place of the meeting will be posted in the department at the same time that the meeting is called. Except for meetings of certain committees when personnel issues are being discussed, departmental committee meetings are open: any member of the department can ask for a copy of the agenda (when there is a formal agenda) and can attend the meeting. Some committees may have business to conduct during the summer as well, and in any case chairs of standing committees should be available for consultation during the summer or else designate another member of the committee as Acting Chair for the summer or part of the summer. The standing committees of the department are the General Education Committee, the Undergraduate Studies Committee, the Graduate Studies Committee, the Personnel Committee, the Tenure and Promotion Committee, and the Advisory Committee.
ARTICLE VI. COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEES
A. Typically, departmental committees will have five members who are tenure-track faculty, three to be elected by the tenure-track faculty, and two to be appointed by the Department Head. Faculty elected or appointed to committees will serve for three years, and the terms will be staggered so that one faculty member of each committee will be elected each year and one faculty member will be appointed in two out of every three years. Elections to all committees will take place during the first regular faculty meeting of each semester, with appointments being made during the following week. Faculty on leave are not normally members of standing committees, so temporary members will be elected or appointed according to whether the member on leave was elected or appointed. If a faculty member resigns from a committee of which he or she is a member, a new member will be elected or appointed--again according to how he or she became a member of the committee--to fill out the remainder of that member’s term. The Department Head is also a member of all standing departmental committees, with ex-officio status on every committee except for the Advisory Committee.
B. The General Education Committee will have seven members, two in addition to the five tenure-track faculty members. Customarily, the Writing Program Administrator will be one of these five. One of the other members of the committee will be a college-track faculty member appointed by the Department Head; the other will be a graduate assistant currently teaching in the department appointed by the Department Head.
C. The Undergraduate Studies Committee will have six members, one in addition to the five tenure-track faculty members. Customarily, the Director of Undergraduate Studies will be one of these five. The other member of the committee will be a college-track faculty member appointed by the Department Head.
D. The Graduate Studies Committee will have six members, one in addition to the five tenure-track faculty members. Customarily, the Director of Graduate Studies will be one of these five. The other non-voting member of the committee will be a graduate assistant currently teaching in the department appointed by the Department Head. The graduate student member will not participate in any deliberations involving other students or personnel issues relating to graduate studies.
E. The Personnel Committee will have no other members in addition to the five tenure-track faculty members. When three or more tenure-track searches are being conducted in any one year, however, the Personnel Committee may be divided into subcommittees, each subcommittee taking responsibility for one or possibly two of the searches. In this case, in consultation with the chair of the Personnel Committee, the Department Head will appoint additional faculty members when necessary to ensure that each subcommittee has three members. The chair of the Personnel Committee and subcommittee chairs are ordinarily tenured faculty.
F. The Tenure and Promotion Committee will consist of a committee of the whole comprised of all tenured members of the department, with one external member appointed by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Applications for promotion to the rank of Professor will be considered by a committee of the whole comprised of all tenured professors in the department and the external member of the Tenure and Promotion Committee. Any committee considering applications for promotion and tenure must have at least five members, and the Dean appoints additional members if needed from outside the department.
G. The Advisory Committee will consist of the chairs of the other five standing committees, together with the Department Head, the Associate Department Head, and the administrative secretary. The Department Head will chair the Advisory Committee.
ARTICLE VII. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES
A. The primary responsibility of the General Education Committee is to review matters relating to the department’s General Education course offerings. It considers any proposals for new or revised general education courses and proposals to make established courses part of the general education program. The committee oversees general education outcomes assessment, including an annual outcomes assessment report which goes to the faculty as a whole for approval. Such matters as goals and objectives, textbook selection, and staff development activities for specific general education courses are likely to be delegated to working groups made up of the instructors of the course involved and the ADH/WPA, but the General Education Committee reviews and approves policies and materials developed by such working groups. Since general education involves teaching students from other majors and colleges, liaison with other departments and colleges is important in a successful general education program, and members of the General Education Committee should expect to be involved in such activity.
B. The primary responsibility of the Undergraduate Studies Committee is to review matters connected with the undergraduate program and curriculum. It considers any proposals for new or revised courses, proposals to revise the requirements for the undergraduate major and minors, and any proposals to initiate new undergraduate programs. The committee is responsible for undergraduate program outcomes assessment, including an annual outcomes assessment report which goes to the faculty as a whole for approval. It also makes recommendations to the Department Head concerning the recipients of departmental and college undergraduate student awards, including the Outstanding Senior and the Outstanding Hispanic Senior awards.
C. The primary responsibility of the Graduate Studies Committee is to review matters of policy relating to the graduate programs. Specifically, it is responsible for reviewing all applications to the graduate programs and recommending to the Department Head and Dean of the Graduate School which applicants should be admitted and which should be given graduate assistantships. It reviews and recommends to the Department Head the approval or disapproval of graduate student requests for waivers of specific program requirements. It makes recommendations to the Department Head concerning the recipients of graduate student awards. It is responsible for graduate program outcomes assessment, including an annual outcomes assessment report which goes to the faculty as a whole for approval. It considers and makes recommendations to the department on any proposals for new or revised courses, to change graduate programs and graduate program descriptions, and to initiate new graduate programs.
D. The primary responsibility of the Personnel Committee is hiring new tenure-track faculty. The committee makes recommendations concerning position descriptions to the department, screens applications and decides on the procedure for such screening, and decides on a list of candidates to be interviewed. Customarily, the interviewing committees are drawn from members of the Personnel Committee who are able to attend the Modern Language Association Annual Convention or other places where initial interviews are conducted. Finally, members of the Personnel Committee should take some responsibility during on-campus interviews for the transportation and entertainment of the candidates, though the scheduling and arrangement for such visits are primarily the responsibility of the Department Head. Once finalists have visited the campus, however, the special responsibilities of the Personnel Committee end. Each tenure-track member of the department has an equal say and vote in the decision concerning which candidate to recommend to the Department Head. The Personnel Committee may also serve as a screening committee for visiting positions at the request of the Department Head.
E. The primary responsibility of the Tenure and Promotion Committee is to make recommendations to the Dean concerning applications by tenure-track faculty for promotion and tenure. A secondary responsibility is to evaluate the annual reports of the untenured faculty each year until they are considered for tenure. A subcommittee of the Tenure and Promotion Committee (as defined above in Article VI, Section F) has the responsibility of making recommendations to the Dean concerning applications by Associate Professors for promotion to the rank of Professor. The procedures to be followed by this committee are governed by the Administrative Policies and Procedures of the University, and the timetable for completing these procedures is spelled out by the Dean of the College each year. Customarily, recommendations involving completed applications for promotion and tenure are due each fall semester near the beginning of the semester; evaluations of the annual report and recommendations on progress towards tenure are due in March of the spring semester. Finally, the committee is also charged with the responsibility of making a preliminary recommendation in March or April of the spring semester concerning any applications for promotion and tenure being readied or seriously contemplated for the next academic year. All of these result in written documents which are customarily signed by the entire committee; members who strongly disagree with any actions or statements of the committee have, however, the right to issue a separate statement which they sign instead.
The committee is also charged with responsibility for issues of faculty development and evaluation. In keeping with university procedures, the Department Head will have neither voice nor vote in the committee’s considerations of tenure and promotion applications. The Department Head is not to attend any of the meetings of the committee but will be available to respond to any questions directed to him or her by members of the committee. The Department Head makes a separate written recommendation concerning applications for tenure and promotion, and both recommendations accompany the application if the candidate forwards it to the College Faculty Affairs Committee and the Dean.
F. The primary responsibility of the Advisory Committee is to define the agenda for the regular departmental meetings (as defined below). A secondary responsibility is to serve as a “committee on committees” which adjudicates any questions concerning which committee or committees should consider a given issue. There may also be occasions when one committee of the department may wish to refer issues to another committee, and meetings of the Advisory Committee are the customary occasions when this should be done. Matters which don’t seem to belong to any specific committee but which might be better handled by a committee than by the department as a whole can be referred to the Advisory Committee or to an ad hoc committee as outlined below.
ARTICLE VIII. OTHER DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEES
A. Area Interest Committees
Faculty interested in a certain curricular area (such as literature, creative writing or rhetoric and professional communication) will meet regularly to discuss issues in their programs. Each committee should function as a committee of the whole; every interested member of the department should be informed of committee meetings and invited to attend. Each such committee should elect a chair. Each committee is charged with the responsibility of producing a rotation of 400/500/600 courses to recommend to the Department Head. The Rhetoric and Professional Communication Committee is naturally the committee concerned most immediately with the Ph.D. program. In keeping with this, it recommends candidates for admission into the Ph.D. program to the Graduate Studies Committee and discusses issues concerned with the Ph.D. program. Area interest committees do not make policy recommendations to the department directly but instead to the relevant standing committee of the department.
B. Ad Hoc Committees
The Department Head may appoint ad hoc committees from time to time to work on issues which seem to cut across areas of committee responsibilities. The formation of such a committee will be approved by a majority of the tenure-track faculty at a regular faculty meeting. Ad hoc committees will have chairs appointed by the Department Head; whatever recommendations they arrive at will be brought to the Advisory Committee and then to the department as a whole.
ARTICLE IX. COLLEGE-TRACK FACULTY
A. Hiring
Temporary instructors (and all adjunct faculty) whether part- or full-time will be hired by the Department Head. However, a search committee will be constituted when regular college-track positions are open; this committee will be comprised of the Associate Department Head who will normally chair the committee, the Chair of the standing Personnel Committee, one other tenure-track faculty member and two college-track faculty members (these three to be appointed by the Department Head). This committee makes a recommendation to the Department Head, who is an ex-officio member of the committee.
B. Promotion
College-track faculty are customarily hired at the instructor rank but can be promoted through the ranks as outlined by the Administrative Policies and Procedures of the University. When a college-track faculty member applies for promotion, a promotion committee will be constituted. It will be a committee of the whole made up of all college-track faculty members in the department higher in rank than the applicant, with the addition of the Chair of the standing Tenure and Promotion Committee of the department, and a college-track faculty member from another department in the college higher in rank than the applicant (to be appointed by the Department Head). The committee will elect its own chair, customarily a college-track faculty member from the department. This committee will make a written evaluation of the candidate and recommendation about the promotion, drafted by the chair but approved by the committee, to the Department Head, who will also be an ex-officio member of this committee. If there are not sufficient college-track faculty to follow this procedure, the Department Head will constitute an ad hoc committee in consultation with the Advisory Committee.
C. Committee of the Whole
The college-track faculty will meet as a committee of the whole with the Department Head when they have concerns which they wish to bring directly to the Department Head’s attention. Such meetings will customarily take place at least once a semester.
ARTICLE X. TRANSACTING THE BUSINESS OF THE DEPARTMENT
A. The department will have a regular meeting at least once a month during the academic year. The quorum for the purpose of conducting business will consist of more than half the tenure-track faculty. These meetings will be chaired by the Department Head or, in his or her absence, the Associate Department Head.
B. The agenda for each regular meeting will be set by the Advisory Committee which will meet to set this agenda in the week before the meeting. The chair of each standing committee will normally report to the department as a whole about routine business transacted by the committee. Concerning more substantive issues, the committees will make recommendations to the department, recommendations which the department as a whole should discuss and approve or disapprove. All important policy decisions should be based on written material approved for distribution to the faculty by the Advisory Committee, and this material should be distributed at least 48 hours before the meeting during which it will be discussed. If a vote is necessary, only tenure-track faculty will be eligible to vote; a majority of the eligible voters present will need to vote for a motion for it to pass.
C. An effort will be made to leave a time at the end of each meeting for all members of the department to bring “new business” to the attention of the department. Matters brought to the department’s attention in this way or to the Department Head will normally be referred to the relevant standing committee.
D. Robert’s Rules of Order will govern the procedures followed during department meetings.
E. Any action of the departmental administration or any of its committees may be called before a meeting of the faculty for review upon presentation of a petition signed by at least 25% of the tenure-track faculty.
F. These bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the tenure-track faculty. Proposed amendments to the bylaws must be presented in writing at a regular faculty meeting; they will be voted on no sooner than the next regular faculty meeting.
G. These bylaws will become effective as soon as they are approved by a two-thirds vote of the tenure-track faculty in attendance at a regularly scheduled departmental meeting.
*The department voted to amend Article 1.B in April 2004 as follows: “The department will be administered by a Department Head. The Department Head will be appointed and evaluated by the Dean in accordance with the Administrative Policies and Procedures of the University. The Department Head’s duties and responsibilities shall be those outlined in AP&P, supplemented by the Department-generated job description under which he or she was appointed. In addition to and concurrent with the evaluation procedures outlined in the AP&P, the Chair of the Department Personnel Committee shall convene a meeting of the tenure-track faculty to discuss the performance of the Department Head. The faculty will direct the Chair of the Personnel Committee to transmit a report to the Dean.” The amendment was presented to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in May 2005 and is pending approval.