Article 3 Information

Dear UD Faculty,

We have been asked to make recommendations to the Board of Trustees as they consider an update of Article 3 of the Board’s bylaws, which delegates responsibilities and duties to the Faculty and Administration. This update was initiated in response to outcomes and concerns from a Trustee retreat on Board governance.

To help develop a response to the UD Trustees, I put together a committee of faculty and administrators including: Nancy Targett (chair), Prasad Dhurjati, Calvin Keeler, JP Laurenceau, Lynn Okagaki, Darcy Reisman, and Lou Rossi. The committee also includes a trustee Gil Sparks. To date, we have used feedback from the faculty including: e-mails to president@udel.edu, comments from the open forum on 4 April, and input from a group of 13 present/past Faculty Senate Presidents. Much of it, but not all of it, is included in the revised document which can be found at: http://facsen.udel.edu/Sites/Executive/Article3ProposedRevision15April2016.pdf. I have attached the examples of language from other schools which can be found at this site: http://facsen.udel.edu/Sites/Executive/ExamplesfromOtherInstitutions.pdf.

The Faculty Senate is hosting an open hearing on Wednesday April 20 from 2:30 to 4:00pm in 104 Gore. I hope you will come and help us refine these recommendations. We are trying to address the concerns of the UD Trustees while preserving the shared governance that we all value. Some general comments and context follow.

Our suggested revisions respond to the Board’s desire for a clearer definition of faculty, an updated outline of faculty responsibilities, and a clearer definition of the role of the Provost. In addressing these issues the committee has:

  • Explicitly codified Faculty Senate (FS) in Article 3, while also recognizing that FS is formed by University faculty through its Constitution.
  • Codified the Faculty Handbook and processes and procedures for updating it.
  • More clearly defined the faculty as those who hold academic rank.
  • Eliminated the term lecturer, which is not used at UD.
  • Recognized that, although in today’s university we hire professionals to develop strategies around student conduct, enrollment and extra-curricular activities, these strategies should be informed by recommendations from faculty. Sections 3.2.5.1, 3.2.5.3, and 3.2.5.4 have been updated to reflect this.
  • More clearly articulated the role of the Provost.
  • Eliminated some wording that should be in other documents (e.g. terms of chairs)

We are looking forward to the discussion and to your constructive comments.

Thanks,
Nancy Targett (with the concurrence of my fellow committee members named above)