Section II.5

FACULTY ADOPTED POLICIES

PROCEDURES FOR ACTION ON A UNIT'S REQUEST TO AFFILIATE/WITHDRAW FROM A SCHOOL

Proposed at Faculty Meeting on January 25, 1983
Adopted by the Faculty January 25, 1983
Revised November 2002 and November 2017

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BACKGROUND

In 1972, the Committee on Policy and Development recommended general adoption of an organizational pattern in which departmental units would be clustered within a relatively few schools so that the typical Dean-Department organization would be replaced by a Dean-School Director-Department pattern. Although implemented in part, we now have a structure which includes both large and small unschooled departments as well as four schools. The 1972 Committee recommended creation of a formal mechanism by which units would join or leave schools. The 1981-82 Policy and Development Committee called for "a clear, administratively sound procedure by which departments could opt for schooled or unschooled status." The relevant statement in its entirety may be helpful:

The entire matter of a department's relationship to the school of which it is a part needs clarification. The 1972 Committee on Policy and Development which recommended general adoption of a DSD structure for the College called for the creation of an established mechanism by which departments could join and leave schools. However, no such mechanism has been created and the department-school affiliation has been defined by practice rather than by policy. To have a mixed form of College organization involving both schooled and unschooled departments implies the need for a clear, administratively sound procedure by which departments could opt for schooled or unschooled status. Moreover, any such procedure would have to be so constructed so that stability would be preserved and that threats to withdraw from a school would not become the basis for bargaining and negotiation between department and school. The procedure should also be one that insulates the affiliation-withdrawal decision from highly specific, often transitory, conflicts. Unless a clear and carefully formulated procedure is adopted, the mixed-model of College organization may not work effectively in a setting that permits departments to withdraw from schools. Clarifying the status of the school-departments to withdraw from establishing procedures for affiliation-withdrawal would correct a defect in the present administrative system--regardless of how will it may be working--and contribute to the long-term stability of the College as an integrated unit. (P&D Report, "An Analysis of Issues Concerning Dean-School-Department and Dean-Department Forms of LAS College Organization," February, 1982, p. 21.)

The P&D Report did not specifically mention the possibility of a withdrawal from one school to join another. Such a possibility might arise due to shifts in the disciplines, action of other units within the school or College, or creation a new school.

Each of the four existing schools has bylaws which initially were approved by the school faculty and provided as informational materials at the time the proposal to form the school was placed before the LAS Faculty.

STATUTORY PROVISIONS

  1. Creation or abolition of a school may, to quote the language of the Statutes, Article VIII, Creation of New Units, "be proposed by the faculty or the Executive Officer of the higher unit." Approval by the Senate and recommendation by the University Senates Conference, the Chancellor and the President of the Board of Trustees is required.

However, a change in internal organization such as moving a unit into or out of an existing school within the College falls under the powers reserved for the College as under Article III, Section 2. c.,"...the college shall have jurisdiction in all educational matters falling within the scope of its programs, including the determination of its curricula, except that proposals which involve budgetary changes shall become effective only when the chancellor/vice president has approved them. The college has the fullest measure of autonomy consistent with the maintenance of general University educational policy and correct academic and administrative relations with other divisions of the University" (pp. 11-12).

PROCEDURE

The following procedures govern unit association with or disassociation from a school within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

  1. For a Unit to Join a School
    1. The unit, in accordance with its established procedures, should determine that it wishes to join a school. The request to affiliate with a school shall be transmitted to the Director of the School.
    2. The School should act upon the request and, if favorable, shall transmit the request to the Dean for approval.
    3. The Dean shall transmit the request to the Executive Committee for its recommendation. If approved by the Dean after consultation with the Executive Committee, the recommendation to make that change together with the recommendation of the Executive Committee shall be transmitted to the Provost.
  2. For a Unit to Leave a School
    1. The unit, in accordance with its established procedures, should determine that it wishes to disassociate itself from a school. The request together with its supporting rationale shall be transmitted to the Dean of the College with a copy to the Director of the School.
    2. The Dean shall then discuss the matter with the Director of the School and report the findings and other relevant material to the Executive Committee.
    3. The School and its Director will then be asked for a response to and recommendation on the request and such other issues as may have been identified. (If the request is to transfer affiliation to another school, that school shall also be asked for a recommendation including the determination that the unit would be accepted as a member of the school if the request to leave the other school were granted.)
    4. The unit requesting disassociation will be permitted an opportunity to comment on the response and recommendation of the School and its Director.
    5. If approved by the Dean after consultation with the Executive Committee, the recommendation to make that change together with the recommendation of the Executive Committee shall be transmitted to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Updated November 2017