Senate Doc #4089S Approved 3/30/89 FACULTY WELFARE DOCUMENT #4 AMENDMENTS TO TENURE POLICIES AND REGULATIONS TENURE POLICIES AND REGULATIONS The University of North Carolina at Asheville Approved: Board of Trustees - July 17, 1980 Board of Governors - August 8, 1980 Section VIII. COMMITTEES OF THE FACULTY A. Committee of the Tenured Faculty. NO CHANGES B. Faculty Committee on Hearings. NO CHANGES C. Faculty Grievance Committee. 1. Not later than April 15 of each year, the faculty shall elect members to a Faculty Grievance Committee. [delete: This committee shall be composed of two faculty members at the professor rank, two members at the associate professor rank, and two members at the assistant professor rank.] This committee shall contain at least one faculty member at each professorial rank. Only one member may come from any subject-matter department. No officer of administration shall serve on the committee. For purposes of this section, officers of administration shall be deemed to include department chairman and program directors. Members of the Committee of the Tenured Faculty and members of the Faculty Committee on Hearings may not serve on this committee. [delete: Election to the committee shall be for a term of two years, except that in the first election one member from each of the professional ranks shall be designated to serve only one year.] In the first election two faculty members from each professorial rank shall be elected. The faculty member with the larger number of votes will serve a term of two years and the other faculty member will serve a term of one year. Subsequently, one faculty member from each professorial rank will be elected for a term of two years. 2. The committee shall be authorized to hear, mediate, and advise with respect to the adjustment of grievances of members of the faculty. The committee's power shall be solely to hear representations by the persons directly involved in a grievance, to mediate voluntary adjustment by the parties, and to advise adjustment by the administration when appropriate. Advice for adjustment in favor of an aggrieved faculty member may be sent to the Chancellor only after the department chairman or other administrative official most directly empowered to adjust the matter has been given similar advice and has not acted upon it within a reasonable time. Page 2 3. "Grievances" within the province of the committee's power shall include matters directly related to a faculty member's employment status and institutional relationship within this institution. However, no grievance that grows out of or involves matters related to a formal proceeding for the suspension, discharge, or termination of a faculty member, or that is within the jurisdiction of another standing faculty committee, may be considered by the committee. 4. If any faculty member feels that he has a grievance, he may petition the Faculty Grievance Committee for redress. The petition shall be written and shall set forth in detail the nature of the grievance and against whom the grievance is directed. The petition shall contain any information that the petitioner considers pertinent to his case. If the grievance arises out of a single action, the petition should be filed within thirty days from the time that the grievant should have reasonably known that the action occurred. The committee shall decide whether the facts merit a detailed investigation so that submission of a petition shall not result automatically in an investigation or detailed consideration of the petition. [See Senate Document Number 9, 1983-1984, amended 1988-89 for Grievance Committee Procedures.] D. Committee on Institutional Development. NO CHANGES Changes to become effective at the beginning of the Academic year after approval of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors. ---------------------------------------------------- RATIONALE: 1. The term for service on the committee has been increased to two years to add continuity to the committee. In the past, a committee of new members has spent a great deal of time organizing the committee and learning the procedures. 2. A non-binding time limit was added as a guide to faculty as to the timely filing of a grievance. This time limit should not exclude the filing of a grievance that has evolved over time. Page 3