|
Department of Psychology
This document describes the policies and procedures by which the Department of Psychology (subsequently referred to as the Department) of the University of Delaware operates to achieve its mission. Department policies, procedures and operations are subject to and consistent with those of the University and of the College of Arts and Science. 1 Membership in the Department The membership of the Department consists of the Department Chair and the faculty, a subset of whom comprise the voting faculty. The faculty consist of all persons who hold 1) regular full-time tenure-track and continuing non-tenure track positions, 2) full-time research/teaching temporary positions, 3) adjunct appointments in Psychology, 4) all persons who hold joint appointments in Psychology and who hold a faculty title and 5) all faculty with emeritus status. The voting faculty consist of 1) all faculty whose primary full-time tenure-track or continuing non-tenure track appointment is in Psychology and 2) other faculty who have expressly been given voting privileges by a two-thirds majority vote of the Psychology voting faculty.
2 Responsibilities and Privileges of the Faculty The mission of the Department is to produce high-quality research, provide high-quality teaching, and pursue other scholarly activities related to psychological science. This mission includes graduate research and education, undergraduate education and also relevant areas of service to the department, university, community and profession. The department faculty is responsible for developing a vision that informs the future growth and development of the Department, for periodically reassessing the Department’s vision, and for determining how the department achieves its vision through a variety of specific missions which include the maintenance of high-quality graduate and undergraduate academic programs within the Department. All new degree programs and changes in existing programs require the approval of the voting faculty in the Department. Some of the other rights and responsibilities of the faculty are outlined in the following sections.
3 Department Organization and Operation The Chair is the chief administrative officer of the department. Responsibilities of the Chair include providing leadership to the department in achieving its mission, administering the policies and procedures of the University and the Department, and acting as the primary representative of the Department within the institution and the profession.
The Department Chair or the Chair’s representative shall preside over faculty meetings.
The Associate Chair is appointed annually by the Department Chair and serves at the pleasure of the Chair. The Associate Chair assumes the Chair’s duties in the absence of the Chair. The Associate chair shall assist the chair in matters pertaining to faculty development, staff supervision and development, budgets and space allocation. The Associate Chair shall assist with the coordination periodic review of Department Bylaws, workload policies and merit raise criteria. Other duties of the Associate Chair are negotiated with the Department Chair and are communicated to the Department.
The Director of Graduate Education is appointed annually by the Department Chair and serves at the pleasure of the Chair. The Director of Graduate Education shall assist with graduate program curriculum issues, the scheduling of graduate course offerings in coordination with the Director of Undergraduate Education, and TA assignments. Duties other than those mentioned herein are undertaken by mutual agreement with the Department Chair and shall be communicated to the Department.
The Director of Undergraduate Education is appointed annually by the Department Chair and serves at the pleasure of the Chair. The Director of Undergraduate Education shall assist with the general education plan, undergraduate curriculum review, the development of an honors curriculum, course scheduling in coordination with the Director of Graduate Education and undergraduate TA assignments. The Director of Undergraduate Education will work with the Director of Undergraduate Advising to coordinate Department advising functions. Duties other than those mentioned herein are undertaken by mutual agreement with the Department Chair and shall be communicated to the Department.
3.2 Department Committees
3.2.1 Executive Committee The Executive Committee acts on behalf of the faculty in the administration of the Department. The Executive Committee consists of the Associate Chair and one member selected bi-annually by each of the Department’s graduate programs. Members of the Executive Committee may not serve for more than one consecutive term. A term will have a duration of two years and appointments to the Executive Committee will be staggered such that two members wll be replaced each year The primary responsibility of the Executive Committee is to advise the Department Chair concerning the general administration of the Department. Such advisory functions shall include the development and implementation of initiatives affecting research and educational activities of the Department and the strategic planning for recruitment and use of existing and new sources of funds. Other responsibilities include space allocation and administration, and the periodic review of departmental organization and bylaws.
3.2.2 Graduate Program Committee The Graduate Program Committee shall consist of the Director of Graduate Education and one tenure-track faculty member from each of the Department graduate training programs appointed by the Department Chair. The Graduate Committee is responsible for current graduate students and the operation of the graduate program. Responsibilities of the Graduate Committee include periodic review of the graduate program, formulation of requirements for the graduate program subject to approval of the voting faculty, allocation and distribution administration of the graduate program, enforcement of degree requirements, updating and maintaining a graduate student handbook, and the development of programs (including awards) for fostering morale within the graduate student body. In addition, the Graduate Committee provides advice to the Director of Graduate Education who makes recommendations to the Department Chair regarding fellowship and teaching assistantship awards for current graduate students. Changes in the distribution of graduate TA support slots are subject to the approval of the voting faculty. Other responsibilities include monitoring the recruitment efforts of each graduate training program, monitoring the progress of all graduate students and ensuring the high quality of the graduate student body.
3.2.3 Undergraduate Committee The Undergraduate Committee shall consist of the Director of Undergraduate Education and a minimum of four full-time faculty appointed by the Department Chair. One member of the Undergraduate Committee shall be the Director of Undergraduate Advising. The Undergraduate Committee advises the Director on issues related to the undergraduate program through its recruitment of qualified undergraduate majors, formulation of requirements for the major and minor degree programs subject to approval by the voting faculty, admission decisions for students proposing to change their major or add psychology as a major or minor. The Undergraduate Committee shall also oversee the Honors program, undergraduate advisement, and the tutoring program. The Undergraduate Committee shall be responsible for undergraduate awards and shall liaison with Psi Chi and with undergraduate programs in other departments.
3.2.4 Department Institutional Review Board The Department Institutional Review Board shall consist of a Chair and at least three full-time faculty engaged in human subjects research appointed by the Department Chair. The Chair of the committee shall serve as the Department’s representative to the University’s Institutional Review Board. The Experimental Review Committee shall review all Department research protocols that involve research with human subjects to insure that they comply with all relevant university, state and federal guidelines and standards for such research.
3.2.5 Faculty Evaluation Committee The Faculty Evaluation Committee, chaired by the Associate Chair, shall consist of all members of the Executive Committee and shall work with all candidates for promotion as they prepare their dossiers for submission to the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee. One member of the committee shall be designated as the primary liaison between the candidate and the Department P&T Committee. The faculty evaluation committee will also maintain the peer review schedule for all full-time faculty and insure that evaluations occur in a timely manner consistent with University policy. The committee will solicit written information from the faculty member documenting his or her contributions in areas consistent with the faculty member’s workload agreement. One member of the committee shall serve as liaison between the candidate and the Department P&T Committee that will formally conduct the peer review. If a member of the evaluation committee is at or below the rank of a faculty member scheduled for evaluation, a temporary replacement for evaluation purposes will be appointed by the Department Chair.
3.2.6 Promotion and Tenure (P&T) Committee The P&T Committee shall consist of all voting members of the Department faculty at or above the rank for which the candidate is being considered and shall be chaired by the Associate Chair of the Department. If the Associate Chair is below the rank for the candidate being considered, the Chair of the Department will appoint an alternate chair of appropriate rank. The committee will consider the preliminary report of the faculty evaluation committee and then present their recommendations to the Department Chair. The Department Chair sends the dossier, the Department P&T report and his/her own evaluation to the College and University Promotion and Tenure Committees.
The P&T committee will, in like manner, conduct peer reviews of all tenured, tenure-track and continuing nontenure-track faculty.
3.2.7 Safety Committee The Safety Committee will consist of a Chair, appointed by the Department Chair, the Administrative Assistant to the Department Chair, and one faculty representative from each graduate training program. The committee will carry out safety inspections of all teaching and research laboratories once each year. The committee will recommend changes in Department Policy and practice in order to promote and enhance laboratory safety.
3.2.8 Other Committees
Other standing or ad hoc committees may be formed as deemed necessary by the Chair. Members of the committees will be appointed by the Chair, with one member designated as committee Chair.
3.2.9 Coordinators and Advisors The Chair shall appoint from among the faculty and staff one coordinator/liaison for each of the following departmental functions: Library, Computing, Subject Pool, Minority Student Affairs, Colloquia, and United Way. 3.2.11 Graduate Student Representation Each of the Department Graduate Programs will select a representative to be present at faculty meetings and the graduate students may select representative to serve on all standing and ad hoc committees with the exception of the Executive Committee, the Faculty Evaluation Committee and the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee.
3.2 Department Meetings
The faculty shall meet as needed but at least twice each semester. Special meetings may be called by either the Department Chair or at the request of 25% of the voting faculty. Whenever possible, faculty meetings must be scheduled at least one week in advance and at a time that does not conflict with the teaching schedule of any voting faculty. Each faculty meeting will have an agenda, usually prepared by the Department Chair. Normally, agenda items will be solicited from the voting faculty at least one week in advance, and the agenda will normally be distributed to the faculty at least two days in advance of the meeting. Although other business may be discussed at the faculty meeting, official action may be taken only on items on the agenda. Voting faculty, including those on sabbatical, may attend and participate in all faculty meetings; non-voting faculty and graduate student representatives will be invited to attend and participate in portions of faculty meetings as appropriate. A quorum shall consist of a majority of the voting faculty who are not on sabbatical or leave of absence; faculty on sabbatical or leave of absence do not count in determining a quorum. A quorum must be present at a faculty meeting for action to be taken. Voting faculty may vote on all department matters, and those unable to attend a meeting may submit proxy votes to the Chair or the Chair’s representative. Faculty on sabbatical retain their voting rights; a faculty member on leave retains his or her voting rights unless decided otherwise by the voting faculty. Except where otherwise specified, binding decisions require a simple majority of the voting faculty, whether in person, by-email, proxy, or paper ballot.
Secret balloting must be taken on all personnel matters involving full-time faculty or on other matters if requested by any member of the voting faculty.
Procedures followed during departmental meetings will be guided by Robert’s Rules of Order. 4. Appointments 4.1 Tenure-Track Appointments Ad hoc Search Committees, appointed by the Department Chair, are responsible for administering the recruitment of new tenure-track faculty. The Search Committees actively solicit the views of the voting faculty regarding the desired qualifications of candidates for open positions and formulate an advertisement to attract such candidates. The Search Committees review applications for the relevant position and identify a set of finalists who are invited to campus for interviews. After each candidate's visit, the Search Committees solicit evaluations from the voting faculty, appropriate non-voting faculty, and students, and use these evaluations to formulate a recommendation that is presented to the voting faculty at a faculty meeting. The voting faculty are responsible for determining any candidates to whom an offer will be made A two/thirds majority of the voting faculty is required to make an offer to the selected candidate. Determination-of-rank votes will be separate and will be decided by a two/thirds majority of the voting faculty at the appropriate rank and tenure status.
4.2 Continuing Non-Tenure Track Appointments
Procedures for the identification and hiring of continuing non-tenure track faculty will be identical to those used for tenure-track faculty including the determination of rank voting.
4.3 Secondary, Adjunct, and Visiting (Temporary)
Faculty Appointments Secondary faculty appointments require the approval of the voting faculty by a majority of those voting. Appointment of adjunct, visiting and other temporary or part-time faculty is done by the Chair in consultation with the sponsoring department area group(s) and the department executive committee.
5. Promotion, Tenure, and Reviews 5.1 Promotion and Tenure The composition of the Department's promotion and tenure committee is specified above (Section 3.2.6). Department procedures for promotion and tenure are consistent with University guidelines and a specified in a separate attached Promotion and Tenure document.
5.2 Peer Reviews Peer reviews will be conducted in accordance with University policy. Formal peer reviews will be conducted by the Department P&T Committee (Section 3.2.6) when scheduled by the Faculty Evaluation Committee. The Evaluation Committee solicits written information from the faculty member being reviewed documenting his or her contributions in each of the areas of research, teaching, and service. The P&T Committee then evaluates the faculty member and submits a written report to the Department Chair. A letter of evaluation is also written by the Department Chair and a copy of each letter is given to the faculty member. 6. Amendment These Policies and Procedures may be amended at a duly constituted department meeting by a two-thirds majority vote.
|
||
|
|
||