1. Structure of the Committee

  1. The committee is composed of (i) one academic faculty member from each degree granting college and school, and (ii) one librarian. Should the membership of the committee not include a Faculty Senator, a Faculty Senator will be appointed to the committee in an ex- officio, non-voting capacity.
  2. Committee members shall be appointed according to the by-laws of their respective college, school, or library. Committee members shall serve two-year terms. Such terms shall be staggered so that, as nearly as possible, the terms of one-half of the committee members shall expire each year. A Faculty Senator appointed under Section 1.1 is appointed for a one-year term.
  3. The chairperson of the committee is elected annually by the committee at the first meeting in spring and appointed by the Senate Chairperson with the advice and consent of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. The name of the nominees will be directly sent to the Faculty office a week prior to the first meeting of spring semester.
  4. Faculty members currently serving on the committee are ineligible to submit an application for a leave (51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Faculty Senate Bylaws 5.20). If the current committee member intends to apply for leave, then he/she should resign before the application and the college should replace the member in accordance with college bylaws.

2. Operational Procedures of the Committee

  1. Meetings of the committee are initiated by the chairperson of the committee or by any member through the chairperson.
  2. The committee shall meet as often as necessary in order to perform the functions of the committee.
  3. A quorum shall consist of at least 50% of the committee members.
  4. A simple majority vote of the quorum is required for action.
  5. Proxy Policy
    1. If a member is unable to attend a single meeting, the member should convey their position on issues prior to the meeting. Absentee ratings and rankings of the faculty leave applications should be sent to only the committee chair. Positions (and written votes) on issues other than the evaluation and rankings of leave applications should be sent to the whole committee. Written votes may be submitted on only the known issues; that is, issues on the agenda.
    2. If a committee member plans on being absent for a long-term, the policy of this committee concerning that substitute shall conform with the by-laws of the member’s respective college, school, or library.
  6. The chairperson of the committee shall report at least once each semester on actions taken by the committee to the Faculty Senate.
  7. At least one week before the deadline for application submission, the chair will email the following instructions to the committee members:
    1. the document "Faculty Senate Guide Sheet for Faculty Development, Sabbatical Leave Applications",
    2. the document "Faculty Leave Program Policy and Preparation of Application", and
    3. the information contained in Article 2.9 of these Bylaws, which outlines the evaluation procedures.
    Committee members should review the documents, and forward any questions to the chairperson. The chairperson may choose to answer questions individually, or to discuss with the entire committee. The committee discussion may occur by a web- or tele- conference or in person.
  8. The chairperson shall distribute the applications to the Committee Members.
  9. The evaluation procedures of the committee:
    1. The committee will meet often enough to evaluate an approximately equal number of applications at each subsequent meeting so that the evaluations are complete at least one week before the recommendations are due to the Provost.
    2. Committee members will be prepared to discuss the applications at each of the evaluation meetings.
    3. The individual scoring of the committee members and deliberations will remain confidential in the Committee and only final decision will be reported.
    4. During the week prior to the date that the recommendations are to be made to the Provost, the Committee will meet to tally the scores of the applications, rank them according to the total scores of all the members voting.
    5. The chairperson will forward the recommendations of the committee to the Provost by the due date.
    6. During the spring semester, the committee will meet as often as necessary to perform the committee functions. The committee will hold an Orientation Meeting for faculty considering applying for the leaves.

3. Amendment of Bylaws

  1. Amendment of these Bylaws may be accomplished in the following manner:
    1. Amendments may be proposed by any member of the Committee.
    2. The proposed amendment shall be circulated to all Committee members one week prior to a properly called and constituted meeting.
    3. Adoption of a bylaw amendment requires a two-third vote of the membership.

Approved October 23, 1992, FDL Committee
Revised March 10, 1993, FDL Committee
Revised April 17, 2015, FDL Committee
Revised December 6, 2018 FL Committee