E. Department Chairs of the Colleges

1. Duties of Department Chairs

   The duties of the department chairs are to:

   1. Serve as the official channel of communication between the department and the provost, dean, other University officials, and other departments;
   2. Call meetings of the department faculty, preside over the meetings, transmit minutes of the meeting to the dean, and maintain such minutes in the departmental file;
   3. Report to the dean regarding the activities and needs of the department;
   4. Submit new courses, revision of existing courses or deletion of courses to the appropriate committee or office;
   5. Recommend budgetary needs of the department to the dean;
   6. Coordinate library acquisitions;
   7. Assist the dean and provost with new faculty searches;
   8. Recommend to the dean the appointment, re-appointment, tenure, promotion and/or dismissal of faculty;
   9. Assist the dean in evaluation of department faculty;
   10. Develop course schedules and staffing of classes as well as selection and ordering of textbooks;
   11. Oversee any special duties located within the department;
   12. Hear student complaints against department faculty or policies;
   13. Attend meetings of department chairs; and
   14. Be available as needed during summer months for department functions or meetings.
2. Appointment of Department Chairs
   1. Departments will submit their recommendation to the dean each April for the chair for the next academic year.
   2. Departments may determine the method used to select a chair; however, voting is strongly recommended.
      1. All members of the department who are full‐time, tenure-track appointments are eligible to vote. Voting privileges can be extended to other full‐time faculty upon majority approval of the tenure‐track faculty.
      2. Any faculty member nominated by department vote must agree to serve prior to being appointed chair by the dean.
   3. The dean shall exercise authority to appoint a chair other than the person elected, provided that the dean:
      1. Has received and examined the department preference:
      2. Consults with the department faculty where the dean exercises his/her discretion to decline the faculty recommendation; and
      3. Is unable to find anyone capable of holding the chair’s position from among the existing faculty.
   4. The term of office of a department chair is one year, but there is no limit upon the number of terms she/he may serve. The chair sits at the discretion of the dean and can be removed at any time.