Proposed Revisions in Charter (Spring
2004)
THE
CHARTER OF THE GENERAL REGULAR FACULTY
AND
THE FACULTY SENATE, Norman Campus
THE GENERAL REGULAR
FACULTY
COMPOSITION
The General Regular
Faculty of the University is composed of all faculty members with regular
appointments tenure track, tenured, and
renewable term appointments at the rank of assistant professor, associate
professor, and professor. The General
Regular Faculty does not include faculty members with temporary
appointments.
POWERS
All legislative powers of the
faculty of the University relative to the University as a whole are vested in
the General Regular Faculty.
These legislative powers shall be exercised either directly by the General
Regular Faculty or by the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate shall remain responsible
to the General Regular Faculty for all action taken in its
behalf.
OFFICERS
The officers of the General
Regular Faculty shall be the officers of the Faculty Senate: Chair, Chair-Elect, and Secretary. The three officers shall constitute the
Executive Committee of the General Regular Faculty and shall
develop the agenda for meetings and otherwise fulfill the duties which may be
described in the by-laws.
MEETINGS
The General Regular
Faculty shall meet at least once each semester (ordinarily on the third
Thursday of October and the third Thursday of April) and at other times upon
call by the Executive Committee. Such a
call may originate from the President of the University or from a petition
submitted to the Chair of the General Regular Faculty by 30
faculty members representing two or more degree-recommending divisions. A minimum of 20 percent of the General
Regular Faculty on the Norman campus shall constitute a quorum.
THE FACULTY SENATE
COMPOSITION
The Faculty Senate shall
consist of 50 members of the General Regular Faculty. The senators shall be elected to three-year
terms by written ballot in the degree-recommending divisions of the
University. Members of the General
Regular Faculty who are not members of a degree-recommending division of
the University shall be treated as a separate division. The electors shall consist of members of the General
Regular Faculty. Full-time
In the Faculty Senate, seats
shall be allocated as follows: one seat
to each degree-recommending division and the balance of the seats according to
a triennial apportionment proposed by the Faculty Senate and approved by the General
Regular Faculty.
Five students, including both
graduate and undergraduate, chosen by the Professional
Informational Staff Association of the
ELECTION PROCEDURE
Before the end of March each
year, the Secretary of the Faculty Senate shall notify the dean of each
constituent faculty of the number of senators which that faculty shall elect
for the ensuing year. Those senators shall
then be elected in April or May. They
shall assume their duties in September and ordinarily will serve three-year
terms.
The Secretary of the Faculty
Senate shall maintain the roster of Faculty Senate membership. At any time that a vacancy occurs, the
Secretary shall notify the appropriate dean so that immediate steps may be
taken to elect a replacement to serve the unexpired portion of the three-year
term.
The Secretary of the Faculty
Senate will continuously monitor absences.
When in a given academic year a senator has accumulated four absences,
that Ssenator is to be dropped
automatically from the membership of the Senate. The Secretary will notify the appropriate
dean to take immediate steps to provide a replacement for the remainder of that
Ssenator's term.
POWERS
The Faculty Senate shall
exercise the legislative powers of the faculty of the University as delegated
by the General Regular Faculty.
The Faculty Senate shall have the power to initiate any legislation
requiring the Board of Regents' approval in accordance with provisions of the
University Constitution.
The Faculty Senate shall
determine its own time of meeting, its own rules of procedures, promulgate
rules and regulations governing its internal affairs, and establish standing
and special committees. The Faculty
Senate shall establish and publish its own set of operational procedures or
by-laws.
The Faculty Senate shall
elect a Chair, a Chair-Elect, a Secretary, and such other officers as it shall
by its operational procedures provide. The
Secretary shall not be a member of the Senate. Each standing committee of the Faculty Senate
is authorized to select non-Senate members of the General Regular
Faculty. Students may be asked to serve
and, in such cases, will be appointed by the
The Faculty Senate may
establish procedures to review the various functions of the University and any
matter affecting the welfare of the University.
Subjects for either review or legislation may be brought to the attention
of the Senate by written communication either from any member of the University
community or from any officially constituted agency.
LIAISON WITH THE PRESIDENT
The President of the
University shall present to the first meeting of the Faculty Senate in each new
academic year a general message on the state of the University in which he or
she shall give recommendations for the furtherance of the progress of the
University.
The President shall, within
30 calendar days after receipt of a Senate action, inform the Faculty Senate by
written message of his or her disposition of a Senate measure. If disapproving the measure, the President
shall, in writing, give the Senate reasons for the action.
Faculty/student councils
shall be utilized by the President of the University in the development of
policies on matters of vital interest to the University. These areas include teaching and
curriculum, research and creative/scholar activity, and public
service professional and University service and public outreach, libraries,
budgetary planning, faculty personnel, University relations, University
community, athletics, University operations, and University projects. In order to give the faculty a voice in
determining the faculty membership of major councils, which shall be named by
the Faculty Senate resolution, the Faculty Senate shall each year provide a
list of nominees from which the President will make his or her appointments for
the ensuing year.
LIAISON WITH FACULTY SENATE, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER,
OKLAHOMA CITY
The Faculty Senate (Norman)
shall maintain a liaison with the Faculty Senate (, Oklahoma City) through an
Inter-Senate Liaison Committee composed of the Chairs, Chairs-Elect, and the
Secretaries of the two Senates.
The purpose of the
Inter-Senate Liaison Committee is to exchange information between the Senates
on either campus and
AMENDMENT OF THIS CHARTER
This charter may be amended
by a two-thirds vote of those present in any regular or special session of the General
Regular Faculty, provided that no amendment shall be effective until it
shall have been approved by the Board of Regents.
A proposal to amend the
Charter may originate by action of the Faculty Senate or by motion in a meeting
of the General Regular Faculty.
In those cases in which the proposal originates through Senate action,
the proposal must be submitted to the General Regular Faculty,
and consideration for the adoption of the proposal by the General Regular
Faculty shall not occur until the expiration of 30 days after the notification
of the General Regular Faculty through the Journal of the Faculty Senate.
If the proposal originates in
the General Regular Faculty, it shall not be considered for
adoption until the expiration of 30 and not more than 40 days after the members
of the General Regular Faculty have received copies of the
proposal from the Secretary of the General Regular Faculty
(Secretary of the Faculty Senate).