Without relinquishing the generality of its powers, the General Faculty delegates to the Faculty Senate the responsibility for participation in governance at the university level (see Appendix B, Charter of the Faculty Senate).
The General Faculty is required to meet at least once each semester. Meetings are scheduled by the President of the University, who serves as presiding officer. Additional meetings may be scheduled at the President's discretion. If at least 10% of the voting membership petitions for a called meeting of the General Faculty, the President is obliged to schedule it within thirty days, or within ten days if the purpose of the call is to modify the authority the General Faculty has granted the Faculty Senate, or to reverse specific decisions of the Senate, or to amend the Senate charter.
The principal function of the Faculty Senate is to represent the faculty on all governance issues not internal to any single school or college. This includes, but is not limited to, curricular matters, matters concerning terms and conditions of faculty employment, and matters of academic organization. In these matters, the Provost and Senate will consult during the process of planning and implementing changes. To ensure timely consultation about these and other matters, the Provost meets monthly with the Senate's executive committee. Meetings with the President and/or other members of the central administration occur as needed.
The Senate meets at least monthly during the fall and spring semesters. Meetings of the Senate are open to all members of the university community, who may speak to any item of business on the agenda. Only members of the Senate, however, may introduce motions and vote.
Three members of the Senate are appointed by its chair to serve as liaison representatives to the Board of Visitors. They regularly attend meetings of the Board and its committees and report to the Senate about them.
As an organizational unit the college or school meets four functional criteria: (i) it has a tenured and probationary faculty directly and specifically appointed to it or to its departments by the Board of Visitors; (ii) its faculty establishes degree requirements; authorizes the conferral of degrees; proposes, reviews and approves courses and programs; participates in decisions concerning the creation, reorganization and dissolution of units within the college or school; and plays a key role in faculty personnel actions; (iii) it has an instructional budget that includes FTE-funds for the payment of its faculty's salaries as well as funds for goods and services in support of its programs; and (iv) its chief administrative officer is a dean who reports directly to the Provost.
The faculties of schools and colleges define their own voting membership. Together with their deans, they determine the processes and procedures of governance they will employ, but all schools and colleges, and if so sub-divided, their departments, must act within the following guidelines, which prescribe that they
The local level of governance is the most important in the University for the faculty's direct exercise of professional and peer judgment. Faculties of local academic units participate primarily in decision-making of two general types: (i) academic matters and (ii) matters of faculty status. They have primary responsibility for such academic matters as the design of programs, development and alteration of the curriculum, standards for admission to programs, and requirements in the major. They play a primary role in such matters of faculty status as the recruitment and initial appointment of new faculty; the reappointment, promotion and entenurement of members; and in the case of departments, the selection of the department chair.
Although tenure is considered to reside in the University as a whole, in recognition of disciplinary qualifications and for purposes of governance all tenured and probationary faculty except those holding the title of university professor are appointed to primary affiliation in one or more local academic units. The primary affiliation of tenured and probationary faculty in any local academic unit does not preclude their part-time or full-time activity in other units of the University.
In this Handbook the chief administrative officers of local academic units are generically called "local unit administrators."
An institute has a nucleus of full-time faculty appointed directly and specifically to primary affiliation in it. In addition, it may have (i) faculty who are assigned to work in it (full- or part-time) but who are affiliated primarily with other local academic units; and (ii) part-time faculty whose work for the University is solely in the institute. Of sufficient size to ensure a sense of community and responsible faculty governance, the faculty of an institute establishes degree requirements; authorizes the conferral of degrees; proposes, reviews, and approves courses and programs; and plays a primary role in faculty personnel actions.
Administratively, the director of an institute is regarded as the equivalent of a dean, and is therefore expected to possess appropriate academic credentials or their equivalent. Institute directors report directly to the Provost.
An institute has an instructional budget that includes FTE-funds for the payment of its faculty's salaries as well as funds for goods and services in support of its academic programs. Normally, however, an institute derives a substantial portion of its non-instructional funds from a source or sources other than the Virginia General Assembly.
The faculties of institutes define their own voting membership. Together with their directors, they determine the processes and procedures of governance they will employ, but all institutes must act within the guidelines listed in Section 1.3.3.
Departmental faculties determine their own voting membership. Together with their chairs, they determine the processes and procedures of governance they will employ, but all departments must act within the guidelines listed in Section 1.3.3.
The Graduate Council establishes the specific means of conducting its own business. Like colleges, schools, institutes and departments, however, it must act within the guidelines listed in Section 1.3.3.
Other multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary programs are offered by faculties drawn from more than a single local unit. These faculty members, notwithstanding that they are assigned to work part- or full-time in multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary programs, do not hold primary affiliation in the programs in which they work, but rather, in one or more of the local academic units of the university (see Section 1.3.4). For purposes of personnel decisions regarding appointment, promotion and tenure, these faculty members are evaluated primarily by their peers in the local units of which they are a part, but with the requirement that recommendations from the program faculties with which they are associated will be given due consideration.
Programs which are not internal to a single local academic unit are administered by a program director. This director is regarded as the equivalent of a department chair and is therefore expected to possess equivalent academic credentials. A program director normally reports to a dean or institute director if the program represented is internal to a single school, college, or institute, or to the Provost's office if the program transcends the boundaries of a single school, college, or institute.
Program faculties define their own voting membership. Together with their directors, they determine the procedures of governance they will employ, but all program faculties must act within the guidelines listed in Section 1.3.3.
A center is administered by a director who is appointed for a fixed term by the local unit administrator of the unit within which the center is housed. Whenever possible, centers are expected to derive most of their operating budgets from a source or sources other than state appropriations.