BYLAWS, POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
of the
School of Information and Library Science,
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I
Introduction
Chapter II
School Organization
Chapter III
Faculty Rights and Responsibilities
Chapter IV
Students' Rights and Responsibilities
Chapter V
Programs of Study
Chapter VI
Support Services
Chapter VII
Alumni Association
Appendices


Chapter II:    SCHOOL ORGANIZATION
  1. Dean. The chief administrator of the School of Information and Library Science is the dean. The dean reports directly to the Provost, the chief academic officer of the university. Nomination for appointment or reappointment to this office is made by the chancellor after the receipt of the advice of the faculty [as defined under Section II.E., Faculty Code] either directly or through designated delegates of the dhancellor for this purpose, and after consultation with the Administrative Board of the School of Information and Library Science (hereafter referred to as the Administrative Board). The dean is appointed for a term of five years and may be reappointed.

    The dean is responsible for the overall functioning of the school. The dean has the ultimate authority within the school over personnel matters. The dean appoints faculty, staff and students to standing and ad hoc committees. The Personnel Committee reports directly to the dean, as do ad hoc committees. Other standing committees make recommendations to the faculty. Those faculty recommendations are then forwarded to the dean. The dean makes the final decision on action to be taken after discussion with the faculty. Financial decision making in areas such as faculty raises, allocation of travel funds, summer school teaching and provision of graduate assistance is the dean's responsibility. The basis for these decisions is communicated to the faculty. In all matters, the dean acts as the responsible agent to ensure that the conduct of the school is in accord with the policies and procedures of the university.

    The direct contact of the dean of the school with the provost, and through the provost with the chancellor, ensures that all goals, policies and actions of the school are consistent with the overall policies of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and with those of the parent institution, The University of North Carolina.

    The specific duties of the dean as defined in the Faculty Code of University Governance are to:

    1. Initiate and implement educational programs and policies in cooperation with the faculty and the Administrative Board;

    2. Administer, with the advice of the faculty and the Administrative Board, all curricular and degree programs, all regulations governing academic standards, and such other special functions as may be delegated to the school;

    3. Convene at least once a semester the Administrative Board of the school for the purpose of approving or rejecting new courses, clarifying and interpreting rules and regulations, planning for the initiation of changes in educational policies and practices, and transacting any other business that may be delegated to it;

    4. Call and preside over meetings of the faculty of the school;

    5. Make recommendations for appointments and promotions to the provost, in accordance with policies and procedures of the school for appointment and promotion of the school;

    6. Prepare and transmit to the chancellor an annual administrative budget and an annual report of the school;

    7. Prepare materials concerning the school for the university catalogs.

    Some of these responsibilities of the dean may be delegated to the assistant or associate dean, to staff, to faculty committees, or to the faculty as a whole.

  2. Assistant or Associate Dean. The assistant/associate dean shares with the dean responsibilities in the general areas of internal administration, student advising, financial aid, alumni relations and acts as administrative coordinator of the Certificate of Advanced Study and Ph.D. programs. Other duties may be delegated by the dean. The assistant/ associate dean is granted signatory authority for specific items on an as-needed basis by the dean.

  3. Administrative Board. The members of the Administrative Board of the school are appointed to three year terms by the chancellor upon the recommendation of the dean. The Administrative Board consists of seven members, four from the School's faculty (one of whom is the dean) and three from the faculty of the university outside the School. The dean serves as chair of the Administrative Board and schedules the meetings. The Administrative Board must meet at least once each semester. The Administrative Board performs the following functions, as defined in the Faculty Code of University Governance subject to the powers of the faculty of the school and the university faculty council:

    1. Formulates, together with the dean, educational policies;
    2. Advises the dean in handling administrative matters;
    3. Reviews and approves new programs and curricula;
    4. Examines and passes finally on all new courses proposed by the school;
    5. Performs such other duties as may be delegated to it by the dean.

  4. Faculty. The term "faculty," as used in this document, usually refers to all full-time tenure-track faculty holding the rank of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor, and full-time persons holding the rank of lecturer and instructor. The tenure-track faculty have primary responsibility for establishing policies governing educational activities and the awarding of degrees. The faculty acts upon reports from faculty committees, from the dean and from other bodies and individuals. The faculty requests information and reports from the dean on matters affecting the life of the school. The school's recommendations for educational changes are referred to its Administrative Board and to the Graduate School's Program Review Board for approval.

  5. Administrative Members of the School. The school is a collegial body. For matters relating to internal structure and planning, decisions are made collectively. Other members of the School involved in governance are the following: the School's Administrative Manager, the Director of Development and Alumni Affairs, the Director of Information Technology and Services, the Director of Instructional Technology, the Director of Communications, the Administrative Assistant to the Dean, the Graduate Student Services Manager, the Undergraduate Student Services Manager and External Affairs Assistant, and the SILS Librarian. People holding these titles will be referred to below as the Administrative Group.

  6. Faculty Meetings. Normally the faculty meet once a month during the academic year. Special meetings may be called by the dean or by the written request of twenty percent of the tenure track faculty members. Faculty meetings are conducted according to Robert's Rules of Order and are chaired by the dean. In addition to the faculty as defined above in Section D, attendees at faculty meetings include the school's Administrative Group as defined in Section E, the Information and Library Science Student Association (ILSSA) President (or designate), and a PhD student representative. The faculty extends a standing invitation to adjunct, part time, and visiting faculty members to attend. The dean or the faculty as a whole may invite other individuals to attend specific faculty meetings.

    Each tenure-track faculty member has an equal vote in decisions. The ILSSA representative may vote at faculty meetings. Faculty members unable to attend a meeting, but wishing to vote on a specific issue, may leave a written proxy vote to be cast by any other voting faculty member.

  7. Faculty Committees. A central component of the administrative and decision-making structure of the School is its use of the committee process to aid in administration and policy formulation. The committee system consists of five interrelated committee types: an executive committee; standing committees; oversight committees; ad hoc committees appointed for specific tasks, and the committee of the whole (the Faculty). The majority of faculty members on standing committees must be tenure track faculty unless the faculty votes to waive this requirement in a specific case. Terms of appointment are usually annual for the academic year from August to May, except for ad hoc committees, which may be appointed at any time for a specified period of time. Customarily, faculty rotate membership on committees so that over time each faculty member has an opportunity to serve on each committee.

  8. Executive Committees. Two senior advisory groups exist: an coordination committee and the full professors assembled. Their functions and membership are defined below.

    • Coordination Committee. The coordination committee consists of all chairs of standing and ad hoc committees of the School and the assistant or associate dean. Its function is to identify tasks that require coordination or issues that cross committee boundaries, to set and time agenda items, and to provide a sounding board for the dean on various School matters. The committee is convened by the Dean at least once each semester.

    • Full Professors. A group consisting of all tenure-track professors of the school must be convened by the dean to act on personnel matters. Its function is to consider and vote on all faculty appointment, promotion and/or tenure recommendations made by the Personnel Committee.

  9. Standing Committees. There are five standing committees: Instructional Resources and Technology; Master's; Personnel; Research and Doctoral; and Undergraduate. These committees are normally composed of a combination of faculty members and students. Students serve as voting members on all standing committees of the School. Students have access to all information available to the committee except personal data about other students, i.e., no student has access to another student's or prospective student's personal file or answers on examinations. Although the Dean is technically a member of all committees ex officio, he or she normally attends a committee meeting only upon the invitation of the chair. No ex officio committee members have voting rights unless specifically granted by the dean in this document. The general charges and composition of each of these committees follow:

    1. Information Resources and Technology Committee. The general charge for this committee is to consider the kinds of information resources support required for faculty and students of the school and to assess the adequacy of the current resources. The committee reviews policies and procedures of the school's library and the computer laboratory. It advises the school's Librarian and its Director of Information Technology and Services and reports to the dean on proposed policy changes. This committee facilitates liaison among the persons responsible for the SILS library and the computer laboratory.

      This committee is composed of at least two faculty members, an undergraduate minor, a master's, and a doctoral student. The Director of Information Technology and Services, the Director of Instructional Technology, and the SILS Librarian serve as ex officio members of the committee.

    2. Master's Commmittee. This committee's primary responsibility is to monitor the master's program, to initiate changes to the program and the parts of the curriculum that support that program, to study proposals for change submitted by others, and to recommend action to the faculty. Thus, the committee must assure that the set of courses and experiences offered by the school for its master's degrees are appropriate and that their catalog descriptions are accurate. The committee reviews all proposed changes to courses most appropriate to the master's programs and recommends their approval or disapproval to the faculty in a timely manner. The committee also has responsibility for the Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) program. The commmittee's responsibility includes examining the master's degrees and CAS program requirements and recommendiung proposed changes. The committee assures that the lists of advising specialties are up-to-date, accurate, and available to students. This committee also serves as the review committee for applications for admission to the master's and CAS programs and makes recommendations on admission to the dean. The committee is further charged with reviewing the policies for admission to the master's and CAS programs.

      The Master's Committee is composed of at least three faculty members and a master's student and a doctoral student. The school's librarian is an ex officio member of the committee.

    3. Personnel Committee. This committee is charged with reviewing all tenure track faculty members for reappointment, tenure, and promotion. The committee also reviews all persons holding adjunct appointments for reappointment and promotion. Its recommendations are made to the dean. This committee also reviews policies and procedures on faculty personnel matters and makes recommendations for changes to the faculty. The committee assigns faculty for peer observations and manages the election process for members of the Salary Committee. The Personnel committee may be asked to serve as a search committee for new faculty, sometimes augmented by additional members.

      This committee is composed of at least three faculty members and is usually chaired by a full professor. Preferably, the other members include one assistant professor (untenured) and one associate professor, a Ph.D. student and a master's student.

    4. Research and Doctoral Committee. This committee has two primary responsibilities: to foster research at SILS and to oversee the doctoral program.

      To foster research involves recommending and sometimes arranging colloquia on research topics, facilitating the development of research proposals, advising the Dean on faculty support relative to research activities (e.g., travel, research space, etc.), reviewing applications from visiting scholars, and other matters involving research.

      To oversee the doctoral program includes initiating changes in the program and the parts of the curriculum that support it, studying proposals for change to the program submitted by others, and recommending action to the faculty. The committee must assure that the set of courses and experiences offered by the school for its doctoral degree are appropriate and that their catalog description is accurate. The committee is to review all proposed changes to courses most appropriate to the doctoral program and to recommend their approval or disapproval to the faculty in a timely manner. This committee also reviews applications to the doctoral program and makes admission recommendations to the dean.

      This commmitte is also the responsible agent for ensuring that the School's practices are in accord with the university requirements governing the use of human subjects in research. As such it serves as the Human Subjects Review Committee for the school. The committee is further responsible for considering the research activities of the School and developing ways to enhance the school's research profile.

      This committee is composed of at least three faculty members, a doctoral student and the assistant/associate dean as Coordinator of the Doctoral Program. He/she serves as an ex officio voting member of the committee.

    5. Undergraduate Committee. This committee's primary responsibility is to monitor the undergraduate program, to initiate changes to the program and the parts of the curriculum that support that program, to study proposals for change submitted by others, and to recommend action to the faculty. Thus, the committee must assure that the set of courses and experiences offered by the school for its undergraduate program are appropriate and that their catalog descriptions are accurate. The committee is to review all proposed changes at the undergraduate level and recommend their approval or disapproval to the faculty in a timely manner.

      This committee also serves as the review committee for applications for admission to the undergraduate program and makes recommendations on admission to the dean. Additionally, the committee oversees the publicity and publications relating to the program.

      The Undergraduate Committee is composed of at least three faculty members and an undergraduate student.

  10. Oversight Committees. Oversight committee are elective faculty committees established to review a particular aspect of school administration. The sole current oversight committee is the Salary Committee.

      Salary Committee. This committee ensures that the written salary policy is on file and available for convenient review by the faculty. It receives from the dean normally by October 1 of each year a list of all faculty members, their salary increases and percentage increases for the current fiscal year. The committee reviews salary increases and consults with the dean about any trends that do not appear to follow the written salary policy and indicates to the dean any perceived inconsistencies. The committee appraises the dean's performance in implementing salary policies for which she/he has direct administrative responsibility as part of the regular evaluation of the dean and reports to the faculty the results of its review.

      The faculty elects a committee of three, one from each rank of assistant, associate, and full professor. Each member serves three years. The terms of appointment are such that each year one member of the committee rotates off. In the event that a member goes on leave, receives a promotion, or is otherwise unable to finish his or her term, a special election is held to fill the unexpired term. For all elections, the continuing members of the committee will call for nominations by the faculty. The two faculty members receiving the most nominations will be the candidates for the election.

  11. Ad Hoc Committees. Ad hoc committees may be appointed by the dean for specific tasks or for issues that require committee deliberation when the issue does not fall within the confines of any existing committee or when the work involved is too large to add to any existing committee's responsibilities. The composition of these committees will be determined on a case by case basis, but, in most cases, will have both faculty and student representatives as members. No ad hoc committee may exist for more than two years in a row without its charge and members being reconfirmed.

  12. Records and Reports. The dean specifies in his/her annual charge to the committee any requirement for keeping minutes and other records of its meetings. A formal written report is made to the faculty at the final faculty meetings of the Fall and Spring semesters of the activities of their committee during that term.


    May 4, 2000.