The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (hereafter referred to as the Department) is the Department Chair.
The initial term of office for the Department Chair is five (5) years. Additional terms of three (3) years may be possible.
The Department Chair’s performance shall be evaluated annually by the Department faculty.
All tenured full-time associate and full professors of the Department faculty shall be eligible to serve as the Department Chair.
When the Chair’s position becomes available, for any reason, the Department faculty shall recommend, to the Dean of the College, the name of a tenured faculty member for the office of Department Chair. This recommendation shall be produced by eligible faculty voting using a secret ballot (or by a series of secret ballots as necessary). The ballot shall be considered complete when one eligible Chair candidate receives a simple majority. Faculty members on leave will be polled, and their temporary replacement(s) will not participate in the balloting. The selection procedure normally will take place during the semester prior to when the Chair’s position becomes available.
The faculty reserves the right to request removal of a chair at any time. Removal must be voted by secret ballot and shall require a two-thirds majority of ballots cast for submission of the Department request to the Dean of the College. In the case of removal, the Department Chair shall not cast a ballot.
Section 2. Operation
Department policy shall be determined by the Department Chair in consultation with the faculty at Department faculty meetings.
All full-time faculty, except adjunct and letter of appointment faculty members,with appointments in the Department shall have the right to vote for a nominee for chair and to amend the Department Bylaws, in accordance with the University Bylaws and the Βι¶ΉΣ³» System of Higher Education (NSHE) Code. Continuing part-time faculty members with positions of at least 0.5 FTE in the Department will have a vote proportional to the level of the appointment.
Voting on tenure and promotion decisions is limited to those faculty members who have already attained the rank or status at issue. Voting on tenure track appointments is limited to those faculty members who hold such appointments. No faculty member shall vote on his or her own appointment, tenure, promotion, or in cases when a similarly clear conflict of interest exists.
Section 3. Rules of Order
All meetings shall be conducted according to Robert’s Rules of Order.
Section 4. Amendments to Bylaws
Any member of the Department faculty may propose amendments to these Bylaws. Amendment proposals may be submitted either in writing or orally to the Department faculty.
Approval of two-thirds of the total eligible Department faculty is required to amend the Departmental Bylaws.
Bylaw changes shall be by secret written ballot distributed one week in advance of the final date for submitting the completed ballot. The Chair shall have the right to vote.
These Bylaws and amendments there to shall in no way conflict with the College of Engineering Bylaws nor with the University Bylaws and the NSHE Code