DATE: 4/17/08
TO: Faculty Senate
FROM: By-law Ad-hoc Committee: Achenreiner, Vogt, Winfrey, McLean, May, Clow,
Wilson, J. & Morgan
RE: Recommendations regarding UW-L By-laws
IMPETUS FOR THE RECOMMENDATIONS
• To ensure access to the most recent departmentally-approved by-laws for faculty, IAS,
and reviewing personnel.
• To ensure by-laws that communicate the most important personnel information to new
faculty & IAS – including information that is standard for UW-L personnel.
• To enhance the application of policies which when poorly crafted or applied often result
in hearings following non-renewals.
• To provide guidance to departments in developing by-laws by including information
regarding best practices for consideration.
• To reduce confusion at the departmental level regarding the timing of by-law iterations
and personnel policies. The retention/tenure of faculty must be conducted following
the departmental personnel policies guiding retention/tenure at the time of hire.
OVERVIEW
The Ad-hoc committee determined what structural components of departmental by-laws
should be standard across the university and developed a format with a small amount of
required language. Recommendations and guidance are also provided. Departments are
responsible for the content of by-laws and the applications of policy therein. UW-L
department chairs have received a copy of these documents and discussed their content in
chairs’ meetings.
RECOMMENDATIONS
We are recommending approval at the first-read of the following:
• Recommended Outline Format: Requesting approval of the order and content of the
outline shown in Appendix A.
• Recommended Deadlines:
o Each academic college will have a webpage where all departmental by-laws are
posted by August 2008. All by-laws will include the date of the last modification. As
of August 2008, the by-laws on file (and on the web) with the college office will
represent the official by-laws for the department should any form of dispute arise.
Departments have until June 1, 2009 to develop their by-laws in line with the
recommended changes. As of August 1, 2009 all departmental by-laws will reflect the
recommended format and be posted on-line via the college webpage.
o Comment. Although Deans do not formally approve departmental by-laws, they are
required to review them to make sure they are in accordance with UW and UW-L
policy and procedure. Consequently, the dean must be notified of all by-law
modifications and receive the most current copy.
As by-laws affect all faculty and instructional academic staff, we are requesting two reads
for approval of the required wording, recommended wording, and guidance:
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•
•
•
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Required wording, guidance, and recommended wording as shown in Appendix B
(currently in the form of an excel spreadsheet).
Column 1 provides the outline (as recommended above) (purple heading)
Column 2 (yellow background) provides the recommended required wording (largely
references to state and system statute and UW-L policy).
Column 3 (green heading) provides some guidance from the ad-hoc committee
regarding issues for a department to think about as it makes by-law changes.
Column 4 (salmon heading) provides recommended wording provided merely for the
convenience of departments.
Appendix C is a Word version of the outline with the required wording if that format is
more convenient for readers.
UW-L department chairs have received a copy of these documents and discussed their
content in chairs’ meetings. A complete set of sample by-laws will be produced using the
format and content above if approved and will be available for departments this summer.
Finally, any references to SEIs or TAIs in the document are not applicable to library faculty.
Thank you.
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