Article XI: Special Faculty Roles

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Appointment

The appropriate Dean will make a recommendation for a department’s Chair to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs after consulting with all full-time department teaching faculty. The chair will be appointed by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs after conferring with the Dean. A Department Chair will normally be appointed for a period of four years. The chair may be reappointed for successive two-, three-, or four-year terms.

Duties

A Department Chair, in addition to performing all regular duties of teaching faculty members, will serve as the chief administrative officer of the department and will represent the department in general University matters. The Chair will involve department members in decision making especially with regard to curriculum proposals and appointment, promotion, and retention of faculty members. He/she may also delegate administrative duties. Specific responsibilities include the following:

• Planning courses, submitting class schedules, making teaching assignments, and supervising the advising of majors
• Keeping under continuous study the departmental curriculum and standards, and making efforts to strengthen teaching procedures and to improve the quality of instruction
• Holding annual individual conferences with all department members to review their progress on current goals, consider new ones, and determine how those goals might best be achieved
• Participating in the selection and orientation of new staff members and making recommendations relative to the retention and promotion of staff members
• Preparing budget requests for the department and for library needs and requisitioning materials and equipment
• Preparing catalog material related to the department, conducting correspondence, and maintaining files necessary for the department
• Collecting the information necessary and writing the department’s annual report
• Conducting the annual evaluation of faculty members within the department (Unit III of the teaching faculty evaluation process)

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Section 2. University Parliamentarian

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Appointment

Primary and secondary University Parliamentarians are appointed by the President upon recommendation by Academic Council using Academic Council's Committee on Committees process. The Parliamentarians will be full-time members of the teaching faculty and will each serve a five-year term, with possible reappointment for two additional five-year terms.

Responsibilities

• The Parliamentarians are required to be experts in parliamentary procedure. At least one Parliamentarian is expected to be present at all university faculty meetings for the purpose of providing procedural advice.
• Parliamentarians provide guidance to presiding officers and assembly members as needed during university faculty meetings to facilitate productive, cooperative, and respectful transaction of business.
• Parliamentarians are also available to provide procedural advice to Academic Council, other committees, and task forces, as well as to individual faculty and staff members when requested.
• Administration supports specialized training and education for the Parliamentarians to maintain adequate parliamentarian expertise.

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Appointment

The Faculty Ombudsperson is appointed by the President upon recommendation by Academic Council using Academic Council's Committee on Committees process. The Ombudsperson will be a member of the full-time teaching faculty with at least ten years of experience at Elon. They will serve a three-year term, with possible reappointment for an additional term. During their term, the Ombudsperson should not hold a leadership position (such as department chair) or other position which would compromise the impartial role of the Ombudsperson.

Responsibilities

The Faculty Ombudsperson helps faculty members address conflicts by providing consultation that is as free and open as possible.

• This consultation is confidential subject to law; no records are kept other than a statistical summary of the visit and its categories.
• This consultation is independent; the Ombudsperson has no instructions from the administration as to how to offer counsel.
• This consultation is neutral; the Ombudsperson does not take a side.
• This consultation is informal; the Ombudsperson does not prepare for any formal grievance process as that would completely change the tenor of the conversation. The Ombudsperson does not participate in grievance processes in any way.
• If the Faculty Ombudsperson has a conflict of interest with the individual seeking consultation or other involved persons, the Staff Ombudsperson will provide consultation.
  
  

Please review https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/faculty-ombudsperson/ for a fuller description and contact information.