Faculty Handbook 2020-2021

SUNY College of Optometry

Faculty Handbook 2020-21

C. Amendments to the Faculty By-Laws Amendments can be passed at a faculty meeting only if the following conditions are satisfied: (1) Written notice (distributed to the faculty and posted electronically and on appropriate bulletin boards) of the proposed amendment must be made at least two weeks prior to the meeting; (2) 40 members of the voting faculty will constitute a quorum for purposes of voting on the proposed amendment; (3) a 2/3 vote, by secret ballot, of those present at the meeting is needed for the proposed amendment to pass. Voting on amendments to the by-laws can also be conducted electronically or by mail-in voting in order to reach a quorum if (a) three consecutive faculty meetings without the appropriate quorum OR (b) a period of two months from the first faculty meeting (whichever is less) have passed. Within two weeks of that time this vote will require a (2/3) vote of the responding voting faculty for passage, with a response of 40 faculty votes being considered a quorum to make the vote official. If done by mailing, it will be conducted by the dean's office, to the faculty member's home address, and will include a copy of the proposed amendment, a summary of the discussion at the previous faculty meeting(s) relating to the amendment (prepared by the faculty secretary), any position papers submitted (limited to 1/2 page in length and submitted at least one week before mailing out the ballots), a ballot, and two envelopes (one large and one small). Thirty days from the initial mailing of the ballots will be allowed before tabulation of the votes. Votes will be sent to the faculty presiding officer in a sealed small envelope enclosed in a second larger envelope with the faculty members name on it. The faculty presiding officer will keep track of responding faculty, but the tabulation of votes will be done by the Executive Committee with only the sealed unsigned envelopes containing the ballots being available. If conducted electronically, all materials identified in the preceding paragraph will be made available electronically and systems to insure the integrity of the vote and confidentiality will be employed.

II. Organization of the Faculty A. Human Resource Policies

Appointments, retention, rank, salary, tenure and other such human resources matters are governed by the policies of the Board of Trustees and the negotiated agreement between the State and the union representing the faculty.

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