The strong tradition of faculty governance within the College includes a role in the selection Chairs or Directors of Programs, Centers and Institutes with affiliated faculty (hereafter including in the term Chairs). Chairs assume responsibilities for the day-to-day business of their units, and act as the leading representatives of their units in interactions with the College. Chair appointments are the prerogative of the Dean, but by tradition and practice they are made after discussion with the faculty, in concert with Article II, Section 2.2. B of the Bloomington Faculty Council Constitution (http://www.indiana.edu/~bfc/): "appointments of faculty to . . . the Chair of the unit, should be made only after consultation with the members of the unit."

Procedures for Appointment of Chairs

All units should employ confidential procedures for expressing their preference for appointment of their Chair. The process must include an open forum for faculty discussion and a secret ballot, although the precise methods for selection of candidates chosen from the tenured faculty and the practices for ballots and voting will vary among units. The preference(s) expressed by faculty balloting should be conveyed to the Dean, and may include statements regarding the basis for support of individual candidates. It is rare that the Dean will not appoint a candidate preferred by a clear majority of the faculty for the position of Chair, and it is reasonable to expect some explanation under such circumstances. However, in instances when opinion is closely divided, the Dean’s prerogative holds sway. When the position of Chair is filled by a new hire, faculty preference is expressed in the recommendation for appointment to the Dean.

The typical term of appointment of a Chair is three or four years, and consultation with the faculty within the department or unit in accordance with procedures described in the preceding paragraph should occur prior to the reappointment of a Chair, or any extension of the term of service.

Annual Departmental Review of Chairs

Every year each unit should submit a report to the Dean that reviews their Chair’s performance in research, teaching and service, with especial consideration of his/her effectiveness in the execution of the responsibilities of a Chair. An appropriate departmental faculty committee that is not appointed by the Chair, such as an elected policy committee or a merit review committee, should undertake this task. The committee must inform (e.g., by a general e-mail solicitation) all faculty in the department of the opportunity to offer confidential comments on the Chair’s performance and must ensure that their report to the Dean both describes and considers the full spectrum of substantive faculty views that they receive. It is expected that the Dean will respond to the committee in the rare instance that serious concerns with the Chair’s leadership are expressed.

Procedures for Dismissal of Chairs

Under exceptional circumstances members of the faculty within a unit may collectively ask that a chair be dismissed as an expression of faculty governance through articulation of explicit reasons pertaining to questions of leadership. The annual departmental review of a Chair provides one mechanism for such a request to be made to the Dean; alternatively, it may be based on a majority vote of no confidence using a confidential protocol, perhaps one similar to that adopted in expressing a preference for a Chair. In such rare instances it is expected that the Dean would consult with the faculty further to ascertain the basis for the request, the extent of support for a change in Chair, and to determine the expressed preference for a new Chair. Only in exceptional circumstances would the Chair not be replaced when a substantial majority of the faculty requests dismissal.

A Chair may also be dismissed on the Dean’s authority. The Dean must consult with the College Policy Committee before dismissal. The dismissal of a Chair does not in and of itself constitute formal suspension of faculty governance as such (see Policy on Suspension and Restoration of Faculty Governance in Departments and Other Units), and normal procedures for faculty to express their preference for appointment of a new Chair should be followed as soon as possible thereafter.