Academic Specialist Manual

2.1 Academic Governance

The academic specialist may participate in a governance structure as set forth below:

An Academic Specialist Advisory Committee shall be established to provide a governance structure for the academic specialist community. The Committee shall advise the Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs on matters relating to the Academic Specialist Appointment System and other relevant issues of mutual concern. The Committee shall meet at least once a semester and more frequently at the call of the Committee chairperson, a simple majority of the Committee or the Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs. 
The Committee shall be composed of up to fourteen members, with representatives from each of the functional areas (research, outreach, teaching, advising, curriculum development); one Committee position will be elected from academic specialists who hold fixed term appointments. Additionally, up to three academic specialists will be appointed by the Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, in consultation with the Advisory Committee, to provide diversity and balance. The Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs and his/her staff member(s) shall be ex officio members of the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee's composition shall ensure that at any one time academic specialists with assignments of teaching, advising, curriculum development, research, public service/outreach and appointment on a fixed term basis are represented on the Committee.

The distribution of elected positions on the Academic Specialist Advisory Committee among the functional areas reflects the current distribution of academic specialist appointments; at six year intervals, a review will be made of the pattern of academic specialist appointments to accommodate any changes in the distribution of academic specialists among the various functional areas.

Nominations and elections shall be administered during the Spring semester by the Office of the Secretary for Academic Governance, in consultation with the Office of the Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs. Advisory Committee members shall serve three-year terms on a staggered basis; appointed Committee members serve a one-year term. A limit of two consecutive three-year elected terms shall apply; an individual may only serve six consecutive one-year appointed terms. All academic specialists with continuing, probationary and fixed term appointment status as of January 1 of the year of the election are eligible to be nominated and to vote in advisory committee elections.

The Bylaws of the Academic Specialist Advisory Committee provide additional detailed information about Committee membership and nomination and election procedures. Copies of the bylaws are available from the Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs.

Finally, the University strongly recommends that the academic specialist be extended governance enfranchisement at the college and other administrative unit levels by individual units pursuant to the Bylaws for Academic Governance.

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