NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY

FACULTY BENEFITS COMMITTEE

BYLAWS

 

ARTICLE I

            NAME:  Faculty Benefits Committee

 

ARTICLE II    

            OBJECT:

 

A.      The Faculty Benefits Committee shall review, evaluate, and make recommendations concerning those policies, procedures, and programs related to faculty benefits; in particular those policies dealing with insurance, retirement, salary schedules, academic leaves, summer fellowships, institutional project grants, deferred compensation, the credit union, travel allowance, and reassigned time.

B.     It shall process applications of and make recommendations on candidates for faculty Sabbatical Leaves, Faculty Project Grants, Faculty Summer Fellowships and other programs assigned by the Faculty Senate.

 

ARTICLE III

            OFFICERS:

 

            With approval of the committee majority, the chairperson shall appoint a secretary to keep minutes of all meetings.  Except for presiding in the chairperson's absence, the secretary shall not be required to perform additional duties.

 

ARTICLE IV 

            MEETINGS:

 

A.      The chairperson shall call meetings by notifying the committee members approximately one week in advance. To assure maximum attendance by committee members, the chairperson shall be consistent in the scheduling of meetings and choose times convenient to as many members as possible.

B.     A committee majority shall constitute a quorum, and unless otherwise specified, decisions shall be made by the majority in attendance.

C.     Proxy votes shall be allowed only when approved by the majority at the time of voting.

 

                                   

ARTICLE V 

            STANDING SUBCOMMITTEES AND THEIR APPOINTMENT:

 

A.      The chairperson shall appoint members, with their consent to the subcommittees for

1)     Faculty Sabbatical Leaves,

2)     Faculty Summer Fellowships, and

3)     Faculty Project Grants and

4)     Any other programs assigned by the Faculty Senate.

B.     Each subcommittee shall consist of at least four members, one of whom shall be appointed subcommittee chairperson by the FBC chairperson.

C.     Whenever possible, each program cluster from which one or more proposals originate shall have at least one FBC member represent it in the subcommittee.

D.     Committee members who are applicants for a leave, fellowship or grant shall not be a member of the subcommittee reviewing the proposal nor shall they be present at the meeting of the full committee at the time their proposal is discussed and voted upon.

E.     Procedures for evaluating and rank-ordering faculty proposals submitted to the committee shall be as follows.

1)     Applications from NKU Faculty for faculty Sabbatical Leaves, Faculty Summer Fellowships, and Faculty Project Grants shall be received by the committee and subcommittees according to the form prescribed in the Faculty Policies and Procedures Handbook (FPPH).

2)     Applications received after the deadline stated in the FPPH shall only be allowed with the permission of the applicant's Dean, plus the majority of the FBC.

3)     Proposals submitted to the FBC, including the program chairperson's comments on each proposal, shall be collected into two separate sets by the chairperson.

4)     One set shall be made available to the appropriate subcommittee for its careful review and consideration in determining the rank-ordering of candidates.  The chairperson shall be certain to make this set available             to the subcommittee no later than one week after the deadline for submitting proposals to the FBC.

5)     A second set, including the same information, shall be made available by the committee chairperson to all other members of the full committee for review.  A record shall be kept of those committee members who have reviewed the proposals.  Only those committee members who have reviewed the proposals shall be eligible to vote their approval or disapproval of the subcommittee's rank-ordering.

6)     a. All proposals will be initially read and evaluated by each member of the subcommittee independently and without consultation.

b. Each proposal shall be assigned a numerical value, on a scale of 0 through 4, by each subcommittee member.

c. After each subcommittee member has read, evaluated, and assigned a numerical value to each proposal the subcommittee will then meet to discuss their evaluations and rank-order proposals.

1.                        The initial rank-ordering shall be arrived at by calculating the average numerical value for each proposal. 

2.                        This initial rank-ordering may be adjusted by the subcommittee to reconcile marked differences among subcommittee members in the evaluation of a given proposal(s).

7)     The rank ordering shall be approved by three-fourths vote of the entire subcommittee. The subcommittee chairperson shall then be responsible for reporting the decision to the FBC.  Should any irresoluble differences of opinion occur within the subcommittee, the chairperson will inform the full committee of the circumstances and specific points of disagreement.  Should no agreement on a rank-ordering be forthcoming, the subcommittee chairperson will state so and submit his/her rank-ordering of applicants to the full committee.

8)     At least two weeks before the FBC is to report its findings to the Provost, the subcommittee shall have made available its decision to the full committee.

9)     The committee shall then approve by a two-thirds vote the rank-ordering of applicants as submitted by the sub-committee chairperson, or as amended, subject to Article V E5.

 

 

10) All proposals, chairperson's comments and recommendations of the subcommittee and the full committee for each faculty development program shall be considered confidential until the decision on funding of the program is announced by the Provost.

11) Requests by project grant recipients for reconsideration of the committee's recommendations regarding changes in line item funding of approved grants are to be viewed as extraordinary procedures. Recipients may only make such a request, in writing, and within 10 university working days following notifications, through the Provost, who will decide its merits and may make a recommendation to the committee for reconsideration. The committee, upon considering the Provost's recommendation and after conducting a second evaluation of the proposal, shall, within 10 university working days, render a recommendation to the Provost.  No further reconsideration of the grant application will be made by the Faculty Benefits Committee.

 

ARTICLE VI

TEMPORARY SUBCOMMITTEES:

 

For other matters the committee may consider, such as development of new policies, recommendations, or various other issues, the chairperson may appoint other subcommittees upon approval of the committee majority.  In the same way ad hoc committees may be appointed to include, if desired, administrators, students and faculty not already members of the FBC.

 

 

ARTICLE VII

METHOD OF AMENDING THE BYLAWS:

 

            Bylaws may be amended at any regular committee meeting by a majority vote of the full committee provided the amendment was submitted in writing at the previous regular meeting.

                                                                          

 

Adopted

Academic year 1984-85