Article 8: The College of Arts and Sciences
§ 8-1. Divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences
(a) The College of Arts and Sciences is organized into the Divisions of Fine Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Social Sciences. These Divisions comprise the departments and curricula listed below:
- Fine Arts: Art and Art History; Dramatic Art; and Music.
- Humanities: American Studies; Classics; Communication; English and Comparative Literature; Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures; Linguistics; Philosophy; Religious Studies; Romance Studies; and Women’s and Gender Studies.
- Natural Sciences and Mathematics: Applied Physical Sciences; Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Chemistry; Computer Science; Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences; Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program; Exercise and Sport Science; Mathematics; Physics and Astronomy; Psychology and Neuroscience; and Statistics and Operations Research.
- Social Sciences: Aerospace Studies; African, African American and Diaspora Studies; Anthropology; Archaeology; Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; City and Regional Planning; Contemporary European Studies; Economics; Geography; Global Studies; History; Latin American Studies; Military Science; Naval Science; Peace, War, and Defense; Political Science; Public Policy; and Sociology.
(b) The secretary of the faculty assigns to the appropriate division any department or curriculum not specified in subsection (a).
(c) The Committee on University Government, with the approval of the chancellor, may adjust the assignment of departments and other units in subsection (a) whenever required by changes in the organization of the College.
(d) For the purposes of elections stipulated in § 8-3, members of departmental faculties have voting privileges only in the division of their primary appointment. Faculty members who have no departmental affiliation have electoral voting privileges in the division to which they are assigned by the secretary of the faculty.
(e) For the purposes of § 8-4, members of the voting faculty with multiple appointments may participate in more than one divisional faculty, in accordance with their appointments.
§ 8-2. Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences
All members of the General Faculty holding primary appointments in departments and curricula within the College of Arts and Sciences are members of the Arts and Sciences Faculty.
§ 8-3. Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee
(a) The Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee consists of four members of the Arts and Sciences Faculty holding the rank of professor, one elected by each of the divisions specified in § 8-1 from among its members. The term is three years, and members may not be elected to more than two consecutive terms. Sitting department chairs may not serve on this committee. The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences consults the committee on:
- Appointments, reappointments, and promotions that have the effect of conferring permanent tenure;
- Promotions to a higher rank of persons holding permanent tenure at the rank of associate professor or assistant professor; and
- Appointments to distinguished professorships.
(b) Interim vacancies are filled by the secretary of the faculty from the list of those voted on in the two most recent elections in the order of the highest number of votes received unless all such persons decline appointment or are ineligible, or there is an insufficient number, in which case the vacancy is filled by the secretary in consultation with the chairs of the units that comprise the division.
§ 8-4. Divisional faculties*
(a) The faculty of each Arts and Sciences Division is composed of the voting faculty members of its component departments and curricula.
(b) A meeting of any divisional faculty to discuss matters pertaining to the division may be called by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and must be called upon the written request of ten percent of the divisional faculty or three department or curriculum chairs in that division, except for the Division of Fine Arts, in which a written request from only two chairs is required. The division’s representative on the Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee serves as the presiding officer; in the absence of this representative, a presiding officer is chosen by the dean.
(c) A quorum is conclusively presumed at any meeting of a divisional faculty called on at least ten days’ written notice. Otherwise, the presence of twenty percent of the division’s voting members is necessary for a quorum.
(d) The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences shall insure that each divisional faculty is represented on the Administrative Boards of the College and General College, and on any other standing committees that deal with the instructional programs of the College or General College.
*Resolution 2013-2 provides that the former bylaws of divisions of the College as constituted under prior versions of this Article 8 are suspended, but “nothing in this resolution prevents the College divisions from creating new bylaws in the future, should the need arise.” [link]
