Scope

All faculty and librarians on the Bloomington campus.

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Policy Statement

Article I: The Faculty

SECTION 1.1: THE TENURE-TRACK FACULTY
The tenure-track faculty shall consist of the University President, Bloomington Provost and all professors with tenure-track appointments on the Bloomington campus.

SECTION 1.2: LIBRARY FACULTY
The library faculty shall consist of librarians with tenure-track appointments on the Bloomington campus.

SECTION 1.3 NON-TENURE-TRACK FACULTY
A. The non-tenure track faculty shall consist of academic appointees who are not eligible for tenure, and are appointed to at least 0.75 FTE, and are:
1. Members of the Clinical ranks.
2. Members of the Research Scientist/Scholar ranks.
3. Members of the Lecturer ranks.
4. Members of the Professor of Practice ranks.
B. The non-tenure track faculty does not include part-time, acting, adjunct, visiting, or honorary faculty, postdoctoral fellows, research associates, and academic specialists or other appointees not included in Section A.

SECTION 1.4: EMERITUS FACULTY
Emeritus faculty shall consist of all retired faculty and librarians who have been given the emeritus title.

SECTION 1.5: CERTIFICATION OF MEMBERS
Certification of faculty under the definitions of Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 shall be made annually by the Bloomington Provost.

SECTION 1.6: APPLICABILITY OF DEFINITIONS
A. Unless a specific constitutional provision, bylaw, or policy provides otherwise, all persons included in sections 1-4 are entitled to exercise all the rights and privileges of the faculty.

B. Persons excluded from the definition of faculty may nevertheless have certain faculty rights and privileges extended to them if explicitly provided for in university, campus, or unit policy.

C. Emeritus faculty are non-voting members of the Bloomington faculty except in matters covered by Article IV of this Constitution which terminate in a campus-wide meeting and with respect to representation in the Council as set out in Article V.

Article II: Authority of the Faculty

SECTION 2.1: AUTHORITY OF THE FACULTY
A. The faculty of the campus has:

1. Legislative authority regarding:

a. The campus' academic mission.
b. The campus' structure of faculty governance, consistent with the university faculty standards.
c. Policy and allocation of authority for academic matters affecting more than one school on the campus including campus curriculum and General Education.
d. Bloomington academic calendar, with only such deviation from the university calendar made necessary by local circumstances.
e. Creation, reorganization, merger, and elimination of programs and units affecting more than one school on the campus.
f. Appointment, promotion and tenure, compensation, conduct and discipline, and grievances of campus faculty, consistent with university faculty standards.
g. Standards and procedures for appointment and review of campus academic officers and administrative officers affecting the academic mission, consistent with university standards.
h. Admission and retention of students to the campus.
i. Campus student conduct and discipline, consistent with university standards.
j. Standards and systems for the evaluation of student academic performance of the campus.
k. Academic programs not within the authority of a school faculty. In such cases the campus faculty exercises the same authority as would be vested in a school faculty.

2. Consultative authority regarding:

a. Campus facilities and budgets.
b. Intercollegiate and intramural athletics.
c. Other matters affecting the academic mission of the campus, subject to the legislative authority of the university and school faculties.

B. School faculties (including the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences) have legislative and consultative authority pertaining to the school regarding:

1. The school's academic mission.
2. The school's structure of faculty governance, consistent with university faculty standards.
3. Creation, reorganization, merger, and elimination of academic programs and units within the school.
4. Authority of academic units within the school and the relations between them.
5. Conferring of degrees.
6. School curriculum.
7. Bloomington academic calendar, with only such deviation from university and campus calendars made necessary by special curricular or accreditation requirements.
8. Admission and retention of students in the school.
9. Standards for student academic performance for students majoring in the school.
10. Student conduct and discipline, consistent with university and campus faculty standards.
11. Appointment, promotion and tenure, compensation, conduct and discipline, and grievances of school faculty, consistent with university and campus faculty standards.
12. School facilities and budgets.
13. Appointment and review of school academic officers (except the dean of the school) and administrative officers affecting the school's academic mission, consistent with university and campus faculty standards.
14. Other matters affecting the academic mission of the school, subject to the legislative authority of the university and campus faculties.

SECTION 2.2: EXERCISE OF FACULTY AUTHORITY
A. Campus faculty authority may be exercised in meeting or by paper or electronic ballot but normally shall be delegated to a body of elected representatives, the Bloomington Faculty Council.
B. Faculties of schools or of the college may delegate authority to faculties of departments, divisions, or other academic units. The faculty of any unit to which faculty authority is delegated shall establish democratic means of self-governance, consistent with university, campus, and school/college faculty standards. Appointments of faculty to the unit, or to the chair of the unit, should be made only after consultation with the members of the unit.

Article III: Officers

SECTION 3.1: OFFICERS
A. The Bloomington Provost shall routinely preside at meetings of the Bloomington Faculty Council. It is recommended that the University President preside for at least one meeting each semester.
B. The faculty shall elect a Bloomington Faculty President, who shall serve as chief officer of the Council. Newly elected Presidents shall serve as President-Elect during the academic year subsequent to their election, President during their second year after their election, and Past-President during the third year after their election. President-Elect, President, and Past-President shall all be officers of the Council and serve as members of the Executive Committee.
C. The Council shall elect from among its elected faculty members a Secretary and a Parliamentarian. The Secretary and the Parliamentarian also shall serve as members of the Executive Committee. Other members of the Executive Committee will be chosen as described in the bylaws.
D. The Faculty President shall preside at meetings of the Faculty Council in the absence of the Bloomington Provost or University President and shall be the presiding officer of the Executive Committee.

Article IV: Meetings of the Faculty

SECTION 4.1: MEETINGS OF THE FULL FACULTY
The Faculty President shall preside at meetings of the Faculty. The Secretary, and the Parliamentarian of the Bloomington Faculty Council shall serve as officers at such meetings.

SECTION 4.2: ANNUAL REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE CAMPUS
At least once a year, on a date fixed by the Bloomington Provost, the Provost will report on the state of the Bloomington campus at a regular meeting of the Bloomington Faculty Council. The report shall be distributed to all members of the faculty by electronic or paper media.

SECTION 4.3: SPECIAL MEETINGS
Special meetings of the faculty may be convened by the University President, by the Bloomington Provost, by petition to the Bloomington Faculty President of 50 faculty members, or by majority vote of the Bloomington Faculty Council.

SECTION 4.4: QUORUM AND MAJORITY
For decisions not within the ordinary course of business, a quorum of 200 of the faculty is required. Unless 800 or more faculty members are present, a paper or electronic ballot of the faculty is required to ratify any action taken. A majority of those voting shall be required for ratification.

SECTION 4.5: NOTICE OF MEETINGS
The Bloomington Faculty President shall post notification of a meeting and its agenda to each member of the faculty as described in the bylaws, except in case of an emergency declared by the University President.

SECTION 4.6: RECORD OF MEETINGS
The Chief of Staff shall keep comprehensive minutes of the proceedings and actions of all faculty meetings and make copies available to members of the faculty.

Article V: Meetings of the Bloomington Faculty Council

SECTION 5.1: MEETINGS
The Executive Committee shall schedule meetings of the Bloomington Faculty Council on the first and third Tuesdays of the month during the regular school year, to include at least four meetings each semester. Council meetings shall be open to non-members as provided in the bylaws.

SECTION 5.2: LEGISLATIVE FUNCTIONS
All matters appropriate for faculty action under Section 2.1 may be considered by the Council. The Council may act as the representative of the faculty or may refer such matters to the faculty.

SECTION 5.3: ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS
The Council shall have administrative powers to carry out its functions, financed from campus funds, and to adopt its own bylaws.

SECTION 5.4: RESPONSIBILITY TO THE FACULTY
A. The Council promptly shall report its proceedings to the faculty.
B. On votes of main motions where at least 20% of the total Bloomington Faculty Council voting-eligible members vote in the affirmative and at least 20% of the total Bloomington Faculty Council voting-eligible members vote in the negative, the reports shall include an accounting of how the individual Council members, or their alternates, voted. A Council member may make a motion for a roll-call vote on any matter.
C. At the request of a majority of the Council members present, any matter must be submitted to the faculty for consideration, either by paper or electronic ballot or at a faculty meeting.

SECTION 5.5: MEMBERS

A. Representation of Tenure-track Faculty and Librarian Units

1. Tenure-track Faculty and Librarian Election Units; Qualifications of Representatives
   The Libraries and independent Schools (excluding, for example, the Schools under the College of Arts and Sciences) with at least 15 tenure-track faculty members shall constitute an election unit. However, the College of Arts and Sciences shall be divided into sub-election units in a manner specified by agreement of the College Policy Committee and the Bloomington Faculty Council Nomination Committee and ratified by the Council. Such division of the College into sub-election units shall be published with the Council's bylaws governing the conduct of elections. Tenure-track faculty members in any sub-election unit of the College may nominate and vote in all sub-election units of the College. Tenure-track faculty on the Bloomington campus not included within the above units shall be grouped together to constitute an election unit. Council representatives from election units must be persons qualifying under sections 1.1 or 1.2 of this constitution and shall be nominated and elected by such qualified persons in the represented unit. The number of voting tenure-track faculty and librarian representatives shall be no less than 60% of the total voting membership of the Bloomington Faculty Council.
2. Basis of Representation
   Each tenure-track faculty and librarian election unit shall have a minimum of one Council representative. The Council's bylaws shall specify a basis for apportioning representatives to election units in accordance with the number of persons in the units qualifying under sections 1.1 or 1.2 of this constitution so that there will be not less than thirty tenure-track faculty and librarian unit Council representatives.

B. At-Large Campus Representatives
From the Bloomington campus at large, there shall be at least five council representatives elected plus as many more as needed for at least 60% of the Council membership to be tenure-track representatives. Tenure-track representatives include elected tenure-track school and at-large representatives, emeriti who retired from the tenure-track ranks, and the President, Past President, and President-Elect representatives from the tenure-track ranks, but not ex officio administrators. Such representatives must be persons qualifying under 1.1 and 1.2 of this constitution.

C. Non-Tenure-Track Campus Representation
One or more election units shall be established for each of the following faculty groups: clinical appointees; lecturer appointees; professor of practice appointees; and research scientist/scholar appointees. Election units shall be proposed by the Bloomington Faculty Council Nomination Committee in recognition of the distribution of these appointees across the academic units and ratified by a majority vote of the Bloomington Faculty Council. These election units will be published with the Council's bylaws. Council representatives from these election units must be persons qualifying under section 1.3 of this constitution and shall be nominated and elected by such qualified persons in the represented unit.

D. Retired Faculty and Librarians
Retired faculty and librarians with an Indiana address of record in the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs shall constitute an election unit entitled to two Council representatives.

E. Term of Office, Nomination, and Election
The Council representatives specified in sections 5.5.A to D shall hold office for a two-year term. Except as provided below, an elected member shall be eligible to serve two consecutive terms but then shall be ineligible for the next two elections. In the conduct of elections, the Council's Nomination Committee shall arrange that half of the unit representatives and half of the at-large representatives will be elected each year. The Council's bylaws shall specify the procedures for nomination and election of unit and at-large representatives.

F. Nomination, and Election, and Term of Office of the Faculty President
The Faculty President shall be elected by the faculty at large from among at least two nominees through a process stipulated in the bylaws. Only faculty currently serving on the Council shall be eligible for nomination and election as President. A Faculty President shall be eligible for an extension of the maximum term of consecutive Council membership up to six years. Any member whose term has been extended under this provision shall be ineligible for re-election to the Council for the next two elections following the end of his or her term.

G. Administrators
The University President and Provost and such additional administrative officers as may be designated in the Council's bylaws shall be voting members of the Council.

H. Student Representatives
The voting membership of the Council shall include:

1. The President and a Vice President of the Indiana University Student Association.
2. Three graduate students selected in accordance with the procedures of the Graduate and Professional
   Student Government, of whom two shall be the President and Vice President of the Graduate
   and Professional Student Government and the third shall be a Student Academic Appointee.

I. The President of the Professional Council shall be a voting member of the Council.

J. Non-voting Members
The Council's bylaws may provide for non-voting BFC representation of other campus constituencies.

SECTION 5.6: RELATION OF BLOOMINGTON FACULTY COUNCIL TO FACULTY AND LIBRARIAN UNIT GOVERNANCE
The Council's bylaws shall provide for ways in which the work of the Council and faculty and librarian unit governance may be coordinated. To that end, a Council representative from each faculty and librarian unit elected pursuant to section 5.5.A shall serve as a Council liaison to the policy committee, or equivalent, of the unit. For other units with more than one Council representative, the Council's bylaws shall adopt a means of specifying which of its representatives shall serve in the policy committee liaison role.

Article VI: University Faculty Council

SECTION 6.1: BLOOMINGTON REPRESENTATION
Authority on matters falling under the jurisdiction of the University Faculty Council shall be exercised by Bloomington faculty representatives selected in a manner specified in the Bloomington Faculty Council bylaws Section 4.E.

Article VII: Review Functions of the Faculty

SECTION 7.1: BLOOMINGTON FACULTY BOARD OF REVIEW
The review functions of the faculty at Bloomington shall be exercised by a Bloomington Faculty Board of Review. This board shall consider complaints by any member of the faculty concerning academic freedom, reappointment, tenure, promotion, salary adjustment, and the nature or conditions of work. Additionally, this board shall consider complaints by all academic employees (whether or not they constitute “faculty” as defined in this Constitution), except student academic appointments, concerning administrative interference with their academic freedom. Student academic appointees have access to the SAA Board of Review. Members of the faculty and other academic appointees, on the Bloomington campus, desiring a review of administrative action in the areas over which the Faculty Board of Review has jurisdiction may request, in writing, a hearing by this Board of Review.

SECTION 7.2: ORGANIZATION OF THE FACULTY BOARD OF REVIEW
The elected faculty representatives of the Bloomington Faculty Council shall select nine members of the faculty as the Bloomington Faculty Board of Review. The members of the Board shall select their own presiding officer. The members shall hold office from the first day of May for staggered terms of two years. Alternates shall be selected by the Bloomington Faculty Council to replace temporarily those members of the Board absent from campus. Members and alternates shall complete the review of any case which they have begun to consider. At least two years shall elapse between terms of office. In offering nominations for election to the Faculty Board of Review, consideration should be given to representation across academic ranks, among divisions of the University, and between tenured and non-tenured faculty.

SECTION 7.3: PROCEDURES
The procedures governing the operation of the Bloomington Faculty Board of Review shall be established by the Bloomington Faculty Council.

Article VIII: Amendments

SECTION 8.1: INITIATED BY THE COUNCIL
A motion to amend this constitution may be presented to and discussed by the Bloomington Faculty Council. If the Council votes to recommend that the general faculty consider the amendment, the Faculty President shall circulate the document to the voting members of the faculty. If within fifteen class days the faculty have not scheduled a meeting to consider the amendment, the Faculty President shall proceed according to Section 8.3.

SECTION 8.2: INITIATED BY A MEETING OF THE FACULTY
A motion to amend this constitution may be presented to and discussed at a meeting of the faculty. If the meeting votes in favor of the amendment, the Faculty President shall proceed according to Section 8.3.

SECTION 8.3: RATIFICATION BY THE FACULTY
If a proposed amendment has been approved by the Bloomington Faculty Council and considered by a meeting of the faculty or if fifteen class days have elapsed after Council approval without a call for a faculty meeting or if a proposed amendment has been approved by a duly convened faculty meeting, the Faculty President shall circulate a ballot to the faculty. The paper or electronic ballot shall be accompanied by a summary of arguments presented during any general faculty meeting at which the amendment was considered. The Chief of Staff of the Faculty Council Office will receive the ballots and present the outcome for review to the Faculty President. A majority of those voting shall be necessary for adoption of the amendment.

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History

Approved: BFC 5/6/75; Faculty 11/14/75; Amended: BFC 2/5/80, 2/15/83, 2/4/92, 2/16/93, 4/19/94, 11/18/97; Faculty 5/2/80 and 4/15/83, 3/9/92, 6/25/93, 9/2/94, 12/15/97, 11/13/2007, 4/20/09; 2/4/11; 11/26/18; Last amended: February 19, 2020

Previous Versions:

February 4, 2011 - November 26, 2018

November 25, 2018 - February 19, 2020

February 19, 2020 - January 27, 2023

January 27, 2023 - October 14, 2025

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