Williams College Employee Handbook

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Academic Department Governance

Department Chairs

Department chairs are appointed by the President after consultation with the members of the department. There is no fixed term of service. Department chairs bear the final responsibility for most matters pertaining to departmental governance and planning, though in several departments, depending on their size and structure, some of these responsibilities may be delegated to committees or to individual faculty members. Chairs are responsible, for example, for the preparation and submission of the annual staffing report; the annual budget requests; the scheduling of classes; the preparation of the course package for the Committee on Educational Policy; consultation with the President, Provost, and Dean of the Faculty regarding salaries for non-tenured members of the department; arranging for the evaluation of teaching and scholarship; the orderly timing of leaves of absence in order to maintain continuity in the curriculum; negotiations with program chairs regarding the teaching of faculty members in the interdepartmental programs; the hiring of new faculty; advising non-tenured faculty and communicating to them the views of the tenured members of the department regarding their progress.

Each department works out its own modes of operation but should be guided by certain general principles. The smooth and effective functioning of academic departments depends upon the achievement of broadly shared perceptions of departmental goals and upon the cooperation of all department members, non-tenured as well as tenured. Agreement about goals and cooperation in their implementation are to be achieved through regular department meetings and continuing discussion among the members of the department. Departmental traditions for making decisions and resolving disagreements vary, and no one procedure could possibly cover the wide range of cases that may arise. Some matters are best left to the discretion of the chair, whereas others, such as those involving the interests of all department members (as described in the following paragraph), should be resolved through consultation, consensus, or majority vote.

Just as department members are expected to assist the chair in carrying forward the activities of the department, so chairs are expected to seek the views of all their colleagues, non-tenured as well as tenured, in decisions regarding such curricular matters as the department's requirements for the major and the content of courses required for the major, especially in multi-sectional courses. They should also be consulted about the procedures the department will use in the evaluation of teaching. Non-tenured members also have a role in the search for new members of the department, although the precise role varies from department to department (see Filling Positions below).

Consultation of this sort may not result in total agreement among a group of colleagues, but frank and full discussion, especially where there are important disagreements, will surely enhance the overall sense of involvement in department policies and of responsibility for their implementation.

Annual CAP Memorandum

Part I: Staffing Information and Requests for New Appointments

In April, the chair submits to the Dean of the Faculty Part I of the annual CAP memorandum. The memorandum should include the names of members of the department not returning in the following year or other terminations; a table of staffing projections covering a period of five years; anticipated leaves; an allocation-of-time report; and any new appointments proposed for the following two years, along with the reasons which recommend them. Those reasons should include a careful analysis of the departmental and (if relevant) program needs for the requested position, with regard to such matters as the field of specialization, the future need of the College for that specific field, and the age structure and percentage of tenured faculty in the department. The memorandum should also include a table summarizing the department's contributions to interdepartmental programs, and any other matters the chair wishes to bring to the attention of the CAP. On the basis of the memorandum, the CAP will, in late June or early July, act upon departments' requests for new appointments. If the department wishes to bring forward new arguments for increased staffing, it may do so in Part II of the annual memorandum, and the CAP will act on those requests in December.

Part II: Personnel Information and Evaluation

Every autumn, the chair should prepare Part II of the annual memorandum to the CAP in response to the Dean of the Faculty's annual request for personnel information and evaluation. Prior to the preparation of that memorandum, the chair should meet with the tenured members of the department. (Once approved for tenure by the Board of Trustees, faculty members shall begin immediately to participate in the work of tenured faculty, including participation in tenure decisions. A newly tenured faculty member shall not, however, take part in tenure decisions or appeals concerning colleagues considered for tenure in the same academic year.) Where pertinent, the chair must seek the views of the chairs of related interdepartmental programs, in order to evaluate the accomplishments and the promise of all the non-tenured members of the department. Senior faculty members on leave must either participate fully in the evaluation process of all candidates for reappointment and promotion to tenure in that year, or submit a letter evaluating the work of each reappointment and tenure candidate. Such a letter shall specify what materials the author has considered in preparing the letter. (See Evaluation of Teaching, Scholarship, and Community Service for policies and guidelines.) The memorandum that the chair finally writes should reflect fully and fairly the opinions of all the tenured members of the department. To this end the chair should circulate a draft among the tenured members of the department and incorporate appropriate revisions in the text. The final version submitted to the CAP should be initialed by all the tenured members of the department who participated fully in the discussions leading to that final version. When the memorandum includes a recommendation concerning the renewal, reappointment, or promotion of a non-tenured person, the CAP should be provided with a full statement of the grounds and of the evidence on which the recommendation, whether positive or negative, is being made. This statement should include an explanation of the procedures by which teaching, scholarship, and service to the College and department were evaluated. It should also include an analysis of departmental and institutional needs, including (where relevant) program needs in relation to the individual under consideration.

While final recommendations to the President and Trustees regarding reappointments and promotions are the responsibility of the CAP, that Committee takes into account the department's prior annual staffing reports as well as its recommendation. Individual tenured members of the department or the CAP may on occasion differ with the final recommendation, and a high degree of confidentiality must be assured to the views of individuals who participated in the recommendations, whether at the departmental level or within the CAP. The College, in turn, treats the annual staffing reports as confidential documents.

Authorization for New Positions

The annual personnel memorandum's projections and recommendations about future staffing involve judgments at the departmental and at the College level concerning matters of educational policy. When a member of a department retires, leaves the College, or goes on leave, it should not be assumed that the department will be authorized to seek a replacement. The termination of an appointment may be the occasion for a reorientation of the fields offered by a department or program; it can also be the occasion for reallocating personnel positions from one department to another. Authorization for new appointments, therefore, must be sought afresh both at the time of the submission of the annual memorandum and throughout the year as openings become available. When seeking such authorization, the chair should explain why a new person is needed: whether because of enrollment or a need to cover a particular field, or to fulfill obligations to a program.

Filling Positions

Once the CAP has authorized the department to seek new staff, the chair, in close association with tenured and with non-tenured colleagues and, where appropriate, with colleagues in related programs, should work to develop a large and varied pool of qualified candidates. The CAP will not authorize the offer of an appointment until it is satisfied that the department's recruitment of candidates is consonant with the College's affirmative action goals and commitments. Chairs should seek the help of the Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity and appropriate members of the faculty and administration in getting names of minority and female candidates that might not otherwise be known. Job descriptions of such openings should be sent to the Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity and the Dean of the Faculty in the late summer. The openings should be described as "anticipated" until such time as the CAP authorizes them. The Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity advertises all openings in a composite list in The Chronicle of Higher Education and other relevant publications in the fall. It is also customary in almost all fields to advertise in one or more professional journals or newsletters. In any case, the existence of a vacancy should be given widespread publicity. The chair is responsible for keeping a record containing the names of all job applicants, their gender and minority status (if known), the date the application was received, the dates of all actions taken, and the nature of those actions. In those years when the department is conducting a search, the chair submits a preliminary and final "Academic Appointments Record Form."

It is important that department chairs assure that both tenured and non-tenured colleagues are given appropriate opportunities to participate in the screening of dossiers of candidates. This has been accomplished in a variety of ways, including the establishment of departmental screening committees. The exact form is best left to the determination of individual departments. A trip to a professional meeting or to some fairly large academic center can help to reduce the number of candidates to a manageable list through preliminary interviews; in some cases it is useful to bring nearby candidates here for preliminary interviews that do not yet involve the CAP. Eventually, however, the department will wish to concentrate its attention on perhaps three or four candidates for a single position and will wish to bring them to Williamstown to meet the members of the department and the CAP. Prior to or at the time of these visits, the chair should send copies of the College Bulletin, the Faculty Handbook, and the "Statement of Employee Benefits" to the candidates. The visits should afford the department the opportunity to evaluate the qualifications of the candidate, and the candidate the opportunity to become familiar with the College and with Williamstown. It is important that the candidates meet both the tenured and non-tenured members of the department, students, and, where appropriate, the chairs of relevant interdepartmental programs. Whether or not a candidate should give a paper or some other formal presentation is a matter for each department to decide; such presentations are becoming increasingly common.

After the visit of a number of candidates, and after consulting with the students who met them and, where appropriate, the relevant program chair(s), the department should rank them and decide whether to recommend that an offer be made. In some departments all regular department members are involved in the ranking. In others (particularly when the position is a tenured one) the tenured members alone do the ranking, but only after consulting with the non-tenured members. The chair should communicate the recommendation to the CAP. Prior to forwarding it the chair should make sure that all members of the department are aware of the nature of the recommendation. Since the CAP's judgments are sometimes at variance with those of the department, it is important that consultation between the department and the Committee take place at an early stage before any offers are extended. Once the CAP has approved the recommendation, a copy of the letters of offer and acceptance should be sent to the Dean of the Faculty, who will use those letters as the basis for official action by the Trustees. Letters of appointment for employment that is less than full-time should contain the precise fraction of part-time effort that is expected of the appointee and upon which his or her salary will be based. Similarly, letters of appointment for those with the designation "Part-time" or "Visiting" in their titles should, after consultation with the Dean of the Faculty, specify any employee benefits being offered in addition to those legally mandated. Chairs should stay in touch with newly appointed members of the faculty and should provide help in making arrangements for housing, moving, ordering books, and planning courses (see Department Chairs above).

Program Staffing

Given that most faculty appointments and FTE allocations are made to departments rather than programs, departmental contributions are essential to the staffing of program courses. Departments contribute FTE fractions to interdepartmental programs to help staff courses that carry only a program prefix. Departments also contribute cross-listed courses, some of which may be required by the program, although the majority are electives. The FTE contributed and the enrollments generated by both kinds of courses are normally credited to the department rather than the program.

The College expects that department and program chairs will work out mutually agreeable allocations of faculty time that will allow for the staffing of courses both within the department and its major and within a program's concentration or major. The intersecting concerns of departments and programs include not only FTE allocations and course offerings but also decisions about new appointments and the evaluation of faculty contributions to programs. Regular consultation between department and program chairs is essential to addressing the concerns and meeting the needs of each. Should serious obstacles arise in the negotiating process, the chairs should bring their difficulties to the Dean of the Faculty and the CAP.

The CAP considers the needs and concerns of both departments and programs during its decision-making processes. Part I of the department's annual memorandum to the CAP should take into account the non-departmental obligations that the department has incurred or will incur, according to the process described in the section on Academic Program Governance. It should also include a table that summarizes the department's contributions to interdepartmental programs over the last five years. Part II of the memorandum should report on the contributions department members have made to the functioning of any of the interdepartmental programs and should include any evaluations submitted by program chairs (see Academic Program Governance).

Communication Between Departments and Non-tenured Faculty

It is in the interest of the College and all members of the faculty that there be open and productive communication between the chairs and non-tenured colleagues in their departments. The purpose of such communication is at least twofold: to help non-tenured faculty realize their full potential as teachers and scholars, and to keep them apprised of the judgments being made of their work. Departments follow different schedules in such matters as reviewing scholarship, interviewing students, visiting classes, and assessing changing departmental needs. Given this necessary flexibility, however, it is clear that non-tenured faculty should feel free to ask for information or advice when it is needed, recognizing that answers simply may not be available at that time. Given the comparative and prospective nature of the decisions involved and the variety of factors bearing upon them, it is not possible for a department to convey a faculty member's prospects for renewal, reappointment or promotion with any certainty. Nevertheless, if information becomes available that in the judgment of the tenured members of a department has a strongly adverse effect on someone's prospects for renewal, reappointment or promotion, the chair should communicate it at that time.

The following procedures are intended to speak to the need of non-tenured faculty members for clear and regular guidance. They apply to all faculty whose appointments carry eligibility for tenure, but who have yet to receive a tenure decision. See Annual Reviews below which also applies to non-visiting part-time faculty.

Job Candidates

Candidates being interviewed for appointment are provided by the department chair with a general overview of procedures concerning reappointment, promotion, and tenure. This overview includes any considerations that may be relevant to the position, including structural matters related to institutional needs (see Faculty Appointments). The letter of appointment should make specific reference to those sections of the Faculty Handbook that describe the standards and procedures the College employs in decisions affecting reappointment and tenure (principally Faculty Appointments and Non-tenured Faculty Evaluation).

First-Year Faculty

At the beginning of the academic year, the department chair takes special care in advising new faculty members in the ways of the department and College. The Dean of the Faculty and other administrators meet with new members of the faculty on more than one occasion to talk about the conditions of work at the College and about the procedures and criteria governing reappointment and promotion decisions. But there are other matters that are best discussed at the departmental level: work loads, the advising of majors, forms of syllabi, the management of tests and assignment of paper topics, grading standards, routines of department governance, and so on. Chairs cannot assume that new members of the faculty, coming as they do from a variety of academic backgrounds, know the standards and traditions of the College. Tactful guidance, therefore, can be of great assistance in making them feel a part of their department and of the College.

The department chair informs new faculty that the chair, in consultation with other senior faculty in the department, prepares yearly reports to the CAP that include evaluations of non-tenured faculty in the department. New faculty are provided by the chair with a list of methods used by the department to evaluate teaching, scholarship, and other contributions to the College and department.

Annual Reviews

For First-Year Faculty
Towards the end of his or her First-Year at the College, each non-tenured faculty member whose appointment carries eligibility for tenure meets with the department chair. The purpose of the meeting is to review the non-tenured member's work, to discuss any questions that he or she may have regarding the College or department, and to give whatever help or advice the chair can provide. The chair and the non-tenured member notify the Dean of the Faculty when the meeting has taken place.

For Other Continuing Faculty in Non-decision Years
During those years during which no renewal, reappointment, or promotion decision is to be made, the chair sends to the non-tenured faculty member, prior to the beginning of the spring semester, a letter summarizing, in a manner substantially congruent with the assessments conveyed in the department's staffing report, the department's judgments regarding his or her performance as a teacher, scholar, and member of the College community. A copy of the letter is also sent to the Dean of the Faculty for review. Within one month of receipt of the letter (except where complicated by a leave), the chair meets with each non-tenured member whose appointment carries eligibility for tenure and with each part-time faculty member who holds a continuing appointment to review the department's judgments and to discuss the contents of the letter and any questions which either the chair or the non-tenured member wishes to raise. The chair and the non-tenured member notify the Dean of the Faculty when the meeting has taken place. Non-tenured members are welcome to respond in writing if they wish to do so, either to the chair's letter or to matters raised in the discussion, sending copies to the chair and the Dean of the Faculty.

For Continuing Faculty In Decision Years
In the spring semester prior to a renewal, reappointment, or tenure decision, the department chair requests of the candidate, in writing, any information or material that might be relevant to the decision, and at the same time indicates to the candidate what relevant information is currently available to the department. Non-tenured faculty are encouraged both to submit regular reports to the department chairman to ensure that such information is kept up-to-date and to provide the department with their own commentary on the materials on file.

Immediately following a renewal, reappointment, or promotion decision by the CAP, the chair or the Dean of the Faculty notifies the non-tenured faculty member of the decision. Both stand ready to discuss the decision with the non-tenured member.

Prior to the beginning of the spring semester, the chair sends to each non-tenured faculty member who has been reappointed to another term of non-tenured service a letter summarizing, in a manner substantially congruent with the department's staffing report, the department's judgments regarding his or her progress as a teacher, scholar, and member of the college community. The letter also indicates any judgment conveyed by the CAP to the department. Should it have become clear during the reappointment process that structural considerations (see Faculty Appointments) will most likely require a stricter standard to be applied when that faculty member will be evaluated for tenure, the yearly letter should include a statement to that effect. A copy of this letter is sent to the Dean of the Faculty for review. If, in the judgment of the CAP, the letter does not represent the situation appropriately, the Dean of the Faculty, after consulting with the department chair, will meet with the faculty member to clarify the structural considerations.

Within one month of the receipt of this letter (except where complicated by a leave), the chair meets with the non-tenured member to convey a full account of the factors that contributed to the decision and to discuss and expand upon the contents of the letter. The chair and the non-tenured member notify the Dean of the Faculty when the meeting has taken place. Non-tenured members are welcome to respond in writing if they wish to do so, either to the chair's letter or to matters raised in the discussion, sending copies to the chair and the Dean of the Faculty.

Consultation

Since renewals, reappointments, and promotions are collegial decisions in which the CAP plays a crucial role, non-tenured faculty members should feel free to consult with the Dean of the Faculty regarding their performance and progress as teachers, scholars, and members of the College community as seen from the perspective of the CAP. They may also initiate such discussions with divisional CAP representatives. It should be understood that the CAP may not be able to offer any particular information beyond the departmental judgments but that a broader College-wide viewpoint may sometimes be helpful.

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