College of Arts and Sciences: Public Policy Bylaws

Unit Policy

Title

College of Arts and Sciences: Public Policy Bylaws

Introduction

Purpose

The bylaws of UNC (Department of) Public Policy address the organization of the academic unit, faculty shared governance, and administrative operations. As per our founding bylaws, it was expected that these bylaws will be changed from time to time as the needs of the academic unit evolve, which could be accomplished by a simple majority vote of the core tenured and tenure-track faculty. The faculty affirms that the bylaws will be reviewed every five years.

This document contains four sections. The first addresses the appointment of individual faculty members to serve in leadership positions. The second defines the standing committees of UNC Public Policy. The third and fourth sections outline non-standing committees and the permanent administrative staff and their responsibilities, respectively. The Department Chair refers to the Chair of the UNC (Department of) Public Policy.

Scope

• Who does this Policy apply to? (Keep in mind that a Unit Policy can only apply to the same Unit)
• Are there particular groups within the Unit who must know and follow this Policy?
• Are there groups within the Unit that this Policy does NOT apply to?
  • If it’s a succinct statement, you can exclude groups here.
  • If the exclusions will take more space to explain, use the “Exclusions” section below.

Policy

Part 1: Academic Leadership

The proper discharge of academic unit obligations and responsibilities can be more readily assured by having selected individuals focusing on certain essential functions or areas.

1. Chair

The Chair is appointed by the Dean of the College for a term of four-years (renewable). The Chair receives a stipend determined by the College and 2 course releases.

Responsibilities are detailed in the Chair’s manual and include (but are not limited to):

• Preparing and approving the budget.
• Approving the Master of Public Policy (MPP) Program budget.
• Administering personnel policies, including annual and other required faculty evaluations.
• Making recommendations for appointments, salary increases, promotions, and tenure.
• Approving course offerings and assigning teaching duties in consultation with the faculty, the Associate Chair, and the Directors of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies.
• Formulating educational policies.
• Maintaining instructional facilities.
• Providing information to the Senior Associate Dean on who will cover teaching and administrative assignments during the absence of a faculty member.
• Leading fundraising.
• Appointing the Associate Chair, the Directors of Graduate Studies, Undergraduate Studies, Experiential Education, and the Master of Public Policy Program, the Diversity Liaison, and chairs/members of standing and non-standing Committees.
• Meeting annually with junior tenure-track faculty to provide guidance on developing their research, teaching, and service portfolios.
• Identifying opportunities and preparing nominations for leadership positions, career development, and recognition of both staff and faculty.

 There is a Chair’s manual available for all CAS chairs.

2. Associate Chair

The Associate Chair receives (1) course release and a $4000 stipend per academic year.

Responsibilities include:

• Preparing course offerings and drafting teaching duties in consultation with the faculty and the Directors of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies.
• Helping the Chair prepare the instructional budget.
• Working with the Chair to appoint standing and non-standing committees.
•  Providing direct support to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS), Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), Director of Experiential Education (DEE), Director of the MPP Program, and the Diversity Liaison (DL).
• Working with each committee chair/co-chair to develop an agenda for the committee and a process to report any recommendations to the tenured and tenure-track faculty.
• Organizing the  Faculty Peer Mentoring Program.

3. Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) and the Honors Program

The DUS receives (1) course release and a $2500 CAS stipend per academic year. Responsibilities include:

• Serving as the Chair of the Undergraduate Studies Committee.
• Serving as liaison to the Office of Undergraduate Curricula, Office of First Year Seminars, Office of Instructional Innovation, Academic Advising, Honors Carolina, Undergraduate Admissions Office, and Office for Undergraduate Research.
• Assisting new faculty with designing undergraduate courses and preparing new course submissions that meet the educational standards established by the College of Arts and Sciences. The DUS may also have responsibility for providing guidance to new faculty on mentoring and advising undergraduate students.
• Proposing changes to requirements for the undergraduate major and minor in consultation with the faculty of Public Policy and implementing changes approved by the Administrative Board of the College of Arts & Sciences.
• Proposing revisions to Public Policy’s section of the Undergraduate Catalog in consultation with the faculty.
• Reviewing syllabi for proposed new undergraduate courses and approving courses submitted through the Curriculum Information Management System.
• Advising undergraduate majors and minors (or training and overseeing the work of those who do).
• Authorizing substitutions for requirements for the major and minor, reviewing transfer courses submitted by students seeking re-evaluation, and reviewing Study Abroad credit requests.
• Coordinating independent study courses.
• Coordinating the unit’s participation in New Student Orientation programs and events.
• Providing resources to help provide guidance to new majors/minors in conjunction with Academic Advising.
• Appointing honors thesis committees in consultation with the thesis advisor and the student.
• Conducting annual learning outcomes assessments of the undergraduate program.
• Overseeing the selection of students earning undergraduate awards.
• Helping organize commencement ceremonies (December and May).
• Collaborating with individual faculty, the Associate Chair, the DGS, and the Chair to prepare course schedules and teaching assignments.
• Collaborating with the Chair and staff to coordinate and review the student evaluations of teaching.

Responsibilities of the DUS can be found here.

4. Director of Experiential Education (DEE)

The DEE receives (1) course release if full-time fixed-term FTE. The DEE receives $1500 if not full-time fixed term faculty.

Responsibilities include:

• Building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with community partners, including non-profit organizations and government agencies.
• Fostering collaboration with other academic or student-affairs units at UNC.
• Assisting students seeking internships.
• Overseeing the Capstone program, including coordinating the instructional team; promoting consistency across Capstone projects’ depth, scope, and quality; and providing guidance on Capstone processes.
• Overseeing other courses with experiential learning components, ensuring they support the department’s curricular goals.
• Publicizing existing opportunities and developing new opportunities for students to participate in experiential learning.

5. Director of Graduate Studies (DGS)

The DGS receives (1) course release and a $2500 CAS stipend per academic year. Responsibilities include:

• Serving as the Chair of Graduate Studies Committee.
• Serving as the primary resource for graduate students concerning academic and other requirements, campus resources, graduate student residency for tuition purposes, and health insurance and other benefits, such as maternity/family leave policies and procedures.
• Helping graduate students identify a suitable faculty advisor and committee members for their field exams and dissertation.
• Serving as the authorizer for various graduate student decisions and functions, including signatory on Graduate School forms, e.g., leaves of absence, extensions, transfers of course credit, reinstatements, readmissions, applications to graduate.
• Signatory on University forms, e.g., withdrawals, course drop/adds, course changes/additions/deletions.
• Approval of student committee makeup, including any fixed term graduate faculty.
• Nominator of applicants and signatory for university fellowships and funding (both fellowships and funding for enrolled students as well as recruitment fellowships offered in conjunction with graduate admissions activities).
• Leading efforts to revise, maintain, and evaluate the academic requirements and standards of the graduate degree programs.
• Being responsible for the initial response to most graduate student situations, including grade appeals, grievances, or mentoring/advising issues in consultation with the graduate student’s primary faculty mentor.
• Monitoring student progression through key milestones, such as comprehensive exams and proposal defenses, ensuring adherence to University and Graduate School guidelines such as time to degree limits, continuous enrollment, and grade change deadlines in consultation with the graduate student’s primary faculty mentor.
• Coordinating efforts to encourage students to apply for external funding and grants in conjunction with students' primary advisors and serving as a resource for students regarding available funding sources.
• Assisting in identifying financial support for graduate students through service assistantships within the program or in other areas of the University, or through internal or external non-service fellowships. Encourage faculty mentoring and information sharing to facilitate full funding of all graduate students in the program.
• Coordinating the graduate program's tuition remission allocation and submission of students to be offered tuition remission and in-state tuition benefits.
• Assisting new faculty with the design of graduate courses and providing guidance to new faculty on mentorship of graduate students.

Responsibilities of the DGS can be found here.

6. Director of the Master of Public Policy (MPP) Program

The MPP Director receives (1) course release and a $2500 stipend funded by the MPP budget.

Responsibilities include:

• Serving as Chair of the MPP Committee
• Providing oversight of the dual bachelor-graduate degree curriculum, internship placement, and career services.
• Preparing the MPP budget.
• Preparing course offerings and assigning teaching duties in consultation with the faculty, Chair, and Associate Chair.
• Identifying potential Adjunct Instructors and Professors of the Practice.
• Coordinating the review of MPP applicants.
• Identifying common decision criteria, reviewing applications, ensuring the diversity of incoming students, making admissions decisions, and recruiting prospective students.
• Being aware of and using the resources offered by the Graduate School and the University in assisting with recruiting graduate students of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and meeting with students of similar backgrounds/interests while visiting campus.
• Allocating financial aid.

7. Chair/Co-Chair, Ph.D. Admissions Committee

The Chair of the Ph.D. Admissions Committee receives $1000 in research funds. Co-Chairs receive $500 in research funds.

Responsibilities include:

• Coordinating the applicant review for the doctoral program.
• Identifying common decision criteria, reviewing applications, ensuring the diversity of incoming students, making admissions decisions, and recruiting prospective students.
• Being aware of and using the resources offered by the Graduate School and the University in assisting with recruiting graduate students of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, such as travel funding and meeting with students of similar backgrounds/interests while visiting campus.
• Assisting faculty and applicants in accessing these resources as they recruit candidates to the program.
• Coordinating graduate applicant selection processes for identifying students to be nominated for Graduate School recruitment fellowships and assistantships. Nominating selected applicants for recruitment fellowships. Using the Fellowships and Funding Handbook as a key resource for policy and process information.

8. Diversity Liaison (DL) to the College of Arts & Sciences

The DL receives a stipend determined by the College.

The Diversity Liaison Program was established in the College of Arts and Sciences in 2012 and has been successful in creating a network of faculty who are committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in their departments and throughout the College. Diversity liaisons are appointed by academic department chairs (and chairs of a few of the College’s larger curriculum programs) and ideally should be tenured faculty.

The role of the diversity liaison should be rotated within departments, with each faculty member serving for at least two years.

The diversity liaisons work closely with chairs and their colleagues on issues such as departmental/unit climate, faculty recruitment and hiring, the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity, and graduate student admissions.

Responsibilities include:

• Serving as Chair of the Department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
• Serving as advocates for and champions of diversity, equity, and inclusion within Public Policy.
• Serving as a channel for communicating diversity-related news and information to departmental colleagues.
• Working closely with the Chair, Associate Chair, and committee chairs to establish diversity goals and priorities for the academic unit.
• Bringing a diversity perspective to faculty hiring through the development and implementation of best practices in searches (e.g., unconscious bias training, the use of rubrics, etc.) and/or by serving on search committees, as necessary.
• Working with the Chair, Associate Chair, MPP Director, faculty, DUS, and DGS to develop and implement curricular changes and innovations that promote diversity and inclusion.
• Playing a key role in the selection of potential candidates for the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity.
• Completing the annual diversity report for the College of Arts & Sciences in collaboration with the Chair/Associate Chair.

9. Summer School Administrator

The Summer School Administrator receives a stipend that is determined by the Summer School.

Responsibilities include:

• Determining the course offerings for the summer sessions.
• Choosing instructors for summer school courses.
• Publicizing course offerings.
• Supervising relevant bureaucratic matters
• Arranging for class visitations for instructors.

Part 2: Standing Committees

There shall be (5) standing committees.

1. Personnel Committee: Recommendations to the Chair regarding all personnel decisions involving initial appointment, reappointment, and promotion and tenure of faculty holding tenure-track positions or fixed term appointment beyond a 1-year term, are made by the Personnel Committee. The Personnel Committee consists of all tenured full professors and tenured associate professors on the core faculty (including full professors and associate professors holding tenured joint appointments in Public Policy). Associate Professors on the Personnel Committee may vote only on appointments and reappointments for positions less senior to their own, including reappointment of assistant professors, promotion of assistant professors to the rank of associate professor, instructors, and fixed term appointments. The vote of the full professors and tenured associate professors on the Personnel Committee will be noted separately to the Dean.
2. The Undergraduate Studies Committee: The Chair, in consultation with the DUS, shall appoint at least three members of the faculty and at least one undergraduate student to exercise oversight on all matters regarding the undergraduate honors program, major, minor, and experiential education in public policy at UNC-CH. The Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) shall chair the committee, whose members shall serve annual renewable terms.
3. The Graduate Studies Committee: The Chair, in consultation with the DGS, shall appoint at least three members of the faculty and at least one graduate student to exercise oversight on all matters regarding the Ph.D. Program in Public Policy, the M.A. degree, and the graduate minor. The Director of Graduate Studies shall chair the committee, whose members shall serve annual renewable terms.
4. The Graduate Admissions Committee: The Chair, in consultation with the DGS, shall appoint a committee chair and at least three members of the faculty and at least one graduate student to oversee the recruitment, admission and transition of graduate students into the Ph.D. program. The Director of Graduate Admissions shall chair the committee, whose members shall serve annual renewable terms.
5. The MPP Committee: The Chair, shall appoint a committee chair and the MPP committee provides oversight of the dual bachelor-graduate degree curriculum, recruitment, admissions, financial aid, internship placement, and career services. The MPP committee provides recommendations on a decision to initiate a stand-alone MPP degree.

The Chair/Co-Chair of each committee shall serve a two-year term whenever possible. Committee members have typically served a staggered two-year term and the committee chair has been selected from among previous committee members. This allows for some institutional memory within each section. From time to time, the chairs of the respective committees may convene as a committee of the whole to deal with certain matters that have implications for both graduate and undergraduate programs.

There are 3 additional standing committees.

1. The Standing Advisory Committee: If the academic unit has fewer than four full professors, a Standing Advisory Committee including additional full professors shall be named by the Dean of the College in consultation with the Chair to advise the Chair in personnel matters.
2. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee: The DEI committee is committed to fostering DEI values, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, through teaching, research, mentoring and service.
3. The Salary Committee: At the start of each academic year, the Chair awaits specific instructions from the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Science (CAS) on implementation of the ARP.  Upon completion of the CAS Annual Report each spring semester, the Chair will appoint an ad-hoc Salary Committee of four members with equal faculty representation across the ranks—fixed-term, assistant, associate, and full professor. The Committee will review the Dean’s salary guidelines with the Chair each year. Depending on the flexibility granted (or not granted) as part of the ARP, the ad-hoc committee should recommend whether to focus on merit increases, primarily on equity issues, or some other plan, given the size of the overall faculty salary pool. Please note that retention offers can impact the overall salary pool.

Part 3: Non-Standing Ad Hoc Committees

The Chair may appoint additional committees to deal with important UNC (Department of) Public Policy issues. The work of non-standing committees is temporary or can made more permanent by agreement of the faculty. Examples of a non-standing committee would be a Core Exam Committee, Faculty Search Committee, a Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion Committee, a Research or Teaching Assistant/Associate Professor Review Committee, a Post-Tenure Review Committee, and a University/College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Nomination Committee. Examples of other non-standing committees would be Carolina Faculty Diversity Postdoc Committee, and a VITAE search committee.

Part 4: Permanent Administrative Staff

1. Business Officer (reports to the Chair), 1.0 FTE
   The Business/ Officer serves as the chief business and administrative official for the academic unit. The Business Officer is responsible for the design, implementation, and evaluation of all processes that support departmental functions.  The Business Officer organizes and supervises SPA staff, manages budgetary and physical resources, provides guidance to faculty and staff, and interfaces with a range of offices and units within the CAS. The Business Officer plays a leadership role on matters pertaining to budget, personnel, and other strategic planning.
2. Student Services and External Affairs (reports to Business Officer), 1.0 FTE
   The Student Services Officer is responsible for coordinating the undergraduate and doctoral degree programs. The position serves as the registrar, academic advisor, course scheduling officer, and interprets policies and procedures relating to students. The Student Services Officer works with faculty to coordinate and administer graduate admissions and recruitment and new student orientation. Other important duties include planning external public events and acting as the first point of contact for students. The position also assists with reports related to the recruitment, matriculation, retention, and graduation of students.
3. Accounting and Finance Associate (reports to Business Officer), 1.0 FTE
   This position provides accounting and financial support to the Business/Academic Officer. Duties involve maintaining and reporting financial accounting data including, but not limited to, account reconciliation, journal entries, management of invoices and expenditures, receipts, and deposits, and reporting for all sources of funding in the department. These accounts include funds from state, trust, contracts, and grants. This position works closely with faculty, staff, and other individuals and units within and external to the University community.
4. MPP Coordinator (reports to MPP Program Director), 1.0 FTE (SBT)
   The MPP Program Coordinator ensures that all the systems, services, and processes, are meeting the needs of a high quality MPP and Graduate Certificate Program. program. The responsibilities of the MPP Program Coordinator are to manage all aspects of the MPP and graduate certificate student experience, which includes advising, recruitment, admissions, financial aid, course enrollment, and internal (and external) strategic relationships. 

Related Requirements

External Regulations (if applicable)

• Is this Policy connected to any Policies, Laws (federal, state, local, regulations), and/or Accreditation requirements?
• Are there any related UNC System-wide Policies?
• Is this Policy connected to any UNC-Chapel Hill Policies, Procedures, or Standards?
• Are there any other resources or materials readers of this Policy might likely refer to or need to follow or understand this Policy?

Unit Policies, Standards, and Procedures (if applicable)

• Is this Policy connected to any other Unit Policies, Procedures, or Standards?

Contact Information

Primary Contact

Office: Dean's Office

Telephone: 919-962-1165

Email: artsandsciences@unc.edu