Faculty Council Bylaws

This document was created on September 3, 2011 with the most recent revision in May 2021.  See section 9 for additional information regarding Amendments.  

 

1.1   The Faculty Council shall be the principal source of faculty input to the administration of The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

1.2   The Faculty Council shall report directly to the Faculty and to the Dean of Geisel. It shall serve as a means of communication from the Dean’s office to the Faculty and from the Faculty to the Dean’s office. As part of this responsibility it shall organize and conduct regular meetings for the entire Faculty, which should occur at least twice yearly.

1.3   The Faculty Council shall review all topics that, in the opinion of the Council or the Dean, require direct faculty input, including major curricular revisions, general faculty representation on standing Geisel committees (as governed by bylaws of those standing committees and institutional policies of Geisel and Dartmouth College), graduation requirements, and new programs. Issues deemed sufficiently important to be considered by a vote of the entire faculty will be determined by any one of the following:

  1. by the Dean,
  2. by the Faculty Council,
  3. or by petition of at least 5% of the members of the faculty. If a matter is deemed to require the vote of the entire faculty this will be done through at least one meeting open to the entire faculty followed by an electronic voting procedure within two weeks after the faculty meeting. The outcome will be decided by the majority of those voting through an electronic ballot.

1.4   In addition, the Faculty Council members shall be responsible for investigating matters of interest and concern to the Faculty and presenting these issues to the administration; requesting and accepting from their constituencies suggestions for matters to be considered by the Council and opinions regarding matters of concern to the Faculty; maintaining effective faculty participation at Geisel; reporting the activities of the Council to their constituencies, particularly those that will have a significant impact on the institution; receiving regular reports from the Dean and other members of the administration on matters of relevance to the Faculty; serving as a consultant to the Dean and ascertaining faculty opinion on matters that the Dean chooses to bring before it. These duties are facilitated by regular attendance at Council meetings and through regular consultation with constituencies.

1.5   The Faculty Council shall consult with the Dean of Faculty Affairs (the Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education and/or the Executive Dean for Administration and Finance, where applicable) prior to implementation of revisions to the Faculty Council Bylaws or other actions to ascertain that policies and actions of the Council are consistent with other superseding policies on faculty governance (e.g., but not limited to, Academic Appointments, Promotions and Titles at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth [APT document] and The Organization of the Faculty of Dartmouth College [OFDC]). The Dean of Faculty Affairs shall also be available to attend meeting of the Faculty Council on its request for discussions or clarifications of issues related to the Faculty.

1.6   The Faculty Council shall be responsible for setting the agenda and calling the meeting for at least twice-yearly general faculty meetings of the full Faculty of the Geisel School of Medicine (fall and spring). More frequent general faculty meetings may occur as needed. For all meetings of the general Faculty of the Geisel School of Medicine, the Dean shall be consulted to ascertain if there are topics that the Dean would like to have included in the agenda. The Faculty Council will prepare the final agenda.

1.7   The minutes of each meeting will be made available to the full faculty in a timely fashion, e.g., within a month following the meeting. However, discussion and voting by members (not including presentations by guests) shall be recorded without identifying individuals by name or otherwise including information that identifies the speaker(s).