Department of Fine Arts
Governance Document
Adopted April 27, 1995


Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION

The Department of Visual Arts is a collegial body represented by its chair. All departmental bylaws, policies, procedures, and decisions are formulated by a consensus or by the vote of the full time faculty members subject to the dictates of campus and Indiana University policy and procedures.

The department expects full participation in all matters that pertain directly to the departmental academic mission.

All reappointment recommendations, tenure recommendations, and faculty evaluations made by the chair shall be communicated to the faculty member two working days before being forwarded to the Dean in order to permit discussions or preparation of a statement to be appended when deemed necessary.

Reappointment decisions regarding associate faculty shall come before the full time faculty before being finalized.

The material that follows is based on department and other university legislation and on current Visual Art practice.

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GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

1.1 Executive Structure

1.2 Standing Committees
With the exception of the Committee on Committees and the Promotion/Tenure/Sabbatical Leaves Committee, standing committees are appointed by the chair on the recommendation of the Committee on Committees. Committee assignments are rotated regularly, with attention given to faculty preferences and the need to represent the department's diverse interests and composition. Unless otherwise indicated, the chairs of standing committees are elected by the committee members at their organizational meeting.

Committees report their actions to the department and the department chair on a timely basis. In addition, committees also provide the chair with a brief summary of their activities and actions during the year for distribution to the faculty at the end of the spring semester.

1.3 Ad Hoc Committees
In consultation with the Committee on Committees, the chair establishes ad hoc committees when he/she or the department believe them necessary or useful.

By tradition, separate search and screen committees are appointed for each full-time position the department has been authorized to fill. These committees are composed of no fewer than three and no more than five full-time faculty. Membership is generally representative of the department as a whole. Search and screen committees assist the chair in publicizing the job opening, screen applicants to determine those who will be brought on campus for interviews, supervise the interview process, solicit faculty responses, and provide the chair with a prioritized list of candidates. If mutually agreeable, the chair may participate in the deliberations of the committee.

1.4 Procedures for Appointment of Department Chair
The Committee on Committees initiates the following procedures in the third week in October of the academic year at the end of which the department chair's two year term expires, or at the resignation of the Chair.

1.5 Department Meetings 1.6 Faculty Governance Roles Back to Document Table of Contents


FACULTY REVIEW

2.1 Tenure and Promotion Criteria
(Research Appointments)
 Candidates are referred to the current Indiana University Academic Handbook, the Academic Vice Chancellor's Memorandum on Tenure and Promotion Procedures, and relevant Indiana University Faculty Council, Fort Wayne Senate, and School documents.

Candidates for tenure and promotion are evaluated in three areas of professional competence: research, teaching, and service. It is recognized that these areas overlap. Research is a prerequisite of effective teaching and may also underlie service to the university, community, or profession. Similarly, course preparation may lead to or support scholarly or creative activity. Hence, the three areas of evaluation do not imply three discrete modes of endeavor, but rather the possibilities of emphasis within a candidate's total performance.

2.2 Tenure and Promotion Procedures
Faculty who intend to be considered for promotion and/or tenure will be asked to notify the department chair in March of the academic year before their cases will be considered, in order that arrangements can be made for outside evaluation. (See Outside Review of Promotion and Tenure Cases, below.)

Promotion and tenure cases follow the outline prescribed by the current Vice Chancellor's Memorandum on Promotion and Tenure Case Format. A faculty member preparing a promotion or tenure case should work closely with the department chair or another designated senior faculty member to insure that the case conforms to the standards expected by campus committees and administrators. Consideration of cases begins at the beginning of the fall semester, so the case should be completed no later than the last week in August.

Cases for promotion and tenure pass through the following decision levels:

The Chair's evaluation of a candidate for promotion or tenure must include all annual evaluations of the candidate (if the candidate has not included them in the case), along with responses to them, should such exist, since the last promotion or, in tenure cases, since the initial appointment to a tenure-track position.

Campus decisions on promotion and tenure are made near the end of the fall semester in December.

2.3 Outside Review of Promotion and Tenure Cases
By presidential mandate, tenure and promotion cases for Indiana University faculty must include appraisals by six outside evaluators.

Outside evaluators are people not affiliated with IPFW. If outside evaluators hold university rank, it should be at or above that sought by the candidate; naturally, all evaluators should possess credentials appropriate for assessing the candidate. Normally, this assessment will be limited to the candidate's research or creative endeavor.

Because of the time required to solicit and receive outside evaluations, the process must begin in the spring preceding the academic year in which the tenure or promotion case will be reviewed. In March, the department chair will request faculty to indicate their intention to be considered for promotion or tenure in the following September. Those who do so will be asked to provide a list of at least six potential evaluators. This list should include the names, titles, and addresses of the evaluators, along with a brief description of their credentials. If the candidate has had a personal or professional relationship with anyone on his or her list (e.g., roommate in college, thesis advisor, collaborator on research project), that should also be indicated.

The chair will prepare a similar list of potential evaluators, from which the candidate will be given the opportunity to strike up to three names if he or she wishes. The candidate will also indicate if he or she has had a personal relationship with any of these potential evaluators. The chair will then prepare a third list composed of names from the first two lists, including no more than two evaluators who have had close relationships with the candidate. These will then be asked if they are willing to serve as outside evaluators of the candidate's credentials. If fewer than six agree to do so, the candidate and chair will follow a procedure similar to that outlined above to develop a list of additional potential evaluators.

Those who agree to evaluate a candidate's case will be sent a packet of materials prepared by the candidate in consultation with the chair. This packet will contain the department's promotion and tenure criteria, the candidate's curriculum vitae, and a sample of the candidate's research. If unpublished or unreviewed material is a component in the candidate's case, it should be represented in the sample. Candidates should be aware that, by school policy, unpublished or published but unrefereed research must be evaluated by outside reviewers if it is to be considered an element of a tenure case.

The candidate will receive a sample of the letter inviting the evaluations, the names of those supplying evaluations, and their responses, with indications of authorship deleted. These should be included in the promotion or tenure case.

Copies of the letters of evaluation will be forwarded to the dean.

2.4 Annual Review and Salary Increment Recommendation

2.5 Materials for Annual Report
 Your annual report should provide sufficient material to enable the department chair and, if required, the Faculty Review Committee to make an informed evaluation of your activities in research, teaching, and service for the previous year.

Annual reports are due in January, no later than a deadline specified by the department chair.

Reports should conform to the following outline.

2.6 Student Evaluation of Teaching
(for tenure and promotion cases)

The evidence for effective teaching is most persuasive, especially at stages of review beyond the department and the unit, when it is clear that students had full freedom to respond and that a representative survey of student opinion had been made. Furthermore, the case is best presented, not with a great deal of unstructured evidence, but, rather, with valid summaries and compilations.

I. In-Class Student Evaluations

II. Other than In-Class Student Evaluations 2.7 Peer Review of Teaching
 1. The department encourages its faculty to have colleagues assess their teaching and offer suggestions for improvement. In addition to their contribution to the development of effective teaching, evaluations may also be useful in summative decisions, such as reappointments, annual reviews, and promotion and tenure recommendations. However, faculty who so desire may receive peer comments on their teaching with the assurance that the evaluation will not be used for these summative purposes. Individuals may arrange for such peer evaluations or have the Effective Teaching Committee arrange them.

2. Upon request by faculty members, the Effective Teaching Committee will arrange evaluation visits of their classes. Members of the committee may, but will not necessarily, be the evaluators.

3. The instructor may submit the names of potential evaluators to the Effective Teaching Committee and may request that a specified number of evaluators visit the classes which the instructor wishes evaluated.

4. The instructor should provide the committee with copies of the syllabi or current class schedules for all courses to be evaluated.

5. The instructor may indicate whether they wish to be informed in advance of an evaluator's visit. Normally the evaluator will visit the class more than once.

6. The evaluator's report should be detailed and based on the usual criteria for evaluating effective teaching. The report should specify all conditions pertaining to the evaluation (date of visits, announced or unannounced, etc.).

7. The evaluator will send a letter summarizing their evaluation to the instructor. If the instructor requests, the evaluator will also send a copy of their letter to the department chair, for use in evaluations of the instructor. The instructor will decide whether such a letter will become part of a promotion or tenure case.

8. Faculty members who do not choose to use these procedures for peer review will not be penalized for their choice. However, faculty are reminded that the department's tenure and promotion criteria urge assessment of teaching by several different methods. Moreover, under some circumstances, the department chair or the Faculty Review Committee may recommend that a faculty member provide peer reviews of their teaching.

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FACULTY GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES

3.1 Matters subject to grievance procedure include concerns of both Administration and Faculty. Faculty concerns include matters of compensation and working conditions under the immediate administrative purview of the department, including but not limited to: increments of salary and other compensation; allotment of professional travel funds; office space assignments; equipment allocations; course assignment; course load; annual and other performance reviews; reprimands; and recommendations for promotion, tenure, and sabbatical leave. Administrative concerns include but are not limited to fulfillment of professional responsibilities in teaching, advising, committee assignments, administrative assignments, and research.

3.2 Grievances may be submitted as follows:

It is understood that certain persons are eligible to submit both administrative and faculty grievances due to their retention of faculty status while in administrative positions.

3.3 For each grievance to be resolved, an ad hoc committee shall be constituted as follows:


3.4 Duties of the ad hoc Grievance Board:

3.5 Hearing Procedure: 3.6 Miscellaneous: Back to Document Table of Contents

TEACHING

4.1 Staff Assignment Policy

4.2 Course Level Guidelines 4.3 Summer Teaching Policy 4.4 Independent Study
Supervision of independent study courses may be treated as evidence of teaching excellence; however, under current procedures, it constitutes an uncompensated overload. For this reason, the department neither encourages nor, in most instances, discourages supervision of these courses. Application to supervise an independent study course should be made by means of the departmental form available for that purpose. Approval by the department Chair is required.

Applications for independent study are expected to contain a detailed, explicit plan of work. Courses that duplicate regular courses offered in the same or the next semester are discouraged.

4.5 Faculty Absence from Scheduled Classes

  1. Instructors are expected to meet their classes on the day and time and in the room designated in the Schedule of Classes. If temporary room changes are made, they should be announced in advance both to the students and to the department secretary. No permanent room changes should be made without permission of the department Chair.
  2. It is understood that the time scheduled for class meetings may be used for a variety of alternative pedagogical purposes, such as conferences with students, library exercises, and field trips. Because the department is regularly called upon to locate faculty and students, all such activities should be announced in advance to the department secretary.
  3. From time to time faculty may be away from campus during the academic term for professional purposes (e.g., presenting a conference paper, service on a system committee). Since such absences from class are normally known well in advance, faculty are expected to arrange for a substitute instructor or alternative classroom activity and to notify the department chair of the arrangements made.
  4. Occasionally, the ravages of disease or the malevolence of nature may result in an unexpected faculty absence from class. Under these circumstances, the faculty member should notify the department chair or the department secretary, who will attempt to find an emergency replacement or, if unsuccessful, will post notices announcing the cancellation of the class.

  5. If an emergency causes a faculty member to miss a class, secretarial assistance is limited to announcing the cancellation, distributing hand-outs, picking up class papers, and, if a test is scheduled, handing out the test at the beginning of class and picking it up at the end. Secretaries may not monitor the actual taking of quizzes or examinations.
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THE STUDENT

5.1 Student Advising
All tenured or tenure-track faculty members are assigned students to advise on a regular basis. Faculty advisors should be familiar with the university's academic regulations and with department and school requirements for graduation. Faculty advisors sign student registration cards and other materials related to course registration or withdrawal.

As a student advisor, you are not only a student's main source of information about university requirements; you may also be his or her closest faculty contact. Time spent in advising is an important element in a faculty member's service to the university.

5.2 Grades
Faculty should familiarize themselves with the statements concerning grades and grading policy in the IPFW Bulletin and the most recent edition of the Indiana University Academic Handbook. The following requirement should be noted:

Faculty members are expected to give each undergraduate a written evaluation of performance as early as compatible with the nature of the course. This evidence will normally consist of a letter grade, but it could also be recorded in a different manner (e.g., written critique of a paper, written evaluation of the student's total performance). In certain types of courses the evaluation might be given orally.

Grade appeals (see below) most frequently occur when the instructor has not clearly stated a grading policy or has changed the policy during the semester. Faculty are urged to provide students with a written statement (presumably on the course syllabus) detailing the factors that will determine their final grades and to treat the statement as a contractual understanding with the students, to be altered only with their knowledge and agreement.

5.3 Cheating and/or Plagiarism
The Indiana University Academic Handbook and IPFW's own academic regulations (see the most recent version of Fort Wayne Senate Document SD 89-28--IPFW Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct--and the current IPFW Bulletin) define these terms and the campus procedures appropriate for dealing with them.

Before charging a student with plagiarism or cheating, the faculty person may wish to consult with the department chair. Before imposing any penalty, the faculty person must meet informally with the student, within ten days of discovering the alleged misconduct, in order to allow the student to present a defense or explanation.

If the faculty person chooses to notify the student by letter, he/she may wish to use the general form suggested by the Indiana University Counsel:
Dear Mr/Ms_____________:

I have a paper entitled "____________" 1 test, submitted by you to me in partial fulfillment of the requirements of (Course Number), section ______. I have read your paper/test, and my present belief is that it is not entirely your own work, as required by the standards of the course. Please make an appointment to see me immediately so that we can discuss this situation. (Pending our discussion and a resolution of the matter, I am recording an Incomplete as your grade in this course.)*

Very truly yours,
 _______________
 * If at semester's end.

Please note that the word "plagiarism" is not recommended for use.

After discussing the situation with the student, the faculty person may deem it proper to impose a penalty. This may take several forms: (1) a lower or failing grade for the assignment in connection with which misconduct occurred, (2) an injunction to repeat or supplement the assignment, or (3) a lower or failing grade for the course. After the faculty person determines the penalty, he/she must write a complete report, with all particulars spelled out, including the exact nature of the penalty. A copy of this report should go to the student, to the chairperson of the Department of Visual Arts and of the student's major department, to the Deans of the College of Visual and Performing Arts and of the student's school or division, and to the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. This report should inform the student that he/she may appeal to the department chair and, subsequently, to higher administrators, as outlined under "Grade Appeals" below, if dissatisfied with actions taken at the departmental level.
 

5.4 Grade Appeals
 The appeals process can be used by any undergraduate student who has evidence or believes that evidence exists to show that a course grade was assigned as a result of prejudice, caprice, or computational error. In appealing, the student must support in writing the allegation that an improper decision was made and must specify the remedy sought. During an appeal, the burden of proof is on the student, except in cases of alleged academic dishonesty, in which case the instructor must support the allegation.

Timing of Appeals: An appeal must be initiated no later than the fourth week of the fall or spring semester immediately following the session in which the decision was made. Each successive step in the appeals procedure must be initiated within three calendar weeks of the completion of the prior step.

Steps in the Appeal Process:
1. Course instructor: The student makes an appointment with the instructor to discuss the matter. (If the instructor is unavailable, the department chair shall authorize an extension of time or allow the student to proceed to step_2.)
2. Department: If the matter has not been resolved at step 1, the student makes an appointment with the chair of the department, who will direct the student procedurally in making an appeal to the department Grade Appeals Committee (GAC).
3. Academic Appeals Subcommittee: If the matter has not been resolved at step 2, the student makes an appointment with the Dean of the Faculty, who will direct the student procedurally in submitting the case to the campus Academic Appeals Subcommittee.
4. Department of Visual Arts Appeals Procedure (Step 2)
When necessary the department chair will, with the advice of the Committee on Committees, appoint three regular members and two alternate members to the Grade Appeals Committee (GAC). All members shall come from the instructional staff (including associate faculty and graduate instructors) of the department. Alternates shall serve when regular members are unavailable for service due to absence or to involvement in assigning the grade under appeal.

If an appeal has not been satisfactorily resolved between the student and the instructor (step 1), the student shall request the GAC to receive evidence and make a recommendation.

After receiving written documents and oral testimony relevant to the appeal, and after providing due process and complying with the time limits described above, the GAC will vote on whether the appeal is valid and, if so, on what remedy should be provided. A written statement of findings and recommendations will be given to the appellant, the instructor, the dean of students, and the chair of the department. At this point, the instructor may change the appealed grade, the student may withdraw the appeal, or the student may proceed to step 3. (Grades may be changed only by a university authority upon the decision of the campus Academic Appeals Subcommittee or by the instructor any time prior to the decision of the Academic Appeals Subcommittee.)

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MISCELLANEOUS

University Travel
All full-time faculty are eligible for reimbursement of expenses (see guidelines below) for attending professional conferences or other activities which might further their teaching, research or creative ability. The maximum amounts of reimbursement are determined annually and are based on the funds for travel available in the department's budget.

Supplemental funding should always be sought when applicable.
Full-time faculty travelling to professional conferences may be reimbursed for
a. transportation
b. lodging
c. subsistence
d. registration fees.
University regulations govern the amount reimbursable in some categories. Consult the department secretary for current regulations.

All full- or part-time faculty who travel to professional meetings or on other university business, whether or not they request reimbursement, must complete the "Authority to Travel" form available in the department office. (Completion of this form is necessary to activate the university's liability coverage for faculty.) This form should be submitted to the department secretary no later than two weeks prior to the commencement of travel.

After travel takes place, the faculty member provides the department secretary with receipts for transportation, lodging, and registration. (The university computes the amount for subsistence.) The passenger copy of a transportation ticket, not a credit card receipt, should be submitted. If a canceled check is the only evidence of a registration fee, some official document indicating the amount of registration is necessary. Since these receipts will not be returned to the faculty member, photocopies should be retained if needed for further reference.

Reimbursement checks normally appear about three weeks after the submission of receipts.

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