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School of Business Assembly Procedures

Procedure
Purpose: 

Detail the procedures for Assembly meetings, define voting members, and set the standard for the agendas.

Applies to: 

School of Business staff, students, and faculty.

Campus: 
Lawrence
Policy Statement: 
1) Voting Members and Quorum: (a) The voting members of the School of Business Assembly shall consist of all tenured and tenure track faculty, all non-tenure track faculty who have during the most recent three school years had greater than 50% appointments for at least four regular semesters, and student representatives elected by student organizations as indicated in the attached Appendix (or otherwise designated in accordance with University rules). The Dean’s Assistant will maintain an accurate record of the Assembly members. (b) There are some matters that may come before the Assembly that are uniquely within the domain of the tenured and tenure track faculty (having little if any bearing on curriculum or student issues), such as standards and procedures regarding promotion and tenure, promotion and evaluation of faculty research, allocation of faculty development resources, sabbatical leaves, and other similar policies focused exclusively on tenured and tenure track faculty. Non-tenure track faculty members and student members will not be entitled to vote on such matters. Prior to a vote on any such matter, the Chair of the Assembly will clearly specify that such vote will consist only of the vote of tenured and tenure track faculty members. (c) A quorum shall consist of at least thirty-five percent of the eligible voting members. If at the time of an Assembly meeting student members have yet to be elected (or designated), then only those students who have been elected (or designated)  shall be counted for purposes of determining the number of members needed to establish a quorum.
 
2) Meeting Dates: The Dean’s office will determine and announce the dates of regular meetings of the School of Business Assembly at the beginning of each semester. If there are no substantive agenda items, a scheduled meeting may be cancelled.
 
3) Agenda: The Dean’s office will distribute the agenda and supporting materials for each meeting to members of the School of Business Assembly at least four days before the meeting (Monday afternoon for a Friday afternoon meeting). No items that require a vote of the Assembly can be added after the agenda is distributed; however, informational items can be added. The School of Business Assembly may vote to amend items that appear on the agenda at the meeting. 
 
Rationale for 2 and 3: These are to insure that members of the Assembly are given sufficient notice of when the meeting will be held and of the items to be discussed at the meetings so they can participate in the meetings and come to the meetings informed.
 
4) Items Requiring Assembly Approval: The following are items requiring School of Business Assembly approval. 
a) Any changes to the curriculum of any program in the School of Business. The following are examples of curricular changes.
i) A change to degree requirements including things like changes in the course requirements or the admission requirements to the program.
ii) A change to the requirements for a major or a concentration in any program.
iii) A change in any course including the course description, the prerequisites, or the hours of credit.
iv) Addition or removal of a course from the catalog.
b) Substantive policy changes that affect the faculty of the School of Business. Examples include proposed changes to evaluation of faculty, proposed changes to teaching loads, changes to composition or election procedures for elected committees, etc.
c) Substantive policy changes to School of Business programs. Examples include proposed changes in the admission requirements to programs, proposed changes in dismissal standards, etc.
 
5) Curricular Changes: Proposed changes in the curriculum of any School of Business program will require two readings conducted at two separate meetings. This policy can be waived if the intent to waive the policy appears on the agenda and 2/3 of the members in attendance vote to waive the second reading.
 
Rationale for 5: This continues current policy and sets specific rules for waiving the second reading.
 
6) Consent Agenda Items: Items that are believed by the committee or team recommending the item to be routine or not controversial can be placed on the consent agenda for the meeting. This may include minor curricular matters such as a change in course number or course title or a technical  correction in a course description. All items on this agenda will be passed by consent of the School of Business Assembly. Any item will be removed from the consent agenda if any Assembly member present at the meeting asks to have the item removed from the consent agenda. A short one-half page summary including the following items should be provided so that it can be included with the agenda.
a) A concise statement of the proposal.
b) A listing of the methods that have been used to obtain input about the proposal.
c) A statement about why the proposal should be adopted. This should include the present status and the changes that are likely to result if the proposal is passed.
d) Any pros and cons of the proposal that are known.
e) A list of the members of the committee or team that is making the proposal except if the committee includes the entire faculty in one of the four areas (AIS, FEDS, MEL, MGMT).
 
Rationale for 6: When an item is not controversial, an efficient way to pass these items through the assembly should be available.
 
7) Regular Agenda Items: Committees or teams that propose items for the regular agenda must provide a short summary including the following information. This summary is in addition to any supporting materials related to the proposal.
 
f) A concise statement of the proposal.
g) A listing of the methods that have been used to obtain input about the proposal. If faculty have not had sufficient opportunity to provide input, the item will not be put on the agenda. While agenda items that do not involve curricular changes ordinarily may be presented for a vote of the Assembly at the Assembly meeting at which they are first presented, the Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) may decide that some non-curricular proposals are important enough to require two readings at two different Assembly meetings.
 
8) Emergency Items: (a) If an item is brought before a School of Business curricular team that needs to be acted upon before the next scheduled Assembly meeting, that team is authorized to make a decision about that item on a temporary basis. These decisions must have the approval of two thirds of the curricular team. If the two-thirds approval cannot be achieved, the committee may bring the issue before the FAC for consideration and possible approval. These actions must be reported by the curricular team to the School of Business Assembly at their next meeting and the Assembly must approve the decision. These items may appear on the consent agenda or the regular agenda. (b) If other Assembly matters need to be acted upon before the next scheduled Assembly meeting, it is permissible for the Chair of the Assembly in consultation with FAC members to decide to either (i) proceed in a manner similar to that described in 8(a) or (ii) to call for and proceed with an electronic proxy vote (handled through the internet or email) of the Assembly members in lieu of a meeting. In the event of such vote, reasonable efforts will be made in advance of the vote to provide the Assembly members with supporting materials comparable to those that would be made available in advance of a regular Assembly meeting vote and an electronic forum though which members may exchange views, make comments, and raise questions.
 
Rationale for 8: There needs to be a means for curricular teams to make time sensitive decisions when the School Assembly is not scheduled to meet before the decision needs to be made or the window of opportunity will pass for a substantial period of time. This provides the authority for these decisions  to be made on a temporary basis by the relevant curricular team.
 
9) Chair of the School of Business Assembly Meeting: The Dean of the Business School may act as chair of the Assembly meeting or may ask the chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) to chair meetings. Another member of the FAC may also act as chair when the head of the FAC is not available.
 
10) Agenda items will be submitted to the Dean’s Assistant: The chairperson of the FAC will work with the Dean’s Assistant to develop rules to judge whether or not proposed agenda items meet the criteria set forth in this document to be included on the agenda. The chairperson of the FAC will decide if an item can appear on the agenda in cases where it is not clear if the requirements have been met.
 
Appendix
 
Policy on Student Representatives at Assemblies and Other Meetings
 
Article XIX of the University Senate Code states, in Paragraph 19.2:
 
The College and each school, department and program shall make provisions for the inclusion of a number of students as voting members on all policy-making committees and at all full College, school, program or departmental meetings. The number of students on each such committee shall be no less  than 20 percent of the number of faculty members who hold the rank of instructor or above and who serve on the committee. The number of students included in full College, school, program or departmental meetings shall be no less than 20 percent of the number of faculty members who hold the rank of  instructor or above and who constitute the body.
 
This Appendix is intended to provide the School with guidance regarding student representatives. 
 
1) Student Representation at Meetings: The Assembly is the primary policy-making committee on which student representation is desired and required. Other committees and teams on which student representatives sit and vote include the curricular teams (undergraduate, MBA, MACC, PhD, etc.).  Students are not represented on the Promotion and Tenure (P&T) committee and the Research Evaluation and Development (RED) committee. These are “committees which are concerned with the application of policies to specific individuals or situations” and so (in accordance with paragraph 19.2.3  below) “students are not necessarily included.” The Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) also frequently is “concerned with the application of policies to specific individuals or situations”, so student representatives usually do not attend FAC meetings. The FAC can invite students to attend specific sessions if their participation is desired and appropriate. The directors of the area units (AIS, FEDS, MEL, MGMT) should ensure that student representatives are appointed or elected to attend area group meetings that those directors identify as ones in which student input is valuable and in which students’ interests  are most affected. In doing so they should be guided by the following paragraphs of Article XIX of the University Senate Code:
 
19.2.3 In this regulation, the term "policy-making" includes but is not limited to the discussion, initiation, adoption, revision, alteration, or elimination of policies, procedures, priorities, courses, curricula, prerequisites, programs, admissions criteria, degree requirements, and honors programs. In those  committees which are concerned with the application of policies to specific individuals or situations, students are not necessarily included by Section 19.2.
 
19.2.4 The determination of what committees are "policy-making committees" under this regulation shall be made by the full College, school, department or program at a time when properly selected student representatives have been invited to be present and to vote. The student representatives for area group meetings and committee meetings can be determined by the directors or chairs of those organizations, but the processes and results should be consistent with the University Senate Code. Directors and chairs of committees could conveniently draw student representatives from among those  student representatives to the Assembly.
 
2) Determining the Number of Student Representatives: Each January a member of the Dean’s staff will determine “all tenured and tenure track faculty, all non-tenure track faculty who have during the most recent three school years had greater than 50% appointments for at least four regular semesters” and who constitute the Assembly. This determination can be based on data from the semester just completed. That number, multiplied by 20%, will constitute the number of student representatives to the Assembly for the following academic year (not the new calendar year). The number is determined in January so that student organizations will have an entire semester to identify their representatives for the following academic year. The leadership of student organizations for the coming academic year (or at least for the fall semester) usually is determined by the students in the spring of the prior year. 
 
3) Allocation of Student Representatives to Student Organizations: The following student groups will be represented. Representatives will be supplied by the student organizations indicated:
 
Students to be represented
  • Undergraduates at Lawrence Campus (LC)
  • Undergraduates at Edwards Campus (EC)
  • MBAs at LC 
  • MBAs at EC 
  • MACCs at LC
  • MACCs at EC
  • PhD students at LC
Organizations supplying representatives
  • Undergraduate Business Council (UBC)*
  • Undergraduate Business Council (UBC)*
  • MBA Association (MBAA)#
  • MBA Association (MBAA)#
  • MACC Ambassadors@
  • MACC Ambassadors@
  • Association of Business Doctoral Students
* UBC is an umbrella organization including several undergraduate organizations. The UBC is tasked with extending its efforts to encompass representation of the undergraduates at EC. UBC will work with its faculty advisor to determine the representatives to be provided by the several undergraduate organizations.
 
# MBAA represents MBA students. The MBAA is tasked with extending its efforts to encompass representation of the MBA students at EC. The GBC will work with its faculty advisor to determine the representatives to be provided.
 
@ MACC Ambassadors represent MACC students. The MACC Ambassadors is tasked with extending its efforts to encompass representation of the MACC students at EC. The MACC Ambassadors will work with their faculty advisor to determine the representatives to be provided. 
 
Once the total number of student representatives has been identified, based on the 20% rule, that number will be allocated among the student organizations. Representation should be proportional to the numbers of students in each component of the student body, but no component (such as the PhD students) should have less than one representative. The numbers of students in each of the groups shown above under “Students to be represented” will be determined by a member of the Dean’s staff each January. The numbers will be based on data from the previous fall semester. A member of the Dean’s staff, in consultation with the FAC, will determine each organization’s share of student representatives for the following year, and will notify the organizations. UBC will work with its faculty advisor to allocate the total number of UBC representatives among the various organizations under the UBC umbrella. At the level of the student organizations, representatives should be selected in accordance with the following guidance from the University Senate Code:
 
19.2.2 The appropriate student constituency shall in each instance have an opportunity, at least annually, to elect qualified students to said positions, and should the appropriate student constituency fail to elect representatives to said positions, the College, school or department shall make reasonable and periodic efforts to secure qualified and interested students to serve until such time as an election can be held to fill said positions. 
Contact: 

School of Business
Capitol Federal hall
1654 Naismith Drive
Lawrence, KS 66045
bschoolinfo@ku.edu
785-864-7500

Approved by: 
Associate Dean, School of Business
Approved on: 
Monday, November 10, 2014
Effective on: 
Monday, November 10, 2014
Review Cycle: 
Annual (As Needed)
Keywords: 
business, assembly, agenda
Change History: 

10/12/2021: Converted PDF to a live text page.
02/13/2017: Corrected typo, fill in missing information.

School/College Policy Categories: 
Code of Conduct/By-Laws

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