Voting on Personnel Issues

All faculty personnel issues (appointment, reappointment, and promotion) require an in person vote of those eligible to vote. An in person vote is necessary in order to allow for deliberation of the matter at hand. Please see the section below on remote voting for possible options when faculty cannot attend in person.

Note: In these guidelines, “tenured faculty” includes other faculty specifically accorded the rights and privileges of tenure, as may be the case for some faculty with joint governance appointments or others. Professors emeritus are not eligible for voting on personnel decisions. Questions of further clarification may be referred to the CAS Faculty Actions Office.

Voting Chart for Faculty Personnel Issues

Below is a chart that outlines which faculty members should vote on the various action types (Initial Appointment, Reappointment, and Promotion), for different faculty groups. Please note, votes on Initial Appointment does not refer to the vote regarding search candidate finalists. For information on voting during the search process, please refer to the Faculty Handbook Search Manual.

Ranks Initial Appointment Reappointment Promotion
Tenure track Tenured and tenure track faculty at rank and above Tenured faculty ranks above Tenured faculty at rank of promotion and above
Unmodified non-tenure track Tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure unmodified track faculty at rank and above Tenured and non-tenure track unmodified faculty ranks above Tenured and non-tenure track unmodified faculty at rank of promotion and above
FT Lecturers Lecturer ranks of rank and above, unmodified faculty, of the practice faculty, clinical faculty Lecturer ranks above, unmodified faculty, of the practice faculty, clinical faculty Lecturer ranks of promotion and above, unmodified faculty, of the practice faculty, clinical faculty
of the Practice Of the practice faculty of rank and above, tenured faculty Of the practice ranks above, tenured faculty Of the practice rank of promotion and above, unmodified rank of promotion and above
Research faculty Tenure-track faculty on rsastp only; research faculty of rank and above; tenured faculty Tenure-track faculty on rsastp only; other research ranks above; tenured faculty Research rank of promotion and above, unmodified rank of promotion and above
Clinical faculty Tenure-track faculty on clastp only; other clinical faculty of rank and above, tenured faculty Tenure-track faculty on clastp only; other clinical ranks above; tenured faculty Clinical rank of promotion and above, unmodified rank of promotion and above
Emeritus Tenured faculty at rank and above n/a n/a
PT lect Unmodified faculty, FT lecturer ranks, of the practice faculty, clinical faculty Unmodified faculty, FT lecturer ranks, of the practice faculty, clinical faculty n/a

Secondary academic

 Refer to joint appt page Refer to joint appt page Refer to joint appt page
Visiting faculty Tenure-track faculty on vsastp only; tenured faculty Tenure-track faculty on vsastp only; tenured faculty n/a
Adjunct faculty Tenure-track faculty on ajastp only; tenured faculty Tenure-track faculty on ajastp only; tenured faculty n/a

Remote participation on faculty personnel cases

Among the most important tasks reserved for collective department faculty decision-making is deliberation about recommendations for hiring, contract renewal, tenure, and promotion. These decisions have far-reaching consequences for the quality of the department, the College, and Boston University and, of course, for the careers and lives of the individuals under consideration. In order to undertake these tasks with the utmost seriousness, all faculty participating in the decision must be prepared by reading the relevant material before the faculty meeting at which the decision will be discussed, and must be present at the meeting to participate in the deliberation. The deliberation itself – the discussion among faculty about the standards for decision-making, the evidence presented in the particular case and the appropriate interpretation of the evidence, and the weight of the evidence for the final decision – is essential to making a fully informed and considered decision at both the individual and collective levels. This is why no voting is permitted by faculty who are not present for the deliberation.

In rare cases, a faculty member who wishes to be a party to the departmental recommendation on hiring, contract renewal, tenure, or promotion but cannot be present in the room where the deliberation is taking place may participate and therefore vote using remote means. For this to occur, all of the following circumstances must hold:

  1. The department faculty should have already indicated its approval of having remote participation in faculty personnel decisions in principle, unconnected with the case under consideration. A department that allows remote participation must be consistent across all cases and either implement this policy or not. Departments are advised to hold a discussion and vote on their department’s policy on remote participation before any specific case comes up in order to satisfy this condition and forward the result to the Faculty Actions Director, Alex Bellan.
  2. The faculty member cannot be physically present for a compelling and appropriate personal or professional reason. An example is being on a lengthy research trip outside of the region or following state or university health advisories that restrict or limit in-person gatherings, but would not include having a schedule that makes it inconvenient to come to campus that day.
  3. The faculty member must have access to all documents required for preparation for deliberation in a manner appropriate for the protection of confidentiality.
  4. The faculty member must be able to participate fully in the meeting remotely, meaning that the faculty member must have at least two-way audio presence, although two-way video presence (via Skype, for example) is highly preferred, in order to participate in all deliberations. CAS IT is able to assist with equipment loans or recommendations for purchase to set up for two-way audio and video conferencing.
  5. If a faculty member cannot be physically present and votes remotely for one or more cases while away, the faculty member is expected to participate in all personnel decisions, either when present or when voting remotely is appropriate.
  6. In order for a faculty member to participate in a faculty personnel decision remotely, the department chair should submit an email request to the appropriate Associate Dean of the Faculty detailing the reason for the remote participation and the plans for remote participation. In the case of tenure and promotion meetings, the department chair should copy Gina Halabi.