Certain faculty members currently weigh in twice on University personnel decisions, said a faculty council member.

The council unanimously passed a resolution Monday to eliminate the practice,
English professor and council chair-elect Alan Friedman presented the resolution during the council’s meeting Monday on behalf of the eight-member executive committee.

Friedman said certain faculty and administrators currently participate twice in personnel decisions. They get to vote on hiring, promotion, or tenure decisions on their department or college level because they are voting members of the faculty. Then those who also sit on budget or tenure review boards weigh in on those decisions a second time.

Friedman said different schools and departments make personnel decisions differently, but the resolution will remedy this common problem between the academic units.

“Circumstances differ around campus but the idea is that you should participate on one level or the other but not both,” Friedman said. “You don’t want people to review their own decisions.”

Friedman said the resolution applies only to personnel matters. He said department or school level voting rights on curriculum decisions will remain unchanged.

According to the text of the resolution, “In matters such as curriculum review, participation at both the departmental/school and review levels is appropriate."