Faculty Bylaws
Preamble:
These Bylaws facilitate the governance of the Department (departmental rules), without compromising LSU administrative procedures. In case of inadvertent conflicts, the particular Bylaw shall be considered invalid and rewritten. The Bylaws shall apply to all faculty and staff in the Department of Geography and Anthropology (as governed by LSU Policy Memoranda and Policy Statements).
Departmental Chair:
The Chair of the Department of Geography and Anthropology is appointed by the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. If the Chair is chosen from the current departmental Faculty, then the Dean will consult with the Faculty of the Department to determine the Faculty’s preferred choice. If the Chair is hired from outside the Department, then the normal hiring procedure discussed below applies.
The Department Chair is responsible for the management of the department, including overseeing the budget, overseeing course offerings and appointment of additional instructors (when needed) each semester, appointing faculty to dept committees, and being an advocate for the department to the higher administration. The Chair may advance new initiatives and visions for the dept, but ultimately works with the faculty to promote the dept goals and mission.
Faculty Members:
Faculty members are defined in PS- 36T and NT as follows. ‘The regulations of the LSU Board of Supervisors, 1-2.2a, state that “full-time members of the academic staff having the rank of instructor or higher (or equivalent ranks) shall constitute the Faculty on the campus on which they are appointed.” Ranks and their faculty status are further defined in detail in PM-23.’
Adjunct Faculty:
Following tradition set in faculty meetings, the faculty may vote to appoint Adjunct Faculty who would enhance the research and educational quality of the department. This is typically an LSU faculty member outside of G&A and includes a teaching appointment. These appointments are for a period of one year (this time is limited by PM-23). PM-23 lists criteria for certain adjunct titles. Recommendations by Faculty members for individuals to serve as Adjunct Faculty are based on a vote of the departmental Faculty.
Affiliate Member of the Faculty:
The faculty may vote to appoint Affiliate Faculty who would enhance the research and educational quality of the department. This is for both faculty and graduate student research. In each case, the vote is preceded by nomination from a tenured or tenure-track Faculty member in the Department and is accompanied by the candidate’s CV and a research presentation to the Department. An explanation of the nominee's qualifications and ability to enhance the Department is presented by the nominating Faculty member during a Faculty meeting. Affiliate Faculty may attend faculty meetings, but do not vote. A simple majority vote by the Faculty is required for the initial appointment. Every three years, a major review is required per G&A policy and the full faculty will vote again. If applicable, upon approval, the individual will be nominated to the Graduate School as an affiliate member to serve on departmental graduate committees.
Faculty Meetings:
The Chair calls faculty meetings at her/his discretion. However, if 20% or more Faculty members submit a written request to hold a special meeting, the meeting shall be called. The announcement and the agenda of every meeting shall be distributed at least three working days prior to the meeting. At least two meetings are to be held every Fall and Spring semester. At the beginning of each academic year, the Chair shall present to the Faculty a list of major goals to be pursued during the year. This may or may not happen in a day-long faculty retreat. Toward the end of the year, the Chair shall report on progress made at achieving each major goal outlined at the beginning of the year.
Voting Rights:
- In actions concerning tenure, all Faculty members holding tenure in the Department may vote.
- Faculty with joint appointments in other budgetary units may vote on specific personnel actions in the unit in which they hold tenure.
- All Faculty members, as governed by PS-36T and NT, may vote on the routine business of the Department.
Quorum:
A simple majority of the voting Faculty shall constitute a quorum.
Student Representation:
Two students, annually elected representatives by departmental graduate students are invited to attend and participate in all Faculty meetings dealing with routine business. They shall not attend meetings dealing with matters of promotion, tenure, other personnel matters, or administrative performance.
Procedures at Meetings:
Faculty meetings will be lead by the Department Chair, following an agenda circulated in advance. If the faculty are unable to discuss and deliberate with respect and collegiality, the Chair will use the latest edition of Robert's Rules of Order.
Recording of Minutes:
The minutes of each Faculty meeting are recorded by the faculty members through an alphabetical rotation. That individual will distribute the minutes to the Chair, who will send them at least 3 days prior to the following faculty meeting for review to the faculty. At the following faculty meeting, the minutes will be discussed, amended, if necessary, and voted upon.
Departmental Budget:
The preparation of the budget is the responsibility of the Chair. At the beginning of each academic year, the budget shall be presented to the Faculty for their information.
Committees:
The Chair of the Department appoints the members of the departmental committees or solicits Faculty votes on committee membership. The assignment and general duties of the standing committees are outlined below. (Each committee is tasked with defining the detailed activities and function of their respective committees in a simple Handbook that can be given to new committee members.) All personnel matters shall remain confidential.
Alumni Relations Committee: This committee is tasked to keep an updated list of alumni from all programs within Geography and Anthropology. The list should include contact information for future alumni focused events and fundraising. They are also responsible for working with LSU Giving Day when the situation arises.
Assessment Committee: This committee compiles the documents required for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness’ annual assessment of all integrative learning core (ILC) courses, and all undergraduate and graduate programs in Geography and Anthropology. As of 2024, this includes nine ILC courses, a BA, BS, MS and PhD in Geography and a BA, MA, and PhD in Anthropology. This committee is also responsible for program impact reports every three years. The Chair of this committee will be responsible for informing the faculty of the learned information at the end of every spring semester.
Curriculum Committee: This committee reviews and updates (as needed) the undergraduate and graduate curricula and courses offered by the Department of Geography and Anthropology. The committee will work with faculty to develop new courses and to update existing courses to reflect changes in the disciplines. They will pay particular attention to courses taught by those retiring or leaving the department to ensure continuity for students. When it is not possible to continue offering a course to students, this committee will assist in the paperwork to remove and/or change the requirement in the associated curriculum. One member of the curriculum committee represents the department in the College Curriculum Committee (CAPPE).
Community Engagement Committee: This committee is tasked to foster a community culture within the department. They will assist in explaining, promoting, and encouraging community engagement, to ultimately ensure that everyone within Geography and Anthropology feels respected and supported.
Executive Committee: This committee advises and assists the Chair on departmental affairs. The Chair will appoint members of the Executive Committee based on their interaction with various important committees within the department. This committee also evaluates the faculty for awards and honors administered by the Department, College, University and professional societies. The composition of the committee will aim to represent faculty breadth with respect to rank/status (tenured/untenured) and the disciplines (humanities, social sciences, physical sciences).
Facility and Space Committee: This committee coordinates the space in the department and helps to keep inventory of the space occupied and “owned” by Geography and Anthropology. New requests for space allocation start with this committee by a written request from the interested faculty member. The committee will work with the Chair to make decisions about space allocation.
Graduate Committee: The committee considers the admission and financial support of graduate student applicants, funding for continuing graduate students, and nominations for awards for current graduate students (Dissertation Year award, Best Dissertation award, Graduate School assistantships). It works closely with the Grad Coordinator to develop best practices for graduate admissions, mentoring, and professional development. The committee also serves in an advisory capacity in cases of conflict between graduate students and their Faculty advisors. The Director of Graduate Studies is a three-year position appointed by the Chair. The position comes with one course release and additional travel funding, when the departmental budget allows.
Information Technology Committee: This committee is responsible for evaluating, advising on, and overseeing the use of information technology systems within Geography and Anthropology. This includes helping to review IT policies, addressing cybersecurity concerns, and acting as a bridge between departmental IT needs and the wider LSU IT community.
Promotion and Tenure Committee: This is a committee established to conduct the initial review and to collect the necessary documents for the promotion and tenure analysis of Faculty. A committee consisting exclusively of tenured faculty evaluates Assistant Professors. The Department Chair will compile information from all tenured faculty and meet individually with the tenure-track faculty for discussion. For evaluation of Associate and Full Professors, the committee is comprised only of Full Professors. All eligible faculty are expected to participate in tenure votes, unless they have a documented conflict of interest. Conflicts of interest should be documented with the Department Chair in advance of any P & T vote.
Research and Scholarship Committee: This committee evaluates undergraduate and graduate students for awards, scholarships, and honors administered by the Department. They include the Robert C. West and R. J. Russell, G & A Materials, and William G. Haag Funds for Graduate Students and the Undergraduate Paper Awards for Undergraduate Majors and Minors (Earle Award, Larimore Award, and Anthropology Award). Awards may also be evaluated from the College, when applicable, and other entities from which funds are available. The committee may host a Student Award Ceremony in the Spring of each year to publicly honor and announce recipients of undergraduate and graduate students awards.
Social Media Committee: This committee maintains a social media presence for the Geography and Anthropology Department. At the time this draft was written, this includes Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), and Blue Sky will be added. Posts should include faculty led research, presentations, class work, and departmental events, as well as student awards, publications, and other accomplishments. When available, a departmental graduate assistant will be assigned to this committee to assist.
Speakers Committee: This committee coordinates and organizes the departmental seminar series funded by the Geography and Anthropology Department, the Pruitt Endowment and other funds as available. Faculty members in the department are expected to provide names of potential speakers to the speakers committee when solicited. Graduate student recipients of West, Russell, and/or G & A Materials awards are expected to present at a Friday forum, typically in the Spring semester. The committee endeavors to select a wide array of speakers, who engage with the disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological breadth of faculty and students.
Student Organization Advisory Committee: This committee will assist with the advising and coordination of the student organizations in the department. There are two student-led organizations within Geography and Anthropology. The Geography and Anthropology Society (GAS) for graduate students and the Geography and Anthropology Undergraduate Society (GAUS) for undergraduate students. This also includes Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) for Geography and Lambda-Alpha for Anthropology, two international honors societies for Geography and Anthropology, respectively.
Undergraduate Advisors Committee: This committee is responsible for advising undergraduates in each program. There will be someone on the committee who represents either discipline or any concentrations that might exist within the department. They are responsible for helping students with transfer credits and substitutions when departmental course requirements are not offered in a timely fashion.
Ad Hoc Committees: May be established by the Chair to fulfill specific needs of the Department. These will include (but are not limited to):
- Mentor Committee: When applicable, a mentor will be assigned to tenure-track faculty. When more than one tenure-track faculty member is in the department, the mentors are expected to communicate successful mentoring strategies with one another. Mentors will take special care to attend to the disciplinary and subdisciplinary norms of tenure-track faculty’s fields. [And consult relevant P & T Guidelines]. Mentors will be involved in the annual reviews of tenure-track faculty and will be present in any meetings with the T & P Committee tasked with accomplishing these annual reviews. Upon request, the faculty mentor may be present in the tenure-track faculty member’s meeting with the Department Chair and members of the annual review committee.
- Faculty Hiring Committee: The faculty hiring committee will be composed of (at least) three tenured or tenure track Faculty members who are appointed by the Chair. Additional committee members may be included at the discretion of the Chair. The Chair can also invite one or two graduate students to join the committee. The committee is responsible for writing the job advertisement, which is reviewed by the Faculty and voted on at the first faculty meeting following the completion of the advertisement. Following distribution of the ad, the committee reviews applications from candidates and makes the applications available to all Faculty members. The committee reviews and evaluates the candidate pool, filters the pool to 10 or less finalists, and presents those finalists for the departmental Faculty to evaluation at the earliest possible faculty meeting. The full Faculty selects a pool of finalists by a simple majority vote. Zoom meetings with the short list may be conducted at this time. The Search Committee solicits letters of reference from each finalist’s references, evaluates letters, filters the candidates and identifies a short list to be brought to the full Faculty for a vote. Selection of candidates for visits to LSU will be based on a simple majority vote. The committee then coordinates the candidates’ visits. Following the visits, the committee is dissolved. It is the Department Chair’s responsibility to conduct an exit interview with each candidate and inform all candidates about the final decision.
- Staff Hiring Committee: The staff hiring committee will be composed of two faculty members, and a staff person who is appointed by the Chair. The Chair will be responsible for writing the job description and the committee will evaluate the applicants, compile a short list of qualified individuals for the position, interview the applicants on the short list, choose a finalist, and recommend to the Chair the committee’s finalist.
Where possible, all departmental committees with include members of the department offering a variety of experiences, perspectives and disciplines, including, for example, the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences. When the Department is led by faculty member in one discipline, special care will be taken to ensure that the other discipline is adequately represented in decision making and that their needs are addressed. While tenure-track faculty are typically “protected” from excessive service obligations, they are not to be excluded from playing a role in decision making. The Chair will meet with tenure-track faculty (and all non-tenured faculty) regularly to ensure that their views and concerns are represented in departmental decisions.
Grievance:
The Chair has the responsibility to address all grievances, except when more relevant alternatives are required, including sexual harassment, student misconduct, or issues under PS-69. If the Chair is not able to resolve a grievance, it shall be communicated to the Dean.
Amending and Ratifying the Bylaws:
Amendment and ratification of these Bylaws requires a quorum and a vote of a simple majority of the faculty present at a faculty meeting called for that purpose.
Drafted and Ratified (01/25/2025 by J. Trepanier and Faculty Vote)