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SFA Home / College of Liberal and Applied Arts/ English

Organizational Plan

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
ROLE AND SCOPE: The Executive Committee is a body elected from the English faculty to advise the chair of English on Departmental matters.

DUTIES: The duties of the Executive Committee shall include but not be limited to:

• Advising the department chair on any matters the chair or a department member brings to the executive committee
• Serving as the department merit committee (pending further review of the current merit policy)
• Reviewing proposals on curriculum revisions or policy changes that would then go before the entire continuing faculty for discussion and approval or rejection (based on a vote of the continuing faculty)
• Hearing concerns or complaints among the department faculty
• Compiling and maintaining a departmental faculty handbook
• Facilitating the coordinators with their duties as necessary
• Submitting nominations for coordinators to the chair as the first step in the coordinator selection process.
• Assisting the chair in other matters deemed appropriate to the functioning of the Department

COMPOSITION: The Executive Committee shall be composed of 5 faculty members:
1 tenured member, 1 tenure-track member, 1 lecturer or adjunct member, and 2 at-large positions to be filled by either a tenured or tenure-track member of the department.
Faculty members with one year of service at the time of taking office shall be eligible to serve on the Executive Committee.
Coordinators are not eligible to serve on the Executive Committee.

ELECTION: The members of the Executive Committee shall be chosen as follows:
Elections shall be held during the spring semester for terms to begin at the start of the following fall semester.
There shall be two rounds of voting: the first round will be for the tenured member, the tenure-track member, and the lecturer or adjunct member.
All continuing faculty and the current lecturer/adjunct representative will vote for the tenured, tenure-track, and at-large positions. The lecturers and adjuncts will vote for the lecturer/adjunct position.

TERM: Members of the Executive Committee will hold 3-year non-consecutive terms:
2 members shall rotate off each year; therefore, 2 of the inaugural 5 executive committee members would rotate off after only 1 year of service to start the rotation and 2 more would have to rotate off the following year after only 2 years of service; the executive committee will make the decision as to which members will rotate off early; after that, everyone will be able to serve a 3-year term, and the rotation will be automatic.
If a serving member of the Executive Committee cannot for any reason complete his or her term, an open election will be held to finish the remainder of the term.

 

COORDINATORS

JOB DESCRIPTION: Coordinators in the Department of English support the duties of the chair as specified in University Policy E-10A and report to the chair.

APPOINTMENT:
Coordinators shall be appointed in a three-step process.
1. The Executive Committee shall present recommendations to the Chair.
2. The Chair shall appoint coordinators at his or her own discretion, with a rationale presented to the faculty.
3. The Chair shall present the choice of coordinators to the full faculty.

TERM OF OFFICE:
Each coordinator shall serve a term specified by the chair.

DUTIES:

• Administrative Coordinator:
  1. Assist on reports due to in-department and out-of-department entities.
  2. Oversee ballot elections held out of meetings.
  3. Work with statistical information for department.
  4. Help set up department committees such as search committees.
  5. Designate minute taker for faculty meetings.
  6. Assist chair in any other appropriate department projects.

• Undergraduate Coordinator:
  1. Set up and administer an undergraduate advising process.
  2. Refer complaints from students in 200, 300, and 400 level classes to the appropriate faculty member, confer with Chair and refer to Chair if necessary.
  3. Oversee Convocation, Showcase Saturday, and other undergraduate recruiting programs.
  4. Help process 495 literature requests.
  5. Discuss with Chair any requested substitutions on the degree plans of literature majors and minors.
  6. Do undergraduate degree plans and keep files.
  7. Confer with chair on undergraduate literature course offerings.
  8. Confer with Scholarship Chairman on undergraduate literature scholarships.
  9. Assist chair in any other undergraduate literature projects or problems.
     
     
• Graduate Coordinator:
  1. Do all graduate degree plans; discuss exceptions with Chair.
  2. Review all applications for admission to program and discuss with Chair.
  3. Review all graduate teaching assistant applications and discuss with Chair.
  4. Assist in graduate advising.
  5. Work on recruiting for graduate program, especially out-of-state recruiting.
  6. Set up and administer comprehensive examinations.
  7. Give input to Chair on scheduling graduate classes.
  8. Handle all graduate student complaints.
  9. Process 595 requests.
  10. Advise and direct M.A. students in English, in consultation with the Department Chair.
  11. Assist chair in any other graduate projects or problems.
      

• Coordinator for Freshman Writing
  1. Teach 580 or recommend instructor.
  2. Supervise training of graduate teaching assistants.
  3. Supervise work of graduate teaching assistants and keep Chair advised.
  4. Handle all freshman writing complaints.
  5. Maintain files and resources in freshman work area.
  6. Oversee uniformity but not lockstep in syllabi and policy statements.
  7. Discuss all problems with adjuncts or graduate teaching assistants with Chair.
  8. Observe freshman classes when necessary.
  9. Go over freshman papers when necessary.
  10. Go over student course evaluations for freshman classes when necessary.
  11. Work with publishers' representative, including organizing publishers' book fairs.
  12. Organize and tally voting on composition text.
  13. Recruit and interview new writing teachers.
  14. Coordinate core assessment for freshman writing courses.
  15. Develop and maintain instructor's handbook for 131 and 132.
  16. Assist Chair in any other freshman writing projects or problems.
      

Approved March 21, 2007 by the faculty of the Department of English.

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