Consideration of Change to SIS By-Laws
May 4, 2011
The By-Laws do not address a situation where there are no nominations for the elected position of SIS Council Chair. Given the possibility of such an occurrence, I propose that we amend the By-Laws to address it. The current By-Laws can be found at http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~scouncil/pdf/sis%20council%20by-laws%202009.pdf, and the amendment would apply to pages 5-7 (depending on the direction chosen). Martin Weiss offered three candidate resolutions:
- transfer the responsibility of chairing council to the Dean’s office,
- rotate the Council Chair among the full professors at SIS, or
- select a Council Chair from among the sitting elected members.
The choice will reflect on the nature of shared governance at SIS. We may also wish to reconsider the term of office for the SIS Council Chair, as the three-year term has already demonstrated its potential to conflict with sabbatical schedules.
The SIS By-Laws attempt to strike a balance between shared (through the mechanisms of Program Committees and SIS Council) and delegated (through the Dean's Office) decision making. The SIS Council also serves as the School's Planning and Budgeting Committee, which is required by the University. As you know, SIS Council is currently comprised of faculty members elected at-large and a chair, also elected at large, each serving three year terms, as well as some ex officio members.
Each year, one of the at-large positions is up for re-election and every three years, the council chair is up for election. With a few exceptions, candidates for these positions have to be solicited by the Dean's office. This year is no exception, despite an email soliciting nominations and an announcement at the previous all-faculty meeting.
With the changes in the information field that we are experiencing and the challenges associated with public funding of higher education, the School stands at an historic moment in time. It is important that we engage each other appropriately on matters that affect the School so directly. We need to revisit the balance of governance and its implementation as reflected in the By-Laws.