Faculty Grievance Procedure
Academic Policy Statement 820830
Revised September 27, 1996

1. PREAMBLE

1.01     Any member of the faculty at Sam Houston State University has the right to appeal an administrative decision that directly affects him/her as a faculty member, and that is considered to be a violation of university policy, or a violation of professional rights and responsibilities.
 
  2. GENERAL PROVISIONS
2.01 Definitions
 
a. Grievance:  
(1) An alleged misinterpretation or misapplication of a written university policy by an administrator;   (2) An alleged violation by an administrator of a faculty member's professional, legal, or other rights when such alleged violation involves the faculty member's conditions of work.  
  b. Faculty: The professional full-time teaching staff holding tenure or tenure-track status; interim faculty; and librarians holding the same faculty status.   c. Administrator: Any person charged with managerial and administrative authority and accountability for teaching personnel and academic programs, departments, divisions, and colleges.  
  2.02     Faculty Grievance Committee Established.

            There is hereby established a standing Faculty Grievance Committee to be constituted and selected as follows:
 

a. The Faculty Grievance Committee shall consist of seven (7) Regular Members, comprising five (5) tenured or tenure-track, full-time faculty members, and two (2) academic administrators.

b. There shall be an Alternate Member and a Reserve Member for each of the seven (7) positions in the same ratio of faculty and administrators.

c. The committee membership shall be drawn from a cross-section of the university academic areas and shall serve two- (2-) year overlapping terms. No more than one Regular Member of the committee may be selected from any one academic unit (division or department).

d. The University Faculty Senate will recommend three (3) nominees for each faculty position on the committee.

e. The Academic Policy Council will recommend three (3) nominees for each administrative position on the committee.

f. From this pool of twenty-one (21) nominations, the President will make appointments of, Regular Members, Alternate Members, and Reserve Members in proportions established in Sections 2.02 a. and 2.02 b. of this document.
 
 

 2.03     Seating and Leadership of the Committee.
  a. The grievant and/or the person against whom the grievance is filed may disqualify in writing to the President the seating of any members without showing cause. The positions of any disqualified members will be filled by the President from the pool of alternates. The committee shall then be considered empaneled. No member of the committee shall be involved in any way in the alleged grievance.

b. The President of the university designates the chair from the list of Regular Members. The chair shall be responsible for calling meetings of the committee, notifying committee members and parties to the grievance of meetings, and receiving information from parties to the grievance.
 
 

 2.04 Documentation and Reporting.
  a. The chair of the committee will be responsible for maintaining records of all grievances filed and their dispositions.

b. At the end of each year, copies of these records will be forwarded to the President for appropriate maintenance. Simultaneously dispositions will be reported to the University Faculty Senate. The chair shall, in addition, provide the President and the University Faculty Senate with an annual report summarizing the committee's work.
 
 

 3. GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES 3.01     Any faculty member may express a grievance through the procedures specified in Section 3.
  a. The burden of proof is on the grievant to prove his/her case by a preponderance of the credible evidence.

b. In the case of a formal hearing, any party to the grievance may be accompanied by a colleague or counsel of choice, who will serve only in an advisory capacity.

c. The grievant may terminate the procedure at any point mutually satisfactory to the parties to the grievance.

d. All parties to the procedure are assured freedom from reprisal for their activities related to these proceedings.

e. Failure of any administrator to comply with the time limits shall automatically move the question forward to the process. When the aggrieved party shall fail to live up to the time limits, the grievance shall be dropped. Time limits may be extended by agreement when signed by both parties.
 
 

 3.02     Prior to seeking redress through the Faculty Grievance Committee, a faculty member shall exhaust the following remedies within ninety (90) days after an alleged occurrence of the grievance:
  a. Seek resolution of the problem with his/her program coordinator and/or chair; that failing,

b. Seek resolution of the problem with his/her dean or director; that failing,

c. Seek resolution of the problem with the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
 
 

 3.03     The faculty member initiates the formal grievance procedure by the submission of a written complaint to the chair of the Faculty Grievance Committee which must be done within thirty (30) days after a discussion with the Vice President for Academic Affairs has failed to satisfactorily resolve the grievance.
  a. The written complaint should specify the nature of the perceived wrong and identify the administrative actions which form the basis for the grievance, and specifically identify any policy or right alleged to have been violated.

b. Copies of the written complaint are to be made available to the person(s) against whom the grievance is filed.
 
 

 3.04     The committee, after preliminary investigation of the written compliant, shall decide by a majority vote within fourteen (14) days whether or not the facts merit continued inquiry.
  a. If the facts do not merit continued inquiry, the grievance shall be rejected, and the committee will explain in writing to all parties the reasons for that rejection. The grievant will thus have exhausted redress under this grievance procedure.

b. Within ten (10) class days after the committee's decision to continue the procedure, the committee shall submit letters to each administrator with whom the faculty member had consultations regarding the complaint prior to the submission of the formal complaint, and to other such persons as the committee deems appropriate. These letters shall specify the nature of the complaint and request that each recipient submit to the committee a written response within ten (10) class days. The committee may request to examine copies of relevant documents, including confidential personnel records, if the persons involved give their written permission.

c. Upon receipt of the written responses specified in Section 3.04.b., the chair of the committee shall have copies of these responses made available to the parties to the grievance.

d. The committee has ten (10) class days in which to determine whether the grievance procedure is to continue or not to continue. Such a decision will be made by a majority vote.

e. If the grievance is determined at this stage not to be supported by a preponderance of the credible evidence, it shall be dismissed. A letter specifying the reasons for dismissal shall be transmitted to the grievant and to the person(s) against whom the grievance was filed.

f. If the complaint is not dismissed at this stage, the committee, through its chair, may attempt to resolve the grievance informally (i.e., by means of individual conferences with the parties to the grievance). If unable to achieve resolution within ten (10) class days, the committee shall so notify in writing the parties to the grievance.
 
 

 3.05     If the grievance has not been dismissed or resolved to the satisfaction of the parties to the grievance by all prior means, the grievant may request a formal hearing.
  a. The hearing shall be limited to the perceived wrongs specified in the original written complaint to the committee. This limitation does not preclude the introduction of evidence referring to previous grievances of the same or similar nature.

b. The request for a formal hearing must be in writing and submitted to the chair of the committee within ten (10) class days after the written notice described in Section 3.04.f. of this document (failure to resolve grievance by informal means).

c. The grievant and the person against whom the grievance was filed may then begin to examine and collect documents or other information pertinent to the case, and may request that witnesses be summoned to give oral testimony at the hearing.

d. A hearing shall be held by the committee at the earliest date convenient to those involved in the grievance. Every effort will be made to convene the hearing within fifteen (15) class days, but not more than thirty (30) class days after the hearing is formally requested. The parties must be given notice of the hearing date at least ten (10) days in advance of it.

e. The procedure to be followed at the formal hearing shall be left to the discretion of the committee with the provision that both parties be given equal time. The hearing may be open to the faculty at the discretion of the committee with the approval of the President. Transcripts or tape recordings will be made of the formal hearing.

f. Upon completion of the hearing, the committee shall within three (3) class days notify the parties to the grievance and the President of its findings, suggestions, and recommendations in a written statement.

g. If the parties voluntarily accept the committee's findings, suggestions, and recommendations and require approval or means of implementation not available to the parties, the committee report shall be forwarded to the President, who shall review the record and make a final decision, thus concluding the Faculty Grievance Procedure of Sam Houston State University.
 
 

APPROVED:                      /s/
                        Bobby K. Marks, President

Revised: September 27, 1996