By Sheila Converse, Faculty Senate
PULLMAN, Wash. – Recent updates to the Faculty Manual include abridged annual reviews, elimination of the Hearing Committee Panel and more.
The manual is available on the Faculty Senate website, https://facsen.wsu.edu/.
Other updates streamline the process for appointing chairs and directors and make changes to sections on patents, copyrights and royalties.
Revisions to the Faculty Manual may be proposed by any unit of Washington State University or by any member or group of members of the faculty.
The revised annual review process puts more emphasis on long term career progress and promotion opportunities. It allows for established faculty to undergo an abridged review every other year. In March 2014, a joint task force was set up by Provost Dan Bernardo and the Faculty Senate to review the focus and process for conducting annual reviews.
In the last 29 years, only one Hearing Committee has been requested to review a faculty discipline case. With the elimination of the Hearing Committee Panel, a committee – should one be requested – will be chosen from the faculty.
Updates to the manual addressing patents, copyrights and royalties were proposed by the Office of Commercialization with advice from the Intellectual Property Committee and interested faculty senators.
Proposals for Faculty Manual revisions should be submitted to the executive secretary of the Faculty Senate, who forwards them to the Faculty Affairs Committee for review. From there the proposals are reviewed by the Senate Steering Committee and sent to the Faculty Senate for discussion and vote.