Description of Committees

Faculty Senate Committees

Agenda: establishes the Faculty Senate agenda for each month. Meets one Tuesday each month at 2:00 PM.
Committee on Committees: considers the overall structure of the standing academic committees and evaluates the functions of each. Meets one Tuesday each month at 3:00 PM, and schedules additional meetings as needed in the spring semester to complete the volunteer rosters.
Nominating Committee: formulates the slate of faculty officers for election by the Faculty Senate. Meets only in the spring semester for a few times.

Academic Committees

Academic Awards: recommends policies and procedures governing the granting of awards for teaching and advising, research and service; recommends candidates for receipt of awards in various categories, i.e. Alumni Distinguished Professor for Teaching Awards and University Research Awards. Meets one Thursday each month, but has subcommittees that meet at other times.
Admission and Retention Policies: considers matters related to undergraduate recruitment, admission, advising, and retention of students; recommends policies and procedures relating to academic credits and standards. Meets one Monday each month.
Calendar: develops University academic calendars. Meets one Monday each month.
Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (committee name and charge are currently under review for alignment with changes to UNC policies): description will be updated once the committee charge is revised. Meets one Tuesday each month.
Distance Education and Learning Technology: reviews program quality and policies and future directions relating to distance education; examines and recommends policies relating to distance education; ensures timely, informed faculty opinion on any technology action in any area that may affect significantly the University’s academic Mission; recommends policy related to the academic use of technology; initiates, reviews, and makes recommendations on proposals to plan, implement, revise or eliminate technology initiatives, goals, standards, policies, procedures or actions that significantly impact the University’s academic mission. Meets one Wednesday each month.
Educational Policies and Planning: oversees the adequacy, balance, and excellence of the University’s overall undergraduate and graduate programs; advises the Chancellor on educational policies and organizations, goals, standards and procedures; reviews requests for permission to establish and plan new degree programs; advises the Chancellor of action to be taken if the University experiences financial exigency or in the event that a major curtailment of an existing teaching, research, or public service program is considered. Meets one Friday each month.
Faculty Governance: oversees matters relating to policies and procedures found within the ECU Faculty Manual; considers matters relating to initial faculty appointment, tenure, promotion in rank merit and other such matters as may pertain to the general well-being of faculty; considers matters relating to unit re-evaluations. Meet the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays each month.
Faculty Welfare: reviews programs and policies relating to insurance, annuities, leaves of absence, faculty salaries, and faculty fringe benefits. Meets one Thursday each month.
General Education and Instructional Effectiveness: recommends policies to improve and advance faculty teaching and student learning; promotes teaching excellence and recommends means to identify faculty teaching success, including development of peer review instruments teaching face-to-face and distance education courses; makes recommendations regarding general education and diversity curriculum requirements. Meets one Monday each month.
Libraries: recommends policies and procedures for collections of books, periodicals, and other materials, library services and the apportionment of University library budgets. Meets one Wednesday each month.
Research/Creative Activities: considers matters related to the scholarly activity of the University; recommends policies and procedures governing the grant application process, criteria for the awarding of grants, guidelines for the use of research funds, and procedures for annual reporting by grant recipients. Meets on Thursday each month.
Service-Learning: recommends policies and procedures governing service learning requirements and service learning designation for individual courses. Meets one Tuesday each month.
Student Academic Appellate: serves as an appeals board for students who do not meet admission requirements, were denied permission to drop a course, want to appeal an administrative decision relating to academic credits and standards, are seeking readmission after being declared academically ineligible to return, or want to appeal a financial aid decision. Meets one Wednesday each month (note: meets in May, June, and August as well).
Student Scholarships, Fellowships, and Financial Aid: recommends policies and procedures regarding the granting of scholarships, fellowships, and financial aid programs; recommends recipients of specified student financial aid scholarships; reviews the overall operation of the Student Financial Aid office. Meets one Monday each month.
Teaching Grants: recommends policies and procedures governing the grant application process, criteria for the awarding of grants, guidelines for the use of teaching grant funds, and procedures for annual reporting by grant recipients; recommends teaching grant proposals to be funded based on the merit of the proposals. Meets as needed (no regular day).
Undergraduate Curriculum: oversees matters relating to undergraduate courses and programs; reviews requests for new degree programs; acts on recommendations from the Council for Educator Preparation regarding proposed changes in teaching education requirements. Meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays each month.
Unit Code Screening: reviews academic unit codes and changes to existing academic unit codes for compliance with the ECU Faculty Manual and University polices, General Guidelines for Writing and Revising Unit Codes, Code of the University of North Carolina, and other appropriate documents. Meets one Wednesday each month.
University Athletics: advises the Chancellor about general issues pertaining to intercollegiate athletics at ECU, including conference matters, budget, compliance with legal regulations, fund raising, and public relations. Meets one Tuesday each month.
University Budget: serves as a communication link between the Faculty Senate and Chancellor on budgetary matters; advises the Chancellor on annual budget priorities and policies, biennial budget requests, tuition changes, and the relationship of the budget decisions to the University’s mission. Meets one Thursday each month.
University Environment: oversees matters relating to the general physical environment of the University, which includes traffic flow patterns, parking facilities, landscaping, and University’s master plan, reviews effects of university projects upon water quality and quantity, runoff, and other physical impacts upon the community, advises and works in coordination with the Sustainability Manager to promote sustainability efforts on campus including energy and resource conservation, recycling, waste reduction, and integration of sustainability issues into the curriculum, and makes recommendations to promote appropriate management and use for education and research of ECU’s major natural areas. Meets one Thursday each month.
Writing Across the Curriculum: promotes the University Writing Program and recommends policies and guidelines governing the development and offering of courses and seminars that are officially to be designated as writing-intensive courses; reviews and approves proposals for writing-intensive courses, makes recommendations to the Faculty Senate regarding proposals carrying the writing intensive designation, reviews the activities of the University Writing Program, advises the administrative leadership in that program, and serves as a liaison between the University Writing Program and the Faculty Senate. Meets one Monday each month.

Appellate Committee

Serves as a pool for populating appeals panels for the four appellate processes:

Due Process: provides a forum for faculty members before discharge or the imposition of serious sanctions.
Grievance : hears grievances on matters directly related to a faculty member’s employment status and instructional relationship within the University and hears appeals concerning the implementation of governance procedures of both the East Carolina University Code and the Unit Codes within the units
Hearing: provides a forum for appeal of notice of nonreappointment or nonconferral of permanent tenure.
Reconsideration: provides a forum for the termination of faculty employment.

Meets only as needed, with the Appellate Steering Committee meeting more often to review incoming petitions/appeal filings, and panels meeting only when the appeals reach the hearing stage.

Administrative Committees with Elected Faculty Participants

Administrative Committees listing

Badging Governance: oversees the development and issuing of digital badges at ECU, provides oversight of the design, implementation, issuing, and monitoring of badges.
Copyrights: monitors trends and changes in copyright ownership models, oversees policy and guideline development, serves as a hearing body for dispute resolution.
Global Affairs: provide advice, guidance and recommendations on international matters including study abroad and exchange programming, international student and scholar services, international student recruiting and admissions, global academic initiatives, Language Academic programming, international partnerships and agreements and general strategic direction of Office of Global Affairs.
Honorary Degrees, Awards, and Distinctions: recommends to the Chancellor persons of outstanding accomplishment who have graduated from ECU or have ties to the university or region by which they enrich the communities. (Board of Trustees Oversight)
Honors College Faculty Advisory: makes recommendations about courses officially designated as honors courses, honors sections, or honors seminars; makes recommendations concerning academic qualifications for students in the Honors College; recommends policies relating to the Honors College, including faculty qualifications necessary to teach in the College.
Information Resources Coordinating Council: oversees the facilitation of information technology.
Parking and Transportation: assists in the planning of traffic parking and traffic management; evaluates suggestions and complaints from faculty, staff, and students concerning parking on campus, and develops recommendations that address beneficial improvements.
Parking Citation Appeals: serves as a mediator between Parking and Transportation and individuals that dispute appeal decisions that have been made by Parking and Transportation.
Patent: reviews procedures for the implementation of the University Patent Policy; resolve questions of invention ownership; recommend expenditure of the patent royalty fund; encourages disclosure and assures prompt and expeditious handling, evaluation, and prosecution of patent opportunities.
Safety and Security Committee: promotes safety and security awareness across campus and advises on policy development and implementation; review and evaluate effectiveness of current safety and security practices and make recommendations for improvement.
Technology Acquisition Committee: reviews and approves technology procurement requests, provides guidance in selection, development, and implementation of hardware, software systems, databases, and third party IT services that support University operations.
University Benefits: reviews benefit programs opportunities, makes recommendations to benefit policies; reviews how the university collects social security numbers
University Committee on Academic Integrity: serves as an appeals board for students involved in academically violating the Honor Code.
University Studies Faculty Oversight: provides final approval of each student’s course of study and thematic core and serves as a resource to BSUS students and provides advice and support to the University Studies Program.

Other

Graduate Council: considers all graduate academic policies, and upon recommendation of the GCC, graduate curriculum and degree programs. Meets one Monday each month.

Rev. 12-02-2024