The Daily Bulletin Archive

At its March 11, 2016, meeting, the College Senate voted to recommend an amendment to the “Coordinator” section of the DOPS Policy on Interdisciplinary Units (III:03:00). The policy appears below. Amendments are indicated by UPPERCASE ITALICIZED TYPE.

BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE
DIRECTORY OF POLICY STATEMENTS
Policy Number: III:03:00
Date: February 2016
Subject: Interdisciplinary Units

Definitions of an Interdisciplinary Unit

• An Interdisciplinary Unit is a group of self-selected faculty and staff members who come together by virtue of their interests and expertise to develop academic programs or curriculum. Interdisciplinary Units are sponsored or co-sponsored by deans of the college and are formed at the request of faculty members seeking to expand programs into areas not offered by or not appropriate for current departments.
• Faculty members connected to an Interdisciplinary Unit will be called faculty associates. An Interdisciplinary Unit will consist of a minimum of five faculty associates.
• The faculty associate who manages the Interdisciplinary Unit will be called the coordinator.
• Staff members connected to an Interdisciplinary Unit will be called staff associates.
   

Governance

• The College Senate will be consulted prior to formation of an Interdisciplinary Unit.
• Interdisciplinary Units will be approved by all academic deans and the provost.
• Interdisciplinary Units will report to a dean to be determined by the provost.
• Interdisciplinary Units will establish and be governed by self-generated bylaws, which shall be kept on file by the designated dean’s office.
• Interdisciplinary Units will have a coordinator.
• Faculty associates will have the authority to create curricula and academic programs.
• An Interdisciplinary Unit will be the body of record for submission of curricula for approval by faculty governance bodies.
• Interdisciplinary Units will seek cross-fertilization among existing departments and cross-list courses whenever appropriate.
   

Faculty and Staff Associates
Commensurate with their departmental, unit, or staff contracts and MOUs, the duties and responsibilities of faculty and staff associates will be delineated within the bylaws of the Interdisciplinary Unit.
 

Coordinator
The coordinator of an interdisciplinary unit will:

• Be a full-time, tenure-track assistant, associate, or full professor.
• Be elected by a simple majority vote of the faculty associates and be approved by the dean associated with the unit and the provost.
• Oversee the program.
• Conduct regular meetings of the faculty and staff associates.

Current Policy Language:

• BE ELIGIBLE FOR COMPENSATION AS DETERMINED BY THE COORDINATOR AND THE DEAN ASSOCIATED WITH THE UNIT.

Proposed Policy Language:

• BE COMPENSATED FOLLOWING ESTABLISHED PAST PRACTICE OF THE COLLEGE FOR FACULTY WITH SIMILAR ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES.

Allocation of Enrollment and Completions

• For courses with an interdisciplinary unit prefix, student credit hours from that course are to be assigned to the academic department to which the course instructor belongs.
• Members of the interdisciplinary unit will propose a formula to apportion program enrollment and completions to the participating academic departments. The academic deans will make a recommendation on the proposal to the provost, who will have approval authority for this formula.

I hereby approve the amendment to the "Coordinator" section of the DOPS Policy on Interdisciplinary Units recommended by the Senate, to which I have added a clarifying statement (indicated by UNDERLINED AND BOLDFACE TYPE). I charge the provost with the responsibility for implementing the policy change, effective with the fall 2016 semester, and communicating the change to all appropriate areas.