Mission statement and charter for
the Faculty Employment Committee

Mission

The Faculty Employment Committee serves as the college faculty committee charged with examining issues involving the faculty as employees, including the area of salaries, fringe benefits, both provided by the State of South Carolina and by The Citadel, as well as working conditions and terms of employment. Selected committee members serve on the campus Equal Opportunity Committee and the Employee Grievance Committee. In pursuing its charge, the Employment Committee may cooperate as appropriate with similar faculty committees at other institutions of higher education as well as interact with other agencies of South Carolina Government.

Charter

I. Membership

A. Representation

The Committee on Committees selects six tenured or tenure-track faculty members (with no more than two members from the same department) to serve on the committee. Academic faculty membership is restricted to tenured or tenure-track faculty members who have been employed at The Citadel for at least one full academic year at the time they begin committee service. In addition to the academic faculty members, the committee shall include the Vice President for Finance and Business Affairs and the Director of Personnel and Administrative Services (or their designees) as administrative liaisons without voting privileges.

B. Tenure

Academic faculty members serve three year rotating terms, staggered so that at all times two-thirds of the committee have a collective memory of past decisions. All other members of the committee serve one-year terms. An academic faculty member may request a second consecutive term; no faculty member may serve on the committee for more than six years consecutively. If a faculty member cannot complete a term, the Committee on Committees will select another member to fill the un-expired term. Time spent filling the term of another faculty member will not count toward the "six-year rule" outlined above.

II. Structure

A. Chair

The committee, at an organizational meeting, held before the end of spring semester, shall elect a Chair from among the faculty. The term of chair lasts until the next election. A member may not serve as a committee chair for more than three years consecutively. The Chair schedules and presides over meetings, represents the committee before outside bodies, produces an annual report of committee activities, and undertakes whatever other measures are necessary to facilitate the work of the committee.

B. Subcommittees

A grievance committee for tenured and tenure-track faculty consists of one member from each cluster. The committee may form other subcommittees not specified in the charter.

C. Meetings

The committee must meet at least twice during the academic year (once in the Fall and once in the Spring). The Chair will call meetings at the request of the faculty members or at the request of either liaison member.The chair must hold a meeting if requested in writing by at least one-third of the voting members. Each faculty member will have one vote. A quorum will consks

The work of the Faculty Employment Committee consists of a series of tasks--units or work involving the gathering, analysis, and dissemination of information. The committee assumes tasks through one of the following means:

  1. Completion of tasks as articulated in the "Specific Activities" section of this charter.
  2. Completion of a report which includes information requested by an administrative department or activity, an academic department, another committee, the Faculty Council, or the Academic Board. Requests of individual faculty members must be made through the Faculty Council. Students or other individuals may not assign a task to the Faculty Employment Committee except through one of the above-mentioned bodies.
  3. Tasks can be generated from within the Faculty Employment committee. Any committee member may request that the committee study a topic or issue within its sphere of interest. The committee may also develop its own long-range projects or studies as part of its ongoing mission.

III.2 Specific Activities of the Faculty Employment Committee

  1. The Faculty Employment Committee designates three of its faculty members to serve on the Equal Opportunity Committee.
  2. Each year the committee shall review the fringe benefits offered by The Citadel to its employees, especially those employees who are faculty members. The committee shall endeavor to insure that the totality of these programs are non- discriminatory, offer benefits appropriate to the employee's contribution, and are cost-effective. The committee shall also consider any issues related to the terms of employment.
  3. The committee shall also review the fringe benefits offered by the State of South Carolina to its employees, especially those employees who are faculty members. Recommendations shall be forwarded to the appropriate authorities.
  4. The committee will conduct studies to insure that faculty compensation reflects merit and experience. In this process the committee will develop empirical models and report any serious inequities which are found.
  5. The committee will compare fringe benefits and salaries (using the developed empirical models) with those of appropriate cohort institutions of higher education to insure that both salaries and fringe benefits remain competitive.
  6. The grievance subcommittee deals with professional issues not concerning tenure and promotion. It will help establish specific grievance procedures to assume this role.

IV. Autonomy

To ensure the efficiency and quality of committee work, the Faculty Employment Committee is granted a degree of autonomy over its own operations.

Upon receiving a request from another college body, the committee will vote to accept or reject the request. A request for information can be rejected for the following reasons:

  1. The request is unclear; the committee chair will ask the requesting body to clarify any ambiguities and resubmit the request.
  2. The committee's workload is currently too great to perform the task in the requested time frame; the chair will return the request and suggest a date for resubmittal.
  3. The task falls outside the scope or sphere of interest of the committee; the chair will ask the requesting body to either submit the request to another committee or (if the task falls within the scope of more than one committee) divide the task between the committees.
  4. The committee does not have the resources or the authority to complete the task; the chair will explain which parts of the task cannot be completed, and the requesting body may resubmit a modified request.

V. Amending the Charter

The Faculty Employment Committee may modify its charter in consultation with the Committee on Committees. Proposals for changes in the charter come to the Committee on Committees, which negotiates the changes with the committee and with any affected administrative departments. A consensus request will be forwarded to the Faculty Council for approval. In case of a lack of consensus, competing proposals may be sent to the Faculty Council for consideration.

Revised May 2008