Minutes of a Regular Meeting, June 22-23, 2004 - Digital Collections

REGENTS’ POLICY MANUALSECTION 2—ACADEMICSAny faculty member who chooses to appeal the decision by the President to recommendabrogation of tenure, dismissal of a tenure-track or consecutive term appointment or other severesanctions to the Board of Regents must submit, as the respondent, a written request for hearing to theChair of the Faculty Appeals Board within 15 calendar days of the date of the President’s letter. (See(e) below).(c) The time intervals specified in the preceding and following sections are guidelines andshould be maintained unless waived by the Chair of the Faculty Appeals Board for unusualcircumstances or in order to allow continuing progress towards informal resolution of the complaint.(d) The Faculty Appeals Board process is a lay process which relies on peer review and thecommon sense, sound judgment, good character, and sense of fairness of each Hearing Committee.The Faculty Appeals Board procedures should strive to diminish formality and rigidity. The processis not to be considered a trial but is a system of internal review to effect a just and fair disposition of agrievance.(e)Pre-Hearing Procedure:1) Upon receipt of the written complaint as set out in (a) and (b) of this section and prior toinitiating the formal hearing process, the Chair of the Faculty Appeals board shall ask therespondent to submit, within 15 working days, a statement in writing outlining the specificpoints of defense. Upon receipt of this statement, the Chair of the Faculty Appeals Boardshall, convene the complainant, the respondent, and two members of the Faculty AppealsBoard within 30 working days. The two members shall be selected by the Chair in the samemanner as members and alternates (Section 3.15.2(c)(2)) and shall be ineligible to serve onthe Hearing Committee for that particular case. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss thepoints of the complaint, to resolve differences, where possible, and to seek resolution of thematter at issue. Formal minutes of these discussions will not be taken, and no data, findingsor recommendations from these discussions will be forwarded to the Hearing Committeeexcept as provided in Section 3.15.3.2) If a satisfactory resolution is reached, the Chair of the Faculty Appeals Board willsummarize and forward the facts of the case in writing to the complainant and therespondent.3) If a satisfactory resolution is not reached within 45 working days from receipt of the formalrequest for hearing (13.15.1(a)(b)), the Chair of the Faculty Appeals Board will notify theparties that no resolution was reached and initiate hearing procedures.Formal Hearing ProcedureAll matters brought to the Faculty Appeals Board shall be handled according to the followingprocedures, which are designed to ensure fairness and due process.(a) If the pre-hearing conference described in section 3.15.1 (e)(1) does not produce a satisfactory result,the Chair of the Faculty Appeals Board will request the complainant to submit to both the chair andthe respondent, within 20 working days of the pre-hearing conference, a written statementembodying:1) Relevant policies of the administrative or academic unit, the College, the Provost's Office,President's Office, and the Board of Regents.2) The written complaint (3.15.1(a)(b)).THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 65