Bylaws
Article I - Name
The College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) Faculty Senate.
Article II - Purpose
The purpose of the organization shall be:
- To promote professionalism among the faculty of CMI.
- To communicate with the Executive Council of CMI on all matters regarding the faculty.
- To recommend to the Executive Council policy changes to ensure that the professional and personal needs of the faculty are met.
- To monitor the policies of CMI to ensure that they adhere to the faculty’s rights and needs.
- To seek, advocate for, and ensure that the faculty are given the opportunity to attend workshops, seminars, and other faculty development opportunities that are related to their disciplines.
- To seek and advocate for funds and other resources for the development of the faculty.
Article III - Membership
Voting members shall be all full-time instructors of the College of the Marshall Islands (including full-time WAVES, ABE, GED instructors) who do not have primary administrative responsibilities, and shall include the CMI Dean of Libraries. All part-time and adjunct instructors are members of the faculty and are eligible for membership in the Faculty Senate. Adjunct instructors with no primary administrative responsibilities shall elect one voting representative for every twenty (20) adjunct members to serve a one-year term in the Faculty Senate. Adjunct instructors with primary administrative responsibilities (e.g. Dean, VP’s, Directors) are not eligible to serve as an elected representative for the adjunct faculty.
Article IV - Meetings
Regular meetings shall be on the second and fourth Friday of each calendar month, or any other time it is deemed necessary by the executive officers.
Members shall be notified of meetings in a timely manner.
A quorum shall consist of a simple minority of the CMI full time teaching faculty.
Article V - Officers and Duties
Only voting members of the Faculty Senate shall have the right to hold office in the Faculty Senate. The officers of the Faculty Senate shall include: a President, a Vice President, and a Secretary/Treasurer.The normal term of office shall be one academic school year.
Duties of the President:
- The President shall call and preside at all Faculty Senate meetings.
- The President shall be the point of contact with the College President whenever the Faculty Senate needs a special meeting with the College President.
- The President shall represent the Faculty Senate at all Executive Council Meetings or delegate the responsibility to the Vice President in the event that he/she cannot attend.
- The President oversees each academic year election process to ensure that voting is fair and equitable.
Duties of the Vice President:
- Drafting informational documents, memos for Faculty Senate meeting. President is unavailable.
- Managing special projects, (such as Faculty Contract renewal policies).
- Ensuring transparent communication is occurring between the President and Faculty (such as requesting and coordinating official memos from the President).
- The Vice President shall also be a voting representative of the Faculty Senate at the Executive Council (EC) meeting only when the Faculty Senate President is unavailable or absent.
- The Vice President shall preside at Faculty Senate meetings when the President is unavailable.
- The Vice President shall confer with the President on matters of importance to the Faculty.
Duties of the Secretary/Treasurer:
- The Secretary/Treasurer shall be responsible for recording, disseminating, and posting the minutes and proceedings of all Faculty Senate meetings.
- The Secretary/Treasurer shall forward copies of approved meeting minutes to the College’s webmaster.
- The Secretary/Treasurer shall notify faculty of meetings.
- The Secretary/Treasurer shall keep accurate financial records of all Faculty Senate financial matters.
Article VI - Voting
- Full-time Faculty Senate members are eligible to vote at Faculty Senate meetings as well as the chosen representative for adjunct instructors. Each Faculty Senate member shall cast only one vote on any matter being voted upon.
- There will be no proxy voting.
- There will be absentee voting.
- Online voting may be used as required, so long as material to be voted on has been made available in PDF format for two business days prior to the opening of voting, and appropriate restrictions to prevent multiple votes from one individual have been taken.
Article VII - Elections
- Nominations for all officers shall be made during the first regular meeting of the Faculty Senate in the fall semester and elections, which shall occur before the beginning of classes or as soon after as possible. Elections shall be held during the second meeting.
- All elections of officers shall require a simple minority in order for an officer to take office. If more than 2 candidates are running for one office, and no candidate receives a majority, a runoff election between the top two vote recipients will determine the new officer.
- Special elections will occur as the need arises.
Article VIII - Committees
- The Curriculum and Assessment Committee (CAC) is the only Faculty Senate standing committee and shall report to the faculty senate at meetings.
- There shall be ad-hoc committees appointed by the president or filled by volunteers as the need arises.
- Faculty Senate representatives shall be chosen to represent faculty on standing committees as indicated in each committee’s role, scope, and authority document. Such committees include (but are not limited to): Student Life and Conduct Committee, Institutional Planning Committee, Plant and Facilities Committee, Information Technology Committee, Human Resources Committee, Enrollment Management Committee, Library Committee, and Executive Council
- Faculty Senate representatives to all standing committees must be full-time instructors of the College of the Marshall Islands and must not engage in activities outside of the college that represent a conflict of interest or commitment. Any appearance of conflict of interest or commitment must be disclosed.
Article IX - Finance (Should Monies Exist):
- All monies shall be deposited in a current account in the name of the Faculty Senate.
There shall be two trustees, one of whom shall be the Secretary/Treasurer of the Faculty Senate bank account. Both trustees will be members of the Faculty Senate. - A report of the Faculty Senate bank account shall be made available to the membership of the Faculty Senate.
All full-time faculty members of the Senate shall have access to the Faculty Senate budget. - The faculty senate current officers safeguards all financial resources, equipment and materials tangible or intangible such as but not limited to software procured by the Senate finances.
- Compliance to monetary and financial rules and regulations of CMI and other financial regulatory bodies or entities such as grant donors, sponsors, and the like shall be the responsibility of the current officers
Article X - Amendments
The by-laws of the College of the Marshall Islands Faculty Senate shall be amended at any meeting of the general membership by a simple minority vote (at least 25% of full-time faculty). Any proposed amendment shall be distributed to the Faculty Senate members at least 2 weeks (10 working days) before it is to be voted upon. Suggested amendments or changes that have been voted upon in the Faculty Senate are then reported to the College’s Executive Council.
Article XI - Parliamentary Authority
The Faculty Senate of the College of the Marshall Islands shall adopt the revised Robert’s Rules of Order unless these rules conflict with the CMI Faculty Senate by-laws. If there is a conflict, these by-laws will take precedence over Robert’s Rules of Order.
Ammendment 1
Amendment to the By-Laws of the College of the Marshall Islands Faculty Senate “Faculty Responsibility in the Governance of the College of the Marshall Islands”.
Article I - Faculty Senate's Authority
The authority of the Faculty Senate is based on the need for appropriately shared responsibility and cooperative action among the components of the College of the Marshall Islands, and the accreditation standards as outlined by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior College of the Western Association of Colleges and Universities.
The Faculty Senate is authorized to consider any subject pertaining to the faculty and its interests in the College of the Marshall Islands, and to make recommendations to the Executive Council for further recommendation to the President and Board of Regents. Decisions of the Faculty Senate with respect to matters within its jurisdiction shall be binding.
The Faculty Senate shall have primary responsibility for the following fundamental activities: curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, and faculty status. Responsibility for those aspects of student life that relate to the education process shall be jointly shared by the Faculty Senate and the student life and development area of the college.
The Faculty’s role in the governance of the College of the Marshall Islands shall be solely and entirely the responsibility of the College of the Marshall Islands Faculty Senate. To this end, all matters of Faculty governance, Faculty committee appointments, Faculty opinions, Faculty input in decision making, or any other need for the Faculty involvement in the operation of the College of the Marshall Islands shall be channeled through the Faculty Senate’s regular meetings.
On any matter, if input is solicited from a regular Faculty member, even if the Faculty member is a member of the Faculty Senate, it shall not be considered as the input from the Faculty Senate until the said Faculty member is given authority to speak for the Faculty Senate by the Faculty Senate on the issue at hand. Any use of Faculty input that has not been approved by the Faculty Senate will not be considered as Faculty input; it will simply be considered individual communication with the administration.
Article II - Faculty Senate Rights and Responsibilities
The Faculty Senate shall have the following rights and responsibilities in the governance of the College of the Marshall Islands:
- The Faculty Senate shall be represented by the Faculty Senate President and another faculty representative at all Executive Council Meetings of the College of the Marshall Islands. In the absence of the President of the Faculty Senate, the Vice-President of the Faculty Senate shall represent the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate Representative shall have the rights and privileges of any Executive Council member.
- The Faculty have the right and responsibility to be involved in the hiring process through participation in search committees. They are also involved in policy making and changes through the governance structure of the college, which includes two Faculty Senate representatives to the Executive Council.
- The Faculty Senate is an independent governance body from that of the President, the various members of the administration, and the Deans of Divisions. Its authority is derived from the Bylaws of the Board of Regents of the College of the Marshall Islands. Therefore, the Faculty Senate shall not be disbanded, disallowed, or barred from carrying out the responsibilities listed in this document by anyone associated with the College of the Marshall Islands without the three/fourth majority vote of the full (every member voting) Faculty Senate.
Article XII-Official Faculty Senate Website, Social Media & YouTube Channel & Email Accounts
To advance the Faculty Senate’s purposes and ensure transparency and continuity:
● There shall be an official Faculty Senate website for internal communications.
● There shall be a Faculty Senate social media page for internal communications.
● There shall be a Faculty Senate YouTube Channel for internal communications.
These platforms shall be managed by the Faculty Senate Officers using an official email address provided by and owned by the College. The Official email addresses are the following:
• facultysenate_president@cmi.edu
• facultysenate_vp@cmi.edu
• facultysenate_sec@cmi.edu
• facultysenate_committees@cmi.edu
• facultysenate_social@cmi.edu
Current officers of the Senate are required to utilize their designated official email address. Non-compliance shall result in replacement of such officers.
Article XIII-Faculty Senate Officers Award Credits per regular semester (15-weeks).
Except for summer semester when the Senate does not usually meet.
● The Faculty Senate President is awarded with 3 credits.
● The Faculty Senate Vice President is awarded with 3 credits.
● The Faculty Senate Secretary is awarded with 2 credits.
Article XIV- Justification, Limits, and Process in the Awarding of Credits
Due to the timing of the election of officers by the Faculty Senate, the credits are awarded to the elected officers even after the normal workload planning and management period made by the Academic Department Chairpersons. The newly elected officers give notice to their respective department chairs to initiate the formal recognition and inclusion of these award credits with their already determined overload credits if any. The forthcoming approved minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting where the election of the new officers was recorded shall be the binding document to support the credit being awarded.
In the event where a Faculty Senate Office position is vacated due to illness, abandonment, or due to prolonged willful neglect of duties and responsibilities which may jeopardize the regular business operations of the Senate, the Faculty Senate body decides whether the officer shall be replaced.
Proportional to the remaining period of the semester, the officer being replaced is required to return a determined equivalent of the remaining value of the awarded credit back to the College. The elected replacement shall receive the returned credit award or its determined value.