The Faculty Council [Click here to see corresponding section of the Bylaws]

A. Membership and Organization.

1. Composition. The Faculty Council shall be composed of: the officers of the Faculty Council (chair, vice chair and secretary); the most recently retired chair of the Faculty Council for the year following retirement as chair; three representatives from each of the campuses of the university; the chairs of the campus faculty assemblies; the chairs of the standing committees of the Faculty Council and of the Faculty Senate; and a representative from the Retired Faculty Association.

Each campus faculty assembly shall be responsible for selecting the campus's representatives to serve on Faculty Council. When a member of Faculty Council becomes an officer of the Council or a chair of a committee, the faculty assembly losing the Council member as a representative is entitled to select a replacement member. Faculty Council representatives must be members of the campus senate on the campus which they represent. 

Faculty Council representatives from the campus faculty assemblies shall serve a term of three years, with the terms of the representatives from a given campus being staggered so that no more than one representative will retire each year. After completing two consecutive three-year terms and being off the Faculty Council for at least one year, a faculty member can again be elected or appointed to the Faculty Council by the respective campus faculty assembly. Faculty assemblies may vote to recall and replace their representatives during a term.

The president of the university and the vice president for academic affairs shall be ex officio members of the Faculty Council without vote.

2. Officers. The Faculty Council shall elect a chair, a vice chair and a secretary, each for a one-year term. Candidates must be members of the Faculty Senate. It is customary over time for Faculty Council officers to be selected from all of the campuses of the university, and distribution across campuses is encouraged at each election. Elections to replace an officer who does not complete a term shall be for the balance of the term with opportunity of succession.

Recall of Faculty Council Officers and Committee Officers. Officers of the Faculty Council may be recalled by a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the Council eligible to vote. Officers of any standing committee of the Faculty Council may be recalled by a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the committee eligible to vote. In the event of recall, a new election shall be held as soon as possible by the Faculty Council or by the committee in question to replace the recalled officer. Further procedures are specified in the Bylaws.

3. Executive Committee.

 a. Membership. The Executive Committee of the Faculty Council shall consist of:

  • the three officers of the Council 
  • the most recently retired chair of the Council for the year following retirement from chair 
  • the chairs of the campus assemblies 

b. Meetings. The Executive Committee shall meet at least once between monthly meetings of the Faculty Council. It shall meet during the summer and shall have the authority to speak for the Faculty Council at any time on emergency matters that must be dealt with before the Faculty Council can be convened.

c. Functions. The primary function of the Executive Committee shall be to ensure that all four campuses are appropriately represented in the activities of the Faculty Council and that faculty governance plays a significant role in the decision-making processes of the university at the system level. 

B. Meetings, Quorum and Attendance.

1. Meetings and Quorum. The Faculty Council shall meet at least eight times during the academic year and on the call of the chair. A quorum for both the Council and the Executive Committee shall consist of a majority of the eligible members. Proxy voting shall not be permitted. Meeting procedures are specified in the Bylaws. 

2. Notice of Motion. On all substantive matters of new business, written notice of motion shall be given. Motion procedures are specified in the Bylaws. 

3. Committee Reports. The Faculty Senate committee and all Faculty Council committees shall report to the Faculty Council on a regular basis. Report procedures are specified in the Bylaws. 

4. Attendance. Members of the Faculty Council may become ineligible to serve due to unexcused absences from meetings. Ineligibility procedures are specified in the Bylaws. 

C. Elections. Elections of the Faculty Council members and of Faculty Council officers shall be held annually. Election procedures are specified in the Bylaws. 

D. Functions. The Faculty Council, as the executive body of the Faculty Senate, shall initiate advice and recommendations to the president or other appropriate administrative officials for submission to the Board of Regents on matters within the jurisdiction of the Council which are related to educational policy, internal operations and external operation of the university. Each such recommendation shall indicate its legislative history, that is, where it originated, whether it was approved by the Faculty Council, the Faculty Senate, one or more campus faculty assemblies, one or more committees, or the faculty of one or more colleges and schools, and shall record the final votes taken on the recommendation by any of these bodies. 

E. Jurisdiction. The Faculty Council shall have jurisdiction over faculty governance matters affecting more than one campus of the university.

F. Joint Responsibility with System Administration. The Faculty Council shall take the initiative for establishing, by mutual agreement with the university president, procedures governing the form and nature of consultation that is to occur between them, the nature of the issues on which consultation is to be required, and matters as to which notice of impending action shall be given. The agreement shall provide for a basic budget to cover staff support, office expenses, travel and appropriate operation of faculty governance, so that only appropriate variations need be negotiated from year to year. Both the Faculty Council and its committees and the officers of the university administration shall communicate with each other through appropriate channels. 

G. Faculty Council Committees.
The following are the standing committees of the Faculty Council. The primary purview of each standing committee is listed herein; specific matters of consideration are enumerated in the Bylaws. Standing committees may also give attention to other matters not specifically enumerated but clearly within their purviews. 

  • Budget Committee. The Budget Committee considers matters concerning the allocation of university resources. 
  • The Women's Committee. The Women's Committee considers concerns of women faculty. 
  • Educational Policy and University Standards Committee. The Educational Policy and University Standards (EPUS) Committee considers and recommends policies on education and academic and procedural standards. 
  • Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee. The Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee (EMAC) considers concerns of ethnic minority faculty.
  • Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues (GLBTI) Committee considers concerns of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender faculty. 
  • Communications Committee. The Communications Committee considers communication of information regarding the University of Colorado within the University and to the broader communities impacted by the University.
  • Personnel and Benefits Committee. The Personnel Committee considers policies in the general area of university faculty personnel and benefits. 

The Faculty Council may establish other committees as necessary. Standing committees can be created or dissolved only with a constitutional amendment.

1. Membership and Organization. The membership and organization of each committee is described in the Bylaws. The chair of each committee becomes a member of the Faculty Council upon election as chair. Terms of committee members shall be three years, with renewal possible for an additional three-year term. At least one year without membership must follow each pair of three-year terms. Terms of the representatives from a given campus shall be staggered. The chair of the Faculty Council shall be an ex officio member of all Faculty Council committees. The structure of special committees and other bodies established by Faculty Council may vary.

Officers. Each standing committee shall elect a chair, vice chair and secretary. The secretary shall be responsible for recording and preserving appropriate minutes of discussions and actions taken by the committee and for transmitting these to the person next succeeding in that office and to the Faculty Council Office. 

2. Meetings and Quorum. A quorum for a committee meeting shall consist of the majority of the voting members. Proxy voting shall not be permitted. 

3. Functions. Committees shall act as official faculty advisory panels to the Faculty Council with regard to matters within their purviews at the system level as listed above. They shall make continuous evaluations of university policies, procedures and standards within these purviews and shall make recommendations to the Faculty Council for appropriate measures for changes and improvements systemwide. Recommendations of the committees must be approved by Faculty Council before being transmitted to system administration and the Board of Regents. 

4. Reporting and Coordination. Standing committees are responsible to and shall report to the Faculty Council. Oral or written reports shall be made by the committee chair to the Faculty Council or to its Executive Committee, as requested by the chair of the Faculty Council. An annual written report of the activities of the committee, suitable for publication, shall be made at the end of the senate year. Members of standing committees elected or appointed from each campus shall be responsible for reporting to their faculty assemblies and to the cognate committees on the campus level to ensure that all groups concerned with particular matters are kept informed of the activities of other groups working on the same or related matters. 

5. Relationships with Administrative Officers. The standing committees of the Faculty Council shall be responsible for developing and maintaining close working relationships with the officers of the university system administration whose duties are related to the concerns of the committee in question. Such officers may be invited by the committee to meet with it, as ex officio members without vote, to ensure open communication. Faculty Council committee actions or recommendations shall be provided officially to the administration or any officer thereof only by formal action of the Faculty Council.