The Board of Regents committees met in the Jody Richards Hall Regents Room on Friday, April 12 and discussed a potential revision in the faculty handbook regarding the faculty dismissal procedure.

If the revision fully passed, the board would no longer be presented with faculty dismissal hearings and provide dismissal recommendations to the president, instead, the “responsibility” would be on the faculty, according to Julie Shadoan, professional legal studies and paralegal studies professor and coordinator. 

Shadoan said the full board would still be able to review any records based on the president’s recommendation and would still have the final veto on the decision during a closed-session meeting of the full Board of Regents. 

“The board is still involved and can review as much as it wants to, based upon that recommendation from the faculty and President Caboni, but they are no longer going to sit as a jury, so to speak,” Shadoan said.

Shadoan and Rob Hale, associate provost for faculty and academic excellence and English professor led in forming the revision, which passed through the faculty senate on March 28 and is now awaiting approval from the Academic Affairs Committee. 

Hale said he wanted to ensure that due process is retained and the regents’ involvement in faculty dismissal will remain with the revision to the policy.

Shadoan said the current policy is “ambiguous” and unbeneficial to faculty, administration and the board, and intended the policy revision to clarify the faculty dismissal procedure and build due process. 

“My hope is that this [revision] establishes a precedent for [the] future,” Shadoan said. “This is a pretty major thing, this is not, ‘let’s move some words around on paper,’ this is a pretty significant change.”

The board also approved two certificates and a minor presented by the Academic Affairs Committee during the meeting.

The 16-hour undergraduate certificate in Personal Branding through the School of Media & Communication will teach students how to create personal digital branding content to curate an actionable personal brand strategy for career success.

The 12-hour graduate certificate in School Social Work through the Department of Social Work will equip social work graduate students to work in schools.  

The 26-hour minor in Piano Pedagogy through the Department of Music will help students be equipped to pursue careers in piano teaching, university group piano instruction, partnerships with nonprofits, piano entrepreneurship and competitive graduate assistantships.

These programs will be implemented in the Fall 2024 semester.

Assistant News Editor Ali Costellow can be reached at [email protected]