I. Eligibility
Each tenured faculty member eligible to vote within the division shall be eligible to serve as Chair for the division. Any faculty member shall have the option of declining the privilege of being considered by his or her colleagues for this position prior to the initiation of the election process by communicating this to the divisional faculty and to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

II. Selection and Terms
Division Chairs shall be selected by the Vice President for Academic Affairs from names submitted by the division.

• If no names are submitted by the division, then the Vice President for Academic Affairs shall appoint the Division Chair.
• Division Chairs report to and are evaluated by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
• Division Chairs are full-time tenured faculty with instructional responsibilities within the division and are administrative representatives of the division.
• Division Chairs shall serve a three-year term beginning the day after graduation of the semester in which they were appointed.
• If selection is due to removal or resignation of the previous Division Chair, then service shall start immediately upon appointment, serving the remainder of the three-year term.
• In the event of the temporary absence (no more than one year) of a Division Chair, the Vice President for Academic Affairs may appoint a member of the division as Acting Chair for the duration of the Division Chair's absence.
• There is no restriction on the number of terms a Division Chair may serve.

III. Nomination Procedures

• When the three-year term for the current Division Chair is about to expire, the Vice President for Academic Affairs shall call for elections during the last full week of January. When a Division Chair vacancy occurs because of resignation or removal, the Vice President for Academic Affairs shall call for an election to occur within two weeks of the announced resignation or removal. In the call for an election, the Vice President for Academic Affairs shall also list the names of the two Balloting Officers.
• A divisional representative from the Library Committee and the Curriculum Committee shall conduct the balloting and shall serve as Balloting Officers. If one (or both) of these two faculty members is a nominee for the position of Division Chair, a conflict of interest shall be declared and the current Division Chair shall appoint a new balloting officer(s) from the eligible voting membership of the division who are not themselves candidates.
• Eligible voters include each returning full-time faculty member who has not received either a notification of a terminal contract or a notice of non-reappointment in the division of major assignment.
• The Vice President for Academic Affairs shall prepare a uniform ballot listing all eligible members of each division who want to be considered for the role of Division Chair.
• The presiding Chair of a division selecting a Chair shall call the meeting to order and turn the meeting over to the Balloting Officers who shall oversee the voting and reporting process.
• All eligible faculty members shall cast a single vote by private ballot for their preferred candidate. Absentee ballots shall be allowed but not voting by proxy. Any absentee ballot shall be given to a balloting officer before the election meeting.
• Balloting Officers shall record the number of votes for each candidate and notify division faculty of the voting results at the meeting. If the election includes three or more candidates and there is a tie between two for the most votes, then a second vote shall be completed between the tied top two candidates. The Balloting Officers shall report the results in writing to the Vice President for Academic Affairs within twenty-four hours of the election. The Balloting Officers shall also return all used and unused ballots to the Vice President. 
  
  

IV. Evaluation
The Vice President for Academic Affairs shall formally evaluate the administrative performance of Division Chairs during the second year of their three-year terms. Informal consultations of an evaluative nature may, however, occur at any time. The Vice President’s formal evaluation shall be placed in the Chair’s Evaluative File. Individual Division Chairs shall come to an agreement with the Vice President for Academic Affairs on specific means of evaluation.

Each division may establish a policy for evaluating its Chair. If a division decides to evaluate its Chair, the evaluation should include, but not necessarily be limited to, the following substantive areas of consideration:

• Effectiveness in representing the administration to the faculty.
• Effectiveness in representing the faculty to the administration.
• Effectiveness in leadership and management of the division.
• Effectiveness in equitable treatment of various departments within the division.

V. Dismissal and Removal
At any time it is determined at the discretion of the Vice President for Academic Affairs that his/her working relationship with the Division Chair is not progressing satisfactory, the Division Chair may be removed upon notice from the Vice President for Academic Affairs at the end of the semester in which the notice is provided.

See Appendix I for Division Chair Job Description and Appendix K for Division Chair Terms of Office.

Revised & Adopted 04/10/2017