Bylaws of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Assembly

I. Name. The name of the organization shall be "The Liberal Arts and Sciences Assembly."

II. Membership. The members of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Assembly shall be all full time faculty members of Emporia State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

III. Purposes. The purposes of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Assembly shall be:

A. To serve as a policy-making body for matters which concern the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, subject only to those provisions set forth in Section VI, Part C of these Bylaws.
B. To provide an opportunity for direct communication between the Dean of the College and the assembled College faculty.
C. To provide an open forum for the purpose of discussion and debate of matters relevant to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

IV. Officers. The officers of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Assembly shall be:
A. A Moderator, who shall preside at the meetings of the Assembly and of the Advisory Committee, who shall perform such other duties as are given him by the Assembly.
B. A Secretary, who shall be responsible for the records of the deliberations of the Assembly, and who shall preside at the Assembly or Advisory Committee meetings in the absence of the moderator. Such records of the deliberations of the Assembly shall be on file in the office of the Dean.

V. Advisory Committee. There shall be an Advisory Committee, consisting of the Moderator, the Secretary, the Immediate Past Moderator, and three members-at-large, with the Dean an ex officio non-voting member. The Committee shall meet regularly to examine and deliberate upon matters of the College concern. However, no action of the Advisory Committee is to be construed as the voice of the Assembly. The Committee shall set the agenda for Assembly meetings.

VI. The Role of the Dean.
A. The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences shall serve ex officio as a non-voting member of the Assembly and of the Advisory Committee.
B. The dean shall seek the advice and counsel of the Assembly on matters of policy.
C. In matters of policy, the Dean may fail to endorse the deliberations of the Assembly, but, in cases where he does so, he must so inform the faculty and forward those decisions along with his own to the appropriate administrative office. The Assembly shall have the prerogative of taking its recommendations directly to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

VII. Elections. The Moderator, the Secretary, and the three members-at-large on the Advisory Committee shall be elected by the membership of the Assembly at the final meeting of the year. A nominating Committee of three faculty members, appointed by the Moderator with the advice and consent of the Advisory Committee, shall present a slate of nominees for the offices indicated; the Nominating Committee, in preparing the slate, shall gather divisional nominations, shall consider the advisability of some degree of continuity in the membership of the Advisory Committee, and shall consider representations of disciplinary interest, academic rank, and other diversity in the faculty; no more than two faculty members from any division, and no faculty member carrying substantial administrative responsibilities shall be eligible for election. Nominations may be made from the floor of the Assembly.

VIII. Meetings. The Liberal Arts and Sciences Assembly shall meet during the academic year on call of the Moderator or at the request of the Dean.

IX. Quorum. A quorum for Assembly meetings shall be one-third the membership, determined by an official list of members certified by the Dean's Office at the beginning of each semester. Members on leave during any semester shall be removed from the membership before computing the one-third quorum count.

X. Parliamentary Authority. In matters not covered by these Bylaws, the rules of procedure, prescribed in the current edition of Robert's Rule of Order shall prevail.

XI. Amendments. These Bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members present at a regular meeting, ten days written notice having been given.
 

PRESENT BYLAWS OF THE LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES ASSEMBLY [approved by the Assembly on September 11, 1974; modified October 30, 1974; April 2, 1975; and April 18, 1989].

Last Updated April 24, 2007