GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT OF THE
W. FRANK BARTON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Adopted by the Barton School faculty on September 17, 2012
Amended April 2, 2014
Amended May 3, 2018
Amended May 22, 2020
Amended March 18, 2024
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Statement on School Governance
- By-Laws of the W. Frank Barton School of Business
- Standing Committee Structure
STATEMENT ON SCHOOL GOVERNANCE
In order to accomplish the teaching, research, service and other goals of the W. Frank Barton School of Business, the decision-making process of the School should be designed so as to ensure that all relevant inputs are received prior to a final decision. Since practically every major decision at the school level will have both academic and administrative implications, this process should involve inputs from both aspects of the school operation. All decisions concerning curricular and program matters, degree requirements, and school policies relating to faculty welfare will be presented to the School Faculty for approval.
The process by which all relevant inputs are received will involve standing committees, the School Faculty, and the School Administration. The standing committees are the Executive Committee, Undergraduate Programs Committee, Graduate Programs Committee, Faculty Affairs Committee, Scholarship Committee, Admissions/Exceptions Committee, Student Rating and Teacher Evaluation Committee, Assessment Committee, Technology Committee and Retrenchment Committee. Other committees of a technical or advisory nature may be established by the Dean from time to time as appropriate.
The sections that follow set out the organization of the school in diagram form and define the membership and functions of the various standing committees. Also part of this governance document is the By-Laws of the Faculty. It is recognized that this governance document, in order to remain functional, must be changed and amended from time to time. This document may be amended in the same manner as the By-Laws of the Faculty.
BY-LAWS OF THE W. FRANK BARTON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FACULTY
PRESIDING OFFICER. The Dean, when present, shall preside at all meetings of the faculty. In the absence of the Dean, the presiding officer shall be designated by the Dean.
SECRETARY. A secretary of the faculty shall be appointed by the Dean. The secretary shall keep the minutes of meetings of the faculty and make copies thereof for distribution to the faculty.
VOTING FACULTY DEFINED. Except for the graduate program matters, the voting faculty is defined as including those persons enfranchised to vote under University Senate rules. On matters pertaining to graduate programs, faculty shall mean voting members of the W. Frank Barton School of Business faculty who are currently listed by the Graduate Office as members of the graduate faculty.
MEETINGS. A minimum of two meetings of the faculty will be scheduled for each academic year (one in the Fall and one in the Spring) and announced at the beginning of each semester.
SUMMER MEETINGS. Summer meetings of the faculty, except for information and discussion purposes, are not favored. Actions requiring faculty approval upon an urgent basis shall be taken only upon proper notice and an affirmative vote representing a majority of the regular (not summer school) faculty.
CALL OF MEETINGS. Meetings of the faculty shall be called by the Dean or upon the written request of five members of the faculty.
NOTICE OF MEETINGS. Notice of meetings of the faculty shall be given at least ten calendar days previously thereto by an email notification to each faculty member. The notice shall include an agenda which states the items to be considered and an accompanying explanation of any actions which are proposed to be taken. Copies of policy and curriculum changes to be voted upon shall be distributed and available at least ten calendar days before the meeting.
MEETING AGENDA. The meeting agenda shall be prepared by the Dean's Office.
QUORUM. A majority of the voting faculty shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at any meeting of the faculty. If less than a majority is present at a meeting, the members may adjourn the meeting to another time, provided three days' email notice shall be given of the time and place of the rescheduled meeting. At such a rescheduled meeting, a quorum shall consist of those members present.
When issues come before the School Faculty relating to graduate education—programs, degrees, policies or other pertinent matters—a majority of the voting graduate faculty shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at any meeting of the faculty. If less than a majority is present at a meeting, the members may adjourn the meeting to another time, provided three days' written notice shall be given of the time and place of the rescheduled meeting. At such a rescheduled meeting, a quorum shall consist of those members present.**
VOTING. All members of the voting faculty as defined herein shall be entitled to vote. Voting shall be by voice unless a show of hands or a secret written ballot shall be requested and concurred in by a majority of the members present. Voting by proxy shall not be allowed.
AMENDMENT OF BY-LAWS. These by-laws may be amended at any regular meeting of the faculty. In order for a proposed amendment to be properly before the faculty, it must have been distributed at least ten days prior to the meeting.
STANDING COMMITTEE STRUCTURE
Appointees will be selected by committee and taskforce chairs based on nominations, self-nominations and expertise alignment with committees and taskforce charges. Committees in which there is no term specified, as well as how many terms a member can serve, are permanent.
COMMITTEE #1: STRATEGIC AFFAIRS
CHARGE
- Strategic Management
- Develop and update Barton School’s 5-year strategic plan.
- Monitor implementation of strategic plan and alignment with funding resources.
- Evaluate analyzes of the external environment, competition, and market trends to inform Barton School's strategic management.
- Brand Strategy
- Define the guidelines for Barton School’s brand strategy.
- Guide marketing efforts and manage the execution of cultural activities that support brand perception, both internally and externally.
- External Environment Analysis
- Analyze employers’ demands, workforce needs and trends in business and higher education.
- Provide recommendations for consideration in curriculum revisions (UPC, GPC and Academic Departments).
- Risk Analysis
- Analyze risks.
- Develop and manage contingency and risk mitigation plans.
- Retrenchment
- Provide an operational plan for the Barton School in the event the WSU President declares a state of financial exigency.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Dean, Co-Chair
- Executive Director, Strategic Affairs, Co-Chair
- 1 Faculty Representative, Co-Chair
- Senior Associate Dean
- 1 Department Chair
- 1 Staff Representative
- 1 Faculty Representative
COMMITTEE #2: DEAN’S COUNCIL
CHARGE
- Organizational Strategies
- Develop guidelines for the creation of strategic plans for departments, centers and institutes, and other functional areas.
- Define incentive structures for department chairs and program directors.
- Provide guidance for defining incentive structures for faculty in line with the UniSCOPE model.
- Define the architecture of departments and other functional areas.
- Define guidelines for budget allocation and administrative support across departments and other functional areas.
- Provide guidance on organizational practices to promote faculty and staff wellbeing.
- Industry Engagement and Collaborations
- Explore collaboration with industry partners given the availability of faculty and staff.
- Define terms for recruiting students with partners on and off campus.
- Provide suggestions for candidates for distinguished speakers as well as executive and entrepreneur in residence programs.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Dean, Chair
- Senior Associate Dean
- Associate Dean, Faculty and Research
- Associate Dean, Accreditation and Support Services
- 5 Department Chairs
- Executive Director, Engagement and Prominence
- Director, Finance and Administration
- Executive Assistant to the Dean
2A. SUB-COMMITTEE: ACADEMIC OPERATIONS
CHARGE
- Oversee faculty hiring priorities.
- Oversee workload policy for faculty.
- Teaching schedule optimization (balancing amount and assortment of sections, high enrollment sections, optimized deployment of faculty, compliance with AACSB ratios).
- Define annual deployment of faculty across existing courses maximizing the use of their expertise and programs’ needs.
- Define Barton School awards (faculty and staff) along with related criteria.
- Other operational matters.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Senior Associate Dean, Chair
- Associate Dean, Faculty and Research
- Associate Dean, Accreditation and Support Services
- 5 Department Chairs
- Director, Finance and Administration
COMMITTEE #3: ENROLLMENTS
CHARGE
- Recruitment Management
- Analyze recruitment reports and conduct root cause analysis for maximizing enrollment.
- Create and manage action plans to achieve enrollment goals.
- Retention Management
- Establish incremental data collection to reveal opportunities to increase retention.
- Analyze retention reports, conduct root cause analysis, and define actions to improve retention.
- Create and manage action plans to achieve retention goals.
- Enrollment Opportunities
- Analyze reports provided by the Strategic Affairs committee (employers’ demands, workforce needs and trends in business and higher education) and devise strategies for increasing enrollments.
- Provide suggestions to renew departments’ strategic plans to increase enrollments.
- Articulation Agreements
- Define candidates for new articulation agreements.
- Assess the effectiveness of existing articulation agreements.
- Implement action plans to leverage the effectiveness of existing articulation agreements.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Senior Associate Dean, Chair
- Director, Strategic Enrollment and Student Services
- Executive Director, Strategic Affairs
- Director, Graduate Programs
- Undergraduate Recruitment Coordinator
- Barton School Recruitment Fellow (if appointed)
- Barton School Retention Fellow (if appointed)
3A. SUB-COMMITTEE: UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS/EXCEPTIONS
CHARGE
- Oversee the Undergraduate Admissions/Exceptions matters.
- Make decisions about students’ readmission and exception
- Make recommendations of how to improve the exceptions
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair (monthly, 12 months per year).
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Student Success and Graduation Specialist, Chair, non-voting
- 5 faculty members – one member from each department (appointed by department chair)
- Student Success Coach (non-voting)
It is permissible for committee members to determine the required number of attendees for each session based on demand throughout the year.
COMMITTEE #4: ASSURANCE OF LEARNING (AOL)
CHARGE
- Develop, implement, and monitor AOL framework and model along with related systems and processes.
- Ensure compliance with AACSB’s AOL standards.
- Disseminate AOL data to key stakeholders including UPC and GPC committees and other Barton School key committees.
- Serve as the Barton School’s link to the WSU University Assessment Committee.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Associate Dean, Accreditation and Support Services, Chair
- Faculty Representative, MBA and EMBA programs
- Faculty Representative, MSBA program - Business Analytics
- Faculty Representative, MSSCM program - Supply Chain Management
- Faculty Representative, UG and GR Accounting
- Faculty Representative, UG and GR Economics
- Faculty Representative, UG and GR HRM
- Faculty Representative, Finance
- Faculty Representative, Marketing
- Faculty Representative, Management
- Faculty Representative, Entrepreneurship
- Faculty Representative, International Business
- Faculty Representative, MIS
It is permissible for an individual to represent more than one discipline (if appropriate).
COMMITTEE #5: UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS (UPC)
CHARGE
- Review undergraduate program and course change proposals.
- Update Student Success Center with changes in curriculum.
- Responsible for undergraduate business core curriculum and support for all related majors.
- Provide support to departments in managing the undergraduate programs.
- Manage the BBA- Business Administration curriculum.
- Track and compile undergraduate curriculum changes that result from assurance of learning assessments.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by Department Chairs in collaboration with Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Senior Associate Dean, Chair
- Faculty Representative, Marketing Department
- Faculty Representative, Economics Department
- Faculty Representative, Accounting Department
- Faculty Representative, FREDS Department
- Faculty Representative, Management Department
- Director, Strategic Enrollment and Student Services (or designee) (non-voting)
All faculty teaching undergraduate programs are welcome to attend UPC meetings.
COMMITTEE #6: GRADUATE PROGRAMS (GPC)
CHARGE:
- Graduate Curriculum and Program Review
- Manage curricula for all graduate programs.
- Review and evaluate graduate programs and course change proposals.
- Graduate Student Experience
- Oversee graduate student experience and success (including student clubs and organizations).
- Seek opportunities to enhance post-graduation outcomes (internships, jobs and career related support).
- Graduate Programs Operations
- Coordinate and review activities related to operating graduate programs including marketing, recruiting, retention, etc.
- Provide support to departments in managing graduate programs.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by Department Chairs in collaboration with Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Senior Associate Dean, Chair
- Faculty Representative, Marketing Department
- Faculty Representative, Economics Department
- Faculty Representative, Accounting Department
- Faculty Representative, FREDS Department
- Faculty Representative, Management Department
- Director, Graduate Programs (non-voting)
All faculty teaching graduate programs are welcome to attend GPC meetings.
COMMITTEE #7: FACULTY AFFAIRS
CHARGE:
- Faculty Tenure, Promotion, and Development
- Serve as Barton School’s T&P (promotion and tenure).
- Monitor and periodically recommend revisions to the Barton School’s promotion and tenure guidelines.
- Develop and implement faculty development programs (advancement of teaching and scholarship).
- Scholarly Research
- Provide guidance on research goals and standards of research quality for peer reviewed journals and other intellectual contributions.
- Provide guidance for defining incentive structures for faculty in line with the UniSCOPE model
- Assess the usage of scholarly databases and statistical software.
- Identify needs for scholarly databases and statistical software.
- Grants and Awards
- Define and lead the process for the annual teaching, research, and summer research awards.
- Make recommendations to the Dean on summer research grant awards and review award winners’ research reports.
- Make recommendations to the Dean on the annual Research/Writer of the Year awards.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by Department Chairs in collaboration with Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Tenured Faculty Representative, FREDS Department, Chair
- Tenured Faculty Representative, Marketing Department
- Tenured Faculty Representative, Economics Department
- Tenured Faculty Representative, Accounting Department
- Tenured Faculty Representative, Management Department
- 1 Educator, Teaching Professor, or Clinical Professor holding the rank of associate or full (elected by majority of votes)
- 1 Tenure Track (pre-tenure) faculty (elected by majority of votes)
- Associate Dean, Faculty and Research (ex-officio)
The chairperson is designated by the committee and must be tenured.
Department Chairs are not eligible to serve on the committee.
Nomination and Election Process
Department tenured representatives shall be elected or re-elected by the department faculty every two years on a rotating schedule, prior to the first committee meeting in the Fall. The untenured representative will be elected by the untenured, tenure-track faculty in the previous Spring, through a two-step process: (1) nominations will be solicited by email from untenured faculty; (2) a secret ballot vote on the nominees by the untenured faculty. The non-tenure track representative will be elected by the non-tenure track faculty in the previous Spring, through a two-step process: (1) nominations will be solicited by email from non-tenure track faculty; (2) a secret ballot vote on the nominees by the non-tenure track faculty.
Term of Membership and Vacancies
The departmental/school representatives shall be designated as such; the untenured and non-tenure members shall be designated as an “at-large” representative. Departmental/school representatives and the non-tenure representative shall be elected for two-year terms, with terms staggered; the untenured representative shall be elected for a one-year term. Members shall be eligible for no more than two consecutive terms. This two term limit will not apply if a department has only one eligible faculty member for the position. Vacancies occurring during a term of membership shall be filled by appointment of the department. Tenured faculty who are going up for promotion or PIR are not eligible to serve on the committee during that academic year. Otherwise, if a matter before the committee directly involves a committee member, the committee member will be expected to recuse himself/herself. A replacement may be appointed to the committee by the department to serve until that matter is resolved. Such matters include, but are not limited to summer research grants, sabbaticals, and researcher/writer of the year awards.
Subcommittees
The FAC shall establish such subcommittees and ad hoc committees as it deems appropriate for the accomplishment of its tasks. Appointees to such subcommittees and ad hoc committees need not be members of the FAC. Appointments to such committees shall be made by the chairperson of the FAC in consultation with the committee and the Dean.
Voting on tenure and promotion decisions for tenure track and tenured faculty, PIR, sabbaticals, will be restricted to tenured members.
Voting on issues that have a major research component including research grants and researcher/writer of the year awards will be restricted to members who have at least a research role (e.g., clinical, pre-tenure, and tenure-track faculty).
COMMITTEE #8: DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI)
CHARGE:
- Develop DEI framework, guiding principles, plan and metrics.
- Monitor DEI practices implemented by peer and aspirant business schools on DEI matters.
- Develop and implement appropriate events/programs on annual basis for faculty, staff and other key stakeholders.
- Represent Barton School of Business on all committees related to diversity/inclusive excellence at the University level; serve as the liaison between the Barton School and the WSU Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
- Document all initiatives contributing to advancing the culture of diversity and inclusive excellence.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP (representing diverse groups, cultures, beliefs, ideas, and initiatives):
- Committee Chair voted by the committee members
- At least 3 Faculty Members
- At least 3 Staff Members
- Up to 2 Students (1 undergraduate, 1 graduate)
COMMITTEE #9: ACCREDITATION AND SOCIETAL IMPACT
CHARGE
- AACSB Accreditation
- Ensure the Barton School’s compliance with AACSB standards.
- Prepare required AACSB reports.
- Prepare/host AACSB visiting teams (every 5 years).
- Ensure compliance with AACSB ratios (by discipline, by program, by term).
- Periodically review AACSB faculty qualification guidelines.
- Societal Impact
- Create and update a dashboard with Barton school attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
- Develop guidelines for departments and functional areas to track progresses in SDG.
- Provide information to the Barton School about evolution of Societal Impact topics in AACSB, and business schools, and higher education.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP COMPOSITION: Determined by the Committee Chair.
MEMBERSHIP:
- Associate Dean, Accreditation and Support Services, Chair
- Senior Associate Dean
- Associate Dean, Faculty and Research
- Executive Director, Strategic Affairs