University of Puget Sound
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FACULTY CODE
Revised: October 2, 1997

CHAPTER V - SEPARATION FROM THE UNIVERSITY

PART A - DISMISSAL

Section 1 - Dismissal Defined

Dismissal is the termination of a tenured faculty member at any time or of a non-tenured faculty member before the end of the contract term of employment. Dismissal does not include the non-reappointment of a non-tenured faculty member (see Chapter II - p.7) or separation from the university as a result of suspension, resignation or retirement (see Chapter V, Parts B-D - p.24).

Section 2 - Grounds for Dismissal

The only grounds for dismissal are those specified in this section.

  1. Adequate cause. Adequate cause for dismissal may be found to exist in the following categories: (1) professional incompetence; (2) serious departure from appropriate professional role (see Chapter I, Part B) (p.1); and (3) failure to perform university duties as provided in the faculty member's contract, whether due to volition or physical/mental dysfunction.

  2. Discontinuation of a department, school, or program. The decision to discontinue a department, school, or program rests with the Board of Trustees upon recommendation by the president. The president shall consult with the Faculty Senate prior to making such recommendation. Among those questions to be addressed by the president before the Faculty Senate shall be: (1) the basis upon which discontinuation of the program, department or school was deemed necessary, and (2) whether discontinuation, though necessary, requires any faculty member to be dismissed. If a faculty member's program, department, or school has been discontinued, the university shall make reasonable efforts to place the faculty member in other suitable employment within the university before deciding to dismiss the person from university employment. When possible, placement shall be in a vacant faculty position similar to that discontinued, but if that is not possible, then placement may be offered in other faculty positions or in vacant administrative or staff positions, provided the faculty member is qualified for any such position. If more than one position is available for which the faculty member is qualified, he or she shall be allowed to state a preference for a new position. If placement in another position would be facilitated by a reasonable period of training, the university shall offer financial and other support for that purpose.

  3. Financial Exigency. As used herein, a "financial exigency" exists within the university when lack of expendable funds forces the university to curtail aspects of its academic program to an extent that selected faculty members must be dismissed, as that term is defined and used in this chapter.

    1. Before determining that faculty shall be dismissed on account of a financial exigency, the university shall make reasonable efforts to reduce expenditures in every other way, including curtailing hiring of new faculty, non-reappointment of faculty, and encouraging early retirement.

    2. The determination that a financial exigency exists shall be made by the president after a thorough consideration of other alternatives. Prior to making a recommendation to the Board of Trustees the president shall inform the Faculty Senate of his/her intention in writing.

    3. Upon receipt of the president's letter the Faculty Senate has twenty (20) working days within which to consider if in their judgment a financial exigency does exist.

    4. The final decision regarding the declaration of a state of financial exigency is made by the Board of Trustees upon recommendation by the president.

    5. If a state of financial exigency is declared, the Faculty Senate shall recommend criteria to be used in selecting programs to be curtailed or individuals to be dismissed. The Faculty Senate may make specific recommendations as to programs or individual faculty to be thus affected. While the Faculty Senate's recommendations shall not bind the president and the trustees, they shall be accorded great weight.

    6. If the university dismisses faculty for financial exigency, it shall not at the same time renew non-tenured appointments or make new appointments except in extraordinary circumstances where serious distortion of the academic program would otherwise result.

    7. If the university dismisses faculty members for financial exigency, it shall not fill their positions with other persons for a period of three years without first offering the dismissed members reinstatement to their former positions and giving them reasonable time to accept the offers.

Section 3 - Procedures for Dismissal

  1. Adequate cause as defined in Chapter V, Part A, Section 2.a.(1) (p.20) and as applied to tenured faculty is established through a procedure employing the evaluation process described in Chapter III (p.11). When a faculty member has received an evaluation which clearly shows a lack of competency to the extent that it brings into question the faculty member's continued employment with the university (i.e., an evaluation which shows severe inadequacy in (1) currency in several aspects of the person's stated area of expertise and/or (2) effectiveness in teaching methods), the following process shall ensue:

    1. The dean shall give the faculty member written notice of the same.

    2. If requested by the faculty member, the dean shall hold a conference with the faculty member and the head officer to discuss the reasons for the unsatisfactory evaluation.

    3. If the faculty member is not in agreement with the decision of the department and the Advancement Committee, he or she may request an appeal at this time (see Chapter III, Sections 7 and 8 - p.14).

    4. If the faculty member does not appeal, or if an appeal is not upheld, then the faculty member, the head officer, and the dean shall draw up an agreement which includes a specific faculty development plan, including goals and a schedule for performance appraisal with specific criteria for the evaluation clearly stated.

    5. The performance appraisal shall include an annual review of progress with the dean and the head officer.

    6. Three years after the unsatisfactory evaluation (or earlier if requested by the individual), a second evaluation shall be conducted and the department and Advancement Committee shall be made aware of the seriousness of this evaluation. If the second evaluation is also unsatisfactory, the university may continue the individual if it is in the best interests of the university to do so; the university may ask the individual to resign or retire; or the university may give the individual notice of dismissal. If notice of dismissal is given, the faculty member may ask for a hearing as provided in Chapter III, Sections 7 and 8 (p.14).

  2. When the dean alleges there exists adequate cause for the dismissal of a tenured or non-tenured faculty member under Chapter V, Part A, Section 2.a. (2) or (3), or of a non-tenured faculty member under Chapter V, Part A, Section 2.a. (1) (p.20), the dean shall present to the faculty member a written charge specifying the grounds which form the basis for the allegations, including a list of the specific acts or actions relevant to the allegations. The faculty member shall, within five (5) working days, have the right to request consultation with the Professional Standards Committee. If no request is forthcoming, the dean is free to notify the faculty member of his/her dismissal. If a request is made, the Professional Standards Committee shall consult with the parties involved and attempt to resolve the problem. If no resolution is possible, then the faculty member may request a hearing as described in Section 4 of this chapter. In dismissals made under this section (Section 3) the question before the hearing board shall be whether "adequate cause," as defined in this chapter, exists for dismissal of the faculty member. The dean or the dean's designee shall present to the hearing board the written charge of the notice-of-intent to dismiss, listing the ground or grounds upon which the university intends a dismissal for adequate cause and specifying with reasonable particularity the alleged facts in support thereof. In proceedings before the board, the university shall have the burden of proving facts sufficient to sustain the charges made. In particular, if the alleged cause for professional incompetency involves physical or mental inability to perform duties, there shall be medical evidence of the same. The university shall present evidence of consultation with one or more licensed physicians or licensed psychologists, as appropriate. Additional medical reports from licensed professionals may be presented by the faculty member. The hearing board may, at university expense, have examinations made by licensed physicians or licensed psychologists, and the faculty member shall consent to such examinations.

  3. Dismissal on account of discontinuation of department, school, or program. Whenever it becomes necessary for the university to dismiss a faculty member on account of discontinuance of his or her program, department, or school and efforts to place the person in another vacant university position are unsuccessful, the following steps shall be taken:

    1. The dean shall notify the faculty member in writing of the intended dismissal, giving a statement of the reasons therefore.

    2. The notified faculty member shall have ten (10) working days from receipt of the dismissal notice to give the dean written notice that the faculty member requests a review of the matter through the process described in Part A, Section 4 (p.24) of this chapter and to submit the list of alleged code violations. Upon receipt of the request, the dean shall refer the matter to a hearing board, sending the board such materials pertaining to the matter as are in the dean's possession. The university shall take no further action to dismiss until the hearing board has reported to the president.

    3. The function of the hearing shall be as specified in Chapter III, Section 8.e. (p.15). Among the questions before the hearing board shall be: (1) whether discontinuation of the program, department, or school was necessary; (2) whether discontinuation, though necessary, requires the faculty member to be dismissed; and (3) whether the faculty member should be placed in other university employment. The university shall have the burden of producing evidence to sustain its decision to dismiss on the second and third questions. On the first question the determination by the trustees that discontinuation was necessary shall create a presumption to that effect, so that the faculty member shall have the burden of producing evidence to overcome such presumption.

    4. If the notified member makes no request for appeal within the ten days referred to above, the dean shall forward the recommendation for dismissal and materials in support thereof to the president. The president shall consider the recommendation and materials and shall recommend to the Board of Trustees that they dismiss the faculty member if the president determines upon that disposition of the matter.

    5. Whenever the Board of Trustees has acted to dismiss a faculty member on account of discontinuation of the member's program, department, or school, such faculty member shall receive salary through the academic year following the academic year in which the dismissal notice is given whether or not that person is assigned appropriate duties in the university for that year.

  4. Dismissal on account of financial exigency.

    1. Whenever it becomes necessary for the university to dismiss a faculty member on account of financial exigency the steps and procedure outlined in Section 3.c. (1), (2), (4) and (5) (p.22) of this part, pertaining to dismissal for discontinuation of a program, department, or school, shall be followed. In applying Section 3.c. (1), (2), (4) and (5) (p.22), due and reasonable allowance shall be made for obvious differences in language, reading "dismissal on account of financial exigency" in place of "dismissal for discontinuation of a program, department, or school" and the like.

    2. The function of the hearing shall be as specified in Chapter III, Section 8.e. (p.15). Among the questions before the hearing board shall be: (1) whether a bona fide financial exigency exists; (2) whether, though a financial exigency exists, it justifies dismissal of the particular faculty member; (3) whether the university is renewing fixed-term appointments, except in extraordinary circumstances where serious distortion of the academic program would otherwise result; and (4) whether the university has engaged, or attempted to engage, other persons for the faculty member's position. The university shall have the burden of producing evidence to prove the affirmative of questions 1 and 2; provided that if the university Faculty Senate has advised the president in the affirmative on either of these questions, that shall create a presumption to that effect, so that the faculty member shall have the burden of producing evidence to overcome such presumption. The faculty member shall have the burden of producing evidence to prove the affirmative of questions 3 and 4, but if evidence is introduced that the university is renewing fixed-term appointments (Question 3), the university shall have the burden of proving the existence of the exception stated.

Section 4 - Appeals Procedures

  1. The composition of, and procedures followed by, the hearing board shall conform to those described in Chapter III, Sections 7 and 8 a-i (p.14), with due and reasonable allowance made for obvious differences in
    language, reading "faculty member" for "appellant," "dismissal" for "evaluation," and "university" for "department" or "Advancement Committee."

  2. The decision of the majority of the hearing board, and any dissent, shall be transmitted in writing to the president.

  3. Upon receiving the report from the hearing board, the president shall submit the full report to the Board of Trustees, along with his/her own recommendation.

  4. The review by the Board of Trustees shall be based on the record of the previous hearing. The board shall provide an opportunity for written statements to be submitted by the parties and may, at its discretion, hear oral argument.

  5. The decision of the hearing board either shall be sustained or the matter returned to the hearing board with specified objections.

  6. The hearing board shall then reconsider the matter, taking into account the stated objections of the Board of Trustees and receiving new evidence if necessary. It shall then submit its decision to the Board of Trustees.

  7. The Board of Trustees shall make a final decision after reviewing the decision of the hearing board.

PART B - SUSPENSION

Section 1 - Suspension Defined

If a faculty member is relieved temporarily of his/her duties, the faculty member is considered suspended. Salary is continued during the period of suspension.

Section 2 - Grounds

A faculty member is suspended only if immediate harm to the university, the faculty member, or others is threatened by the member's continuance.

Section 3 - Procedure

Suspension is made by the dean with the concurrence of the Professional Standards Committee.

  1. The Professional Standards Committee shall determine, based on the evidence presented to it, including the advice of appropriate professionals, if the dean's decision to suspend a faculty member is justified. The Professional Standards Committee shall also determine the time period for which the suspension is to be effective and on what basis the decision to reinstate shall be made. In developing the criteria for reinstatement, the committee shall describe specific aspects of the faculty member's behavior to be changed.

  2. The faculty member shall be notified in writing of (1) the suspension, (2) grounds for the suspension, (3) period of the suspension, and (4) criteria for reinstatement.

  3. The faculty member has five (5) working days within which to request an appeal of the suspension. This request shall be processed using the procedure described in Part A, Section 4 (p.24) of this chapter. The question before the hearing board shall be whether the decision to suspend was made in conformity with this Chapter V, Part B (p.24). If the board finds that there is a code violation, the matter shall be referred back to the Professional Standards Committee.

PART C - RESIGNATION

A faculty member may separate from university employment at the end of any academic year. To do so, the faculty member shall notify the dean no later than May 15 of that year, or no later than 20 working days after receiving the university's notice of the terms of his or her faculty reappointment for the next academic year, whichever time occurs first. If a faculty member feels that observance of these time limits would, because of unusual circumstances, cause undue hardship or cause loss of professional advancement or opportunity, the faculty member may request the dean to waive the limits.

PART D - RETIREMENT

Section 1 - Normal Retirement

9Normal retirement for a faculty member is at the end of the contract year in which age 65 is attained.

Section 2 - Early Retirement10

Tenured faculty members may retire at the end of the contract year in which they reach at least age 55 and receive early retirement compensation. Faculty with 10 years in the rank of Professor may retire at any age. For each year by which early retirement precedes age 65, up to a maximum of five years, the faculty member will receive compensation based upon a percentage of the amount specified on the main campus salary schedule for persons of the same rank and level as the individual electing early retirement. Thus, early retirement payments for one year would be made to those choosing to retire at age 64, payments for two years would be made for those choosing to retire at age 63, etc., with payments for five years being made for those choosing to retire at age 60 years or younger.

Levels of compensation will be calculated on the basis of years of service. Tenured faculty members with fewer than 20 years of service at the University of Puget Sound will receive for each early retirement year 30% of the amount specified on the main campus salary schedule for persons of the same rank and level, plus 30% of the value of associated benefits. Tenured faculty members serving at the University of Puget Sound for 20 years or more will be eligible for compensation at 35% per early retirement year on the same terms.

The retiree may make arrangements with the university for methods of payment which would be most beneficial to the individual.

9Revision adopted 9/23/86 by Faculty; 8/18/86 by Trustees and 4/21/87 by Faculty; 5/2/87 by Trustees

10Revision adopted 11/17/92 by Faculty; 5/8/92 by Trustees.

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