Board of Governors, May 3, 2001 - APPENDIX V

REPORT OF THE BY-LAWS COMMITTEE

FOR APPROVAL

1. Special Resolution No. 2 - Delegation of Authority

Recommended: That Special Resolution No. 2 - Delegation of Authority - be amended as highlighted in Annex 1.

Background:

Section 1

The Board of Governors, through its ratification of the Collective Agreement between the University and the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association, has delegated to the Provost the authority to approve academic staff changes (appointments, promotions, sabbatical leave, etc.). There are, however, some faculty members who are covered by other policies and procedures established by the Board, notably the Conditions of Appointment: Physicians Appointed in Clinical Departments and Clinical Divisions of Basic Science Departments. The purpose of changing Section 1 of Special Resolution No. 2 is to allow the President (or the President's designate) to approve academic staff changes in those cases not covered by the UWOFA Collective Agreement, in a fashion consistent with the Collective Agreement (i.e., not requiring explicit approval by the Board of Governors).

Section 4

The signing limit for the President has not been increased significantly for a number of years. A recent review of signing levels at other universities suggests that $550,000 is low, whereas increasing the limit to $1,000,000 would be comparable to the limit elsewhere. Increasing the amount would also match the President's limit as set out in Policy 2.15 (Approval Authorities for Construction and Maintenance Projects) where the President is authorized to approve individual construction and maintenance projects with total budgets up to $1,000,000.

New Section 5

Applications for CFI/OIT projects precede the approval and flow of funds by up to one year. The application is based upon quotations from suppliers who are then expected to hold pricing to their quotation. With rapidly changing market conditions, technology and foreign exchange rates, often the University must react quickly on the purchase order once funding is confirmed, or lose the pricing advantage. This sometimes requires approval of expenditures between Board meetings to bind the University for amounts greater than the President's authority to sign (as specified in Special Resolution No. 2).

The requirement for Board approval of major purchases over the limit set for the President to approve (currently $550,000, but recommended to increase to $1,000,000) is based on an implicit expectation that the expenditure would be from University operating or capital funds, where the Board should be satisfied that such a purchase is appropriate. In the case of CFI/OIT awards, however, the funds are provided by an external source, to be used only for the stated purpose. [In some cases there is a component of the cost (up to a 20% match) that must be covered by UWO, but the commitment to find or provide these matching dollars has already been made by the University at the time of submission of the proposal was submitted. This is how the Central CFI Fund - a..k.a. the "War Chest" - is used.]

Approval of the new Section 5 in By-Law No. 1 will allow the University to proceed with research equipment purchases where the commitment from the University's operating or capital budget is less than the President's limit to authorize.

2. Special Resolution No. 9 - Board of Governors Election Procedures for Faculty

Recommended: That Election Procedures (Special Resolution No. 9) relevant to election of faculty to the Board of Governors be revised as shown below to allow Internet voting.

Faculty-at-Large Constituency (2 members)

1. To be eligible for election, a candidate must be a full-time member of the Faculty of the University, or a Clinical Academic appointed under Conditions of Appointment: Physicians Appointed in Clinical Departments and Clinical Divisions of Basic Science Departments (1999), at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher who has held academic appointments at the University for at least four academic years.

2. The following members of Faculty are eligible to vote:

(a) all full-time members of the academic staff of the University at the rank of Lecturer, Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor; and

(b) all Clinical Academics appointed under Conditions of Appointment: Physicians Appointed in Clinical Departments and Clinical Divisions of Basic Science Departments (1999), at the rank of Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor, and

(c) all part-time members of the academic staff of the University at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher

who are listed as such in the Records section of the Division of Human Resources.

3. Procedure:

The Secretary of the Board shall, within the first three weeks of September in those years when a vacancy will occur in the Faculty-at-Large constituency, call for nominations of candidates to represent the Faculty.

Completed nomination forms must be submitted to the Secretary of the Board not less than seven but not more than fourteen consecutive days from the official date of call for nominations. The Secretary of the Board shall then publish an official list of the valid nominations in Western News as soon as possible thereafter. The official list shall be by name alphabetically, showing the rank and academic unit of each nominee. The nominee may submit a biographical statement or other comment up to a limit of 75 words. The Secretary shall have discretion in restricting the published statement to 75 words should that submitted be in excess of this limit. This statement (if submitted) and a digital photograph of the candidate (if he or she agrees to having it taken by the University Secretariat) will be posted on the Election Website and linked to the ballot.

The Secretary of the Board shall, as soon as possible and not later than seven days after the publication of the list of nominees, distribute ballots to all eligible voters, showing only the full names of the candidates in alphabetical order, with official envelopes for their return. The mailing will include a sheet showing the official list of candidates and their statements. Completed ballots must be received by the Secretary of the Board not later than 4:00 p.m. the seventeenth day after the official date of distribution of the ballots.

Balloting will be conducted during a designated period at an election site linked to Western's Homepage on the Internet: http://www.uwo.ca .

The Secretary of the Board together with the two scrutineers shall be responsible for validating all ballots, for the counting of the poll and for publishing the name(s) of the successful candidate(s) in an official notice of the Board to be posted at the Office of the Secretary of the Board of Governors and offered for publication, within forty-eight hours of the closing of the poll.

A recount requested by any candidate will be conducted if, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Board and the Chair of the Board, there are sufficient grounds. The request for a recount together with a statement of grounds for the request must be received by the Secretary of the Board by 4:00 p.m. of the second working day after the closing of the polls.

All ballots received, and all return envelopes, will be retained by the Secretary of the Board for a period of sixty days following publication of the election results, and then destroyed if no appeal is pending.

4. Note: No member of the Board of Governors whose salary is paid under a collective agreement or Memorandum of Agreement between the University and a union or employee association may serve as a member of any team negotiating matters related to the remuneration or benefits, terms of employment, rights or privileges available to employees in a class or group of employees of the University.

Background:

The system of Internet voting for graduate and undergraduate students was used successfully in the Fall of 1999. The Board approved web-voting for the administrative staff in the Fall of 2000. The system, devised by Information Technology Services in consultation with the University Secretariat and the Division of Human Resources, will be able to allow voting on the World Wide Web for Board of Governors and Senate faculty constituencies in the next election. Internet voting will save significant amounts of time and cost which to date have been spent preparing, printing, stuffing, mailing and opening return and secrecy envelopes and counting ballots for approximately 1700 members of faculty. The average number of votes cast in the last 6 elections is approximately 600.

The proposed changes to the regulations include the following:

1. The regulation on voting eligibility has been revised to remove reference to "Instructor", a rank which is no longer recognized under the negotiated agreement with UWOFA.

2. The ballot website now supplies more information to voters about candidates. Photographs and statements of candidates in all constituencies can now be posted on the election Web site.

3. The ballot is linked to the UWO Homepage [http://www.uwo.ca] during the two day period in which polls are open. In this way the ballot will be accessible to anyone from any computer with a connection to the Internet.

4. Reference to Honorary Scrutineers, recounts and retention of ballots has been moved since ballot counting will be managed electronically.

The election process will be advertised in Western News. The voter enters his or her Personal Computing Account name and password (normally used for uwo e-mail or dialin accounts) and these are checked by the system to confirm that the employee is a valid voter. ITS has assigned ID's and passwords to all faculty, staff and students. Through advertisements in the Western News and mass e-mails, everyone will be directed to the Election Website [http:\\www.uwo.ca\univsec\election\] which further explains the system and provides a sample ballot.

The new voting system will allow an individual to vote only once. Two files will be created and backed-up: one records the ID number, time and machine used to access the web, the other records the vote cast by the individual once the ID number is validated. However, the stored record will NOT reveal how the individual voted. The system is one-way encrypted, i.e., it would be impossible to retrieve information on how the voter voted.

FOR INFORMATION

1. Notice of Motion - Amendment to By-Law No. 1 - Delegation of Authority

At the Board meeting to be held on June 28, 2001, the following proposal will be made:

That By-Law No. 1, Section I. (Delegation of Authority), article 1., be amended to read:

The Senior Operations Committee is authorized to approve appointments, excluding the appointment of the President or a Vice-President, on the recommendation of the President, in circumstances where the selection process has been completed but a regular meeting of the Board is not scheduled to be held within a reasonable time.

Section I.1. of By-Law No. 1 currently reads:

I. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY
When No Regular

Meetings Held

1. The Senior Operations Committee is authorized to approve appointments, on the recommendation of the President, in circumstances where the selection process has been completed and a regular meeting or a special meeting of the Board convened to consider the appointment fails to achieve a quorum of the Board.

Background:

On April 20th, a special meeting of the Board was called to receive a recommendation for the appointment of a Dean. Quorum of the Board was achieved, so there was no need to exercise the above-noted by-law; however, the Chair of the Board asked that the By-Laws Committee review the current provision with a view to avoiding the necessity of calling a special Board meeting under similar circumstances in the future.

Amendment of By-Laws:

Under the provisions of Section Q.1. of By-Law No. 1,

Notice of any motion to enact, amend or repeal any By-Law of the Board shall be given at the meeting of the Board preceding the meeting at which the motion is to be presented.

2. Fall 2001 Board of Governors Election Schedule

Elections will be held for representatives of the undergraduate and graduate student constituencies this Fall. The election schedule is outlined below:

2001 Board of Governors Election Schedule

Graduate and Undergraduate Student Constituencies

Call for Nominations

[WWW, Gazette, Western News]

September 13
Nominations Open September 14
Nominations Close 4:00 p.m., Thurs., September 27
Mandatory Candidates' Advisory Meeting 5:30 p.m., September 27

[Room 142 UC]

Posting of Nominations September 28 [Room 290 SLB]
Campaign Period begins 12:01 a.m. Monday, October 1
Campaign Period ends 11:59 p.m., Tues., October 16
Balloting on the Web - Polls Open 12:01 a.m., Wed., October 17
Balloting on the Web - Polls Close 8:00 p.m., October 18
Posting of Results October 19
Publication of Official Results October 25 (Western News)

Board of Governors, May 3, 2001 - APPENDIX , Annex 1

PROPOSED REVISIONS

Special Resolution No. 2 - Delegation of Authority

General

1. The President (or the President's designate) is authorized to approve staff changes (e.g., appointments, promotions, sabbatical and study leave) for all academic staff and Chairs of academic units that are recommended in accordance with policies and procedures established by the Board, . The President shall recommend to the Board for approval all staff changes involving, including the conferment of tenure or and the granting of or renewal of Sequential Term - Continuing Appointments.

2. In accordance with policies and procedures established by the Board, the President is authorized to approve Administrative staff changes (appointments and promotions) and to approve related salaries or salary changes, for all positions below the level of Vice-President, except that of Deans, the Registrar, the University Librarian, the Secretary of the Board of Governors and the Secretary of the Senate shall be excluded from such authorization unless the President is authorized by the Senior Operations Committee to fix, in accordance with policies which may be established by the Board from time to time, the remuneration, retirement and superannuation of such employees.

3. The President is authorized to approve all staff changes involving resignations, terminations, and retirements, except that any such staff change which will entail a continuing commitment on the part of the University, other than normal pension benefits or which falls outside existing University policies, shall be referred to the Senior Operations Committee.

Operating and Research

4. The President is authorized to commit the University to the expenditure of funds and/or approve contracts, up to a limit of $550,000 $1,000,000 for any one transaction when such expenditure has been provided for in approved budgets. However, the President may authorize the payment of externally-imposed levies, such as municipal taxes and Workers' Compensation assessments, without limit.

5. The President may authorize major purchases (i.e., over $1,000,000) of research equipment funded by external awards which may be used only for the specified purchase, provided that any contribution from the University's operating budget toward any one such purchase does not exceed $1,000,000. Any purchases approved by the President under this clause shall be reported to the Property & Finance Committee of the Board of Governors.

6. The President and Vice-Presidents are authorized to transfer funds between accounts within approved budgets as required for the effective management of the University.

7. The President is authorized to sell or otherwise dispose of University physical assets, excluding land, up to a fair market value of $100,000.

Imposition of Sanctions for Non-Academic Offences

8. The President is authorized to take such measures as are appropriate to promote the orderly conduct of students and is authorized to impose academic and/or other sanctions on students who commit non-academic offences. This authority may be sub-delegated by the President. This authority shall not be limited by proceedings taken under other internal policies or codes unless circumscribed by resolution of the Board.

9. The Administration on the authority of the President (or the President's delegate) retains the discretion to impose academic and/or other sanctions on students for non-academic offences notwithstanding any other civil, criminal or quasi-criminal proceedings which may be taken in a particular case.