To: FAS Department Chairs
CC: FAS Steering Committee; FAS Dean’s Office; Chairs’ Assistants, Lead Administrators, and Operations Managers
Dear FAS Department Chairs,
I write to alert you to a temporary policy change regarding departmental voting on personnel decisions.
The FAS Steering Committee has approved this interim policy in order to permit continuity of department administration during the period that all faculty and staff are working remotely in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This policy temporarily amends the requirement that departments provide a list of all participating voters when votes on personnel-related decisions are administered remotely.
Please see below for the full text. It is also available on the FAS website.
Thank you again for your dedicated service to Yale and to your departments – particularly during this time of great uncertainty.
Best wishes,
Tamar
Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science
During the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year, subject to extension if necessary, the following policy is in effect for remote voting that involves personnel decisions. For such votes, an anonymous voting system (such as ADoodle, Poll Everywhere, or anonymized email voting) should be used, with a designated administrative staff member assigned to receive and compile the votes. For all in-person votes involving personnel decisions, departments must provide a full list of individuals who participate in a vote for it to be binding. However, when using a remote anonymous voting system, this may not be possible. In such cases, the following alternative practice may temporarily be used:
After a teleconference faculty meeting where the personnel case in question is discussed, a list of all eligible voters who participated in the meeting will be provided to the administrative staff member who will administer the vote. A designated time period will be provided to the eligible faculty members during which the vote will be conducted. At the end of the time period, the staff member will compile the votes and compare the list of eligible voters to the number of individuals who voted. If the number of votes and the number of eligible voters are appropriately close, the vote will be accepted as binding. Any questions as to whether the number of votes is sufficient to meet this threshold should be directed to the relevant divisional dean.