Faculty Meetings and Processes

The School of Law holds at least one general faculty meeting every fall and other meetings periodically as needed. The Dean is the only person who calls a general faculty meeting and does so by providing notice to faculty members at least a week prior to the meeting.

The Dean chairs all faculty meetings. The Assistant to the Dean records the meetings and the records are kept in the Dean’s Suite. The Law School does not limit the type of actions that can be taken at a meeting. Voting by written ballot in advance is allowed for meetings that involve votes on tenure, promotion, and appointing new tenured or tenure-track members to the faculty, but only if the absentee faculty member reads the candidate’s file and signs an absentee ballot attesting to that fact.

Substantial changes to curricular or other educational policies are considered by the Law School’s Curriculum Committee or, if appropriate, by other committees. If a committee recommends such changes, they are discussed in a report to the Dean, which the Dean then circulates to the faculty. If a matter is likely to be uncontroversial, the Dean may seek faculty approval via email. In such instances, however, a faculty meeting will be scheduled if there are significant objections to the proposal. For other matters, a faculty meeting is automatically scheduled for discussion and voting.

These customs and procedures have been in place for many years and were reaffirmed by the faculty Budget Council in October 2018. They are posted at https://law.utexas.edu/faculty-meetings-and-processes/