THE UNIVERSITY SENATE
OF MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
FACULTY
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES
(Proposal 23-00)
Senate Procedures 704.1.1
It is the policy of Michigan Technological University to
have an effective procedure for reviewing and resolving faculty grievances.
That procedure is described here.
Grievance Committees
1. Each department or school shall formulate a grievance
process in its charter. Charters shall provide for filing grievances with the
Department Chair or School Dean, for a departmental or school committee of
peers to review grievances, and for appropriate forms to keep a written record.
The department or school charter's process shall be consistent with the
provisions for timeliness as set forth below.
2. The University Senate (Senate) shall establish a
standing, University-wide Faculty Review Committee (FRC).
a. The FRC will consist of three members and one alternate
member, no two from the same department, chosen through an election of the
faculty at large which is to be run by the Senate. Members shall be elected to
three-year terms. (The longest-serving member of the committee will serve as
Chair.) The terms shall be staggered such that an election is held each year.
b. Any member of the FRC who has prior direct involvement in
a grievance case, either as a principal or as a participant in the departmental
review process or otherwise, shall be precluded from serving on the FRC for
that case. For such cases only, the position on the committee shall be filled
by the elected alternate (refer to 2.a above). Such temporary appointment shall
terminate when the findings of the FRC are submitted, and shall not abridge the
rights and duties of the regular incumbent insofar as other activities of the
committee are concerned. In such a case as this, the thirty (30) work day
period would begin at the formation of the revised FRC (refer to Step One,
below).
c. For implementing Steps Two through Five (see below), the
FRC shall develop a set of uniform procedures and forms that are consistent
with this policy; the forms must be approved by the Senate. The FRC shall
submit to the Senate an annual report of the year's activities at the end of
each academic year. The report should include a summary of the number of
grievances filed, resolved, appealed, etc., from the department level through
the Appeal Panel. Human Resources will provide information to help tabulate
these summaries. (This may include data on numbers of grievances filed at the
department level.)
3. Every grievance committee or panel (at the department,
school and University level) will have an ex officio (non-voting) member
appointed from the Human Resources Office to act as a resource person for
current personnel policy and other legal issues, and also to provide
"training services" for committee or panel members.
4. If the grievance is not resolved by Step Five (below),
the Provost shall establish an Appeal Panel on a case by case basis. An Appeal
Panel shall consist of three persons. The aggrieved faculty member and the
original supervisor shall each select one faculty member from the University.
These two persons shall choose a third University faculty member, who shall
then serve the three-member panel as its Chair. None of these faculty panel
members shall currently be serving as an administrator; none shall have had any
prior involvement in the grievance.
The Grievance Procedure
Step One: If the grievance cannot be reconciled by collegial
discussions with the relevant supervisor, the grievant shall file a grievance
in writing with the Department Chair or School Dean. The grievance shall be
filed within thirty (30) work days after discovery of the event, action, or
omission that is the basis for the grievance. No grievance need be accepted for
processing under this procedure unless a written grievance is provided to the
Department Chair or School Dean within this thirty (30) day period.
The Department Chair or School Dean will pass the written
materials on to the departmental grievance committee for action within five (5)
work days. Within a time period of thirty (30) work days, that committee must
notify in writing the grievant, the relevant supervisor, and the Department
Chair or School Dean of its findings.
Step Two: If the departmental or school grievance committee
finds the grievance lacks merit (i.e. is not supported by the evidence, does
not fall within the list of grievable issues, does not have substantial impact) the grievant has two
options.
1) The grievant may accept the departmental or school
grievance committee's findings, at which point the grievance procedure stops.
2) The grievant may reject the departmental or school
grievance committee's findings and may request an appeal. This request for
appeal must be submitted directly to the Chair of the FRC in writing within
five (5) work days after receipt of written notification of the departmental or
school grievance committee's findings. The appeal petition will set forth in
detail the nature of the grievance, state against whom the grievance is
directed, and include any factual data which the grievant deems pertinent to
the case. The Chair of the FRC shall immediately notify the supervisor and the
Chair of the departmental or school grievance committee of the receipt of a
request for appeal.
If the departmental or school grievance committee finds the
grievance has merit, then one of two options exists.
1) The supervisor may now agree with the departmental or
school grievance committee's findings; the supervisor addresses the grievance
to the satisfaction of the grievant and the grievance procedure stops at this
point.
2) The supervisor may disagree with the departmental or
school grievance committee's findings and in this case, the Chair of the
departmental or school grievance committee should notify the grievant in
writing within five (5) work days; the grievant then has five (5) work days to
appeal to the FRC if still not satisfied.
Adequate time shall be allowed for the faculty member to
file an appeal with the FRC under circumstances where the faculty member's
ability to file has been delayed by lateness or failure to supply documentation
on the part of the supervisor, Department Chair or School Dean, or departmental
committee. Discretion in this regard shall be exercised by the FRC.
Step Three: The FRC shall report their findings on all
grievances submitted to it within thirty (30) work days from receipt from the
departmental level in Step Two. Within this time limit, the FRC shall ask the
relevant supervisor and the departmental or school grievance committee to come
forward with evidence to support their findings. The grievant, the grievant's relevant supervisor, the Department Chair or
School Dean, and the next higher level administrator shall be notified of the
FRC's findings in writing.
It is the duty of the FRC to find whether the grievance
shall be passed on to the higher administration level of Step Four below, or
shall be stopped at this point. All such findings are final.
The FRC shall be responsible for determining its findings in
light of five questions:
1) Does the grievance fall into the list of grievable issues above?
2) Does the grieved issue have a substantial impact on the
grievant? It shall be up to the FRC to decide what is a
"substantial impact," but the Committee should consider how
important the grieved issue is to the long-term roles of a faculty member in
teaching, research, and service, and to the rights and responsibilities
embodied in academic freedom. Salary increments shall be considered to be an
issue of substantial impact if there is alleged to be a record of cumulative
(historical) inequities.
3) Does the evidence presented to the FRC support the
existence of a grievable cause of substantial impact?
4) Was the grievance handled according to the processes set
up by the departmental or school charter and/or this grievance procedure?
5) Is there new evidence not reasonably available at prior
steps?
An appeal should be passed on to Step Four if:
a. the issue is grievable,
it has substantial impact, and there is supporting evidence; or,
b. the issue is grievable,
there is supporting evidence, and the handling of the grievance deviated in a
nontrivial manner from proper procedure.
The FRC may consider paths of conciliation and mediation,
including ones utilizing the Ombudsperson when both the grievant and the
supervisor are willing to undertake mediation or when the Committee decides
that the criteria for continuing a formal appeal have not been met.
Step Four: The Step Four administrator shall be the next
direct level of University administration, normally College Dean but in some cases
the Provost, depending on the reporting structure in a given unit. If the
latter structure is the case, the procedure passes to Step Five below.
Following receipt of written notification, the Step Four
administrator or acting administrator shall meet with the grievant within five
(5) work days. The Step Four administrator may request the relevant supervisor
to be present; the grievant may similarly request that a faculty representative
of his or her choice be present. The Step Four administrator shall give the
grievant a written response within five (5) work days after the meeting. The
Step Four administrator may reach a written, mutually agreed resolution with
the grievant, in which case the grievance process is closed.
Step Five: If the fourth step written response is not
accepted by the grievant, the grievant shall send written notification to the
Step Four administrator within five (5) work days indicating the desire to
advance the grievance; the Step Four administrator will forward immediately one
copy of the grievance to the Step Five administrator, the Provost. The Provost,
or an appropriate designee, shall contact the grievant within seven (7) work
days to acknowledge receipt of the Step Five grievance.
The Provost may reach a written, mutually agreed resolution
with the grievant. If no written agreement is reached within five (5) work days
after acknowledgment of receipt, the Provost shall form an Appeal Panel within
ten (10) work days after acknowledgment of receipt.
The Appeal Panel will review the grievance, will interview
the principals, and may conduct other such investigations or hearings as
appropriate. Every reasonable effort will be made to assure that the Appeal
Panel hearing will be held within thirty (30) work days of the receipt of the
request by the Provost. The panel shall submit its findings in writing to the
President and the grievant within thirty (30) work days after the close of the
hearing.
Panel Findings: The Appeal Panel will make a recommendation
to the President on its findings and the President's decision will be final.
When the President reaches a decision, he/she shall notify the Appeal Panel and
the FRC in writing of the decision.
Other Concerns and Definitions
1. In cases where off-campus faculty are involved in a
grievance and telephone or e-mail resolution is unsuccessful, travel to
Houghton or to other nonwork locations may be
required in the resolution of the grievance. The faculty member whose grievance
continues past Step Three shall have all related costs of travel paid by the
University.
2. All costs of legal counsel employed by the grievant shall
be borne by the grievant.
3. Legal counsel will not be present during any meetings,
investigations, or hearings.
4. "Work days" as used in this procedure include
the days Monday through Friday only, and only when those days are not
University holidays. The goal is to resolve grievances within specified limits;
however allowances must be made to address any difficulties in convening a
committee during University breaks (including summer).
5. Time limits are subject to extension by written agreement
of both parties; the grievant and the administrator or committee chair involved
at that particular step of the discussion shall be makers of such agreement.
6. Failure of a supervisor, administrator, or committee to
respond to a grievance in a timely fashion shall qualify the grievance to be
advanced to the next step. The grievant shall bear the responsibility for
filing at the next level. In addition, when formulating its final
recommendation, the appeal panel may consider nontrivial failures by
supervisors, administrators, or committees to conform to procedures.
7. Failure of the grievant to meet filing deadlines may be
cause for refusal by the administration to consider any grievance.
8. Upon resolution of a faculty grievance, the written
record will not be disseminated to third parties, except to the extent that such
dissemination may be required by law; the written record will be maintained in
Human Resources.
9. In all instances the count of days in this document shall
begin the work day after the indicated event or action.
10. If a change occurs in the name of a department or
school, or in the title of an administrative position, all equivalent names
and/or titles shall apply.
Adopted by Senate:
April 11, 2001
Administration suggested changes: April 13, 2001
Adopted by Senate: April 25, 2001
Approved by President: May 2, 2001