Request By:
Mr. Phil Constans, Jr.
Faculty Senate Chairperson
426 CEB
Western Kentucky University
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising a question concerning KRS 164.320(7) and the faculty member who is eligible to serve on the board of regents for Western Kentucky University. KRS 164.320(7), dealing with the board of regents, states in part as follows:
"The non-voting faculty member shall be a teaching or research member of the faculty of his respective university or college of the rank of assistant professor or above . . . ."
While there is no doubt that the statute includes any assistant professor or above who spends full time in teaching or research, your specific question asks:
"Does this also include department heads who spend part time in teaching or research and other administrative personnel, with faculty rank, who spend part time in teaching or research?"
In OAG 74-632, copy enclosed, in interpreting KRS 164.320(7), we concluded:
"To be a faculty member of the board of regents, a person must be a teaching or research faculty member. We believe that this means that the person's duties must be teaching or research as opposed to administrative."
Thus, in our opinion, administrative personnel, even though they may hold faculty rank and engage in part time teaching or research, are not eligible to serve as the faculty member on the board of regents pursuant to KRS 164.320(7). To determine if department heads may serve as the faculty member on the board of regents, we must ascertain the status of department heads at Western Kentucky University at the present time and whether they are basically teachers or researchers or whether they are administrators.
Whether a department head is basically a teacher or researcher, as opposed to an administrator, depends upon the institution's definition of a department head and how he satisfies his contractual obligations to the university. Department heads at Western Kentucky University at the present time are considered as part of the administrative staff and, therefore, because of the present internal policies of the university, they would not be eligible to serve as the faculty member on the board of regents.
We direct your attention to the Western Kentucky University Faculty Staff Handbook (8th Ed., Sept. 1972, p. 27) where a department head is defined as follows:
"The department head is the officially designated person charged with the administrative responsibility for an instructional department. In this capacity he is responsible to the dean of the college concerned and, under the direct supervision of the dean, assumes responsibilities including the communication to his faculty members of college and university policies and procedures; solicitation and receipt of the views and ideas relating to college and university policies and procedures from the members of his faculty and communication of such to the dean of his college; the recruitment and evaluation of prospective faculty members; the provision of academic leadership to the faculty of the department in the establishment of instructional goals, evaluation and improvement of the departmental curriculum and the identification of future projects; the evaluation of departmental faculty members; assistance to the university administration in the supervision and classification of future projects; and the preparation of requisitions for necessary textbooks, supplies, equipment and repairs."
Furthermore, under the provisions of the Constitution of the Faculty Senate administrative personnel do not qualify for membership on that body. Faculty members, to be eligible, must spend three-fourths of their time engaged in teaching or research or nonadministrative functions. It is our understanding that department heads usually teach only one course per semester.
While the university may change its policy at some future time, it is our opinion that as a result of Western Kentucky University's present policy, department heads are basically administrators as opposed to teachers and researchers and, therefore, may not serve as the faculty member on the board of regents pursuant to KRS 164.320(7). Administrative personnel, even though they may hold faculty rank and engage in part time teaching or research, are also precluded from serving as the faculty member on the board of regents.