Chapter 26

FINANCIAL EMERGENCY AND PROCEDURES FOR ELIMINATION OF AN ACADEMIC PROGRAM

Section 26-31. Financial Emergency

A. Declaration of a Financial Emergency

1. When the President believes that a financial crisis threatens the University which may justify declaration of a University-wide financial emergency, the procedures of this Section 26-31 shall be followed. The perceived financial crisis shall be an extraordinary one which threatens the institution as a whole so that the procedures prescribed for program eliminations in Sections 25-52 and 26-41 together with all other University cost-reduction procedures are not adequate to meet mandated budgetary reductions within the time required. Factors other than the financial crisis, including the desire to reorganize the University or to implement long-range educational policy, shall not be used to justify the declaration of a financial emergency. However, declaration of a financial emergency shall not preclude consideration of these factors in developing solutions for resolving the crisis.
2. The President shall call the Financial Emergency Committee into session and shall inform it of the nature and severity of the perceived financial crisis. The Financial Emergency Committee shall consist of the combined voting membership of the Senate Executive Committee and the Senate Budget Committee. The Chairperson of the Faculty Senate shall chair the Financial Emergency Committee.
3. The President, jointly with the Financial Emergency Committee, shall request that the Faculty Senate meet. At that meeting the Senate shall be informed of the nature of the financial crisis. The Senate shall determine whether, in its judgment, a declaration of financial emergency is warranted and shall record its determination in a resolution which shall be communicated to the President and to the Financial Emergency Committee.
4. The Financial Emergency Committee shall determine whether a financial crisis, as defined in paragraph A. 1 exists, and shall communicate its determination to the President.
5. The President shall, in consultation with the Financial Emergency Committee and the Faculty Senate, determine whether a financial crisis, as defined in paragraph A. 1, exists.
6. If the President and the Financial Emergency Committee agree that a financial crisis exists, a joint recommendation that a financial emergency be declared shall be forwarded to the Board of Regents, together with all supporting documents and the resolution of the Faculty Senate. If the determinations of the President and of the Financial Emergency Committee differ, both determinations together with all supporting documents and the resolution of the Faculty Senate shall be presented by the President to the Board of Regents before the Board acts on the recommendation.
7. A state of financial emergency shall exist upon declaration by the Board of Regents.

B. Financial Emergency Procedures

1. a. Upon declaration of a financial emergency, the Financial Emergency Committee shall advise the President on means by which the University can resolve the financial emergency. The Financial Emergency Committee shall concurrently apprise the Faculty Senate of its deliberations and advice.
   b. The Financial Emergency Committee shall identify and evaluate cost-reduction measures designed to avoid the need for removal of faculty, and shall recommend to the President such alternatives whenever and as it deems feasible and appropriate. The Financial Emergency Committee shall consider such measures as temporary furlough of faculty as a means of meeting the financial crisis in the short term and as a means of allowing long-term measures to be taken in an orderly manner.
   c. The President and the Board of Regents shall consider and implement all cost-reduction measures, short of removal of faculty, which they deem feasible and appropriate. The hiring of new faculty during a financial emergency shall be limited to extraordinary circumstances wherein an academic program would otherwise be seriously affected. Such proposed new hiring shall be stringently reviewed by the appropriate elected faculty body in each school or college.
   
2. If such cost-reduction measures to be implemented under paragraph B. 1. are deemed by the President to be insufficient to resolve the financial emergency, the President shall ask the Financial Emergency Committee to develop procedures for the removal of faculty.
   
   a. In the development of these procedures, the Financial Emergency Committee shall be guided by the following principles:
   
   (1) Such procedures shall assure maximum protection for the academic programs of the University and the educational needs of its students, consistent with the role and mission of the University.
   (2) Such procedures shall be faithful to the spirit of the provisions of the Faculty Code.
   (3) Such procedures shall protect the University's commitment to tenure, and shall not recommend the removal of tenured faculty, or non-tenured faculty during the term of their appointment, with less than twelve months' notice unless the Financial Emergency Committee shall have concluded that a notice of this length is not feasible.
   (4) Such procedures shall protect the University's commitment to affirmative action.
   (5) Such procedures shall provide for prompt and explicit notice to faculty to be removed.
   (6) Such procedures shall identify the criteria and procedures, including faculty participation mechanisms, to be used by the President and the deans in the identification of programs to be eliminated and faculty to be removed.
   (7) Such procedures shall provide for appropriate review and appeal mechanisms for programs identified for elimination, or faced with de facto elimination, during the emergency in accord with the structures of Sections 25-52 and 26-41, with the exception of their time provisions.
   (8) Such procedures shall provide appropriate appeal mechanisms, through existing faculty committees, for faculty removed by reason of the financial emergency. In such appeals, affected faculty members may raise any issue related to the criteria and the procedures used in, and applied to, the removal.
   (9) Such procedures shall include provisions for the placement and reinstatement of faculty who are removed, including but not limited to the following:
   (a) All efforts shall be made to provide suitable placement of removed faculty elsewhere in the University.
   (b) Such procedures shall provide for preferential rehiring of any removed faculty members to fill any vacancy or new position to be filled within the removed faculty's department or program, within five years of his or her removal.
   (c) Any faculty member removed for reasons of financial emergency shall be appointed as an affiliate faculty member in the department in which she or he held a regular appointment or, if the department is eliminated, in the school or college of which the department was a part, for a five-year period after removal. Affiliate faculty members so appointed shall have but not be limited to the following prerogatives: access to University library, computing, cultural, and recreational facilities equal to those enjoyed by regular faculty; continuation of graduate faculty status; and the use of University grant and contract offices. In addition, faculty removed for reasons of financial emergency shall be permitted to maintain health, life, and other insurance benefits in accordance with state law.
   
   b. Throughout its deliberations regarding its development of procedures for the removal of faculty, the Financial Emergency Committee shall maintain close and regular consultative contact with both the President and the faculty through the Faculty Senate.
   
3. Enactment of Procedures Regarding Removal of Faculty.
   a. The Financial Emergency Committee shall recommend to the President procedures for the removal of faculty due to financial emergency.
   b. The Financial Emergency Committee shall concurrently present to the Faculty Senate its recommended procedures, and the Faculty Senate shall debate and vote to agree or disagree with them in whole or in part. A report of the Faculty Senate vote, with any related Senate resolutions, shall be forwarded to the President. If the Senate cannot achieve a quorum, those senators present shall debate and vote as if there were a quorum present; and such vote, together with the number of voters, shall be forwarded to the President as an unofficial action of the Senate.
   c. The President and the Chair of the Financial Emergency Committee shall each recommend to the Board of Regents the adoption of procedures for removal of faculty. The report of the Faculty Senate vote with any related Senate resolutions shall also be presented to the Board of Regents.
   d. Procedures for removal of faculty due to financial emergency shall be adopted upon action by the Board of Regents.
   
4. The President, on behalf of the Board of Regents, shall make decisions concerning the removal of faculty consistent with the procedures adopted by the Board of Regents. In arriving at those decisions the President shall consult closely with the Financial Emergency Committee.
5. Policies and procedures in the University Handbook which are not suspended or superseded under this Section 26-31 remain in effect.

C. Termination of a Financial Emergency

1. It is the joint responsibility of the President and the Financial Emergency Committee to monitor closely the University's financial situation throughout the duration of the financial emergency. It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Faculty Senate to inform the Senate on a regular basis of the University's financial situation.
2. If the President or the Financial Emergency Committee should determine that a financial crisis no longer exists, a recommendation that the financial emergency be terminated shall be submitted to the Board of Regents.
3. A state of financial emergency will cease to exist upon its termination by the Board of Regents.

S-A 49, December 4, 1975; S-A 51, June 15, 1976; S-A 67, December 5, 1983, which also replaces Executive Order No. 49; S-A 73, May 24, 1985: all with Presidential approval.

Section 26-41. Procedures for Reorganization, Consolidation, and Elimination of Programs

A. For the purposes of sections B and D below, a "program" is defined as follows:

1. A department or other degree-granting unit (other than a school or college);
2. Either a sub-unit within a department, or a group of faculty from one or more departments, which offers a distinct degree, or a track within a degree that is described as a distinct option in the University Catalog, or in the course catalog of the college or school in question, or is customarily noted as such on student transcripts.

A disagreement as to whether the object of a proposed action constitutes a program shall be resolved by the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting, whose decision shall be binding. The dean and the faculty group affected by the proposed action shall each submit a statement of their position to the chair of the Committee, which shall deliver its ruling within ten instructional days of the receipt of both statements.

(An "instructional day" is a day on which scheduled classes meet during Autumn, Winter and Spring Quarters and excludes weekends, holidays, vacation and examination periods.)

B. Procedures for reorganization, consolidation or elimination of programs.

1. If a dean determines that a budget reduction, or a reallocation of resources, can only be implemented by measures that will have one or more of the following results:
   a. the termination of an undergraduate or graduate program as defined in Section A above;
   b. the removal of tenured faculty, or of untenured faculty before completion of their contract;
   c. a significant change in the terms, conditions or course of employment of faculty;
   d. a significant change in the overall curriculum of a college or school or of the University as a whole; or
   e. a significant departure from the stated mission of a college or school or of the University as a whole; the dean shall request authority from the Provost to initiate a formal review to identify one or more programs for elimination, reorganization, consolidation with another unit and/or reduction in size. The Provost shall consider such requests in consultation with the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting.
   
2. If the Provost grants the dean's request for such authority:
   a. The dean shall notify the Secretary of the Faculty of his or her intention to initiate a review under this section of the Faculty Code. The Secretary of the Faculty shall appoint within seven calendar days a Program Identification Committee composed of five faculty members from outside the college or school in which the review is to take place.
   b. For the duration of the reorganization, consolidation or elimination procedures, and for the business of these procedures only, the members of the Program Identification Committee shall be added to the college council of the college or school in question as ex officio members with vote. They shall participate in all discussions leading to the identification of programs for reorganization, consolidation or elimination, and shall have full access to all materials consulted by the dean and college council in this process. If the college council does not include student members, the student organization (or organizations) of the affected school or college shall appoint a graduate student and, where appropriate, an undergraduate student to the augmented college council, provided that no such student organization exists, such appointments shall be made by the GPSS and the ASUW.
   c. The dean, in consultation with the augmented college council, associate deans and other appropriate advisory bodies in the college or school, shall examine measures to meet the required budget reduction or resource allocation goals, including the elimination of programs, and alternatives to elimination such as reorganization and consolidation.
   d. The information used as a basis for the identification of programs for elimination, and of alternatives to elimination, shall consist of:
   
   (1) documents that pre-date the dean's request, including:
   (a) the reports resulting from periodic reviews of programs or departments, any interim revisions of them, and responses to them by the dean, the college council, and the faculty of the program(s) in question.
   (b) accreditation reviews, if such exist for the program(s) in question.
   (c) any other performance data gathered and maintained by the college, provided they are up-to-date and have been previously submitted to the faculty of the program(s) in question for review and response.
   (d) all relevant documentation resulting from the ongoing long-range planning process in the college, and
   
   (2) such other information requested by the dean or the augmented college council as deemed necessary, provided it is up-to-date and has been submitted to the faculty of the program(s) in question for review and response for at least five instructional days.
   
   e. In proposing program reorganizations, consolidations or eliminations, the dean shall protect, to the maximum extent possible:
   
   (1) the overall curriculum of the college and the University and the educational needs of its students, consistent with the role and mission of the University;
   (2) in the case of a reorganization or consolidation, the quality of the program in relation to e.(1) above;
   (3) other programs in the University, including interdisciplinary programs, that may be affected by the proposed action(s);
   (4) the University's commitment to tenure; and
   (5) the University's commitment to affirmative action.
   
   f. Deliberations leading to the identification of programs for elimination shall be confidential until the conclusion of the identification process, except that, at least two instructional days before any public announcement, the dean shall inform the faculty of the identified program(s) of their status, in writing, and shall make available to them the report described in B.3 and B.3.a below and its supporting documents. At least one instructional day before any public announcement, the dean shall convene the faculty of the identified program(s) for the purpose of explaining the review procedures to them, and informing them of the provisions under sections B.3 and 5 below for representation of their views and presentation of supporting evidence.
   
3. The dean's intention to reorganize, consolidate or eliminate the identified program(s) shall be announced within a period of thirty instructional days from the appointment of the Program Identification Committee. This announcement shall be made in the form of a detailed and specific report accompanied by a separate statement from the Program Identification Committee. Both of these documents shall be submitted by the dean to the President, the Provost and the chair(s) of the affected unit(s), and to the Secretary of the Faculty, who shall publish them in a Class C Bulletin within seven instructional days of receiving them.
   a. The dean's report shall:
   
   (1) justify the proposed measures in relation to existing program review materials and other publicly available planning documents;
   (2) describe the impact of the proposed measures on other programs, on the curriculum of the college as a whole, and on the faculty affected; and
   (3) be accompanied by all supporting documents, which need not be published in the Class C Bulletin referred to in B.3 above, but must be made available to any faculty member on request.
   
   b. The accompanying statement shall be prepared and signed by the chair of the Program Identification Committee, and shall reflect the opinion of a majority of the Committee. It shall indicate:
   
   (1) whether the Committee supports or does not support the proposal of the dean, giving reasons therefor, and
   (2) whether in its view the program identification process was fair, thorough, impartial, consistent in its use of appropriate criteria and materials, and free of conflict of interest.
   
4. For each college in which these procedures are being applied, the Chair of the Faculty Senate, with the advice and consent of the Senate Executive Committee, shall appoint a Review Committee consisting of five faculty members, one representative of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and one representative of the Associated Students of the University of Washington. The formation and membership of this committee shall be announced in the Class C Bulletin described in B.3 above. This committee shall conduct an open review of the dean's proposal, with particular reference to the justification offered, and may receive or request additional materials or arguments from the dean, the faculty, students and staff of the identified program(s), and other constituencies in the University or the public at large. Meetings to invite public comment shall be scheduled at times that permit participation by the public. Within twenty instructional days of the publication of the Bulletin, the Review Committee shall deliver its written recommendation to the President. The recommendation shall be transmitted at the same time to the dean and to the chair(s) of the affected program(s).
5. Following the submission of the Review Committee's written recommendations, the dean may propose a modified course of action, and the affected program(s) may submit an additional statement. This statement may suggest alternatives to the measures proposed by the dean, giving detailed reasons based on educational policy and/or past reviews of the program(s) in question, and may include additional relevant documentation. Any such materials must be transmitted to the President within ten instructional days of the delivery of the Review Committee's report.
6. After the President confers with the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting, he or she shall transmit a final decision and accompanying recommendations to the Board of Regents, and to the dean(s), the chair(s) of the affected program(s) and the Chair of the Faculty Senate, within thirty calendar days of receiving the Review Committee's recommendations, but in no case later than the final day of Spring Quarter. The President's decision shall take careful account of the impact of the reorganization(s), consolidation(s) or elimination(s) on the University's ability to perform its educational role and mission, and on the diversity of the University community.

C. Procedures for the Elimination of a College or School.

1. If the Provost and a majority of the members of the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting concur that a budget reduction, or a reallocation of resources, should be achieved by the elimination of a particular college or school in its entirety, or by its consolidation with another college or school, the Provost shall invite the Chair of the Faculty Senate to appoint a Review Committee, constituted as described in B.4 above.
2. The Provost shall submit to the Review Committee a detailed justification of the proposed measure, prepared on the basis of the materials described in B.2.d above and other appropriate planning documents made available by the central administration, provided they have been previously submitted to the dean and faculty of the college or school in question for review and comment. The justification shall:
   a. review alternatives and explain why elimination of the college or school is preferable; and
   b. protect to the maximum extent possible the aspects of the University described in B.2.e above.
3. The Secretary of the Faculty shall publish the Provost's proposal, and the accompanying justification, in a Class C Bulletin within seven instructional days of receiving them.
4. The Review Committee shall conduct an open review of the Provost's proposal in the manner described in B.3 above, and shall deliver its written recommendation to the President within thirty calendar days of the publication of the Bulletin.
5. Following the delivery of the Review Committee's report, the Provost may propose a modified course of action, and the dean of the affected college may submit an additional statement of the kind described in B.5 above. Any such materials must be submitted to the President within ten instructional days of the delivery of the Review Committee's report.
6. After the President confers with the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting, he or she shall transmit a final decision and accompanying recommendations to the Board of Regents, the deans and the Chair of the Faculty Senate as prescribed in B.6 above.

D. Procedures for Limited Reorganization and Consolidation of Programs.

1. In order to reallocate resources or implement educational policies, a dean may at any time propose the reorganization of one or more programs within a college, or their consolidation or amalgamation with other units. If the proposed measures will not have the effects described in B.1 above, the dean may proceed with the measures, provided:
   a. the proposal results from detailed discussion with the affected program(s), and with appropriate faculty advisory committees in the college;
   b. a detailed justification of the proposed actions is submitted to the Provost and the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting, taking account of the documentation described in B.2.d above; and
   c. the measures are not implemented until the conclusion of a period of twenty instructional days during which the faculty of the affected program(s) may exercise the option described in section D.2 below.
2. If a majority of the voting faculty of an academic program judges that a proposed reorganization or consolidation will have one or more of the effects described in B.1 above, such majority may petition the Provost for a review under the procedures for elimination of programs. The Provost shall consider such petitions in consultation with the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting, and within ten instructional days may either direct the dean to conduct a program elimination review following the procedures described in sections A and B.2 through 6 above, or decline to do so, in which case a detailed statement must be transmitted to the petitioners and to the Chair of the Faculty Senate, explaining why an elimination review is not deemed appropriate.

S-A 49, December 4, 1975; S-A 57, April 3, 1978; S-A 67, December 5, 1983; S-A 73, May 24, 1985; S-A 95, June 17, 1996: all with Presidential approval.