Procedures
Member Roles and Responsibilities
Committee Membership, Faculty
- New faculty members are assigned to serve on the committee during the preceding summer term. Exactly one new faculty member is assigned each year for a term of two years. Faculty appointments are staggered, such that there is one 1st year committee member and one 2nd year committee member at any given time. There will be exactly two faculty members on the CIC at any given time.
Committee Membership, Committee Chair
- The senior faculty member of the committee assumes the role of committee chair at the beginning of each academic school year. The formal roles and responsibilities of the chair include the following:
- Schedule monthly general meetings
- Compose and share the agenda ahead of each general meeting
- Facilitate meetings
- Randomly assign other committee and subcommittee roles in the absence of volunteers by choosing numbers out of a hat
- Enforce committee rules/procedures/policies
Committee Membership, Student Members
- Upon joining, student members effectively agree to a minimum term of one year, and a maximum term not to exceed two years. Two-year terms are highly preferred. Term cycles correspond to calendar years, with new members beginning their new terms on January 1st.
Committee Membership, Student Member Recruitment
- New student members are recruited during the Fall term of each academic school-year. The number of vacant seats depends on both the minimum number of personnel to fill the particular task forces, as well as the number of members rotating off the committee due to expired terms or early withdrawal.
- Current members planning to withdraw prior to the full two-year term are required to submit their formal intention to withdraw from the committee by November 1st.
- An invitation for new members should be sent to the department no later than Nov. 15th. Applicants should submit a formal statement of interest to the committee chair via email (not to exceed 3-4 sentences). If the number of applicants exceeds the number of vacant spots, the predetermined number of new members will be randomly chosen using a randomized number generator.
Member Roles and Responsibilities
Participation
- Committee members will be present at each agreed upon general meeting unless prior notice is given to the Chair and taskforce co-members.
Task-forces
- Members will actively participate in one to three taskforce/s to aid the on-going goals and action plans of the committee.
Standards of Conduct
- In addition to general responsibilities, CIC student members are expected to maintain a high level of professionalism when representing the CIC. In all forms of communication, members are expected to keep confidential material, knowledge, or information pertaining to sensitive matters, particularly that of conflict incident reports within the department. While open, transparent communication is an important CIC principle, students are asked not to speak on behalf of the committee without receiving a general consensus or official statement about on-going events, policies, and/or incident reports.
- When in the role of event coordinator or host, it is vital to remember that members are representing the CIC’s mission (see External Communication section).
The following policies are intended to facilitate communication among the members of the CIC. All members of the CIC agree to perform the following duties as part of their service.
Committee Meetings
- CIC Committee Meetings are an opportunity for the entire committee to meet in person to discuss topics related to the CIC mission. Importantly, CIC members will use this time to present and vote on motions to implement changes developed by CIC taskforces. The Committee for an Inclusive Community (“whole-group”) shall meet at least once per month. Subcommittees (“task-forces”) may meet more often than that with the purpose of developing drafts, proposals, procedures, etc., to be presented to the CIC at a whole-group meeting for discussion and voting.
- There should be a minimum of one whole-group meeting per month. There is no upper limit on the number of meetings, but the CIC should strive to minimize the number of whole-group meetings to one per month. Meetings of the whole group and of the task-forces shall be scheduled at least one week in advance (though more advanced scheduling is much preferred).
- One note taker (assigned quarterly; see Roles and Responsibilities section) must be present at each whole-group meeting. The agenda for whole-group meetings is set by the chair with input (via email) from CIC members. Each whole-group meeting must include a discussion of topics on the agenda in order of priority.
Meeting Minutes
- Meeting minutes are essential for providing a written record of group meetings and for allowing members to vote in absentia. The committee will rotate who records meeting minutes (assigned quarterly; see Roles and Responsibilities section). Meeting minutes should be posted/emailed on the same day of the meeting.
The CIC Listserv
- All current CIC members can utilize this listserv. The listserv should be utilized when immediate communication with CIC members is needed.
The following policies are intended to facilitate communication between the CIC and members of the department.
Annual Newsletter
- Each Spring, the CIC will publish and share the results of its Winter assessment of inclusivity and diversity in the department. The document should be finalized and sent to the department by May 15th.
Graduate Student Dialogue
- Each Spring (after release of the annual newsletter), student members will lead a ‘Dialogue,’ during which graduate students can share their feedback about the newsletter, and about diversity and inclusivity in the department more generally
Email address
- Non-CIC members can contact the CIC at: psychcic@uoregon.edu
Professionalism/Confidentiality
- As noted in the Roles and Responsibilities section above, CIC members are expected to maintain a high level of vigilance with respect to distinguishing their own personal beliefs from the mission of the CIC.
- On occasion, the committee may discuss specific incidents related to inclusivity and diversity involving members of the psychology department. CIC members should maintain the utmost level of confidentiality around the identities of the parties involved.
The goal of the decision-making process outlined below is to balance a desire to make the best decision possible in order to further the CIC’s mission against the desire to prevent long delays in CIC action.
Feedback Prior to Decision-Making
- At times, task forces may wish to solicit feedback from the larger group prior to a formal decision, such as feedback on a deliverable in progress. The task force member should contact CIC members asking for feedback by a specific date, and CIC committee members should send their feedback to the task force member who will gather the feedback and make revisions.
Voting Procedure
- In most instances, motions to be voted upon will be known in advance. In these cases, a CIC member will email the motion prior to the group meeting. Motions that are not emailed in advance are considered extemporaneous motions. Other than the fact that extemporaneous motions are not emailed in advance, the same voting procedures apply to both extemporaneous and non-extemporaneous motions.
- A CIC member (e.g. the one who emailed the motion in advance of the group meeting) will present the motion to the entire group. The CIC chair will then ask if another member would like to second the motion. If yes, then the CIC chair will ask if another member would like to “anti-first” the motion. If yes, the CIC chair will ask if another member would like to “anti-second” the motion.
- Motions that do not receive an anti-second proceed to a full group vote immediately. The chair will ask for a show of hands for individuals who are voting in support of the motion and against the motion. All committee decisions must be reached by a ⅔ majority vote.
- A motion that receives an anti-second is considered a heightened scrutiny motion that requires further discussion. The following steps will be taken in heightened scrutiny cases:
- Each member will provide their stance on the issue on a 1 to 5 scale (5 finger voting) and explain their rationale (1 = Strongly Opposed, 2 = Moderately Opposed, 3 = Strong Reservations but will not stand in the way of the motion, 4 = Moderately in Favor, 5 = Strongly in Favor).
- The motion will then be discussed in more depth. The discussion is expected to change some members’ opinions on the issue or to generate a new/updated motion.
- After the discussion all members will again indicate their stance on a 1 to 5 scale (either on the same motion or on a revised motion if that is where the discussion led).
- Next the group will vote by a show of hands on whether to either (i) vote on the issue immediately or (ii) delay a vote until the next meeting. If 100% of members vote in favor of immediate action, then a formal vote will take place immediately using the process outlined in #3 above. If at least one member prefers a delay in voting, then the formal vote will take place at the next group meeting using the process outlined in #3 above.
Quorum and Absentee Voting
- An 80% quorum is required for voting to occur in group meetings.
- Group members who are absent should cast their vote by emailing the CIC chair. Absentee voters are encouraged to email their votes in advance of the meeting after reading the written motion but can wait until after receiving meeting notes if they wish (and of course must wait until after the meeting to vote on extemporaneous motions). The deadline for absentee voting is 5 PM on the day following the group meeting.
- For heightened scrutiny issues, all members are required to vote, either in person or via email.
- For issues that are not heightened scrutiny, members are still encouraged to vote, but these motions do not require absentee voting and can pass with the 80% quorum.
Email voting
- Most voting will occur in general group meetings, but email voting may be more efficient when issues are not expected to require heightened scrutiny. In this case, the same voting steps outlined above will occur via email.
Post-vote discussion
- All votes are final. Any new vote requires another motion. Some group members may wish to have further discussion after the vote has occurred. These discussions should occur in CIC discussion forums (Facebook group), not over email.