Summary of 2006-2008 Changes to the MU Trial Faculty Grievance Document

• Exclude grievances claiming inadequate consideration in tenure decisions; grievances claiming violation of academic freedom and EEO issues maintained as part of process (page 1, B).
• Changed Chair of Standing Committee to Co-Chairs throughout and defined what is to be done if either of Co-Chairs has a conflict of interest (page 2, E)
• Added section recommending the grievant seek administrative relief prior to filing a grievance (page 3,G).
• Mention EEOC in section where mediation is encouraged prior to filing of a grievance (page 3, H).
• Included opportunity at any point in grievance process for informal resolution attempts to be made by Standing Committee Co-Chairs or Investigating Officer (page 3, H).
• Added the provost office or other appropriate administrative official to list of individuals that are notified of a filed grievance (page 3, J1)
• Changed wording to allow additional time for stays. Previous wording required that time for stays be recovered and total process duration was time-locked. Time line for entire grievance process changed from 320 to 340 days with additional time for stays (page 5, J7).
• Defined more specifically how stays are granted and added rules for the IO asking for stays (page 5, K2).
• Added a step after the Respondent is named where he or she can ask the Grievance Committee Co-Chairs for reconsideration based on either definitional or timeliness criteria. This step will use 10 days of the total time line (recovered by eliminating Joint Informal Conference) (page 6, L2).
• Eliminate Joint Informal Conference (10 days) and instead substitute suggested reconsideration step above. Joint Informal Conference was ineffective.
• Established page limits for preliminary and final statements and rebuttal statement to 10 pages/count (page 6, L3a and page 8, L7a).
• Instructions for relevance of evidence to be mentioned clearly and tabbed to statements (page 6, L3b and c).
• Allowed for Grievant to substitute his/her original grievance for preliminary statement (page 6, L3e).
• Extended the time for the Investigating Officer to collect evidence (60 days versus 30 days) (page 6, L4).
• Specified that IO can collect evidence that he/she deems relevant, even if parties do not request this evidence in their statements (page 6, L4a).Investigating Officer will decide on relevance of requested evidence and collect only those items she/he deems relevant. This process would include two levels of appeal: 1) to the Investigating Officer initially and 2) if rejected, to the Grievance Committee Co-Chairs (page 6, L4b).
• Reversed the order of Items M4 and M5 that describe the authority of the Hearing Panel (page 10, M4, 5).
• Added a clause that prohibits anonymous testimony (page 10, M5d)
• Added a clause that directs the Hearing Panel to write a follow-up report, following the Chancellors decision, that summarizes the remedies upheld or not. The panel will have 30 days to complete its report (not counted in total time line of process) (page 11, M11).
• Information regarding unethical conduct issues (by Hearing Panel members, Grievant or Respondent) will be limited to the Grievance Committee Co-Chairs and Investigating Officer (not the entire committee of 30 members) (page 11, M12).
• Established rules for communication between Chancellor and parties involved (page 12, M14).
• Time line for Chancellor’s decision set at 60 days following receipt of Hearing Panel’s decision (down from 70-days). Added optional 30 day stay that requires a written explanation provided to the Hearing Panel, the Grievant, the Respondent, the IO, and the Standing Committee Co-Chairs  (total decision time 90 days). Should the Chancellor not be able to rule within 90 days, a written explanation will be provided to the Hearing Panel, the Grievant, Respondent, IO and Co-Chairs and include a new decision date to be set within 14 days.  (page 12, M15).
• In the event the Chancellor requests additional information in his/her determination letter, the Chancellor shall set a reasonable time-line (preferably no longer than 30 days) for the collection of this material. Upon receipt of said additional materials, the Chancellor shall render a final decision within 30 days (page 12, M15).
• For system-level grievances, substitute President for Chancellor (page 13, O).
• Added Provost Office and Chancellor’s Office to list of recipients of the yearly grievance report from the Co-Chairs and IO (page 13, P).
• Provide the option for the Grievance Committee Co-Chairs to convene a Hearing Panel with 3 members when 5 cannot be seated in a timely manner (page 15, Appendix A: 5f).

See also:

2008 Grievance Document (full version, Word doc)

Shall the Collected Rules and Regulations be revised to adopt the revised Pilot Faculty Grievance Procedure recommended by MU Faculty Council? (PowerPoint presentation, March 5, 2008 Faculty Forum)