D. Procedures for Setting Policy

       The following are to be established policies in the making of decisions about the undergraduate course of study, and department Chairs shall be responsible for so informing the concentrators of their departments at the beginning of each academic year. However, any of these policies may be modified by agreement of the tenured and tenure-track and concentrators of a department, these modifications to remain in effect until changed by similar procedure.

1.    In the election of student departmental committees, such committees and departmental Chairs shall be jointly responsible for adopting procedures that have these objectives:

       a. It should be convenient for the students of the department to vote.
       b. There should be an opportunity for any departmental student to place names in nomination.
       c. It should be easy for relatively small groups of students to have a representative of their department’s committee and difficult for an organized minority to capture a disproportionate share of committee positions.
       d. There should be reasonable precautions against multiple balloting and reasonable measures to ensure a fair count of the vote.

2.    Student departmental committees shall be provided with a reasonable amount of secretarial assistance in preparing proposals, communicating with departmental majors, and conducting elections.

3.    Department chairs shall be responsible for:

       a. Referring all proposals for major changes in departmental undergraduate programs to their student committees before action on such proposals is taken by department Faculty.
       b. Inviting members of student committees to discuss proposals for major changes in departmental undergraduate programs with departmental faculties at or before any meetings in which department Faculty take action on such proposals.
       c. Scheduling at least two meetings each academic year with their student committees, one early in the fall term to work out plans for later consultation, and one in late spring to review departmental undergraduate offerings so that Chairs may take student views into account in preparing requests for new staff.

4.    Student committees and faculty departmental committees concerned with the undergraduate program (in departments in which the latter sort of committee exists) shall normally meet jointly.

5.    Student departmental committees have the following additional rights:

       a. The right to attach comments, favorable or unfavorable, to all proposals forwarded by the faculties of their departments to the Committee on the Course of Study.
       b. The right in certain circumstances to secure a departmental faculty’s reconsideration of action taken on proposals regarding the course of study for undergraduate students. Specifically: Department Faculty should seriously consider a second vote on any measure regarding the department’s undergraduate program, when a second vote is requested by the student committee of the department. In any particular academic year departmental faculties should commit themselves to a second vote on such measures if a second vote is requested within one month by the student committee in a petition endorsed by two-thirds of the department’s majors. If the action being reconsidered is on a proposal that the Department Faculty has rejected, a majority vote of the Departmental Faculty should reverse the previous decision. If the action being reconsidered is on a proposal that has been adopted by the Department Faculty, a two-thirds vote of the Department Faculty should be required to affirm the previous decision.

       Department Faculty should not be bound to reconsider the same action more than once in the same academic year.

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