Chapter 22: Faculty Handbook Process

The plan for the approval of a major revision is as follows: An individual or group, under the supervision of the Provost, will revise the Faculty Handbook. Drafts of the document will be reviewed and commented upon by a workgroup of key people representing the diverse constituencies within the university. Once their feedback has been incorporated, input will be received and integrated from the following groups in this order: Faculty Council, appropriate leadership in Human Resources, Provost's senior staff, associate deans, and the Council of Deans. The document will be signed off on by the President's Cabinet. It will then be submitted to the Academic Affairs Committee of the Emory Board of Trustees for their information. 

This is in contrast to the "The Gray Book," which is written and owned by the Board of Trustees. 

In terms of updating the Faculty Handbook, one individual in the Office of the Provost will be charged with this task. This person will be responsible for doing minor revisions and updates annually by the Faculty Council after review by the appropriate Faculty Council committee. That will ensure that the Faculty Handbook stays current, such as removing nonexistent programs or updating web links. The Faculty Council will also review the Faculty Handbook annually and make minor revisions to content and structure. Any changes not involving policies or procedures are considered minor changes and do not need to go through full approval process. Any significant revisions that are required to the document will require the same approval process as described above. 

The Faculty Handbook will be an online document only. New faculty hires will be directed to the handbook during their orientation. At the start of each academic year, the faculty will receive an email notice reminding them about the Faculty Handbook and directing them to the website, which will be located on the Office of the Provost's website.