BSC Faculty Handbook

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
A. STATUS AND ROLE OF THE FACULTY HANDBOOK
The Faculty Handbook (also referred to as the Handbook) serves as a repository for procedures,
guidelines, and information that may be important or useful for faculty members at Birmingham-
Southern College to know. The Handbook should help orient new faculty members, and should
provide continuing faculty members with a centralized place to seek guidance on issues that arise
during the course of their employment.
Other important College publications include the College the and
the The Faculty Handbook’s contents, such as benefit and compensation
policies, and descriptions of typical promotion paths, serve as guidelines, but the terms in each
faculty member’s individual contract with the College always take precedence over the
Handbook. Care has been taken not to duplicate here the information that is provided in separate
College documents such as the College Charter, College Bylaws, Faculty Constitution, and
Faculty Bylaws, but to refer the reader to those documents where appropriate. The College
Bylaws, the Faculty Constitution, and the Faculty Bylaws are available in the Library and in the
Provost’s Office, and are posted on the main page of the
This Handbook as a whole is not an employment contract between the College and any faculty
member. However, the procedural provisions of parts A and B will ordinarily be
incorporated by reference into each faculty member’s individual employment contract. The
College is an equal opportunity employer and committed to compliance with applicable state and
federal employment laws. The College has a policy of nondiscrimination in hiring, salaries,
promotion, discipline, and employment termination on the basis of age, disability, race, color,
religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, or status as a protected
veteran. Employee benefits provided by the College shall be governed by the terms of the
benefit plan.
Each faculty member has an individual appointment letter and/or employment contract, the
original of which is maintained in the personnel file of the faculty member in the office of the
Provost. The provisions of Chapter III parts A and B of the Handbook establish procedures to be
followed in a variety of circumstances involving individual faculty members. The procedural
provisions of Chapter III parts A and B will, if incorporated by reference, be applicable to the
1 When the provisions of Chapter III are not explicitly incorporated by reference into the
faculty member’s individual employment contract and the faculty member requests application
of the procedures of Chapter III, the College has the discretion not to apply those provisions.
Only faculty members who are already tenured as of May 2003 have the option of not
incorporating the Handbook procedures into his or her individual contract. In this event,
although the College prefers that the faculty contracts incorporate these provisions, the College
would follow its pre-existing guidelines and policies.