LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1992, Page 147

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STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION . 147

income:
a. A hearing on the petition for removal of restricted
_ Status shall be conducted by a hearing panel consisting
of three District Presidents selected as follows:
1, One District President selected by the petitioner.
2. One District President selected by the District Pres-
ident who imposed restricted status (hereinafter referred
to as the involved District President). The involved Dis-
trict President may not choose himself. :
3. The third District President selected by the other
two hearing panel members. If the two hearing ponel
members cannot agree on the third hearing panel mem-
. ber, then such third member shall be chosen by blind
draw from among the remaining District Presidents.'
5. Upon receipt of a petition for removal of restricted
status, the chairman of the Council of Presidents (COP)
shall promptly notify the petitioner and the involved Dis-
trict President of their respective right to choose one hear-
ing panel member and direct that the identity of their
selection be transmitted to the chairman of the COP
within one month from the date of such notice. If either
party declines to make a selection within such one-month
period, such selection shall then be made by the chair-
man of the COP.

c. When two hearing panel members have: so been
chosen, the chairman of the COP shall promptly notify
them of their selection to the hearing panel and direct
that they select the third member of the hearing panel
and notify the chairman of the COP of their selection!

d. After the hearing panel is constituted, it shall select
one of its members as chairman, who shall then, after
conferring with the petitioner and the involved District
President, select a dat 7
panel will consider the petition. |

e. The hearing before the panel shall be private, at-
tended only by the parties and the witnesses who can
substantiate the facts relevant to the matter in dispute.
The panel shall establish the procedure to be followed
in the hearing and the relevancy of evidence so that each
party shall be given an opportunity fully to present its
respective position. Upon completion of the hearing, the
hearing panel shall deliberate and then issue its written
decision within 60 days, a copy of which shall be mailed
to the petitioner, the involved District President and the
chairman of the COP. The decision of the hearing panel
shall be the decision of the COP and shall be final with
no right of appeal.

te and location where the hearing .

Action: Adopted as amended (10).

(The amendments to this resolution were adopted by common
consent. They included addition of the. words declines to suspend
the member or in 2.27 b and deletion of the words If the praesidium
takes no action within 180 days, the complaint shall be dee

denied and the matter terminated in the same section.)

To Clarify Faculty Rights
RESOLUTION 5-03B
Overture 5-17 (CW, pp. 241-43)

Wuereas, The following Bylaws relating to faculty
rights are found to be adequate, namely 6.39, 6.41, 6.434

44:

6.389 Evangelical Discipline and the Right of
Appeal

med

a. Each faculty shall develop policies worthy of the

Christian faith for personal conduct and community life
applicable to students, faculty and staff members, and
other employees while on the campus.

b. Each Board of Regents, on-recommendation of the
faculty, shal) adopt a comprehensive policy statement
committing the school to the principles of Christian dis;
cipline, evangelical dealing, and good order governing
the students individually and collectively.

c. Each student shall be informed regarding the dis- "
ciplinary policy and procedure and under what condi-
tions and to whom an appeal from a disciplinary decision
may be made. There chal be no right of appeal under
the provisions of Bylaw 8.01ff. :

6.41 Controversies among Faculty Members

Controversies and disagreements among members
of the faculty (other than those set forth in Bylaw 6.43)
shall be submitted to the president of the institution for
mediation. If this proves unsuccessful, he shall report
the matter to the Board of Regents for arbitration, After
hearing the parties the board wil) render its decision,
which shall be final, without the right of appeal under
the provisions of Bylaw 8.01ff. A record of the proceed-
ings shall be filed with the Board for Higher Education

rvices.

6.43 Removal from Office

a. The Board of Regents may decline to renew the
appointment of a faculty member without permanent
tenure at the time of the expiration of the term of the
appointment in accordance with paragraph 6.23 e.

b. No member of the faculty who has been granted
permanent tenure and no member of the faculty without
permanent tenure at times other than the expiration of
the term of his appointment shall be removed from the
faculty either by ecclesiastical authority or hy the Board
of Regents except for causes hereinafter enumerated
and by procedures hereinafter described.

c. The only causes for which members of a faculty
may be removed from office (within the definitions of a
and b above), other than honorable retirement, are:

1. professional incompetency;

2. incapacity for the performance of duty because of
physical, mental, or emotional disabilities;

3. refusal to cooperate;

4. neglect of or refusal to perform duties of office;

5. conduct unbecoming a Christian;

6. advocacy of false doctrine (Constitution, Article II)
or failure to honor and uphold the doctrinal position of
the Synod as defined further in Bylaw 1.09 c.

6.44 Termination of Position

* a, Positions of nontenured faculty, as well as tenured
faculty, may be terminated by the Board of Regents un-
der certain institutional conditions that do not reflect
on the competency or faithfulness of the individual fac-
ulty member whose position is terminated. These con-
ditions are the following: *

1. Discontinuance of an entire program (e.g., social
work, business).

2. Discontinuance of an entire division or depart-
ment (e.g., modern foreign language) of a college or
seminary.

3. Reduction of the size of staff in order to maintain
financial viability.

4. A state of financial emergency exists as deter-
mined by the Criteria for Fiscal Viability standards and
confirmed by a financial analysis and subsequent res-
olution of the Board for Higher Education Services.

5. Discontinuance, merger, or consolidation of an én-
tire college or seminary operation.

b. In the event of termination of a faculty position
by the Board of Regents, a minimum of 6 months ad-
vance notice to contracted faculty and 12 months to ten-
ured faculty must be provided the terminated professor
in writing. :

c. The opportunity to serve the college or seminary
in another capacity for which the terminated professor
has credentials and qualifications shall be offered the
terminated professor if such a vacancy exists at the time
of termination or becomes available within two aca-
demic years.

d. In identifying which specific faculty positions are
to be discontinued or terminated, the Board of Regents
shall follow the guidelines and procedures of that in-
stitution’s RIF (reduction in force) policy. :

e. A terminated position may not be subsequently