JANUARY 16, 17, 2003

Policy 201.7 (By-Laws), specifically Article IX, is amended as follows:

BY-LAWS
OF THE MONTANA BOARD OF REGENTS
OF HIGHER EDUCATION

ARTICLE 1. Name

The legal name of the board is The Board of Regents of Higher Education.

ARTICLE II. Objectives

The objectives of the board are to supervise, coordinate, manage and control the Montana University System and to supervise and coordinate other public educational institutions assigned by law.

ARTICLE III. Membership

The board consists of seven members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Not more than four may be from one congressional district and not more than four may be affiliated with the same political party. One of the members of the board shall be a student appointed by the governor who is registered full-time at a unit of higher education under jurisdiction of the board. The length of the term of the student member shall be not less than one year and not more than four years. The student membership shall not be subject to the congressional district nor the political party constraint mentioned above. Appointed members' terms are seven years. Vacancies shall be filled for the remainder of the unfilled term.

ARTICLE IV. Officers

The officers of the board consist of a chair, vice-chair and secretary. The chair and vice-chair shall be elected from the appointed membership of the board for a period of two years or to the expiration of his or her term on the board, whichever comes first. In the absence of the chair, the vice-chair will preside. However, the chair may assign any Regent to temporarily preside over some specific portion of a meeting. If the office of chair or vice-chair is vacated prior to the expiration of the term, the board will hold an election to fill the vacated office. The newly elected officer will serve for the remainder of the term. The commissioner of higher education will serve as secretary to the board.

ARTICLE V. Meetings

The board shall meet not less than quarterly.

Other meetings may be called by the governor, the chair of the board, the secretary or on the request of four appointed members.

The secretary shall notify each member by mail of scheduled meetings at least seven days in advance.

To place an item, or group of items, on the agenda, a member of the Board of Regents, a campus with the approval of the Commissioner, or the Commissioner must request the item or items and submit them to the Secretary of the Board of Regents at least four weeks prior to a meeting. The Commissioner and the Chair can agree to waive the four-week requirement.

When submitting an item, or group of items, the requestor shall designate the item or items as either action or discussion, information or special; after consultation with the Commissioner, the Chair shall place all such items on the agenda in the category the chair deems appropriate. An action item, or group of action items, may also be designated Consent by the requestor upon submission, with the concurrence of the Chair.

When a consent item, or group of consent items, is called up on the agenda for action, if there is no objection, action may be taken without further testimony or discussion.

When an action item, other than a consent item for which no objections has been made, is called up on the agenda, the sponsoring Regent, campus, or representative of the Commissioner's Office shall present the item, the chair will invite comment from citizens, students, faculty, staff, administrators and anyone else in attendance, followed by questions from the Regents. The sponsor will then have the right to respond. The item may be acted upon by the Regents at that time, or action may be delayed until after other action items have been presented. Items presented may be altered or amended, but not in such a manner as to change the original topic or subject.

ARTICLE VI. Quorum

A majority of the appointed members of the board shall constitute a quorum.

ARTICLE VII. Committees

All committees shall be appointed by the chair.

Special committees may be appointed from time to time by order of the board.

The commissioner of higher education is an ex-officio, non-voting member of all committees.

ARTICLE VIII. Executive Sessions

The board by vote, and consistent with the appropriate constitutional and statutory provisions, may go into executive session at any time. No public record shall be kept of executive session business. Prior to convening in executive session the chair shall announce the rationale that forms the legal basis for the executive session. When executive sessions are contemplated, the meeting agenda should indicate the general topic of the contemplated executive session (e.g., honorary degree, employee evaluation, student appeal).

ARTICLE IX. Order of Business

The following shall be the regular order of business meeting of the Boardshall typically include the following, although the specific order of items shall be as determined by the Chair unless otherwise decided by the Board:

Thursday meeting:
1. Roll call; approval of Minutes
2. Public Input
3. Consent Approvals

a. Staff
b. Labor agreements
c. Academic matters
d. Administrative and financial matters

4. System Issues

a. Action items
b. Discussion items

5. Lunch and discussion with students
6. Academic and Student Affairs

a. Action items
b. Discussion and Submission items

7. Administrative and Budget Matters

a. Action items
b. Discussion and Submission items

8. Discussion with faculty and/or classified staff

Friday meeting
9. Breakfast meeting with community leaders
10. Student Reports
11. Discussion with campus CEOs
12. Special presentations
13. Continuation of any unfinished items
14. Executive Session
15. Adjournment

ARTICLE X. Communications

All official communications, reports and recommendations from representatives of the legislative and executive branches of state government, institutions, faculty members, employees and students, shall come to the attention of the board through the commissioner of higher education.

ARTICLE XI. Parliamentary Law

On questions of parliamentary law, Robert's Rules of Order shall prevail, except with respect to (1) introduction of motions, wherein Mason's rules will be applied, and (2) reconsideration of questions, wherein these by-laws shall be applied.

ARTICLE XII. Reconsideration of Questions

No question decided by a vote of the Board may be raised again, either in identical form or in a manner that raises substantially the same issue as previously decided, except under the following circumstances:

1. More than six months have passed since the last vote on the question; or
2. The question is raised by a Board member who was recorded as voting on the prevailing side on the last vote on the question.

ARTICLE XIII. Amendments

These by-laws may be added to or amended by a majority vote at any meeting of the board provided a quorum is present.

Any by-law may be suspended for one particular meeting by the unanimous consent of all appointed members present.


History:

                By-laws; Item 35-007-R0682, June 28, 1982 as revised September 14, 1984, June 14, 1990, and November 18, 1999  (Item 104-103-R0999); editorial change (change "vice-chairman" to "vice-chair") on August 2, 2000; as revised January 18, 2001 (Item 109-104-R1100 and Item 109-105-R1100) revised at Board retreat on March 20, 2002, and revised at special meeting held April 24, 2002 (Item 114-110-R0302)