Faculty Senate

Constitution, By-Laws and University Manual Committee

Report #2001-02-2

Constitution Article VII and By-Laws Section 2.7

March 8, 2002

I. Article VII Amendment of the Constitution of the Faculty Senate

Recent events demonstrate the desirability of a method for modifying the Faculty Senate Constitution without a referendum to be conducted whenever a change in title of an ex officio member of the Faculty Senate is proposed. The changes to the Amendment Article of the Faculty Senate Constitution recommended in this report are intended to facilitate such modifications while at the same time preserving strong faculty control over the Faculty Senate Constitution.

Thus, the CBUM Committee recommends that, in conjunction with the referendums approved recently, a referendum on the following changes to Article VII of the Faculty Senate Constitution be conducted:

A. Add to the beginning of VII/1:

"Except as provided in VII/3, . . . "

VII, paragraph 1, would read (Change in boldface)

1. Except as provided in VII/3, amendments shall be proposed to the General Faculty by a majority of the total voting membership of the Senate, and ratified by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the General Faculty voting on the question, excluding abstentions, as determined by a mail ballot conducted by the Executive Committee and by three tellers appointed by the President of the University.

B. Add three new paragraphs, VII 3-5:

3. Proposals for changing titles of ex officio members of the Faculty Senate shall be submitted to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. If in the judgment of the Committee, a title change is of a nature such that incorporating it into the Membership Article (III) of this Constitution does not require a referendum, the Committee shall report this finding to the Faculty Senate, together with a recommendation for an appropriate change of the Membership Article. Unless specified otherwise in the recommendation, the change shall become effective upon a two-thirds majority vote of the senators present and eligible to vote. The recommendation may not be voted upon at the meeting at which it is first moved

4. Any member of the Senate may challenge a finding of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee that a change of the title of an ex officio member of the Faculty Senate can be incorporated into the Faculty Senate Constitution without a referendum. Such a challenge may be presented only prior to the actual vote on the change. If the challenge is upheld by a majority of the senators present and eligible to vote, the title change shall be submitted to the referendum process as outlined in Article VII, 1 and 2, of this Constitution.

5. Changes to the Faculty Senate membership can be made only in accordance with the referendum process as outlined in Article VII, 1 and 2, of this Constitution.

II. Section 2.7 of the By-Laws of the Faculty Senate

At the request of the Dean's Office in the College of Arts and Sciences, the CBUM Committee was asked to rule on whether a senator who had been on leave for the first year of a three-year term was eligible for election to a full three-year term immediately following the three-year term's end.

The CBUM Committee reviewed section 2.7 of the By-Laws of the Faculty Senate:

2.7 A senator whose three-year term expires may not be re-elected until after the lapse of one year.

The CBUM committee agreed that the existing section referred to "three-year term" rather than three consecutive years of a three-year term. This phrase, while ambiguous, might be strictly interpreted to require a one-year hiatus. Although a one-year hiatus between terms on the Senate is desirable, senators have, in the past, been permitted to serve five consecutive years when they weren't initially elected to a full three-year term. Therefore, the CBUM agreed that the By-Laws should be clarified in order to permit a Senator who has served for two years to be re-elected without a hiatus and recommends that the Faculty Senate amend section 2.7 of the By-Laws as follows (changes are in boldface):

2.7 A senator whose three-year term expires may not be re-elected until the lapse of one year, except that a senator who has not served for two or more consecutive semesters of a three-year term on account of an officially sanctioned leave (sabbatical, medical, and the like) shall be eligible for re-election without a one-year hiatus.

Because this By-Laws change may not be voted upon at the meeting at which it is first moved, and in light of the ambiguity of the present rules, the CBUM committee has agreed to allow the senator in question to run for re-election under the circumstances envisioned by the amendment. If the By-Laws change is not approved at the April 18 meeting of the Faculty Senate, the election of the senator would be considered void.