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Election Procedures

For the purposes of the Faculty Senate, the faculty units of the University are taken to be the College of Arts, the B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Liberal Arts, the Edith Garland Dupre Library, the College of Nursing and Allied Health Professions, and the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences.

The Faculty Senate is constituted as follows:

  • Permanent Members
    • All faculty members with the rank of professor not serving in an administrative capacity above the level of Department Chair or equivalent shall be permanent members. Appointment or promotion to the rank of professor confers permanent membership in the Faculty Senate. Permanent members shall be polled prior to the first meeting of each academic year to determine if they wish to be active members (one who states the intention to attend at least one-half of the regularly scheduled Senate meetings) during the year.
  • Elective Members
    1. Elective members of the Faculty Senate must be associate professors, assistant professors, instructors or adjunct faculty of the general faculty not serving in an administrative capacity above the level of Department Chair or equivalent who have completed no less than one academic year of full-time employment at the University at the time of taking office.
    2. Associate professors shall be elected in the proportion of one member per five associate professors or fraction thereof in each faculty unit of the University. Associate professor Senate members shall be elected for three-year terms and shall take office at the first meeting following election.
    3. Assistant professors and instructors shall be elected in the proportion of one member per ten assistant professors and instructors or fraction thereof in each faculty unit of the University. Such members shall be elected for two-year terms and shall take office at the first meeting following election.
    4. One adjunct faculty member shall be elected from each faculty unit of the University to serve a one-year term.

Election of members

Elections shall be held at least two weeks prior to the first Senate meeting of each academic year. In an election to choose elective Senate members, the following persons shall be eligible to vote:

  1. Full-time associate professors, who shall choose representatives of the associate professor rank from the faculty of their respective faculty units.
  2. Full-time assistant professors and instructors, who shall choose representatives of these ranks from among the faculty of their respective faculty units.
  3. Adjunct faculty who shall choose representatives of these ranks from among the adjunct faculty of their respective unit.

Prior to the elections each faculty member eligible for elective membership shall be polled to determine if he or she is willing to serve in the Senate as an active member (one who states the intention of attending at least one-half of the regularly scheduled Senate meetings). Only the names of those who indicate such willingness shall appear on the election ballot.

The Senate Secretary shall notify each faculty unit of the number of vacancies to be filled by election. Each faculty unit shall fill its vacancies through election by secret preferential ballot. Three types of ballots are required — one for associate professor elections one for assistant professor and instructor elections, and one for adjunct faculty.

All academic departments shall have the right to ask for Senate representation. Following the annual Senate elections, departments without either elective representation or active participation by a full professor from the department may petition the President of the Faculty Senate for representation. If a department is not represented, the President of the Faculty Senate shall have the authority to appoint a representative from the eligible elective ranks of the department making the petition. The term of appointment shall be for one (1) year. In no case shall the President of the Faculty Senate appoint more than one such representative per department. These appointments shall supersede the representation formula in Article II. The appointments shall conform to the membership eligibility requirements as set forth in Article II.

The Secretary of the Senate, with the aid of the deans of the faculty units, shall be responsible for ascertaining that the representation called for in this article is maintained.

Election irregularities or challenges within a faculty unit shall be referred to the Faculty Senate for arbitration. Election irregularities or challenges for President of the Faculty Senate or Secretary shall be referred to the full Senate.

Vacancies

The President of the Faculty Senate of the Senate shall fill the unexpired term of an elective Senator by appointment of a faculty member of the faculty unit in which the vacancy occurs.

Modified version of article II of the constitution 10 June 2020, JCB