FACULTY SENATE ELECTION RULES

GENERAL RULES: 

1.  For purposes of representation on the Faculty Senate, the faculty is divided into nine divisions: the W. Frank Barton School of Business; the Colleges of Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, and Health Professions; the divisions of Humanities, Math/Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences in the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and the University Libraries.

2.  The Faculty Senate shall be composed of elected members of the teaching/research faculty, department chairs, and university libraries from the nine divisions.  Each Senate division is allotted one Senator for every twelve faculty members, rounding up to the nearest integer.  The teaching/research faculty is defined as all full-time (1.0 EFT) university personnel who are tenured, temporary, probationary or instructors with faculty status at least 50 percent of whose University duties include teaching, research, and/or library service.  Eligible members of the faculty also serve as the electorate.  Administrators are ineligible for the Faculty Senate electorate.   Administrators include those persons holding the title of President, Provost, Associate Provost, Vice President, Associate Vice President, Assistant Vice President, Dean, Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, and Directors of all non-academic programs including, but not limited to, the Director of the Computer Center, Director of the  Office of Institutional Research, Director of Physical Plant, the Registrar, and Director of Cooperative Education.  This definition also determines eligibility for election to the Faculty Senate.

3.  The faculty of each Senate division shall determine how their seats on the Faculty Senate are to be allocated.

4.  Prior to the elections, the number of senators allotted to each Senate division will be determined by the Rules Committee.  If a Senate division gains or loses one or more seats, the Rules Committee will notify the current senators from that division, who will be responsible for organizing a meeting of the appropriate faculty for the purpose of determining the new allocation of seats.

5.  The intent of the Senate Constitution is that approximately one-half of the senators will be elected each year.  To maintain that pattern, the Rules Committee may choose to postpone for one year a change in the number of seats allotted to a division.

6.  Nominations and elections will be conducted in the following sequence:
            a.  Senate seats elected at-large by the entire faculty;
            b.  Senate seats elected at-large within a college/school/University Libraries or division; and
            c.  Senate seats elected by a division.

NOMINATION PROCESS 

1.  For each part of the election sequence, nomination forms will be distributed by the Vice President of the Senate to eligible faculty voters.  These nomination forms will contain the deadline for returning nominations, and a list of faculty senators who are ineligible for the position because of their continuing service to the Faculty Senate.  In addition, the nomination forms will contain links to the Election Rules and attendance records of the sitting senators.

2.  Nominations received after the deadline stated on the nomination form will not be considered.

3.  The Vice President will determine the eligibility of nominees and endeavor to determine nominees’ willingness to serve before placing them on an election ballot.

4.  Six nominations are required to place a nominee on the Faculty Senate campus-wide at-large ballot.

5.  For other nominations, including college/school/University Libraries at-large positions, the Vice President will place on the election ballot those individuals who received the greatest number of nominations.  The number of individuals placed on the ballot should be no more than twice the number of open positions, except that in the case of ties in the number of nominations received those names may be added.   

ELECTION PROCESS

1. Once the nominees have been selected, election ballots will be distributed to eligible faculty.  Nominees will be listed on the ballot in alphabetical order, and the ballot will show the deadline for return.

2.  Ballots received after the deadline stated on the election ballot will not be counted.

3.  The Vice President will count the votes and determine the winners.  A plurality is sufficient for election.

4.  In case of tie votes, a run-off election will be held if requested by one or more of the nominees who are tied.  If agreeable to all tied nominees, other methods of breaking the tie may be used; random choice (a coin flip, for example), nominee(s) withdrawal, or any other process agreeable to the nominees and the Rules Committee.

5. The names of those elected to the Faculty Senate will be submitted to WSU Today and the Sunflower.

Election Rules revised 10-27-08