FACULTY SENATE ELECTION RULES

GENERAL RULES:

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

2.  Each Senate division is allocated one Senator for each twelve faculty members.  Faculty members are defined as those individuals :
            a.  holding the rank of instructor or higher; &
            b.  holding .5eft or more appointments: &
            c.  having primary duties that are 50% or more teaching, research, and./or library service.
    This definition also  determines eligibility for election to the Faculty Senate

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

4.  Prior to the start of elections, the number of Senators allocated to each Senate division will be determined.  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 faculty of that division for the purpose of determining the new allocation of seats within the division.

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

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 or division:
            c.  Senate seats elected by a group within a division

NOMINATION PROCESS

1.  For each part of the election sequence, nomination ballots will be distributed to eligible faculty voters.  Distributed along with  nomination ballots will be a statement of the requirements for nomination and election for that position, the deadline for returning nomination, a list of faculty who have already been elected to the Senate and are thus ineligible for the position.  In addition, a copy of these rules and the attendance record of the sitting Senators will be distributed with the nomination ballots for the at-large Senate seats.

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

3.  The Rules Committee will determine the eligibility of nominees.

4.  As stipulated in the Faculty Senate Constitution, Article I, Section4, six nominations are required to place a nominee on the Faculty Senate campus-wide At-Large ballot.

5.  For other ballots, including college at-large positions, the Rules Committee will place on the election ballot those individuals who received the largest number of nominations.  The number of individuals placed on the ballot will be twice the number of open positions pn the ballot;  in the case of ties in the number of nominations received, the Rules Committee may place additional names on the election ballot.

6.  The Rules Committee will endeavor to determine nominees' willingness to serve before placing them on an election ballot.  Due to the tight deadlines in the election process, this may not always be possible.

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, 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 Rules Committee will count the votes and determine the winners.  A plurality is sufficient for election.

4.  In case of tie votes, a runoff 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 (coin flip, etc,), withdrawal by a nominees or nominees, or any other  process agreeable to the nominees and the Rules Committee.

5.  At each state of the election process, election results, including vote totals for each nominee, will be submitted for prompt publication through Inside WSU, Sunflower, or other appropriate means.
 

Wichita State University
Faculty Senate
1845 Fairmont
Box 111
Wichita, Kansas 67260-0111
(316) 978-3504
Email: Bobbi.Dreiling@wichita.edu