ENG 440 Literature of Gender, Identity and Sexuality
ENG 443 Special Topics in Film Studies
The Senate approved each of these items by unanimous vote.
Professional Concerns Committee Peter Smith
PCC presented an action item making changes to Faculty Handbook rules for faculty elections. These changes were to reflect our shift from in-person to online elections and to prohibit all campaigning, digitally or in-person, during the time that online voting is open.
This item passed by a vote of 11 in favor, none opposed and one abstention. Final language for amendments to the Faculty Handbook is below:
“Nominations for a college position shall be made at a regular or called meeting of all full-time faculty members of the college”; this meeting can be either in-person, virtual or involve an e-mail call for nominations if the Elections Committee approves.
Rationale: This reflects best practice; it has been increasingly difficult to get sufficient faculty attendance at a face-to-face meeting.
“The election will be scheduled so that a minimum of five working days’ notice can be provided prior to balloting,” [see below]
1.7.1.4. d.
“All University-wide and College-wide elections shall be conducted no sooner than five working days after the meeting at which nominations were made.”
Rationale: delete “working,” since universal e-mail access and electronic voting now enable faculty to get notified sooner, and there is no need to prepare paper ballots and sign-in sheets.
“The Standing Elections Committee shall then generate the survey that shall be used by all eligible faculty members. Faculty are discouraged from using mass e-mail messaging to engage in commentary involving an election. Once voting has begun, faculty are prohibited from mass e-mailing or doing in-person electioneering of colleagues regarding the election.
Rationale: this is to remind faculty that these elections are not the appropriate venue for politicking; the second sentence is equivalent to prohibiting electioneering at polling places,
“In the event of a special election (fall or spring),” a faculty-wide or Senate-wide election must be called and held in time for representation to be continuous rather than lapse for one or more meetings. “For a vacant seat that is within a particular college . .
Rationale: there is no policy for a faculty-wide or Senate-wide special election, only one within a college or academic unit.
Budget and Academic Support Committee Jennifer Ballard-Kang