- Adjournment
The motion to adjourn shall not be treated as privileged and
shall be listed as the final item on the Agenda. At 5:15
p.m., if still in session, the Senate shall terminate its
discussion of business. No debatable motion may thereafter
be made. If a prior debatable motion is still pending, it
may be voted on only if no senator present wishes to
continue debate or if the previous question is moved and
ordered. Nondebatable motions may be made and voted on if
they relate to the matter under discussion at 5:15 p.m., or
to suspension of the rules, and the subject of adjournment
to a specific time may be discussed. If at the conclusion
of the meeting any agenda item remains uncompleted, the
session shall be adjourned to the following Monday at 3:10 p.m.
unless the Senate has determined otherwise.
- Petitions to Obtain Expressions of Opinion from the Faculty
Electorate
A petition purporting to contain the signatures of at least
200 members of the faculty electorate and requiring the
Senate to present a question to and obtain an expression of
opinion from the faculty electorate under Article V, Section
1 of the Constitution and Part G, paragraph 1 of the Bylaws
shall be delivered to the Clerk of the Senate. The Clerk
shall refer it to the Senate Executive Committee and to the Committee on
University Statutes and Senate Procedures. The Committee on University Statutes and Senate Procedures shall determine
whether the petition does in fact contain the signatures of
at least 200 members of the faculty electorate and shall
report to the Senate Executive Committee. If the number of valid
signatures is found to be fewer than 200, the petition shall be
returned to the petitioners. If the number of valid
signatures is found to be sufficient, the Senate Executive Committee shall
then recommend to the Senate the formulation of the question
to be presented to the faculty electorate, the procedures
for obtaining the expression of opinion, and whether a
general meeting of the faculty electorate should be called to
discuss the question prior to conducting the poll. The
Executive Committee's report to the Senate shall include the exact
language of the petition delivered to the Clerk of the
Senate.
Petitions not containing the signatures of at least 200
members of the faculty electorate may be presented to the
Senate only through the sponsorship of a senator. Upon such
presentation by a senator, the Senate shall first determine
whether to present the question to the faculty electorate
for an expression of opinion. If the Senate's determination
is in the affirmative, the petition shall then be referred
to the Senate Executive Committee for its recommendation on the
formulation of the question, the procedures for obtaining the
expression of opinion, and whether a general meeting of the
faculty electorate should be called to discuss the question
prior to conducting the poll.
- Proposed Amendments to Documents
- A. A proposal to amend the Statutes or General Rules of
the University, the Constitution, Bylaws, or Standing
Rules of the Senate, or any other document, shall be
cast in the following form:
- It must refer to a specified portion of the
document, for example to a specific Article and Section,
not to a page number.
- Deletions.
- a. Language and punctuation to be deleted from
an existing provision shall be set forth in
full and enclosed within brackets, as [ ].
This requirement does not apply to a proposal
to repeal an entire section, which may be
done simply by specific reference; the
section to be repealed shall be quoted.
- b. Deletions shall precede new matter; e.g.,
"[He] The dean shall be appointed
[biennially] annually....."
- Additions.
- a. New wording, including punctuation, added to
an existing provision shall be underlined
with a solid line.
- b. Entirely new sections need not be underlined
but shall be preceded by the designation, NEW
SECTION, in upper case letters and
underlined.
- If a revision is so extensive that the procedure
in (2) and (3) above is impractical, the old text
and the new must both be provided, appropriately
labeled, either in two columns side-by-side, or
the old followed by the new.
- The proposed amendment shall be typewritten and
double-spaced, and with each line and page
numbered for easy reference.
- A concise statement of the rationale must also be
included.
- The sponsors must be listed at the end of the proposal.
- The proposal must be dated.
- B. All proposed changes to the Statutes, General Rules,
Constitution, Bylaws, and Standing Rules shall be
referred to the Committee on University Statutes and
Senate Procedures before final consideration by the
Senate.
- C. Proposed amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws may
be submitted to the faculty electorate for an
expression of opinion as permitted by Article V, Section 1 of
the Constitution and in accordance with Part G,
Paragraph 1 of the Bylaws.
- Committee of the Whole House
If it be determined during a duly called meeting of the
Senate that a quorum is not present, but that 50 or more
senators are present, the presiding officer may convene those
present as a special Committee of the Whole House. The
special committee thus established shall be authorized to
consider any or all items remaining on the agenda of the Senate
meeting just terminated, and to make recommendations to the
Senate concerning actions to be taken on such agenda items.
Such recommendations shall be reported by the presiding
officer to the Senate at its next scheduled meeting for its
action. The presiding officer of the Senate shall serve as presiding officer of
the special Committee of the Whole House, and deliberations
of the Committee shall be according to parliamentary
practices customary in the Senate.
This rule shall not be invoked if the Senate meeting
previously in progress has been terminated through implementation
of Standing Rule 1.
- Open Meetings Regulations
- A.
- There shall be a press area on the floor of the
Senate for accredited representatives of news
media.
- Admission to Senate meetings and seating in the
press area will be granted to any person holding a
valid Press Card.
- Accreditation of a news medium and of two
representatives of each such accredited medium may
be gained by application to the Clerk of the
Senate, who will issue Press Cards. Both types of
accreditation are subject to review by the
Committee on University Statutes and Senate Procedures.
- B.
- Insofar as campus facilities permit, there shall
be public seating in a gallery or balcony,
allowing visitors to observe and to listen to the
proceedings directly. The gallery shall be
physically separated from the floor of the Senate and
shall have a separate means of entry.
- In the absence of facilities for the
implementation of subparagraph (1) above, public seating
shall be provided on the same floor as that of the
Senate, provided that such seating is physically
separated from that of the body of the Senate by
ropes or other visual barrier and is so located as
to ensure that there can be no confusion between
those who are senators, Senate staff and officers,
and others who have the privileges of the Senate
floor and those who are public observers, and
provided that such seats need not exceed 25 in
number.
- If the public seating provided under either
subparagraphs (1) or (2) is insufficient to
accommodate those desiring to observe Senate
meetings, consideration shall be given to
providing additional public seating at a location
separate from that of the Senate meeting, to which
location the proceedings shall be transmitted.
- Admission to the public seating will be on a
first-come first-served basis, in accordance with
the following procedure. Visitor cards stating
the time and place of the meeting concerned may be
secured from the Office of the Clerk of the Senate
until the number of cards issued equals the number of
available seats, or until noon of the day on which
the meeting is to be held, whichever comes first.
When it is possible to do so without causing undue
congestion or confusion, any remaining cards may
be issued at the place where the public seating is
located starting 15 minutes before the Senate
convenes.
- The presiding officer of the Senate, assisted by
such Sergeants at Arms as the presiding officer may from time to time
appoint, shall ensure that the conduct of visitors
and news-media representatives does not interfere
with the conduct of Senate business. If such
interference occurs, the presiding officer shall
order the offending persons removed from the
chambers and galleries, and, if necessary to
maintain order, may clear the chambers and
galleries of all persons who are not senators,
Senate staff, or Senate officers.
- C.
- Broadcasting and electronic or photographic
recording of Senate meetings are permitted.
- Visitors and representatives of news media are
present as observers, not as participants. As
observers, none of their actions should be
designed to affect the proceedings in any way.
Those who violate the procedures governing open
meetings will be subject to removal from the
chambers and the public areas, and, where
appropriate, to loss of accreditation.
- To aid in preparation of the minutes and to
provide a temporary supplemental record of debates,
the Clerk shall record each Senate meeting
and preserve each recording for a minimum of three
years from the date of the meeting after which they will be deposited in the University archives. Any
interested person may arrange to listen to such
recordings in the Senate office or under such other
circumstances as the Clerk may deem appropriate,
except that only senators may listen to, and no
one may duplicate, a recording of that portion of a
meeting which by affirmative Senate action was
closed to the public. Any person desiring a
duplicate of a recording must arrange for the copy to
be made under such circumstances as the Clerk may
deem appropriate, and must allow a sufficient
amount of time; a charge may be made.
- D.
- Matters of business which are judged by the Senate
Executive Committee to warrant a closed session of the Senate
will ordinarily be placed last on the agenda.
Such matters need not be specifically described in
advance, but the general category of the matter
warranting a closed session will be indicated.
- If in the course of a debate in an open meeting,
matters evolve which a Senate member deems to
warrant a closed session, the senator may move for a closed
session. Unless the Senate rules otherwise, the
approval of such a motion will postpone further
debate on the matter to the conclusion of the
regular agenda, at which time the meeting will be
closed. No such motion shall be deemed approved
without a two-thirds vote of the senators present
and voting.
- When the agenda is presented at the beginning of a
Senate meeting, any senator may move to schedule
an item proposed for open session to a closed
session. Such a motion shall require for approval a
two-thirds vote of those senators present and
voting.
- When a closed session is about to begin, the
presiding officer shall clear the chambers and
public areas of all persons not entitled to be
present.
- Tellers
At the beginning of each meeting of the Senate, the Chair of
the Senate Executive Committee shall announce the names of at least
three senators to act as tellers.
- Statement of Willingness to Serve
The Committee on Committees shall nominate only persons who
have indicated willingness to serve if elected. Nominations
from the floor must be accompanied by a statement by the
nominee of willingness to serve if elected, which may be
oral if the nominee is present. If in writing, the
statement shall name the position involved and shall be dated and
signed by the nominee.
- To Take Jurisdiction of Items Reported for Information
The Senate may take responsibility from any Senate committee
on a reported action taken by the committee on behalf of the
Senate. This may be accomplished by passage of a motion to
take jurisdiction. The motion to take jurisdiction allows
debate on the merits of the original committee action.
Passage of this motion requires a simple majority. The item
becomes Old Business on the agenda of the next Senate
meeting unless the Senate votes by a two-thirds majority to take
immediate action.
- Circumstances and the Mechanism for the Separate Tallying of
Faculty and Student Votes
A separate tally of faculty and student member votes will be
taken if ordered by a two-thirds vote of those Senators
present and voting. The vote on the issue in question shall
then be the sum of the two separate tallies. Paper ballots
will be used if requested by any senator. A motion for a
separate tally of faculty and student member votes shall be
debatable. Such a motion may not be introduced if a vote on
the issue in question has already been taken.
- Copying and Searching Senate Records
- A. The agenda, minutes, and reports of the Senate will be
duplicated in sufficient quantity to be available for
distribution to interested persons and be made available on the Senate's website.
- B. Senate committee agenda, minutes, and working documents
which are not distributed to the Senate are not
considered public documents. They are not available for
distribution except to the members of the originating
committee and to the Senate Executive Committee, without the
express consent of the originating committee.
- C. Copies of public Senate papers other than the printed
supply covered by paragraph A above may be obtained
from the Clerk of the Senate. A charge may be made.
- D. Duplication of recordings of Senate meetings is provided for in Standing Rule 5, C (3).
- E. Reasonable searching and copying of Senate records are
provided by the Clerk of the Senate. Requests for such
service must allow a sufficient amount of time. If
necessary, priorities will be assigned in the following
order: Senate Executive Committee Chair, Senate Committee Chairs,
other senators, other persons. The Senate Executive Committee
Chair will resolve any differences that may arise.
- Election of a Senate Executive Committee Member from the Committee on
the University Senates Conference
At its organizational meeting, each new Senate shall
elect one member of the Committee on the University Senates
Conference to serve on the Senate Executive Committee, as provided in
Bylaws D 1 (b) and D 20 (a). In the event of a vacancy in
this office, the Senate shall elect a replacement. Unless
the Senate on a particular occasion shall determine
otherwise, the following procedure shall be used:
- A. The nominees shall be those members of the
Committee who consent to serve if elected.
- B. The election shall be conducted by paper ballot.
- C. A majority of the votes cast shall be required to
elect on the first ballot.
- D. If no one is elected on the first ballot, a
run-off election shall be held between the two
candidates who received the highest numbers of votes on
the first ballot. In the event of a tie for the
highest or second highest number of votes, the
run-off ballot shall include all of those who are
tied.
- E. A plurality of the votes cast shall be required to
elect on the second ballot.
- Temporary Representative of an Ex Officio Committee Member
When a person serving in an ex officio capacity without vote
cannot attend a committee meeting, that individual may
designate another individual to attend a particular meeting
as representative of the office and interests of the ex
officio member.
- Formation, Termination, Separation, Transfer, Merger, Change in Status, or Renaming
of Units
- A. In order to provide for active discussion of a proposal for
termination, separation, transfer, merger, or change in status of any academic
unit, the originator of the proposal (e.g., Dean of College,
Chair of Budget Strategies Committee, Vice-Chancellor for
Academic Affairs) and the Chair of the Senate Committee on
Educational Policy shall, well in advance of the proposal
being forwarded to the Senate, determine an appropriate
forum for a public hearing and appoint a person to chair the
hearing. The originator of the proposal and Chair of the
Senate Committee on Educational Policy (or their designees)
shall attend the meeting. Responsibility for providing a
meeting place, publicizing the hearing, preparing minutes,
and collecting written comments shall rest with the
originator of the proposal. The Senate Committee on Educational
Policy shall be responsible for assuring that all of these
tasks are completed in an acceptable manner. Minutes shall
be taken and forwarded to the Senate; a full transcription
of the hearing is not necessary. The chair of the hearing
shall encourage presenters to provide written comments that
shall be forwarded to the Senate.
- B. In any proposal for the formation or change in academic organization (such as, termination, separation, transfer, merger, change in status, or renaming) of an academic unit, as provided in the University Statutes, Article VIII, the advice of the faculty at each level (e.g., department, school, college, as applicable) shall be taken and recorded by vote of the faculty. Voting shall be as provided in the bylaws of each unit. The vote shall be reported to the Senate by the Committee on Educational Policy when the proposed change is considered by the Senate.
