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September 3, 1998

Ballots distributed to faculty on proposed Senate changes

University Senate members have until Sept. 22 to vote on a proposal to ensure that each Pitt school, campus and library system is directly represented on the two main Senate groups: Faculty Assembly and Senate Council.

Currently, Assembly and Council members are elected from four academic areas — the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Health Sciences, the non-health professional schools and the regional campuses — rather than individual units. In some years under that system, certain units may end up without representatives on the faculty-only Assembly and the Council, which includes faculty, staff, students and administrators.

Candidates currently are nominated by the Senate's elections committee and elected through a University-wide ballot. Under the proposal, each unit would nominate and elect its own representatives.

The new election system is among a set of proposed changes to Senate bylaws. The Senate office mailed ballots and descriptions of the proposed revisions this week to all University Senate members.

For the changes to go into effect, at least 20 percent of Senate members must return ballots and a majority of those voters must approve the proposals.

Given the large number of eligible voters and many faculty members' apathy toward University governance (or at least official governance bodies such as Faculty Assembly and Senate Council), Senate officials worry that the ballot may fail to draw the minimum 20 percent return.

The Senate includes all full-time Pitt professors, instructors and faculty librarians; part-time faculty with tenure, and staff representatives to Senate Council, along with part-time untenured faculty and emeriti and retired faculty who annually inform the Senate office that they want to remain members.

— Bruce Steele

Filed under: Feature,Volume 31 Issue 1

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