Motion US06/07-11 – To expand criteria for officers-of-instruction who may serve as University Senate vice president and president

 

 

Sponsored by:                 University Senate Executive Committee, University of Oregon

For Senate action:            April 11, 2007

BE IT MOVED that Article 5.2 of the Enabling Legislation be amended to state:

 

5.2 At the December 1995 meeting of the University Senate, as constituted at that time, the senate shall elect from among its second-year officer-of-instruction senators both a president and a vice president/president-elect for the newly formed University Senate that will be seated in January 1996. The terms of office for both shall be January 1, 1996, to May 22, 1996; the vice president shall become president at that time by confirmation of the senate. On May 22, 1996, and thereafter the election of senate officers shall take place at the last meeting of the University Senate each spring. The vice president shall be elected from among the officers-of-instruction who have served on the University Senate in the previous five years (inclusive of the academic year in which they are elected vice president) and will become president at the end of the following year by confirmation of the senate.

 

 

 

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Fiscal Impact Statement
 

Not significant

 

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Background 

The above motion alters Article 5.2 by changing the last two sentences to read (material removed in strike out, material added in bold italics):

The vice president shall be elected from among the officer-of-instruction senators completing the first year of their terms officers-of-instruction who have served on the University Senate in the previous five years (inclusive of the academic year in which they are elected vice president) and will become president at the end of the following year by confirmation of the senate. The president shall thus hold that position during his or her third year in the senate.

The Executive Committee of the University Senate is sponsoring this motion to increase the pool of potential candidates who can serve as University Senate Vice President and President.

The need for this motion is as follows:

The requirement that a senator may only be nominated at the end of the first year of his or her term imposes overly severe restrictions on who can be nominated to be vice president. The Senate has only 37 Officers of Instruction, of whom only half at any one time will be at the end of their first term. Among the 18 or 19 eligible candidates (assuming all Senate seats are filled), a significant number are untenured faculty who generally cannot assume the service load associated with being Senate vice president and president, others will be on leave or taking sabbatical during the period when they could serve as vice president and president, some may have already served as a Senate officer, and others may decline to serve in that position. There is thus an exceptionally small pool of potential candidates to fill the critical jobs of Senate vice president and president.

It is within the power of the University Senate to change the eligibility requirements for candidates for the Senate Presidency. Article 5.1 of the University Senate Enabling Legislation states that “The senate shall adopt its own internal rules and procedures.”