Motion US07/08-5 – Eligibility of career non-tenure track faculty to stand for election to the University Senate and/or University Committees

 

Sponsored by:                 Paul van Donkelaar

For senate action:            November 14, 2007

 

 

Moved to amend section 4.1 of the University Senate Enabling Legislation of the Senate Charter to read as follows (amended text in bold print)

 

4.1 Each academic unit specified in Section 2 shall determine who is eligible for the purpose of voting for and nominating candidates to serve as officer-of-instruction senators, subject to the following limitations. All tenure-related officers of instruction holding the academic rank of instructor or higher, and employed at .50 FTE or greater, shall be eligible. No faculty person appointed at less than .50 FTE shall be eligible, nor shall any officer of administration who does not hold a tenure-related officer-of-instruction appointment in a school or college, nor shall courtesy, adjunct, or visiting faculty members, nor shall any student. Senior administrators, who are ineligible for membership on the Faculty Advisory Council, shall also be ineligible for election to the University Senate. Effective in the 2008-09 academic year, all career non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) with appointments as officers of instruction shall be eligible to stand for election, to nominate, and to vote in elections to the University Senate and University Committees, subject to the distribution and apportionment specified in Section 2. Career NTTF shall include those who have had a continuous 0.50 FTE appointment for a minimum of 3 years beginning on or before September 16, 2004 (August 15, 2004 for the Law School).

 

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Financial Impact: There is no financial impact

 

Statement of need: Over the years, different academic units on campus have included NTTF as members of the voting faculty and eligible to stand for election to the University Senate and other University Committees. The September 21, 2007 NTTF document on policies, procedures, and practices articulated by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs states that career NTTF are considered to be members of the faculty and are “eligible to participate in University governance in accordance with University Senate legislation; currently, this includes only officers of instruction employed at .50 FTE or greater who are determined by their academic unit (relevant CAS division or professional school/college) as eligible for the purpose of voting in University elections and serving on elected University Committee and or/the University Senate.” Thus, this motion seeks to formalize a practice that has been carried out inconsistently across different academic units over the years.

 

Notes: The Senate Charter is available online

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~uosenate/SenateCharter.html

Section 2 deals with the composition of the Senate. Section 4 deals with eligibility and voting criteria.