Senate Constitution Change

February 7, 2012

At its last meeting the College Senate Executive Council agreed to propose changes to the Senate Constitution & Bylaws. The purpose of the changes is to bring the Constitution & Bylaws into conformity with actual College & Senate practice. Details of the changes below:

Addition of a Constituency for Education Programs Each Academic Dept. has always been considered a separate Senate Constituency. With the creation of an Education Programs Dept. separate from & out of Social & Behavioral Sciences, it is necessary to formally add an Education Programs constituency to the list of constituencies spelled out in Article II Section A of the College Senate Bylaws.

Senate Elections The other change clarifies timing of Senate elections to conform to practice since we went to electronic voting in 2005. Article 8 Section 8 of the Senate Constitution states that "The election of officers shall be by majority vote using a written ballot or by electronic ballot. This election shall be held two weeks after nominations...." We propose to insert the word "within" between "held" & "two weeks." The sentence would now read "The election of officers shall be by majority vote using a written ballot or by electronic ballot. This election shall be held within two weeks after nominations...." Since the move to electronic voting, we've been holding elections so that the results would be reported 2 weeks after nominations at the Senate meeting after nominations close. Adding within makes the Constitution reflect our practice for the last several years.