Senate Election Rules
Last Revised: September 1999
1. Short Title; Purpose
- 1.1 Title. These Rules will be referred to as the Senate Election Rules.
- 1.2 Purpose. The purpose of these Election Rules shall be to establish orderly procedures and rules for the election of senators to the Senate of the Urbana-Champaign campus.
2. College Committees
- 2.1 Creation. College elections and credentials committees are created pursuant to paragraph 2, Part C, of the Senate Bylaws. Under the Bylaws these committees may perform whatever duties are delegated to them by the Senate Committee on University Statutes and Senate Procedures (USSP).
- 2.2 Delegation of Power. The USSP will delegate various duties to the college committees by way of Rules and Guidelines it adopts and publishes. These Rules and Guidelines may be added to, amended, or repealed at any time by the USSP.
- 2.3 Specific Powers. The USSP hereby delegates to the college committees the following duties, subject to any limitations set forth in the Rules and Guidelines of the USSP.
- (a.) Apportionment Plan. In all colleges, the college committee, in cooperation with the Senate Office, will prepare an apportionment plan for submission to the USSP, which will establish voting units from which faculty representatives will be elected.
- (b.) Conducting Elections. In all colleges, the college committee will conduct nomination and election procedures under the supervision of the Clerk of the Senate.
- (c.) Priority of Existing Plan; Amendment. Where an apportionment plan establishing voting units has been implemented, that plan shall remain in effect until otherwise determined by the USSP. The procedures for amending an apportionment plan shall be the same as those employed in adopting a new plan.
- 2.4 Restriction of Power. All activities of the Senate Committee and of the college committees shall conform to the relevant provisions of the Constitution and Bylaws adopted by the Senate.
3..Election Units; Apportionment
- 3.1 Apportionment Formula. Faculty voting units are the departments, or their equivalent, within the various colleges. Each voting unit receives a faculty representative for its first seven members of the faculty electorate, and one additional representative for each additional 12 members of the faculty electorate unless some other ratio is adopted by the Senate. Any department having fewer than seven members must be combined with another voting unit.
- 3.2 Preliminary Determination. Preliminary determination of voting units will occur as follows:
- (a.) Data Sent Out. The Chair of the Elections and Credentials Committee in each college and analogous educational division will receive from the Senate Office at the earliest possible date, a printout with the following information:
- (1.) a list of all budget departments and equivalent units in the college or analogous educational division, as determined by the University's data system;
- (2.) the code number for each such department or equivalent unit;
- (3.) the number of full-time instructors associated with each department or equivalent unit, as determined by payroll printout; and
- (4.) the number of assistant, associate and full professors with at least one-half time appointment who are associated with each department or equivalent unit as determined by payroll printout.
- (b.) Non-Departmental Units. Each college committee should first remove from the printout any unit listed therein which is not equivalent to a department. Such non-equivalent units are not entitled to be treated as voting units under the standards set forth in the Senate Constitution.
No hard and fast rule can be stated for determining which units are not equivalent to a department; that determination depends upon attitudes and practices in the various colleges.
Laboratories, councils, bureaus, centers and other like units in which all members have an additional appointment in some other department are not equivalent to a department and should be excluded. An example would be the Materials Research Laboratory.
- (c.) Removal of Ineligible Units. Each college committee should also remove from the printout any unit whose faculty members are “not engaged in and responsible for the educational function of the University” as required by Article II, Section 1 of the Senate Constitution. “Educational function” includes public service as well as teaching and research.
- (d.) Split of Large Departments. Where clearly warranted by departmental attitudes and practices, very large departments with more than 65 associated faculty members shown on the printout (Electrical and Computer Engineering, Physics, School of Music, English and Mathematics) may be split into two or more voting units corresponding to actual, operating subdivisions of the department.
- (e.) Addition of Units. Each college committee should add to their listings any department or equivalent unit not included in their printout.
- (f.) Report of Divisions and Additions. Any splitting of departments pursuant to section 3.2(d.) and any adding of departments under section 3.2(e.) should be supported by full, detailed explanation.
- (g.) Assignment to Units. Each college committee should, after completing the above adjustments, be sure that every member of the faculty electorate (as defined in Article II, Section 1 of the Senate Constitution) falls in at least one listed department or equivalent unit. Members of the faculty electorate who hold appointments in more than one unit may choose the unit in which they vote. However, a member must hold an appointment of greater than zero percent in a unit in order to qualify for the faculty electorate of that unit, except in those cases where the majority of their appointments are in non-voting campus units.
- (h.) Revised Printout List Returned. This list with deletions and additions made by each voting unit must be returned to the Clerk of the Senate at a time specified by the Clerk.
- 3.3 Voting Units. Faculty voting units shall be determined in the following manner:
- (a.) List of Departments. Each college committee will prepare a list of the departments, or their equivalents, within the college which have seven or more faculty electorate.
- (b.) Combining Small Departments. Any department, or its equivalent, which has fewer than seven members may be combined with other departments, or their equivalents, in the college. Two small departments, or equivalents, may be combined to produce a voting unit of the requisite size. Or one small department, or equivalent, may be combined with a larger unit with which it shares common interests. If two small departments, or equivalents, are combined, it may be provided that the representative first will be selected from one department, and at the next election will be chosen from the other department, in order to ensure that one department will not monopolize the representation from that voting unit.
- (c.) Based on USSP Statistics The determination of voting units required in Section 3.1 shall be based upon faculty figures supplied by the USSP.
- (d.) Emeritus Professors. Emeritus professors will not be counted in determining voting districts.
- (e.) Absent Electorate. Members of the faculty electorate absent from campus, except emeritus professors, will be included in the statistics used to apportion seats.
4. Time and Duration of Elections
- 4.1 Duration. The final election shall be held on two consecutive weekdays, specified by USSP in the Timetable issued to all voting units.
- 4.2 Time. Nominating elections and final elections shall be held in faculty voting units at such times as shall be specified by the USSP.
5.
Electorate Qualifications
- 5.1 General Qualifications. The faculty electorate are those members of the academic staff who are directly engaged in and responsible for the educational function of the University; ordinarily this will involve teaching and research. Specifically, the faculty electorate shall consist of all persons of the campus non-visiting academic staff, other than persons holding administrative appointments in excess of one-half time, who:
- (a.) hold the academic title of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor (including those who hold the title of “with the rank of” professor, associate professor, assistant professor), and have at least a one-half time appointment, and are paid for their services by the University; or
- (b.) hold the academic title of instructor (including those who hold the title of “with the rank of” instructor), and have a full-time appointment, and are paid for their services by the University, and are not candidates for a degree from this University; or
- (c.) are appointed as and hold positions with titles other than those described in (a.) and (b.) above, who have a full-time appointment, are paid for their services by the University, are not candidates for a degree from this University, and who, in the determination of the Senate, are directly engaged in and responsible for the educational function of the University, ordinarily involving teaching and research; or
- (d.) are retired members of the campus academic staff with the title of emeritus, and would otherwise be eligible for inclusion in the faculty electorate. However, retired members shall not be counted for purposes of determining apportionment.
Provided that executive officers of departments or comparable units, who are otherwise eligible, shall not be excluded from the faculty electorate because they hold administrative appointments in excess of one-half time. Each member of the electorate shall be entitled to cast one vote for each open senatorial position apportioned to his voting unit; there shall be no cumulative voting.
- 5.2 Full-time Instructor; Masters; No Credit. A full-time instructor, working on his master's thesis but not registered for credit, is not a degree candidate, and therefore is a member of the faculty electorate.
- 5.3 Emeritus Professors. Emeritus professors may vote, but may not be counted in determining voting units.
- 5.4 Department Heads. If an institute, school or other academic unit is freestanding and separate from any college, then its director or chief administrative officer is not a member of the faculty electorate. His position is like that of a dean. If the academic unit is a subordinate part of a larger college, then the director or chief administrative officer is like a head of a subordinate department, in which case he is a member of the faculty electorate.
- 5.5 Addition of Members. The Senate may determine, pursuant to Article II, Section 1, Subsection C of the Senate Constitution, that additional members of the campus academic staff who do not hold 50 percent or greater administrative appointments should be included in the faculty electorate on the basis of their participation in and responsibility for the educational function of the University. The Senate Committee may recommend to the Senate inclusion of any member of the campus academic staff on the basis of recommendations of that person's department and the election committee in his college.
- 5.6 Time of Determining Status. Eligibility to vote, and membership in a particular department or college, will be determined by the person's status at the time he casts his ballot.
- 5.7 Faculty Electorate, College of Medicine, Urbana-Champaign. The faculty electorate of the College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign shall be entitled to elect voting members of the Senate. The provisions of these Rules shall apply to these members.
6. Candidate Qualifications
- 6.1 General Qualifications. All persons included in the faculty electorate shall be eligible for election to the Senate, without distinction on the basis of rank or other criteria.
- 6.2 Emeritus Candidates. Emeritus professors may be candidates for Senate office.
- 6.3 Current Membership in Unit. No person may run for election from a unit in which he is not a member at the time of the election.
- 6.4 Single Seat Limitation. No person can be a candidate for more than one Senate seat.
- 6.5 Limited Terms. The terms of senators elected from the faculty electorate shall be two years, with a maximum of three consecutive terms. The election of a faculty senator in a regular election constitutes a full term unless he/she resigns prior to the Organizational Meeting of the Senate. A replacement senator who is elected prior to January 1 of the first year of a resigned senator's term shall be considered to have served a full term.
- 6.6 Maintenance of Staggered Terms. In order to conform with the provisions of Article II, Section 8 of the Senate Constitution which specifies that approximately half of the faculty senators should be elected each year, the Committee shall review the representation of each voting unit each year. If due to changes in voting unit size or for any other reason, the term of the senators representing that voting unit cease to be staggered, the Committee will restore the imbalance by specifying that an appropriate number of senators be elected for one-year terms. The elected senators will be distributed between the one- and two-year terms according to the number of votes received in the election with those receiving the higher numbers being assigned the two-year terms.
7. Notice of Election; Publicity
- 7.1 Requirement of Notice. Each college elections and credentials committee should distribute information concerning elections to members of the electorate within its college. Election information includes the departmental composition of the election units within the college, the location of polling places for each election unit, the hours during which the polls will be open, and the names of the candidates in each election unit.
- 7.2 Method of Notice. A recommended method of informing persons about the elections is a mailing to the constituent members of the respective voting units within the college, telling them which voting unit they are in, who the candidates in that unit are, and where and when they may vote.
- 7.3 Use of University Funds. No University funds shall be spent for production or distribution of any campaign statements.
8. Nomination Procedures
- 8.1 By Election. Nominations for faculty senators shall be by election in accordance with Article II, Section 6 of the Senate Constitution.
- 8.2 Casting Ballots. Ballots shall be cast in person or by mail at the administrative office of the voting unit.
- 8.3 Time of Balloting. Completed nominating ballots must be received in the voter's department/unit office no later than 5:00 p.m. on the seventh day (inclusive) following the day upon which the ballots are first made available to faculty members.
- 8.4 Nominating Ballots.
- (a.) Preparation of Ballots. Nominating ballots shall be prepared by the administrative office in each voting unit, and should conform as nearly as possible to the model ballot issued by the USSP. Where a voting unit embraces two or more departments, the administrative office of the largest department shall prepare the ballots, unless otherwise provided by the appropriate college committee. Where a large department is divided into two or more voting units, the offices of the department shall prepare the ballots for all voting units within the department, unless otherwise provided by the appropriate college committee.
- (b.) Contents. Ballots shall contain the following items:
- (1.) name of the department or departments which comprise the voting unit;
- (2.) the designations which have been assigned by the USSP to the voting unit and to the senators elected from the voting unit;
- (3.) the names of all eligible members of the faculty electorate within the voting unit;
- (4.) relevant remarks concerning some or all of the faculty members so listed; [see Section 8.4 (c.)], and
- (5.) directions concerning how many nominations may be made on each ballot, how each ballot is to be marked, and where and when the ballot must be returned.
- (c.) Willingness to Serve. Any faculty member not available for election to the Senate because of leave, other duties, or any other reason, should so inform his unit office on the “Willingness to Serve” form. This information will be included on the nominating ballot.
- (d.) Order of Names. Names of eligible faculty members may be placed on the ballot in alphabetical order or any other reasonable order.
- 8.5 Notice. The department is responsible for notifying the winning nominees and shall forward a list of those nominees and their campus address to the college elections and credentials committee chair who, in turn, shall forward them to the Clerk of the Senate.
9. Election Procedures
- 9.1 Ballot Contents. The names on the final election ballot for each voting unit shall be twice the number of senators to be elected or all those nominated and willing to serve if their number is less than twice the number to be elected.
- 9.2 Order of Names. Names of candidates shall be placed on the election ballot in random order.
- 9.3 Withdrawal. Before the election ballot is prepared, any faculty member who has received nominating votes may withdraw by delivering a signed notice of withdrawal to the administrative office of the voting unit.
- 9.4 Ties. If a tie exists among those eligible for the last position, all their names shall appear on the election ballot (see Section 9.1).
- 9.5 Conducting the Polling.
- (a.) Location of Polling Places. Ballots shall be available at the administrative office of the voting unit for two full working days.
- (b.) Signature of Voter. Before voting, each faculty member shall place his/her signature opposite his/her name on the official faculty list of that voting unit.
- (c.) Official Electorate List. An official listing of the faculty electorate in each voting unit shall be kept in the administrative office of each unit, and shall be marked to show each member who has voted. This listing shall be kept on file and made available upon request.
- 9.6 Election Supervision. An election officer shall be named in each voting unit, who shall be responsible for ensuring that the faculty election is carried on in accordance with these Rules. The officer shall be named by the appropriate college elections committee, but this responsibility may be delegated by any college committee to the chief administrator in any voting unit.
- 9.7 Election Expenses. (No applicable rulings.)
- 9.8 Requirements for Election.
- (a.) Automatic Election. If the number of faculty members nominated and willing to serve is exactly equal to the number of senators to be elected, an election need not be held; those nominated and willing to serve may be declared automatically elected.
- (b.) Plurality Required. The nominees receiving the highest number of votes in the final election shall be deemed elected.
- (c.) Ties in the Final Election. Ties in the final election will be resolved by:
- (1.) election of the candidate who received the highest number of votes in the nominations and, if this is impossible,
- (2.) a coin flip by the College Elections Committee.
- 9.9 Returns; Counting; Certification.
- (a.) Removal of Ballots from Boxes. Ballots may be removed from the ballot box only at the end of the voting period or when the box is filled to capacity. Ballots should be removed from the ballot box only by an election official. Ballots should be transferred immediately to some sealed container, such as a paper bag or envelope. The sealed container should be signed by the election officer who transferred the ballots. The sealed container also should be marked with information showing the date and time of the ballot transfer, the number of ballots transferred (to be determined by reference to the signature sheet), and the election unit in which the ballots are cast. The sealed container should be stored in a safe place.
- (b.) Counting. The administrative office of the voting unit shall provide for the counting of the ballots immediately following the deadline for casting ballots. No interested party shall participate in the counting process. Any member of the faculty electorate may be present during the counting process within reasonable limits of space. The results of the count shall be entered on a tally sheet signed by those who counted the ballots.
- (c.) Write-in Ballots. No write-in ballots are to be counted.
- (d.) Doubtful Ballots. Intention of the voter should be the only standard for interpreting doubtful ballots. If the intention can be determined, the ballot should be counted in accordance with the intent. If the intention cannot be determined (e.g., three candidates marked for only two seats), then the ballot should not be counted.
- (e.) Certification by College Committee. The tally sheet and all ballots shall be delivered immediately to the appropriate college committee. The college committee, after satisfying itself that the vote shown on the tally sheet is correct, shall so certify by signing certification cards provided by the Senate Office, and shall deliver the cards immediately to the Senate Office. The college committee shall arrange for the preservation of all ballots and tally sheets for a period of six months.
10. Election Certification by Senate Committee
The USSP shall certify election results to the Senate at the organizational meeting of the newly elected Senate. These results shall be entered in the minutes of that meeting. The USSP may delay certification of candidates whose elections are in doubt or may certify the election of such candidates upon appropriate conditions.
11. Formal Reports
All reports from college elections and credentials committees to the USSP should be addressed to the Senate Clerk.
12. Absentee Ballots
- 12.1 By Request Only. An absentee ballot can be obtained only by requesting it from the administrative office of the voting unit.
- 12.2 Time Limit. To be valid an absentee ballot must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. of the last day of the election in the administrative office of the voting unit.
- 12.3 Mailing. Absentee ballots must be mailed early enough to allow ample time for their return before the deadline.
- 12.4 Identification Statement. Each absentee voter shall be required to sign and return an identification form
(prepared by the department), in lieu of signing the voter list as required of voters on campus.
13. Grievances and Appeals
- 13.1 College Committee Jurisdiction. Unless otherwise provided by the USSP, the college election committees shall have original jurisdiction over the following:
- (a.) addition of names of qualified voters to the electorate lists;
- (b.) determination of college membership for electoral purposes;
- (c.) certification of successful election of candidates; and
- (d.) any other matters arising within their colleges.
- 13.2 Appeal to University Statutes and Senate Procedures (USSP). Any aggrieved person may appeal a decision of a college committee to the USSP, and actions and decisions of the USSP may be appealed to the Senate by any senator.
- 13.3 Procedure for Unlisted Persons Claiming Electorate Status. If any faculty member whose name does not appear on the official listing desires to vote and claims entitlement to do so, the validity of that claim shall be decided by the chair of the appropriate college committee or designee before termination of the voting period. If the claim cannot be so decided, the member shall be provided a ballot after signing a statement that he/she is a qualified member of the electorate in the particular voting unit involved. The voter's signed statement and vote shall be kept separate and shall not be counted with the other votes; they shall be delivered to the appropriate college committee at the same time as the other ballots and the tally sheets are delivered. The college committee will decide whether the member is or is not entitled to vote. If the person is so entitled, the chair of the committee will add that vote to the tally sheet of the voting unit.
14. Resignations and Vacancies
- 14.1 No Nominations. If no person is nominated for a Senate seat during the general election, then the college shall have the option of electing an eligible member of the faculty electorate to that seat in the fall. Election procedures shall be developed by each college elections and credentials committee and shall be subject to approval by the USSP.
- 14.2 Disqualification from Electorate. If a senator fails to satisfy the requirements for membership in the electorate during his/her term of office, the Senate shall determine whether the senator may remain seated.
- 14.3 Review of Status. The Clerk of the Senate will review official records each semester, and will report to the USSP the names of all those senators no longer in the employ of the University.
A tenured faculty member who is on leave for a period of no more than one year, whether or not on the University payroll, may retain membership in the electorate at the request of his or her department.
- 14.4 Vacancies. Vacancies shall be filled by election of a member of the voting unit for the remainder of the vacant term in accordance with the nomination and election procedures prescribed in Article II of the Senate Constitution.
- 14.5 Change of Unit. If a senator changes voting units after the election, he/she will continue to represent the original unit unless the Senate determines otherwise.
