February 2, 2023 – The Executive Council of the College Senate formed a Select Committee to review and revise the Senate’s Constitution and Bylaws. The committee worked for a year to update constituent groups, incorporate part-time A&P and faculty, and clarify other issues. The Executive Council approved of the Select Committee’s recommendations at the January 24 meeting. The proposed changes are below.
Part-Time Representation
- Make part-time A&P and adjunct faculty full members of College Senate, represented within their departments.
- Continue to use the full-time numbers to determine number of representatives, as part-time numbers can fluctuate.
- Eliminate the part-time representatives, as they will now be represented within the departments.
- Add part-time language as needed throughout the document.
Constituencies and Representation
- Add requirement to re-evaluate constituency groups and thresholds every five years, with provisions for other methods to trigger a complete re-evaluation. Move wording from the Standing Rules (Section C) to the By-Laws.
- Clarify that vacancies may be replaced at any time in a representative’s term.
- Clarify that a full-time individual who may be in two constituencies due to adjunct or part-time work will only be eligible to be the representative of their home department, but adjuncts or part-time individuals are eligible to be a representative in any of their constituencies.
- Add language to allow for a recall of representatives, to be handled by that constituency.
- Eliminate draconian punishment for representatives who do not attend for three meetings.
- Update to a tier system for representatives for constituency groups:
- One representative: fewer than 18 full-time members
- Two representatives: 19 – 36 full-time members
- Three representatives: more than 36 full-time members
- Propose the following constituency groups:
- Academic Affairs
- Administration
- Adult Education / Workforce Development
- Advising / Career Exploration Center
- Business Programs / Information Technology Education
- Centers / Continuing Education
- Communications / Development
- Construction and Technical Programs
- Disabilities Resources / Diversity / Grant Programs
- English
- Facilities / Finance
- Fine Arts and Entertainment Technology
- Health Sciences / Emerging Technologies
- Humanities and Foreign Languages
- Information Technology Services
- Institute of Public Safety
- Library / Center for Academic Technologies and Training
- Mathematics
- Natural Sciences
- Nursing
- Records / Admissions / Financial Aid
- Sciences for Health
- Secondary Programs
- Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Student Development and Leadership / Learning Commons
- Student Life / Athletics / Counseling
Committees
- List all three curriculum committees as their own committee, as opposed to one committee with three subcommittees.
- Clarify the liaisonship between College Senate S&B and Career Service S&B committees.
- Set the number of representatives for S&B to 16, with 8 faculty and 8 A&P, and recommend that at least one faculty and one A&P representative be part-time.
- Because of the equal number of representatives, the Senate President will be asked to provide a tie-breaking vote, if necessary.
- Use the end degrees to clarify the difference between the three curriculum committees (LAS = A.A., CTE = A.S./A.A.S./Certificate, and Baccalaureate). Language in the introduction now refers to ‘college-level’ program and certificates, which means that High School Dual Enrollment is not covered (and should not be, as they have other curriculum methods determined by the state).
- For the LAS curriculum committee, remove Academic Foundations and Education voting members (departments no longer exist) and update SDL name and title of the director of advisement.
- Remove the two subcommittees listed for the Professional Committee; the “Professional Standards Committee” is within the general scope of the overall Professional Committee and the “Faculty and Professional Employee Appeal Committee” is superseded by the revision of Rule 3.23 regarding grievances.
Senate Officers
- Specify that only full-time employee may serve as an officer of the College Senate.
- From HR: “Committee work, leadership and officer positions that require a set time commitment for participation, including scheduled times that require attendance for things like meetings, professional development or that have require completion of assignments or generation of work product to be completed within specific time parameters are not truly voluntary in the sense that individuals serving in those capacities cannot freely choose when to engage or if they want participate, as the dictated service requirements are essential to the roles.”
- Update committees for President and Presiding Officer to reflect the current situation, plus add the proviso that a suitable proxy may be sent.
- Recommend that the stipend for officers be tied to the equivalent of 3 NIUs, which prevents a static number.
Miscellaneous
- Clarify “College Senate” (the entire represented body) versus the “Executive Council” (representatives and officers) throughout the document and eliminate the requirement for the full College Senate to meet twice a year, as this is hundreds of people and untenable.
- Update language to reflect that Senate makes advisory decisions and recommendations, not binding decisions (as detailed in College Procedure 2.4P).
- Include descriptions of acceptable voting methods.
- Add proviso for requesting a special session of the Executive Council.
- Update ‘Old business’ to ‘Ongoing business’ for agenda headings.
- Eliminate the Standing Rules.