The Faculty Senate Elections Committee, led by Professor Atsushi Akera, conducted a faculty-wide referendum on the new version of the Faculty Senate constitution from Wednesday through Friday. Two categories of faculty were able to participate; the first included the tenured and tenure-track faculty, while the second encompassed those without tenure: non-tenure and Hartford faculty, retired faculty, and librarians and archivists.
The new constitution was approved in a combined vote of approval from both categories, with 79.9 percent for and 16.2 percent against; included in these results is the vote of approval by the tenure faculty, with 80.8 percent for and 15.1 percent against. The turnout for the tenured and tenure-track faculty was about 65.9 percent, about 16 percent more than what the Board of Trustees expects for a representative vote. For the combined faculty vote, the turnout was closer to 62 percent.
This referendum comes two years after the Board of Trustees first notified President Shirley Ann Jackson and, through Provost Robert Palazzo, the entire academic community of the need for the Faculty Senate to amend its constitution regarding the definition of “faculty.” This decision was made in response to the Senate’s proposed amendment to include clinical faculty under the definition of “faculty.”
Since the Board’s decision in December 2006, the Senate has originally voted to decline making the changes requested by the president, elected new officers for the 2007–08 academic year, and has summarily been dissolved by the Board of Trustees.
In disbanding the Faculty Senate, the Board of Trustees resolved that it would not consider reinstating it until a faculty governance review conducted by the Faculty Governance Review Committee was completed and a governance structure was recommended to the provost and the president. The president must then approve the Faculty Senate constitution and The Rensselaer Faculty Handbook and send the approved items to the Board of Trustees, along with the results of the FGRC exploration and her recommendation.
The FGRC, headed by Professor Jacob Fish, issued a report in Spring 2008 with a comparison of university governance strategies at other leading universities. In addition to the activities of the FGRC, Palazzo and Vice President for Human Resources Curtis Powell have met with representatives of the clinical faculty to discuss issues of concern to them.
The new constitution originates from the efforts of the Faculty Senate Constitutional Committee, chaired by Professor Bruce Watson. The FSCC began revising the constitution in October 2008, taking as its starting point the work produced from the collaboration of Palazzo, Professor Larry Kagan, and the Scoping Committee, led by Professor Henry Scarton—which identified points of concern in considered updates made to the constitution during the Palazzo-Kagan review. The FSCC first submitted a new constitution for the consideration of the faculty in December 2008, and in February of this year presented a revised version. According to Watson, one of the key points of the new constitution is that it clearly states that any resolution put forth to the administration from the Faculty Senate can only be voted on by the tenure faculty; however all faculty can participate in the discussion of general faculty business.
The Faculty Senate constitution, as currently posted, has not been changed since 2004. With regards to the referendum, Watson was “very pleased about the vote, because of the good turnout and because it was overwhelmingly positive.”
While the new constitution includes more detailed wording with respect to its purpose, it also distinguishes the tenure faculty from the non-tenure and retired faculty, librarians, and archivists. The definition of regular members of the Senate was changed to replace the six members-at-large and three committee chairs, with a formula for members representing the five recognized schools: two members each for the Schools of Engineering, Science, and Humanities and Social Sciences, and one member each for the Schools of Management and Architecture.
In addition, there is a separate definition of quorum for Senate resolutions to be advanced to the administration and the Board of Trustees. Only members of the tenure faculty can elect school representatives to the Senate, though members of the non-tenure faculty, Hartford faculty, librarians, archivists, and retired faculty can vote for the election of Senate officers and elect their own members of the Senate.
With the new constitution approved by the faculty, the next step is for it to be presented to the president.
