Purpose of guideline:
Document customary practice for conducting biennial election of Library's Faculty Senator.

April 1 in odd-numbered years, the Library Director or designee shall call for election of the Library's faculty senator. Such a call should be issued immediately upon the resignation of the current Library faculty senator before the end of his or her full two year term.

Procedure:

1. Library Director or designee notifies library faculty of need to conduct election.

2. Library Director or designee solicits nominations

   1. call or email nominations to Admin. Asst. in Admin. Offices

   2. Admin. Asst. confirms eligibility of nominees for election in accord with Faculty Senate Bylaws*

3. Admin. Asst. confirms willingness of nominees to stand for election and serve if elected

4. Conduct election (if only one candidate is nominated, provide for election by acclamation)

   1. if more than one candidate -- Admin. Asst. prepares paper ballots

   2. secret ballot of all Library faculty with regular line-item appointments (incl. half-time lines)

   3. do either at a faculty meeting or by having faculty deliver their ballots to a designated recipient by designated deadline

   4. simple majority of votes received by deadline or within faculty meeting

5. Admin. Asst. retains ballots for at least one month, then shreds them

6. Admin. Asst. or other designee announces results of election

   1. do not announce the actual vote count, only the name of the winner.

   2. announce to Library faculty and to the President of the Faculty Senate

7. need to announce at least two weeks prior to the May Faculty Senate meeting (ordinarily held 2^nd Tuesday of the month) per Senate Bylaws.

Eligibility:

As posted in the Blackboard Faculty Senate site, Documents section, the BY-LAWS OF THE FACULTY SENATE, rev. 3/11/03, state:

III. Election of Faculty Senators

1. Each department shall elect one Faculty Senator. When the department or program represented has existed for five or more years, the Senator elected either shall be a tenured member of the faculty or shall have three years of full time experience at UMBC. No department shall elect its chair senator unless no other member of the department is eligible. Members of the faculty serving as academic administrators in the Office of the Provost, the College __of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering or the Graduate School shall be ineligible for election to the Faculty Senate for the period during which they so serve.

2. Each department shall elect its Faculty Senator by vote of the faculty at least two weeks before the May meeting of the Faculty Senate in either odd or even numbered years in accordance with the following schedule:

   • Odd-numbered years: College of Arts and Sciences - - Africana Studies, Ancient Studies, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Economics, Education, Emergency Health Services, Geography and Environmental Systems, History, Information Systems, Physics, Policy Sciences; College of Engineering - - Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering -- Library.

   • Even-numbered years: College of Arts and Sciences - - American Studies, Biological Sciences, Dance, English, Mathematics and Statistics, Modern Language and Linguistics, Music, Political Science, Philosophy, Social Work, Sociology and Anthropology, Psychology, Theater, Visual Arts; Women's Studies; College of Engineering - - Mechanical Engineering.

   • As new academic departments are added to UMBC, they shall be included herein in a manner to ensure numerical balance between departments electing Senators in even and odd numbered years.

3. The chair of each department shall communicate the name of the department's elected Senator to the President of the Faculty Senate as soon as possible after the Senator's election.

4. The term of office of the members of the Faculty Senate shall commence with the September meeting of the Faculty Senate in that year in which the senator is elected and continue through May two years hence. Newly elected Senators shall be invited to attend the Senate meeting in May of the year of their election.

5. For purposes of this election, departments shall be those groups of faculty members determined to be departments by majority vote of the Faculty Senate.

6. Faculty members not affiliated with departments may petition the Faculty Senate for representation by a Faculty Senator, which shall be granted by majority vote of the Faculty Senate.

*Note: Naturally, one should confirm there have been no changes by checking the most current version of the Faculty Senate Bylaws.

references: UMBC's BY-LAWS OF THE FACULTY SENATE on Faculty Senate Blackboard site.

circulated for comment 7/6/01, none rec'd.; edited and Faculty Senate Bylaws quoted, 8/13/04