Faculty Senate Procedures

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A Basic Guide to Faculty Senate Procedures

1.       The Executive Committee shall meet a week before each monthly meeting of the Faculty Senate to prepare the agenda for the Senate’s meeting.
2.       Proposals submitted to the Executive Committee for inclusion on next month’s agenda need to be received before the Executive Committee’s monthly meeting.  These proposals need to be submitted on the approved form.
3.       The executive committee shall be responsible for the distribution of the agenda to all Senate members a minimum of five days before the monthly meeting of the Senate.
4.       All proposals from the floor must be submitted on the approved form to the Secretary by 4:30 PM.
5.       Each new proposal shall be read to the Faculty Senate during the portion of the meeting devoted to new business.
6.       All proposals that have been read shall be dealt with according to Robert’s Rules of Order which permit the Senate to commit, to amend, to adopt, or to reject the proposal.  Here is a Simplified Roberts Rules of Order.pdf, and a complete version can be found here.
7.       If a majority of the Senators approve, the President shall assign the proposal to the appropriate committee of the Faculty Senate.  If less than a majority of members approve, the proposal shall be dropped from the Senate’s agenda.  If a Senator does not cast a vote (formally abstains), this will lower the threshold for meeting a majority or two-third vote.
8.       At the next meeting of the Senate, the committee shall make a full report of its studies on the proposal and announce any alterations or objections that the committee feels advisable to make.

Proxy Representation

Proxy appointments require the approval of the Faculty Senate President.  If a Senator cannot be present at a Faculty Senate meeting, the Senator must submit a Proxy Form.pdf to the Secretary at least 24 hours before the meeting, and the Senator’s proxy must bring the signed hard copy to the FS meeting.

Motion/Resolution Templates
Motions and resolutions up for consideration must be formatted per the following templates.  Motions are items for the Faculty Senate to consider (e.g., items to discuss, items to send to a committee to investigate, etc.); resolutions are specific actionable items – they are generally more specific than motions, indicating specific actions to be taken by the Faculty Senate, policy proposals, etc.  Resolutions may be produced as part of the recommendations or reports from Faculty Senate committees.

Motion Template.pdf

Resolution Template.pdf