Article III: Membership
Section 1: Composition
Senate membership shall be based on a representative system using the membership categories listed below.
Each membership category is allowed one representative for approximately every 10 professional staff members employed in that area.
Leadership for the Senate will be chosen annually by Senate members themselves.
Membership categories:
Academic Services - 2
Administrative Services - 5
Athletics - 3
NATS - 2
Student Services - 4
Total senate members - 16
Section 2: Eligibility
All professional staff employed at .75 FTE or more are eligible for membership in the Senate.
Full time administrators (President, Vice-Presidents, Deans) and those employees with faculty status are not eligible for membership. The President or President's designee will be notified of meetings and invited to attend Professional Staff Senate meetings on a regular basis.
Section 3: Voting Membership
Elected Senators are eligible to vote on Senate business.
Campus-wide Professional Staff voting – see Article VII, Section 3.
Section 4: Nonvoting Membership
The Faculty Senate may select one person from its membership to attend regularly scheduled meetings of the Senate.
The Student Senate may select one person from its membership to attend regularly scheduled meetings of the Senate.
A representative from the support staff organization will be invited to attend regularly scheduled meetings.
Section 5: Elections
The members of each membership category will be responsible for electing their Senator.
During April of each year, the Chair will present to each Senator a current list of professional staff members from his or her respective membership category.
Each Senator will be responsible for organizing a nominating committee from within his or her membership category and conducting a ballot election to select a new Senator.
If a membership category fails to elect its Senator by the annual meeting, an election will take place during the annual meeting with candidates drawn from the full membership present.
Elections to fill vacancies as a result of leaves, resignations, etc., will be conducted within the membership category with assistance from the Chair.
Elections will occur by June 1 each year.
Section 6: Terms of Office
The term of office shall be for two years with one half of the body being elected each year.
New members of the Senate shall be seated during the annual meeting.
During the initial year of this organization, half of the elected body shall serve for 1½ years, and half shall serve for 2½ years.
Section 7: Officers
The offices for the Senate are Chair, Vice Chair (serves also as Chair Elect), Treasurer, Secretary and Past Chair. It is recommended that a Senator be elected to the position of Vice Chair in the first year of a two-year term because that position automatically moves to Chair the second year. In the event that a Senator is elected to the position of Chair-elect in the second year of a two-year term, the Senator automatically serves another two years beyond the original elected term to fulfill the terms of Chair-elect, Chair and Past Chair. Duties and procedures for officers are stated in Article V of this document.
The election of all officers of the Senate shall occur on or before Aug. 1 of each year to enable Senators to participate in other campus committees.
In the event that any officer is unable to complete his or her term of office, an election from within the Senate will be held to replace that officer.
Section 8: Removal of Officers
A letter asking for the removal of an elected officer from his or her office may be submitted to the Chair by any member of the Senate, with copies distributed to all Senators. After a period of two weeks, but no more than four weeks following the request, the removal issue will be voted on at a regular meeting or special meeting.
A three-fourths majority vote of the Senators is required to remove an officer. If the officer is removed, the Senate shall immediately elect a replacement.
Removing a Senator from an office does not automatically remove that person from the Senate.