In the spring of 2020, a working group met and developed a proposal to revise the UNI Faculty Consitution as a result of the previous consitutional revisions related to the voting eligibility of term and temporary faculty. This proposal was tabled for further discussion; however such discussion did not occur because of COVID. This petition seeks to bring forward the proposed revisions for further discussion and in anticipation of the Fall Faculty meeting on Monday, October 19. Revisions to the UNI Constitution require a 2/3 vote of faculty present at a regular faculty meeting.
Pursuant to the working group's recommendation, at its October 12 meeting the Senate endorsed the first (of two) options for changing the language of the Faculty Constitution outlined in the attached document. In summary: the working group proposed that the faculty delegate the authority to the UNI Faculty Senate to determine the formula for its membership (i.e. moving the formula from the Constitution to the Senate Bylaws), eliminate the constitutional language allocating a specific number of seats to non-voting faculty, and add the Graduate Faculty Chair as an ex officio member of the Senate. The Senate unanimously endorsed this proposal.
The specific changes to the language of the Faculty Constitution are outlined in the attached document.
A vote is requested to forward one or more of the proposed changes to the UNI Faculty Constition to the faculty for vote at the Fall Faculty meeting.