Guidelines for Senate Operations

Provisional Guidelines for Senate Operations

(Approved by the Senate in its meeting of 20 December 2006)

Introduction

The formation, structure, and functions of the Faculty Senate at AUS are regulated by the Faculty Organization Plan (FOP), which also describes the working mechanisms of the Senate and of the Faculty Assembly.
     Experience has shown, however, that specific issues pertaining to the sound and efficient conduct of business has not been delineated in the FOP, and particular characteristics of the AUS Faculty Senate (e.g. large size) may sometimes lead to inefficient performance.
     A “code of operations” is therefore needed for the senate and should be developed in the near future. A natural committee for developing such a document is the Senate Affairs Committee, and this can be a mini-project to be undertaken later (by the current or the following senate/committee). Such “operating codes” or “Senate rules and regulations” exist in many US university senates. Until such a final document is produced and approved by the AUS Senate, it is proposed to adopt provisional guidelines for operations, aiming simply at clarifying and streamlining the process by which the Senate conducts business.
     This document should be part of the Orientation of new senators and, in its final form, be placed on the Senate website so as to become a reference for senate operations.

Senate Sessions

A typical senate session would consist of the following generic agenda items, for which this proposal gives a brief description of content as well as the appropriate senate procedure:

1. Roll Call, where the Senate President, the Senate Secretary, and the Administrative Assistant check that the quorum (2/3 of regular members of the Senate) has been attained in order for voting to be conducted during the session; if quorum is not attained, only items of non-voting nature can be undertaken during the session.
2. Approval of the Agenda, where the President asks whether anyone wishes to add any (urgent or pressing) issue to the circulated agenda.
3. Chancellor’s Report, where the chancellor presents the Senate with news and views as he deems appropriate; the chancellor then usually takes questions on those issues.
4. President’s Report, where the Senate president reports to the senate on his/her activities since the last meeting; the president then usually takes questions on his/her report.
5. Approval of Minutes of the last meeting, where any incorrections are noted and/or motions for modifications are made on the circulated minutes.
6. Agenda Items of voting nature, where a proposal that was circulated to the senators is to be approved or rejected; the senators are assumed to have read and studied the proposal ahead of time, so the motion is immediately made by the Senate Secretary to “adopt the motion (proposal) as submitted”, which must then be seconded (usually by the Senate Vice-President, unless s/he holds an opposing view), followed by a short discussion by senators speaking (and usually alternating) “in favor” or “against” the motion, thereby trying to convince the other senators to vote for or against the motion/proposal.

Unless a motion is approved to go into “Committee of the Whole” mode, the Senate must not transform its deliberations into committee work, where ideas are floated, researched on the spot, and debated, and where each proposition (with its various possible wordings) is discussed ad infinitum.
The discussion should be short and to the point, with each intervening senator making sure his/her speech’s intentions are clear (for, against, with the relevant reasons). Each senator should, in principle, speak only once; only if/when a senator feels his/her viewpoint has been misunderstood or misrepresented can s/he ask for a follow-up.
Considering the nature of the issue as well as time constraints, the Senate President decides when enough discussion has taken place and the merits and demerits of the motion/proposal been made clear to everyone; s/he then calls for a vote on the motion. If the motion/proposal is defeated, it is sent back to its originator (committee or individual), along with a summary of the comments made on it, in order for the proposal to be improved and submitted again in the future.
In some cases, particularly when the document to be voted on is large and complex (e.g. a new Faculty Handbook or FOP), the Senate President may, upon submission of the agenda and documents for the meeting, request from the senators to submit amendment requests in writing. S/he then decides which of those proposed amendments had already been dealt with by the committee/SEC and which ones can be brought to the senate floor (for voting), as part of the discussion and approval process, without breaking the coherence of the document as a whole.

7. Agenda Items of general non-voting nature, where an issue is brought up for discussion and a recommendation on future action (send to a particular committee, request information from the administration, etc.). In such discussions, senators can speak more than once, but individuals who have not spoken beforehand are given priority when they ask for the floor; nevertheless, everyone should strive for brevity, clarity, and efficiency, so as to minimize the overall time devoted to any such item.

Senator Expectations

1. Senators should free themselves for the whole senate session, which in principle is held for 90 minutes once a month. The specific dates of all meetings for a given year are communicated to them by the Senate President; senators should mark and reserve them; absences should only occur upon extraordinary, unpredicted, and unpreventable circumstances.
2. Senators should make sure they have read and understood the documents they receive from the Senate President and/or Secretary. Any questions they may have should be submitted by email prior to the meeting.
3. Senators should strive to arrive on time and not leave before the meeting is officially adjourned; indeed, coming late or leaving early is disruptive to the meeting in process and may lead to the loss of quorum, thus preventing voting from being conducted.
4. Senators who find themselves having to miss too many sessions (more than two senate meetings in a year) should resign in order to allow others to fully represent the faculty.  In this case, special elections will be held to fill the vacant seat.
5. Newly elected senators are expected to familiarize themselves with the FOP (http://www.aus.edu/facultysenate/fop/) and the Senate standing rules (http://www.aus.edu/facultysenate/procedures_rules/) in order to be well-acquainted with senate procedures and past rulings. An orientation for new senators is usually held during the first senate meeting, but it cannot cover all documents and rules, and new senators sometimes come to replace resigning ones in mid-sessions.