Faculty Service Committee Meeting
Present: D. Horwath, C. Spitznagel, W. Bockanic, K. Gygli,
and M. Finucane
Absent: L. Cima, J. Yost
Dick Horwath called the meeting to order at
Discussion focused on the formation of a search committee
for the Boler School of Business Dean. Horwath announced that nominations would
close at the Faculty Forum meeting scheduled for
Two additional vacancies were discussed. The Boler School of
Business seat on the University Core Committee remains open as does the Boler
School of Business seat on the Marketing Committee. Horwath reported that the
chair of the Core Committee discussed changing the seat to an at large position
if no one from the Boler School of Business came forward to be elected to the
seat. This would need to be taken to the entire faculty before such a change
could be enacted.
The next item on the agenda was a discussion of issues with
the ballots sent out in April 2004. For one committee, the ballots indicated
faculty should vote for one candidate whereas they should have indicated
faculty should vote for two candidates. The second seat was to fill Dick
Clancy’s term on the Committee on Retirement and Allowances. A review of the
ballots indicated Leo Schneider was the second highest vote getter and he has
agreed to fill a one-year term.
We discussed establishing a policy for settling ties in
elections. Traditionally the committee has used a “draw straws” policy to
settle ties. The vote for the University Core Committee resulted in a tie
between Santa Casciani and John Spencer. Dick Horwath met with them and Santa
Casciani won the seat on the University Core Committee. For the Committee on
Research and Service, Dan Kilbride won the seat when Paul Nietupski was
appointed to the committee over the summer. Horwath indicated that he believed
there was not time to hold another election before the term ended in spring
2004 and he did not want the committees to be without a member for the summer
term. We agreed we would discuss these on a case-by-case basis as a committee
should ties occur. We discussed creating a guideline that would require a
run-off election based on the number of candidates on the ballot. We determined
that any ballot with five or more candidates for one seat would require a
run-off election in the event of a tie.
Carl Spitznagel and Karen Gygli agreed to work as a subcommittee to review the dates for the spring elections so that we do not face a situation where we do not have sufficient time to hold run-off elections.
The issue of electronic balloting came up. The Faculty Forum
Executive committee has established an ad hoc committee to investigate
electronic voting for all elections. According to the Faculty Handbook, the
Faculty Service Committee determines how votes are held. We will invite the
Forum committee to make a presentation to the Faculty Service Committee on
their proposal.
Finally, several years ago the committee had proposed to the
Handbook Committee that Faculty Service Committee member terms be three years
instead of two. This would be more consistent with the other committees on
campus. We will re-submit that proposal, as the Handbook Committee will be
re-evaluating sections of the Faculty Handbook this fall.
The meeting adjourned at
Amended and accepted