Proposed Constitutional Amendment regarding Staff Representation on the Academic Senate

The Executive Committee recommends the following change to the Constitution of the Faculty of San Francisco State University, Article IV, Section 1.F, “Membership of the Academic Senate.”    This change is required because the San Francisco State University Staff Council no longer exists and we need to provide a different mechanism for acquiring the required staff representation.  The Academic Senate approved this change at its meeting of April 24, 2001.  However, a quorum of eligible faculty was not achieved on the first ballot (September 2001) nor on a second ballot (April 2002).

Constitutional amendments are governed by the following provision of the Faculty Constitution:

Article V, Section 2-Amendment.  Amendments to this Constitution may be initiated in the same way that any other motions are initiated by the Academic Senate or may be initiated by members of the Faculty calling for a general meeting of the Faculty, as provided for elsewhere in the Constitution.  Proposed amendments adopted by the Academic Senate following its usual rules for the adoption of motions, shall be presented in written form to the voting members of the Faculty, as elsewhere defined in this Constitution, and shall be adopted by a favorable majority vote by the members of the Faculty who vote, but shall not be amended if fewer favorable ballots are cast than the number comprising a quorum of the Faculty.”

Current text of Article IV, Section 1.F:

F. One staff member.  The qualifications and means of selection for such staff member shall be determined by the San Francisco State University Staff Council.

Proposed amendment:

F. One staff member to be selected by staff voting in a campus-wide election.   When staff representation on a committee is required by Senate policy, and after a campus-wide call for nominations, staff may be appointed from the pool of nominees by the Executive Committee to serve on such committees.  The process stated in this section F supersedes any process described in current Academic Senate policies.