Changes coming to UNT faculty election process

The role of the Faculty Senate, according to its charter, is to "decide and promulgate academic policy (except tenure and review policy) for the university" as well as to consider "all other matters of general welfare to the university including matters raised by ... any full-time faculty member." Obviously, for such to occur, the Faculty Senate not only needs maximum participation by the faculty, but also must make itself available to faculty and respond to their ideas and concerns.

To that end, I would like to bring to your attention three recent senate decisions arising because of faculty input and interests:

1. The recent change in the Faculty Senate election procedure. In an effort to respond to faculty comments or apprehensions, the senate has restructured the election process. We are no longer using WebCT. Instead, you may now choose to cast your vote using a paper ballot. We are sending out ballots electronically. If you reply electronically, we will print out the ballot and it will be counted without any identifying information. If you prefer, you may print a hard copy of the ballot using either Word or Adobe Acrobat. You can then mark your choices on the printed ballot, put it in a blank envelope, and put that envelope into a second envelope on which you print your name and department and add your signature. You then may return the whole thing (by hand or campus mail) to the Faculty Senate office in Wooten Hall, Room 162. The only reason a signature is required is to guarantee that only eligible faculty members vote and that the one-person/one-vote concept is ensured.

2. The change in the procedure to evaluate administrators. Faculty comments have led the senate this year to implement a process similar to the election process in the evaluation of administrators. This year you can respond via the paper process as described above. Hopefully, a secondary result will also be a higher participation rate and, thus, validity.

3. The collection of departmental charters. This year the Faculty Senate has been working to obtain a copy of each department's charter in order to create a central, "neutral" repository. Faculty could then consult the charters at their leisure without fear of someone looking over their shoulder if, for example, they were considering filing a grievance. The next step of the process is to put the charters on the senate web site (or link to them if they are already online).

Hopefully, these changes will lead faculty to become even more involved in the "community of scholars." The Faculty Senate exists for faculty members. Let us know if and how we can be of service.

Jeffrey Oxford, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, is chair of the UNT Faculty Senate. A Faculty Senate column runs in InHouse every other month.

Other featured articles in this issue

• UNT's first vice president for research and technology transfer named
• Promoting a safe spring break
• Regents assess new parking rates for 2003-04 school year
• North Texas Jazz Festival set April 4-6 in Addison
• The First Great UNT Cleanup
• Pohl talks to Faculty Senate about budget
• How the HIPAA privacy rule affects UNT researchers
• University, Honors, Alumni days in April
• Chicago will be talk of town at Academy Awards, film historian says

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