Senate Elections

The process for conducting college elections to identify colleges’ representatives on Senate takes place every spring, in the middle of the spring semester.

Per Senate Rules 1.2.2.1.1, the Senate's Rules and Elections Committee (SREC) gathers information on the numbers of full-time students in each college (graduate students belong to the college in which their degree program is homed, not the Graduate School) and the number of faculty in each college.

For purposes of Senate election exercises, “faculty” are considered to be: full-time tenure/tenure track faculty (Regular, Special, Extension, Librarian Title Series) with the rank of assistant professor or higher; (b) full-time non-tenure track faculty (Clinical, Research Title Series) with the rank of assistant professor or higher; and (c) full-time lecturers and instructors.

Based on these numbers, the SREC apportions seats to each college – from year to year, a college may gain or lose a seat(s) based on fluctuations in the numbers of faculty and students. Even if a college loses a seat, all senators currently seated remain members of Senate – no senator ever loses a seat because of a drop in the number of seats apportioned to that senator’s college.

The apportionment of Senate seats is calculated using the method of equal proportion used by the Census Bureau in calculating Congressional seats.

The apportionment is based on a complex “population value”, Pu, calculated as:

Pu = 1/2 (Fu/Fe + Su/Se)

where Fu is the number of eligible faculty, Su is the number of full-time students in the unit, Fe is the total number of eligible faculty in all units, and Se is the total number of eligible students in all units.

A formula is used to calculate “priority values” for the nth seat (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.) for each college according to:

Priority value for the nth seat of each college = Pu/[n(n-1)]1/2

The seats are assigned based on the above priority values until all seats are allocated. In case of a tie in granting the last seat, the college with smaller number of allocated seats up to that point is awarded the seat. Any further tie is resolved by a random draw.

In mid-spring, SC staff will send an email to each college dean with information about how many seats the college currently has, the number of seats they are apportioned to have in the coming academic year, the number of senators whose terms will end, and, most importantly, the number of seats the college must fill in its springtime election. (Colleges that do not need to conduct an election receive an email notification of that.) Colleges have until last spring to conduct their elections AND submit results to the SC office.

Upon receipt of the results, the SREC will review college procedures and the election results. If the SREC encounters a problem with a college’s election process, it shall contact the dean of the college.

Upon receipt of the email with information about apportionment, the faculty of the college must conduct its election for senators. The election must be conducted by secret ballot by a procedure approved by the faculty of the college. When the election is complete and results are in, the college must send to the SC office the following information:

SC staff will ensure that letters of appointment are sent to each senator, typically by late spring. The letters of appointment will also include a sheet on which newly elected senators can request appointment to one of the Senate’s committees. Although senators are asked to note their top three choices, senators are typically only assigned to one committee.

• A copy of election procedures, which must include any college policy under which faculty employees have been extended voting privileges for senator elections by the authorized college faculty body; and
• The names of the elected Faculty Senators whom the college faculty proposes for seating in the Senate, along with their email address and UKID.

According to Human Resources Policy & Procedure Administrative Regulation #4 and GR VII.A 4 regular full-time tenured and tenure-eligible faculty at or above the rank of Assistant Professor are automatically eligible to vote and run in their college's Senate elections, subject to the three exceptions below:

• Term limits for elected faculty senators
  • According to the Senate Rules (SR 1.2.2.1.3), faculty members who have served two consecutive Senate terms must remain out of Senate for a year and are ineligible to run in a Senate election. However, these individuals may still vote in elections. 
• Faculty employees in administrative officer positions
  • According to HRPP AR 4.0 and GR VII.A.4, all faculty employees who have been appointed to administrative positions at or above the level of department chair are not eligible to vote or run in their college’s Senate elections.
  • GR VII defines the organizational structure of the university and identifies two types of “administrative officers” (GR VII.F). There are “general” administrative officers (GR VII.B.2 and GR VII.F.1), and there are administrative officers of “educational units” (GR VII.B.1 and GR VII.F.2). The former group includes the President and those persons who, according to AR 1.1, report directly to the President, namely the Provost, the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, other vice presidents, the General Counsel, and the Director of Athletics. The latter group includes the Dean of the Graduate School, the Dean of the Honors College, the Dean of the Libraries (GR VII.C.5), deans of the colleges, directors of schools, chairs of departments, and directors of multidisciplinary research centers and institutes (GR VII.C.5).
  • GR VII establishes that all of the above-named administrative officer positions are at or above the level of department chair. The Senate Rules and Elections Committee (SREC) interprets that all assistant-, associate-, vice-, deputy-, and other similar positions attached to any of the above-named administrative officers other than department chairs and directors of multidisciplinary research centers and institutes are also administrative positions at or above the level of department chair and as such are likewise ineligible to vote or run in their college’s Senate elections (HRPP AR 4.0).

  • The SREC interprets that persons employed in any of the above-named positions on an interim or acting basis are also ineligible to vote or run in their college’s Senate elections.

  • The exception to this exception is that, if otherwise eligible, chairs and directors of MDRC educational units whose administrative terms are ending prior to the start of next Senate term are allowed to vote and run in their college’s Senate elections as per HRPP AR 4.0.

• Faculty employees with 50% or more total administrative time

  • According to HRPP AR 4.0, faculty employees are ineligible to vote or run in their college’s Senate elections if they have a 50% or more total effort assigned to administrative activities. The percent of one’s appointment time that is assigned to administration or to other activities is recorded on the faculty employee’s annual distribution of effort (DOE) form.

  • The SREC assumes that the DOE percentages from the faculty employee’s online DOE form accurately reflect effort assigned to those various activities, including administration. The SREC further assumes that administrators have characterized (e.g., on the online DOE forms) faculty activities in the areas of service and administration using the same criteria that the SREC uses. However, anyone may contact the SREC Chair to challenge these SREC assumptions.

  • What are administrative activities?

    In general, if the President, other administrative officer, or persons in administrative positions identified as administrative officers above delegate to a faculty employee on a regular or reoccurring basis any portion of their assigned authorities or responsibilities (see GR III.A), then effort spent to fulfill those delegated authorities or responsibilities is administrative effort for the purposes of determining election eligibilities. Such efforts count towards the 50% limit on administrative effort.

  • What are not administrative activities?

    When faculty employees serve in positions that are elected, appointed, or created by faculty governance bodies pursuant to established regulations or faculty rules (e.g., University Senators, Senate Officers, or parallel college positions) or that result from short lists of candidates submitted by such faculty governance bodies to administrative officers (e.g., Academic Area Advising Committee members), the SREC characterizes such efforts in such positions as service, not administration. Such efforts do not count towards the 50% limit on administrative effort.

College faculty members who are "automatically eligible" to vote and run in their college’s Senate elections may allow regular, full-time employees of the college in the Lecturer Series (AR 2.9) or Clinical Title Series (AR 2.6) to vote and run in the college’s Senate elections, subject to the constraint that not more than 25% of a college’s total Senators may be in the Clinical Title Series (AR 2.6.VIII.C).

Similarly, college faculty members who are "automatically eligible" to vote and run in their college’s Senate elections may allow regular, full-time employees of the college in the Research Title Series to vote (but not run) in the college’s Senate elections (AR 2.5.VII.B).

The extension of such privileges to Lecturer, Clinical, and Research series faculty to participate in the college’s Senate elections must be shown in the most recent College Faculty Rules document that have been approved by the Provost and filed by the Provost with the Senate Council Office. It is that official document that SREC uses to certify the eligibility of any Lecturer, Clinical, or Research series faculty in a college. The College Faculty Rules documents that the Provost has filed to the Senate Office are posted at THIS site.

As per SR 1.2.2.1.2, using a secret ballot will ensure that all faculty eligible to serve have the opportunity to be nominated or to self-nominate. Elections must be conducted via secret ballot, by a procedure approved by the College Faculty, also documented in the approved College Faculty Rules document.

As part of your election process, please confirm that your college’s total number of elected Senators from the Clinical Title Series is not more than 25% of your college’s total number of Senators (AR 2.6.VIII.C).

Please also confirm that the newly elected Senators are willing to serve and are available to attend the Senate meetings on the second Monday of the month (3-5 p.m.) during the academic year. Willingness to serve on a Senate committee is also expected. Once this has been confirmed, please send the names of each newly elected senator, their UKID and LinkBlue ID, and each person’s email address to Dori Grady (dori.grady@uky.edu).