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Charter and By Laws of the Faculty Senate

CHARTER OF THE FACULTY SENATE.

FUNCTION. The Faculty Senate shall function as the official coordinating body of faculty views
relating to the academic activities of this institution and shall provide policy guidance for the
administration on all matters pertaining to the welfare, conduct, and involvement of employed
human resources.

The Faculty Senate shall be charged with the responsibility of providing the President and other
members of the administration with a consensus of faculty thinking of the following areas of
interest:
  1. Academic procedures,
  2. Academic standards, including admission, progress, and graduation,
  3. Development leaves,
  4. Faculty recruitment and employment,
  5. Faculty research,
  6. Faculty retirement, insurance, and fringe benefits,
  7. Faculty tenure, promotion, and termination,
  8. Teaching loads,
  9. Oversight, review, and revision of the Faculty Handbook,
  10. Fiscal affairs, and
  11. Strategic Planning

Senate deliberation and action may result either from a request for policy guidance by the
administration or from the request of the faculty it represents. The Senate may make
recommendations to the appropriate official on any matters which it considers to be of concern
to the welfare of the faculty.


PROCEDURE. The Faculty Senate shall be organized as a legislative body. It shall elect a
president and other such officers as provided for in its bylaws. In its bylaws, the Senate shall
establish rules to govern its general meetings, executive sessions, special hearings, and other
procedural matters.

The Senate shall determine a regular meeting place, hour, and day for monthly meetings.
Within a week of approval by the Faculty Senate, the minutes will be posted on a university
webpage where they will be accessible to the broader Lamar community and the general
public. The Senate shall meet at other times on the request of the president, the provost, the
president of the Senate, or on the written request of five members of the Senate.

INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM. Twenty percent of the voting faculty or a simple majority of the
voting faculty of a particular college may petition the Faculty Senate to consider a specific
proposal. Consideration then must be given this proposal by the Faculty Senate. If 20 percent of
the voting faculty requests a referendum on a specific issue, it shall be mandatory upon the
Faculty Senate to submit such issue to a vote of the entire voting faculty. A simple majority of
those voting are sufficient to approve such proposals. When a vacancy occurs in the Office of
the President, the Faculty Senate shall ascertain the recommendation of the faculty through
use of recognized research techniques and shall serve as the official voice of the faculty in
relaying the recommendation to the Board of Regents with a copy to the officer in charge of the
university.

STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION. Members of the Senate shall be elected for three-year,
staggered terms (one-third being elected each year). The terms of office shall begin with the
first day of each fall semester. Elections shall be held in March in each academic college under
the supervision of the senate president, vice president and secretary. Vacancies shall be filled
by special elections called by the senate president.

Tenured or full-time faculty members, excluding those with administrative assignments at the
instructional department chair level or above, shall be eligible to vote for senators if they have
completed one year's service at Lamar. These eligible voters shall constitute the voting faculty.
Tenured or full-time faculty members, excluding those with administrative assignments at the
instructional department chair level or above, shall be eligible to election to the Senate if they
have completed three years' service at Lamar prior to assuming office. Senate faculty members
who are appointed to interim or permanent administrative assignments at the department
chair level or above shall resign their Senate position immediately upon appointment and the
respective college shall hold an election for that replacement.

Each academic college shall be represented by at least one at-large senator, together with a
number of other senators that normally should not exceed 12 percent of the college's full-time
faculty computed to the nearest whole number. Each department within a college shall be
represented by a senator elected by the voting faculty of that department and chosen from the
eligible faculty of the college containing the department. Any department with 13 or more
faculty members shall elect 2 senators. Each college shall have at least the departmental
senators and one at-large senator. If any additional senators are required in order for a college
to achieve its 12 percent representation, then the additional senators shall be elected as atlarge
senators by the faculty of the college. The Library faculty shall elect two senators. The
number of senators to be elected by each academic college shall be determined by March 1 of
each year by the office of the associate provost and the President of the Faculty Senate.
 

BYLAWS OF THE FACULTY SENATE.

NAME. The name of the organization shall be the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Faculty Senate.

PURPOSE. The object of this organization is to serve and function as the representative,
deliberative, and legislative body for the faculty at Â鶹ÊÓƵ.

MEMBERS. In accordance with the Charter of the Senate, the voting membership will include
elected departmental representatives, at-large representatives from each college.

OFFICERS. The officers shall be a president, vice president, and a secretary. Officers shall be
elected biennially from the membership following the conclusion of the last regularly scheduled
meeting of the spring semester. Newly elected officers will officially hold office from the first
regularly scheduled meeting of the following fall semester.
Eligible voters will be the duly elected senators for the upcoming fall semester. Voting shall be
by secret ballot.

Officers will be elected from a ballot prepared by the Nominations Committee. It will be the
responsibility of the Nominations Committee to meet and propose a slate of officer candidates
no later than two weeks before the May meeting. The secretary of the Senate will distribute the
list of candidates to each Senator one week before the May meeting. Voting will be by secret
ballot if more than one candidate is nominated for an officer position.

An officer may be elected to the same office for two successive terms. After a lapse of two
years, the individual is eligible again for election to that same office. The individual may be
elected to a different office without the two-year lap. An elected officer in the third year of his
or her term will automatically have his or her term extended by one year.
Officers who resign their position without fulfilling the term of their office shall be replaced at
the next regular Senate meeting through nominations from the floor and voting by a majority of
those senators present.

The Senate shall work with each college dean to create a plan to assure the balancing of terms
of Senate members in accordance with the CHARTER. Senate officers shall be responsible for
monitoring each college's procedure.

The president shall preside at all meetings, appoint committees, and serve as the official
representative of the Faculty Senate in situations where such representation is necessary or
desirable. With the vice president and the secretary, the president shall set priorities for the
monthly agenda. The vice president shall carry out all duties of the president when the
president is absent.

The secretary shall write and distribute minutes and announcements, take care of general
correspondence, and be custodians of all Senate records, policies, and proceedings. In the
absence of both president and vice president, the secretary shall preside until a president protem
can be elected. The secretary shall issue the call for election of Senate members in March
and shall receive results of the elections.

MEETINGS. The Senate shall hold a regular meeting during the first week of each month,
September through May, or, if the university is not in session the first week of a particular
month, September through May, the Senate shall hold its regular meeting during the first week
the university is in session for that month. Special meetings may be called as stated in the
charter under PROCEDURE. All full-time faculty members, exclusive of department chairs and
above, are welcome to the meetings of the Faculty Senate except in rare cases when either the
officers or the Senate deems a closed meeting is necessary. Visitors will be allowed the floor
only by Senate invitation. A regularly-scheduled meeting may be canceled or postponed at the
immediately-preceding meeting by a two-thirds vote of the membership.

An agenda for each regular meeting shall be established, and the membership informed, as far
in advance as possible, but with never less than seven days' notice. New business not on the
agenda may be introduced, but no action shall be taken until a later meeting. A formal agenda
is not necessary when a special meeting for emergency discussion and action is called.
Each senator, including the officers, shall have one vote. Senators shall be regarded as either
present or absent; there shall be no substitutes and no proxies. A quorum shall be a simple
majority.

Senators are expected to attend and actively participate in regular Senate meetings, Senate
committee meetings, and special called meetings. Senators who are absent from more than
three regular Senate meetings or Senate committee meetings in an academic year will be
notified that their attendance is unacceptable and that their name will be dropped from the
Senate roster, unless the Senate president determines that there are compelling reasons for
the absences. The Senate president will call a special election to replace any Senator that has
been dropped from the roster.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. The Executive Committee of the Senate consists of the Officers of the
Senate together with the chairs of each of the standing committees.

COMMITTEES. The President of the Senate may establish such Standing and Ad Hoc
Committees as is deemed appropriate. Except as may be otherwise provided, the President
shall appoint the members and chair of any such committees; and such members and chair
shall serve during the Senate President's term of office unless the committee is earlier dissolved
or the President acts to replace a member or a committee chair.

The nominations committee shall consist of one senator from each college and the Library.
Senators from the separate colleges and the Library will meet and select a Nominations
Committee representative. The president should appoint a representative to serve as the
committee chair.

PARLIMENTARY PROCEDURE. In all circumstances not covered by the Charter or the Bylaws,
Roberts’ Rules of Order shall prevail.

AMENDMENTS. Bylaws may be amended by two-thirds majority vote, but must be proposed at
the meeting prior to the taking of the vote.