At-large members of the Faculty Senate are being phased out over the next three years to create a more proportionate representation among colleges, the Faculty Senate chair said.Chair Suzy Lockwood said Faculty Senate members wanted to make sure the colleges are equally represented. At-large members are elected to represent the entire faculty but are often influenced by their specific college, Lockwood said.

The new bylaws phase out the at-large members over the next three years, allowing the 10 current at-large members to serve until their terms are finished. Though the at-large members will not be re-elected, each college will be allocated more seats to minimize change in the total number of senators.

The Faculty Governance Committee had been working on changing the membership and elections sections of the bylaws for several years. The new bylaws were approved in March, and will go into effect in the elections this spring.

Nadia Lahutsky, a former chair of the Faculty Governance Committee from 2005 to 2006, said many senators thought the at-large members allowed unfair representation among colleges.

“There were a number of folks in the senate who had violent negative reactions to the at-large members,” Lahutsky said.

She said the bylaw change was approved without serious opposition from senators.

Keith Whitworth, Faculty Senate secretary and an at-large member, said, “I am not aware of any negative response from members at-large.”

Other motives cited for the change were to encourage active membership from the senators and to make the election process easier to understand.

“We wanted to make sure that those who were in the Faculty Senate were able to participate at the level that was expected,” Lockwood said.

Ranae Stetson, chair of the Faculty Senate Governance Committee, said the bylaws still have to be approved by the provost and the Board of Trustees before they can be used in the upcoming election.

Lockwood said because of the increase in the number of senators per college, the size of the senate will probably not be reduced.

The old bylaws allow one seat for every 11 full-time faculty members in each college and an additional seat for six or more full-time faculty beyond multiples of 11.

The new bylaws allocate one seat for every nine full-time faculty members in each college, and an additional seat for five or more full-time faculty beyond multiples of nine.

The future size of the senate will be determined after a recensus of full-time faculty in each college.

The new bylaws also removed references to paper ballots. The Senate now has an electronic voting system that is used instead of paper ballots.

Lahutsky said overall the new bylaws are “updated and streamlined.”

Also, she said the bylaws allow the election committee to fill any seats left empty by a college unable to fill their allocated positions. Lastly, the bylaws call for a review of the changes after three years to ensure the program has been implemented successfully and is meeting the needs of the Faculty Senate.