Oakland University Senate

First Meeting
September 19, 1973

MINUTES

Present: A quorum
Absent: Senators H. Burdick, K. Coffman, J. Hovanesian, T. Kilburn, A. Liboff, W. Sturner, and N. Susskind.

President O'Dowd made some informal comments and responded to questions from the floor commencing at 3:25 p.m. The meeting was formally called to order at 3:40 p.m.

Upon motion by Mr. Obear, seconded by Mr. Beardman, the minutes of the twelfth and thirteenth meetings of 1972-73 (June 13, 1973 and June 20, 1973) were approved. (A copy of these minutes is attached so that those senators who graciously approved them sight unseen may know what they have done.)

A. Old Business

None

B. New Business

Election of the Steering Committee

Mr. Light, with the assistance of Senators Feeman and L. Gerulaitis, conducted the election. Mr. Seeber noted an apparent deficiency in the Senate Constitution, namely, that there is no designated Steering Committee seat for a senator from the School of Economics and Management. Mr. Obear noted that this is an historical problem, since the Senate Constitution was approved before either the School of Economics and Management or the Kresge Library faculties were organized. He suggested that a correction should be made through the balloting process since a constitutional amendment process would take substantial time and an election delay would severely hamper Senate activities.

The following nominations were made for the first election:

Graber, Strauss, Tower, DeMent, D. Burdick, and Haskell. Since Mr. Haskell and Mr. Graber were unopposed for the School of Engineering and School of Education seats respectively, they assumed those seats without formal vote. By a secret written ballot process, Mr. Strauss was elected to the Arts and Sciences seat.

The following persons were nominated for the at-large seats:

Senators Covert, Tower, Solomon, Ban-on, Riley, H. Burdick, Akers, McKay, Feeman, and Brieger. Senators Riley and Akers withdrew their names from consideration. As a result of written balloting. Senators Covert, McKay, and Tower were elected to the Steering Committee.

Some discussion ensued over the problem of Senators who hold joint appointments. For Steering Committee election purposes, what constituency do they represent? After some discussion, there seemed to be consensus that a Senator represented the assembly which had elected him to the Senate. Mr. O'Dowd asked Mr. Light to prepare a statement of election procedure to provide guidance to future Election Committees. Such statement is attached to these minutes.

2. Motion from the Academic Standing and Honors Committee.

Ms. Orton, outgoing chairperson of the Academic Standing and Honors Committee was present to present materials related to the June 22, 1973 graduation list. However, because Ms. Orton is not currently a senator, motions from the Committee were formally made by Mr. Matthews.

* a. Mr. Matthews, seconded by Mr. Torch, moved

"THAT MOTIONS b, c, and d BELOW BE APPROVED FOR FINAL VOTE AT THIS MEETING."

Approved.

b. Mr. Matthews, seconded by Mr. Seeber, moved

* "THAT THE FACULTY OF OAKLAND NOMINATE FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE THE STUDENTS NAMED ON THE LIST DISTRIBUTED WITH THE AGENDA TO THE MEETING." (A COPY IS ATTACHED TO THE FILE COPY OF THESE MINUTES.)

Approved.

c. Mr. Matthews, seconded by Mr. Lind, moved

* "THAT THE SENATE FIND APPROPRIATE FOR UNIVERSITY HONORS PURPOSES THOSE GRADE POINT AVERAGES SET FORTH ON A LIST DISTRIBUTED AT THE MEETING WHICH ARE 3.60 AND ABOVE." (A COPY OF THIS LIST IS ATTACHED TO THE FILE COPY OF THESE MINUTES.

Approved.

d. Mr. Matthews, seconded by Dean Hetenyi, moved

* "THAT UNIVERSITY HONORS BE AWARDED TO THOSE PERSONS NAMED ON A LIST DISTRIBUTED AT THE MEETING." (A COPY OF THIS LIST IS ATTACHED TO THE FILE COPY OF THESE MINUTES.)

Because of some confusion about the wording of the motion, Mr. Seeber, seconded by Mr. Strauss, moved that the motion be amended by adding after the word "meeting", "consistent with the action voted in c." Amendment approved.

* Main motion approved.

The chair thanked Ms. Orton for her services. A list of departmental honors was distributed for the information of the Senate. (A copy of that list is attached to the file copy of these minutes.)

Upon a motion to adjourn made by Mr. L. Gerulaitis and seconded by Mr. Hetenyi, the meeting ended at 4:35 p.m.

Robert H. Bunger, Secretary
University Senate
Office of the Provost/or
9/25/73

*Motions and amendments adopted at this meeting.


PROCEDURES UTILIZED IN THE STEERING COMMITTEE ELECTION, SEPTEMBER, 1973
1. The election is divided into two separate elections. First the designated seats (one each for Arts and Sciences, Education, Engineering--a seat is not designated for Economics and Management or for the Library) are to be elected.

 2. Nominations are received from the floor. If five or more nominees for each seat to be elected are received, there will be a runoff election between the top two candidates. Otherwise, a plurality of votes suffices.

3. If only one nominee for a designated seat is received, that person is presumed chosen by acclamation and need not be voted formally.

4. Although it was overlooked this time, persons with joint appointments are presumed to be sitting in the Senate as representative of their constituency, unless they specifically declare otherwise, in order to determine who is eligible for nomination for the designated seats.

5. Voting is on a blank sheet of paper; one sheet for each seat to be elected. While this method is an honor system, since it does not inherently preclude voting more than once for a single candidate, it has the substantial advantage of speeding the vote outcome, since ballots may be sorted, counted and recounted instead of being read and tallied, re-read and re-tallied.

6. The three at-large seats are then elected. All Senators are eligible for election. There is a provision that no more than three Steering Committee members may be from a single school or college. If the vote count would result in the election of a fourth Steering Committee member from the same constituency including the designated seat, the nominee with the lowest vote total will be eliminated and the first highest vote total for a nominee from a different school or college will be considered elected.

7. The runoff threshold is again a multiple of four for each seat to be elected. Thus, if twelve or fewer nominees are running, the three highest vote totals will win. If there are thirteen or more nominees, a runoff election of the top six will be held.

8. Each Senator receives three blank ballots. He may vote only once for any single candidate, but he may return one or two blank bat tots.