University Senate Quick Reference Guide

Welcome

Welcome to the Purdue University Senate! This quick reference guide is intended to help orient new Senators for their shared governance work. We hope you will find it helpful, and we welcome additional queries and suggestions.

Established in 1964, the University Senate is the governing body of the faculty, and it exercises the legislative and policy-making powers assigned to the faculty. Subject to the authority of the Board of Trustees, and in consultation with the President, it has the power and responsibility to propose or to adopt policies, regulations, and procedures intended to achieve the educational objectives of Purdue University and the general welfare of those involved in these educational processes.

What are the most important aspects of being a Senator?

1. Try to be prepared for meetings. Be familiar with parliamentary procedure, and spend time carefully reading any documents circulated with the Senate agenda. If you have feedback on a Document, it is ideal if the Committee Chair presenting it hears from you in time to make revisions.
2. Senators are a crucial nexus of information for faculty. Please try to report regularly to your unit on Senate activities, and solicit the opinions of your colleagues on proposals before the Senate.

Who is on the Senate?

There are 104 Senators, and around 16 Advisors to the Senate. Most Senators are sent by their academic units according to an annual apportionment, but there are a few ex officio members as well: Purdue’s President, Provost, and Chief Fiscal Officer. In addition to the Senate Chair and Vice Chair (who are considered senators at large), we also have one representative each from Purdue Northwest, Purdue Fort Wayne, and IUPUI, as well as from the West Lafayette Purdue Student Government and West Lafayette Purdue Graduate Student Government.

Who can be a Senator?

Tenured, tenure-track, and clinical faculty can be chosen by their academic units to serve as Senators.

Who can vote on Senate matters?

When the full body of the Senate convenes, all Senators, including the Chair, Vice Chair, and regular ex officio Senators, are entitled to the vote.

Advisors to the Senate may not vote in full Senate meetings, but they do have full floor privileges. This means that they may speak, make motions, and raise points of order. When they serve on Standing Committees, Senate Advisors may vote on committee business.

NB: The immediate past chair of the Senate is a non-voting ex officio member of the Senate with full floor privileges, unless they are fulfilling the end of their Senate term or have just been elected to a second term. In that case, they maintain the right to vote as well.

Because the Chair is the most visible person in a meeting and has the most potentially dramatic role, we often focus too much on that person and not enough on the individual members. But without the members, of course, there would be no meeting; nor will the meeting be effective if the members are not. —Canon’s Concise Guide to Rules of Order

Secretary of Faculties:

The Secretary of Faculties acts as the Secretary to the Senate and Parliamentarian to the Senate. To the utmost extent possible, she will also act as a floor parliamentarian during meetings, although her primary function there is to assist the presider. Outside of meetings, she is happy to assist any Senators with questions about how to bring motions, navigate parliamentary norms, time actions, etc.

Executive Assistant to the Senate:

The Executive Assistant serves as the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate. They are the first point of contact for any questions you have about attendance, scheduling, or committee assignments.

Chair of the Senate:

The Chair of the Senate has a dedicated email account (senate-chair@purdue.edu) and can be reached via the web form from the Senate website. Questions for Question Time and Advisory Committee should be routed to the Senate Chair.

Chair of the Steering Committee:

The Chair of the Steering Committee is the primary point of contact for anyone who wishes to have a motion added to the Senate agenda, or looking to have an issue assigned to a proper Standing Committee.

Every regular Senate meeting includes at least ten minutes made available for Question Time. Each month, a call will go out for pre-submission of questions, which will either receive written answers posted to the Senate’s website, will be answered during Question Time, or both. It is possible to ask questions that were not pre-submitted, time permitting, but this is not preferred.

It is often unclear to anyone who has not been through the process just how much time it takes to usher policy through the University Senate. When planning, please keep in mind the following: 

1. Standing Committee Documents must be routed to the Steering Committee for placement on the Senate’s agenda
2. Most Documents are presented twice: once for discussion, and once for action. To suspend the rules and take immediate action requires a 2/3 majority vote
3. It is expected that revision to a Document may occur between meetings in response to Senate feedback. Amendments may be submitted in writing to the Steering Committee between meetings
4. Agendas in March and April tend to be crowded—please plan accordingly
5. If you want any legislation passed via usual procedures by the end of the year, it would need to be routed to Steering by 1 March 2024—please plan accordingly

How does this look from the ground? Let’s say your constituent group has an idea for a proposal about cancelling class on 29 March 2024 so that the campus community can find out what happens in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The last meeting of the Senate before 20 March 2024 is on 18 March 2024, but that’s cutting things awfully close, so we ought to shoot for the 22 January 2024 meeting. The appropriate Standing Committee (probably the EPC here) would need to be willing to present the item for discussion at the meeting prior to this—on 20 November 2023. But wait! This means the Document would need to be ready to go to the Steering Committee for agenda assignment on 3 November 2023. And so it would need to go to the Standing Committee several weeks (preferably a month) before then, to allow the committee time to debate, revise, and vote on the measure. You’d better get started working in the early fall.

Purdue University Senate follows the American Institute of Parliamentarians Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure (AIPSC, or sometimes called “Standard Code”) unless our Bylaws contradict it, in which case we follow our Bylaws.

Be not afraid. AIPSC is not very different from Robert’s Rules for most common actions; in several cases it is simpler and more straightforward to use and learn.

Here are a few common actions you may wish to use:

If you know you will be making a presentation to the Senate—e.g., suggesting an amendment; advocating for or against a particular Document; etc.—there are some steps you can take to ensure things will go smoothly.

1. If you want to distribute material to your colleagues for feedback ahead of time or to help them prepare for the meeting, the Secretary of Faculties can usually help to facilitate this.
2. For amendments, if you know you will be proposing one, please be sure to send a clear copy of the amendment you to the Secretary of Faculties by noon on the Friday before the Senate meeting. (Ideally, amendments would be routed through Steering, but can be accommodated later in the process as necessary.)
3. If you plan to use slides, the Secretary of Faculties must receive your files by noon on the Friday before the Senate meeting.
4. Please employ universal design principles in constructing your presentation. This means:
   • use large, simple fonts
   • use background and text colors that are high in contrast
   • do not try to convey information using color alone
   • when possible, use clear, simple language and keywords and phrases rather than full sentences
   • spell out abbreviations and acronyms when first used
   • videos used in your presentation must be captioned
   • images used in slides must have alt text included
   • make sure links are meaningful for colleagues using a screen reader; never use “click here” for a link

(Note: The Secretary of Faculties is available to advise on these issues in more detail): 

An essential part of a Senator’s charge is to keep their constituents informed of Senate business, and to solicit the opinions of those constituents on Senate goals and proposed actions.

To facilitate communication, the Office of the Secretary of Faculties:

• Maintains the Senate website, where general resources as well as recent Documents, Senate presentations, minutes, Question Time answers, etc. can be found.
• Circulates the Senate Newsletter within a day or two of each Senate meeting, and encourages its wide circulation
• Is available for consultation with any Senator who needs additional information about ongoing business or parliamentary procedure.
• Arranges for Senate meetings to be livestreamed, so that interested faculty members may watch.

Senate meetings 2023-2024
(2:30-5pm; plan to try to arrive early)

• Monday, September 11, 2023
• Monday, October 16, 2023
• Monday, November 20, 2023
• Monday, January 22, 2024
• Monday, February 19, 2024
• Monday, March 18, 2024
• Monday, April 15, 2024

Steering Committee meetings 2023-2024
(NB: Materials are always due by noon the Friday BEFORE the Steering Committee meeting.)

• Monday, August 28, 2023
• Monday, October 02, 2023
• Monday, November 06, 2023
• Monday, January 08, 2024
• Monday, February 05, 2024
• Monday, March 04, 2024
• Monday, April 01, 2024

Memorial resolutions previously prepared by colleagues and read at a College/School faculty meeting should be sent to the Secretary of Faculties for inclusion in the agenda for an upcoming Senate meeting. During the Senate meeting, names of colleagues for whom memorial resolutions have been submitted are announced, and a moment of silence is observed. After the Senate meeting, the Secretary of Faculties sends a letter to the family with condolences and indicates that the resolution is now included in the Senate record.