In this series of blog posts, I hope to explain how the USF Faculty Senate operates. Let’s start at the beginning with the Faculty Senate’s two most important documents: its Constitution and its Bylaws. Just as many national governments and U.S. states are governed by a constitution, the Faculty Senate is governed by both a constitution and a set of bylaws. Both documents can be found on the Faculty Senate’s website under “Documents and Archives.”
The Constitution of the Faculty of the University of South Florida is the Faculty Senate’s highest-ranking document, which defines
- who qualifies as a member of the USF general faculty and how often the general faculty should meet
- the USF Faculty Senate’s function, jurisdiction, membership, apportionment, elections, officers, and meetings
- the role of the Faculty Senate in submitting names for consultation in the selection of University President nominees
- the types of committees and councils that do the primary work of the Faculty Senate
- the procedure to amend the Constitution
- the limitations of the Constitution as its provisions relate to Florida law, the policies of Board of Governors and of the Board of Trustees, and the contractual agreements between the Board of Trustees and bargaining agents
Meanwhile, the Bylaws to the Constitution of the Faculty of the University of South Florida goes into more details regarding
- the membership and duties of the Faculty Senate
- the meetings
- the committees and councils (including specific names)
- issues relating to attendance and vacancies relating to Faculty Senators
- the standing rules and policies of the Faculty Senate
- the reference document to be used to handle rules of order (specifically, the latest edition of Robert’s Rules of Order)
- the procedure to amend the Bylaws
- a special provision relating to Consolidation that requires a review of the two documents to see what additional changes might be needed.