4.1 Election Administration

Elections to the University Council shall be administered and supervised by the University Council Elections Committee.

4.2 College and University Libraries Faculty Elections

4.21 Elections of representatives to the University Council from college and university libraries faculties shall be initiated by the Elections Committee no later than the third week of February of each year for terms beginning the following fall semester.

4.22 The Elections Committee shall inform each college and the university libraries of the number of positions to be filled by the faculty of that unit and ask the unit to forward to it a list of nominees drawn from the unit's faculty members qualified for election to the University Council. Each college and the university libraries shall submit to the Elections Committee, no later than the first week in March, the number of such names equal to no fewer than two (2) times the number of representatives to be elected from the college. Each college and the university libraries shall determine in a faculty referendum its own procedures for developing its list of nominees to be submitted to the Elections Committee. These procedures shall be transmitted to the executive secretary of the University Council and shall remain in force until amended in a subsequent referendum.

4.23 The executive secretary of the University Council will contact each finalist to determine the faculty member's willingness to serve. The Elections Committee shall then cause to be circulated to the qualified voters among the faculty of each college and the university libraries an election ballot containing the names of the nominees for election from that unit, and ask each faculty member to vote for a number of persons equal to the number of representatives to be elected. The nominees receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.

4.24 All elections shall be conducted by secret ballot circulated by campus mail.

4.25 The committee shall send by campus mail a written notice of each election to each qualified voter no later than one week in advance of the distribution of the ballots. The written notice shall indicate the positions to be filled by election and the names of the candidates for those positions.

4.26 The ballots shall be cast by mail and canvassed by the Elections Committee. The committee shall break, by lot, a tie vote which occurs at any stage of the balloting.

4.31 The president of the Student Association shall be a voting member of the University Council and may designate an alternate from the executive board of that association. Both the president and the alternate must comply with the requirements of section 4.326 of these bylaws to be eligible to serve on the University Council.

4.32 Fifteen additional voting student members shall be selected as follows:

4.321 One student representative and that representative's alternate shall be chosen from students in the college by the student advisory committee of each degree-granting college.  Written notification of that selection shall be signed by the chair of the college's student advisory committee and forwarded to the executive secretary of the University Council and the president of the Student Association by April 15 of each year. A student representative and that representative's alternate shall also be chosen from the graduate student body by the student advisory committee of the Graduate School.  A college or Graduate School student advisory committee position that remains vacant after April 15 shall be filled by a committee composed of the Student Association president and the newly selected representatives to the University Council from the college and Graduate School student advisory committees no later than September 10.  Students appointed in this manner must come from students in the college in which the vacancy exists, or from the graduate student body in the case of the Graduate School representative.  The committee shall also select an alternate for each student representative that it appoints.  The alternate shall come from the same constituency as the member for whom the alternate is to be appointed.

4.322 Seven student representatives and their alternates shall be appointed by September 10 by the Student Association president with the advice and consent of the Student Association Senate. Every effort should be made to ensure that there is representation from various constituencies including women, persons from minority groups, international students, and graduate students. Alternates shall represent the same student constituency as the members for whom the alternates are to be appointed.

4.323 The president of the Student Association shall notify the executive secretary of the University Council of the names of the student representatives, and the alternate for each such representative, by September 10.

4.324 A vacancy in the position of student representative or student alternate representative shall be filled in the same manner used to make the initial appointment. The appropriate college student advisory committee shall be allowed 30 days after a vacancy occurs to fill that vacancy. Should the student advisory committee fail to fill a vacancy in the allotted time, the committee described in section 4.321 shall proceed to make the appointment. Persons appointed to fill vacant student positions shall be eligible to serve on the University Council three days after the executive secretary of the University Council has been notified of their appointment.

4.325 No more than three students majoring in any one college shall serve as a student representative to the University Council at any one time. The president of the Student Association and the president's alternate shall be excluded from this calculation.

4.326 Students whose status is "good standing" and who are carrying a minimum of nine semester hours or, in the case of graduate students and the president of the Student Association, six semester hours each semester shall be eligible for membership. To continue as a member, a student must maintain good academic standing and enrollment in at least the number of semester hours indicated above.

4.327 For purposes of this section, the academic major of an individual student shall be that which existed as of the date of the student's appointment or election to office.

The president of the Supportive Professional Staff Council and the president of the Operating Staff Council shall be elected in accordance with the provisions set forth in the bylaws of those organizations.