Faculty Senator Election Procedures
From T-FSC Rules of Procedure: Best Practices
Nomination and Election of Faculty Senators
(a) Nominations may be made and elections may be held in any manner adopted by the tenured and tenure-track professorial members of the faculty of each school, provided that there is reasonable opportunity for the presentation of at least three nominees for each Senatorial position (whenever possible), that reasonable notice of the nominations and the election is given to the members of the faculty, and that the nominating and electoral process is conducted by secret ballot, by the faculty free from interference by School or University administrators. These administrators include but are not limited to those represented on the Deans Council and Administrative Management Council, and officers of the University as described in the NYU Bylaws.
(b) Alternatively, if the voting professorial members of the faculty of any School fail to adopt nominating and electoral procedures as provided in subsection (a), the nomination and election of Senators shall be conducted in the following manner. The School’s faculty shall appoint a nominating committee to present at least three names for each Senatorial position, whenever applicable, to the voting professorial members of their faculty by mail at least one week before an election. The notice calling the meeting at which an election is to take place shall specify that the election is among the purposes of the meeting. At such a meeting, nominations may be made from the floor. The meeting shall be held before university commencement in May of the final year of the three-year term of the representative(s) then in office. This entire process shall be conducted by secret ballot, and by the faculty free from interference by School or University administrators, as specified above.
(c) Each school’s procedures shall be published on the FSC website so that members of each school can know and monitor them. Whenever applicable, these should include who solicits nominations, when and how; how nominees are validated as eligible; whether biographies of nominees are provided; who conducts the election and counts the votes, including when and how; and who reports results to the Coordinator of the Faculty Senators Council.
(d) On a considered belief that either a School has failed to adhere to the procedures adopted by its voting professorial members as provided in subsection (a) or, if no procedures were adopted, a School has failed to adhere to the procedures as described in subsection (b), a detailed written complaint, signed by no fewer than three voting professorial members or 50% (whichever is smaller) of the respective School, may be filed with the Coordinator of the Faculty Senators Council. Such complaint will be investigated by the Governance Committee in consultation with the Executive Committee. The full Faculty Senators Council will determine an appropriate remedy, which may include the requirement of a new election. In no event, however, will any Senator elected under procedures challenged herein be unseated during the pendency of the complaint and the seating of a replacement Senator, should that prove necessary. Until the challenge is settled, the replacement Senator shall not be seated.
Addendum to the Resolution on Nomination and Election of Faculty Senators (I.3.)
School election officers and University and School administrators –including but not limited to those represented on the Deans Council and Administrative Management Council, and officers of the University as described in the NYU Bylaws– should avoid any appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest during elections for Senators to serve on the Faculty Senators Council. For this reason, it is preferable that members of School election committees, University and School administrators, or any other person charged with carrying out and/or monitoring elections should refrain altogether from publicly campaigning on behalf of any candidates vying for election to the Faculty Senators Council. This includes, but is not limited to offering public statements on a candidate’s behalf; using any form of print or electronic media to circulate statements on a candidate’s behalf. Further, no member of School election committees may utilize, or provide candidates or persons advocating on behalf of candidates, exclusive access to faculty contact information.
College of Dentistry/Nursing
- Call for nominations
- Voting method is on-line with write-in capability
Division of Libraries
(from the Libraries Faculty Bylaws)
The Tenured/Tenure Track faculty of the Division of Libraries shall be represented in the University Senate by a Senator, an Alternate Senator, and a Second Alternate Senator elected by the members of the tenured and tenure track faculty to the Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty Senators Council. Each representative shall serve a term of three years. The Nominating Committee shall present a slate of no fewer than three candidates to the Tenure/Tenured Track Faculty, two weeks before the election. Faculty will have one week after this distribution to make additional nominations. The person receiving the highest number of votes shall be the Senator; the person receiving the next highest number of votes shall be the Alternate Senator; and the third highest, the Second Alternate Senator.
Gallatin School of Individualized Study
- Nominations are solicited by the Dean during the month before an election is held
- Election happens at an-all faculty meeting by written, secret ballot
NYU Abu Dhabi
NYU Shanghai
Election procedures for NYU Shanghai’s NYU University Senate representatives will follow rules and bylaws of the relevant NYU Faculty Senators Council (i.e., the T- FSC or the C-FSC, as applicable), as well as the same procedure as developed for the FCSC elections, and will be managed by the Shared Governance Administrator, as outlined in III.
Tandon School of Engineering
Faculty (capital F)=all full time faculty in the School of Engineering plus a small number of ex officio members.
Voting faculty=T/TT faculty plus a small number of individuals who have been granted voting privileges as provided for in our Faculty Bylaws.
Speaker of the Faculty=elected by the voting faculty to serve as the presiding officer of the Faculty and chair of the Faculty Executive Committee
Election of Senator.
The Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) nominates three candidates, whose willingness to serve is confirmed.
A draft ballot is made available to the Faculty and additional nominations are invited. Additional nominations are by petition signed by at least 10 voting members.
The final ballot is made available to voting members of the Faculty as an electronic ballot.
Typically two weeks are allowed for voting.
The solicitation of candidates beyond those proposed by the FEC and the election process are handled by the Nominations and Elections Committee, elected to staggered terms by the Faculty.
The candidate with the largest vote is elected Senator and the first and second alternate senators are determined by the next two highest votes.
School of Professional Studies
- The nominee with the highest number of votes becomes the senator
- The nominee with the second highest number of votes become the alternate
School of Law
The tenured and tenure-track faculty at NYU School of Law adopted procedures for nominating and electing representatives to the University Senate’s Faculty Senators Council (FSC) at a faculty meeting on April 10, 2013. The procedures are as follows:
For any vacant Senator or Alternate position on the FSC, the Dean of the School of Law will request nominations in anticipation of holding an election, providing a date and time for when nominations are due. All tenured and tenure-track faculty as well as the clinicians with long-term contracts are eligible for election to the Senate.
A faculty member may nominate one or more individuals; self-nominations are permissible.
The Dean’s Office will circulate the list of nominees within 24 hours of the deadline for nominations. Nominees who wish to decline a nomination are given an opportunity to notify the Dean’s Office. An email will then be sent to the faculty with a link to an online ballot upon which the final nominees will be listed. Each faculty member will be asked to rank all candidates on the ballot and submit it by the deadline indicated. Only eligible voting members of the faculty, the University Provost, and the University Provostial Liaison to the Law School will have access to the system, and all votes will be anonymous.
The votes will be tallied using the single transferable vote mechanism, employing the algorithm that the Law School faculty has used in other election processes. The nominee ranked the highest will be elected to the highest ranking vacant position; the nominee ranked second will be elected to the next highest ranking vacant position, etc. The names of the elected faculty representatives then will be shared with the Faculty and submitted to the University Senate.
School of Medicine
- Faculty Council-EC is Nominating Committee.
- Nominees are solicited from TTF by email during a two-week period & two reminders emailed
validation via list from Office of Faculty Records - Nominees submit biographies, which are emailed to TTF and made available on-line one-two weeks before voting begins
- On-line ballot voting over 2 weeks
- Senator elected by highest # of votes
- Alternate elected by 2nd highest # of votes
Silver School of Social Work
Section 5.11 of Silver School of Social Work Bylaws (Revised July 14, 2017)
Steinhardt School
Stern School of Business
- Faculty Council nominates 3 Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty members for each Senate and Alternate vacancy
- Nominees are notified
- Nominations are submitted by the Faculty Council until there are 3 nominees per open Senate seat
- Validation by Vice Dean of Faculty and Director of Faculty Affairs
- On-line ballot voting for one week
- Senators and Alternates elected by highest number of votes in each category
Tisch School of the Arts
- The Office of Faculty notifies voting members of the faculty via e-mail explaining duties of Senators and asks for nominations, including self-nominations.
- Nominees submit a short statement and photo.
- On-line voting is open for 2 weeks.
- Results are confirmed by the Office of Faculty and the Dean is notified.
- Second- and Third-highest vote recipients are named Alternate Senators.
Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
- Each year faculty elect an Advisory Committee (AC)
- AC make recommendations for committee assignments, including FSC Senators
- Full-time TTF vote on the FSC candidates