Motions Information

Motion Types

The Senate has categorized three kinds of motions: legislation, recommendation, and resolution.

  • Legislative motions cover matters that the Faculty Senate has direct say and control over, such as curriculum or admissions requirements.

E.g., legislation to change core curriculum, such as with FS_2014_23. Interim College Core legislation.

The Chancellor will either approve or disapprove legislative motions. A letter of explanation will accompany any disapproval.

  • Recommendation motions respond to or make recommendations about issues outside the Faculty legislative authority, such as administrative or IT policies.

E.g., recommendation to create an Assembly listserv, such as with FS_2014_20. University Assembly Email List.

The Chancellor will respond to recommendations to the Faculty Senate.

  • Resolution motions have no restriction, but are often statements of the Senate’s public stance or opinion, such as support for a movement or commendations.

E.g., resolution to commend the women’s volleyball team, such as with FS_2015_5. Women’s Volleyball Team Commendation.

The Chancellor may or may not respond to resolutions in a letter to the Faculty Senate.

Bringing Motions to Senate

Motions have four primary elements, two required and two optional.

1. Header (required)

The header has six (6) parts:

  1. Faculty Senate (FS) number, specifying year and motion numeration (e.g. FS_2022_21 representing the 21st motion of year 2022). [the Executive Committee will determine the number of the motion]
  2. Senator(s), committee, or a group of five or more non-senator faculty bringing the motion (e.g. Senator John Doe, or specific [X] Committee).
  3. Category (i.e. legislation, recommendation, or resolution).
  4. Statement about number of votes and level of review (e.g., majority vote in one meeting).
  5. Statement on whether a second is required (a second is required for motions brought by individual senators or a group of non-senators, while none is required for those brought by a committee).
  6. Action statement describing motion.

These six elements are arranged in the following format:

FS# Party bringing the motion (Category. Vote; second). Action statement.

Some examples of headers are as follows:

FS_2022_20 Faculty Governance Committee (Legislation. Majority vote at one meeting; no second required). Modify the Generic Departmental Governance Document to include approved language regarding Annual Review and Post-tenure Review.

FS_2022_21 Executive Committee (Recommendation. Majority vote at one meeting; no second required). Recommendation on salaries.

2. Preamble (optional)

Motions may have a series of preamble statements, which are optional, but may help set the premises for a motion. Each paragraph that is part of the preamble should begin with “Whereas” and be separated by semi-colons.

3. Actual motion (required)

Motions must have a body of text describing what the motion aims to do. This may be an amendment to existing policy. The first paragraph that is part of the motion’s body should begin with “Be it resolved” if there are no preamble paragraphs or “Therefore be it resolved” if there are. Any additional body paragraphs that follow should begin with “Be it further resolved.”

4. Commentary (optional)

Motions may have a final commentary section, beginning with “Commentary: …”, that further discusses the subject of the motion.

Timelines

  • Two weeks before the Senate meeting
    • Send motions to Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate at least two weeks before the next Senate meeting through an email to the President of the Faculty Senate.
    • The motion will then be reviewed by the Executive Committee and placed on the agenda for a scheduled Faculty Senate meeting.
  • One week before the Senate meeting (7 calendar days):
    • Agenda will go out to listserves and will be posted on the Senate website.
  • After Senate action, the Senate will notify the campus through appropriate listservs.
  • 10 calendar days after campus notification: Deadline for campus review of any Senate actions
  • 25 calendar days after notification: Deadline for Chancellor review of any Senate actions