The Faculty Senate, revamped with a new body configuration and election process, will collect nominations for 2002-03 senators Friday and will determine election results by April 29.

Now the reconfigured Senate is waiting to receive nominations for the representatives who will institute the changes in next year's session.

The changes come after the Senate voted to disband itself last May. During the summer, several members made an effort to restructure the governing body to make it more effective. The final resolutions were finalized and approved by University President Father Edward Malloy at the beginning of April.

Key changes include eligibility for a Senate seat, membership numbers and the election process.

"Any faculty member can nominate themselves or be nominated," said Jacqueline Brogan, Senate chair. "They can be tenured or untenured."

Under the new election guidelines, departments will elect their own senators, rather than each College. Several separate bodies, such as professional specialists, will also elect their own representatives. The change will enable senators to more easily report back and listen to specific constituencies.

The Senate's membership will decrease from 53 to 45.

Once elected to the Senate, representatives will elect chairs of the four standing subcommittees: Administrative Affairs, Academic Affairs, Benefits or Student Affairs. These four chairs, in addition to the Senate chair, will then be ex-officio voting members of the Academic Council. This creates a significant overlap between the Senate and the Council, allowing for more faculty representation than ever before.

"In addition to the four chairs, Father Malloy added three more faculty to the Council," Brogan said. "That adds seven more faculty to the Council with no new administrators, making it closer to 70 percent faculty. Before the changes the Council was 51 percent faculty and 49 percent administrators."

The Senate and Council will also form joint committees when necessary to tackle special concerns. One joint committee is currently examining faculty grievance procedures.

In the spirit of the new configurations, the Senate will re-elect all 45 members, creating the unlikely possibility that the 2002-03 Senate will consist of an entirely fresh corps of representatives without any veteran senators. The senator terms, normally three years, will be initially staggered due to the completely new elected body. One-third of the departments will elect representatives for three-year positions, one-third will be electing senators for two years, and one-third will be electing senators for one year.

The newly elected senators will be seated May 15 at the final Senate meeting of the academic year.

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