Section V. Eligibility to Serve

Election rules last updated January 30, 2026

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V. Eligibility to Serve

Eligibility for service in the elected positions is described in and determined by the Faculty Handbook. A college may also elect to impose additional qualifications for elected committees, a record of which shall be kept by the Collaborative Governance Specialist and inserted into these election rules. Such additional qualifications shall be ratified or changed only by those members of the college served by said committee.

A. Restrictions on Service

1. General.
  1. No member of a Faculty Senate elected committee may serve two consecutive full terms.
  2. Election to any Faculty Senate committee precludes eligibility for election to any other elected Faculty Senate committee except a rank and tenure committee [Faculty ballot, May 27, 1998]
  3. Faculty members at or above the level of dean of a school or college are not members of the Faculty Senate and are not eligible to serve. This group includes faculty serving as deans, directors of centers of distinction, vice provosts, the Provost, vice presidents, or the University President.
  4. Faculty members below the level of dean of a school or college on at least half-time appointments who receive an academic year contract, except visiting faculty, are members of the Faculty Senate and are eligible to serve. This group includes faculty serving as associate provosts, associate vice provosts, associate deans, department chairs, and program directors.
2. Rank and Tenure Committees.
  1. Limitations on Service.
    (Expressions like “rank and tenure committee service” as used in this document refer to rank, tenure, and promotion committee service at all levels, including Teaching Professor Rank and Promotion Committees, whether on the college level alone, the University level, or some combination.)
    
    Faculty members shall not serve more than four consecutive years in rank and tenure committee service. A faculty member elected to a one-year term is eligible for election to a full three-year term immediately following the one-year term.
    
    On completion of two or more years of rank and tenure committee service within the previous three years, a faculty member is normally ineligible for further rank and tenure committee service until after a hiatus determined by the following formula:
    - Units with 50 or more tenured faculty: 4 years of hiatus.
    - Units with 25-49 tenured faculty: 3 years of hiatus.
    - Units with fewer than 25 tenured faculty: 3 years of hiatus when possible; otherwise, 2 years of hiatus.
    (The term “units” in this formula refers to the configurations of departments that have college or school rank and tenure committees and that have designated seats on the University Rank and Tenure Committee.
    In 2009 there were five units: Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Education and Counseling Psychology.) There is one seat for an at-large member.
    
    In all cases, the President-Elect shall grant an exception to this formula in instances where a full professor is not otherwise available for service on the University committee or where a tenured professor is not otherwise available for service in a designated seat on a college committee. [Faculty ballot, April 1, 2010]
  2. Option of Exemption.
    A faculty member who has completed a total of 12 years in rank and tenure committee service has the prerogative of being exempted from further rank and tenure committee service. [Faculty ballot, April 1, 2010]
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B. Qualification Synopsis.

For ease of reference, the following is a synopsis of the qualifications detailed in the Faculty Handbook along with any additional qualifications approved by individual colleges.

University Rank and Tenure Committee: Subject to the restrictions noted in Section V.A above,
1. At-large member: All tenured full professors of the university are eligible (Faculty Handbook, Section 2.11.1).
2. College Representative(s): All tenured full professors of the college are eligible (Faculty Handbook, Section 2.11.1).
3. No more than one faculty member from any department may serve on the University Rank and Tenure Committee at the same time. [Faculty ballot: May 2, 2005]
College Rank and Tenure Committees: All tenured faculty are eligible (Faculty Handbook, Section 2.11.2.1).
1. In the College of Arts and Sciences, the following additional restriction holds:
  1. No more than one faculty member from any department may serve on a College Rank and Tenure Committee at any time. [Board of Trustees approval, May 10, 1996]
2. In the Leavey School of Business, the following additional restriction holds:
  1. The membership of the committee shall incldue one representative from each department. [LSB Faculty ballot, October 2003]
3. In the School of Engineering, the following additional restriction holds:
  1. The membership of the committee shall include one representative from each of the following five departments: Bioengineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. [Faculty ballot, April 27, 2017]
4. In the School of Education and Counseling Psychology, the membership of the committee shall include two representatives from Education and two from Counseling Psychology for two-year terms.
College Teaching Professor Rank and Promotion Committees: All tenured Professors and Associate Professors and all Teaching Professors are eligible, provided they have completed at least two years of service at ��ƽ��. Associate Teaching Professors are eligible to serve provided that they have reached that rank through a promotion review process at ��ƽ�� and have completed at least three years of service as an Assistant and/or Associate Teaching Professor at ��ƽ��. Each committee shall consist of no fewer than three, and no more than seven members. When possible, the majority should be continuing faculty in the teaching professor ranks, and each committee should include at least two Teaching Professors, or one Teaching Professor and one tenured Professor, from different departments. (Faculty Handbook, Section 2.11.2.3).
1. In schools that have more than two departments, no more than one faculty member from any department may serve on the committee at any time.
2. In the College of Arts and Sciences, the following additional restrictions hold:
  1. Of the five faculty on the committee, irrespective of rank, every effort shall be made to balance the representation of faculty across departments offering the Bachelor of Arts (except the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Bachelor of Science (except the Department of Economics) such that no more than three faculty members from a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science department are seated on the committee at one time.
3. In the School of Education and Counseling Psychology, the following additional restriction holds:
  1. Every reasonable effort shall be made to balance the representation of faculty from both departments.
Faculty Judicial Board. All tenured faculty other than those already serving on or elected to a rank and tenure committee or a Teaching Professor Promotion committee are eligible. (Faculty Handbook, Section 3.10.2.1)
College Grievance Committees: All tenured faculty in the college, other than department chairs and those already serving on or elected to a rank and tenure committee, Teaching Professor Rank and Promotion committee, or the Faculty Judicial Board, are eligible. (Faculty Handbook, Section 3.10.1.2)
Faculty Senate President-Elect, and representatives to the Council: All members of the Faculty Senate are eligible.

C. Concurrent Service and Eligibility.

Election to the rank and tenure committees or the Teaching Professor Rank and Promotion Committees precludes serving on any other elected Faculty Senate committee. If a faculty member who is already serving on another such committee is elected to a rank and tenure committee or to a Teaching Professor Rank and Promotion Committee, he or she shall resign from the other committee, and will not be eligible for election to another committee until his or her term on the rank and tenure committee or the Teaching Professor Rank and Promotion Committee has ended.

The faculties of the School of Engineering, the School of Law, and the School of Education and Counseling Psychology may not, in certain instances, be sufficiently large to accommodate the restrictions upon concurrent service just above. In such instances, the restrictions upon concurrent service (but not other restrictions) shall be deemed waived.

D. Ineligibility:

Emeriti/ae and Faculty on Phased Retirement.

Faculty who are emeriti/ae, even if they are still teaching, are not eligible for election. Faculty on phased retirement are eligible for election to committees. However, in view of their years of prior service, their names will not be listed on ballots unless they expressly notify the President-Elect that they wish to be listed.
Sabbatical and Leave Restrictions.

A faculty member on a year-long sabbatical or leave is ineligible for election for the year of the sabbatical. Faculty on partial-year sabbaticals or leaves are ineligible as candidates for college rank and tenure committees if they will be absent during fall quarter. Faculty on partial-year sabbaticals or leaves are ineligible as candidates for the University Rank and Tenure Committee if they will be absent during winter quarter.
Service as Faculty Senate President.

Service as Faculty Senate President or President-Elect precludes serving concurrently on any other elected Faculty Senate committee, including rank and tenure committees unless one voluntarily chooses to do so. [Faculty ballot, May 27, 1998]
Rank and Tenure Committee Members Applying for Promotion.

An associate professor serving on a rank and tenure committee who applies for promotion in rank will resign from the rank and tenure committee.
Conflict of Interest.
1. A married couple or domestic partners may not serve on the same rank and tenure committee at the same time. [Faculty ballot, May 2, 2005] [See Faculty Handbook, Section 3.6.5 for additional information on Conflict of Interest.]
2. With the exception of the process for reconsideration of a rank and tenure decision (cf. Faculty Handbook, Section 3.4.8), in no case shall an individual participate in any manner in reviewing a decision in which he or she was officially involved in the first place.
Orderly Continuity of College Rank and Tenure Committees.

Faculty members already serving on a college rank and tenure committee are not eligible for election to the University Committee during their term on the college committee; hence, their names will not be placed on the ballot for the University Committee. [Faculty ballot, April 1, 2010]

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