After an initial election failed to yield clear winners, the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate has called for a runoff election to elect three at-large members to its Divisional Council.
The senate represents faculty in UC governance and determines academic policy, sets admission standards, authorizes course curricula and more. A first round of voting between March 13 and April 4 failed to determine victors for the council, which represents faculty interests and approves special committees and task forces.
Campus Division Secretary and associate professor of linguistics Gary Holland said that in all the years he has been on campus, this is the first time that a runoff election has occurred.
According to Bob Jacobsen, chair of the campus division of the senate, eight candidates were in the running during the first election, but none received the minimum 35 percent of votes required by the senate’s bylaws. The two candidates with the lowest number of votes were eliminated.
Now, the approximately 2,300 voting members of the campus division of the senate have until April 18 to cast their votes for the remaining six candidates.
“Our rules predate the modern method of first, second and third choice,” Jacobsen said, adding that the senate recently switched to an online voting system. He said the senate has not yet discussed amending the voting bylaws themselves.
Of the council’s six elected members, three — history professor Thomas Laqueur, public health professor Ralph Catalano and English professor Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe — are at the end of their two-year terms and will be replaced in the fall by those elected.
Candidates must be nominated by five faculty members, and according to Jacobsen, there are usually few in the running.
“It’s nice to see people this year from a lot of different departments,” Jacobsen said. “(The Academic Senate is) the voice of the faculty, and these are the elected members of that group.”
Jacobsen cited campus protests as well as budget discussions and program-related decisions as some of the most significant issues faced by the council.
The first round of voting also included four positions on the senate’s Committee on Committees.
Additionally, senate members voted on a proposed message to the UC Board of Regents asking the board to support measures that will increase state revenue toward public higher education, which overwhelmingly passed. All 10 UC campuses voted on the item.
The senate will now send a “memorial to the Regents” message to UC President Mark Yudof and ask him to pass it on to the members of the board. The senate’s vote to send the message follows Yudof’s statement at the March 28 regents meeting that he will urge the board to endorse Gov. Jerry Brown’s November tax initiative — which would cut $200 million from the university if it fails to pass — at a future meeting.
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