Skip to Main Content

Appendix 4: Voting Rights in Academic Personnel Matters

I. Departmental Voting Rights
II. A Check List for Voting Procedures

I. Departmental Voting Rights

A. General Provisions

  1. Voting in Academic Personnel matters is carried on by departments,1 and is governed by UC Academic Senate Bylaw 552 as implemented in this Appendix. Senate Bylaw 55 establishes the minimum group of departmental faculty eligible to vote on departmental personnel actions, and specifies conditions under which departments may extend voting privileges to other Senate members beyond the minimum group and may delegate authority to committees. The conditions permitting such extension and delegation are set forth in Subsections C-E, below.  The composition of the minimum group of departmental faculty eligible to vote may vary, depending on the series and type of action (e.g., promotion in rank, merit advancement within rank).  See Subsection B, below.
  2. Bylaw 55(A) states: “According to the Standing Orders of the Regents, ‘... the several departments of the University, with the approval of the President, shall determine their own form of administrative organization....’ No department shall be organized in a way that would deny to any of its Non-Emeritae/i faculty who are voting members of the Academic Senate …  the right to vote on substantial departmental questions, excepting only certain personnel actions as detailed in … this Bylaw.

 

B. Minimum Group of Senate Faculty with Voting Rights Under UC Senate Bylaw 55

  1. All tenured faculty in a department (Professors and Associate Professors) have the right to vote on all new departmental appointments that confer membership in the Academic Senate. Prior to such a vote, all the Non-Emeritae/i departmental members of the Academic Senate must be afforded an opportunity to make their opinions known to the voters.
  2. Professors have the right to vote on all cases of promotion to the ranks of Professor, Professor-in-Residence, and Professor of Clinical (X). Professors and Senior Lecturers with Security of Employment (SOE) have the right to vote on all cases of appointment or promotion to the rank of Senior Lecturer (SOE).
  3. Professors and Associate Professors have the right to vote on all cases of promotion to the ranks of Associate Professor, Associate Professor-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Clinical (X). Professors, Associate Professors, Senior Lecturers (SOE) and Lecturers (SOE) have the right to vote on all cases of appointment to the rank of Lecturer (SOE).
  4. For voting purposes, all cases that involve the removal of the Acting modifier from the title of a member of the Academic Senate shall be treated as promotions to the rank in question.
  5. All cases of non-reappointments or terminations of Assistant Professors, Assistant Professors-in-Residence, and Assistant Professors of Clinical (X), or Lecturers PSOE and Senior Lecturers PSOE, shall be voted upon by those faculty eligible to vote on promotions to the ranks of Associate Professor, Associate Professor-in-Residence, Associate Professors of Clinical (X), or appointments to the titles Lecturer (SOE) and Senior Lecturer (SOE), respectively.
  6. All cases of advancement within any rank that confers membership in the Academic Senate shall be voted upon by those persons entitled to vote on promotion or non-reappointment to the rank in question under Section I(B)(2-5).
  7. The tenured faculty members of a department shall establish the method by which personnel matters other than those listed in Section I(B)(1-6) are determined. The method adopted must have the approval of the Committee on Rules and Jurisdiction of the UCLA Academic Senate.

 

C. Extension of Voting Privileges to Non-Emeritae/i Faculty

  1. Voting privileges on personnel matters within any department may be extended to one or more of the classes of Non-Emeritae/i Academic Senate members of that department, as a class, who are not otherwise entitled to vote under Section I(B)(1-6), upon at least a two-thirds majority vote by secret ballot of those faculty entitled to vote on the cases in question under the relevant subsection.
  2. Any extensions of the voting privilege under this subsection must remain in effect for at least one calendar year (twelve months); thereafter, any faculty member entitled to a vote on the cases in question may request reconsideration. Following a request for reconsideration, and prior to any subsequent vote on the cases in question, the Chair or other appropriate departmental officer shall put the question of renewal of privileges to a vote. An extension of voting privileges will be renewed only upon at least a two-thirds majority vote by secret ballot of those faculty entitled to vote on the cases in question under the provisions of Section I(B)(1-6).

D. Extension of Voting Privileges to Emeritae/i Faculty3

  1. In the absence of an extension of voting privileges under this Section, Emeritae/i faculty may not participate in departmental personnel actions.
  2. Voting privileges on personnel matters within any Department may be extended to all Emeritae/i of that department as a class of the whole, or to all Emeritae/i of that Department recalled to active service, during the period of such service, as follows:

a. the privilege of notice of meeting on personnel actions, access to materials, and/or privilege of the floor, may be extended to Emeritae/i upon at least a two-thirds majority vote by secret ballot of those faculty entitled to vote on the cases in question under the provisions of Section I(B)(1-6);

b. voting privileges on personnel matters may be extended to Emeritae/i upon at least a two-thirds majority vote by secret ballot of those faculty entitled to vote on the cases in question under the provisions of Section I(B)(1-6).

3. Any extensions of privilege to Emeritae/i under Section 1(D)(2) must remain in effect for at least one calendar year (twelve months); thereafter, any faculty member entitled to a vote on the question of an extension of privilege under the provisions of I(D)(1) may request reconsideration. Following a request for reconsideration, and prior to any subsequent vote on the cases in question, the Chair or other appropriate departmental officer shall put the question of renewal of privileges to a vote. An extension of privilege will be renewed only under the procedures specified for the initial extension of voting privileges by Section I(D)(1).

E. Delegation of Authority to a Committee or Other Agency

  1. In none of the instances specified in Section I(B)(1-5) may the right to vote be delegated to a committee. The actual method of voting shall be determined by the eligible voters; subject, however, to the provision that no voter may be denied the option to require a secret ballot.
  2. In cases of advancement within rank, the eligible voters for each rank in question shall either follow the same procedures used for promotions and non-reappointment or may, by two-thirds majority vote and subject to the approval of the Committee on Rules and Jurisdiction of the UCLA Academic Senate, delegate the authority for such actions to a duly elected committee or other agency, or adopt some other method acceptable to the Committee on Rules and Jurisdiction of the UCLA Academic Senate. Any such method or delegation of authority shall remain in effect for at least one calendar year (twelve months). Thereafter, upon the request of any faculty member entitled to a vote on the cases in question under Section I(B), the eligible voters shall reconsider the question of how such cases shall be handled.
  3. Where authority has been delegated to a committee, this delegation must be reconsidered at the time of each department's eight-year departmental review. 

II. A Check List for Voting Procedures

  1. Any voting member of the department may insist on secrecy in any ballot.
     
  2. The vote on all personnel matters shall be by secret ballot. Procedures should be designed so that only the voter shall know how he or she voted. This refers to votes by those groups which make decisions for the department and not necessarily to votes in advisory committees, etc. Nothing in these requirements prevents faculty members from making their own vote public. Even though confidentiality would be reduced, it is permissible to report separately the votes of different categories of voting members of the department (tenure, non-tenure etc.) where such information is considered useful (e.g., to the Council on Academic Personnel or the Administration).
  3. The right to vote includes the right to discuss. A vote on personnel matters shall be taken only after a meeting at which there has been an opportunity for full and informed discussion by those entitled to vote on the issue. In those cases in which delegation of voting rights to a committee is permitted and in which such delegation has taken place, this requirement mandates a meeting of that committee. When mail ballots are utilized they shall not be distributed prior to the meeting.

    Statements made or positions taken by individual faculty members in departmental personnel discussions are deemed confidential. (An individual faculty member should be free to reveal his or her own statement or position.) Faculty members should avoid revealing to anyone, whether through inadvertence or by design, all matters expected to be confidential, including the identity of members of confidential review committees, the identity of extramural evaluators, the positions taken by the several extra-departmental reviewing agencies, and statements made or positions taken by individual faculty members during the meeting.
  4. The numerical result of the vote must be promptly reported to those who were entitled to vote.
     
  5. Reports of voting results to Committees and Administrators outside the department shall include information on the number of those who were entitled to vote as well as the number of votes cast for and against and abstentions.

a. If there are absences or abstentions on procedural grounds (Deans, Committee members, relatives etc.) the number of such instances shall be listed separately.

 

b. Where a department has the practice to make a majority decision on personnel matters unanimous in a subsequent vote, the earlier divided vote must be reported as well.

6. Upon a request by two Senate members in departments with no more than 20 Senate members or three Senate members in departments with more than 20 Senate members, the Chair must schedule and hold a meeting within ten days.

7. In voting on appraisals, each voting member shall specify "Favorable," "With Reservations," or "Unfavorable;" and in reporting the vote to reviewing bodies the vote must be recorded in the three aforementioned categories.

* * *

In a memorandum to Department Chairs of 1/23/84, the Committee on Privilege and Tenure included the following statement which pertain to voting procedures:

"... consultation with faculty members on leave is a matter of courtesy - the Senate Bylaws neither prohibit nor mandate such consultation."

 

1 In divisions or schools or colleges where the term "department" is not used, this Bylaw refers to those units from which academic appointments and promotions are recommended to Administrative Officers.

2 Title VI - Rights and Authority of Senate Members, #55 - Departmental Voting Rights, approved by the Statewide Assembly on May 4, 1995.

3 This Appendix only addresses voting rights in academic personnel matters.  Emeritae/i, while recalled to service in a department from which they have retired, regain voting rights on all departmental matters, except personnel matters, during the period of such service.  Voting privileges on all non-personnel matters may be extended to all Emeritae/i upon a majority vote by secret ballot of the total Non-Emeritae/i Academic Senate membership of that department.  See UC Academic Senate Bylaw 55D.

 

 

Revised 12/11/15

Web page updated 2/4/2016