Faculty members have until March 26 to vote in the Faculty Senate election, which includes voting for changes to the Faculty Senate constitution.

Jeff Stowell, the vice chair for the Faculty Senate, announced at the Senate’s Tuesday meeting that the election is now open and the ballot can be distributed to all faculty.

The election will end at 4 p.m. March 26.

Stowell said most positions that are up for election have at least one candidate running, and he said this is because the Senate extended the deadline a couple of times to get more people to volunteer to run for elected committees.

“We did get more with an extension, but I will add that the second time we extended the deadline we ended with people who are already doing a lot of service on campus that have agreed to serve in additional capacities,” Stowell said.

There are seven proposed changes to the Faculty Senate constitution.

These changes include changes in the preamble to articulate the relationship between Faculty Senate and other shared governance committees on campus and granting the major committees authority to limit particular seats and the electorate for those seats to faculty from particular academic units or areas to ensure balanced representation without asking the Senate for approval (section 6, d of the Senate Constitution.)

A copy of the constitution with the proposed changes will be sent out along with the election announcement.

Stowell said if anyone has questions about the proposed changes or about the rationale behind those changes they can contact a member of the Senate executive committee.

Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or achaynes@eiu.edu.