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UNIVERSITY SECRETARIAT
S.08-72
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Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby BC VA
1S6
Canada
tel
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778.782.3495
fax ?
778.782.4860
Motion 1
That the Rules of Senate requiring a notice of motion for changes to the Rules of
Senate be suspended.
Motion 2
That Senate approve a change to the Rules of Senate that would permit on-line
voting for Senate Committee elections effective June 2008 for a one year trial
period.
Both motions require a 2/3 majority to pass.
Background
There is an annual turnover of committee positions in June and Senate has to fill, by
election, nearly 100 committee positions. In addition, vacancies occur virtually every
month so that Senate is voting on these positions at almost every meeting.
In June, we circulate a set of candidate statements received prior to the Senate
distribution deadline, and more statements are circulated at the Senate meeting. On
occasion there are the same number of candidates as positions, which means for
those particular positions the candidate is elected by acclamation. Otherwise,
Senators receive a batch of balLots (last year it was about 22 ballots) and are asked to
vote on these at the Senate meeting.
We are requesting permission to use a WebSurvey ballot for these Senate committee
elections for a one year period to see how well it works. There are several reasons
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
THINKING OF THE WORLD
TO ?
Senate Committee on A
g
enda and RuLes
FROM ?
Alison Watt, Director, University Secretariat, Secretary, SNC
RE ?
On-Line baltotin q
for Senate Committee positions
DATE
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23 April 2008
.
for doing this:
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1. It would give Senators enough time to be able to review statements before voting.
2.
It would be more efficient with the electronic tabulation of results (and would save
paper).
3. All Senators would be able to vote - even if they were unavoidably absent from the
Senate meeting.
The process that would be used would be as follows:
a.
Candidate statements would be put online. The list of vacancies and nominees
(so far) would be circulated, as we do now, with the Senate package.
b.
Following the Senate meeting, a web-survey ballot would be released with an
email announcement to all Senators.
C.
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Voting would be permitted for 48 hours.
d.
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Election results would be released within 3 days of the end of voting.
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