Bylaws of the Senate of the Facult
y of the University of Mississippi
ARTICLE I: TITLE
The name of the organization, “The Senate of th
e Faculty of the University of Mississippi”, as
stated in the Constitution and Bylaws, applies to
the faculty’s senate at the Oxford campus.
Hereinafter, the organization is
designated “the Senate”.
ARTICLE II: PURPOSE
The purpose of these Bylaws is to provide interpretations of the Constitution and to supply
additional procedural rules to expedi
te the business of the organization.
ARTICLE III: ORGANIZATION
Section 1.Eligible Faculty
(a)Budget listed, full-time, tenured or tenure-trac
k employees of The University of Mississippi
(Oxford campus) who hold the rank
of Professor, Associate Profe
ssor, or Assistant Professor.
(b)The definition of Eligible Facu
lty does not include the following:
1) Part-time faculty fully engage
d in teaching University classes
2) Instructors
3) Support faculty including Acting Professors
, Adjunct Professors, Visiting Professors,
Research Professors (i.e. Research Associate and
Assistant Professors and Research Associates),
and Lecturers
4) Assistant or associate deans,
deans, vice chancellors/Provost,
the Chancellor, or those holding
other administrative positions
outside of the academic departments or the libraries.
Section 2.Membership Quota
(a) References to the colleges and schools in the Constitution have been interpreted regularly to
include the colleges and schools in which facu
lty are budgeted and thus do not include the
Graduate School.
(b) Senate representation will be based on a census of Eligible Faculty (listed by departmental
affiliation) prepared by the Office of Institutional Research and submitted to the Executive
Committee of the Senate by March 1 of each year. Us
ing this data to derive the statistical mean
for department size and the standard deviati
on from this mean, the Executive Committee will
determine Senate representation by department
(or other electing unit) for the following
academic year, and by April 1 will notify each depa
rtment (or other electing unit) of the number
of Senate seats allotted to that de
partment or unit for the following year.
Section 3. Term of Office
(a) The term of office shall begin with
the organizational meeting in August.
(b) A senator rotated off the Senate, as provided in
Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, will
become eligible for a new term after one calendar year.
(c) In recognition that a member occasionally may have to miss a Senate meeting due to
professional responsibilities or personal emergency, such a miss will be an excused absence
when prior notice has been give
n to the Chair or Secretary.
Section 4. Selection of Substitute Members of the Senate
and Faculty-Elected Committees
When a senator or member of one of the committees specified in Secti
on 7 resigns or becomes
ineligible to continue in office (for example,
when on sabbatical leave or not in residence on the
Oxford campus), an alternate sh
all be elected by the Department.
An alternate appointed in this
way will be assigned to the committee(s) of the
senator who has resigned (both internal senate
and standing committees that the resigned senato
r was a member of by virtue of his or her
position as a senator).
Section 5. Length of Term
All terms on Senate committees expire Augus
t 31 of each year, and new terms begin on
September 1. However, the term of a member shall continue until the replacement has been duly
selected.
Section 6. Duties of Senate Officers
(a) Responsibilities of th
e Chair of the Senate
1) An organizational meeting of the new Senate sh
all be called by the Chair of the previous year
to meet not later than the first week of the Fall
Semester, at which meeting the Senate shall elect
a new Chair, a Vice Chair and a Secretary. The immediate past chair may be eligible for an
elected office during the year following incumben
cy. The officers of the
Senate shall be the
Chair, the Vice Chair, the Secretary, and the immediate Past Chair. These officers along with the
elected Chairs of the following five standing
committees: General Academic Affairs, Academic
Support Services, Finance, University Services
, and Faculty Governan
ce of Academic Policy
shall serve as the Executive Committee of the Sena
te. Election of the Chair, Vice Chair, and
Secretary shall be by ballot of the entire Sena
te. Each Senate standing committee shall elect its
own chair. Senate committee membership shall be
determined by the aforementioned five Senate
officers, but continuing Senate members shall retain their previous committee membership if
they so desire.
2) To preside over meetings of the Senate a
nd over meetings of the Executive Committee.
3) To represent the general faculty at the meeti
ngs of the Academic Council and at meetings of
any administrative council or advisory body
established by the Chancellor or any Vice
Chancellor to assist in administering the affairs of the University.
4) To confirm faculty members of
their election to membership in
the Senate and to invite them
to decline membership if other commitments
would interfere with their attendance at the
scheduled meetings of the Senate.
5) With the concurrence of the Executive Comm
ittee, to prepare and
distribute notices of
meetings of the Senate with agendas. Such notices
shall be distributed at le
ast seven days prior to
all regular meetings.
6) To send a memorandum to the Chancellor, not
more than a week after each meeting, calling
attention to any resolutions passe
d by the Senate and other matters of importance that arose.
7) To serve as the signatory officer of the Se
nate’s account budgeted by the University and as
custodian of any other Senate funds. To make or authorize all expenditures necessary for the