[Uosenateexec] Notice of motion for By-Laws Amendments?

Tue Dec 1 15:02:44 PST 2020

Just to be clear - I’m not asking you to support the motion, just the notice that the motion will be coming next month. We will all have more than a month to look at and suggest edits to the motion itself.

FWIW, I just received the suggested text of the motion, pasted below for convenience.

- Ell

Elliot Berkman
Senate President
Professor, Department of Psychology & Center for Translational Neuroscience
he/him/his

Title: Motion to change the majority requirement for bylaw amendments to bring it into alignment with Robert’s Rules of Order.
Type: Legislation
Number: TBD
Sponsor: Senate Executive Committee
Notice of Motion: 12/02/2020

Motion:  The first sentence of Section 3.11 of the Senate Bylaws entitled Modification of the Senate By-Laws shall be amended as follows:
From “These by-laws may be altered by an affirmative vote of at least a true majority of the constitutional membership, not including vacancies, of the University Senate.”;
to “These by-laws may be amended by a 2/3 majority vote of the University Senate.”

Background: During the 2019-2020 academic year, the Senate Executive Committee initiated a review of the Senate Bylaws to determine if any amendments were needed and, if so, what those amendments might be.  The Executive Committee has consulted with the members of the Rules Committee throughout the review process.  The members of the Rules Committee are acting, in this instance, as informal advisors to the Executive Committee rather than in their official capacity as a convened committee, since proposing motions is not within the charge of the Rules Committee.
The Executive Committee, in concert with the members of the Rules Committee, has identified several clauses of the bylaws which it believes would benefit from appropriate amendments.  The Executive Committee will be bringing these proposed amendments forward piecemeal throughout the remainder of the current academic year and probably into the next so that the bylaws revision process does not impede the progress of other University Senate business.
The Executive Committee deemed it appropriate that this first revision that it is proposing should concern the bylaws amendment process itself.  The current majority requirement for amending the bylaws is idiosyncratic and somewhat ambiguous.  Every other vote in the Senate requires only a majority, either simple or 2/3, of the quorum.  The Executive Committee sees no reason to deviate from Robert’s Rules of Order in this case and believes that the amendment process will be clearer to everyone if parliamentary norms are adhered to.
N.B., The Executive Committee considered putting “of the quorum,” in the text of the amendment, but by specifically mentioning it in this clause, it would raise a question about what is intended in every other clause which mentions a majority.  Once the Senate gets rid of this anomalous current clause every vote taken in an in-person or online meeting is a vote of the quorum.  The quorum of a parliamentary body is empowered to conduct all business for that body.   A majority should always be a majority of the quorum.  That is one of the reasons why this amendment is needed.

Fiscal Impact Statement:  This motion is purely procedural and should have no influence on the budget, either positive or negative.
Other Information:
Red-Line Version - 3.11 Modification of the Senate By-Laws. These by-laws may be altered amended by an affirmative vote of at least a true majority of the constitutional membership, not including vacancies, a 2/3 majority vote of the University Senate.
On Dec 1, 2020, 2:46 PM -0800, Jay Butler <jbutler7 at uoregon.edu>, wrote:
> I will not be supporting this merely on the grounds that we as Senate Exec did not have time to discuss this. It seems the SRC went to Elliot and now Elliot wants Senate Exec to sign off on something we had no discussion about. With only a day before the meeting it is going to be proposed at. That isn’t enough time and it sounds like the ball was dropped on transparency and communication. Again. So, while I may or may not agree that to change by-laws, it makes sense to change to a 2/3 majority, the way this was handled, I cannot support.
> Regards,
>
> Jay Butler
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> From: uosenateexec-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenateexec-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu> On Behalf Of senatepres at uoregon.edu
> Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2020 10:41 AM
> To: uosenateexec at lists.uoregon.edu
> Subject: [Uosenateexec] Notice of motion for By-Laws Amendments?
>
> Hello Senate Exec,
>
> I wanted to request your endorsement on a package of motions that the Senate Rules Committee would like to put forward. Last year, President Skowron charged the Senate Rules Committee with reviewing the Senate By-Laws to identify any changes we might want to make for consistency, streamlining, and various other procedural improvements. For instance, unlike other legislative bodies and in contrast to the procedures in Robert’s Rules, we require only a simply majority vote to amend our by-laws (instead of 2/3 majority). You can see all the proposed changes in the attached redlined document.
>
> In any case, the Senate Rules Committee has suggested a number of proposed revisions to the By-Laws. We’ve decided the best way to proceed is for a series of motions to come forward from the Senate Exec (at the suggestion of the SBC) to make the changes. The first of which is simply to increase the majority required to amend the by-laws from half plus one to 2/3. I’d like to give notice of this motion at Wednesday.
>
> Why is this coming from the Senate Exec and not the SRC? Well…it’s procedural! The charge of the SRC is not to sponsor motions but rather to work with sponsors to review motions and assure that they meet standards, etc. We thought the Senate Executive was the appropriate body to put forward motions involving changes to the By-Laws.
>
> I would like to give notice of the forthcoming motions in Wednesday’s Senate meeting. I plan to give an overview of the whole package of changes, but only notice the first motion to change the majority requirement for by-laws changes, which would be voted on in the January meeting.
>
> My assumption is that most of you will be fine with this plan, so please let me know before 3pm on Wednesday if you vote against this notice of motion. Thank you,
>
> - Ell
>
> Elliot Berkman
> Senate President
> Professor, Department of Psychology & Center for Translational Neuroscience
> he/him/his
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