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All faculty are invited to a Faculty Forum to discuss changes to the Faculty Constitution pertaining to the election of faculty members to the University Athletics Committee and the Advisory Board to the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise (CSFE). This Faculty Forum will take place at 3 pm on Wednesday, February 5th, 2020 at the Blue Ridge Conference Center. In the days following this Forum, a University-wide online vote of the faculty will take place. (Please see Faculty Handbook Part section I.6.3.) If a 2/3 majority approves these changes, they will be part of the Faculty Constitution.

Last Fall the Faculty Senate with consent from Chancellor Brown approved a resolution to change the language in the bylaws pertaining to the selection of faculty members of the University Athletics Committee. In the current language, the Chancellors selects three faculty members. In the new language, these faculty positions will be elected from the general faculty

Suggested modification of the Faculty Handbook section I.8.1.1 follows, changes in bold

The Athletics Committee shall monitor, oversee, and make formal inquiries regarding issues such as academic support for student-athletes, the athletics budget, and gender and minority equity. It will inquire into any matters involving the welfare of student-athletes and will seek resolution of any problems through recommendations to the Chancellor.

The committee will have six members elected from the General Faculty and three members appointed by the Faculty Senate. Each college may have no more than three members on the Athletics Committee at the same time. All members of the general Faculty, below the level of Associate Dean, are eligible to run for membership. The Athletics Committee we page is linked to the Faculty Senate web site.

In addition to this, we need to approve changes to the Faculty Handbook (section I.8.1.1.d) on the election of faculty to the CSFE Advisory Board. The language proposed is identical to the language already found on the Faculty Handbook, and was approved by the Faculty Senate in 2018, but a recent process review discovered that this change was never approved by the Faculty through a University-wide vote. There is no substantive change to the selection of faculty, but it gives clarification that the election of faculty is part of a regular election procedure carried out by CONEC. The language in question reads:

The eleven‐member CSFE Advisory Board will include three faculty voting members elected through the standard University election process.

Hope to see you at the Forum on February 5th. Please email me if you have questions or concerns.