The question of student and faculty representation continued to haunt university senators Thursday, who couldn't forge a consensus on how to fill the empty senate shell they created last semester.
Marilyn Buck, the senate's chairwoman, wanted the senate as a whole to consider the proportion of students, faculty and other constituencies in the new senate in hopes of reaching an agreement early on.
She also wanted to discuss faculty representation on the senate and the lengths of faculty council terms.
"I don't know how many times I've said this. This is just bare bones," Buck said.
Representation, or the lack thereof, caused the senate to initially consider creating a new model, after several faculty members complained that the current system failed to give them a clear voice in university governance.
But on Thursday - after about 50 minutes of motions, appeals, clarifications and admitted confusion - senators could only agree to send one of Buck's items to the governance committee for exploration.
Senators delayed the other two issues for the next meeting.
After the meeting, Sen. Mark Popovich jokingly said senators may have to wait until next fall to move beyond Buck's items.
Senators initially attempted to set the proportion of students, faculty and other constituencies in the new model because of the contentions the issue has sparked.
Last semester, student senators, including Student Government President Tolu Olowomeye, said they were concerned that the new model would decrease student representation.
At Thursday's meeting, senators alleviated those fears and motioned to maintain the current proportion of senators, with 65 percent of the senate composed of faculty and 16 percent composed of students.
The motion did not pass and instead was delivered to the governance committee.
Senators were not against maintaining the students' presence. Instead, the motion died after Sen. Joe Losco said not all groups, such as graduate students, were present in the current senate.
Losco's question sparked a new round of debate. Sen. Bruce Hozeski asked if administration and professional personnel had been consulted about their representation.
Provost Beverley Pitts said administrators were not concerned with the proportions, but two representatives of the professional personnel staff offered conflicting opinions.
Once senators put that issue to rest, Losco refocused attention on faculty representation and proposed that faculty senators be drawn from members of the proposed faculty council, one of the sub-bodies in the new system.
Losco said such a move would maintain a clear faculty voice in the senate. He also said a majority of the faculty approved of the idea in an informal survey taken last semester.
But Sen. Chris Shea questioned Losco's claim that the survey accurately reflected faculty's wishes. She also said it would take up too much of faculty's time.
"I'd think I'd be pulling teeth in my department to get people to do that," Shea said.
Losco replied that he felt his constituents were smart enough to understand the straw vote. He also said that faculty senators had to be members of the faculty council. Otherwise, faculty would not have a clear voice, and the whole reason for restructuring the senate would be loss.
"We would be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," Losco said.
Losco and Shea had to delay any further argument for the next meeting after senators voted to end the meeting. The meetings regularly end at 5:15 p.m., and senators must approve any extension.
Senators have already dedicated more than a year to reinventing itself, and they do not have a deadline to complete their work. Still, they finished the hardest task when they created the framework last semester, Popovich said.
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