University Senators put the first piece of a proposed Senate in place Thursday and then decided to leave the rest of the puzzle to a task force.
Senators spent most of their January meeting debating four conditions of the impending Senate. However, at the close of last month's meeting, they could only agree to table one of the four issues. The other three were reserved for future debates.
The four conditions in question were:
-- faculty representation on the senate
-- the lengths of faculty council terms
-- proportion of students, faculty and other constituencies in the new senate
-- the issue of term limits
On Thursday, however, Senate chairwoman Marylin Buck and student Mike Slocum urged senators to move on to other legislation that was waiting for action.
"Right now, the Senate system is bogged down in this room," Buck said.
Senators then agreed to cut down the four conditions to one -- faculty representation on the University Senate.
Senator Joe Losco had asked that faculty members on the proposed faculty council, a body below the Senate, also serve on the University Senate. Doing so, he said, would improve communication and provide a clear faculty voice on the Senate.
Some senators opposed the motion, however, because they said it would create too much work for the senators, especially for those in smaller departments.
Senators passed Losco's motive Thursday, but not after more debate and two amendments, which were both rejected.
The first amendment would have allowed departments to choose if they wanted their representatives to serve on both bodies.
Patty Lang of the department of chemistry -- a small department, Lang said -- supported the bill for its flexibility.
"Let the department decide," Lang said. "You'll still have a thread of consistency."
Claire Chatot, the vice chairwoman, also supported the amendment, and she rebutted some opponents claims that faculty would only have to serve on one more body.
That extra body, she said, would lead to about another two or three meetings for the faculty member, she said.
Opponents countered that no one was forcing faculty to run for the council or Senate. Also, Senator Ray Scheele said, faculty members should serve on both boards to preserve the faculty voice.
"I think it's very important that we go back to the central tenet of the argument," Scheele said.
The amendment was eventually defeated by a vote of 28-20.
Chris Shea later presented an amendment that would allow the seven colleges to elect a member at large. It was defeated by a voice vote.
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