U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A
OFFICE OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED
RULES and ELECTIONS
RICK DALE, CHAIR
February 10, 2012
Formal Ruling
As requested by Chair Amussen and CAP Chair Wallander, the Committee on Rules and Elections reviewed a vote on a personnel file in the School of Natural Sciences (SNS). This vote was cast by the set of faculty who remain in the SNS Bylaw 55 unit because they have not joined the four new Bylaw 55 units approved by the Senate in 2011.
Ruling:
Without explicit joint membership in two units, it is implicit in the bylaws that the faculty of SNS who became part of the four new Bylaw 55 units left the original SNS unit, thus leaving a set of "residual" faculty. These faculty, as a group, have all the privileges of voting on personnel issues, etc. as specified in the bylaws. The vote is therefore valid. The confusion appears to have come from use of the LES name not yet recognized by CAP. The name, as chosen by these faculty, refers to the future Bylaw 55 unit that will soon be codified by these faculty members. A glance at the recent history of the formation of these SNS units reveals explicit plans for such membership in a fifth unit. Use of this name seems immaterial to the vote, though it may help future such situations by making explicit that voting faculty are those remaining in the original SNS Bylaw 55 unit.
UC Merced Committee on Rules and Elections:
Rick Dale, Chair
Peter Berck, Vice Chair (UC Berkeley)
Paul Almeida
