Senate Agenda - EXHIBIT I, June 23, 2000

REPORT OF THE OPERATIONS/AGENDA COMMITTEE

FOR APPROVAL

1. Senate Membership

Faculty Constituencies

Recommended: That the Senate seat held by Robert Hawkins, elected representative of the Faculty of Law, be declared vacant as a result of his resignation, and,

That Daniel Sandler be elected to complete Professor Hawkins' term (July 1 to October 31, 2001).

Recommended: That the Senate seat held by James McKay, elected representative of the Faculty of Music, be declared vacant as a result of his resignation, and,

That Paul Woodford be elected to complete Professor McKay's term (July 1 to October 31, 2000).

2. Nominating Committee Membership

Composition: Seven members of Senate, elected by Senate, at least one of whom shall be a graduate student. Not more than two members from a single academic unit. The Faculty of Graduate Studies is not considered an academic unit in this context.

[Ex Officio members include the Chair of the Student Caucus on Governance.]

There will be three alternates who are members of Senate, one of whom is a student, to attend meetings when regular members are unable to attend.

Current Elected Membership:

Continuing to November 2000:
Members: M. Weyers (Grad.), B. Bryan (Sci), J. MacKinnon (HS), R. Young (SS).
Alternate: R. Darnell (SS), E. Dipchand (Undergrad)

Retiring November 2001:
Members: P. Deane (Arts), R. Hawkins (Law), S. Mangsen (Music)
Alternates: G. Cherian (M&D)

Required: Two members of Senate, not more than one of whom may be from the Faculty of Arts, Science, Health Sciences, or Music: one to replace R. Hawkins who has resigned (term July 1 to November 2001) and one to replace R. Young who has resigned (term September to November 2000).

Nominees:

T. Rajan (Arts) (term July 1 to November 2001)
C. Callaghan (Staff) (term September 1 to November 2000)

3. Terms of Reference and Composition of the Subcommittee on the World Wide Web (SUWWW)

Recommended: That the Terms of Reference and Composition of the Subcommittee on the World Wide Web be revised as outlined below:

Subcommittee on the World Wide Web (SUWWW)

Terms of Reference:

To coordinate and develop the official image of the University on the World Wide Web.

To formulate and recommend to SCITS policy concerning the use of the World Wide Web at Western including:

• the first and second levels of the UWO Home Page
• official Web sites
• acceptable use of the Web

To examine the status of the World Wide Web at Western, to bring to the attention of SCITS any matters requiring its special attention and to make recommendations as appropriate

To undertake specific duties as may be requested by SCITS.

To report to SCITS annually.

Composition:

Three members, Two members of faculty, appointed by the Provost
One member appointed by the Vice-President (Administration)
One member appointed by the Vice-President (External)
One ITS staff member appointed by the Senior Director of ITS
One member from the UWO Libraries appointed by the Director of Libraries
One member from the Office of the Registrar appointed by the Vice-Provost & Registrar
One member appointed by SCITS
One graduate student and one undergraduate student appointed by the Society of Graduate Students and the University Students' Council respectively for one-year terms.

Ex Officio:

Vice-President (Academic) and Provost, or delegate
Vice-President (Administration), or delegate
Vice-President (Research), or delegate
Vice-President (External), or delegate
Senior Director of ITS
Chair of SCITS
Web Editor, Department of Communications and Public Affairs

USC Communications Officer (non-voting)

Background:

The Subcommittee on the World Wide Web has requested that its terms of reference be revised to be more specific to its actual work. Of particular importance is SUWWW's role in monitoring Western's Home Page (level 1) and the immediate links from the Home Page to the first set of links (level 2) on the Web, in order to respect the Home Page policy approved by Senate and to ensure consistency for these initial levels.

The changes to the membership include shifting three of the positions which are now appointees of the Vice-Presidents Academic, Administration, and External to be ex officio members, i.e., the Vice-President or delegate. Members of SUWWW, SCITS and the Vice-Presidents affected have all agreed to the changes which will allow incumbents in these positions to continue beyond the 2 two year terms limited by Senate, thus providing SUWWW with continuing experience but enough flexibility that an alternate can attend a meeting if the incumbent cannot.

Since it is the Department of Communications and Public Affairs that maintains the Home Page, the Web Editor for that Department has been added as an ex officio member. It is the view of the Subcommittee that the USC Communications Officer could attend meetings as the USC appointee and there is no need for a second non-voting position for an undergraduate student.

4. Senate Election Procedures for Administrative Staff

Recommended: That the Senate Election Procedures relevant to election of administrative staff to Senate be revised as shown below to allow Internet Voting for Administrative Staff.

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

Pursuant to Section 24(1)(f), there shall be representation on Senate from the administrative staff, defined in Section 1(1)(d) as "employees of the University who are not members of the academic staff".

24.(1)(f) two members of the full-time administrative staff elected thereby.

Candidate and Voter Eligibility

All employees of the University in full-time continuing positions, who are not members of the faculty, and who are listed as such in the records of the Records Section of the Division of Human Resources, are eligible for election and to vote. A member of full-time administrative staff who is registered as a student is not eligible to vote in the undergraduate or graduate student constituencies.

If, at any annual election, no nominations are received for the administrative staff constituency, the Secretary of Senate shall issue as soon as possible after the close of nominations a second call for nominations, followed by a by-election. The timetable and procedures will be the same as those set out in the Procedures below.

Procedures

The Secretary of Senate shall, during the month of September each year, call for nominations of candidates to represent administrative staff.

The nomination of a candidate shall be on a prescribed form available at the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, signed by 10 members of the full-time administrative staff. The agreement of the nominee to be a candidate for election shall be shown by the signature of said nominee on the nomination form or in an attached letter. Any person nominated who might not be available to sign the nomination form shall be permitted to notify the Secretary of Senate by mail of his/her intention to be a candidate up until the final date for call for nominations. The nominee may submit on the reverse side of the nomination form a biographical statement or other comments up to a limit of 75 words. This statement (if submitted) and a digital photograph of the candidate (if he or she agrees to having it taken by the University Secretariat) will be posted on the Election Website and linked to the ballot.

Completed nomination forms must be submitted to the Secretary of Senate not less than seven but not more than fourteen consecutive days from the official date of call for nominations. The Secretary of Senate shall publish official lists of the valid nominations in Western News as soon as possible thereafter. These lists shall be by name alphabetically, showing the title and department of each nominee, and the verbatim statement of each nominee as provided on the nomination form (where applicable).

The Secretary of Senate shall, as soon as possible and not later than seven days after the publication of the list of nominees, distribute ballots through the campus mail system to all eligible voters, showing only the full names of the candidates in alphabetical order, with official envelopes for their return. An information sheet, containing the details previously published, will accompany each ballot. Completed ballots must be submitted to the Secretary of Senate not later than 4:00 p.m. on the seventeenth day after the official date of distribution of the ballots.

Balloting will be conducted during a designated period at an election site linked to Western's Homepage on the Internet.

The Secretary of Senate and two Honorary Scrutineers, appointed by the Senate, shall be responsible for validating all ballots, for the counting of the poll and for shall publishing the names of the successful candidates in an official notice of the Senate, within forty-eight hours of the closing of the poll. The successful candidates shall be those who obtain the largest number of votes.

Background:

The system of Internet voting for graduate and undergraduate students was used successfully in the Fall of 1999. The Secretariat wishes to expand Internet voting to include administrative staff in the Fall of 2000. The system, devised by Information Technology Services in consultation with the University Secretariat and the Division of Human Resources, will allow voting on the Internet, i.e., the World Wide Web, for Board of Governors and Senate administrative staff constituencies. Internet voting will save significant amounts of time and cost formerly spent preparing, printing, stuffing, mailing, opening return and secrecy envelopes and counting ballots for the approximately 2,000 full-time staff at Western.

The election schedules conform closely to the rules governing elections. However, some of the regulations need to be changed, as outlined below:

1. The University Secretariat has been developing the ballot to supply more information to voters about candidates. Plans are to post photographs and statements of candidates in all constituencies on the election Web site in the future.

2. The ballot will be linked to the UWO Homepage during the two day period in which polls are open. In this way the ballot will be accessible to anyone from any computer with a connection to the Internet.

3. Reference to Honorary Scrutineers has been removed from the procedures, since ballot counting for administrative staff constituencies will be managed electronically.

The election process will be advertised in Western News. The voter enters his or her panther login and password (normally used for julian e-mail or dialin accounts). The system confirms the that the employee is a valid voter by checking against the employee's UWO identification number and his or her panther login.⁽¹⁾ ITS estimates that 10% of administrative staff do not currently have panther passwords. Throughout the summer the Secretariat will be contacting staff, and specifically the 10% noted above, to explain the system and the need for such a password in order to use this system for voting. The Secretariat will also be working with the Divisions of Housing and Food Services and Physical Plant to determine the best means of having accessible computer terminals available to their staff on October 11 and 12 when the polls are open.

The new voting system will allow an individual to vote only once. Two files will be created and backed-up: one records the ID number, time and machine used to access the web, the other records the vote cast by the individual once the ID number is validated. However, the stored record will NOT reveal how the individual voted.

FOR INFORMATION

1. Fall 2000 Senate Election Schedule

Elections will be held for representatives of the undergraduate and graduate student, faculty and administrative staff constituencies this Fall. The election schedules are outlined below:

1. The panther login is a confidential password that in future will be needed by both the academic and administrative staff to update their personal information on an LDAP-enabled Directory (LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), which is a consolidated directory system for central authentication for access to services.