NIU faculty members have cast their ballots, and they have decided to approve the neccessary changes needed to form a Faculty Senate.

The constitutional changes to create a Faculty Senate consist mostly of changes in wording and assorted passages in the existing constitution. The changes were approved by 88 percent of the voting faculty.

Jeffrey Parness, NIU College of Law professor and chairman of the elections committee, said an “overwhelming majority (of faculty) approved the changes (to the constitution) to create a faculty senate.”

A senate would increase faculty representation from the 30-member Faculty Assembly to a senate of about 75 members and will allow for more diverse representation of faculty and departments, said UC Executive Secretary Judy Bischoff.

The Faculty Senate would consist of the 30 current members of the Faculty Assembly and about 45 new members. It has been proposed that the 45 new members be elected by and from the faculty of each academic department and school, the College of Law and the university libraries, Bischoff said.

Parness said 30 percent of the eligible faculty actually voted on the referendum. “Now that the faculty has approved the referendum it is now on it’s way to the Board of Regents,” NIU’s Governing Board.

Bischoff sent a memo to faculty explaining the procedure and the purpose of the referendum. A ballot and voting instructions also were sent to faculty so they could vote on the proposed change.

Parness said April 7 was the deadline for the ballots to be turned in, but it was extended due to copying problems. The committee counted the ballots in time for the April 12 UC meeting.

Bischoff said the constitutional changes will go to the Board of Regents and she anticipates the changes will be approved. “It will be taken to the Board of Regents as a first reading on May 18. It will be an action item at the June 22 meeting.”

She said NIU President John LaTourette has kept the Regents informed on the progress of the proposed changes to the constitution in order to create a Faculty Senate.

Bischoff said she does not foresee the acceptance of the changes as a problem, and added that the senate is only an enlargement of the Faculty Assembly.

Bischoff said the new senate and the proposed bylaw changes might be approved by the end of June. The implementation, organization and commencement of the senate could start as soon as the fall of 1990.