A new task force investigating the possible formation of a faculty senate elected a chairman Friday and agreed to gather directional information from several universities.

NIU Professor William Monat was elected chairman of the task force at its first meeting Friday.

The University Council Faculty Assembly began considering the idea of a special faculty senate last fall during work on revision of the university constitution, Monat said. UC Executive Secretary Judy Bischoff was given the responsibilty of establishing a task force to look into the possibility of creating a group that would give faculty better representation in NIU government.

Monat said the task force’s first objective is to compile information from “universities comparable to NIU” to help determine whether a faculty senate is needed, and what guidelines would be required.

“There are faculty senates on many college campuses, each with varying degrees of authority,” Monat said. He said studying these organizations could help the task force establish its prerogatives.

He said the issues surrounding the possibility of a senate are still “too murky.”

“We must determine what a faculty senate would mean to the Faculty Assembly. Would it replace it? Would it parallel it? We don’t know at this point,” he said.

Monat said a faculty senate’s relationship to NIU also is question.

The task force will be receiving much of its research information from James Norris, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean, James Banovetz, Division of Public Administration director and English Professor James Giles.

Bischoff said her objective in calling the meeting was to include tenured faculty members from every NIU college, representing minorities and both sexes.

The task force Bischoff assembled consisted of 11 NIU faculty, including four assembly members.

Task force member Eugene Perry, representing the department of geology, nominated art instructor Gordon Dorn to serve on the committee also. Dorn was accepted, bringing the total to 12.

Dorn told the task force he, too, has researched the purposes and structures of faculty senates at other universities.

Bischoff will continue to serve on the task force in a “liaison” position.

“Mr. Monat, through all of the teaching and administrative positions he has had, knows this university as well as anybody else,” Bischoff said.

The assembly agreed to meet again Feb. 12 to discuss preliminary faculty senate information.