An increase in faculty voice will be among the changes in the NIU Constitution to be discussed at a special meeting of the University Council next Tuesday.

The council will discuss the proposed changes to the constitution developed by the council’s constitutional task force. Jim Giles, executive secretary to the council, said the changes will be informally approved contingent to the changes made in the by-laws of the constitution.

“The most crucial change is in the voting membership in the University Council. Right now the faculty doesn’t have a university wide organization with constitutional power,” Giles said.

Giles said the only power the faculty has now is through recommendations through the Faculty Assembly. He said it is important to give the faculty a stronger voice because “they are more involved in academics than the administrators.”

The main reason for the increase in faculty voting power is “to get as close to a faculty senate as possible,” Giles said. “We don’t want to get rid of the University Council, but we do want to get closer to a faculty senate than we are now,” he said.

If the changes are accepted, 32 of the council’s 46 votes will be held by the faculty. Student members will continue to have 12 votes and the Operational Staff Committee and the Supportive Professional Staff will continue to have one vote each, Giles said.

“The administration has agreed to give up their votes to the faculty. Six deans on the constitutional task force agreed that Northern is mature enough a university to have a faculty senate,” he said.

Giles said he expects the representatives of the Operational Staff Council, the SPS and the 12 student representatives to accept the changes because it will not affect their voting power.

Mary King, administrative aid to the provost, said the administrators on the council would remain as exofficio members, or member by virtue of their office. King is a member of the task force representing the Operating Staff Council.

Giles said the other changes to the constituton are not as crucial. He said some clauses in articles were revised to “represent more closely what really happens.”

Some of these changes are the inclusion of a clause which will designate a committee to resolve disputes among other committees. Also, future amendments to the constitution will have to pass by either a three-fourth vote of the council or a four-fifths vote of the elected faculty members of the council, Giles said.