Staff Writer

DeKALB | Faculty and staff received close to their entitled full representation on University Council for the 2006-07 academic year.

The faculty and staff at NIU are entitled to representation on UC from 47 voting members, while students are entitled to 16 voting members, according to Article 1 of the UC bylaws.

In the ’06-’07 academic year, 46 of 47 faculty and staff voting member positions on UC were filled, as opposed to 10 of 16 student voting member positions, according to the records of Donna Mathesius, administrative assistant of University Council.

Voting faculty and staff members averaged 34 of 46 members – about 74 percent – in attendance throughout the ’06-’07 year, representing about 72 percent of their entitled votes, according to UC attendance records.

Nine student representatives were in attendance at the October 2007 UC meeting, tripling the student attendance of the October 2006 meeting, according to UC attendance records. Student representatives had an average attendance at meetings of 3.625 reps, according to the UC agenda records for ’06-’07.

The nine student representatives came from a pool of only 11, accounting for an 82 percent attendance rate at the October meeting.

In ’06-’07, student representatives had an attendance rate of approximately 36 percent, which represented about 23 percent of entitled student votes, according to UC attendance records.

No votes shall be cast at University Council meetings by proxy or absentee ballot, according to Article 2.73 of the UC Constitution.

The UC voting membership draws from faculty, staff and students across campus.

The faculty and staff votes consist of 11 ex officio members, – including the president, provost, deans of each degree-granting college, dean of the graduate school and dean of University Libraries – 32 elected members from full-time faculty, two supportive professional staff members and two operating staff members, according to UC bylaws.

One of the operating staff member positions was the unaccounted-for vote in ’06-’07, according to UC membership records.

The student votes consist of the SA president, seven additional SA representatives, seven representatives from each degree-granting college and one representative from the graduate school, according to UC bylaws.