The Faculty Senate voted Tuesday to extend the petition deadline for two unfilled positions for the upcoming faculty campus committee and council elections.

In a 6 to 5 vote, the senate decided to extend the deadline to Monday at 2 p.m. specifically for petitions for the faculty senate and the academic program elimination review committee.

Currently four faculty are running for five seats on the faculty senate, leaving one position unfilled, and two faculty are running for three positions on the academic program elimination committee, also leaving one position unfilled.

“This is just addressing the technical issue that there is not enough people running to fill the positions,” said John Best, psychology professor.

Best also said the faculty senate’s constitution requires they fill all of the positions by next year.

Senate members who voted against the measure were pushing either for a write in campaign or a special election to solve the problem.

Gary Canivez, psychology professor, said he would send an e-mail to all unit A faculty to notify them about the changes.

Elections are scheduled to be held April 11 and 12 in the walkway of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Faculty Senate Chair James Tidwell, journalism professor, brought up concerns to the senate about the Technology Enhanced and Delivered Education steering committee, of which he is an ex-officio member.

Tidwell said the four faculty members of the committee might not be allowed to vote on the final model for the administration of technology at Eastern, and he objected “strenuously” to that.

“If it is only four deans and an associate vice president who make the decision on this, then that just won’t fly,” Tidwell said.

Tidwell said the four faculty members did not understand

that when they were appointed as ex-officio members, they would not have a vote.

“Bob Augustine said he was in favor of the faculty voting, and he would try to clear up the air surrounding this,” Tidwell said.

The TEDE steering committee introduced three separate

models to Eastern’s campus for the administration of technology at Eastern. The committee made presentations to various campus senates and councils and requested feedback for the final decision.

“Everybody (TEDE) has wanted input from, they got it, and now it is their turn,” said Vice Chair Bud Fischer, biological sciences professor. “The general perception is now that they are boggled down and they should have had an answer a long time ago.

“I would like to see you let them know that we are concerned about this and the fact that the faculty members might not be able to vote,” Fischer said.

Tidwell said, “I would have hoped it would have been done sooner, but there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions, and it is difficult for us to come to a consensus.”