The faculty committee and council elections will take place today and Thursday in the walkway of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

“It is important for faculty to vote in this election,” Faculty Senate Vice Chair Bud Fischer said. “It allows them to have a voice in who makes policies and the decision’s on campus.”

Elections will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Signs will be posted in the union to direct faculty to the walkway to vote,” Fischer said.

The winners are scheduled to be announced at Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting. Seven separate ballots will be available for the different colleges, media services, library services and the graduate school. All faculty members need to do is supply their name which will be checked against a list.

Faculty Senate Chair James Tidwell, journalism professor, asked the senate members during the Tuesday senate meeting to promote the elections.

“We need to make sure we don’t have a miserable turnout,” Tidwell said.

Tidwell said he was worried about the campus construction and lack of traffic through the union contributing to a decline in turnout.

The elections will be held for open positions on the Faculty Senate, Council of Academic Affairs, Council of Graduate Studies, Council on Teacher Education, Council of University Planning and Budget, Admissions Appeal Review Committee, Enrollment Management Advisory Committee, Academic Program Elimination Review Committee, Sanctions and Termination Hearing Committee and the University Personal Committee.

In total, 52 faculty members will compete for 30 committees and councils.

The most highly coveted councils by the faculty appear to be the Council of University Planning and Budget and the Council on Academic Affairs.

Doug Bock, Larry Helsel, Fern Kory, Jane Lasky, Jeff Laursen, Andrew McNitt, Annette Samuels and Rose Zhang are all competing for three open positions on CAA.

For CUPB, Kathleen Bower, Steve Daniels, Frank Goldacker, Christine McCormick, Britto Nathan and Gordon Tucker will compete for one position from the College of Sciences. Two candidates, Joe Heumann and Dan McMillan, will compete for one position from the College of Arts and Humanities. Also, two candidates, Scott AGM Crawford and Pat Fewell, will compete for one position from the College of Education of Professional Studies.

Candidates for open positions submitted answers to specific questions that are available to the public on the faculty senate Web site.