The Faculty Senate passed three constitutional amendments Tuesday, all dealing with membership on university council and committees.

The first amendment brings the senate’s constitution in unison with other committees’ bylaws and current practices regarding membership by university colleges.

The senate helps select membership for university committees filed by elected members, and with the exception of the Council on Academic Affairs, the committees or councils are in the practice of specifying membership from specific colleges.

The senate amendment removed the wording “at large” and added, “any elective council may limit particular seats and the electorate for those seats to faculty from particular academic units to ensure balanced representation.”

The amendment wording may not have been an issue in the past because the senate has not recently looked into the bylaws of other councils, said Doug Brandt, chair of the elections committee.

“I think it’s just that it was overlooked,” he said.

The Council on Academic Affairs is in the process of revising bylaws to select two representatives from each college and one at large for membership. If passed now by a majority of the faculty, the amendment revision will allow for the bylaw revision.

“In any case, we would simply be catching up with reality, basically,” said senate chair Anne Zahlan.

The second and third amendments change the eligibility of department chairs to hold seats on senate or major faculty councils, while allowing them to vote on membership to the senate or councils.

Because of their job duties and responsibilities, department chairs are often grouped as administrators and so there is some concern if they should be able to vote on membership to major councils, said senate member David Carpenter.

However, the senate passed the third amendment still ensuring the chairs’ vote, and the department position offers a “dual status” because chairs sometimes go back to serving only as faculty members, Zahlan said.

With faculty committee elections late March, the faculty must vote on the amendments that will affect membership on the committees.

A two-week waiting period must be held so the amendments can be distributed among the faculty community. The faculty will then be given the chance to vote by mail ballot or a polling locations.

The senate also heard from the NCAA faculty athletics representative, Gail Richard, on the state of the 22-team intercollegiate program at Eastern.

Richard outlined the difference between external and appropriated monies, saying the latter made up a small amount of athletic funding.

“I think the athletic department’s dependency on appropriated funds has decreased,” she said.

Richard said with the appropriated $1.2 million, most goes to coaches’ salary expenses that are sometimes seen as an “embarrassment” compared to other universities.

Although athletics are relying less on appropriated funds, they have been used for renovations in the past, she said.

Part of the department’s accreditation requires gender equity in athletics and some external funding most be used or not accepted depending if it will keep the men’s and women’s programs equal, Richard said.

Richard also provided the senate with a sketch of the program, including average grade point average, graduate rate and minority player population.

She said Eastern’s athlete graduation rate is second-highest in state.

The senate will discuss results next week of last month’s faculty forum to see what recommendations can be made in the future, along with what senate committees can be formed to discuss them.

The Faculty Senate meets at 2 p.m. Tuesdays in the Booth Library conference Room 4440.