Academic department chairs can no longer sit on the Faculty Senate and other major university councils.

Tenure, tenure-track faculty and department chairs casted ballots Thursday to approve two senate constitutional amendments; the first revision not allowing chairs to serve on the councils.

The chairs can still vote for senate and council membership.

“One vote would have made a difference,” said physics professor Doug Brandt, chair of the senate elections committee.

The amendment passed 26-25.

The amendment “answers concerns that have been expressed by both faculty members and department chairs regarding membership held by departmental chairs,” according to the revision rationale.

The Council of Chairs has been divided on the amendment, said council chair Keith Andrew.

“We’ve kind of gone round and round,” he said. “If there was a consensus I think we would have tried to make a statement.”

A conflict of interest can arise from chairs serving on councils, Andrew said. Councils could discuss issues with faculty members tied to the department the chair serves.

“Some chairs think they shouldn’t be on any of the major committees — it’s sometimes difficulty to wear two hats,” Andrew said.

The second amendment passed 34-17, Brandt said.

The change will bring the senate’s constitution in unison with other committees’ bylaws and current practices regarding memberships selected by university colleges.

The senate supervises membership selection for university committees filed by elected members. With the current exception of the Council on Academic Affairs, the committees or councils are in the practice of specifying membership from specific colleges instead of at large.

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.”

Thursday’s vote follows the required two week wait past the senate’s own approval of the amendments.

Brandt said eight out of the 51 members who voted Thursday were department chairs. About 500 total were eligible to vote.

The amendments must now be approved by interim President Lou Hencken.

Constitutional amendment revisions are usually voted on at the same time as faculty elections, but since they impact candidate selection they were voted on Thursday before elections March 25 and 26, Brandt said.

The nominations for elections are due March 7