Many academic department chairs say they liked having the option of serving on university councils.

They no longer have that choice available after a Faculty Senate constitutional amendment was approved Thursday limiting chairs from serving on senate and other major faculty councils. The Faculty Senate passed the amendment two weeks prior to the vote.

The amendment, passed by a ballot vote 26-25 Thursday, was one of two accepted by tenure, tenure-track faculty and department chairs.

Chairs can still vote for senate and council membership. Interim President Lou Hencken still has to approve the amendments.

“I see a contradiction in the two amendments … we are the electorate, but we cannot be the candidate,” said Mahmood Butt, secondary education department chair.

Because of the position chairs are in as administrators, half of their position serves a faculty function, he said. Many chairs teach classes after their time in the position. “In general, I feel this is discrimination … we also have faculty rank,” he said.

It is possible a conflict of interest can arise from chairs serving on councils, physics department chair Keith Andrew said.

Andrew, chair of the Council of Chairs, said the council was divided on the amendment.

“If there was a consensus, I think we would have tried to make a statement,” he said previously.

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

A conflict of interest could have been avoided, Butt said. Chairs can abstain from being involved in decisions relating to their departments during council meetings.

Sociology and anthropology chair Gary Foster agreed there would likely be no conflict of interest.

Foster, who served on Faculty Senate for 12 years, said he stepped down from the senate when he was appointed chair after being elected each term as an instructor.

Chairs are considered more administrative and should be restrained to only voting for council members, said psychology chair William Addison.

Addison said his opinion was not in the majority. “Most of the department chairs would like to retain the ability to serve on councils.”

Faculty members’ vote or discussion when serving with department chairs could be influenced, since chairs represent departments and evaluate faculty performance, he said.

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When being elected to councils, chairs have an advantage, Addison said.

“The chair holds a unique position in evaluating faculty,” he said. “I think department chairs might have kind of an unfair advantage in the election process … chairs tend to be more visible in a lot of places.”

The university will suffer because of the amendment revision, said political science chair Richard Wandling.

“What concerns me is there are some chairs on campus who have an interest in making a contribution to the university bodies,” he said. “If you’re going to allow people to vote, you should allow people to run for office.”

Wandling said chairs can offer a perspective making votes and discussion by councils more diverse.

With the past option to serve, some chairs still would not have taken advantage because of time constraints.

“I personally have no desire to serve on bodies such as CAA (Council on Academic Affairs) or faculty senate … the primary reason is I’m simply too busy,” Wandling said.

Wandling voted no Thursday.

Eight out of the 51 who voted were department chairs. About 500 total were eligible to vote, said physics professor Doug Brandt, chair of the senate elections committee.

“(Brandt) was simply trying to clean up the constitution,” by changing the wording so chairs cannot serve, said senate chair Anne Zahlan.

The senate was acting on what they perceived chairs felt was their own role on councils, she said.

“We thought that most of the chairs actually thought that chairs should not serve on CAA, for example,” Zahlan said. “We were in fact reflecting the reality of what we perceived to be the situation.

She said the revision was not meant to divide faculty and department chairs.

The second amendment change brought the senate’s constitution in unison with other committee’s bylaws and current practice regarding memberships selected by university colleges instead of at large.

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, which will take place March 25 and 26, Brandt said.