Online election of members to the Senate

As in previous years, the Senate election will be conducted by means of the online voting system developed by IT Services.

Information for ART staff on permanent contracts

There are five places on Senate for academic, research and teaching (ART) staff on permanent contracts to be filled by election.

On receipt of the email announcing the election, ART staff on permanent contracts should withdraw their names if they do not wish to be considered as a candidate.  When considering whether or not to withdraw, staff are asked to bear in mind a University convention which applies to membership of such bodies, i.e. that those who will be on leave of absence and away from the University for two terms or more during an academic year do not serve for that year. Those who do not expect to be available to serve a full term of office, for this or any other reason, may therefore prefer to withdraw from the candidate list.

Following this withdrawal process, a second email will invite all eligible staff to vote for up to five candidates. 

The five persons with the highest number of votes will serve for three years from 1 August 2012.

Information for ART staff on limited-term contracts

There are three places on Senate for academic, research and teaching (ART) staff on limited-term contracts to be filled by election.  Eligible staff will receive an email inviting them to submit nominations.  If the nominations exceed the number of vacancies, an online election will be held. 

The three persons elected will serve for two years from 1 August 2012.  

Voting requirements

Members of staff will require an IT Services username and password to receive the system-generated emails (including invitations to withdraw and vote) and to access the online voting system. Staff in academic departments with their own email servers (e.g. Computer Science, Electronics, HYMS etc) are asked to ensure they can receive IT Services email for the duration of the election process by setting-up email diversion to their departmental email address.  Guidance is available from the IT Support desk. 

Confidentiality

In order to reassure colleagues about the confidentiality of e-voting, it should be noted that:

  • the online system conducts a data audit which records whether a given username has voted or not (so that an automatically generated reminder email can be sent to those who are yet to vote);
  • the system does NOT capture information regarding the candidate selected by individual voters but it does automatically count the votes submitted for each candidate - i.e. it is still a secret ballot conducted on a ‘first past the post’ basis.
 

Election dates: 2012

ART staff on
permanent contracts

  • w/c Monday 6 February: email announcing election and inviting candidates to withdraw
  • Wednesday 22  February: deadline for withdrawal from candidate list
  • w/c Monday 27 February: email invitation to vote
  • Friday 23 March: deadline for voting
  • w/c Monday 26 March: results announced

ART staff on
limited-term contracts

  • w/c Monday 6 February: email announcing election and inviting nominations
  • Wednesday 22  February: deadline for nominations
  • w/c Monday 27 February: email invitation to vote (if an election is required)
  • Friday 23 March: deadline for voting
  • w/c Monday 26 March: results announced