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University of York

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, divided as follows (in order to achieve equal balance across faculties as required by the 2017 Senate Effectiveness Review):

  • the one individual scoring the highest number of votes from the Faculty of Sciences
  • the one individual scoring the highest number of votes from the Faculty of Social Sciences
  • the three individuals scoring the highest number of votes from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities

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, split by Faculty as above, will serve for three years from 1 August 2018.

(Note: Following the 2018 election resources will be identified in order to procure a new e-voting system to facilitate an opt-in electoral process to replace the current opt-out process, as agreed by the 2017 Senate Effectiveness Review.)

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 2018.  

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: 2018

ART staff on
permanent contracts

  • w/c Monday 08 January: email announcing election and inviting candidates to withdraw
  • Monday 12 February: deadline for withdrawal from candidate list
  • w/c Monday 12 February: email invitation to vote
  • Monday 19 March: deadline for voting
  • w/c Monday 26 March: results announced

 

 

ART staff on
limited-term contracts

  • w/c Monday 08 January: email announcing election and inviting nominations
  • Monday 12 February: deadline for nominations
  • w/c Monday 12 February: email invitation to vote (if an election is required)
  • Monday 19 March: deadline for voting
  • w/c Monday 26 March: results announced