Faculty Senate to rescind ballot

Chris Hunter / The Bulletin

Faculty Senate President Harvey Foyle outlines the procedure for the general education bill on April 1st. The Faculty Senate will hold a second vote at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Kanza Room.

The president of the Faculty Senate will ask for a motion to rescind the April 1 secret ballot vote to change Emporia State’s general education requirements, according to the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.

The Senate will then take a public vote on dropping history and economics requirements for most students. The agenda was released Friday by Senate President Harvey Foyle, who in an email said he welcomed The Bulletin’s attendance at the meeting but declined to answer questions about whether the secret ballot broke state law.

The April 1 vote appears not only to have violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act but also the law on Open Records, according to Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center, Arlington, Va. That opinion was echoed by Mike Merriam, an attorney for the Kansas Press Association.

Lyon County Prosecutor John Marcus Goodman, however, was less certain.

“I have requested informally that the university state its position on whether they believe the Faculty Senate to be an open meeting or not,” Goodman said last week. “I’ve spoken with the university and they have an acceptable solution. I’m going to let the president’s office issue a statement.”

As of Sunday, no statement had been released. President Michael Lane told The Bulletin last week that he was unavailable for an interview. He said he would be available, however, sometime this week.

At the General Education Council meeting on Wednesday, Gerritt Bleeker, associate dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said Lane had “many options on the table” to deal with the situation.

University Counsel Tracy Greene has repeatedly declined requests for comment.

The motion to suspend the Senate’s constitution and vote by secret ballot was made by Kevin Coulson, associate professor of business administration and education, who later told The Bulletin that he believed the Senate, was governed by “Robert’s Rules of Order,” but was unsure if the Kansas Open Meetings Act applied. He also said he did not consider the ballot secret because it was conducted in an open meeting.

The vote to suspend the constitution and go to a secret ballot was 24-4. Senators were allowed only to mark a yes, no or abstain. The tally was 17-10 in favor of the general education proposal, with one abstention. The ballots were destroyed immediately after being counted.

The proposal to make history and economics options and not requirements for General Education students has created division on campus since the March 4 Faculty Senate meeting. Shortly after the April 1 vote, Coulson said he proposed the secret ballot to protect senators from being pressured by a “minority group.” He did not, however, identify the group.

“We risk a tyranny of the minority in having people sway our opinions,” Coulson said at the meeting, according to the Faculty Senate minutes. “The untenured must be able to vote their consciences.”

Foyle, a professor of instructional design and technology, said last week that if the Faculty Senate had broken the law, the secret vote would be rescinded. Under state law, no binding action can be taken by secret ballot.

The Senate will meet at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Kanza Room of the Memorial Union.

EDIT, 4/17/08: Fixed ambiguous wording in the second paragraph. The Senate voted on dropping the general education requirements, not the classes themselves.