A. Membership. The General Faculty shall consist of the President, Vice Presidents, Deans, Librarians, and those members of the University with the rank of Lecturer on a full-time annual contract, Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor and other persons appointed by the Board.

B. Authority.  The General Faculty has the authority to recommend to the President who shall transmit to the Board of Regents with his/her recommendations, on the following:

• Changes in graduation requirements
• New degrees
•  Academic majors or programs
• Elimination of existing degrees or major programs
• Creation of new academic departments
• General Faculty Governance.

The General Faculty may review, revise, recall, and endorse actions of the Faculty Senate.

On these matters the power of review or final decision lodged in the governing board or delegated by it to the President should be exercised adversely only in exceptional circumstances and for reasons communicated to the general faculty. It is desirable that the general faculty should, following such communication, have opportunity for further consideration and further transmittal of its views to the President or Board. Budgets, manpower limitations, the time element, and the policies of other groups, bodies, and agencies having jurisdiction over the institution may set limits to realization of faculty advice.

C. Meetings. There will be a minimum of two scheduled General Faculty meetings each academic year, one early in the fall semester and one just prior to Spring Commencement. Between meeting times, the authority of the General Faculty shall be exercised by the Faculty Senate subject to the rights of the General Faculty as set forth in Section II.c. of the Bylaws. The General Faculty may be called together by the President of the University, by majority vote of the Faculty Senate, or upon petition by twenty members of the General Faculty. Action items on any topic may be placed on the Agenda of the General Faculty by majority vote of the Faculty Senate, provided that they are distributed to members of the General Faculty at least seven days prior to the meeting of the General Faculty. The Secretary of the General Faculty shall be elected from the members of the General Faculty at its first meeting in the Fall Semester, and shall serve for one academic year. The Faculty Senate at its last meeting in the Spring Semester shall nominate at least one candidate for the office; additional nominations may be made from the floor of the General Faculty meeting. The Secretary may select tellers from the membership of the General Faculty as he or she shall deem necessary, or upon request from at least 10 members of the General Faculty present and voting. A quorum for all General Faculty meetings shall be at least 33% of the General Faculty. The President shall preside at meetings of the General Faculty. If he or she is absent or vacates the chair, the Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs shall preside.

D. Electronic Voting for Curricular Items
At the discretion of the Faculty Senate, curricular action items placed on the agenda of the General Faculty can be voted on electronically. Electronic voting will use the same basic protocols as General Faculty votes, and voting rights will extend to all members of the General Faculty as defined in section IV-A. Washburn staff and faculty who are not eligible to vote will have the opportunity to participate in online debates.

On the seventh business day following a Faculty Senate meeting, the General Faculty Secretary will notify all faculty and staff of any approved curricular changes via e-mail. The e-mail notice will provide directions to an online forum for debate of these items. The period of online debate will be seven days, although postings will remain viewable by the General Faculty throughout the subsequent voting period. Upon request, a student or member of the public may obtain guest login to a particular debate forum; those guests may view the debate, but may not contribute to it.

When the debate period ends, the General Faculty Secretary will announce by e-mail to members of the General Faculty that voting has begun. The General Faculty Secretary will assemble a list of eligible voting faculty at the beginning of each academic term and provide it to the ITS staff. The announcement message will include instructions for accessing a single online ballot for all curricular items requiring a vote. This ballot will display each curricular item, as worded by the Faculty Senate. For each item, the voter will answer two questions, the first regarding whether the item is deemed appropriate for online voting, and the second regarding whether, if online voting is approved by the faculty, the item should pass as worded. If a faculty member does not approve of online voting, he or she is opting to delay debate and voting until the next in-person General Faculty meeting. A quorum (greater than 33%) of the General Faculty must participate in the vote. The voting period will be seven days. If a quorum is not met, then a vote on the curricular items in question will be delayed until the next General Faculty meeting. To prevent double votes, the hyperlink and ballot page will be accessible to each eligible faculty member only once.

At the end of the voting period, the General Faculty Secretary and the Faculty Senate Secretary, will obtain, tally, and confirm the results, then report those results to the General Faculty. In addition, the General Faculty Secretary will retain a record of individual faculty votes, but only for verification purposes. Individual voting data will not be shared unless a request is made via the Kansas Open Meeting Act.

If a majority of respondents vote to permit online voting, then their contingent votes on whether to approve the item as currently worded will be tallied. If a majority of respondents vote to approve the item as worded, then the curricular change is approved, and the process is complete. If a majority of respondents vote against online voting, the item will be placed on the agenda for the next General Faculty meeting.