Overview of Faculty Senate

The Faculty Senate serves as the mechanism for shared governance at Valdosta State University. Senate formulates university policy, and functions as the represenatative, deliberative, advisory, and legislative body of the General Faculty.

Faculty Senate includes 60 elected voting faculty senators and non-voting participants representing administration, staff, and students.

Structure and Committees

The Executive Committee is comprised of the elected President, Vice President, Secretary, Parliamentarian, and immediate Past-President. The Executive Committee determines whether an issue goes to the Senate and, if so, which committee is the appropriate committee to consider an issue. The Executive Committee also determines Faculty Senate meeting agendas, communicates regularly with the VSU President and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and navigates a number of issues relative to policy and procedures that affect faculty, staff, and students.

Permanent Committees of the Senate are Committee on Committees, Academic Committee, Faculty Grievance Committee, Faculty Affairs Committee, and Academic Scheduling and Procedures Committee.

Standing Committees of the Senate are Athletic Committee, Educational Policies Committee, Faculty Scholarship Committee, Library Affairs Committee, Diversity and Equity Committee, Student Affairs Committee, Environmental Issues Committee, Acadmic Honors and Scholarship Committee, Technology Committee, and Internationalization an Globalization Committee.

Legislative Process

Any elected senator, general faculty member, administrator, staff member, or student can submit an issue for Senate consideration to fsec@valdosta.edu, however, the determination is left to the Executive Committee whether to bring an item forward for full Senate consideration, remanding to a committee, or taking no action.

Committees make recommendations to the Senate, who may vote to accept or adopt the recommendation, amend it, or remand the matter back to the appropriate committee. If the Senate accepts or adopts a recommendation, the Senate President will send the recommendation to the VSU President within 10 working days, who will approve or reject the recommendation within 60 days. If approved by the VSU President, the recommendation becomes university policy.