Senate elections in spring 2017
The third and final year of office of the current senate will come to an end on 1 July 2017 and the University of Tartu senate elections took place in May.
The senate consists of 22 members. The senate is composed of the rector as chair of the senate, 16 members elected by academic staff members and five student representatives.
Representatives of academic staff are elected for the term of three years. Four members are elected from each faculty.
The election was organised in the form of electronic voting from 16 May at 00:00 to 18 May at 23:59. There was no voting by ballot paper.
Candidates for the senate were submitted by faculties. In each faculty, academic staff members of the university who work full time in an institute or college belonging to the faculty may be set up as candidates for the senate. In the Faculty of Medicine, also lecturers of clinical specialities whose workload in the university is at least 20 hours per week may be nominated as candidates. Members of the university council, the rector, vice rector, head of an area of responsibility, director of college or director of non-faculty institution may not be nominated as senate member candidates.
In each faculty, at least ten employees with voting rights may jointly nominate senate member candidates. To set up a candidate, a written motion and the candidate’s written consent must be submitted to the academic secretary either on paper or electronically.
The names of the candidates are made public after the expiry of the term for nomination of candidates. Candidates may withdraw their candidacy on 2 May 2017 at the latest by informing the election commission of their decision in writing.
All academic staff members, whose workload in the university as a teaching and/or research staff member is at least 20 hours per week, had the right to vote in the election of academic staff representatives to the senate. The teaching and research staff members who, based on an agreement valid as of the moment the voters’ list is approved, are on unpaid leave on the election date, were not eligible to vote in the election. The rector approved the list of voters as of 2 May 2017.
The election was organised via electronic voting and no paper ballot is used in the senate elections. From 4 April, all university employees were welcome to familiarise themselves with the university’s e-voting environment at www.valimised.ut.ee. The voting environment was first used for electing the council of the Institute of Computer Science at the end of April.
The elections were carried out by secret ballot. Each voter has two votes. Each voter may vote for any candidates, regardless of which faculty’s list the candidates belong to. Together with representatives of the academic staff, substitute members were elected.
The four candidates who received the most votes in each faculty were elected. The elected senate members and substitute members were ranked and the results were approved by faculties.
Take a look, who are the members of the new senate.
A senate member may not act in the position of vice rector, head of sphere of responsibility, dean, head of institute, director of college or institution, or be a member of the council. If a dean or head of institute is elected as senate member, they will be released from the office of dean or head of institute as of the date their authority as senate member commences.
The authority of the elected senate members shall commence as of the beginning of July.
Student representatives are nominated to the senate by the Student Council for one year, taking into consideration that students of all study levels and all faculties are represented. The Student Council submits the names and the written consent of the representatives of students to the senate on 18 May 2017 at the latest. The authority of the elected senate members shall commence as of the beginning of July. If a student representative drops out, the Student Council appoints a substitute member proceeding from the same principles.
Senate elections were governed by the Statutes of the University of Tartu and Rules for senate election. The elections were organised by the election commission comprising:
- Andres Soosaar, academic secretary (chair of the election commission);
- Vivian Bohl, research fellow in theoretical philosophy, Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics;
- Taavi Unt, junior research fellow, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies;
- Aavo Lang, associate professor in human physiology, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine;
- Mark Fišel, associate professor in natural language processing, Institute of Computer Science;
- Aliis Liin, legal counsel.
Technical and organisational services for the elections were provided by the academic secretary together with Information Technology Office and Administrative Office.