Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The bylaws state that an affiliate employee of the University who maintains an office space on campus, can receive mail, spends more than 0.5 FTE working on UNL business, has at least one year of service for UNL, and has the approval of their immediate supervisor can serve as a Senator if these aforementioned conditions are met. There will be three seats available on the UNL Staff Senate for UNOP/Central Administration employees, which will be ex-officio roles: What this means is that these are non-voting positions.

Yes. The liaison committee will monitor which University-wide committees need staff representation, find potential replacements among the Senators and the broader staff community, and pass those along to the President, who will assign them accordingly.

There has been a Staff Senate Coordinator position created to assist the Senate. Staff serving on the Senate will not be compensated monetarily. 

Please see the Appendix on the slides on the website.

Yes.

The election committee will go to the next person who ran for that seat with the most votes to see if they can serve. If that person is not willing to serve, or if there is less than six months to the next election, then the seat would remain empty until the next election. 

We will not change the makeup of the Senate at the time this change occurs. That seat from the vacated org unit will be open at the next election. 

Since the first term will be extended due to scheduling conflicts, Senators in the first cohort will be asked to serve the first year and a half without stated terms. At the second election in the Spring of 2024, sitting Senators will be allowed to opt-in to a new three-year term. The Senators that did not opt-in will be randomly assigned 2-year and 1-year terms until a balance is reached. All Senators elected beginning in 2024 will serve 3-year terms.

The Staff Senate will work with the Chancellor’s Office to make sure deans, directors and department heads support their employees' participation. The UNL HR policy says that time spent “serving at the request of the Chancellor” is considered work hours. The Staff Senate establishes the importance of professional development and service for all staff, as part of the N2025 Strategic Plan. 

The exploratory committee will continue to support the Staff Senate once it has been formed. Some individuals from the committee will likely run for election, but the exploratory committee as a whole will not become part of the Staff Senate. 

The Staff Senate does not replace college Staff Councils, or any commissions. The Senate’s main goal is to advise on campuswide policies. Staff Councils should help recruit nominees from their units to the Senate. Staff Councils should also contact the Senators from their org units as a direct conduit to bringing issues to the attention of the Staff Senate. Senate meetings will be open to the public, for anyone to attend, and anyone can suggest agenda items. 

The meetings are one hour per month. Depending on the subcommittee the Senator is on, and the time of year, there could be a few additional hours required each month. Once elected to the Executive Committee, a Senator should expect a much bigger time commitment.

With remote work, we have shown that we can use Zoom and other online platforms to work together from anywhere, so meetings will be held online to allow for that geographic flexibility. 

The Staff Senate is a core element of the N2025 Strategic Plan, and it will happen. Chancellor Green has said that this work is critical, and we expect him to mention our progress in major University addresses. The Staff Senate has “top-down” support, and now we need all of the staff and their supervisors to support this endeavor and the corresponding culture shift to seeing service as a part of work hours.

If a topic is a UNL-issue, then yes, the Staff Senate will likely vote and write a strong suggestion and then go on record with that stance to represent all staff to the Chancellor. For topics that are NU system-wide, the Senate will talk with the Chancellor’s team as well as the staff senates at the other campuses about how they want to see our position come forward. 

Faculty have academic tenure and academic freedom. They also have intellectual property rights to some of their work, which may follow them to other universities. Staff are overseen by Human Resources and do not have the same tenure and property rights. It will depend on what issues apply to faculty versus what applies to staff.

Yes, there are conversations about what that process will look like, and the expectation is that at least one representative from Staff Senate will be included in these types of conversations. 

Officers are elected for one-year terms, so there is no need for staggered terms. Officers can choose to run for re-election to the same position if they would like to serve more than one year. No officer can serve for more than two consecutive terms. 

Yes, they are elected members of the senate and have the same voting rights as everyone else. 

A nomination form will go out in September and then the voting will occur in October. Candidates will run for a seat in their respective unit. We are currently working with Faculty Senate and others on campus to design these processes.