Seating and Elections

Seating the Council

The Staff Advisory Council Planning Group will serve as the initial nominating and elections committee. Any planning group members who choose to stand for election will recuse themselves from the committee.

• Each division will elect one representative to serve on the council.
  • In the instance when a division has fewer than 25 staff members, that division will be combined with another small division to elect one representative to the council. So in this instance, The Office of the President and the VP of Diversity and Inclusion will elect one individual from their combined divisions to represent them
• Once these divisional representatives have been elected to the council, they will then appoint and additional four to six council members who will serve in an at-large capacity. The council will determine appointments based on the needs of the council. Suggested considerations include, but are not limited to:
  • Areas of expertise
  • Exempt/Non-exempt status
  • Broad representational diversity among council members (such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, age, ability, years of service, etc.)
• Council members will serve three year terms and are eligible to run for a second consecutive term.
  • Council members will determine approximately 1/3 of the elected members and 1/3 of the appointed members to cycle off the council after two years, three years, and four years. The result is staggered departures from the council with approximately 1/3 of the council being new each year.

Nomination and Election Timeline

As requested by President Murray, the Whitman Staff Advisory Council planning group will be facilitating the first election of the new Staff Advisory Council.

Important Dates

January 26, 2018: Nomination Deadline
February 8, 2018: Ballot Deadline
February 13, 2018: Election Results Announcement

Step 1: Nomination Process

Nomination Eligibility: All regular full-time and part-time staff of the college whose primary positions are staff roles, who have completed their initial evaluation period and are not student staff or executive officers are eligible to vote for and serve on the Staff Advisory Council.
Nomination Instructions: Those who wish to run, please email staffelections@whitman.edu with the following: Name, Position Title, and Department
Nomination Deadline: All nominations must be received by end of day on January 26, 2018
Nomination Follow-up: Nominees will receive a confirmation email no later than January 30, 2018

Step 2: Ballots

Ballot Availability: Ballots will be mailed the week of February 5, 2018
Ballot Instructions: Ballots will be sent to staff mailboxes. Select your candidate, fold paper, staple and return via interoffice mail.
Ballot Deadline: All ballots must be sent through interoffice mail by 5pm on February 8, 2018

Step 3: Election Results Announcement

Ballot Collection and Count: The planning group will collect and tally all votes
Election Results Announcement: An email will be sent from the elections email with the results of the election by February 13, 2018