With relatively low attendance of less than 100 people, the Urbana-Champaign Senate approved various nominations for seats within the senate at its annual organizational meeting on Monday.

Proposals that directly affect the campus community were left out of the meeting’s agenda. Members reviewed the function of the senate and its role in the University’s system of shared governance, which includes campus administrative officials and the Board of Trustees.

While some faculty members and legislators have asked, without success, for faculty representation on the Board, Senate Executive Committee Chair Joyce Tolliver began the meeting by cautiously saying they have received confirmation that members of the senate will be able to participate in the future meetings of the Board.

“There will be time set aside on every Board of Trustees meeting from now on,” she said.

Interim Chancellor Robert Easter was scheduled to be in attendance but had “business out of town,” said Richard Wheeler, Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Vice Provost.

The senate voted on nominees for positions relating to the senate, including seats on the University Senates Conference, or USC, the senate’s standing committees and the senate’s executive board.

Nominees, Kenneth Andersen, professor emeritus, Nicholas Burbules, professor in Education, and Leslie Struble, professor in civil and environmental engineering, were approved by voice vote to represent the Urbana campus in the USC. They will be included in the conference, made up of 20 members from each campus that “must decide whether actions taken by one senate have broader all-University relevance and thus also must be considered by other senates,” according to its website.

Burbules was also elected by ballot vote to the Senate Executive Committee as the USC representative.

More than 100 nominees – all originally listed on the ballot – were approved to serve on the senate’s 16 standing committees as well as the Military Education Council.

Two students were nominated during the meeting and added to the ballot for both committees of public engagement and student discipline, but the final vote gave the positions to the original nominees.

Nancy O’Brien, Education and Social Science Library head, Sarah Projansky, associate professor in gender and women’s studies, and Alex Scheeline, professor in chemistry, were elected by ballot vote to the Senate Executive Committee.

Toward the end of the meeting, when the issue of low attendance was brought up by a member of the senate, Anderson spoke out about the responsibility of senate members.

“At this stage in the senate, if they are not willing to do that, then they should resign from the senate, so someone who is willing to fill that role can,” he said.