ASCSU presents amendment to add three designated lecturer seats to constitution

The Academic Senate of the California State University (ASCSU) presented an information item to the Board of Trustees’ Committee on Educational Policy proposing a constitutional amendment to add three designated lecturer seats to the ASCSU roster.

The proposal, presented by Elizabeth “Betsy” Boyd, chair of the ASCSU, and Adam Swenson, vice chair of the ASCSU, would create three systemwide lecturer senators elected from a lecturer electorate at each campus and intended to increase lecturer representation across the 23 universities that make up the CSU system.

ASCSU Chair Elizabeth Betsy Boyd said the change is part of a “decade long effort to ensure lecturer representation” and noted that “by head count, lecturer faculty outnumber tenure line faculty.” She described lecturers as both more numerous and more diverse in many campuses and said their classroom and student-retention perspective is underrepresented at the system level.

Vice Chair Adam Swenson explained the proposed election process and barriers the amendment aims to address: “Under the amendment, each campus annually elects a member of a lecturer electorate which then elects the three ASU lecturer senators from its ranks,” a structure he said balances campus autonomy and equitable representation.

Board members treated the item as informational; the ASCSU chair and staff said the amendment was ratified by faculty across the CSU in fall and must be approved by the board under the ASCSU constitution before taking effect. The presenters and staff said the amendment would add three dedicated lecturer seats but would not require augmentation to the ASCSU budget; existing academic and student affairs funds would absorb assigned time and buyouts for senator service within the Chancellor’s Office budgeting process. Deputy Vice Chancellor DVC Evans said she did not have a final dollar figure at the meeting but committed to providing details.

Trustee questions focused on two areas: budgetary implications and data on diversity trends. Trustee Fung asked for specifics on current and incremental Chancellor’s Office costs if the seats are added. Trustee Yee Malekar asked whether the ASCSU maintains trend data on faculty diversity (race, ethnicity, gender, faculty status) and was told some data exist informally, that the ASCSU’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) committee has been working on related issues, and that more formal trend data will be added to the March action item.

The presenters said the amendment was ratified by campus faculty and that the ASCSU’s constitution requires board approval for constitutional changes. They also noted that the ASCSU constitution already provides two representatives per university plus apportionments based on systemwide FTE; adding three lecturer seats is intended to represent lecturers “at large” across the system rather than by campus.

No formal vote on the amendment occurred during the committee meeting; the item was an information item and the presenters said it will return to the board in March as an action item. The committee approved the consent agenda earlier in the meeting by voice with no objections.

Board members expressed overall support for improving representation and requested three pieces of follow-up be provided with the March action item: (1) a specific budget figure and explanation of how assigned time and buyouts will be absorbed in the Chancellor’s Office budget; (2) formalized trend data on ASCSU diversity by race, ethnicity, gender, and faculty status; and (3) any technical implementation details for integrating the three seats with existing apportionment rules, including recalibration following campus changes (for example, the planned integration of maritime into San Luis Obispo).