UTS Standing Orders - Academic Board

2. At the first meeting of Academic Board following the beginning of a new two-year term, the Vice-Chancellor will open the meeting and invite the recently-elected Chair to chair the meeting from that point.

3. Where at a meeting of the Academic Board the Chair

(a) is absent,

(b) elects not to preside,

or the office of the Chair is vacant, the Deputy Chair shall preside unless unwilling to do so.

4. In the absence of the Chair and Deputy Chair from a meeting of the Academic Board, or, in circumstances described in 3, above, if the Deputy Chair has elected not to preside at the meeting:

(a) the Vice-Chancellor, if the Vice-Chancellor is present and wishes to preside, is to preside at the meeting; or

(b) if the Vice-Chancellor is not present, or being present, does not wish to preside, the Board is to elect one of its members to preside at the meeting.

Notice of meetings

5. The Academic Board shall meet in ordinary session not less than six times in each year and at such other times as the Academic Board shall decide.

6. Not less than seven days' notice of an ordinary meeting of the Academic Board shall be given by the Registrar, who shall be Secretary to the Academic Board, in writing to members of the Academic Board setting out the time and place of the meeting and the agenda.

7. A special meeting may be convened by the Registrar on the request of the Chair, a Deputy Chair or the Vice-Chancellor or upon the written request of any five members of the Academic Board within 14 days of receipt of the request.

8. Not less than seven days' notice of a special meeting of the Academic Board shall be given in writing by the Registrar to members of the Academic Board specifying any matters requested under Order 7, for discussion at the special meeting.

9. Proceedings of the Academic Board shall be valid notwithstanding non-receipt of a notice of meeting by a member.

Quorum

10. The quorum at any meeting of the Academic Board shall be one–half of the current members of Academic Board, if one-half is not a whole number, the next higher whole number shall be used.

Vacant positions on Academic Board do not count toward the total membership of which one-half is required to reach a quorum.

11. If no quorum is present, the session at the Chair's request and endorsement of those present can proceed.

Items of business can be discussed (but no formal decisions can be made) and the inquorate session is recorded as notes.

Items of business discussed at an inquorate session may be sent to Academic Board members out of session for approval.

In the instance where sufficient members arrive (part way through an inquorate session) such that a quorum is achieved, the now quorate members may choose to resolve to approve and accept all the items discussed during the inquorate session. Such items would then be considered resolutions of the formal meeting.

12. Once a meeting of the Academic Board has commenced with a quorum, there shall be deemed to be a quorum thereafter, unless the lack of a quorum is drawn to the Chair's attention by a member of the Academic Board. On the Chair's attention being drawn to the lack of a quorum she/he shall adjourn the meeting for five minutes. If at the expiration of five minutes there still is no quorum, the Chair shall adjourn the meeting to another time or place.

Starring of items

13. Before the commencement of the general business of the Board's agenda, starring of items is invited by the Chair.

Starring of items is a meeting procedure adopted by the University to ensure that the whole agenda is covered, where possible, at the one meeting.

Items considered to require further report and discussion are accorded an appropriate amount of time within the constraints of a reasonable meeting duration which is, usually, up to three hours.

Items which are not starred shall be adopted straight after resolving which, if any, items should be starred for further discussion.

Any member may star an agenda item for discussion.

Minutes

14. The Registrar shall keep a record of each meeting which shall be entered in a minute book and at each meeting the minutes of the preceding meeting shall:

(a) be read unless copies thereof have been previously circulated to members;

(b) be confirmed or confirmed as amended; and

Conduct of meetings

15. The order of business at any meeting of the Academic Board shall follow that set out in the agenda unless the Academic Board otherwise determines.

16. Meetings shall, subject to the presence of a quorum, start at the time set out in the notice of meeting, and shall, subject to the discretion of the Chair, continue until the Board has disposed of all business on the agenda except that the agreement of the Academic Board shall be necessary for the duration of the meeting to exceed three hours.

17. (a) No member of the Academic Board shall initiate any matter for debate or move any motion in respect of such matter, other than a matter on the agenda, unless the Academic Board otherwise determines.

(b) To ensure that Board members have adequate time to consider matters for resolution, papers should not be tabled at a meeting. However if, after consulting with the Registrar, the Chair believes the Board may wish to determine whether it will receive a tabled paper, an opportunity to do so will be provided at agenda item 4, Receipt of Tabled Papers. Tabled papers received by the Board will be considered in sequence, whether starred or not. Tabled papers not received by the Board will normally be distributed with papers for the next meeting of the Board and considered at that meeting.

18. At meetings of the Academic Board voting shall be by show of hands, and

(a) any question shall be decided by a majority of the members present; and

(b) the Chair shall have a deliberative vote, and, in the event of any equality of votes, a casting vote. (Please refer to Standing Orders 26–38, with regard to elections held at meetings.)

19. A motion or amendment before the Chair shall not be withdrawn except by the mover thereof and by leave of the seconder and the Academic Board, provided that no motion shall be withdrawn while any amendment is under discussion or after any amendment has been adopted.

20. A motion or amendment before the Chair may be reworded by the mover subject to leave of the Academic Board.

21. No member of the Academic Board shall speak more than once to any question, except that the mover of the motion (but not of an amendment) shall have the right of reply, which reply shall close the debate. For the purposes of this Order an amendment shall constitute a separate question from the original motion and from any other amendment.

22. When an amendment is before the Chair, discussion shall be confined to that amendment, and no further amendment shall be proposed until the amendment before the Chair has been disposed of.

23. Any member of the Academic Board may raise a point of order which shall take precedence over all other business, and which shall be open to discussion. The point must be raised at the time the alleged irregularity occurred.

24. Any member of the Academic Board disagreeing with the Chair's ruling on a point of order may move dissent. Such motion shall be put forthwith without debate.

25. Any member of the Academic Board who has not already participated in the debate on any matter may, at any time, whether another speaker has the floor or not, move 'That the question be now put', which motion, if accepted by the Chair, shall be put without amendment or debate. The Chair shall have an absolute discretion to accept or refuse the motion. If the motion is put during debate on an amendment, the motion shall close debate on the amendment only.

Where elections are held at meetings

26. The Registrar shall be the Returning Officer for all Academic Board elections and may appoint a Deputy Returning Officer who shall have the powers of the Returning Officer in the absence of, or when delegated by, the Returning Officer.

27. The elected membership of the committees of Academic Board is open to all full- and fractional-time academic staff and all students, regardless of whether they are members of Academic Board, except that the Chair of any such committee shall be a member of the Board and from time to time the Board may require other members of committees to be appointed or elected from the Board.

28. Only members of Academic Board, present at the meeting, are eligible to vote at elections held at meetings.

29. Notification of a possible election shall normally be by its inclusion in an item on the agenda for that meeting.

30. Nominations shall normally be called for ten working days prior to the meeting and shall close at 5 p.m., two working days prior to the meeting. Nominations should include the name of the nominator, the nominee, and the position for which the person is being nominated. The nominee must have agreed to the nomination prior to its submission. Any nominations received after the deadline stipulated in the call for the nominations, will not be accepted.

31. An election to be held at the meeting shall be deemed necessary when the number of nominations received exceeds the number of positions to be filled.

32. All voting shall be by the quota preferential system.

33. Ballot papers shall be distributed to members at the meeting.

34. Voters shall be required to enter each candidate's name next to a box on the ballot paper in the order of nominations received.

35. Voters shall be instructed to place the figure '1' in the box next to the candidate of first preference. Voters may then place consecutive figures (commencing with the figure '2') in the boxes opposite the names of the remaining candidates, so as to indicate by numerical sequence the order of preference for them.

36. Ballot papers shall be collected at the meeting. The Returning Officer shall determine whether it is feasible to count ballot papers and declare the elections during the meeting. If the Returning Officer determines that this cannot be done, the Chair and the candidates will be informed of the result as soon as possible after the meeting and the Board shall be notified at the subsequent meeting.

37. The results of an election held at a meeting shall be published in the minutes of Academic Board.

38. The manner of counting votes.

Votes will be counted in accordance with Rule G3 Part 3 (32).

Closed session

39. The Academic Board may, if it so wishes and provided that a quorum is present, resolve itself 'into committee' and/or go 'into closed session', whereupon all non-members who are present shall, with the exception of those non-members as the Academic Board may, from time to time, determine, be required to leave the room and shall not be readmitted until the Chair declares that open session has been resumed.

Adjournment

40. The Chair may, with the consent of the Academic Board, and shall, if so directed by the Academic Board, adjourn the meeting from time to time and from place to place, but no business shall be transacted at an adjourned meeting other than the business left unfinished at the meeting from which the adjournment took place. When a meeting is adjourned for 10 days or more, notice of the adjourned meeting shall be given as for an ordinary meeting, save as aforesaid it shall not be necessary to give any notice of an adjournment or of the business to be transacted at an adjourned meeting.

Attendance at Academic Board meetings

41. (a) Any member of the academic staff and officers of the University may attend Academic Board meetings to speak to any agenda item, provided prior permission has been obtained from the Chair of the Board.

Members of the academic staff and officers of the University who intend to attend an Academic Board meeting should inform the Executive Officer to Academic Board prior to the meeting.

(b) Directors and other UTS officers identified by the Executive Committee of Academic Board, in consultation with the senior management of the University as appropriate, will be alerted to the online availability of Academic Board papers, and have a standing invitation to attend meetings and participate in discussion as appropriate to their expertise and area of responsibility.

Open meetings

42. (1) Meetings of the Academic Board shall be open to members of the University, that is, staff (including members of staff who are involved in media liaison), students and graduates, who may attend meetings of the Board as observers and shall be admitted subject to the availability of space.

Observers shall not be accorded speaking rights.

Members of the University, that is, staff (including members of staff who are involved in media liaison), students and graduates who intend to attend Academic Board should inform the Executive Officer to Academic Board prior to the meeting.

(2) (a) An alternate member may attend meetings of Academic Board in place of the member who nominated the alternate member (see Rules relating to Academic Board, Division 1). Alternate members are entitled to be included on the distribution list for receipt of agenda papers for Academic Board meetings and to attend and vote at meetings of Academic Board if the member who nominated the alternate member is not present.

(b) When both the elected member and the alternate member are present at a meeting of Academic Board, only the elected member has speaking and voting rights.

(3) (a) If an elected student member is unable to attend a meeting of the Board, the relevant Faculty Board is responsible for requesting the alternate member to attend that meeting in place of the student member. The Faculty Board is also responsible for notifying the Executive Officer to Academic Board that the alternate will be in attendance.

(b) Immediately prior to the commencement of a meeting of Academic Board, or as soon as possible thereafter but during the meeting, an alternate member who is attending in place of a member shall confirm that attendance with the Executive Officer to Academic Board.

(c) When both the member and the alternate are unable to attend a meeting of Academic Board, the member is responsible for notifying the Executive Officer to Academic Board that the absence will not be covered by the alternate member and the member's formal apology will be registered.

(d) If, for three consecutive meetings of Academic Board, neither the student member nor the alternate member has attended and the student member has not registered a formal apology with the Executive Officer to Academic Board for any of those meetings, the membership of the student member lapses, and that of the alternate member with it (see Rule 4 in the Rules Relating to Academic Board).

Communication of Academic Board decisions

43. The UTS Academic Board Briefing is sent by the Chair to all staff after each meeting of Academic Board. This electronic regular newsletter is to keep the community of UTS informed about the matters that transpire at meetings. The Academic Board Briefing is also published on the UTS website.

Individual notifications of the outcomes of the Board's deliberations shall be prepared by the Executive Officer to Academic Board and forwarded to those persons (Report Sponsor, Dean, Head of School, Chair of Academic Board Committee) whose attention particularly needs to be drawn to any resolution of the Board, either in order to note, action that resolution or for further referral to appropriate members of staff, as necessary.

General

44. Standing Orders 1–43 or any of them may be suspended by a majority of those present at a meeting of the Academic Board. A motion to that effect shall be open to debate.

45. Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, any decision made by a validly constituted meeting shall not be void by reason only of a departure from these Standing Orders which was not detected until after the decision was made.

46. Any matter not dealt with in these Standing Orders shall be governed by the customary procedure at meetings.

47. The Chair shall take executive action on behalf of the Board:

(a) to recommend to Council amendments to graduands' lists;

(b) to discuss with the Vice-Chancellor proposals for new or vacant chairs and, if so inclined, to agree or disagree with such proposals; and

At the earliest opportunity, the Chair shall report to the Board on the exercise of this authority.

Committees of the Academic Board

48. Subject to the Act and the By-law the Academic Board may:

(a) appoint such committees consisting of such persons whether members of Academic Board or not, as it thinks fit; and

(b) confer or impose upon a committee appointed under subclause (a) such powers and duties as it may from time to time determine.

49. The Registrar shall be secretary to the committees of the Academic Board.

50. Not less than seven days' notice personally or in writing of an ordinary meeting of an Academic Board committee shall be given by the Registrar to members of the committee setting out the time and place of the meeting and the agenda.

51. Not less than three days' notice personally or in writing of a special meeting of an Academic Board committee shall be given by the Registrar to members of the committee setting out the time and place of the meeting and the agenda.

52. A meeting of an Academic Board committee may be held at any time if all members of the committee so agree.

53. The quorum at any meeting of an Academic Board committee, shall, unless another number is fixed for a particular committee, be one-half of the members of the committee or board, if one-half is not a whole number, the next higher whole number shall be used.

Vacant positions on Academic Board Committees do not count toward the total membership of which one-half is required to reach a quorum.

54. These Standing Orders shall be applicable as appropriate to the conduct of meetings of the committees of the Academic Board.

55. The Registrar (or nominee) shall keep a record of each meeting which shall be entered in a minute book and at each meeting the minutes of the preceding meeting shall:

(a) be read unless copies thereof have been previously circulated to members;

(b) be confirmed or confirmed as amended; and