Provides for the inclusion of a faculty or staff member on the board of trustees of community colleges elected by and from among the faculty and staff of the college.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5979B
SPONSOR: Bronson PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL::
This legislation expands the Board of Trustees for community colleges to
include an eleventh, ex-officio, non-voting member who shall be elected
by and from among the faculty and staff of the college.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::
Section 1 of the bill amends subdivision 1 of section 6306 of the educa-
tion law to expand, from ten to eleven, the number of community college
trustees. The amendment provides that the eleventh member shall be
elected by and from among the faculty and staff of the college as an
ex-officio and non-voting member.
Section 2 of the bill contains the effective date.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
The amendments modify provisions related to the election of certain
board members.
JUSTIFICATION::
SUNY community colleges are currently administered by a separate Board
of Trustees composed of ten members, five appointed by the local Legis-
lative body or board, or other appropriate governing agency; four by the
governor and one member elected by and from among the students at the
college. There is no faculty or staff representation on any of the
boards. Consequently, faculty input is often limited to a few minutes
during the "public comment" period of trustee meetings. Since the
faculty and staff interact with the students daily, they are keenly
aware of what is going on at their institutions and what policy deci-
sions may or may not be working. This legislation seeks to give
faculty/staff a voice, albeit a non-voting one, on their boards of trus-
tees.
The SUNY Board of Trustees was recently expanded to include the Presi-
dent of the University Faculty Senate as a non-voting, ex-officio
member. The inclusion of a faculty member has resulted in a collabora-
tive improvement between the trustees, administrators, and faculty, all
in furtherance of the SUNY mission. Including community college
faculty/staff on their boards will yield the same results.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
2023-2024: A.6782 - Rules report cal.566
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS::
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE::
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5979--B
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 25, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRONSON, LUNSFORD, CLARK, SLATER, JENSEN,
EPSTEIN, SAYEGH, SHIMSKY, OTIS, MORINELLO, STIRPE, MEEKS, KELLES --
read once and referred to the Committee on Higher Education -- commit-
tee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom-
mitted to said committee -- again reported from said committee with
amendments, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said
committee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to including a faculty or
staff member on the board of trustees of community colleges
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The opening paragraph of subdivision 1 of section 6306 of
2 the education law, as amended by chapter 268 of the laws of 2003, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 Each community college, except in the city of New York, shall be
5 administered by a board of trustees of [ten] eleven members, nine of
6 whom shall be appointed for terms of seven years in annual rotation, and
7 [one member] two members elected as herein provided, except that initial
8 appointments shall be made for terms of one to nine years respectively.
9 Five members shall be appointed by the local legislative body or board,
10 or other appropriate governing agency, one of whom may be a member of
11 such local legislative body or board, or other appropriate governing
12 agency, four, from among persons residing in the sponsoring community,
13 by the governor and one member elected by and from among the students of
14 the college who shall serve as a member of the board for a one-year
15 term, provided, however, that the term of the student member first
16 elected shall be nine months commencing October first, nineteen hundred
17 seventy-five, and one of whom shall be elected by and from among the
18 faculty and staff of the college, ex-officio and non-voting, who shall
19 serve a two-year term, provided, however, that the term of the faculty
20 or staff member first elected shall commence July first, two thousand
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00418-04-5
A. 5979--B 2
1 twenty-six. The faculty or staff member and student member shall be
2 afforded the same parliamentary privileges as are conferred upon voting
3 members, including but not limited to the right to make and second
4 motions and to place items on the agenda. Such faculty or staff and
5 student [member] members shall be subject to every provision of any
6 general, special or local law, ordinance, charter, code, rule or regu-
7 lation applying to the members of such board with respect to the
8 discharge of their duties including, but not limited to, those
9 provisions setting forth codes of ethics, disclosure requirements and
10 prohibiting business and professional activities. The election of the
11 student member shall be conducted in accordance with rules and regu-
12 lations promulgated by the respective representative campus student
13 association in accordance with guidelines established by the state
14 university trustees. The election of the faculty or staff member shall
15 be conducted in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the
16 largest faculty organization on each campus. In the event that the
17 student member ceases to be a student at the institution, [he] they
18 shall be required to resign. In the event that the faculty or staff
19 member ceases to be an employee at the institution, they shall be
20 required to resign. The governor's initial appointments shall be for
21 terms of two, four, six and eight years respectively and those by local
22 authorities for terms of one, three, five, seven and nine years respec-
23 tively. Vacancies shall be filled for unexpired terms in the same manner
24 as original selections by the authority responsible for the original
25 selection. The board shall select its own [chairman] chair from among
26 its voting membership. Where two or more local sponsors join in the
27 establishment of a community college, the apportionment of the appoint-
28 ments among them shall be made by the state university trustees. Trus-
29 tees shall receive no compensation for their services but shall be reim-
30 bursed for their expenses actually and necessarily incurred by them in
31 the performance of their duties under this article. Members initially
32 appointed or elected under this subdivision to the board of trustees of
33 any community college hereafter established shall take office immediate-
34 ly upon their selection and qualification, but for purposes of determin-
35 ing the expiration of their respective terms and the commencement of the
36 terms of their successors, the term of office of each such initial
37 member shall be deemed to have commenced on the first day of July of the
38 year in which such college was established. The terms of office of all
39 members of the boards of trustees of community colleges heretofore
40 established, appointed or elected as provided in this subdivision, shall
41 terminate on the thirtieth day of June of the calendar year within which
42 such terms expire under the provisions of this subdivision as hereby
43 amended. For the purpose of determining such year all initial terms of
44 office of appointed members of the boards of trustees of community
45 colleges heretofore established shall be deemed to have commenced on the
46 first day of July of the year in which such colleges were established
47 and the terms of their successors for full terms, if any, shall be
48 deemed to have commenced upon the expiration of the number of years from
49 such date for which such initial appointments were made.
50 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
