Faculty voted to not allow some non-tenured faculty to serve in the Faculty Senate during an annual all-faculty meeting Tuesday.

The resolution, which was presented to the Faculty Assembly, would have allowed all full-time faculty, including specialized and research faculty, to be eligible to serve on the Faculty Senate, which has traditionally been limited to tenured and tenure-track faculty. All members will still be required to have tenure or be tenure-track.

In the final vote, 169 faculty voted in favor of the resolution and 159 against, falling short of the two-thirds of votes the resolution needed to pass.

Nelson Carbonell, the chair of the Board of Trustees, called for a task force to investigate faculty governance two years ago and said the group found that in over half of their meetings with faculty that faculty wanted to extend participation in the senate.

“It’s important to tell you that we didn’t revise the resolution in just the way the board saw fit,” Carbonell said. “This has been an experience which has reinforced my belief that GW can be among the top and most respected institutions in the world in teaching, research and service.”

Charles Garris, the chair of the Faculty Senate’s executive committee, proposed an amendment to the resolution that would allow regular but not specialized faculty to participate in governance. The amendment did not pass.

“We have no direct input that there is a desire among specialized faculty to belong to the Faculty Senate
and the people I have talked to said joining the senate is the last thing they want to do,” Garris said.