The Academic Council, the University's primary forum for faculty governance, released Friday the results of its recent elections, for which ballots were due March 20.
Five members of the economics department are among those joining the council, which formerly included only one member with a secondary appointment in economics.
"That [shift], I would say, is basically the only thing that's pretty unusual," said Paul Haagen, chair of the council and professor of law.
Fifty-four of the 95 spots on the 2007-2008 council were open; the other 41 representatives were elected last year to two-year terms.
Economics professors now make up half of the 10 representatives allotted to the social sciences and fill five of the six open slots in that division.
On the ballot sent to social sciences faculty-generated through an earlier nomination process-10 of the 12 candidates were members of the economics department.
"Everyone was kind of shocked when they saw the ballot," said Thomas Nechyba, Fuchsberg-Levine Family Professor of Economics and Public Policy Studies and chair of the Department of Economics.
Nechyba explained that a member of the department, acting individually and without any official departmental support, had reached out to colleagues, urging them to nominate a slate of economics professors. As a result, economics professors with last names that appear early in the alphabet unexpectedly faced the prospect of serving on the council.
"It's not a very burdensome assignment, but it is somewhat burdensome," Nechyba said. "They got roped into this."
He noted that the two assistant professors on the ballot-one of whom had to be elected, according to council bylaws-had each been conducting a light-hearted campaign for the other's election. The campaigns have included e-mails, fliers and jokes about endorsements.
Haagen said a move by faculty in one department to increase their representation on the council is not unprecedented. He noted, however, that the economics professors are still a small percentage of the council.
"[Economics] is the largest department," Haagen said. "If they're mobilized, you would expect them to have a disproportionate number." Both Haagen and Nechyba said that some faculty outside the economics department had expressed surprise at the number of economics professors on the ballot.
Nechyba said the "Academic Council ballot" had been the second item on the agenda of one meeting among chairs of social science departments.
"Some of the other chairs sounded very amused," Nechyba said. "It's a bit embarrassing.... It's not a sinister plot."
Although two non-economics professors were on the social sciences ballot, only one-Kerry Haynie, associate professor of political science-was elected to the council. The other, Orin Starn, professor of cultural anthropology, is an alternate.
"It is clear that there was an organized effort by at least some in the economics department to increase their presence on the council," Philip Morgan, sociology professor and chair of the department, wrote in an e-mail. "I assume there are issues they care about, and they apparently organized so that their views will be represented on [the] council. This is what elections are for.... Frankly, few of us wait up late to get these returns."
Haagen, who will be completing his two-year term as chair at the end of June, said turnover and rotation of power are beneficial to the tradition of faculty governance.
"I'm always pleased to have people vote," he said.
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