Senate Bill No. 6
(By Senators Plymale, Jenkins, Edgell, White, Unger and Oliverio)
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[Introduced January 13, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Education; and to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §4-1-24, relating to
providing that faculty and staff at state institutions of
higher education are eligible to a seat in the Legislature.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §4-1-24, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 1. OFFICERS, MEMBERS AND EMPLOYEES; APPROPRIATIONS;
INVESTIGATIONS; DISPLAY OF FLAGS; RECORDS; USE OF
CAPITOL BUILDING; PREFILING OF BILLS AND
RESOLUTIONS; STANDING COMMITTEES; INTERIM
MEETINGS; NEXT MEETING OF THE SENATE.
§4-1-24. State institution of higher education; faculty and staff eligibility to a seat in the Legislature.
(a) The Legislature finds that:
(1) Section four, article two-a, chapter eighteen-b of this
code provides that faculty and staff at state institutions of
higher education are employees of the institutional boards of
governors at their institution; and
(2) Faculty and staff at state institutions of higher
education operate under the supervision of a president who is
appointed by and serves at the will and pleasure of the
institutional board of governors.
(b) For the reasons set forth in subsection (a) of this
section:
(1) Solely for the purposes of section thirteen, article VI of
the Constitution of West Virginia that provides that no person
holding lucrative employment under this state shall be eligible to
a seat in the Legislature, faculty and staff at state institutions
of higher education are not employees of the state; and
(2) Faculty and staff at state institutions of higher
education are eligible for a seat in the Legislature.
(c) Since this section provides that faculty and staff are not
employees of the state for the purposes of section thirteen,
article VI of the Constitution of West Virginia only, nothing in
this section gives or takes away any rights of faculty and staff at
state institutions of higher education other than giving those persons the right to a seat in the Legislature.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that faculty and
staff at state institutions of higher education are eligible for a
seat in the Legislature.
This section
is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.