Senate

APPROVED WITH
 NDAL Constitutional Assembly
 Decision No. 2 of 06.12.2022, Minutes No. 2/2022

Regulations 
on the Senate of the National Defence Academy of Latvia

I. General issues

1. Regulations on the Senate of the National Defence Academy of Latvia (hereinafter referred to as - Regulations) are drawn up according to the Law on Higher Education Institutions Section 5, second paragraph of Section 7 and Section 15, Cabinet of Ministers Regulations No. 774 "Rules on the Operation of the National Defence Academy of Latvia" of 16.12.2014 and the Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 576 "On the Approval of the Constitution of the National Defence Academy of Latvia". 

2. The Regulations stipulate the composition of the Senate of the National Defence Academy of Latvia (hereinafter referred to as- NDAL), the rights of the senators and their duties, the fields of Senate’s activities and the organization of its work, as well as the procedure for making decisions and appeals against these decisions.

3. The Senate is a collegiate management and decision-making institution of the NDAL, which approves procedures and provisions regulating academic and scientific issues of the NDAL.

4. The Senate is composed of:
4.1. elected twelve members (hereinafter referred to as senators), nine of which are representatives of academic staff and three representatives of students; 
4.2. NDAL Rector.

5. Senators are nominated, elected and recalled by the general meeting of academic staff and the general meeting of students.

6. Senators’ term of office is three years, unless the Senator resigns or loses his or her mandate and is replaced by another Senator. The term of office of the new Senator is the same as that of the current Senate.

7. The Chairman of the Senate, the Vice-Chairman of the Senate and the Secretary are elected from amongst and by Senators for a three-year period.   The elections of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Senate are held simultaneously. The person who gets the highest number of votes is elected Chairman. The person obtaining the second highest number of votes shall be elected Vice-Chairman. If the votes are equally divided, the ballot shall be repeated until the election of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Senate.

II. The Senate's fields of activities 

8. Senate:
8.1. Elects:
8.1.1. civilian academic staff;
8.1.2. soldiers retired from active service (civilian staff) in academic posts;
8.2. Reviews and approves
8.2.1. study programmes;
8.2.2. the regulatory enactments governing the study process and scientific activities;
8.2.3. Regulations on the Student Council;
8.2.4. self-assessment reports;
8.2.5. Regulation on the Admission Rules at the NDAL for each year
8.3. Establishes councils or commissions to deal with academic and scientific matters and approve regulations;
8.4. At the beginning of each academic year, the Administrative Capacity Ensurance Tables (hereinafter ACET) are equated to the following academic posts: lecturer, assistant professor, associated professor, professor, assistant, researcher, senior researcher according to the list of lecturers approved by the Council of Studies;  
8.5. Performs other duties prescribed by regulatory enactments.

III. Organisation of the Senate's work 

9. The Chairman of the Senate plans and directs the work of the Senate. 

10. The Senate's main form of activity is meetings: 
10.1. ordinary/regular;
10.2. extraordinary.

11. The Senate is convened by the Chairman of the Senate, not less than one third of the Senators or the Rector of the NDAL. The Senate meets in accordance with the Senate agenda (Annex). 

12. The meetings of the Senate shall be presided over by the Chairman of the Senate or, in his or her absence, by the Vice-Chairman.

13. Senate meetings are open. The Secretary keeps the minutes of the meetings of the Senate. NDAL staff have the right to participate in Senate meetings, to express their views and to be heard.

14. The Chairman of the Senate is responsible for drawing up the draft agenda of the Senate.

15. Senators, the Rector of the NDAL, the Vice-Rector of the NDAL, the Heads of structural units, councils and commissions may submit proposals for the agenda of the Senate meeting.

16. Proposals and documents to be included on the agenda of a meeting of the Senate, together with a draft decision on the matter to be considered, shall be sent by the applicant to the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary of the Senate directly (signed with a safe electronic signature) not later than five working days before a regular meeting. 

17. The Secretary of the Senate, three working days before a regular meeting of the Senate or one working day before an extraordinary meeting, sends electronically to the Senators the draft agenda for the meeting of the Senate, the draft documents and decisions to be considered at the meeting and ensures the preparation of the materials for the meeting of the Senate.

18. The agenda (draft) of a meeting of the Senate shall include those issues for which a draft decision has been prepared.

19. The Senate considers the agenda (draft) and approves it at the beginning of the meeting. The Senate does not consider issues not previously on the agenda unless the consent of a majority of the Senators present is obtained.

20. The minutes of the meeting of the Senate shall be kept by the Secretary of the Senate. Meetings can be recorded in audio and/or video format. The minutes of the meeting shall be signed by the Chairman of the Senate, in the absence of the Chairman by the Vice-Chairman and by the Secretary of the Senate.

21. The Secretary of the Senate prepares the necessary extract of the minutes of the Senate meetings and sends them to be uploaded on the NDAL website.

IV. Rights and obligations of Senators 

22. Senators have the right to initiate and participate in the discussion of any issue related to the study process and academic activities, as well as to get acquainted with the draft decisions and materials of the Senate meeting.

23. Senators have the obligation to attend Senate meetings and to familiarize themselves in a timely manner with the issues and materials to be considered at the Senate meeting.

V. Senate decisions and voting 

24. The Senate has the right to take a decision if at least seven senators are present at a meeting of the Senate.

25. Only senators take part in the voting.

26. The decision of the Senate is taken by a simple majority, voting openly.

27. If the vote is a tie (an equal number of votes for and against), the Chairman of the meeting shall have a casting vote.   

28. Senators are prohibited from delegating voting rights.

29. A Senator who has not voted within the time allowed for voting shall not be entitled to cast his or her vote later.  

30. The Secretary of the Senate shall count the votes.

31. The secret ballot in the Senate shall be used for the election of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Secretary of the Senate and for the election of civil employees to academic posts. Before the secret ballot, the Secretary of the Senate shall prepare the ballot papers and organize the election. In elections of academic staff, the Senate shall take a separate decision about the inclusion of each candidate on the ballot paper.

32. If more than two candidates are in the running for an academic post and no candidate obtains more than half of the votes of all the Senators present, a second round of elections shall be held at the same meeting, in which the two candidates obtaining the highest number of votes shall take part. If the votes received are tied, the Senate shall decide about the further activities.

33. The Chairman of the Senate is authorized to initiate electronic voting by military e-mail for the discussion and adoption of decisions. The Secretary of the Senate sends out the e-mails within one working day of receipt of the proposal.

34. Electronic voting is allowed to start and is considered to have taken place if:
34.1. no Senator objects to the following procedure for the consideration and decision of the matter; 
34.2. at least seven senators have sent replies.

35. Senators shall send their objections to the initiation of the electronic voting procedure to the President of the Senate no later than the end of the next working day following receipt of the draft decision.

36. In an electronic vote, a decision shall be considered adopted if half of the voting members and one other Senator vote equally, the vote being sent within one working day to the e-mail address of the Secretary of the Senate. 

37. The Secretary of the Senate shall, within the next working day after the voting period has expired, summarize the result of the electronic voting and indicate the decision taken, which shall be recorded in the minutes and sent electronically to the Senators.

38. The Secretary of the Senate shall attach to the printed record of the electronic vote the e-mails containing the Senators' votes. The minutes shall be signed by the Chairman of the Senate and the Secretary of the Senate.

39. Decisions of the Senate shall enter into force by order of the Rector of the NDAL, prepared by the Secretary of the Senate. 

40. The minutes, decisions and orders of the Rector of the NDAL relating to the work of the Senate shall be collected by the Secretary of the Senate. The original documents shall be kept by the record-keeping section of the TRADOC HQ and signed and scanned copies shall be kept on a shared drive at the NDAL/TRADOC HQ.

VI. Procedure for appealing against decisions 

41. The decision of the Senate may be appealed within five working days of its coming into force by submitting a reasoned application for the annulment to the Academic Arbitration Court of the NDAL. If the request is found to be justified by the Academic Arbitration Court, the matter shall be considered by the Senate repeatedly; if the request is rejected, the decision of the Senate shall stand.

VII. Final provisions

42. To declare invalid "Regulations on the Senate of the Defence Academy of Latvia” approved pursuant to the decision No.6 of the NDAL Constitutional Assembly No. 2018/1 of 16.02.2018.