1. Voting in Departments and Programs. Tenured and, consistent with department practices, term ladder faculty with primary or fully joint appointments in a department or program may vote on appointments and promotions to ranks below or equivalent to their own, except that faculty with term appointments may not vote on reappointments to ranks equivalent to their own. Also consistent with department practices, faculty with secondary appointments may vote in the same manner, except that regardless of rank, they may not vote on promotions or appointments to tenure positions in the department of their secondary appointment. Faculty with fully joint appointments may vote in both departments, including voting on a joint appointment proposed in both departments. All voting on multi-year appointments and promotions must be done with secret ballots. For an appointment to be carried to the appropriate appointment and promotions committee, the candidate must receive affirmative votes from a majority of those present and eligible to vote. Consistent with department practices, faculty members in the adjunct, lector, and lecturer ranks may, within their own ranks, vote on appointments and promotions to ranks of the type they hold below or equivalent to their own, but they may not vote on reappointments to ranks equivalent to their own. A member of the faculty who has a personal or professional conflict of interest concerning an individual on whom a vote is to be taken must absent him or herself from all discussions and all votes taken on that individual. In interdisciplinary programs, such as American Studies, and interdisciplinary departments, such as African American Studies, faculty members with primary appointments in another Faculty of Arts and Sciences department and secondary appointments in the interdisciplinary program or department may be given the same voting privileges in the interdisciplinary program or department as those with primary or fully joint appointments.

2. Recording Department Votes. Departments report the results of all votes, including abstentions, taken on a case being brought forward to an appointments and promotions committee.

3. Absentee Ballots. Departments may not accept or report absentee ballots. Only those present at the meeting where the vote is taken may cast ballots.

4. Voting in Appointments and Promotions Committees. Members of the committee may not vote on candidates brought to the committee by departments in which they are eligible to vote, regardless of whether they voted in the department. Such committee members are counted as present and not eligible to vote. A quorum of six members eligible to vote is the minimum required for a vote to have force. For any appointment to be carried to the Joint Boards of Permanent Officers, the candidate must receive affirmative votes from a majority of those present and eligible to vote.

5. Voting in the Joint Boards of Permanent Officers. Full professors whose primary or fully joint appointments are in a Faculty of Arts and Sciences department may vote, as may full professors of professional schools with secondary appointments in a Faculty of Arts and Sciences department and explicit Corporation approval for such voting rights. The only exception to this rule is for faculty in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry , where faculty must choose whether who are assigned to vote in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or in the School of MedicineSchool of Medicine's Board of Permanent Officers and may not also vote in the Joint Boards of Permanent Officers of Yale College and the Graduate School. By long standing custom, a quorum for the conduct of business at a meeting of the Joint Boards consists of 37 members eligible to vote. No vote has force if the number of votes, plus recorded abstentions, falls short of that number. Tenure appointments are forwarded to the Corporation only if upon an affirmative vote by two-thirds of the members present and eligible to vote in the affirmative. All other appointments are approved by majority vote.

6. Abstentions. Because a majority of those present and eligible to vote is required to bring an appointment forward to the next level, abstentions have the same effect as votes cast against the appointment in departments, appointments and promotion committees, and the Joint Boards of Permanent Officers.

7. Voting in Yale College Faculty Meetings. All ladder faculty of departments and programs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are invited to attend and vote. In addition, full-time paid adjuncts in all ranks, full-time senior lectors, full-time lectors with appointments for more than one year, full-time senior lecturers, and full-time lecturers with appointments for more than one year are also invited to attend and vote. Certain other individuals who have continuing and significant interactions with undergraduates may also attend and vote. This group includes non-ladder faculty who serve as chairs, directors of undergraduate studies, or residential college deans or masters; ladder faculty in professional schools who regularly teach in Yale College; deans in Yale College; assistant, associate, and deputy provosts; and Officers of the University.

8. Voting in the Graduate School. All ladder faculty of departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or in one of the basic science departments of the School of Medicine are automatically members of the Graduate School Faculty and may vote in meetings of the Graduate School. Ladder faculty of professional schools who have either fully joint or secondary appointments in one of the departments described above are also members of the Graduate School faculty and may vote. In certain cases, other members of professional school faculty may be appointed to the Graduate School Faculty. (See F above.)