Bringing order to the 250-member Urbana-Champaign Senate is not a task for the fainthearted.
The senate is a center point for campus opinion-making, a place where the divergent backgrounds, disciplines and expertise of each member coalesce into a uniform roadmap that guides university administrators.
Ideally, that is.
It’s the getting there that can get complicated, and that’s why there are senate parliamentarians, who supply advice to the presiding officer (usually the chancellor) on the rules, bylaws and statutes that define the university and how it conducts business.
“Being prepared is the most important aspect of this job,” said H. George Friedman, the head parliamentarian and a professor emeritus of computer science who retired 17 years ago. “It’s meticulous work, but the last thing you want is to be surprised.”
After years serving on various campus boards and committees, including heading up the Senate Executive Committee (then called the Senate Council) for a time, Friedman said the senate parliamentarian role “really just fell to me” after longtime rule-keeper Kenneth E. Andersen, a professor emeritus of communication, left the post a few years ago.
“Before he stepped down he took me under his wing,” Friedman said. “I don’t have formal training and I’ve always felt like an educated amateur, but with Ken, I studied under a master.”
Once at the helm, Friedman said he delved deeply into Robert’s Rules of Order and university governing documents.
He said one of the ways to head off procedural confusion is to be aware of potential procedural land mines prior to each meeting. Those special issues are usually identified and discussed with the chair prior to the meeting.
In addition to ensuring that senate meetings are run by the rules, Friedman said he has two important roles: to provide good advice to the chancellor and fairness for all who wish to be heard.
He said those roles can’t be realized without good preparation and experience.
“By having been around such a long time, I sometimes think I’ve seen it all,” he said. “I’m usually able to say, ‘This is how the senate usually does it.’ Even so, I admit the senate does surprise me from time to time. There are just so many things that can happen.”
Surprise leads to confusion, and confusion is not a good look for the senate, making it inefficient and politically messy.
“You just don’t think as fast on your feet when you're in the moment-to-moment operation of the meeting,” he said. “It’s a position that demands you stand up and be bold and confident. It also helps if you are correct.”
Friedman said he feels taking on the parliamentarian position is part of his duty to the university, an institution that has given him so much.
“The university is very important to me and I have a vested interest in its continued well-being,” he said. “The people in the senate are all committed to the notion of shared governance, so it’s important we do it right. If everybody stood up in a meeting talking at once, you wouldn’t get much done.”
One of the great things about the university, he said, is that it gives retired professors such as himself the opportunity to continue to contribute.
“I’m not nearly as active as I was 15 years ago, but here you can stay as involved as you want,” he said. “Just because you retire, you don’t have to cut yourself off, and I don’t have a desire to just abruptly leave it.”
He has become committed to ensuring a new generation of parliamentarians is prepared to lead when the time comes – not to mention fill in for him when he has other commitments.
Two trainees are currently under Friedman’s tutelage, and they are both as committed as he.
Brian Gaines, a professor of political science, started serving as a parliamentarian about two years ago, and Sara Benson, a professor of law, started serving a few months ago.
Both say they have long loved rules and regulations, and neither hesitated accepting the post when recruited by senate members.
Benson said she has been in awe watching Friedman at senate meetings.
“I literally think he’s a parliamentary rock star,” she said. “I know it’s kind of a nerdy rock star, but sometimes it seems like he knows everything.”
She admits she doesn’t yet possess the institutional memory that Friedman has, but realizes that’s something that comes with time.
Still, when she recently was thrust in the sole parliamentarian role in Friedman’s absence, she said she felt confident – even when she had to navigate a procedurally tricky spot.
“I was fairly certain I was correct, but it was incredibly unnerving,” she said. “All part of the learning experience.”
As a trained lawyer, Benson said she understands why the rules are so important.
“I think shared governance is very important, so I take it very seriously,” she said. “I meet with George from time to time and I’m trying to make it all the way through Robert’s. (The 600-plus-page rulebook) is really boring, but I think it’s important.”
Benson also plans to join a senate committee that focuses on bylaws, giving her another level of experience that she thinks will help her down the line.
“There’s lots of reading and observation,” she said. “It’s not something you just magically know. When some obscure rule comes up, you remember it forever. It’s kind of like a crossword puzzle that you fill in over time.”
Gaines, whose academic specialty involves studying the actions of state legislatures, said he, too, believes in the importance of shared governance and has always liked the logical flow of rules and regulations.
He is the “unofficial” parliamentarian in his department, which means he has regularly researched rules when needed, and has retained that knowledge along the way.
Still, he says, he has a lot to learn.
“I wouldn’t by any stretch of the imagination call myself a parliamentary expert,” he said. “The biggest part of it is paying attention and watching the meeting.”
He said he always brings his abridged “cheaters thin guide” of Robert’s just in case.
“It’s a big crowd at the senate and the rules tend to come up when there is a controversy,” he said. “The rules are intended to protect everyone, and I think we usually get it right. But the rules can be exploited, which is another issue entirely. It is helpful to have been on campus for a while.”
Gaines said he has been impressed with Friedman’s knowledge, but knows it’s a constantly changing process that demands ongoing attention and scholarship.
“He doesn’t get flustered and he knows the rules exceptionally well,” he said.
Gaines, too, studies university rules and regulations and is a member of various campus committees.
“I’ve enjoyed it because I’m a detail-oriented person,” he said. “I’m kind of a ‘leaves ahead of the trees’ kind of guy. This is my way to contribute.”