Welch, Nickerson in runoff for chair of Faculty Senate

A run-off election became necessary when none of the original four candidates for the post received a majority of the votes in an earlier ballot, said Robert Hoeing, Faculty Senate secretary and associate professor of modern languages and literatures.

Welch and Nickerson were the two top vote-getters in that ballot. The other candidates were James Holmes, associate professor of economics, and Stephen Halpern, professor of political science.

Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science, twice has served as chair of the Faculty Senate and also has held positions as chair of the Faculty Senate committees on Budget Priorities, Public Service, Teaching Effectiveness and Undergraduate College Curriculum.

An authority on Africa, human rights and the political role of armed forces, he has held numerous administrative appointments in his 32 years at UB. These include dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education, associate vice president for academic affairs, chair of the Department of Political Science and chair of the President's Board on Appointments, Promotions and Tenure.

Professor of pathology and director of graduate studies in the Department of Pathology, Nickerson served as chair of the Faculty Senate from 1993-95 and currently sits on the senate's Executive Committee. He is a member of the SUNY-wide Faculty Senate, representing the health sciences, and is a member of that body's executive committee.

He also has served as president of the Medical Faculty Council at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

A UB faculty member for 30 years, Nickerson conducts research on the mechanisms of pulmonary and systemic hypertension in experimentally induced models of the disease.

Ballots for the Faculty Senate run-off election have already been distributed and are due back Feb. 18. For more information, call the Faculty Senate office at 645-2003

.