Three sitting members of the University of Otago's governing council have been re-elected after a postal vote involving the university's Court of Convocation, and some votes cast by graduates living thousands of kilometres away.
The university also plans to further review its voting arrangements, including pre-election information approaches, after modest voter turnout.
The three members, freelance television producer Lorraine Isaacs, of Dunedin, retired Judge Oke Blaikie, of Nelson, and investment banker Michael Sidey, of Christchurch, had been re-elected, returning officer and university registrar Jan Flood said this week.
Senior investment adviser Peter McIntyre, of Dunedin, stood unsuccessfully in the election, during which about 3500 people voted, about 6% of those eligible.
The University Council has up to 20 members, three of them elected by the Court of Convocation.
All Otago University graduates are members of the court, whose sole function is to elect representatives every four years.
In another recent postal ballot involving staff representatives on the council, biochemistry senior lecturer Dr Craig Marshall was re-elected and zoologist Associate Prof Liz Slooten was elected, as academic staff representatives, for four-year terms.
One of the sitting academic representatives, Dr Marilyn Duxson, did not stand again when her term ended recently. Dr Gill Rutherford, a senior lecturer at the university college of education, stood unsuccessfully as an academic representative.
Margaret Morgan was re-elected as general staff representative, defeating university marketing services head Ruth Mackenzie-White, Shane Sturgeon and Helen Brett.
In the Court of Convocation elections, voting papers had been sent to 62,877 Otago graduates for whom the university had mailing addresses, officials said. About 10% of papers were usually returned.
Ms Flood said the university regularly reviewed Court of Convocation voting arrangements, also comparing notes with other universities, to see if improvements could be made, including in voter participation.
Other universities in New Zealand and abroad faced similar issues.
Among matters which could be considered was the potential benefit of allowing graduates wishing to do so to vote via Internet, with postal voting also available, she said.
