If the president of academic senate is reelected the workload in it will be as onerous as it was this year. I get certain perks for my role in this organization but it is not entirely clear to me that they will be worth it.
Should I stay or should I go? Full professor in the know: go; you can do better things off than on. Chair: stay, but practice passive resistance (he does not realize how difficult that will be in this situation). Dean: oh, my God! That is really difficult. I do not know!
You: ____________________ . Me: It is clear that the current situation is bad for my work, but getting out of it may be differently bad. Like my dean, I do not know. Yes, I do: get out, chair any other committee, but get out. This is the strongest suit.
And, if I go, how should I go?
a. Not stand for reelection. Too late to withdraw now. I am standing because not enough people did, so I was needed, and on the theory that someone else could become president. Then the onerousness disappears and I keep my perks.
b. Make a deal with my rival, warning him that I will simply give him the role if the current president is reelected. Danger: if he finds out what the workload has been this year, he might withdraw right now. Comment: how bad would that be, or, whose problem would that be?
c. Blindside my rival and everyone else: at the election meeting, hand off my role in public if I and the current president are both reelected.
d. Wait a few days, then allege some sort of emergency or change in situation such that I cannot serve after all.
It is possible that the current president loses the election, and/or that I do. If either event, or both take place, nothing need be done. But if the current president and I are both elected, these are the scenarios:
1. It is a toxic situation. Run the other way — you cannot mitigate this and since it is not absolutely required, turn it down.
2. Stay in role and assert yourself, but do not try too hard to fight the good fight. Critique: if the good fight is not to be fought, someone else can take the role with no harm.
3. Stay and use the role to fight the good fight. This is unrealistic, quixotic, pointless.
These things being the case, which of the above choices is the best: b, c, or d? I want to do (c). I would do it without saying why. I would say, oh, dear, I did not expect to win, I thought it was understood I was merely the pro forma candidate, and hand over the reins. What do you think?
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
While I absolutely agree with you that committee work (as burdensome as it may be) is really important for many reasons, why is it exactly good for you, from a pure selfish perspective, to be in the academic senate?
With budget cuts, teaching load is rising, and if I get another course, it will most likely be one more to the language requirement, which will be as bad for the rest of my teaching as being VP of Senate with this particular P. (VP in our system does not replace P if P lefts, but essentially helps P.)
If someone else is elected P, it becomes a non-issue — then my Senate role goes back to being normal. If this person is reelected, then Senate will continue to be used as an arm of corporatization. Workload will also be very high, and I do not like the way this person treats me (he became P this year, to replace someone who left, and was not elected but appointed). If the candidate I nominated is elected the job becomes interesting again and gets me out of my department to a more adult atmosphere.
But if the current person is elected, it means the electors do not want a person with my views, anyway. I could stand down and if they hit me with an extra course, negotiate hard. I can easily give an extra course if it is one I choose — and also, we don’t know that I WILL have to face this problem.
Two well-known pieces of advice:
(1) Save yourself; others you cannot save.
(2) Do what’s good for you/trust your instincts. If (c) will work, then do it.
So much depends on individual circumstances—institutional structure, practices, personalities—and I know I do not grasp the nature of your circumstances, having worked at a saner place all my professional life. So I would not dare give more specific advice. But I believe in these two general ideas.
So do I, believe in said advice, but it is hard to tell what the strategy is to implement it.
I was just elected to Senate too. Yikes. I hear mine is super tedious.
Imagine this: what I am looking at is being reelected to secretary of it. Being on it or being on a committee of it or chairing a committee of it is no big deal but being secretary is h*** anywhere and no matter what. And with the president we could get it is out of this world h*** as I already know. If I and current president are both reelected, I will wait a few days and then resign, I have decided.
That’s what I was going to suggest.
@Spanish Prof, yes. Also, as I realized while driving — the chair says do extra service, it is not so bad, and avoid extra freshman teaching that way, always says this. I do not think he even means it, it is a reflex of some kind, but the extra freshman teaching is not necessarily real and he really minimizes the impact of service of the bad kind. So — no, no, and no.
Why don’t you organize people to vote for the cool candidate for president so the bad guy doesn’t get elected?
That has been done but one does not know that it will work.