David Evans will be the new president of the Faculty Senate, with Prashant Sansgiry as vice president and Steve Sheel as secretary.

The 44-member Faculty Senate is the main body dealing with faculty governance. All academic issues must come through this group that meets regularly to assess, determine or improve such matters as standards for admission, curriculum, discipline of students, research, recruitment and calendars.

"We make the final recommendations on everything but promotion and tenure issues," said Evans, explaining that 12 standing committees can generate initiatives and then recommend actions to the administration.

Evans, associate professor and chair, Department of Chemistry and Physics, earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, He has been at Coastal since 1997. He was previously at Presbyterian College and LSU.

Sansgiry earned a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming. He is professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. His research interests include statistical computing and modeling.

Sheel, a computer science professor at Coastal, earned a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma.