The chancellor of the university shall appoint the two university representatives and the two alternate university representatives having university-wide responsibility. The professional staff of each State-operated unit and contract college shall, by secret ballot and majority of those voting, elect their own representatives and alternates in a manner that shall be further specified in the bylaws of each unit's faculty, provided that the alternate representatives shall serve for the same term as the representatives for whom they are alternates. Alternate representatives shall serve in the absence or inability to act for the representative for whom they are alternates and, in that event, such alternate representatives shall exercise all the powers and duties of the representatives for whom they are alternates.