Bicameral university governance models often include a university senate coexisting in parallel to executive bodies. This paper analyses the functioning and performance of the tripartite 'participative' Senate of the University of Chile, which includes academics, students and non-academic staff. This paper reveals significant limitations in the functioning, performance and productivity of the Senate, consistent with the evidence reported by the related literature. Our study suggests that these deficiencies are associated with (i) the institutional design and organisation of the Senate, (ii) ambiguity (legal and practical) in respect of its authority, (iii) structural discord with other governing bodies of the university and (iv) lack of legitimacy and recognition of the Senate by other governing bodies and the university community in general, consistent with the observed lack of electoral support and representation of its members.