RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES:  Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE:  January 25, 2002

TIME AND PLACE:  1:10 p.m., Multipurpose Room, Rutgers Student Center, 126 College Avenue, College Avenue Campus

MEMBERS PRESENT: Adelson, Antwi, Baldi, Barone, Bathory, Bell, Berz, Bittner, Blasi, Borisovets, Bossard, Butwinski, Caprio, Cicma, Cizewski, Cohen, Colaizzi, Cooper, Cotter, Cowley, Darien, Davidson, DeCarlo, E. Dennis, DeRosa, Deutsch, Diamond, Dimond, Diner, Domb, Duncan, Elovitz, Esser, Flanagan, Friedrich, Gillis, Habib, Hall, Hamm, Hara, Haugerud, Hillman, Hirsh, Hornichter, Jessen, Karel, Kauffman, Kennedy, Kirschner, Klein, Laguna-Diaz, Leath, Lee, Leontiades, Manhoff, Maradonna, Markowitz, Martinez-Fernandez, Maudlin, McKay, McKeever, Messer, G. Miller, J. Miller, Millican, Naus, O’Connor, Oren, Panayotatos, Pellegrine, Penfield, Pieczenik, Pottick, Puniello, Rabinowitz, Ramsay, Rijhsinghani, Rohr, Ros, Rountree, Saidel, Saniefard, Scott, Seneca, Silver, P. Simmons, R. Simmons, Sims, Slawsky, Smith, P. Snyder, Spencer, Stein, Szatrowski, Theodossiou, Toledo, Tripolitis, Tuckman, Vodak, Walker-Andrews, Wallenstein, Wasserman, Webb, Wilkinson, Winterbauer, Wozniak, Wyly

EXCUSED:  Boikess, Boylan, Chopra, Cronk, Evans, Forman, Gaunt, Gossy, Griffith, Hawkesworth, Kenfield, Kenney, Krueckeberg, Lang, Lawrence, Maw, Nordstrom, Perlman, Perr, Plummer, Rosen, Roth, Schlegel, D. Snyder, Swenson, Tallau, Varma, Wadia, Zaborszky, Zaveri

ABSENT:  Albers, Asaytuno, Bhandari, Boucher, Breton, Bronzan, Bry, Bushnell, Daniels, Darkenwald, R. Dennis, Driscoll, Falk, Felson, Franklin, Gary, Gross, Hughes, Hyndman, Jackson, Jesse, Jones, Keating, Keoskey, Kokini, Kressel, LaPadula, Laurente, Lehman, Li, Mandau, Marsh, Matsuda, Metzidakis, Mills, Nagarajan, Paris, Quinn, Samuels, Seplaki, Solomon, Stamato, Stauffer, Strom, Sullivan, Vershon, Zylstra

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY:  Faculty:  Of 89 total: 52 present (58%), 17 excused (19%), 20 absent (23%);  Students: Of 50 total: 30 present (60%), 5 excused (10%), 15 absent (30%); Administrators: Of 39 total: 23 present (59%), 6 excused (15%), 10 absent (26%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 2 present (33.3%), 2 excused (33.3%, 2 absent (33.3%)
View Senate attendance record for this year

NON-VOTING MEMBER PRESENT:  Redd

NON-VOTING MEMBERS ABSENT:  Sambolin, Wright

NOTE: Executive Secretary Swalagin was not present at this meeting. These minutes were prepared by Secretary Swalagin from an audiotape of the proceedings.

PRESIDING OFFICER:  Kathleen Scott, Chairperson

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT:  Chairperson Scott’s report included an update on the status of action on the College of Applied and Professional Studies (CAPS) issue and Interim Report.  She said that a revised CAPS proposal has been received, that the Senate’s University Governance and Structure Committee has met and reviewed it, and that a committee report on the proposal is anticipated for the April Senate meeting.  She mentioned that the Senate later in the agenda would hear an update on a previous Senate action, concerning student financial management and credit-card debt, from Vice President Emmet Dennis, and asked Senators to contact her or Secretary Swalagin if there are other Senate actions on which they would like updates.  She explained that Secretary Swalagin and Parliamentarian Tallau were excused from the day’s meeting because they both had flu, and that she would also be presenting the secretary’s report.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY:  Secretary Swalagin was excused from the meeting due to illness. Chairperson Scott presented the secretary’s report in his absence. Agenda:   On motion and duly seconded, the agenda was approved as distributed by the Secretary.  Minutes: On motion and duly seconded, Minutes of the November 30, 2001 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Secretary.

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT:  Vice President for University Budgeting Nancy Winterbauer presented the administrative report, which consisted of an update on the New Jersey State, and related Rutgers University, budget situation, including Rutgers efforts to deal with budget cuts.

NEW BRUNSWICK CAMPUS REPORT

University Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph Seneca presented a synopsis of the New Brunswick Campus Report. (The report had been distributed to the Senate in advance, posted online on the Senate website, and is attached to the master copy of these minutes as Attachment A.)

Following the Campus Report, Senator Pieczenik asked for a resolution in support of striking faculty in Iran. Chairperson Scott said that the motion was not appropriate during this part of the meeting, but could be raised under "New Business," or the suggestion could be forwarded to the Senate Executive Committee. Senator Pieczenik withdrew his request.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Budget and Finance Committee: Committee Co-chair Michael Hamm presented the Budget and Finance Committee’s report on Charge S-0111, Tuition Increases.  The charge had asked the committee to review and compare tuition increases at Rutgers and other public AAU institutions in the region, and with other New Jersey senior public colleges and universities.  The report, which was presented for information purposes only, rather than Senate action, concluded that "In the last year, and over a five-year period, Rutgers’ percent [tuition] increase was below all the other institutions listed" in the report. [http://senate.rutgers.edu/s0111.pdf]

Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee: Committee Co-chair Paul Leath presented the Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee’s report on Charge S-0110, Healthcare Insurance for Graduate Students.  The charge had asked the committee to review Rutgers policies regarding provision of healthcare insurance for graduate students who have fellowships or graduate assistantships, and to make recommendations for improving those policies.  The report included the following recommendations:

"In order for Rutgers to be able to compete for top graduate students, for whom graduate fellowships have been established, the Committee recommends that the University establish a goal of providing the insurance program currently available for individuals with ‘nationally competitive external fellowships’ to ALL graduate students holding fellowships.  The committee further recommends that these fellows be eligible to purchase group health for coverage in the same group plan for their dependents. The committee also recommends that the funds for this insurance generally not be deducted from the pool of funds currently used for fellowships, but that new monies be found for this purpose.  Specifically, we recommend that category by category (such as ‘Diversity Fellows’ or certain endowed fellows, or fellows in certain professional schools or disciplines) the funds be identified to expand this coverage until all such fellows are so covered." Following brief discussion, the Senate unanimously approved the Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee’s Resolution in Support of Committee Report and Recommendations, as follows: Whereas, attracting and retaining outstanding graduate students is one of the highest priorities of Rutgers University; and,
Whereas, graduate fellows are among our best graduate students and receive very prestigious awards; and,
Whereas, presently there are inequities in health insurance coverage between holders of fellowships and University teaching assistants and graduate assistants; and,
Whereas, other major research universities with which we compete for graduate students are providing these benefits to their fellows and their dependents;
Therefore, Be It Resolved that the Rutgers University Senate endorses the Report on Healthcare Insurance for Graduate Students, and urges the Administration to implement its Recommendations. OLD BUSINESS

Status Report on Senate Resolution/Recommendations on Student Financial Management and Credit-Card Debt:  Vice President for Student Affairs Emmet Dennis reported on administrative action on the Senate’s October 27, 2000 report, recommendations, and resolution on student financial management and credit card debt.  He said that an informal task force was created, and described initiatives which resulted therefrom, grouped under the heading of "Rutgers University Financial Independence Training" (RU-FIT).  Those initiatives include: a partnership with the New Jersey Higher Education and Student Assistance Authority to provide free educational programming for students on financial planning and management; development of web-based training on this issue for all members of the University community [http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/money2000/]; availability of a USPIRG booklet entitled "A Road Map to Avoiding Credit Card Hazards" for distribution at educational programs; and applications made for grants to support personal finance education.

In response to the Senate’s recommendation that Rutgers develop a university policy addressing credit-card solicitation on campus, Vice President Dennis will formally charge a university committee to make these policy recommendations.  He added that Rutgers’ Office of Institutional Research and Planning will undertake a survey of Rutgers undergraduates to assess their use and attitudes about credit-card marketing and related issues.

Following the report, Vice President Dennis and Brian Rose, Director of Compliance and Student Policy Concerns (and co-leader of the aforementioned informal task force) responded to questions from the Senate floor.

NEW BUSINESS

Senator Pieczenik again moved a resolution in support of striking faculty in Iran, as follows:

Whereas, the Iranian faculty are on strike; and,
Whereas, their cause is just;
Therefore, we, the Senate of Rutgers University resolve support for their cause and the Iranian faculty. The motion was seconded.  Following some discussion primarily consisting of questions on the background of the Iranian faculty strike, Senator Holly Smith suggested that more information was needed before the Senate could vote on such a resolution.  At Chairperson Scott’s suggestion, Senator Smith then moved that the issue be sent to the Senate Equal Opportunity Committee for greater study before the issue comes to the Senate for action.  The motion was seconded, discussed, and approved.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT:  Vice Chair Rabinowitz reported on the January 11, 2002 Executive Committee meeting. [http://senate.rutgers.edu/ec011102.html]

REPORTS OF REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES:  Senator Jason Miller reported on the December 2001 Board of Governors meeting. Senator Redd reported on the December 2001 Board of Trustees meeting.

REPORT OF CAMPUS FACULTY LIAISONS:  Senator Habib, chair of the Camden Faculty Senate, reported on the group’s plans and recent activities, including continuing consideration of curriculum reform.

Senator Cotter, chair of the New Brunswick Faculty Council, reported on the group’s plans and recent activities, including revision of the group’s bylaws, a report on the ongoing work of the University Copyright Committee, a resolution recommending addition of A-minus and B-minus grades to the University’s default grading system, and preliminary discussion of the role of faculty in the admissions process.

ADJOURNMENT:  There being no further business before the University Senate, Chairperson Scott declared the meeting adjourned at 2:53 p.m.

Kenneth Swalagin
Secretary of the University Senate