March 26, 2004 Rutgers University Senate Minutes

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY UNIVERSITY SENATE MINUTES Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: March 26, 2004

TIME AND PLACE: 1:10 p.m., Trayes Hall B, Douglass Campus Center, 100 George Street, New Brunswick

MEMBERS PRESENT: Ambar, Atwood, Baruh, Bathory, Bellino, Blakeman, Blasi, Bodnar, Boikess, Borisovets, Boylan, Brazier, Bronzan, Bry, Bucko, Caprio, Cohen, Colaizzi, Cotter, Crown, Curry, Darien, Dayal, DeLisi, E. Dennis, Dess, Dholandas, Diner, Domb, Doshi, Erlichson, Evans, Ezgilioglu, Feinberg, Foley, Forman, Friedrich, Furmanski, Gallinar, Gaunt, Gillett, Glass, Goldin, Gould, Greenhut, Guo, Hamilton, Hawkesworth, Herrera, Hodgson, Hornichter, Hughes, Hyndman, Innerfield, Jackson, Jessen, J. Jones, R. Jones, Karel, Kirschner, Kokini, Krucher, LaSala, Leath, Maradonna, Markowitz, Maudlin, McCormick, McKay, McKeever, Messer, Mian, Nedick, Norville, Novell, O’Connor, Oren, Panayotatos, Parks, Potenza, Puniello, Rabii, Rabinowitz, Redd, Reed, Roden, Roselle, Schaich, Scott, Sifuentes-Jauregui, P. Simmons, R. Simmons, H. Smith, N. Smith, D. Snyder, Sofer, Spero, Stark, Szatrowski, Taghon, Thompson, Tuckman, Turpin, Vodak, Wang, Webb, Whang, Winterbauer

EXCUSED: Advani, Axelrod, Banerjee, Barone, R. Bell, Chambers, K. Cooper, Cronk, Fishbein, Flanagan, Hall, Hirsh, Kauffman, Kennedy, Kirby, Kressel, Laguna-Diaz, Lake, Lee, Leontiades, Patel, Plummer, Rijhsinghani, Rubin, Schock, Sears, Tandon, Weis, Worrall, Zaborszky

ABSENT: Abbasi, Agha, C. Bell, Breton, Brodie, Butler, Calla, Cannon, Case, A. Cooper, Dadlani, Davidson, R. Dennis, Deutsch, Driscoll, Fenster, Gillis, Griffiths, Hallmark, Hara, Hull, Kavanagh, Keoskey, Klein, Lanza, Lashley, Leustek, Lichtenfeld, Manhoff, Markey, Marsh, Mensah, Naqvi, Nerurkar, Ocone, Pandya, Pieczenik, Segers, Solomon, Stauffer, Szerlip, Tsurumi, Wadud, Weiman, Zylstra

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY: Faculty: Of 90 total: 55 present (61%), 20 excused (22%) 15 absent (17%); Students: Of 48 total: 26 present (54 %), 4 excused (8%), 18 absent (38%); Administrators: Of 39 total: 23 present (59%), 5 excused (13%), 11 absent (28%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 4 present (67%), 2 absent (33%)
View Senate Attendance Record for this year

NON-VOTING MEMBER PRESENT: Holmes

NON-VOTING MEMBER EXCUSED: Seto

NON-VOTING MEMBERS ABSENT: Boyer, Sambolin, Wright

PRESIDING OFFICER: Paul Panayotatos, Chairperson

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT: Chairperson Panayotatos called the meeting to order, summarized the activities of Senate Nominating Panel, indicated that Senator O’Connor is chairing the Nominating Panel, and then introduced the Secretary’s Report.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY:

Agenda: The agenda was approved as distributed by the Secretary.

Minutes: On motion and duly seconded, the Minutes of the February 20, 2004 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Secretary.

Communications: The following communications were presented by the Secretary:

Letters from President McCormick acknowledging Senate action, reports and/or advice:

February 19, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging Report and Resolution on Textbook Buyback
February 19, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging Report and Resolution on the Status of Hispanic and Latino Faculty and Administrators
February 19, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging the Statement and Resolution in Opposition to Proposed and Continued Budget Cuts, and in Support of Excellence in Higher Education in New Jersey
February 19, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging Report and Resolution on Use of Athletic Facilities as Rain Sites or Venues for Non-Athletic Events
February 19, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging Report and Resolution in Support of Affirmative Action
February 19, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging Resolution in Appreciation of Student Participation in Trenton Rally Protesting Proposed State Budget Cuts
February 19, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging Report and Resolution on a Contract with the Governor on Higher Education
March 23, 2004 letter from President McCormick acknowledging, and stating intention to implement recommendations of, Senate reports on Procedures for Chair Appointments by Deans, Best Practices in Assessment of Teaching, and Making Public the Recipients and Amounts of FASIP Awards

Received from Senator Bell, request for inclusion of AAUP Resolutions and Vision Statement in Senate communications

Call for Nominations for April 2004 Election of Officers

Charge to the Committee

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: President McCormick delivered the administrative report, which included comments on:

the previous week’s L'Hommedieu lecture by Mary Robinson, first woman president of Ireland;
campus safety, including recent crimes, cooperative efforts the City of New Brunswick to increase campus safety, deployment of additional police patrols and Rutgers community service officers, and police and prosecutor work on solving recent crimes;
student services retreats and improvements, including increased student-services office hours, commitment to 24-hour response times on messages, creation of a student services ombudsman position, and improvements to personalized and RU Info websites;
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Furmanski’s appointment of the Undergraduate Learning and Life Task Force;
progress on the search for a new Vice President for Student Services;
New Jersey State budget and funding for higher education and Rutgers;
solicitation of membership in Friends of Rutgers;
Creation of the New Jersey Stem Cell Research Institute, which will be a joint effort between Rutgers and UMDNJ, and which should be approved within the next several weeks, after which recruitment will begin;
and his and EVP Furmanski’s recent trip to Washington, DC to meet with a congressional delegation, during which they shared a brief version of their vision for Rutgers with the delegation.

Following the report, President McCormick responded to questions regarding crime and on-campus housing security, and a large number of questions and comments related to faculty contract negotiations.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee - Ann Gould and Paul Panayotatos, Co-chairs, Report on Charge S-0309, Evaluation of Administrators, Review

Chairperson Panayotatos called upon Vice Chair Rabinowitz to assume the chair while he and Senator Gould presented their committee’s report and recommendations on Charge S-0309, Evaluation of Administrators, Review. Vice Chair Rabinowitz assumed the chair. The Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee (FAPC) had been charged as follows: “Evaluate the current procedures for faculty staff and student evaluation of deans after the completion of two cycles of evaluation. Recommend changes where appropriate, and examine the feasibility of extending the process to include vice presidents and other administrators.” Senators Nicole Smith and Holly Smith proposed several amendments to the report, which were discussed. During considerable discussion of the proposed amendments, several were accepted as friendly, and some others were defeated on card votes by the Senate. Senator Nedick, noting the significant changes resulting from the amendments, moved that the report be returned to committee for revision and resubmission to the Senate. The motion was seconded, but failed on card vote. Senator Nicole Smith’s motion to add “or students” after each occurrence of “faculty” in the report was discussed, and defeated, as was another of her motions to amend the language of the report. Senators Hyndman and Gillett moved amendments which were accepted as friendly. FAPC Co-chair Panayotatos then read the report’s resolution, adding “as amended” where appropriate. On card vote, the Senate approved the resolution, as follows:

Resolution in Support of FAP Committee Report and Recommendations:

Whereas, the University Senate’s Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee has examined and reported on the evaluation of administrators by faculty and students; and

Whereas, the University Senate has reviewed the Committee’s report and its Recommendations for an amended policy, finding those recommendations to be sound and in the best interests of Rutgers University;

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Rutgers University Senate endorses the Report on Evaluation of Administrators by Faculty and Students, and urges the Administration to implement its recommendations, as amended.

Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee - Natalie Borisovets, Chair, Revised Response to Charge S-0303, Winter Session Review

Senator Borisovets, chair of the Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee, summarized her committee’s report, which included revised recommendations, on Charge S-0303, Winter Session Review. The committee had been charged as follows: “Review the status of recommendations made regarding Winter Session, pursuant to the Instruction, Curricula and Advising (then Educational Policy and Planning) Committee report approved by the University Senate on October 27, 2000.” Following brief discussion, the report was approved unanimously by the Senate on card vote, as presented by the committee.

Student Affairs Committee - Marilyn Novell and Vikas Tandon, Co-chairs, Report on Charge A-0315, Knight Express Card Committee Report Review

Senator Novell, co-chair of the Student Affairs Committee, summarized her committee’s report on Charge A-0315, Knight Express Card Committee Report Review. In response to a request by the Vice President for Student Affairs, the committee had been charged as follows: “Review and comment on the Knight Express Card Committee Report.” The report was approved unanimously by the Senate on card vote, as presented by the committee, and including the following recommendations regarding Knight Express Card services:

Rutgers begin re-examining the issue of off-campus expansion before on-campus expansion goals are reached; and that

Rutgers continue with its on-campus expansion to ensure the highest quality services are delivered to University students.

Route 18 Widening Committee (Not a Senate Committee) - Paul Leath, Committee Chair
Senator Paul Leath, who chairs the University’s Route 18 Widening Committee, presented an overview and summary of the construction plans and timetable for the multi-year Route 18 widening and reconstruction project. He also summarized discussions and preliminary plans for associated, temporary changes to class schedules, student services, and other elements of life at Rutgers which will be affected by the construction project. Senator Leath noted that a project website is available at http://route18update.rutgers.edu, and solicited suggestions on minimizing the disruptive effects of the projects on Rutgers, which should be e-mailed to the committee at route18@rci.rutgers.edu. He and Robert Spear, Director of Parking and Transportation Services, also remained after the Senate meeting to respond to questions and accept suggestions.

OLD BUSINESS: Senator Cotter, noting the late hour and apparent lack of quorum, deferred her plan to introduce the Vision Statement and Resolutions which had been communicated to the Senate from the Rutgers chapter of the AAUP.

NEW BUSINESS: There was no new business.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Vice Chairperson Rabinowitz reported on the March 5, 2004 Senate Executive Committee meeting. Executive Committee minutes are available on the Senate website.

REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES: There had been no board meetings since the February Senate meeting.

REPORT OF CAMPUS FACULTY LIAISONS: Senator Cotter, substituting for Senator Hirsh, chair of the New Brunswick Faculty Council (NBFC), said that there had been one meeting of the NBFC since the February Senate meeting, and that the report of that meeting would be presented to the Senate in April.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 3:32 p.m.

Kenneth Swalagin
Secretary of the University Senate