RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY
OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE
MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University
Senate
DATE: April 1, 2016
TIME AND PLACE: 1:10 p.m., Multipurpose Room,
College Avenue Student Center, New Brunswick Campus
MEMBERS PRESENT: Abacan, Ahmed, Aioub, Alizadeh,
Anaele, Anderson, Ardeshna, Arezzi, Avadhani, Balmer, Balog, Barbarese,
Barchi, Benford, Bhuyan, Boikess, Borden, Borisovets, Bridgeman, Bugel,
Chandler, Chau, Cherniss, Cotter, Covello, Dasari, Davis, Delnevo, A.
Desai, Durham, Edward, Edwards, Esposito, Faenza, Fennell,
Fitzgerald-Bocarsly, Gajic, Gillett, Goh, Gould, K. Gursoy, M. Gursoy,
Heckscher, Israel, Jamknanawala, Janniger, Joergensen, Joo, Kalan,
Kelshikar, Killingsworth, Krapivin, Kressel, Langer, Jane Lewis,
Mahtabfar, Maloney, Marcone, Martinez-San Miguel, Meck, Miranti, Moran,
Mouradian, Norville, O'Connell, Okuwobi, Oleske, Oliver, Otto, Pandey,
Pirrello, Ponzio, C. Potter, Prestigiacomo, Puhak, Pusukur, Rabinowitz,
Ramsamy, Roth, Samant, Santana, Scheck, Schulberg, Schwartz, Scoloveno,
C. Scott, K. Scott, Settles, Shapley, J. Shapiro, Singh, Spiegel,
Stein, Struwe, Szatrowski, Takacs, Tamburello, Theiss, Thomson,
Thompson, Toney-Boss, Torres, Wakim, Williams, Winkler, Zurlo
EXCUSED: Alder,
Anthony, Barraco, Boruchoff, Burley, Chayko, Y. Chen, DiVito, Dreyer,
Fletcher, Gold, Gonzalez, Hayton, Huselid, Kustka, LaPointe, B.
Lee, K. Lee, Markert, Mazurek, McKeever, Messer, Morrell, Nissen,
Saltzman, Sharp, Sheflin, Szabo, VanStine, Wagner, Wasserman, White
ABSENT: Asker, Avadame, Barone, Blanchett,
Butterfield, Calabrese, Cantor, Capone, Charles, R. Chen, Coiro,
Cooper, Covington, Cruz, Deans, R. Desai, Dixon, Drachtman, D'Souza,
Eastman, Eisenstein, Farmbry, Farris, Fehn, Feldman, Gabriel, Ganesh,
Goodman, Gower, Gramieri, Grant, Grave, Haddon, Holzemer, Holzer, D.
Hughes, J. Hughes, Johnson, Kolbaba, Kukor, Kuzma, LaBella, Lei, Jan
Lewis, Lindenmeyer, Lu, Mahon, March, Maruna, McGinnis, Meyer, Miller,
Murphy, Oberdiek, Palmer, Parisi, Pintar, Pitt, Portillo, J. Potter,
Robinson, Ryan, Salmond, Schiavo, Scotto, M. Shapiro, Shinbrot,
Stauffer, Strom, Sung, Thomas, Toth, Wang, Winterbauer, Wise
ATTENDANCE SUMMARY:
Faculty: Of 105 total: 67 present (64%),
18 excused (17%), 20 absent (19%); Students:
Of 43 total: 21 present (48%), 5 excused (11%), 18
absent (41%); Administrators: Of 41
total: 4
present (9%), 4 excused (9%), 34 absent (83%); Staff:
Of 17 total: 12 present (70%), 3
excused (18%), 2 absent (12%); Alumni:
Of 5
total: 3 present (60%), 2 excused (40%), 0 absent (0%)
View Senate
Attendance Record for this academic year
CALL TO ORDER, DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM, AND
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT - Ann
Gould,
Chairperson
Senate Chairperson Ann Gould called the meeting to order at 1:26
p.m. on Friday, April 1, 2016
in the Multipurpose Room of the College Avenue
Student
Center, College Avenue Campus, New Brunswick. She welcomed everyone to
the penultimate meeting of the 2015-16 University Senate. She said
there are still opportunities to volunteer for Chancellors'
Commencement Committees, and that there are positions available on
those committees for three faculty and two students from the Senate.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
- Agenda: The meeting's agenda was
approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
- Minutes: The Minutes
of the February 19, 2016 Meeting were
approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
- Communications: The
following communications were presented by the Executive Secretary:
- Draft
Schedule
of 2016-2017 Senate and Executive Committee Meetings
- The
April 29, 2016 Senate meeting may begin at 10:00 or 10:30 a.m. to allow
time for multiple committee reports, as well as the Senate's annual
election. The meeting will be held in the Busch Campus Center.
- Call
for Nominations
for 2016-2017 Senate Officers and Executive Committee Members, and
Representatives to the Boards of Governors and Trustees - Send
nominations to Senate Secretary Swalagin. While unit elections for next
year are pending, continuing Senators or those who are likely to be
elected to the Senate may be nominated. Ann Gould encouraged
self-nominations from dedicated Senators who are willing to work with
the Executive Committee, or in board representative positions.
- The World
Wide Web
Accessibility Policy has been finalized and approved for addition
to the University Policy Library. In a March 3 email from Bill Welsh to
Christopher Retzko, Welsh states that "The policy has not changed from
the draft format reviewed by the University Senate, except that the
approval authority changed from the Senior Vice President for
Administration to the Senior Vice President and Chief Information
Officer."
OLD BUSINESS - COMMITTEE REPORT
University Structure and Governance
Committee (USGC) Response
to Charge S-1403 on Process for Unit Mergers or Other Structural Changes -
Jon Oliver and Robert Puhak, USGC Co-chairs
This report includes changes to Senate
bylaws/related University Policy, so in accordance with established
parliamentary procedure it was introduced at the previous Senate
meeting, and was docketed for action at this meeting. The USGC was
charged as
follows:
Consider
whether the University Senate
should establish a general procedure, timeline, template and process
for merging, dissolution or making structural changes to any university
unit. Consider how such a process could assist the university and units
in working in a deliberate, consultative and rational way so that all
issues, impacts, concerns and benefits can be properly considered on a
timely basis. Make recommendations on time limits and process.
USGC Co-chairs Jon Oliver and Robert Puhak summarized their committee's
report and
recommendations on Charge S-1403 on Process for Unit Mergers or Other
Structural Changes. Puhak showed a PowerPoint
presentation that included changes that had been made to the report
since its introduction. The report was discussed briefly, then adopted
unanimously by the Senate.
Instruction,
Curricula and Advising Committee (ICAC) Response
to Charge S-1504 on Determination of Student Attendance -
Natalie Borisovets, ICAC Chair
The
ICAC had been charged as follows: Develop
guidelines that would allow units
and individual instructors to comply with U.S. Department of Education
requirements that Rutgers keep records for students receiving federal
financial aid that substantiate students' participatory attendance in
the classes for which they are registered.
This report had been postponed at the previous Senate meeting. ICAC
Chair Natalie Borisovets introduced this agenda item. Senator Brandon
Theiss, noting that there had been a productive discussion of this
report in the Student Caucus that day, then successfully moved to again
postpone to the next Senate meeting. It was noted that the report will
come back to the Senate at that time in its original form becuse that
is what has been postponed.
ADMINISTRATIVE
REPORT - University President Robert
Barchi
University President Robert Barchi presented an Administrative Report
that included comments on:
- recent administrative appointments;
- creation of RWJBarnabas
Health, and anticipated Board of Governors approval of formation of
Rutgers Health;
- the April 7 symposium
on The Future of the Research University;
- Rutgers' funding and budget;
- enrollment, admissions, and graduation
rates;
- Rutgers' wrestling team's 10th place
national finish; and
- emerging regulations on drones and their
usage, including implications for drones used in research.
Barchi then responded to questions, or heard comments, on the above
topics, as well as:
- the Board of Governors open budget hearing on April 21;
- Rutgers University Dance
Marathon;
- Newark parking issues;
- electrical outages affecting research in the NJMS main research
building; and
- exchange programs, and the Center for Global Advancement.
PRESENTATION ON RUTGERS CONNECT
- Stan Kolasa, Director of Enterprise Messaging, Enterprise Application
Services, Office of Information Technology
Stan Kolasa, Director of Enterprise Messaging, Enterprise Application
Services, of the Office of Information Technology, presented a summary
of Rutgers Connect plans and features. His PowerPoint presentation is
online here.
He then responded to questions on his presentation.
SENATE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE
REPORT - Senate Vice Chair Peter Gillett reported on the March 4,
2016 meeting and activities of the Senate Executive Committee.
REPORTS
OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES:
Senator Samuel Rabinowitz, Faculty Representative to the Board of
Governors, reported on the brief March 22 Board of Governors
meeting to approve the new basketball coach's contract. Senator
Asha Samant, Faculty Representative to the
Board of Trustees, reported on the March 10 Board
of Trustees meeting.
CAMPUS FACULTY AND STUDENT LIAISON
REPORTS:
Senator Samuel Rabinowitz, a member of the Camden Faculty Council, said
that that Council had not met since the previous Senate meeting. Camden
Student Senator
Brandon Theiss reported on
recent Camden law student plans and activities. Camden Student Senator
Zachary Borden also reported on Camden student plans and activities.
Senator
Mark Killingsworth, New Brunswick Faculty Council Chairperson, reported
on that
group's plans and recent meetings. Senator Justin Schulberg, New
Brunswick Student
Member
of the Senate Executive Committee, reported on New Brunswick student
governing association activities. Senator Edmund Janniger, Newark
Student Member of the Senate
Executive Committee, reported on Newark student
activities.
Senator Patricia Fitzgerald-Bocarsly, RBHS Faculty Council Chair,
reported on that group's plans and recent activities.
ADJOURNMENT:
Before adjourning, Ann Gould said that the next Senate meeting, which
may be lengthy, would be held at the Busch Student Center. The meeting
adjourned
at 3:53 p.m.
Minutes Written and Submitted by,
Ken Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate