RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE MINUTES
 

Organizational Meeting of the University Senate

DATE:  April 22, 2005

TIME AND PLACE: 10:30 a.m., Multipurpose Room, Rutgers Student Center, 126 College Avenue, College Avenue Campus

MEMBERS PRESENT:   Adarkwa, Allender, Ambar, Atmeh, Banerjee, Barone, Bartosek, Bell, Bellany, Blasi, Bodnar, Boikess, Borisovets, Boylan, Bravo,Brazier, Cannon, Caprio, Chabal, Coit, Cole, Colin, Cotter, Curtis, Darien, DeLuca, E. Dennis, Downs, Dutta, C. Ellis, N. Ellis, Farrell, Fincher, Friedrich, Furmanski, Gaunt, Gigliotti, Gillett, Gimbar, Gould, Greenhut, Guo, Hall, Herbst, Hmelo-Silver, Hughes, Hyndman, Jackson, Jessen, John, Johnson, Kagan, Kalelkar, Kennedy, Kirschner, Krenos, LaSala, Lashley, Leath, Lee, Leichenko, Liepmann, Maher, Markert, Markowitz, Martin, McCabe, McCormick, McKay, McKeever, Melwani, Meyer, Miller, Mulcahy, Ng, Norville, Obayashi, O’Connell, O’Connor, Ontell, Ozbay, Palmon, Panayotatos, Portilla, Potenza, Poyznyer, Puniello, Rabiner, Samuel Rabinowitz, Sidney Rabinowitz, Reed, Rubin, Schaich, Scott, P. Simmons, R. Simmons, Smith, Soren, St. John, Stroud, Tittler, Turner, Turpin, Turvey, Vodak, Wang, Whang, Whitfield, Winterbauer, Wyhopen, Zaborszky

EXCUSED:  Axelrod, Bay, Cohen, Colaizzi, DeLisi, Elkholy, Fishbein, Hallmark, J. Jones, R. Jones, Messer, Nelson, Oren, Schein, Schock, Schorr, Sherman, C. Simmons, Spiegel

ABSENT:  Aladdin, Amirahmadi, Apfel, Blimling, Breton, Butler, K. Cooper, Davidson, R. Dennis, Deprez, Deutsch, Diner, Goldin, Gyenfie, Kavanagh, Kirby, Klein, Kokini, Labib, Laguna-Diaz, Leontiades, Livingston, Marchetta, Marsh, Nam, Ruiz, Shah, Simon, Solomon, Spat, Stark, Stauffer, Tuckman

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY:  Faculty:  Of 82 total: 60 present (73%), 14 excused (17%) 8 absent (10%); Students:  Of 38 total:  29 present (76%), 2 excused (5%), 7 absent (19%);  Administrators:  Of 37 total:  17 present (46%), 3 excused (8%), 17 absent (46%); Alumni:  Of 6 total:  5 present (83%),
0 excused, 1 absent (17%)

NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:  Seto, Volk

PRESIDING OFFICER:  Martha Cotter, Chairperson

Chairperson Cotter called the meeting to order at 10:50 a.m.  She welcomed new and returning Senators to the first meeting of the 2005-2006 University Senate.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY:  Agenda:  The agenda was approved as distributed.  Communications:  Secretary Swalagin introduced himself, and welcomed new and returning Senators.  He asked all Senators not yet assigned to a standing committee to complete a committee preference form and send it to him before committee assignments are finalized in early June.  He asked all Senators to review the online schedule of 2005-2006 Senate meetings and enter those on their calendars.

PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR:  Privilege of the floor was granted to Nominating Panel Chairperson Daniel O’Connor, a member of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 Senates.

REPORT OF THE NOMINATING PANEL:  Nominating Panel Chairperson Daniel O’Connor presented the report of the Nominating Panel.

Senator O’Connor gave a brief overview of the nominating and election process.  He said that candidates for positions which are uncontested are not be required to make statements in support of their candidacies, but may do so if they wish.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, to the office of Chairperson (who serves ex officio as Representative to the Board of Governors):  Martha Cotter, Graduate School-New Brunswick, Faculty.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Chairperson.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, to the office of Vice Chairperson:  Samuel Rabinowitz, School of Business-Camden, Faculty.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Vice Chairperson.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for four positions to the office of Faculty Member of the Executive Committee:  Joseph Barone, Pharmacy; Robert Boikess, Rutgers College; Natalie Borisovets, Libraries-Newark; Manoranjan Dutta, Rutgers College; Leslie Fishbein, Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick; Ann Gould, Cook College; Michael LaSala, School of Social Work; Paul Panayotatos, Graduate School-New Brunswick; Joseph Potenza, Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick; James Reed, Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick, and Richard Simmons, Livingston College.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of  Faculty Member of the Executive Committee. 

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for two positions to the office of Student Member of the Executive Committee:  Jillian Curtis, Rutgers College.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  Senator Nicole Smith nominated Jacqui Whitfield (Livingston College), and Senator Curry nominated Martin DeLuca (University College-New Brunswick) for the position of Student Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for one position to the office of Alumnus Member of the Executive Committee:  Susan Darien, Alumni Federation; and William Norville, Alumni Federation.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Alumnus Senator Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, to the office of Faculty Representative to the Board of Governors:  Paul Leath, At-Large New Brunswick.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Faculty Representative to the Board of Governors.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, to the office of Student Representative to the Board of Governors:  Sharo Atmeh, Rutgers College; Brigid Farrell, Douglass College; David Portilla, School of Law-Newark; and Franklin Turner, Graduate School of Education.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Student Representative to the Board of Governors.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for two positions to the office of Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees:  Valerie Johnson, Other Units-New Brunswick, Kathleen Scott, Rutgers College; and Mark Vodak, Cook College.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, to the office of Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees:  Claudia Volk, School of Law-Newark.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, to the office of Undergraduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees:  Justin Fincher, Cook College; and Rajan Melwani, Rutgers College.  Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor.  There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Undergraduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees.

Senator O’Connor said that candidates who were on the slate prior to the floor nominations, and who wished to make statements, would each be given one minute to do so.  Candidates who had been nominated from the floor would be given additional time.  Senators Barone, Boikess, Borisovets, Dutta, Gould, LaSala, Panayotatos, Potenza, Reed, R. Simmons, Curtis, Whitfield, DeLuca, Darien, Norville, Atmeh, Farrell, Portilla, Turner, Johnson, Scott, Vodak, Fincher and Melwani made statements in support of their respective candidacies.  Senator O’Connor read the statement of Senator Gould, who was unable to attend the meeting.  Senator O'Connor then instructed the Senate to complete the election ballots and pass them toward the aisles to be collected.

VOTING AND COLLECTION OF BALLOTS:  Voting was done on paper ballots prepared by the Secretary and distributed at sign-in only to voting members of the 2005-06 Senate.  Linda Mickelsen of the Senate Office collected and tabulated.

ADJOURNMENT:  At 11:35 a.m., Chairperson Cotter adjourned the Organizational Meeting.

REPORT OF ELECTION RESULTS:  At 4:55 p.m., just prior to adjournment of the Regular Meeting of the 2004-2005 University Senate, Nominating Panel Chairperson Daniel O’Connor announced the following results of the election of 2005-2006 officers, Executive Committee members, and Representatives to the Boards of Governors and Trustees:

CHAIRPERSON:  Martha Cotter, Graduate School-New Brunswick, Faculty

VICE CHAIRPERSON:  Samuel Rabinowitz, School of Business-Camden, Faculty

BALANCE OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:  Robert Boikess, Rutgers College; Natalie Borisovets, Libraries-Newark; Michael LaSala, School of Social Work; Paul Panayotatos, Graduate School-New Brunswick; Jillian Curtis, Rutgers College; Martin DeLuca, University College-New Brunswick; Susan Darien, Alumni Federation.

REPRESENTATIVES TO THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS:  Martha Cotter, Graduate School-New Brunswick, Faculty, ex officio; Paul Leath, At-Large New Brunswick, Faculty; Brigid Farrell, Douglass College, Student.

REPRESENTATIVES TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES:  Kathleen Scott, Rutgers College, Faculty; Mark Vodak, Cook College, Faculty; Claudia Volk, School of Law-Newark, Graduate Student; Rajan Melwani, Rutgers College, Undergraduate Student.

Kenneth Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate