RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES:  Organizational Meeting of the University Senate

DATE:   April 28, 2006

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

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Allender, Atmeh, Balwani, Barone, Bernstein, Blimling, Bodnar, Boikess, Borisovets, Bosotov, Boyd, Bravo, Buchbinder-Cowen, Carey, Chabal, Cole, Cooke, Coppolo, Cotter, Creese, Curtis, DeLisi, DeLuca, R. Dennis, Diner, Dutta, Eldreth, Fowler, Friedrich, Furmanski, Gaunt, Gigliotti, Gillett, Gonzalez-Palmer, Goodman, Gould, Greenhut, Hall, Heckscher, Hughes, Jackson, Johnson, Kalelkar, Kennedy, Kirschner, Koza, Krenos, Lashley, Leath, Lee, Maher, Mangelin, Marchetta, Markert, Markowitz, Mauroff, McCabe, McCormick, McKay, McKeever, Messer, Miller, Mulcahy, Nayyar, Ng, Niederman, Norville, Obayashi, Oren, Ozbay, Palmon, Panayotatos, Puniello, Samuel Rabinowitz, Sidney Rabinowitz, Rankin, Schein, Schorr, Schwab, Scott, Shah, P. Simmons, R. Simmons, St. John, Sukhdeo, Szatrowski, Tevis, Thompson, Tittler, Urbaniak, Van Til, Venus, Vera, Vodak, Winterbauer, Wyhopen

EXCUSED:  Alger, Bay, Boylan, Caprio, Coit, Colaizzi, E. Dennis, Hyndman, Kirby, Kokini, Marsh, Murthy, Parikh, Rockland, Schock, Spiegel, Williams 

ABSENT:  Adelman, Ambar, Amirahmadi, Apfel, Barbarese, Bellany, Bhuyan, Breton, Deutsch, Edwards, Guo, Hart, Hyman, Kern, Klein, Larmony, Levitsky, Lipman, Livingston, W. Meyer, Ocone, Pedersen, Quinn, Rennie, Schaich, C. Simmons, Simon, Smith, Solomon, Soyosa, Spotacco, Stauffer, Wagner, Wang, Whang

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY:  Faculty:  Of 74 total:  49 present (66%), 7 excused (10%), 18 absent (24%); Students:  Of 33 total: 23 present (70%), 3 excused (9%), 7 absent (21%); Administrators:  Of 35 total:  18 present (51%), 7 excused (20%), 10 absent (29%); Alumni:  Of 6 total:  6 present (100%), 0 excused, 0 absent

View Senate attendance record for this year

PRESIDING OFFICER:  Martha Cotter, Chairperson

Chairperson Cotter called the meeting to order at 1:18 p.m. She welcomed new and returning Senators to the first meeting of the 2006-2007 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 2006-2007 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 2005-06 Senate.

REPORT OF THE NOMINATING PANEL: Nominating Panel Chairperson Daniel O’Connor thanked the Nominating Panel members, then 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; and Paul Panayotatos, Graduate School-New Brunswick, Faculty.

Senator O’Connor explained that, in accordance with recently adopted procedures for election of Executive Committee members, both candidates for the contested election for Vice Chairperson were included in the slate for Faculty Member of the Executive Committee. This allows the candidate who does not prevail in the Vice Chairperson election to still be elected to the Executive Committee, rather than being eliminated from the slate entirely. He explained that Senators were to vote for six candidates for the five positions, and also explained the requirement that the Executive Committee must have at least one faculty member from Newark, and one from Camden. O'Connor then placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for five positions of Faculty Member of the Executive Committee: Natalie Borisovets, Libraries, Faculty, Newark; Ann Gould, Cook, Faculty, New Brunswick; Paul Panayotatos; Graduate School-New Brunswick, Faculty, New Brunswick; Francoise Puniello, Douglass, Faculty, New Brunswick; Samuel Rabinowitz, School of Business-Camden, Faculty, Camden; and Jonathan Tittler, Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Camden, Faculty, Camden. Ted Szatrowski, At-Large, Newark, was nominated from the floor for the position of  Faculty Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for the position of Part-time Lecturer/Annual Appointee Faculty Member of the Executive Committee: Karen Thompson, Part-time Lecturer, Faculty, New Brunswick. There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Part-time Lecturer/Annual Appointee Faculty Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for the position of Camden Student Member of the Executive Committee: Kimberly Mauroff, Graduate School-Camden, Student, Camden. There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Camden Student Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O'Connor said there he had no nominations from the Nominating Panel for the position of Newark Student Member of the Executive Committee. He called for nominations from the floor. Dana Eldreth, Graduate School-Newark, Student, Newark, nominated herself for the position of Newark Student Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for the position of New Brunswick Student Member of the Executive Committee: Margaret Coppolo, Douglass, Student, New Brunswick; and Edward Ng, Rutgers, Student, New Brunswick. O'Connor called for nominations from the floor. Senator Dusan Bosotov nominated Kevin Tevis, Engineering, Student, New Brunswick for the position of New Brunswick Student Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for the position of Alumnus Member of the Executive Committee:  Raymond Bodnar, Alumni Federation; William Norville, Alumni Federation; and Carl Wyhopen, Alumni Federation. There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Alumnus Senator Member of the Executive Committee.

Senator O'Connor noted that there were no nominations for the position of Staff Senator Member of the Executive Committee as election of Staff Senators had not yet been completed, and that a special election to fill this position would be held next fall.

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. 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: Jillian Curtis, Rutgers, Student, New Brunswick. Senator O’Connor asked for nominations from the floor. Martin DeLuca (2005-2006 Student Senator representing University College-New Brunswick) nominated himself from the floor. His nomination failed because his election to the 2006-2007 University Senate had not been certified by University College-New Brunswick. Senator Paul Venus successfully nominated James Boyd, Livingston College, Student.

Senator O’Connor placed in nomination for the Nominating Panel, for two positions to the office of Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees:  Kathleen Scott, Rutgers College, Faculty; and Mark Vodak, Cook College, Faculty. 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 Undergraduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees: Sharo Atmeh, Rutgers, Student; and Dana Jackson, Cook, Student. There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Undergraduate Student 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:  Ryan Fowler, Graduate School-New Brunswick, student. There were no nominations from the floor for the position of Graduate 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 Rabinowitz, Panayotatos, Borisovets, Gould, Puniello, Coppolo, Ng, Tevis, Bodnar, Norville, Curtis, Boyd, Atmeh and Jackson made statements in support of their respective candidacies. 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 2006-07 Senate.  Linda Mickelsen of the Senate Office collected and tabulated. Chairperson Cotter noted that Secretary Swalagin would try to post the election results on the Senate website by 6 p.m. that day.

ADJOURNMENT:  At 2:16 p.m., Chairperson Cotter adjourned the Organizational Meeting.

Kenneth Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate