MINUTES:   Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE:   September 10, 2004

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Abaskharon, Axelrod, Banerjee, Barone, Bay, Bell, Bellany, Blasi, Bodnar, Borisovets, Boylan, Bravo, Brazier, Buckley, Bucko, Caprio, Cerulo, Chen, Colaizzi, A. Cooper, K. Cooper, Cotter, Crockford, Cronk, Curry, Darien, Davidson, DeLisi, Dellane, E. Dennis, Dess, Deutsch, Dholandas, Diner, DiVito, Donsky, Dutta, C. Ellis, N. Ellis, Evans, Ezendokwere, Ezgilioglu, Fahim, Farney, Farrell, Feinberg, Ferguson, Fishbein, Flanagan, Forero, Freeman, Friedrich, Furmanski, Gaunt, Gigliotti, Gillett, Gould, Greenhut, Hallmark, Hanna, Herbst, Hmelo-Silver, Hodgson, Hoekzema, Hornichter, Huang, Hughes, Jackson, Jessen, V. Johnson, J. Jones, R. Jones, Kagan, Kennedy, Kirby, Kirschner, Klein, Kokini, Krenos, LaSala, Lashley, Leath, Lee, Liepmann, Maher, Mangin, Maradonna, Markert, Markowitz, Marsh, McCabe, McCormick, McKay, McKeever, Messer, Miller, More, Norville, Obayashi, Pangilinan, Perlman, Phillips, Potenza, Puniello, Rabii, Samuel Rabinowitz, Raykar, Reed, Rubin, Schaich, Schorr, Scott, Shah, Shahrokh, Sherman, Sifuentes-Jauregui, P. Simmons, R. Simmons, Simon, H. Smith, N. Smith, Spellmeyer, Spero, Stauffer, Szatrowski, Tinglin, Turner, Turpin, Turvey, Vodak, Volk, Wang, Webb, Winterbauer, Worrall, Zaborszky

EXCUSED:  Boikess, Butler, Chabal, Chism, R. Dennis, Diamond, Goldin, Guo, Hall, Jesse, Kauffman, Kressel, Krucher, Laguna-Diaz, Lake, Leontiades, Leustek, Manhoff, Nedick, Nichols, O’Connor, Odutola, Oren, Ozbay, Panayotatos, Philps, Rabiner, Sidney Rabinowitz, Stark, Tittler, Venuto, Zolad

ABSENT:  Ambar, Baro, Bellany, Breton, Cannon, Chambers, Deshmukh, Desposito, Dykhne, Hirsh, Hyndman, W. Johnson, Katz, Kavanagh, Nerurkar, Ocone, Ogwu, Sadiq, Schock, Solomon, Tsurumi, Tuckman, Whang

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY:
Faculty:  Of  94 total:  65 present (69%), 21 excused (22%) 8 absent (9%)
Students:  Of  53 total:  40 present (75%), 5 excused (10%), 8 absent (15%)
Administrators:  Of 38 total:  28 present (74%), 3 excused (8%), 7 absent (18%)
Alumni:  Of 6 total:  3 present (50%), 3 excused (50%)

NON-VOTING MEMBER PRESENT:   Innerfield, Seto

PRESIDING OFFICER:   Martha Cotter, Chairperson
 

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT:  Chairperson Cotter welcomed Senators, guests, and all present.  She introduced:  Ken Swalagin, Executive Secretary of the Senate; Nicole Smith, parliamentarian; Sam Rabinowitz, Vice Chair of the Senate; and Linda Mickelsen, Senate administrative assistant.  Chairperson Cotter then introduced the Senate’s standing-committee chairs, and gave a brief review of the charges pending in those committees.

Chairperson Cotter then outlined the procedure for the question-and-answer period which was to follow President McCormick’s Annual Address to the Community.  The procedure allowed anyone present to pose a question, with no preference given to Senators, but questions were limited to one per person, and to one minute or less, with no follow-up.  Those wishing to ask more than one question were invited to rejoin the line after speaking and receiving a response.

PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL ADDRESS TO THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY:  Chairperson Cotter introduced President McCormick, who took the lectern.  President McCormick then presented his Second Annual Address to the University Community.  Click here to view the text of President McCormick's address.

A question-and-answer period followed, which began with a moment of silence for those Rutgers-community members and others serving with the armed forces in Iraq, and for those lost in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

President McCormick then responded to questions on issues which included:  the teaching assistant/graduate assistant contract; recognition of Rutgers’ large Asian-American student community; the Equal Opportunity Fund; the Latino Student Council’s call for furtherance of Latino issues and retention, which included introduction of Isabel Nazario, Associate Vice President for Academic and Public Partnerships in the Arts and Humanities; the definition and importance of “entrepreneurial faculty”; undergraduate education and class size; the need for student-oriented staff and administration, to help Rutgers students navigate the bureaucracy; diversity, discrimination, and status of Douglass as a women’s college; international women’s issues; the cost of parking, lack of parking spaces, and crowded buses; a vision for part-time lecturers at Rutgers; use of Social Security numbers as student identification numbers, including in the bookstores; Livingston College Student Center funding; his salary; accessibility of facilities for students with disabilities; settlement of labor contracts; state funding, particularly as related to tuition increases; the Administrative Assembly, including appreciation for new benefits, as well as the suggestion that the Senate should consider adding staff membership; admissions requirements; how international graduate students are now affected by new visa restrictions post-9/11; efforts to draw elite out-of-state students to Rutgers; and a proposal to transform College Avenue into a pedestrian mall.

ADJOURNMENT:  There being no further business before the University Senate, Chairperson  adjourned the meeting at 2:50 p.m.

Kenneth Swalagin
Secretary of the University Senate