October 22, 2004 Senate Meeting Minutes

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE MINUTES

Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: October 22, 2004

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Atmeh, Axelrod, Baro, Barone, Bell, Bellany, Bodnar, Boikess, Borisovets, Bravo, Bucko, Caprio, Cerulo, Chabal, Chen, Chernin, Colaizzi, A. Cooper, K. Cooper, Cotter, Cronk, Curry, Curtis, Darien, Dellane, R. Dennis, Dess, Dholandas, Diner, DiVito, Dutta, Dupersoy, C. Ellis, N. Ellis, Evans, Fahim, Farney, Feinberg, Ferguson, Fishbein, Forero, Friedrich, Furmanski, Gaunt, Gillett, Goldin, Gould, Greenhut, Guo, Hall, Hanna, Herbst, Hmelo-Silver, Holmes, Hoover, Hornichter, Hughes, Jackson, Jessen, V. Johnson, R. Jones, Kagan, Kauffman, Kavanagh, Kennedy, Kirschner, Krenos, Krucher, Laguna-Diaz, Lake, LaSala, Leath, Liepmann, Maher, Mangin, Markert, Markowitz, Marsh, McCabe, McCormick, Messer, Miller, Nerurkar, Nichols, Niederman, Obayashi, Ocone, O’Connell, O’Connor, Odutola, Oren, Puniello, Rabii, Rabiner, Samuel Rabinowitz, Sidney Rabinowitz, Raykar, Reed, Rubin, Schaich, Schock, Shahrokh, Sherman, P. Simmons, R. Simmons, H. Smith, N. Smith, Spero, Spierer, Szatrowski, Tittler, Tuckman, Turner, Turvey, Venuto, Vodak, Volk, Wang, Whang, Winterbauer, Woolley, Zolad

EXCUSED: Abaskharon, Apfel, Banerjee, Blasi, Blimling, Boylan, Chism, Davidson, DeLisi, Deutsch, Freeman, Gigliotti, Hallmark, Hirsh, Hodgson, Hoekzema, Hyndman, Jesse, Kirby, Kressel, Lashley, Leustek, Manhoff, McKay, McKeever, Panayotatos, Potenza, Schorr, Scott, Sifuentes-Jauregui, Spellmeyer, Stark, Worrall, Zaborszky

ABSENT: Ambar, Bay, Bilodeau, Brazier, Breton, Buckley, Butler, Cannon, Chambers, Crockford, E. Dennis, Desposito, Diamond, Donsky, Ezendokwere, Ezgilioglu, Farrell, Huang, W. Johnson, J. Jones, Klein, Kokini, Lee, Leontiades, Maradonna, More, Norville, Ogwu, Ozbay, Pangilinan, Perlman, Phillips, Philps, Simon, Solomon, Stauffer, Tinglin, Tsurumi, Turpin, Webb

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY: Faculty: Of 95 total: 61 present (64%), 21 excused (22%) 13 absent (14%); Students: Of 55 total: 37 present (67%), 3 excused (6%), 15 absent (27%); Administrators: Of 39 total: 20 present (51%), 9 excused (23%), 10 absent (26%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 4 present (67%), 1 excused (16.5%), 1 absent (16.5%)
View Senate Attendance Record for the year.

NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: Innerfield, Seto

PRESIDING OFFICER: Martha Cotter, Chairperson

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT: Chairperson Cotter convened the meeting at 1:22 p.m. She announced that Senator Andrew Bucko, student member of the Senate Executive Committee, has resigned effective immediately after this meeting. A special election for a replacement on the Executive Committee will be conducted at the November Senate meeting. Nominations must be made by current Senators, and only current student Senators will be eligible for this position. Nominations should be sent to Secretary Swalagin.

Chairperson Cotter enumerated her goals for this year for the Senate, as follows:

strengthen shared governance and the role of the Senate;
move the Senate towards exercising its powers;
increase participation in the Senate and its standing committees, particularly among Newark and Camden Senators (noting that the University Structure and Governance Committee is looking into ways to facilitate participation, and asking the Senate for its input);
ensure that the Senate continues to debate important issues; and
examine the Constituency Research Report.

The Chairperson also noted several personal goals, including learning Robert’s Rules of Order, and to continue to develop her public-speaking skills.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY: Agenda: The agenda was approved as distributed by the Secretary. Minutes: On motion and duly seconded, the Minutes of the April 23, 2004 Senate Organizational meeting and September 10, 2004 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Secretary.

Communications: The following communications were presented by the Secretary:

Letters from President McCormick, dated August 16, 2004, acknowledging Senate action, reports and/or advice on the following issues approved by the Senate on April 23, 2004:

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

the Constituency Research Report, which is available on the web, and which will be reviewed by a University-wide committee of which Chairperson Cotter is a member;
planning for a long-term transformation of the College Avenue Campus and some of New Brunswick’s 5th and 6th Wards, as well as an announcement he and New Brunswick Mayor Cahill expect to make in about one month on the project, and solicitation of comments on the project;
New Jersey state budget issues, including the potential for mid-year cuts this year, an existing $2 billion deficit from the borrowing which was done to balance the budget last year, work being done with the state administration on Rutgers’ budget, and the importance of positioning Rutgers as strongly as possible in the state budget; and
and the "Strategic Goals" document now available online through the "President’s Page," which, while not meant to be a formal strategic planning document, is a list of his most important objectives.

Following the report, President McCormick responded to questions regarding:

continued use of Social Security numbers as student identification numbers (Executive Vice President for Administrative Affairs Karen Kavanagh responded as well);
suggested use of Rutgers’ high-profile faculty to increase the university’s media presence, particularly on television;
solicitation of input from Greeks and New Brunswick’s 5th and 6th Ward residents in planning for changes to the College Avenue environment;
potential for aligning the messages of the State of New Jersey and Rutgers University (e.g., Garden State, environmental issues/studies);
Governor McGreevey’s nomination of George Zoffinger to Rutgers’ Board of Governors;
efforts to promote student voting and voter registration; and
acceptance of January 2005 transfer students
undergraduate education and class size.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee - Natalie Borisovets, Chair, Report on Charge S-0325, Assignment of Textbooks

Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee (ICAC) Chairperson Natalie Borisovets summarized and moved her committee’s report on Charge S-0325, Assignment of Textbooks. Substantial discussion of the report included criticism of its provisions as interfering with academic freedom, questioning of the perceptions and assumptions on which the charge and resultant report were founded, the practicality and utility of the report’s recommendations, and several suggested amendments which were accepted as friendly by Senator Borisovets. Following continued discussion, Senator DeVito moved to send the report back to committee for revision. The motion was seconded. Senator Hannon moved to amend the motion to refer back to committee only after discussion on the floor was completed. The motion to amend was seconded, discussed, and defeated on card vote. Senator Bucko called the question on the main motion to refer the report back to committee after floor discussion was complete. His call was seconded, and carried on card vote. The report was returned to the ICAC for revision, and discussion continued on the Senate floor. Chairperson Cotter urged Senators to e-mail their comments on the report to ICAC Chair Borisovets.

OLD BUSINESS: There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS: Senator Adam Cooper introduced the following resolution, which had not come from any Senate committee:

Resolution in Opposition to the Nomination of George Zoffinger to the Rutgers University Board of Governors:

Whereas, Governor James E. McGreevey has recently nominated George Zoffinger to the Rutgers University Board of Governors; and
Whereas, George Zoffinger is currently the chair of the New Brunswick Development Corporation (Devco); and
Whereas, Rutgers and Devco are currently involved in a number of construction projects together, and the two will be working together more often on construction and development projects in the years to come; and
Whereas, the Rutgers University Board of Governors has significant influence over new construction projects at Rutgers; and
Whereas, Mr. Zoffinger’s position as chair of Devco would constitute a major conflict of interest should Mr. Zoffinger become a member of the Board of Governors; therefore
Be it resolved, that the Rutgers University Senate opposes the nomination of George Zoffinger to the Rutgers Board of Governors as a result of this inherent conflict of interest; and
Be it further resolved, that the Rutgers University Senate encourages the New Jersey State Senate to reject the confirmation of George Zoffinger to the Rutgers Board of Governors.

Senator Adam Cooper then moved that the resolution be voted upon by secret ballot. The motion for secret ballot carried. Following discussion, Senator Friedrich questioned the presence of a quorum. Secretary Swalagin said there was no quorum at that point. Discussion of the resolution ended, with Chairperson Cotter offering to have the Senate Executive Committee discuss the issue.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Vice Chairperson Rabinowitz reported on the September 3, 2004 and October 1, 2004 Senate Executive Committee meetings. Executive Committee minutes are available on the Senate website.

REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES: Senator Leath reported on the June 10, 2004 Board of Governors meeting. Senator Dholandas reported on the October 7, 2004 Board of Governors meeting. Senator Innerfield reported on the October 21, 2004 Board of Trustees meeting.

REPORT OF CAMPUS FACULTY LIAISONS: Senator James Miller, chair of the New Brunswick Faculty Council (NBFC), reported on recent activities and plans of the NBFC.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 3:40 p.m.

Kenneth Swalagin
Secretary of the University Senate