TIME AND PLACE: 1:10 p.m., Multipurpose Room, CamdenCampusCenter, Camden Campus

MEMBERS PRESENT:Adelman, Allen, Allender, Alonso, Bernstein, Boikess, Borisovets, Bosotov, Bravo, Bynes, Caprio, Carbone, Carey, Chabal, Cole, Cooke, Coppolo, Cotter, Cowen, Curtis, DeLuca, R. Dennis, Edwards, Eldreth, Friedrich, Furmanski, Gaunt, Gillett, Gould, Grant, Greenhut, Hall, Heckscher, Hyman, Jackson, Johnson, Keating, Larmony, Leath, Levitsky, Lippert, Markert, Markowitz, Marsh, Mauroff, McCormick, McCoy-Carter, McKay, J. Meyer, Mulcahy, Nayyar, Ng, Niederman, Nolfi, Norville, Obayashi, Oren, Palmon, Panayotatos, Puniello, Samuel Rabinowitz, Sidney Rabinowitz, Reiss, Rivera, Robinson, Rockland, Rold, Schantz, Schein, Scott, Shah, Soyosa, Spiegel, Spotacco, Stein, Szatrowski, Taulane, Tevis, Thompson, Tittler, Toney-Boss, Van Til, Venzie, Wallace, Williams, Winterbauer, Wright, Wyhopen

EXCUSED: Alger, Barone, Bhuyan, Bodnar, Boylan, Bubb, Busia, Cohick, Coit, Colaizzi, Covey, Creese, DeLisi, E. Dennis, Diner, Dutta, Galili, Gigliotti, Gimenez, Gonzalez-Palmer, Goodman, Gunderson, Guo, Hughes, Jozefczyk, Kalelkar, Kern, Krenos, Laguna-Diaz, Lehne, McCabe, McKeever, W. Meyer, Miller, Oppenheim, Ozbay, Rankin, Sanders, Schaich, Schorr, Schwab, P. Simmons, R. Simmons, St. John, Sukhdeo, Traxler, Vodak

ABSENT:Alley, Ambar, Amirahmadi, Apfel, Atmeh, Barbarese, Bay, Bellany, Blimling, Bosch, Copeland, Deutsch, Dienst, Dixon-McInerney, Duncan, Finegold, Fowler, Habib, Hart, Harris, Holzer, Hyndman, Kennedy, Kirby, Kirschner, Klein, Kokini, Koza, Lashley, Lipman, Livingston, Maher, Marchetta, Murthy, Ocone, Patel, Pedersen, Pittman, Quinn, Schock, Simon, Sofer, Solomon, Sonariwo, Staples, Stauffer, Urbaniak, Vera, Wagner, Wang, Whitfield

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY:   Faculty:Of 84 total: 34 present (40%), 33 excused (40%), 17 absent (20%); Students: Of 51 total: 31 present (61%), 3 excused (6%), 17 absent (33%); Administrators: Of 35 total: 10 present (28%), 9 excused (26%), 16 absent (46%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 4 present (66%), 1 excused (17%), 1 absent (17%); Staff: Of 10 total: 9 present (90%, 1 excused (10%), 0 absent

View Senate attendance record for this year 

PRESIDING OFFICER: Martha Cotter, Chairperson

CALL TO ORDER, DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM, AND CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT - Martha Cotter, Chairperson

Chairperson Cotter called the meeting to order at 1:23 p.m. After welcoming all to the annual meeting in Camden, and noting that the Senate is always treated very well on the Camden Campus, she made a very brief report which included comments on:

• continuing Senate committee work on a number of substantive issues, and the expectation that those issues will begin to appear on Senate agendas in December;
• Senate consideration of, and participation in, the Middle States reaccreditation process, and strong Senate representation on the steering committee and various working groups; and
• a charge currently in the University Structure and Governance Committee to assess the current state of shared governance at Rutgers.

• Agenda: The meeting's agenda, including time limits, was approved as distributed by the executive secretary.
• Minutes: The September 29, 2006 University Senate meeting minutes were approved as distributed by the executive secretary.

President McCormick, noting that the upcoming Camden Campus Report by Provost Dennis would include a report on academic developments and other initiatives in Camden, and that little had changed since his annual address, made a brief administrative report which included comments on:

• the "harsh realities" of the budget, and continuing efforts to make Rutgers' budget concerns heard in Trenton;
• his request that the entire Rutgers community communicate with the governor's office and legislature on the budget issues;
• his work with Governor Corzine and the legislature to promote long-term support for higher education;
• discussions in Trenton and throughout New Jersey concerning Rutgers and its relationship with UMDNJ, Rutgers' expressed desire to be involved in those discussions, and his solicitation of thoughts and comments from the Rutgers community on this matter as the process and discussions continue; and
• ongoing restructuring of undergraduate education in New Brunswick, including a suggestion that all faculty consider offering a one-credit freshman seminar.

CAMDEN CAMPUS REPORT - Provost Roger Dennis 

Camden Provost Dennis presented a synopsis of the Camden Campus Report.  The report included comments on the following topics:

• How the budget situation has affected the Camden Campus
• Strategic investments
• Launching of the Ph.D. program in childhood studies, and other planned programs
• Faculty achievements 
• Student achievements, and special aspects of the Rutgers-Camden educational experience
• NCAA championship won by the women's softball team
• Relationship with, and support of, the City of Camden, including waterfront development, business incubation, and physical plant developments

Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee - Natalie Borisovets, Chair

Response to Charge S-0313, Availability of Syllabi during Add/Drop

Original Charge: Review and comment on the suggestion that Rutgers should require all instructors to make available final, or at least draft, syllabi prior to the end of the add/drop period, in order to give students a clear indication of what topics the class will cover and emphasize (which sometimes differs from what is indicated in the catalog), as well as the workload and grading structure.

• It is reasonable to expect that every instructor would have at least a draft syllabus available, either as a handout or online, by the first class meeting.  While there obviously may be adjustments required due to the composition of the class or other circumstances as the class progresses, students should at least be given a clear indication of what the class will cover and what sort of workload they should expect.
• Departments should maintain current course descriptions, including information on expected work and grading structure (assignments, papers, projects, exams and other methods of evaluation) on their departmental web sites and then make those descriptions available via the Course Synopsis System.
• The Office of Scheduling and Space Management should be charged with developing a process by which departments would provide the URL with their linked course descriptions that could then automatically be attached to that department's course listings in the Course Synopsis System.  This should then be submitted to the IT Project Governance Committee for prioritization and implementation.

Response to Charge S-0411, Content of Student Transcripts

Original Charge:  Consider and make recommendations regarding the proposal to increase the information content of student transcripts.

There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE- Samuel Rabinowitz, Vice Chairperson

Senate Vice Chair Rabinowitz welcomed everyone to the Camden Campus, and reported on the Executive Committee's activities.

REPORTS OF REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES

Senator Curtis, Student Representative to the Board of Governors, reported on the board's October 13 meeting, which included "some disturbing statistics and comments about budget cuts and personnel losses." She urged everyone to contact the state legislature to voice their concerns regarding the budget cuts.

Senator Scott, Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees, reported on the board's October 28 meeting, which began with induction of new and returning members, and which also included updates on the budget and implementation of restructuring of undergraduate education in New Brunswick, as well as a report from the Investments Committee and a resolution to divest holdings in the Sudan.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 2:38 p.m.

Kenneth Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate