September 2001 Senate Minutes

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE MINUTES

Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: November 21, 2003

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Advani, Agha, Ambar, Atwood, Axelrod, Banerjee, Barone, Baruh, Bathory, R. Bell, Bellinger, Bellino, Blakeman, Blasi, Bodnar, Borisovets, Boylan, Brazier, Brodie, Bronzan, Bucko, Butler, Byrnes, Calla, Cannon, Caprio, Chambers, Cohen, Colaizzi, A. Cooper, Cotter, Crown, Darien, Dayal, DeLisi, E. Dennis, R. Dennis, Dess, Deutsch, Dholandas, Diner, Domb, Doshi, Erlichson, Fenster, Fishbein, Flanagan, Foley, Forman, Furmanski, Gaunt, Gillett, Gillis, Goldin, Gould, Hall, Hara, Hawkesworth, Hirsh, Hornichter, Innerfield, Joshua Jackson, Jessen, J. Jones, R. Jones, Kauffman, Kirby, Kirschner, Kressel, Krucher, Laguna-Diaz, Lanza, LaSala, Leath, Lichtenfeld, Lin, Manhoff, Markowitz, Marsh, Mathew, Maudlin, McCormick, McKay, McKeever, Meltzer, Messer, Nedick, Nerurkar, Norville, Novell, O’Connor, Panayotatos, Patel, Plummer, Potenza, Puniello, Rabii, Redd, Rijhsinghani, Rubin, Schaich, Scott, P. Simmons, H. Smith, N. Smith, Snyder, Spero, Sukhdeo, Szatrowski, Szerlip, Taghon, Tandon, Thompson, Tuckman, Vodak, Wadud, Wang, Webb, Weiman, Weis, Worrall, Zaborszky

EXCUSED: Boikess, Bry, Cerulo, K. Cooper, Cronk, Curry, Davidson, Friedrich, Greenhut, Guo, Hallmark, Hamilton, Hodgson, J. Hughes, Karel, Kennedy, Keoskey, Lashley, Lee, Maradonna, Mensah, Ocone, Oren, Pandya, Rabinowitz, R. Simmons, Sofer, Turpin, Winterbauer, Zylstra

ABSENT: Abbasi, C. Bell, Breton, Case, Dadlani, Driscoll, Evans, Gallinar, Glass, Griffiths, Herrera, Hull, Hyndman, Joanne Jackson, Klein, Kokini, Lake, Leontiades, Leustek, Markey, Merritt, Naqvi, Pieczenik, Reed, Roden, Roselle, Schock, Sears, Segers, Sifuentes-Jauregui, Solomon, Stark, Stauffer, Tsurumi

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY: Faculty: Of 92 total: 58 present (63%), 18 excused (19%) 17 absent (18%); Students: Of 50 total: 37 present (74%), 2 excused (4%), 11 absent (22%); Administrators: Of 38 total: 22 present (58%), 9 excused (24%), 7 absent (18%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 5 present (83%), 1 excused (17%)
View Senate attendance record for this year.

NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: Boyer, Holmes, Seto

NON-VOTING MEMBERS ABSENT: Sambolin, Wright

PRESIDING OFFICER: Paul Panayotatos, Chairperson

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT: Chairperson Panayotatos called the meeting to order. His chairperson’s report focused on the proposed restructuring of New Jersey’s higher-education system. He urged everyone to look at the three regional reports which have been posted online at: http://ruweb.rutgers.edu/restructure/home.shtml.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY: Agenda: The agenda was approved as distributed by the Secretary. http://senate.rutgers.edu/1103agen.html
Minutes: On motion and duly seconded, the Minutes of the October 24, 2003 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Secretary. http://senate.rutgers.edu/102403se.html

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: President McCormick delivered the administrative report, which included his thanks to all Senators for their contributions to shared governance at Rutgers, and comments on: ongoing developments in proposed restructuring of New Jersey’s system of higher education, particularly key issues of governance and funding; the higher-education bond issue; relationship-building activities with New Jersey legislators; student initiatives in voter registration; meetings with student governing association leaders, and planned retreats for students and administrators to focus on ways of improving services at Rutgers; continuing dialog about improving undergraduate education; and recent controversy concerning the Livingston Medium.

NEWARK CAMPUS REPORT: Newark Provost Steven Diner presented the Newark Campus Report, which included comments on: Rutgers-Newark’s historic missions of providing opportunities for bright, non-privileged students to access quality education, providing education for the professions, and conducting research; enrollment growth, parking, and other issues. Provost Diner noted that the Newark Campus Report is available online http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/occ/pubs/annualreport/Provost_02_03.pdf, along with his September 16, 2003 Address to the Campus Community. http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/provostoffice/index.php?sId=sept1603

COMMITTEE REPORT

University Structure and Governance Committee - Joseph Blasi and Kathleen Scott, Co-chairs

Senators Blasi and Scott, Co-chairs of the University Structure and Governance Committee, presented their committee’s Report and Resolution on Governance of the Proposed NJ Higher Education System http://senate.rutgers.edu/governancerestructure.html. The committee had been charged as follows: Original Charge S-0316: Respond to the proposed restructuring questions/issues identified by the University Structure and Governance Committee co-chairs as relevant to the committee’s standing charge. Provide periodic updates to the Senate Executive Committee, the first of which should be submitted in November 2003. Following Senator Scott’s summary of the report and resolution, Senator Adam Cooper moved to amend by adding "The Board of Regents should have at least one student member with voting rights." The motion was seconded. Senators Scott and Blasi were in favor of the amendment, but could not accept it as friendly without the concurrence of the committee. After some discussion, Senator Cotter moved to amend the amendment to "The Board of Regents should have at least one student and one faculty member, with voting rights." The amendment was seconded. Senator Cooper did not accept the amendment as friendly. Following discussion, the amendment to the amendment failed on card vote. Senator Hirsh called the question on the main motion. The call was seconded, and carried on voice vote. The original motion to amend carried on card vote.

Senator Szatrowski, on behalf of the Senate Budget and Finance Committee, which he co-chairs with Senator O’Connor, then moved to amend the resolution to include the following: "Restructuring should proceed only when: (1) adequate funding has been obtained for the implementation stage of the merger; and, (2) ongoing state funding equal at least to the average of the top quartile of publicly funded AAU institutions has been guaranteed." The motion was seconded. Following some discussion, Senator Bucko moved to amend the amendment by adding: "(3) the principles for university governance outlined in this report are adopted." Senator Szatrowski, on behalf of the Budget and Finance Committee, accepted Senator Bucko’s amendment as friendly. Following discussion, the full amendment carried unanimously on card vote.

Senator Hall moved to change "local universities" to "three universities" in two places in the report. The amendment was accepted as friendly.

Senator Lichtenfeld proposed amending to include the following: "Each of the colleges within the universities should retain its autonomy in pursuing its mission." Following discussion, Senator Gillett called the question. The call carried. On voice vote, Senator Lichtenfeld’s amendment failed.

Senator Szatrowski called the question on the report and resolution. On voice vote, the call carried. On card vote, the amended Report on Governance of the Proposed Research University System was approved by the Senate, as follows:

"Realization of any opportunities to enhance the academic excellence of Rutgers University and of higher education in New Jersey offered by the proposed restructuring will hinge upon the effectiveness of the restructured system’s governance structure and adequacy of funding. Responsible governance is a critical component of effective operation of every institution. Good governance fosters management based on standards of independence and objectivity, which in turn allows institutions to serve the purposes for which they were created. Achieving academic excellence requires academic freedom. Before specific details of governance for a restructured higher-education system in New Jersey are established, we feel that it is important to enumerate the following basic principles.

"We believe that strong universities begin with governance systems which allow self-determination of purpose, as well as strong local control. Therefore, if the State of New Jersey is to create a system comprising three autonomous/semiautonomous research universities, the following principles of governance should be paramount:

Each of the three autonomous/semiautonomous research universities should be self-determining and under local control.
Each of the universities should have an independent governing board/board of trustees which would have authority for governing and operating the university, as well as appointing its president.
Each of the universities should have a president who serves as its chief executive officer.

"We further believe that the proposed system of research universities requires a limited degree of coordination, and that any system-wide structure should exist primarily to provide advocacy for the research universities before the state government. Therefore, if the position of chancellor is created:

The chancellor should serve primarily as an advocate for the research universities. Together with the board of regents, the chancellor should work with the three universities in coordinating budget allocations and strategic planning. In keeping with these roles, the chancellor’s staff should be modest and focused on these important functions.
The university governing boards/boards of trustees should play an important role in the selection of the chancellor, in consultation with the presidents and shared governance bodies.
System-wide decisions made by the chancellor should be made with strong local input.

"The chancellor should work with a board of regents to advance the interests of higher education within the context of state government. Specifically:

The board of regents should consist of members appointed by the governor, as well as an approximately equal number of members appointed by the research universities.
Members of the board of regents representing the research universities should be selected by the university governing boards/boards of trustees in consultation with the presidents and shared governance bodies.
Members of the board of regents should be persons of stature, who are knowledgeable about higher education, and who can bring an independent voice and provide objective analysis.
The board of regents should have at least one student and one faculty member, with voting rights.
The board of regents, in consultation with the three universities, should have authority to appoint the chancellor.

"Finally, universities are strengthened both by the full participation of all their constituencies in governance and by the achievement of financial stability. These are critical to realizing the benefits of restructuring in creating an outstanding research university system for the State of New Jersey. Therefore, independent of structure, the following are critical for the success of any research university system:

Each institutional structure should have a mechanism for shared governance which constitutes an appropriate and efficient vehicle for input by faculty, students, administrative staff, and alumni.

In keeping with the University Senate’s earlier resolution, we reaffirm the necessity for both one-time costs of restructuring, as well as a stable, long-term solution to the problems of persistent under-funding of the state’s research universities by enacting a policy framework expressing the State of New Jersey’s responsibility for predictable core funding on a multi-year basis.

"Restructuring should proceed only when:

adequate funding has been obtained for the implementation stage of the merger; and
ongoing state funding equal at least to the average of the top quartile of publicly funded AAU institutions has been guaranteed; and
the principles for university governance outlined in this report are adopted.

RESOLUTION

"Whereas, the University Senate's Structure and Governance Committee has considered the issues relating to governance of the proposed restructured research universities; and

"Whereas, the University Senate has reviewed the Committee's Report and its Recommendations, finding those Recommendations to be sound and in the best interests of Rutgers University;

"Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Rutgers University Senate endorses the Report of the University Structure and Governance Committee, and urges the Administration to implement its recommendations."

The Senate responded affirmatively to Chairperson Panayotatos’s request for approval to disseminate the report as needed.

OLD BUSINESS: There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS: There was no new business.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Chairperson Panayotatos reported on the November 7, 2003 http://senate.rutgers.edu/ec110703.html Senate Executive Committee meeting. Executive Committee minutes are available on the Senate website.

REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES:

There were no open Board of Governors nor Board of Trustees meetings since the previous Senate meeting.

REPORT OF CAMPUS FACULTY LIAISONS: Senator Hirsh, chair of the New Brunswick Faculty Council, presented a report of that body’s recent activities, including a constituency research project of the Board of Governors, and proposed reorganization issues.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 3:27 p.m.

Kenneth Swalagin
Secretary of the University Senate