Rutgers University Senate Minutes, December 6, 2013

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES: General Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: December 6, 2013

TIME AND PLACE: 1:10 p.m., Multipurpose Room, Rutgers Student Center, New Brunswick Campus

MEMBERS PRESENT: Ahmed, Alder, Alizadeh, Amaya-Fernandez, Anderson, Apuzzio, Aubry, August, Avadhani, Baffo, Balog, Barbarese, Barraco, Beachem, Bell, Berman, Biokess, Borisovets, Bugel, Burrell, Caler, Cashin, Cimiotti, Clarke, Cohen, Coleman, Cotter, Covington, Creese, D'Anna, Daniels, Dasari, Davidov, Davis, Delnevo, DiBona, DiVito, Edwards, Elkabes, Fagley, Fennell, Fernandez, Fiore, Gajic, Gallo, Gaunt, Geis, Gillett, Glaser, R. Goldstein, Gomes, Gould, Gower, Hackworth, Haibach, Heider, Hetling, Hinch, Hyndman, Jimenez, Karamichael, Kenfield, Kietrys, Krasovic, Kressel, Krymchanskaya, Lee, Jane Lewis, Lindgren, A. Liu, T. Liu, Markowitz, Mazurek, McKeever, Meggali, Messer, Middleton, Midlarsky, Miller, Mistry, Michell, Moomjy, Naus, Navrot, Niederman, Nieman, Norville, O'Connell, O'Connor, O'Malley, Oliver, Otto, Ottomanelli, Padgett, Nell Patel, Shane Patel, Pintar, Postadan, Puhak, Rabinowitz, Rivera-Medina, Rodriguez, Rothpletz-Puglia, Saito, Saltzman, Samant, Schantz, Scherrer, M. Schwartz, R. Schwartz, Shapiro, Shapley, Sheflin, Simmons, Spiegel, Stillwagon, Struwe, Szatrowski,Tesoro, Teters, Thompson, Tiedeken, Toney-Boss, Tsakalakos, Tursi, VanderHoff, Vaz, Wagner, Wang, Weigert, Winkler, Winterbauer, Wise

EXCUSED: Al-Haj, Allen, Bagchi, Barchi, Joseph Barone, Bolden, Bridgeman, Buchholtz, Eastman, Farmbry, Fitzgerald-Bocarsly, Gilman, Goodman, Holtzman, Jan Lewis, LoMonoco, Mapes, Markert, Miranti, Pavlovic, Pirrello, Rhoads, J. Robinson, Stein, Suplee, Uzun, Vodak,Wasserman

ABSENT: Ameri, Amenta, Angell, Ansari, Avakame, Joseph G. Barone, Benjamin, Bhatt, Cadoff, Clear, Connors, Copeland, DeCastro, DeLisi, Desai, Devnani, Dietrich, Dominguez, Edward, Eldasher, Falk, Farmer, Farris, Fehn, Feldman, Ganesh, D. Goldstein, Grabosky, Harris, Heckscher, Holzmer, Holzer, Hudson, Hughes, Johnson, Joshi, Katz, Kukor, Kumar, Laguna, Lara, Lin, Lindenmeyer, Lynch, Maher, Mao, Marchik, McInerney, Millonig, Muse, Nagarajan, Ortiz, Pandey, Pant, Potter, Pratt, Pritchett, Reade, Redlawsk, R. Robinson, Rodgers, Rogers, Sahi, Salmond, Scardino, Schiavo, Schurman, Scotto, Shafer, Sheth, Shivakumar, Sirkin, Solomon, spiegle, Strom, Taghon, Thuno, Triner, Van de Walle, Wurster, Yeagle, Yu, Zimmerman

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY: Faculty: Of 131 total: 85 present (65%), 16 excused (12%), 30 absent (23%); Students: Of 55 total: 30 present (55%), 2 excused (4%), 23 absent (42%); Administrators: Of 41 total: 5 present (12%), 7 excused (17%), 29 absent (71%); Staff: Of 14 total: 9 present (64%), 3 excused (21%), 2 absent (14%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 6 present (100%), 0 excused (0%), 0 absent (0%)
View Senate Attendance Record for this year

PRESIDING OFFICER: Ann Gould, Chairperson

CALL TO ORDER, DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM, INTRODUCTION OF COMMITTEE CHAIRS AND CHARGES, AND CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT - Ann Gould, Chairperson

Chairperson Ann Gould called the meeting to order at 1:17 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center, College Avenue Campus, New Brunswick. She welcomed all attendees to the last meeting of the semester..

SECRETARY'S REPORT - Ken Swalagin, Executive Secretary

Agenda: The meeting's agenda was approved by the Senate as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
Minutes: The November 15, 2013 Senate Meeting Minutes were approved as distributed by the executive secretary.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Student Affairs Committee (SAC) Response to Charge S-1211 on Deregistration for Non-Payment of Term Bills - Kristine Baffo, Robert Barraco, and Samuel Rabinowitz, SAC Co-chairs

SAC Co-chairs Robert Barraco and Kristine Baffo, and SAC member Matt Winkler summarized the report, which was a response to the SAC having been charged as follows:

Dropping Students from Rosters for Non-Payment of Term Bills: Look into the practice of removing students from the roster if they do not pay their term bills on time.

There was no comment, question, or discussion from the Senate on the report. The report did not include any recommendations for change to current Rutgers policy or practice, and was therefore presented for information only. No vote was taken on this matter.

Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee (ICAC) Response to Charge S-1308 on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Reconsidered - Natalie Borisovets, ICAC Chair

ICAC Chair Natalie Borisovets summarized her committee's report, which was a response to the ICAC having been charged as follows:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Reconsidered: Reconsider and make recommendations regarding the current and rapidly changing situation with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and Rutgers policies and procedures related to MOOCs.

Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) Annual Report on the Rutgers University Budget - Menahem Spiegel, BFC Chair

BFC Chair Menahem Spiegel presented the BFC's annual report on the Rutgers University Budget. Senator Eugene Geis, a BFC member, also presented portions of the report. A brief question-and-answer period followed. The report is mandated by the BFC's standing charge, and was presented for the Senate's information. No vote was taken on this matter.

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT - Richard Edwards, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Executive Vice President Edwards read to the Senate an administrative report prepared by President Barchi, which included comments on topics including:

recent faculty honors and awards;
establishment of a new Office of Enterprise Risk Management; and
the Strategic Plan draft presentation to the Board of Governors, and planned submission to the Board of Trustees on December 19.

Edwards continued with his own administrative report, which included comments on topics including:

the preceding report on Rutgers' budget;
costs of the merger of Rutgers and UMDNJ; and
revenue-generating and entrepreneurial activities, and related budgetary implications.

Executive Vice President Edwards then responded to questions, or heard comments, on a variety of subjects, including:

responsibility centered management;
costs of integration of UMDNJ with Rutgers;
pending appointment of task forces and committees to look at areas such as IT systems and how to integrate those of Rutgers and UMDNJ, the academic structure of Rutgers, and responsibility centered management;
state support and funding;
availability of budget information, particularly as related to allocations among the campuses and the IPEDS report, and responsibility centered management; and
subvention of humanities, and the School of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick.

OLD BUSINESS: There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS: There was no new business.

REPORTS OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES: Senator Samuel Rabinowitz, Faculty Representative to the Board of Governors, reported on the Deceember 3 Board of Governors meetings. Senator Asha Samant, Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees, reported that there had been no Board of Trustees meeting since the previous Senate meeting.

CAMPUS FACULTY LIAISON REPORTS: Senator Samuel Rabinowitz, Camden Faculty Council Chairperson, reported that his group had not met since the previous Senate meeting. Senator Martha Cotter, New Brunswick Faculty Council Chairperson, reported that her group had not met since the previous Senate meeting, but would meet on the following Friday.

CHAIR'S CLOSING COMMENTS: Chairperson Gould thanked all of the committees that had worked on the reports presented that day. She wished everyone a smooth end to the semester, and happy holidays.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 2:57 p.m.

Minutes Written and Submitted by,
Ken Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate