University Senate Meeting Minutes

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: December 8, 2017

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Ahmed, Alidou, Ardeshna, Balaguru, Barbarese, Bekdash, Bhatnagar, Bhyuan, Boikess, Booth, Bora, Borisovets, Bradley, Bridgeman, Bugel, Burley, Chulak, Collins, Cotter, Craig, Cummings, Dana, Dasari, DeFilippis, Denham-Barrett, Deshpande, Dettloff, DiVito, Dreyer, Eaton, Eisenstein, Emmons, Esposito, Fagan, Field, Filippelli, Fitzgerald-Bocarsly, Fox, Gillett, Goh, Gould, Gower, Graber, Greenberg, A. Johnson, Joseph, Junboonta, Kabia, Kane, Kelly, Kettle, Krapivin, Kustka, Langer, Leavy, B. Lee, C. Lee, LoGrippo, Lulla, Lutz, Maloney, Mammis, Markert, Masiello, Mazurek, McKeever, Miller, Molello, Moran, K. Murphy, Nitzsche, Norville, O'Brassill-Kulfan, Oleske, Oliver, Owens, Padgett, Pantazis, Pappas, Parsa, M. Patel, Shivane Patel, Suja Patel, Patrick, Patton, Phadke, Pichugin, Pintar, C. Potter, Pradhan, Puhak, Roberts, Rothpletz-Puglia, Salazar, Samant, Schwartz, Scoloveno, Sen, Serrano, Settles, Shah, Shapses, Sheflin, Shinbrot, Shinn, Siddiqui, Soto, Spiegel, Steinberg, Takhistov, Tharney, Thompson, Thomson, Toney-Boss, Tracey, Tsakalakos, Van Stine, Warburton, Winkler, Ziessler, Zurlo

EXCUSED: Barchi, Battle-Brown, Civile, Dane, D'Anna, Fellenz, Goldfarb, Gross, Hartman, Heckscher, Honeycutt, Koelb, Kothari, Langsam, LaPointe, Linz, Manyaga, Marchetta, Matto, O'Neill, Rabinowitz, Rivera, Ross, Schneider, Strom, Wilde

ABSENT: Abayhan, Alizadeh, Artun, Barone, Blanchett, Boruchoff, Brunson, Bubb, Butterfield, Cahill, Cantor, Chayko, Chen, Coiro, Conway, Covington, Dixon, Drachtman, Dutta, Eastman, Eng, Farmbry, Farriss, Feldman, Fletcher, Gabriel, Ganesh, Ghate, Ghesani, Gonzalez, Goodman, Haddon, Halkitis, Hatefi, Hernandez, Holzemer, Iannini, Ivanovski, Joergensen, R. Johnson, Kasichainula, Khattab, Kukor, Lasala, Levy, Lei, Lewis, Lindboe, Lindenmeyer, Lugg, Mahon, Majumdar, March, Marchick, Minsky, B. Murphy, Novelli, Pagan, Pandey, Pardlo, A. Patel, Petrucci, Ponzio, J. Potter, K. Powell, V. Powell, Reinfelder, Resnick, Robinson, Saltzman, Sanchez, Schiavo, Settimo, Sheridan, Stauffer, Szatrowski, Tasneem, Thomas, Van Ryzin, Walters

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY: Faculty: Of 110 total: 69 present (63%), 14 excused (13%), 27 absent (24%); Students: Of 51 total: 26 present (51%), 6 excused (12%), 19 absent (37%); Administrators: Of 41 total: 7 present (17%), 3 excused (7%), 31 absent (76%); Staff: Of 18 total: 13 present (72%), 2 excused (11%), 3 absent (17%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 5 present (83%), 1 excused (17%), 0 absent (0%)
View Senate Attendance Record for this academic year

PRESIDING OFFICER: Peter Gillett, Chair

CALL TO ORDER, DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM, AND CHAIR’S REPORT - Peter Gillett, Chair

Senate Chair Peter Gillett called the meeting to order at 1:10 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the College Avenue Student Center, College Avenue Campus, New Brunswick. He said that this would be the third webstreamed Senate meeting. He also described a meeting he and Vice Chair Jon Oliver had with standing committee chairs in the morning on December 1, just prior to the Senate Executive Committee meeting.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY - Ken Swalagin, Executive Secretary

Agenda: The meeting's agenda, including time limits, was approved by the Senate.
Minutes: The Minutes of the November 10, 2017 Regular Senate Meeting were approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
Communications: The following communication was presented by the Executive Secretary:

President Barchi's Response to Senate Response to Charge S-1404 on Revisions to University Policy Library

COMMITTEE REPORT

Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee (FPAC) Response to Charge A-1709 on Proposal to Improve Evaluation of Teaching at Rutgers (and Supplementary Materials for FPAC Response to Charge A-1709)- Joseph Markert and Alexander Settles, FPAC Co-chairs

FPAC Co-chairs Alexander Settles and Joseph Markert summarized their committee's response to Charge A-1709 on a Proposal to Improve Evaluation of Teaching at Rutgers. (Click here for related PowerPoint slides.) Markert read the report's resolution. The report was discussed at length. Robert Puhak's motion to amend Recommendation 10 to read "Instructors and departments should be regularly reminded that they have the option to: i) add questions that might be particularly relevant for that course or that department to the survey; and ii) utilize a mid-semester course assessment" was seconded and discussed. The motion carried. Viktor Krapivin's motion motion to strike Recommendation 11 was seconded and discussed. During the discussion, procedural arguments were made, and a ruling by the Chair was challenged. The Chair's ruling was upheld. The motion to amend failed on a recount. A motion to recess to discuss the previous, failed amendment, and another motion for a friendly amendment, failed to achieve seconds. Adeel Ahmed moved to recess for three minutes to discuss the entire resolution as a whole in an unmoderated caucus. The motion was seconded, but failed. Gillett then read the resolution in its entirety, as amended, which then carried with six opposed.

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT - Barbara Lee, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Lee presented an administrative report, which included comments on subjects including:

Rutgers freshman Fabio De Sousa's naming as a first-team National Soccer Coaches Association of America All-American;
New Brunswick Chancellor Deba Dutta and many other members of the Rutgers community being named to Governor-Elect Murphy's Transition2018 committees;
the federal tax-cut plan, and Rutgers' advocacy against its provisions that would harm higher education;
DACA, and President Trump's travel ban; and
the continuing Middle States reaccreditation process.

Lee then responded to questions, or heard comments, on the above topics, as well as:

administrative resources provided to promote, and adjudicate violations of, academic integrity; and
inclusion of Rutgers School of Law in the Middle States process.

OTHER BUSINESS

Briefing on OIT Technology Master Plan - Adrienne Esposito, Staff Senator Member of the Executive Committee

Staff Senator Adrienne Esposito presented a briefing on the Office of Information Technology Master Plan, and responded to questions thereon.

OLD BUSINESS: There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS: There was no new business.

SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT - Senate Vice Chair Jon Oliver reported on the December 1, 2017 Senate Executive Committee meeting.

REPORTS OF REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES: There were no reports from board representatives.

REPORTS OF CAMPUS FACULTY AND STUDENT LIAISONS: New Brunswick Student Senator Viktor Krapivin spoke about parliamentary procedure, how everyone can be heard, and the legitimacy of the Senate. Faculty Senator Sanjib Bhuyan, Chair of the New Brunswick Faculty Council, reported on plans and recent activities of that group. Faculty Senator Patricia Bocarsley, Chair of the RBHS Faculty Council, reported on plans and recent activities of that group.

ADJOURNMENT: Gillett extended best wishes to all for the upcoming holidays. The meeting adjourned at 3:24 p.m.

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