March 11, 2011 Rutgers University Senate Executive Committee Minutes

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SENATE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
M I N U T E S

March 11, 2011

MEMBERS PRESENT: Binetti, David, Fishbein, Gillett, Gould, Leath, Panayotatos (Chair), Rabinowitz, Swalagin (Executive Secretary), Thompson

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Barnett, Bodnar, Borisovets, Bubb, Levine

ALSO ATTENDING:Cotter (Faculty BOG Representative), Fehn (Administrative Liaison), Furmanski (Administrative Liaison), McCormick (Administrative Liaison), Spiegel (Budget and Finance Committee Chair)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 1:10 p.m. in the Executive Board Room of Administrative Services Building-III, Cook Campus.

1. Chairperson’s Report

Senate and Executive Committee Chairperson Paul Panayotatos called the meeting to order at 1:20 p.m. He welcomed all present, and wished everyone a nice spring break.

2. Secretary's Report

The meeting agenda, and the Minutes of the February 11, 2011 Senate Executive Committee Meeting were approved with one correction.
The following communications were presented to, and acted upon by the Executive Committee as indicated:

Adam Helgeson has resigned as co-chair of the Student Affairs Committee. Senators Robert Barraco and Lazaros Kolasis have agreed to co-chair with Senator Rabinowitz for the remainder of this Senate year. Appointment of two new co-chairs docketed below under "Standing Committees." [Barraco and Kolasis were appointed co-chairs of the Student Affairs Committee for the remainder of this Senate year.]
PTL/Annual Appointee Faculty Senator Election to be conducted by April 15 [Noted. Vice Presidents Fehn and Furmanski suggested contacting directly both Vivian Fernandez and Don Smith to facilitate this election in the same manner as last year's staff-Senator election.]

3. Administrative Liaison

President McCormick said there had been no new developments since his last administrative report, but he and Vice Presidents Furmanski and Fehn responded to questions or heard comments on topics including:

his communications and relationship with Governor Christie;
his response to the Senate's recommendations on Form 3A [Furmanski said he found the recommendations valuable, and is preparing a response.];
administrative responses to Senate recommendations on Form 1A and its analogs [Furmanski said computing staff had corrected some issues, and that other issues were being looked into and considered.];
RIAS functionality, and the need to disable popup blockers to view some RIAS functions;
needed parking lot repairs;
whether University Policy 60.5.4.E. is still in effect, which mandates that "All persons employed by the university to teach are required by law to complete an oath or affirmation of office."; and
difficulties being encountered by staff who are required to collect and provide data for the VOIP phone service.

4. Standing Committees and Nominating Panel

Replacement of Adam Helgeson as Student Affairs Committee (SAC) Co-chair - Senators Robert Barraco and Lazaros Kolasis were appointed SAC co-chairs with Senator Rabinowitz for the remainder of this Senate year, replacing Adam Helgeson, who resigned.

Selection of Nominating Panel Members for Election of 2011-12 Senate Officers, Executive Committee Members, and Board Representatives - The Executive Committee suggested several Senators to be solicited to join the Nominating Panel for this year. Secretary Swalagin will contact other Senators in addition to those suggested to ask if they will participate in the nominations for the Senate's April 29 election.

Committee Reports:

University Structure and Governance Committee (USGC) Response to Charge S-1014 to Review New Brunswick Student Senate Membership - USGC Chair Peter Gillett summarized his committee's response to Charge S-1014 on reviewing New Brunswick student Senate membership. The report was docketed for action at the March 25, 2011 Senate meeting.

Committee Reports on Charge A-1102, Proposal for a New School of Nursing-Camden - Responses to Charge A-1102, on the Proposal for a New School of Nursing-Camden, had been submitted from the Budget and Finance Committee, from the Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee, and from the Research, and Graduate and Professional Education Committee. The reports were discussed by the Executive Committee, with the discussion being led by Peter Gillett, who chairs the USGC, which is the primary recipient of the three A-1102-response reports. Senator Spiegel, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, spoke about the difficulties his committee encountered in trying to determine the cost of moving from a department to a school, and of funding the School of Nursing-Newark/New Brunswick. No member of the Research, and Graduate and Professional Education Committee was present at the meeting to discuss that report. Secretary Swalagin will contact the chairs of all three committees (although FPAC and BFC chairs were present at this meeting) to ask which members of those committees will join the University Structure and Governance Committee for that committee's March 25 discussion of Charge A-1102A, which will be based in part on the A-1102 responses. Gillett and the Executive Committee then discussed the USGC's continuing work on addressing Charge A-1102A.

[President McCormick left the meeting at 2:03 p.m.]

Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee (ASRAC) Follow-Up Report on Response to Charge S-0807, Add/Drop Period - ASRAC Co-chair Martha Cotter had written to Secretary Swalagin: "I've now discussed the matter with members of ASRAC and we are in agreement that we do not have enough information to evaluate the pros and cons of extending both the drop and add periods by one day and that we wish to extend the trial of the extended add/drop period for one more academic year, with the proviso that we will evaluate the trial thoroughly in the fall 2011 semester. I will write up what we have agreed on and get it to you by the middle of next week at the very latest. We would like to docket it for the March meeting." Cotter summarized the ASRAC's discussions and intent on this matter. The anticipated report was docketed for action at the March 25, 2011 Senate meeting. Cotter will draft and send to Swalagin a charge for the ASRAC to address the issue of whether the extension of the add/drop period should be made permanent.

Issues/Proposed Charges:

Proposed Charge to FPAC on NBFC Resolution on Deadline for Submission of Faculty Promotion Packets to Deans by Academic Departments - Paul Leath had submitted an issue for the Executive Committee to consider charging to the Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee, as follows: "At the Senate meeting in Newark last Friday, I was told that Dean Greenberg of the SAS in New Brunswick has decided to ignore the Faculty Council resolution on "Deadline for Submission of Faculty Promotion Packets to Deans by Academic Departments" which was passed on October 15, 2010 (http://nbfc.rutgers.edu/year10_11/packets.html). As far as I know this proposed deadline may be presently observed by all academic units except for the SAS in NB, but the SAS represents a very large fraction of the Rutgers faculty. It is indeed a serious problem for academic departments and faculty, and the proposed deadline would be appropriate for all academic units in the University. Hopefully further support and approval by the University Senate can get the SAS, and all units, to comply. Therefore I propose that the Senate Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee be charged with considering this NBFC resolution as soon as possible, with a deadline of getting their recommendations to the full Senate at least by the April 29, 2011 meeting, so that any resolution can hopefully be implemented for the next round of faculty promotions this fall, 2011." The issue was discussed at some length, with EVP Furmanski explaining what steps he has taken to inform academic departments of, and encourage compliance with, this New Brunswick Faculty Council resolution. Paul Panayotatos suggested that the New Brunswick Faculty Council Executive Committee issue this as a communication directly to the SAS-NB. No Senate charge was issued.

5. University Senate March 25, 2011 Agenda

In addition to the committee reports docketed above, the Senate's March 25 agenda will also include:

(As agreed to by the Executive Committee last month) Introduction of, and remarks by, Rutgers' newly appointed Vice President for Public Affairs, Peter McDonough
End-of-meeting (time permitting) committee-of-the-whole discussions on Shared Governance, and on the Proposal for a New School of Nursing-Camden

6. New Business

Peter Gillett asked Ken Swalagin if the standing committees would be meeting before the April 29, 2011 Senate organizational and regular meetings. Swalagin said that, if the standing committees met even half of their charge-response deadlines for this year, that the regular meeting agenda would be very heavy, and that the meeting would need to begin well before the usual 1:10 p.m. start time. Swalagin said he could not know about the April Senate docket until the standing committee chairs responded to the upcoming deadlines.

Paul Panayotatos informed the Executive Committee that Gayle Stein had asked for official endorsement of her proposal to begin a Twitter feed of Senate meetings. Panayotatos suggested that it may have been better to refer the suggestion to Swalagin, as executive and corresponding secretary of the Senate, but that he had told Stein he would raise the issue with the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee declined to endorse Stein's proposal for an official Twitter feed of Senate meetings.

Leslie Fishbein raised an issue on how Rutgers might create more effective teaching-assessment mechanisms that would help ensure that students are properly placed in introductory courses, that there are learning goals and rubrics for testing all of those goals, that grade inflation is minimized, and academic outcomes in general are improved. Fishbein will send Swalagin a draft proposal and charge to docket on the April 8 Executive Committee agenda.

Joshua David, the New Brunswick student member of the Executive Committee, reported on some recent Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) activities, including:

a failed attempt to impeach Senator Jon Nyce on charges of ineligibility;
David's own appointment to serve on the RUSA Executive Board, which includes responsibilities as RUSA/University Senate liaison; and
RUSA's support of an initiative to create an Asian-American studies program, on which David will draft a proposal and charge for the Senate Executive Committee to consider issuing to a Senate standing committee at a future meeting.

7. Old Business

Peter Gillett asked about comments made at the previous Executive Committee by Natalie Borisovets about the possibility of using clickers for voting at Senate meetings. Chairperson Panayotatos suggested that was a logistical issue that should be handled by the executive secretary. Swalagin summarized his reasons for opposing use of clickers at Senate meetings, including his belief that, as elected representatives of constituencies comprising all of the Rutgers community, Senators' votes on issues at open, public meetings should be visible and identifiable to those constituents and other Senators as well. Swalagin also commented on costs and related security difficulties, and the absence of a clear need to begin using clickers.

8. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 2:57 p.m.

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