EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MINUTES
April 6, 2001

MEMBERS PRESENT: Borisovets, Fechter, Kelly, Koehler, Leath, Rabinowitz (Vice Chair), Scott (Chair), Swalagin (Executive Secretary), Walker-Andrews
EXCUSED: Barone
ALSO ATTENDING: Caprio (VP for Continuous Education & Outreach), Cragin (Graduate Student BOT Representative), Ishayik (Undergraduate Student BOT Representative), Janes (Faculty BOG Representative), James Miller (Co-chair, University Structure and Governance Committee), Parikh (Student BOG Representative), Roth (Co-chair, Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee), Seneca (Administrative Liaison), Snyder (Acting VP for Institutional Planning and Research), Wozniak (Co-chair, Student Affairs Committee)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Friday, April 6, 2001 at 1:10 p.m. in the President’s Dining Room, Brower Commons, College Avenue Campus.

1. Chairperson’s Report
Chairperson Scott called the meeting to order.

2. Secretary's Report
Minutes: Minutes of the March 9, 2001 Executive Committee meeting were approved as distributed by the Secretary.
Communications: The following communications were presented and acted upon as noted:

Two letters from President Lawrence acknowledging receipt of the Senate’s advice, and outlining plans for implementing Senate recommendations. The Senate resolutions covered were on:

Review of Teaching Assisting Training (Noted); and
Workplace Violence Policy (Noted).

3. Administrative Report
University Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph Seneca presented the administrative report, which included comments on: fundraising; a $2 million gift to endow a chair in applied microbiology at Cook College; and acknowledgment of, and congratulations on, Senator Fechter’s receipt of the Truman Award.

4. Report of the 2001-02 Nominating Panel
Harry Janes, Chair of the Nominating Panel, presented the slate of candidates for 2001-02 University Senate officers, Executive Committee members, and board representatives. He noted that additional nominations may be made from the Senate floor at the April 27 election, and that, to fulfill the requirement that the Executive Committee must include at least one member from Newark and one from Camden, the highest vote-getter from each of those campuses (two nominees each) would become members of the Executive Committee. The slate was approved as follows:

CHAIR: Kathleen Scott, Rutgers (F)
VICE CHAIR: Samuel Rabinowitz, SB-Camden (F)
EC FACULTY: Barone, Joseph, Pharmacy (F); Borisovets, Natalie, Libraries (F); Leath, Paul, Rutgers (F); Hirsh, Haym, Rutgers (F); Panayotatos, Paul, At Large-NB (F); Laguna-Diaz, Asela, At Large-Newark (F); Cowley, Roger, At Large-Camden (F)
EC STUDENT: Saniefard, Liza, Rutgers (S); Sims, Latesha, Rutgers (S)
EC ALUMNUS: Kenney, Robert, Alumni Federation; Manhoff, Bert, Alumni Federation
BOG STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE: Fechter, Avram, Rutgers (S); Miller, Jason, Cook (S); Esser, Ken, Livingston (S)
BOG FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE: Walker-Andrews, Arlene, At Large-NB (F)
BOT UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE: Wozniak, Kim, Rutgers (S)
BOT GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE: Redd, Jason, Rutgers (S) Graduate Student
BOT FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE: Rohr, Michael, NCAS (F); Vodak, Mark, Cook (F) 5. Standing Committee Reports

University Structure and Governance Committee Co-Chair James Miller summarized his committee’s report on an unnumbered charge to "Determine whether part-time lecturers (PTLs) should have representation on the University Senate, and, if so, how their representation should be implemented." The report recommends adding one PTL/annual Senator from each campus, and for the first election to be conducted by the Senate office, with hopes that PTLs and annuals would develop an organization and mechanism which would allow them to conduct their own subsequent elections. UVP Seneca said the necessary information on names and addresses of PTLs could be provided to allow the Senate office to conduct such an election. The report, with the following resolution, was docketed for action at the April 27, 2001 Senate meeting:

Whereas part-time lecturers (PTLs) and annuals teach a significant percentage of undergraduate courses at Rutgers University, and
Whereas PTLs and annuals have expertise and experience that adds a major dimension to the teaching programs of the University, and
Whereas PTLs and annuals often have little formal interaction with their teaching colleagues at the University, and
Whereas PTLs and annuals are not presently represented in the University Senate,
Therefore, be it resolved that the Senate asks the Board of Governors to amend the Senate's enabling regulations to entitle part-time lecturers and annuals to one Senator from each of our three campuses, to be elected annually, and
Be it further resolved that the initial elections be conducted by the University Senate by notifying all part-time lecturers and annuals that elections will be held, by indicating that PTLs and annuals who have taught at the University for at least three semesters during the last three years are eligible to serve, by asking whether they choose to be on the ballot, and by conducting the elections, and
Be it further resolved that the PTL and annual representatives on the University Senate will be responsible for communicating with their constituents to ensure that issues important to them are addressed.

Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee Co-chair Paul Leath summarized his committee’s report on Charge S-0004 to "Study the possibility of re-instituting the evaluations of administrators by faculty." UVP Seneca thanked Committee Co-chairs Leath and Lee for their work on this complex issue. The report includes a recommendation that such evaluations be re-instituted as a pilot project, and offers specific guidelines for implementation. The report and its recommendations were docketed for action at the April 27, 2001 Senate meeting.

Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee Co-chair Gary Roth summarized his committee’s report on Charge S-0001, to "Review…minimum grade-point average required for good academic standing…" This was a revision of the report originally discussed at November 2000 Executive Committee meeting. The report recommends revising University Regulations 2.4.5A and C(1) to allow each degree-granting division to define the measure of scholastic standing required for graduation, and the measure of scholastic standing required for good scholastic standing, to allow divisions measuring scholastic standing by a grade average to set the average at a level deemed appropriate by the respective division, and establishing 2.0 as the minimum GPA required for graduation. The report and its recommendations were docketed for action at the April 27, 2001 Senate meeting.

Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee Co-chair Gary Roth summarized his committee’s report on Charge S-0101, to "Review…drop/add periods…" He said that the preliminary data on the first semester of the revised drop/add period is in the report, and should be confirmed by final data. Senator Parikh asked that the recommendation for drop/add periods measured in calendar be days be changed to business days. The suggested change was discussed, but not accepted. Senator Borisovets suggested asking RUCS and/or the University Registrar if the registration systems could be made to work throughout the weekends (which they do not, currently). The report calls for another review of the drop/add period during the Fall 2001 semester. On Senator Fechter’s motion, the report and its recommendations were docketed for action at the April 27, 2001 Senate meeting.

Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee Chair Natalie Borisovets summarized her committee’s report on Charge S-0005, to "Review and comment on the May 2000 Report of the Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes Curriculum Task Force." The report and its recommendations were docketed for action at the April 27, 2001 Senate meeting.

University Structure and Governance Committee Co-chair Kathleen Scott summarized her committee’s report on Charge A-0102, to "Review the [Revised April 4, 2001] Proposal to Establish Rutgers University College of Applied and Professional Studies (RU-CAPS)," The proposal had been revised in response to information exchanges between the committee and Vice President of Continuous Education and Outreach Ray Caprio. Presented as attachments to the report, along with the Revised CAPS Proposal, were a Q&A summary from Vice President Caprio, and a New Brunswick Faculty Council resolution on the establishment of CAPS. The report included three recommendations, as follows:

We approve the concept that Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey take a more proactive role in the delivery of professional and technical educational programs for adult learners beyond the age of traditional campus-based students.
Rutgers University should proceed with planning to establish a school of applied and professional studies as specified in the revised proposal (Appendix A) and clarifying Questions and Answers (Appendix B) and establish the Advisory Board described in those documents.
The Advisory Board shall report to the President and the full Senate in a preliminary report by October 2001 and a full report by March 2002 for reconsideration by the full Senate.

The Executive Committee agreed to try to schedule an open-forum discussion on the CAPS proposal at the October 2001 Senate meeting, and to ask the Governance Committee to update its report thereafter. The current report was docketed for information purposes only, without presentation of a resolution or call for Senate action, at the April 27, 2001 Senate meeting.

Senator Fechter moved the addition of the Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions (ASRA) Committee report on Charge S-9917, to "Investigate, report and provide recommendations on the status of housing and related services and their relationship to graduate and undergraduate enrollment on all three campuses." The first-draft report had been forwarded to the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) for input and comment, but no response had been received until April 4. ASRA will meet on April 13 to consider SAC input, and to revise the report, which will be circulated to the Executive Committee via e-mail. The Executive Committee will then decide if the report should be docketed for action at the April 27, 2001 Senate meeting.

6. Standing Committee Charges

The Executive Committee discussed a potential charge to the Faculty Affairs and Personnel (FAP) Committee to consider whether there should be prohibition against using online course-evaluation data in personnel actions. Chairperson Scott will draft a charge to be circulated to the Executive Committee before being issued.

7. April 27, 2001 Senate Agenda

Items had been added to the Senate’s April 27 agenda throughout the meeting. Items docketed and scheduled for the April 27, 2001 Senate agenda are indicated in the "Standing Committee Reports" section, above.

8. Old Business

The Executive Committee approved insertion of one line which had been dropped from the online version of the School of Law-Camden proposed grading scale approved by the Senate March 27. The "C-minus" grade was part of the original proposal and the hardcopy version of the Senate report and resolution, but had accidentally been left out of the online version. The Executive Committee acted on behalf of the Senate to correct the error.

9. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m. by Chairperson Scott.

Kenneth Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the Senate