RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
SENATE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
M I N U T E S
April 8, 2011
MEMBERS PRESENT: Barnett, Binetti, Borisovets, Bubb, David, Fishbein, Gillett,
Gould, Leath, Levine, Panayotatos (Chair), Rabinowitz,
Swalagin
(Executive Secretary), Thompson
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Bodnar
ALSO ATTENDING:Cotter
(Faculty BOG Representative), Fehn (Administrative Liaison), McCormick (Administrative Liaison), Spiegel
(Budget and Finance Committee Chair), Swartley-McArdle (Graduate Student BOT Representative)
The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 1:10 p.m. in the Executive Board Room of
Administrative Services Building-III, Cook Campus.
1. Call to Order
Senate and Executive Committee Chairperson Paul Panayotatos called the
meeting to order at 1:21 p.m. He said that President McCormick was on
his way to the meeting, and that Executive Vice President Furmanski may
be late. He therefore asked that the meeting begin with the secretary's
report.
2. Secretary’s Report
Senate Executive Secretary Ken Swalagin asked for approval of the meeting agenda, amended as requested by the chair, and of the Minutes of
March 11, 2011 Senate Executive Committee Meeting .
The Executive Committee approved both items. Swalagin then presented
the following communications, which were noted by the Executive
Committee:
- PTL/Annual Appointee Faculty Senator Election Update: Swalagin
will meet with representatives from University Human Resources, and
with the Chief Information Officer, to discuss and plan these elections.
- Website Update: Swalagin said that, because of the difficulty of
reinventing and migrating the Senate website while it is still active
during the semester, he would wait until the summer to work on the new
website.
- Administration advises that the Academic Integrity Policy Implementation
Committee has been established, and that its membership includes: Martha Cotter,
Chair; Sarah Balkin; Sanjib Bhuyan; Joshua David; John Gunkel; Greg Jackson;
Susan E. Lawrence; Muffin Lord; Jonathan Nycz; Angela O'Donnell; Nancy G.
Rosoff.
Martha Cotter, chair of the Senate's Academic Standards, Regulations
and Admissions Committee, and chair of the Rutgers Academic Integrity
Policy Implementation Committee (AIPIC), said that the AIPIC has
already met once. She gave a brief summary of that meeting.
3. Chairperson's Report
Chairperson Panayotatos thanked President McCormick for his
invitation to the closed portion of the previous week's Board of
Governors meeting. He said that he had met the previous day with Board
of Governors Chair Ralph Izzo to discuss the specific issue of
organizing the evaluations of Rutgers' president and executive vice
president. Panayotatos then summarized some of the recommendations of
the Senate's Ad Hoc Shared Governance Task Force, including a
suggestion that President McCormick hold a reception for, and
recognition of, newly tenured faculty, which would also serve to
familiarize those faculty with the University Senate.
4. Administrative Liaison
President McCormick presented an administrative report which included comments on:
McCormick then responded to questions, or heard comments, on subjects including:
- the most-recent, successful higher education bond issue in New Jersey, in 1988;
- the precedent set by paying Toni Morrison an honorarium as commencement speaker;
- longterm strategies for improving how Rutgers promotes itself publicly;
- plans to address that Athletics Department deficit, which is
currently provided by Rutgers, and on which McCormick has asked Tim
Pernetti to develop a five-year plan for significantly reducing that
subsidy; and
- the high cost of Rutgers women's basketball event tickets.
5. Committee
Reports:
The following reports were discussed, and docketed for action or information at the upcoming Senate meeting:
[Note: To view the reports, some
of which were amended on the Senate floor, as adopted by the Senate on
April 29, 2011, please go to the "Recent Senate Reports" webpage.]
Budget and Finance Committee Response
to Charge S-0914,
All-Funds Budgeting Integration - The BFC had been charged as
follows:
All-Funds Budgeting Integration: Investigate
the integration of all-funds budgeting with the university planning objectives
and its implementation. Also investigate how all-funds budgeting applies at the
department level.
University Structure and Governance Committee
Response
to Charge A-1102A, Proposal for a New School of Nursing-Camden - The
USGC had been charged as follows:
Proposal for New School of Nursing-Camden:
Discuss, document findings, and make recommendations on the Proposal
to Establish a School of Nursing at Rutgers-Camden. Discuss
with Camden Chancellor Pritchett or his representative, who will attend your
March 2011 meeting, any questions or concerns you may have relating to the
proposal. Also, include in your deliberations advice from the three Senate
committees instructed in Charge A-1102 above [For purposes of this email, that
charge is appended below]. Decide if the Senate should endorse establishment of
this new school. By April 1, 2011, prepare and send to the Senate Executive
Secretary your advice, findings, and recommendations on the proposal, which will
be forwarded to the Senate Executive Committee to docket for Senate
action.
Faculty and Personnel Affairs
Committee Response
to Charge S-0917,
Application of the "Ten-Year Rule" in Promotions to Full Professor -
The FPAC had been charged as follows:
Application of the “Ten-Year Rule” in Promotions to
Full Professor: Investigate the
application of the "ten-year rule" in promotions to full professor. In particular, investigate the relative frequency
it is being invoked and the resultant success
rate. Also assess whether it has accomplished
its original goal of providing an alternative basis for promotion for faculty who continue to make significant
contributions to the academic and professional
mission of the university after achieving tenure, and whose publication record has not kept pace with
what was expected of them when tenure
was awarded. Propose changes as
needed.
Research,
and Graduate and Professional Education Committee Response
to Charge S-1009, NRC Rankings of Graduate Programs - The RGPEC had
been charged as follows:
Research, and Graduate
and Professional Education Committee Response
to Charge S-0912,
Online Courses in Masters and Professional Degree Programs - The
RGPEC had been charged as follows:
Online Courses in Master's and
Professional Degree Programs: Review, discuss, and make
recommendations on how Rutgers can best
utilize online courses in master’s and professional degrees. Review the
recommendation from the Senate Instruction, Curricula, & Advising Committee
on hybrid courses. Evaluate the means by which online courses are set up, and
suggest improved means for encouraging Rutgers
departments and schools to take advantage of the availability of online,
distance-learning, and hybrid courses.
Academic
Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee Response
to Charge A-1004
(Formerly S-0906), Academic Calendar, Commencement Dates, Updated -
The ASRAC had been charged as follows:
Academic Calendar, Commencement Dates:
Consider and decide on Secretary of the University Leslie Fehrenbach's request
(and its
attachment) that the University Senate change the University Commencement
dates on the academic
calendar for academic years 2010-11 and
beyond.
Instruction,
Curriculum and Advising Committee Response
to Charge S-1015,
Online Education at Rutgers - The ICAC had been charged as
follows:
Online Education at
Rutgers: Survey the existing state of online education at Rutgers,
and identify issues and challenges.
Issues/Proposed
Charges/Modification of Current Charges:
Potential Charge to Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee (FPAC) on Teaching Load and Equivalencies:
Dan Bubb expressed concern about teaching loads and equivalencies. Paul
Panayotatos said there are employment/tenure and academic freedom
aspects of this issue, and that a charge should go to the FPAC. Bubb
will draft the charge and send it to Ken Swalagin to be circulated and
issued by email.
Potential Charge to University Structure and Governance Committee (USGC) on Reassessing the Senate's Committee
Structure:
The Executive Committee discussed a potential charge to the USGC
to determine whether staff issues are being addressed, and if there is
a need for a Staff Affairs Committee, per the Senate's November
2008 Response
to Charge S-0704, Senate Committee Structure. Consideration of this charge was deferred until September, when the staff member of the Executive Committee could be present.
Charge S-0916 on Merit
Scholarship Funding Dropped: ASRAC
Co-chair Martha Cotter had written to the Executive Committee that
"ASRAC would like the EC to remove Charge S-0916 on Merit Scholarship
Funding. We plan to ask the EC to issue a more narrowly focused charge
on the same subject in June, but are still discussing the precise
wording." The Executive Committee dropped the charge, which had been
issued to the ASRAC as follows:
Merit
Scholarship Funding: Evaluate current
Rutgers policies and practices regarding the awarding and funding of merit
scholarships for undergraduate students. Propose possible changes to make those
policies and practices more effective in attracting outstanding students to
Rutgers. Respond to Senate Executive Committee by March
2011.
Follow-Up Charge to ASRAC on Academic Calendar,
Add/Drop Period: An extended trial period for the extended add/drop
period was advanced by the ASRAC, and adopted by the Senate, in March 2011. ASRAC Co-chair Martha Cotter asked the
Executive Committee to issue a charge to the ASRAC to determine
whether the changes should be made permanent. The following charge was issued to the ASRAC::
Add/Drop Period - As follow-up to the ASRAC's March 2011
Response to
Charge S-0807, Add/Drop Period , consider and make a final recommendation on what changes, if any, to the Add/Drop Period should be made permanent.
[From March 2011] Proposed Charge on
Teaching-Assessment Mechanisms:
The Executive Committee again considered a proposed charge on
teaching-assessment mechanisms (which had originally been discussed in
March 2011). The March 2011 minutes included the following: "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." Discussion
on this proposed charge was again deferred until Fishbein could draft
the charge.
Proposed Charge to Committee on Establishing an Asian
American Studies Program: The Executive Committee considered the Rutgers University Student Assembly's Resolution
in Support of Establishing an Asian American Studies Program. It was determined that the issue was not sufficiently broad to be taken up by the Senate. No charge was issued.
6. April 29, 2011 University Senate
Agenda
In addition to the items docketed above for the April 29, 2011 regular Senate
meeting, the Executive Committee established that the organizational/election
meeting of the 2011-12 Senate would begin at 10:30 a.m.
7. Old Business
Leslie Fishbein asked about a potential charge to the Faculty and
Personnel Affairs Committee about possibly eliminating Form 1A
entirely. Paul Panayotatos said that the FPAC can be thinking about
that issue, but that the Executive Committee did not issue a specific
charge on it.
Peter Gillett reminded the Executive Committee that longstanding
charges not completed at year end needed to be reviewed and either
dropped or reissued. Ken Swalagin pointed out the complexities of
tracking charges if they are reissued with new charge-number
designations. Swalagin will maintain the original numbers on reissued
charges, but will append an "R" notation to indicate that the charge
had been reissued.
7. New Business
There was no new business.
8. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:44 p.m.
Ken Swalagin
Executive Secretary of
the University Senate