September 9, 2005 Senate Executive Committee Minutes

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SENATE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
M I N U T E S
September 9, 2005

MEMBERS PRESENT: Boikess, Borisovets, Cotter (Chair), Curtis, Darien, Panayotatos, Rabinowitz (Vice Chair), Swalagin (Executive Secretary)

EXCUSED: DeLuca

ALSO ATTENDING: Furmanski (Administrative Liaison), Leath (Faculty BOG Representative), McCormick (Administrative Liaison), Scott (Faculty BOT Representative), Volk (Graduate Student BOT Representative)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Friday, September 9, 2005 at 1:10 p.m. in the Third-Floor Conference Room, Administrative Services Building III, Cook Campus.

1. Secretary's Report

Chairperson Cotter deferred her report until President McCormick’s arrival later in the meeting. Secretary Swalagin’s report included:

Minutes: The Minutes of the June 3, 2005 Executive Committee meeting were approved.

Communications: The following communications were presented and acted upon as noted:

E-mail from Senator Brigid Farrell, dated August 5, 2005, regarding sexual assault crimes and dating violence. Discussed for possible Senate docket. Chairperson Cotter will speak with Senator Farrell and Director of Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victim Assistance Ruth Anne Koenick, and report back to the Executive Committee.
E-mail from Senator Peter Simmons, dated September 7, 2005, requesting that Senate committee(s) review the American Council on Education (Office of Women in Higher Education) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation report entitled “An Agenda for Excellence: Creating Flexibility in Tenure-Track Faculty Careers.”

2. Chairperson’s Report, and Discussion of Senate Response to Task Force on Undergraduate Education Report

Chairperson Cotter’s report centered on the previous day’s informal meeting of the Senate Executive Committee and standing-committee chairs on the Report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, at which the committee:

discussed how to assign review of the Task Force report to the Senate’s standing committees;
debated a timetable for Senate and Senate committee response to the report and any alternative proposals;
agreed to ask for an online discussion site through which committee chairs could facilitate dialog;
determined that the Senate should act only after receiving comments or responses from the New Brunswick Faculty Council and student governing associations, and after the public forums on the Task Force recommendations are complete; and
decided that, in order to properly respond to the report’s important recommendations for restructuring higher education at Rutgers-New Brunswick, the Senate could act on the matter no sooner than at its March 24, 2006 meeting.

3. Senate Review of Report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, and Distribution of Related Charges to Senate Standing Committees

The Executive Committee’s discussion on the Task Force on Undergraduate Education recommendations included:

Chairperson Cotter’s earlier statement that the Executive Committee had decided the previous day that the Senate could not properly respond until March 2006 (rationale outlined above in “Chairperson’s Report”);
President McCormick’s expressed disappointment that his requested December 2005 deadline for Senate response to the Task Force recommendations would not be met, and that the proposed implementation of the recommendations may therefore also be delayed beyond the target date of Fall 2007;
a suggestion that the Fall 2007 implementation may still be possible if the Senate acts by March (President McCormick will look into the timing, and will inform the Executive Committee);
prioritizing of the various aspects of the Task Force recommendations for Senate consideration, with structure receiving the highest priority;
a decision to have the Senate act on the matter in February 2006, and President McCormick’s statement that he will try to make that schedule work;
a request that President McCormick let the Executive Committee know what would be needed from the Senate, and on what schedule, in order to implement the admissions component of the Task Force recommendations for Fall 2007; and
Secretary Swalagin’s suggestion that he try to schedule an additional Senate meeting on December 9, 2005, which was approved by the Executive Committee with the stipulation that the meeting will begin at 11:00 a.m., followed by lunch, then proceeding to Senate committee meetings at 1:10 p.m.

4. Administrative Report

President McCormick, noting that he will deliver a comprehensive report in his Annual Address to the Rutgers Community on September 16, presented an administrative report which included comments on the following:

a visiting students program created to accommodate students displaced by Hurricane Katrina;
thanks to the Executive Committee for considering flexibility on the schedule for responding to the Task Force on Undergraduate Education recommendations;
his intent to speak on undergraduate education on all three campuses in his upcoming Annual Address;
an anticipated communication campaign to address some issues identified in the Constituency Research Report;
fundraising; and
his intent to remain at the podium after his September 16 address until he has responded to all questions from the audience.

5.             Standing Committee Reports and Charges

Preliminary Charge to All Standing Committees on Task Force Report: The following charge was issued to all standing committees: “Discuss at the September 16, 2005 committee meeting the Report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. Prepare a list of suggestions as to which aspects of the report would be appropriately discussed in your committee, including some indication of your reasoning and perspective on each of those items. Forward that draft list to the Senate secretary no later than noon on Wednesday, September 21. The Senate Executive Committee will then, based on your suggestions, issue a specific charge to your committee before the September 30 Senate meeting, so you may begin work on a response to the Task Force report at your September 30 committee meeting. Deadline for this charge: September 21, 2005.” A list of questions written by Chairperson Cotter regarding the proposed restructuring outlined in the Task Force report was discussed, and will be included with the charge as topic suggestions to committee chairs.

Charge to Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee on Status of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: The following charge was issued to the Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee, as drafted by Senator Boikess at the Executive Committee’s request: “Review the status of full-time non-tenure-track faculty who are not clinical faculty. Consider whether changes in university regulations or policies should be proposed that would provide improved conditions for full-time, non-tenure-track faculty with respect to length and continuity of appointment, reappointment, performance evaluation, governance rights, and access to internal research funding, in order to enhance the delivery of high-quality undergraduate education by this group of faculty. Recommend specific policy changes as appropriate. Recommend guidelines and general principles for proposals that might be formulated by the administration on these matters. Deadline for this charge: May 2006.”

6.             September 2005 Senate Agendas

Items were docketed on the September 16 (President’s Annual Address) and September 30, 2005 Senate agendas. The September 30 meeting will include a committee-of-the-whole discussion of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education recommendations, as well as several committee reports carried over from April 2005.

7.             Old Business

There was no old business.

8.             New Business

Senator Jillian Curtis was named Senate Parliamentarian for 2005-2006.

Senator Panayotatos presented a framed photograph of the cake-cutting ceremony from the Senate’s 50^th anniversary meeting of September 2003, and moved that it be displayed on the wall of the Senate conference room.

9.             Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m. by Chairperson Cotter.

Kenneth W. Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the Senate