September 9, 2011 Rutgers University Senate Executive Committee Minutes

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

September 9, 2011

MEMBERS PRESENT: Barraco, Borisovets, Gillett, Gould, McKeever, Muse, Panayotatos (Chair), Paterno, Puhak, Swalagin (by phone) (Executive Secretary), Thompson, Yoon

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Bubb

ALSO ATTENDING:Cotter (Faculty BOT Representative), Clarke (Student BOG Representative), Fehn (Administrative Liaison), McCormick (Administrative Liaison), Rabinowitz (Faculty BOG Representative), Spiegel (Faculty BOT Representative)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Friday, September 9, 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 1:15 p.m. He welcomed everyone to what he described as a "new, and very demanding year." Before calling for introductions, he made a chairperson's report which included comments on:

his ex officio membership on Rutgers' Presidential Search Committee, and his intention to brief the Executive Committee on whatever discussions are non-confidential from that committee;
UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and reunification of that medical school with Rutgers;
Richard Edwards' appointment as Interim Executive Vice President for Administrative Affairs; and
last year's activities of the University Senate's Task Force on Shared Governance, and plans for:

a new Senate website;
efforts to recruit newly tenured faculty in the Senate, starting with a reception at the upcoming Faculty Caucus to be sponsored by IEVPAA Edwards, and President McCormick's recognition of newly tenured faculty during his Annual Address to the Rutgers Community.

2. Secretary’s Report

Executive Secretary Ken Swalagin was unable to attend the meeting in person, but participated by phone. Chairperson Panayotatos presented the secretary's report, which included the following items, which were discussed or acted upon as indicated below:

The meeting agenda was approved as distributed by the executive secretary.
The Minutes of May 20, 2010 Senate Executive Committee Meeting were approved as written by the secretary.
July 2011 Memo from Gregory Blimling, Vice President for Student Affairs, transmitting Revisions to the Code of Student Conduct - Martha Cotter, Chair of the Senate's Academic Standards, Regulations, and Admissions Committee, who was also instrumental in establishing the new Academic Integrity Policy, described the process by which the Committee on Student Conduct is constituted, and by which it revises the University Code of Student Conduct. She explained that the committee, composed of various deans and student-life personnel, has the right to approve changes to the Code, and that it has now made changes to the Code that were requested by the committee that revised the Academic Integrity Policy, but that it has also made additional changes to the Code which have serious implications for the Academic Integrity Policy, and had done so without input from any members of the Committee on Academic Integrity. Most notably, the standard of proof has been changed. Although Vice President for Student Affairs Greg Blimling has agreed that the next Committee on Student Conduct will bring revisions, Cotter feels that revisions to the Code that have major bearing on the Academic Integrity Policy should not be made without the Senate and chief academic officers on each campus being given the opportunity to weigh in. On behalf of the Executive Committee, Cotter will write to IEVPAA Edwards on the matter. Panayotatos pointed out that there are actually two issues: the need for an immediate fix on the most-recent change, and the policy/process matter. [Note: Before the October 14 Senate meeting, the Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee had, on its own initiative, produced a resolution responding to this issue, which was docketed for action at the October Senate meeting.]
President McCormick's acknowledgements of Senate reports and recommendations:
- August 2011 Response on A-0906, Commencement Dates, from the Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee - Noted.
- August 2011 Response on S-0807, Add/Drop Period, from the Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee - Noted.
- August 2011 Response on A-1102A, Proposal for a New School of Nursing-Camden, from the University Structure and Governance Committee (with input from the: Budget and Finance Committee; Research, and Graduate and Professional Education Committee; and Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee) - Noted.

President McCormick asked Swalagin to let him and Dick Edwards know which Senate reports still require a response from him. Swalagin said he is working with Roberta Leslie on those responses. Panayotatos said that there are still some pending items that are major policy considerations, and that he and Senate Vice Chair Ann Gould would like to meet with McCormick and Edwards to discuss which responses and decisions may be postponed during the administrative transition. Panayotatos will contact McCormick's assistant to schedule the meeting.

3. Administrative Liaison

President McCormick presented an administrative report, which included comments on:

his thanks for the Senate's continued hosting of his Annual Address;
appointment of new administrative leaders, including Kriste Lindenmeyer (Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers-Camden), Glenn Shafer (Dean of the Rutgers Business School-Newark/New Brunswick), Joanne Robinson (Acting Dean of the School of Nursing - Camden), Richard Edwards (Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs), Kathleen Pottick (Acting Dean of the School of Social Work), Susan Shurman (Acting Dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations), David Finegold (Senior Vice President for Lifelong Learning and Strategic Growth Initiatives), Alison Bernstein (Director of the Institute for Women's Leadership), Joanna Regulska (Vice President for International and Global Affairs);
enrollment and retention;
opening and construction of new facilities; and
three major projects that will be occupying his and his administrations attention this year:

incorporating Robert Wood Johnson Medical School into Rutgers;
having a bond issue placed on the ballot in 2012; and
the capital campaign.

There was considerable discussion of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School issue.

4. Standing Committees

The Executive Committee reviewed the Standing Committee Membership/Rosters, and discussed potential co-chairs for the Student Affairs Committee and Research, and Graduate and Professional Education Committees. Several committee chairs noted that the administrative liaisons assigned to their committees do not attend or participate in committee activities. President McCormick asked Ken Swalagin to send to him and Dick Edwards a memo listing the attendance records of all committees' administrative liaisons.

The Executive Committee reviewed and updated currently Pending Charges and reporting deadlines.

5. University Senate Agendas

The Executive Committee was not scheduled to meet again before the October Senate meeting, so agendas were discussed, and items docketed for the September 16 and October 14, 2011 Senate meetings, as follows:

September 16, 2011 Senate Meeting:

This meeting hosts the President's Annual Address to the Rutgers Community, which is the primary agenda item.
Dick Edwards will host a reception for newly tenured faculty at the Faculty Caucus.
Committees to meet, but the Executive Committee does not meet again before October 14. If committee reports are prepared in time for the October Senate meeting, they should be circulated to the Executive Committee by email for possible docketing for Senate action.

October 14, 2011 Senate Meeting:

October 14 meeting will be held in New Brunswick. The November 4 meeting is scheduled for Newark [The Senate will meet in Camden in February.]
Election of Newark Student Member of the Executive Committee [There were no eligible nominees for the April election.]

6. Old Business

There was no old business.

7. New Business

Peter Gillett raised the issue of the default, repeating academic calendar, and the need to make several adjustments to that calendar over the past few years. Martha Cotter, ASRAC co-chair, said that Charge S-1003A includes revisitation of the default calendar. The ASRAC wants to develop a plan that would eliminate the necessity of having a different designation of class days each year, but that it would likely require changing the number of reading days. She will also follow up with Ted Szatrowski, who first raised the issue that promulgated Charge S-1003, regarding his expected research and data on the issue.

Karen Thompson said she had heard that some faculty were offered football invitations if they had athletes in their class. McCormick said he had not heard of the practice, but asked Thompson to send him whatever information she had received on it so he could look into it.

Menahem Spiegel, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, asked McCormick if he would like to meet with him and some members of his committee to hear their thoughts on their report on all-funds budgeting implementation (beyond what is included in the committee's report). McCormick asked that he first be given the opportunity to respond to the report. Spiegel also thanked McCormick for implementing some of the recommendations contained in the BFC's report on fundraising.

Karen Thompson spoke about the new attendance website created by Barry Qualls' office to allow students to self-report their class absences electronically. The issue had been reported recently in Targum. Swalagin will write to Qualls to ask him to attend an Executive Committee meeting to discuss this.

8. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 2:46 p.m.

Written and submitted by,

Ken Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate