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

October 9, 2009

MEMBERS PRESENT: Bodnar, Borisovets, Gillett, Gould, Katz, Levine, McArdle, Panayotatos, Rabinowitz (Chair), Schramke, Swalagin (Executive Secretary), Thompson, Wild

MEMBERS EXCUSED:  Leath

ALSO ATTENDING: Cotter (Faculty BOG Representative), Fehn (Administrative Liaison), Furmanski (Administrative Liaison), Kaplan (Student BOG Representative), McCormick (Administrative Liaison), Slavin (Undergraduate Student BOT Representative)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Friday, October 9, 2009 at 1:10 p.m. in the Executive Board Room of Administrative Services Building-III, Cook Campus.

•  The meeting agenda was approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
•  The Minutes of September 4, 2009 Senate Executive Committee Meeting were approved with two corrections.
•  The following communication was presented by the Executive Secretary, and acted upon as noted by the Executive Committee:
• The Student Affairs Committee needs an Administrative Liaison to replace Gregory Blimling, who is no longer a Senator. President McCormick assigned Vice President for Student Affairs Greg Blimling, as a non-Senator SAC member, to the administrative liaison to that committee. Executive Vice President Furmanski will inform Blimling of the assignment.
• University Structure and Governance Committee Changes: Peter Gillett and Jon Oliver are new co-chairs. SCI Dean Jorge Reina Schement temporarily listed as Administrative Liaison, pending administrative approval. President McCormick assigned Dean Schement to the position of USGC administrative liaison.
• Daniel McArdle was the only nominee (all Camden students were polled via email) for the position of Camden Student Member of the Executive Committee. No election is necessary. Senator McArdle was inducted into the Executive Committee.

• President McCormick's plans to visit each Rutgers school to consult with faculty, staff and students about the individual schools' goals and ambitions, and the means through which they intend to meet those goals, including savings and efficiencies, good management of constrained resources, and generation of revenues;
• suggestions and input from the Senate Executive Committee on the above, and in response to an excerpt from the September President's Annual Address (distributed as a handout) entitled "Carrying the Conversation Forward";
• the status of settlements with unions in relation to budget problems;
• the suggested need for Rutgers-community meaningful input on budget issues;
• plans for dealing with future budget reductions;
• the budget itself, particularly the success of growing Rutgers' grant portfolio;
• the issue of state and national support for higher education generally;
• plans to engage students in responding to budgetary issues;
• a reminder that the Senate's Budget and Finance Committee has asked that it figure prominently in any discussions about the budget;
• potential improvements in how Rutgers engages alumni;
• entrepreneurial activities, and creation of a public repository for proposals to save money;
• the need to be aware, when visiting and discussing the budget at schools, of the risk of disenfranchising staff who are not affiliated with any school or college;
• a suggestion to communicate best practices as they are identified, which McCormick agreed to do as part of his regular Senate reports; 
• a recommendation that a "Suggestion Box" on the main Rutgers webpage as an adjunct to links sent in any Rutgers-wide emails announcing new websites, particularly on budgetary issues; and
• the series of events leading to the announcement and publication of commencement date changes before the Senate had acted on the proposed changes.