October 21, 2011 Rutgers University Senate Executive Committee Minutes

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

October 21, 2011

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

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Bubb,Yoon

ALSO ATTENDING:Cotter (Faculty BOT Representative), Edwards (Administrative Liaison), Fehn (Administrative Liaison), Goodman (SEBS Dean), McCormick (Administrative Liaison), Qualls (VP for Undergraduate Education), Rabinowitz (Faculty BOG Representative), Shapiro (New Brunswick Faculty Liaison)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Friday, October 21, 2011 at 1:10 p.m. in the Executive Board Room of Administrative Services Building-III, Cook Campus.

1. Chairperson’s Report - Paul Panayotatos, Senate Chairperson

Senate and Executive Committee Chairperson Paul Panayotatos called the meeting to order at 1:19 p.m. He reviewed some of the activities of the previous year's Ad Hoc Shared Governance Task Force (AHSGTF), including plans to send to the University Structure and Governance Committee, after the Executive Committee has weighed in, a charge to review the composition and size of the Senate, as well as the effects of the expected medical school merger. Panayotatos said that the AHSGTF will meet again before the next Executive Committee meeting.

2. Secretary’s Report - Ken Swalagin, Executive Secretary of the Senate

The meeting agenda was approved as distributed by the executive secretary.
The Minutes of September 9, 2011 Senate Executive Committee Meeting were approved as written and distributed by the secretary.
The following Communications were presented to, and acted upon by the Executive Committee as indicated:

Email from Richard L. Edwards, Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, postponing Decanal Review of Dean Christopher Malloy, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. The Executive Committee agreed that the review should be postponed as proposed.
Response from Ken Swalagin, Executive Secretary of the University Senate, to Request to Lengthen Winter Break this Academic Year. Discussed. No charge issued. [Note: The email to which Swalagin had replied contained some personal information from the sender, and was therefore not posted online. Swalagin summarized it at the meeting.]

3. Administrative Liaison

President McCormick said that he had presented to the Senate, in his September address, the most critical matters on which he is working, which are primarily the higher education facilities bond issue, the merger with the medical school, and Rutgers' capital campaign. He then responded to questions, or heard comments, on subjects including:

Newark Chancellor Steven Diner's decision to step down from his current position, and return to the faculty, at the end of the current semester, plans for appointing an interim chancellor, and potential effects on Rutgers Newark;
unconfirmed reports of possible separation of Rutgers Camden, and its integration into a university of south New Jersey;
continuing developments of the medical school merger; and
displeasure among Rutgers staff and parents over scheduling of University Commencement on Mother's Day, and the complexities of scheduling commencement and convocation ceremonies [Note: President McCormick asked Martha Cotter, Senate ASRAC co-chair, to pursue this issue with him. Cotter said she will speak with Leslie Fehrenbach as well.].

4. Standing Committees

Committee Report:

Student Affairs Committee Response to Charge S-1005 on Alma Mater - Student Affairs Committee Co-chair Robert Barraco, attending the meeting by phone, summarized his committee's response to Charge S-1005 on the Alma Mater. The report was docketed for action at the November 4, 2011 Senate meeting.

Proposed Charge:

A Proposal and Charge to Research, and Graduate and Professional Education Committee (RGPEC), submitted by RGPEC Co-chair Gayle Stein, on publication repository: The Executive Committee considered a proposed charge to the RGPEC submitted by RGPEC Co-chair Gayle Stein on a publication repository, and issued a charge, with a March 2012 deadline, as follows:

Examine the possibility of a Rutgers-specific, centrally driven publication repository for published papers and books. Provide data about similar services at peer and aspirant universities.

5.    University Senate Agenda

The November 4, 2011 Senate meeting will be held in Newark, and will include Newark Chancellor Diner's Newark Campus Report, and the SAC report on the Alma Mater docketed above. President McCormick's office will provide funding for lunch.

Chairperson Panayotatos asked if other committees could finalize reports on other pending charges so that they could be circulated to the Executive Committee by email for possible docketing on the November 4 Senate agenda. Martha Cotter said it might be possible to complete the ASRAC response to charge S-0807A on the Add/Drop Period. [Note: It was not possible for the ASRAC to finalize the report in time for it to be docketed for the November 4 Senate meeting.]

6.    Old Business

Report on Student Self-Reporting Absence Application - Barry Qualls, Vice President for Undergraduate Education, summarized, and responded to questions on, the newly instituted student self-reporting absence application.

Discussion of Deans' Evaluation Scheduling and Progress - Paul Panayotatos said that Dean Robert Goodman and Dean Richard DeLisi have expressed concern about the lack of progress on their decanal reviews. Dean Goodman was present at the meeting, and said that there should be a clear commitment to completing these reviews within a specified timeframe. Panayotatos, who also co-chairs the Senate's Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee, welcomed suggestions for streamlining regular progress reports to deans from their evaluation committees.

7.    New Business

There was no new business.

8. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 2:32 p.m.

Written and submitted by,

Ken Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate