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

EXCUSED:  Boikess, DeLuca

ALSO ATTENDING:  Furmanski (Administrative Liaison), Scott (Faculty BOT Representative)

Chairperson Cotter said that various groups’ discussion of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education recommendations continues, and that the New Brunswick Faculty Council passed a multi-part resolution on some aspects of the recommendations on October 28.  She added that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick has met and considered mostly curriculum issues of the Task Force recommendations, and had agreed that curriculum will be decided by a faculty group.  She noted that open forums on the Task Force also are continuing, and are nearing completion.

Senator Curtis summarized some student governing association activities on the Task Force recommendations, including:  expected introduction of a Rutgers College Governing Association resolution, the Livingston College forum, the clarity of the already expressed position of Douglass College, and her plan to ask Cook College for input for the Senate’s December 9, 2005 meeting.

Cotter said that the Senate’s final recommendations on the Task Force issues may need to be spread over two meetings, and suggested that the February Senate meeting, scheduled to take place in Newark, should be switched with a New Brunswick meeting.  [The meeting-switch suggestion was discussed further during the Secretary’s Report.]

2.             Secretary's Report

Minutes:  Secretary Swalagin, noting that the October 7, 2005 Executive Committee Minutes were circulated only recently, asked the committee if it would like to postpone approval until the next meeting.  The committee then approved conditionally the Minutes of the October 7, 2005 Executive Committee meeting.  Any corrections were to be sent to the secretary.  

Senate Meeting Schedule/Venue:  Secretary Swalagin will try to move the Newark Senate meeting, at which Provost Diner will present the Newark Campus Report, and which is currently scheduled to take place in February, to March 24, 2006.  The change was recommended to allow the Senate’s final discussion of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education’s recommendations to take place in New Brunswick.  [The meeting was subsequently changed as requested.]

3.             Administrative Report

• appointment of Mitchell Koza as dean of the School of Business at Camden;
• anticipated start of the search for Vice President of Enrollment Management (or similar title, to be determined); and
• the ongoing search for dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations.

Following the report, EVP Furmanski responded to questions regarding the possibility of two faculty members being added to the Board of Trustees’ membership, as well as having University Counsel Jon Alger speak with the Executive Committee regarding board membership, e-mail privacy, and Rutgers’ response to FAIR vs. Rumsfeld.

4.             Standing Committee Reports and Charges

Preliminary Reports of All Standing Committees in Response to Charge A-0503, Senate Response to Task Force on Undergraduate Education Report:  The Executive Committee reviewed and discussed the preliminary reports of Senate standing committees on the recommendations of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, and agreed that the reports were responsive to the charges as they were issued to the committees.  Senator Panayotatos asked if the reports could be shared among and within the committees.  The Executive Committee decided that the reports could be circulated, but that any chair wishing to distribute another committee’s report should first ask the authoring committee’s chair for permission to do so, and should point out that the reports are all working documents, and not final reports.  Secretary Swalagin will send all reports to all committee chairs, along with instructions to that effect.

5.             November 18, 2005 University Senate Meeting Agenda

Items were docketed and prioritized on the Senate’s November 18, 2005 agenda.  The meeting will be devoted primarily to presentation and discussion of the standing committees’ reports on the recommendations of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education.  The preliminary reports will not be published online nor circulated to the full Senate, but instead will be summarized by committee chairs at the November Senate meeting.  Chairs will make three-minute (or less) summaries of their reports, and the ensuing Senate discussion will be in panel format, with committee chairs seated in front of the Senate to respond to questions.  The reports were prioritized and docketed in the following order:

• University Structure and Governance Committee
• Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee
• Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee
• Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee
• Student Affairs Committee
• Equal Opportunity Committee
• Budget and Finance Committee

6.             December 9, 2005 University Senate Meeting Agenda

The December 9, 2005 Senate agenda was discussed and approved as follows:

• Meeting convenes at 11:00 a.m. in Rutgers Student Center Multipurpose Room
• Senate hears reports of New Brunswick Faculty Council, Student Governing Associations, Alumni Associations, responses from academic units, and/or other significant responses from outside the Senate on the Task Force on Undergraduate Education Report (the Executive Committee and standing committee chairs together will decide later which items received will be docketed)
• Lunch will be provided to Senators at noon (or shortly thereafter)
• Post-lunch breakout into committees to continue discussion of response to Task Force report

The Executive Committee also decided that the first 2006 meeting in New Brunswick would host the New Brunswick Campus Report.

7.             Old Business

Senator Panayotatos, co-chair of the Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee, summarized his committee’s October 2004 report on E-mail Privacy, and said that the AAUP is interested in the issue.  The Executive Committee docketed on its January 6, 2006 agenda a discussion of this issue and the administration’s response.  President McCormick, Executive Vice President Furmanski, and University Counsel Jon Alger will be asked to participate in that discussion.

8.             New Business

There was no new business.

9.             Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:25 p.m. by Chairperson Cotter.