November 5, 2010 Rutgers University Senate Executive Committee Minutes

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

November 5, 2010

MEMBERS PRESENT: Barnett (by phone), Binetti, Bodnar, Borisovets, David, Fishbein, Gillett, Gould, Leath, Levine, Panayotatos (Chair), Rabinowitz, Swalagin (Executive Secretary), Thompson

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Bubb

ALSO ATTENDING:Cotter (Faculty BOG Representative), Fehn (Administrative Liaison), Furmanski (Administrative Liaison), Greenhut (Parliamentarian), Nycz (Student BOG Representative), Swartley-McArdle (Graduate Student BOT Representative)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Friday, November 5, 2010 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 1:13 p.m. He said there was little to report since the previous meeting, but that there were some issues he wantd to bring up with Executive Vice President Furmanski. On those issues, Panayotatos asked Furmanski:

how and from whom the Senate could get support and development help for the Senate website [Furmanski offered to have his office contact Secretary Swalagin on that.]; and
encouraging Don Smith, Vice President for Information Technology, to attend an upcoming Executive Committee meeting to discuss information technology services at Rutgers [Vice President Fehn offered to facilitate that attendance.].

2. Secretary’s Report

The Minutes of September 3, 2010 Senate Executive Committee Meeting were approved as drafted and distributed by the executive secretary.
The Minutes of October 8, 2010 Senate Executive Committee Meeting were approved with one amendment.
The following communications were presented to, and acted upon by the Executive Committee as noted:

Names of Executive Vice President Furmanski's selections for membership on the Dean of the School of Social Work's Dean's Evaluation Committee, including the two faculty selected from the Senate Executive Committee's nominees, all of which were forwarded by Ken Swalagin to all members of the Senate Executive Committee by email on November 2. - Reviewed by the Executive Committee. Panayotatos asked Furmanski if the names could be posted on the Senate website. Furmanski replied that they could be posted the following Friday, after he had met with the DEC members.
Executive Vice President Furmanski's November 1, 2010 Email transmitting to the Senate the Final Draft of a Proposed New Academic Integrity Policy - Martha Cotter, ASRAC co-chair, said that, in accordance with existing Charge S-1010, to "Review and report on the final version of the Academic Integrity Policy," she would bring the policy to the ASRAC, and plan to bring it to the Senate in January 2011, so that the policy can become effective in September 2011. Panayotatos asked Cotter if she could convene the ASRAC prior to the November 19 Senate meeting to discuss this, but Cotter responded that she did not think that would be possible.
President McCormick's October 20, 2010 Follow-up Response on the Senate's November 2004 Report and Recommendations on Charge S-0310 on Email Privacy [See also President McCormick's November 2004 Response on this matter.] - See item immediately below.
Executive Vice President Furmanski's October 20, 2010 Memo transmitting a revised Rutgers Acceptable Use Policy relative to the Senate's Report and Recommendations on Charge S-0310 on Email Privacy - Furmanski and Fehn said that the revised Acceptable Use Policy is now in the University Policy Library and on the OIT website. Panayotatos said that some of his original objections had been addressed in the revised policy. Ann Gould, FPAC co-chair and Senate Vice Chair, praised the revised policy, and thanked the administration for it. Panayotatos added that the FPAC concurs with the revised policy.

3. Administrative Liaison

Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Furmanski presented an administrative report which included comments on:

development of next-year's state budget, which is beginning now, and expectations that next year's economic situation will be similarly difficult to this year's;
the anticipated Kean Commission report on analysis and recommendations regarding many aspects of higher education in New Jersey, including structure, oversight, how sectors are identified, variety of missions, etc.; and
ongoing examination and analysis of recent election results, and how those results may affect Rutgers on federal and state levels.

Furmanski and Vice President Fehn then responded to questions, or heard comments, on subjects including:

possible connections between the Kean Commission and the Lesniak-Whelan Higher Education Restructuring Bill, which was approved by the New Jersey Senate in June 2009, but which is being held in abeyance pending the Kean Commission's report, as well as related aspects of Governor Christie's proposed "tool kit" for higher-education reform, principal of which are worker's compensation reform, exemption from state civil service regulation, and collective bargaining reform;
developments related to legislation related to residency requirements for New Jersey State employees;
a newly introduced bill that would limit salary increases negotiated between state employees and their bargaining units to two percent per year;
ongoing discussions related to the state's rejection of what Rutgers considered to be its improved and highly compliant version of the state ethics training program, and a concomitant mandate that Rutgers use the state version of the training program;
the Senate's Ad Hoc Shared Governance Task Force brainstorming sessions on significant issues for potential Senate attention over the next year or so, and Furmanski's offer to talk about that and come back to the Executive Committee with suggestions;
considerable discussion of the planned and ongoing changes to Livingston Campus;
suggestions for mitigating the recent elimination of the L-bus route, including adding another stop on River Road near Cedar Lane, and initiating a nighttime shuttle to the Cedar Lane area, all of which Vice President Fehn offered to consider;
the current status of merit-based faculty salary increases deferred last year and then not paid, and the applicable salary freeze, which remains in effect; and
Furmanski's positive response to Panayotatos's request to share the recently received information on the balance of full-time and part-time teaching with the New Brunswick Faculty Council.

4.    Standing Committees

Committee Reports:

The University Structure and Governance Committee (USGC) Response to Charge S-0712 on Enhanced Shared Governance, and University Senate and Draft Senate Handbook Changes were summarized by Senator Gillett, co-chair of the USGC, and discussed by the Executive Committee. Panayotatos will bring to the Board of Governors a reminder that board action is needed on prior, Senate-approved recommendations for changes in University Policies relating to the Senate, with the exception of the previously adopted provisions relating to student representation on the Senate from the School of Arts and Sciences - New Brunswick, which were to be reviewed by the Senate after two years. This review was recommended by the Senate in February 2007 in the Partial Response to Charge S-0603, Senate Membership, New Brunswick as follows: "After this distribution has been in effect for two academic years, the student governing associations and University Senate should review this distribution to evaluate whether it provides adequate representation and participation in governance for all populations of students in New Brunswick/Piscataway." The Executive Committee then issued a charge to be drafted by Secretary Swalagin to the USGC to perform that review.

Chairperson Panayotatos then suggested an amendment to the report's recommendation providing a mechanism for placement of a vice chair pro tem when the elected vice chair will be temporarily unavailable. Panayotatos suggested adding a provision whereby an incumbent Executive Committee member appointed vice chair pro tem could also be replaced, so that the Executive Committee would not be temporarily diminished by one member. This proposed amendment was not accepted as friendly by Gillett, nor was it supported by Senate Parliamentarian Victor Greenhut, who said the recommendation should apply in the case of the elected vice chair's absence from one or two meetings, and that, without some imperative to further deviate from established parliamentary procedure, replacements should be elected by the same procedure used to elect an incumbent Executive Committee member appointed vice chair pro tem.

Panayotatos also disputed the report's assertion that the Ad Hoc Shared Governance Task Force was first called for by the previous USGC co-chairs instead of the Executive Committee.

The USGC report was then docketed for introduction (as it requires a bylaws change) at the November 19 Senate meeting. [Note: A USGC report on this charge had been docketed for introduction at the March 2010 Senate meeting, but could not be finalized before the meeting date, and was therefore pulled from the docket in March.]

Issues/Proposed Charges:

A Proposed Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee (FPAC) Response to Charge S-1011 [Note: The report had not yet been written when discussed at this meeting. The link goes to the report as eventually docketed on the November 19 Senate agenda.] on Endorsing the New Brunswick Faculty Council's Faculty Retirement Survey was discussed. Noting that there was only one committee report for the November Senate meeting, and that that report was for introduction only, USGC Co-chair Panayotatos said he would write a brief report stating that the Senate's FPAC believes that the results of the NB faculty survey seem to be applicable to the whole university, and will make the survey's conclusions into recommendations. He asked that the Executive Committee issue a charge on this matter, then docket the report for action at the November Senate meeting. The Executive Committee approved both requests. [The charge was subsequently refined and issued as follows: "Faculty Retirement Issues: Review the results of the faculty survey on faculty retirement issues that was conducted by the Faculty Affairs and Personnel Policy Committee of the New Brunswick Faculty Council. Where appropriate, based on the survey’s conclusions, make recommendations on faculty retirement issues to be sent to the central administration."]

5.    University Senate November 19, 2010 Agenda

The two committee reports described above had been docketed for the November 19, 2010 Senate meeting. The Executive Committee also agreed to invite Kathleen Hull to report on Rutgers' "Project Civility" at the November Senate meeting. [Dr. Hull was not able to attend the November Senate meeting, but agreed to present a report at the January 2011 Senate meeting.] Christopher Binetti suggested an open discussion at the conclusion of the Senate meeting. The Executive Committee agreed that Senator Binetti will move the Senate to committee of the whole just prior to adjournment of the Senate meeting so that general shared governance issues may be discussed. The Executive Committee also agreed to docket the administrative report after the action items, but before the Executive Committee, board, and campus faculty liaison reports at the November Senate meeting.

6.    Old Business

A Proposed Charge to Faculty Affairs and Personnel Committee on Balance of Full-Time and Part-Time Faculty, submitted by PTL Senator Karen Thompson, was discussed. This proposed charge had been discussed by the Executive Committee at its September 2010 meeting, at which time EVP Furmanski had been asked to provide an Updated Report on Balance of Full-time and Part-time Faculty Teaching at Rutgers, which he did, and which was considered in conjunction with proposed charge. The Executive Committee then issued a charge to the FPAC, as follows: "Consider the 1999 Report on the Balance of Full-time and Part-time Faculty Teaching at Rutgers University, and, with updated numbers and charts from the Office of Academic Affairs, make recommendations concerning changing trends and shifting percentages." The FPAC's reporting deadline on this charge will be April 2011.

FPAC Response on Proposed Charge on Viability of Tenurable Teaching Track- At the October Executive Committee meeting, FPAC Co-chair Paul Panayotatos said that the FPAC would report back to the Executive Committee at this meeting with the FPAC's decision on whether it would agree to reexamine the issue, pursuant to a charge proposed by PTL Senator and Executive Committee Member Karen Thompson, as follows:"Reconsider the viability of instituting a tenurable teaching track at Rutgers, given past Senate deliberations: http://senate.rutgers.edu/FAPCContingentFacultyPartIAsRevisedAndAdopted.pdf, http://senate.rutgers.edu/FPAConS07052ContingentFacultyPart2ToSenate.pdf, but more importantly in light of the new national AAUP Report: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/rep/teachertenure. Additional national data and reports are available, particularly through the coalition of disciplinary association, the Coalition on the Academic Workforce: http://www.academicworkforce.org/. Make recommendations in the interest of academic freedom, shared governance, and quality teaching at Rutgers." Panayotatos said that the FPAC attendance at the October meeting in Camden was not sufficient to vote on this matter, so he will raise the issue in November and report back to the Executive Committee in January.

Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) Charge S-0706 on Rutgers' Financial Investments was discussed. The long-expired deadline for this charge had been considered by the Executive Committee in October, at which time Secretary Swalagin was asked to consult with BFC Chair Menahem Spiegel to determine whether the BFC wants this charge continued. Swalagin told the Executive Committee that Spiegel had responded that he does want to address the charge, and had asked for a reporting deadline at the end of Summer 2011. Senator Gillett noted that Senate procedures requiring reissuing charges as old as this one apply in this case, so the charge will be reissued with a new number, and an April 2011 response deadline.

7.    New Business

Senator Fishbein raised an issue related to new federal regulations limiting employment of Type 4, hourly employees. The pros and cons of the regulations were discussed at some length, as was the practicality of asking a Senate committee to debate how to respond to a federal law which, by its nature, must be followed. EVP said that the issue had been extensively explored by Vivian Fernandez, who had energetically sought solutions. It was noted that responses to federal laws were outside of the rubric of University Senate decisions, and Senator Binetti objected to ever considering issuing any charge that would amount to exploring ways to skirt compliance with a federal law. Panayotatos said he would discuss the issue in the FPAC, along with Ms. Fernandez, who is a member of that committee, and will report back to the Executive Committee before a decision is made on a proposed charge.

8. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 3:16 p.m.

Minutes Submitted by,
Ken Swalagin, Executive Secretary of the University Senate