2011 Senate Leadership and Board Representative Candidates’ Campaign Statements
In alphabetical order by candidate's last name

Natalie Borisovets (Newark Faculty Member of the Executive Committee): Having been an active member of the University Senate since 1988 (Chair 1993-1996; Chair Educational Policy 1997-2000; Chair, Instruction, Curricula & Advising 2000- ), I believe that I have a good sense of where the Senate has been and where we would like to be. While the Newark campus is “home,” I’m actually a member of a faculty that crosses all three campuses. As such I believe that I also bring a unique university-wide perspective to the Senate. The Executive Committee, as the group that guides and sets the agenda, is a vital component of this unique shared governance body. I am privileged to have been given the opportunity to participate and contribute to that group; I hope that you grant me the opportunity to continue.
 
Kristin Clarke (Student Representative to the Board of Governors): Fellow Senators, for those of you who are not familiar with me, my name is Kristen Clarke and I am a rising senior at Rutgers - New Brunswick, studying political science and economics.  Through out my past three years on campus, I've done as much as possible to advocate on behalf of students.  In New Brunswick, I've been involved in two campaigns that had the aim of getting more representation for students.  On campus, I was recently involved in forming New Jersey United Students, a statewide student association that represents ten of the twelve public four year institutions in NJ.  Through this, I was also a core organizer for the Walk into Action that took place on this campus earlier this month.  The Walk into Action attracted hundreds of students and helped give a voice to the fight for more state funding for higher education.  I have also used my position as Senator and University Affairs chair on RUSA this past year to meet with Rutgers administrators in order to voice student concerns, and would do the same if elected to the student representative spot for the BoG.  
 
Martha Cotter  (Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees):  For the past 7 years, I have been one of the faculty representatives to the Board of Governors: 3 years as Chair of the Senate and 4 years as the elected faculty representative. I believe it is now time for me to relinquish this position to someone else. During that time, I have been a very active and effective member of various Board of Governors and Board of Trustees joint committees and have developed very good relations with and earned the respect of both Governors and Trustees. I would, therefore, now like to take advantage of these relationships to serve Rutgers as an effective faculty representative to the Board of Trustees.
 
Joshua David (Undergraduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees): I would like to serve as the Undergraduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees due to my passion for shared governance at Rutgers and experience as both a dedicated University Senator for the past two years and RUSA member this year. Currently, I am an ASRAC member and the New Brunswick Student Representative to the Senate Executive Committee, where I am responsible for representing the needs of students when the Senate Executive Committee set its monthly agendas and long-term goals. In addition, I was invited to serve as a member of the Academic Integrity Implementation Committee, which has been charged with ensuring that the transition to the new Academic Integrity Policy runs smoothly for students and faculty in the coming year. I am very excited about the possibility of voicing student concerns at the Board of Trustees meetings, and believe that with my leadership experience in shared governance organizations like the University Senate and RUSA, I will be more than qualified to take on my new responsibilities with integrity, passion, and dedication. Thank you all for your support, and I look forward to representing the needs of Rutgers students next year!  
 
Thomas Figueira (Faculty Representative to the Board of Governors): Rutgers stands at a crucial juncture, faced with the prospect of major structural changes urged by the Kean Report, uncertainties over the level of public funding, questions about administrative priorities, and student dissatisfaction. It is essential that the Board of Governors find in their Faculty Representative a source of independent advice at the highest level of academic and intellectual attainment. My professional standing is a matter of public record, which can be judged from my entry in standard references like Who’s Who or from a CV at http://classics.rutgers.edu/files/FigueiraCV.pdf. I am a scholar of international reputation in the fields of ancient Greek history and literature who has taught with distinction in the programs in History and Classics in New Brunswick for over thirty years. I am the author, co-author, or editor of seven books, and the author of over sixty articles and chapters and of over forty reviews. I have risen to the rank of Professor II (1999) on merits and not by anyone’s “grace and favor”. Besides my service in the Senate, I have served a number of terms on the AAUP Executive Council and many of its committees, was an active Fellow at Livingston College (where I chaired the Executive Council for several years), chaired the Committee on Academic Freedom at Rutgers University, and presided over the NJEA Rutgers affiliate. My commitment to the cause of shared governance and my advocacy of a more student-centered university are well known.
 
Peter Gillett (New Brunswick Faculty Member of the Executive Committee): I was excited to be elected for the last two years to serve as the New Brunswick Faculty Representative on the Executive Committee, and am thrilled to have been nominated to stand for re-election this year; I welcome the opportunity to serve. After 18 years based in the UK, working at all levels including partner in two major international accounting practices, I returned to academia, obtained my PhD, and have been on the faculty of the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick since 1996. I have been an active member of the Senate for four terms; I have served throughout on the University Structure and Governance Committee, during periods busy, for example, dealing with the Vagelos report and its ramifications, and with our response to "Transforming Undergraduate Education: Report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education at Rutgers-New Brunswick/Piscataway." Last year I served as Co-Chair of that committee, and this year as Chair.  
Additionally, I have served on the New Brunswick Faculty Council and its Curriculum Committee, and am the Faculty Advisor to the Rutgers University Glee Club and the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir. Within my own unit, I am serving a third term as Faculty Secretary and Chair of the Committee on Rules of Procedure; like most faculty members, I have served on a large number of other committees, including Technology Policy, Recruitment, Curriculum, and Planning, and was for five years coordinator of our PhD program. All three of my children have attended Rutgers, giving me considerable experience as a Rutgers parent, and different insights into student life and the infamous RU Screw. I am confident that all the candidates for Executive Committee bring to the table multiple skills and talents; foremost among my own potential contributions, I believe, are the ability both to see the big picture and to attend painstakingly to small but significant details; steadfast refusal to put popularity or public opinion ahead of the need to speak truth and do right as I see them; rich experience of committee work both within Rutgers and in the business community; extensive and wide-ranging commitment to Rutgers (on two campuses) and to the Senate; determination to do what I can to help make Rutgers the best university it can be; detailed working knowledge of technology and accounting; and a British sense of humor (and who knows but that I shall need it . . .). I believe that the Senate should not be a forum where faculty, students, administrators and other constituencies assemble to defend their turf, but rather a place where all of us participate in advising the President and the Board of Governors of our considered view as to what is best for the university. If elected, I undertake to work assiduously on your behalf towards this goal. I shall greatly appreciate your vote and look forward to serving you again. 
 
Ann Gould (Vice Chair): In the fall I will begin my fourth term as Senator representing the School of  Environmental and Biological Sciences. For the past eight years I have been honored to serve as co-chair of the Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee. During this time, my co-chair Paul Panayotatos and I have worked with the valuable members of this committee to address issues associated with the promotion process, e-mail privacy, faculty voting rights, the evaluation of administrators, the annual faculty survey, faculty retirement, annual faculty terms and governance, academic freedom for contingent faculty, psychological emergencies, and tuition remission for PTLs. I served as Vice Chair of the Senate last year and have had the opportunity to serve on the Senate Executive committee during the past five. I have found my time with the Senate to be interesting and challenging, and I hope that my efforts have contributed to the welfare of the faculty, students, and staff of this University.
With respect to the ongoing effort to advance shared governance at Rutgers, I have begun the task, as Vice Chair, to monitor the status of Senate resolutions and their disposition within the University. Once implemented, Senators will have ready access to this information on the newly designed Senate web site. I would like the opportunity to see this effort through, and for these reasons I look forward to continued participation on the Senate as Vice Chair. I most appreciate your consideration and vote.
 
Justine Hernandez Levine (Staff Member of the Executive Committee): I hope that many of you know me;  this is my third year on the University Senate, and on the Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee.  I had the honor of representing staff Senators for the past two years on the Executive Committee, and I would like to continue to do so this year. As the administrative director of the undergraduate research office in New Brunswick (better known as “Aresty”), I have developed relationships with hundreds of students, faculty, and staff across departments and units, and I see myself as a mediator among these groups both in that capacity and in the Senate.  As a 12-year veteran staff member who was also a Rutgers undergraduate and who received my doctoral degree in the Philosophy of Education through the Graduate School of Education, I know Rutgers intimately from multiple perspectives, and am deeply invested in the institution and the community; while I do represent the staff members in New Brunswick, I am interested in the non-partisan work that we can do together as advocates for Rutgers.   I would like to continue my work with the Executive Committee, helping to provide leadership and direction to the Senate so that it can continue to function effectively as a voice of the University community to the administration.  I bring to the Executive Committee my talent for diplomacy, and my willingness to work on behalf of our common goals.
 
Jonathan Muse (Staff Member of the Executive Committee): My name is Jonathan Muse and I currently serve as an Assistant Dean and the Director of Academic Services at Rutgers, School of Business-Camden. Additionally, I am serving my second 2 year term as a Staff Senator from the Camden Campus. I’ve served as a member of the Student Affairs and the Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committees. Currently, I am a member of the Budget and Finance Committee.
It’s been my good fortune to have a long association with the University. For more than twenty five years as both a student and as a staff member, Rutgers has been and is an important part of my life. My career is primarily focused in academic and student services. Many of these efforts have led to collaborative efforts within the University and beyond Rutgers. I have served on many task forces, committees and similar initiatives with state, local community and governmental organizations.
Rutgers is facing new and demanding challenges. It’s vital that the University use all of its resources to effectively plan and implement a strategic course of action that will ensure and enhance its commitment to excellence, as well as its long standing traditions and values. The Senate can play an important role in helping to shape the direction and future of the University.
The Senate provides a unique opportunity and forum for shared governance. It represents the University’s commitment of giving voice to all members of our community to be engaged in the collegial discourse on the important matters facing all of us. I seek a position on the Executive Committee to be more meaningfully involved in helping to shape the direction and work of the Senate. I believe my combination of professional experiences, education and community service will be an asset to the work of the Executive Committee and the University Senate.
 
Paul Panayotatos (Chairperson): I was first elected to the University Senate in 1995. Most of my committee involvement has been with the Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee, which I have co-chaired almost continuously since 2002.  I have served on the Executive Committee either as an elected member or ex oficio as chair of the University Senate. I served as chair of the Senate when the Governor tried to impose on Rutgers a reorganization plan that was fraught with flaws. The University Senate made headlines by being the first to voice these shortcomings. I believe my proudest moment at Rutgers came when I relayed the thanks of the Board of Governors to the members of the Senate. I did not seek reelection in 2004 because a family health crisis forced me to take a leave of absence. Eventually I started ramping up my involvement and began serving again on the Executive Committee; in 2010 I was elected chair of the University Senate.
I am now running for re-election as chair. There are three major issues that we initiated this past year and which I would like to pursue further:
 I hope you entrust me with the chair of the Senate, an office that I hold with pride.

Robert Puhak (Newark Faculty Member of the Executive Committee): I am a member of the faculty in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Rutgers-Newark and have served on the University Senate as a member of the University Structure and Governance Committee (USGC).
When elected to the University Senate, I made a firm commitment of time, focus, and open-minded and balanced consideration of issues.  My subsequent record is one of attending every Senate meeting and every one of my USGC subcommittee meetings.   Moreover, I have always been seriously committed to being prepared for those meetings, attending the full course of such meetings, and addressing related work responsibilities outside of those meetings.  I mention this record as I believe it is an important basis for evaluation regarding my commitment to serve on the Executive Committee next year. 
Relative to a number of my colleagues, I am a more junior member of the Senate, as well as the University.  I believe that is an important consideration here, coupled with my background outside of the Senate and University.  Regarding junior status here, I believe it is vital to have a balance of new and experienced membership on the Executive Committee in order to ensure continuity  for the Committee across time and benefit from the diversity of viewpoints it can bring.  Regarding related experience previous to the Senate, I have had the opportunity to serve successfully on a variety of boards and executive committees throughout my years in industry (engineering and business at various levels, including role as vice president), multiple civic groups, local municipal government (both elected and appointed positions), educational communities (serving on a local school advisory board and having served on committees within other universities during my education), and numerous philanthropic efforts.  My intention here is to leverage that diversity of outside experience to achieve the common good for our University community at Rutgers, through the work of the Senate’s Executive Committee.
I believe and hope you find that my record of commitment and achievement, along with the unique balance of the experience and fresh perspectives which I bring, will be of value to the Senate’s Executive Committee and I ask for your support at this time.  If elected, you have my commitment to serve dutifully, always mindful of our joint responsibilities, through the shared governance of the Senate, to achieve goals in the best interest of Rutgers University and the community we proudly serve.  Thank you.
 
Samuel Rabinowitz (Faculty Representative to the Board of Governors): It has been an honor and a privilege to have served a number of roles through the University Senate over the last two decades, most recently as a Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees and prior to that as Senate Chair. I have had the opportunity through these experiences to meet and work with many esteemed colleagues within the Senate, around all campuses, and on the Boards of Rutgers University. I wish to continue my contribution by serving as a Faculty Representative to the Board of Governors. It is important to have representation on the various Board committees and I believe that I have been and would continue to be a positive and effective voice in this regard. The many bonds that I have built with members of the Rutgers community will aid me in being effective in this role. Thanks for giving me a moment of your busy day (and hopefully your vote as well)!
 
Menahem Spiegel (Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees): I am honored to be considered as a faculty representative to Rutgers' Board of Trustees. I have been a University Senator for six years, and have also chaired the Senate's Budget and Finance Committee for the past five years. In those capacities, I have enjoyed exploring some very interesting issues of fundamental importance to the ways Rutgers operates, and have also had the opportunity to discuss and hear viewpoints from faculty and others from all areas represented in the Senate. I believe those experiences, and my 13 years as a faculty member in the School of Business-Newark, coupled with my professional background and personal interests, would make me a capable member of the Board of Trustees. I hope you will agree, and I ask for your votes. Thank you.
 
Karen Thompson (Part-Time Lecturer/Annual Appointee Faculty Member of the Executive Committee): After 32 years teaching as a PTL at RU, 22 of which were spent officially representing PTLs within the AAUP, I have developed the detailed background and the thick skin needed to advocate for this constituency. The overuse and abuse of contingent faculty continues to be a key issue in addressing quality education concerns, in re-emphasizing teaching along side research and in seeking equitable economic priorities. I would like the opportunity to continue working with students, administrators, full-time faculty and staff colleagues in pursuing the best for all at Rutgers.
 
Donggu Yoon (New Brunswick Student Member of the Executive Committee): My name is Donggu Yoon, and I am running for the Senate Executive Committee because I care deeply about this university. This year I served as a Busch Campus Senate, also as the chair of the legislative affairs committee on RUSA. Through my tenure I worked to empower students both at Rutgers and the state level, by organizing the Walk-Into Action that took place on April
13th. That rally had over six-hundred students march onto the campus, proving that students do care about saving their education. I also help founded New Jersey's first statewide student association, called New Jersey United Students, and have met with over twenty legislators, as well as the Governor's office about making funding for higher education a priority in New Jersey. The reason I want to be on the executive committee is to continue to do the work for students, not only at Rutgers but across the state of New Jersey. I believe that if I am connected to the senate even more than I am now, that I will be more aware of the workings and problems in the university, and will be able to take appropriate action as well as better organize fellow students.