Dear Secretary of the University Senate:

Professor James Flanagan has recently announced his retirement as Director of the Center for Advanced Information Processing (CAIP). The Center was established in the mid 80’s as a New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology (NJCST) Center. With the demise of NJCST and the retirement of Dr. Flanagan, the organizational structure of CAIP and its original charter and bylaws need to be clarified. Those of us who have been CAIP Principal Investigators for many years, have a vested interest in being actively involved in a democratic way in such a process, in order to insure CAIP’s tradition of research excellence and contributions to Rutgers and New Jersey continue.

Specifically, we would like the University Senate to investigate whether the existing rules and procedures for the election of the next CAIP Director and/or the reformulation of its charter constitutes a “major decision in any academic or administrative matter affecting the faculty …. which requires prior consultation with the affected bodies” in which case such decision taken without adequate faculty input could be appealed to the Senate.

Sincerely,
 

Professor Grigore Burdea, ECE Dept., CAIP PI
Professor Michael Bushnell, ECE Dept., CAIP PI
Professor Richard Mammone, ECE Dept., CAIP PI 
Professor Ivan Marsic, ECE Dept., CAIP PI
Professor Peter Meer, ECE Dept., CAIP PI
Professor Manish Parashar, ECE Dept., CAIP PI 
Professor Deborah Silver, ECE Dept., CAIP PI

cc. Professor Paul Panayotatos, ECE Dept., Senator