Of the many Task Force issues on which the Senate and its committees have chosen to respond, some have engendered more debate than others. In an effort to ensure that the Senate has sufficient time at the February meeting to consider and vote on the more complex aspects of the Task Force proposals, a steering committee, consisting of the Executive Committee and the standing-committee chairs, has prepared a list of what it believes to be relatively non-controversial recommendations, on which there is consensus among Senate committees, for discussion and action at the January 20^th Senate meeting. Those recommendations are given below, preceded by a brief chronology of the Senate’s work on the Task Force report, and followed by an indication of Task Force recommendations on which consensus has yet to be achieved within or among Senate committees.

Chronology

In early September, the University Senate Executive Committee, with the advice of the chairs of all the Senate standing committees, charged each committee with considering and making recommendations regarding particularly relevant aspects of the Task Force proposals and of alternative proposals submitted by members of the Rutgers community. The committees discussed their respective charges throughout the fall semester, and are continuing those discussions.

The Senate’s standing-committee chairs presented oral progress reports on their work to date at the November 18^th Senate meeting, and received extensive feedback from the Senators present. In addition, the Task Force report was discussed by the Senate in a committee-of-the-whole format at a Senate meeting convened specifically for that purpose on September 30^th. Another “special” meeting was convened on December 9^th, at which the Senate heard the final recommendations of the New Brunswick Faculty Council regarding the Task Force proposals, as well as resolutions and comments regarding the Task Force report from representatives of the Cook, Douglass, Livingston, Rutgers, and University College student governing associations; Cook Executive Dean Goodman and FAS Executive Dean Smith; the deans or their representatives from Douglass, Rutgers, and University Colleges; and the Livingston fellows. The latter meeting was followed by meetings of each of the Senate standing committees, at which committee members considered possible changes to their preliminary recommendations based on what they had just heard from the Faculty Council and other groups.

After the committee meetings on the afternoon of December 9^th, the steering committee met and agreed to submit drafts of final committee reports on their respective Task Force charges to the Executive Committee before its January 6^th meeting. The steering committee again met on the morning of January 6^th and agreed on the “consensus” recommendations below, which were then formally approved by the Executive Committee at its meeting that afternoon.

Recommendations

1.         The current arts and sciences colleges should be merged into a single unit granting undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences in New Brunswick/Piscataway.  The new unit should be called a School of Arts and Sciences.

2.         There should be one core curriculum for Arts and Sciences students.

3.         There should be a general honors program for Arts and Sciences students.

4.         The current liberal arts colleges in New Brunswick/Piscataway, with the exception of University College, should be designated as Residential Colleges, each headed by a dean.  These colleges may have non-resident affiliate students.

5.         There should be a new Vice President of Undergraduate Education, who should be a member of the President's Cabinet.  This office should be funded appropriately to support its broadly based mission.

6.         There should be a single standard and process for regular admission for all applicants to the School of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick, regardless of the residential college with which the student wishes to affiliate.  This standard and process should be modified appropriately for transfer, EOF, and non-traditional-age students, as well as for students with special skills.

7.         The criteria used in admission decisions should be sufficiently flexible to ensure the diversity of the student body and not exclude talented applicants whose potential is not adequately measured by standard test scores.

8.         The Rutgers undergraduate application should give an accurate idea of what we expect of our students and of the rigor of our academic programs.

Issues Still to be Considered

Major aspects of the Task Force proposals still being discussed within or among Senate committees include the following:

• the specific names of the School of Arts and Sciences, and of the individual Residential Colleges
• the nature of the residential colleges, including the status of Douglass as a residential college for women
• the status of University College in the new structure
• the status of the current Cook College in the new structure
• job description and reporting relation(s) of the residential college deans
• reporting relations among the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Vice President for Undergraduate Education, and the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
• whether the Vice President for Undergraduate Education should serve on the PRC
• the desirability of a New Brunswick-wide honors program, encompassing professional school students as well as arts and sciences students
• the nature of the process by which arts and sciences applicants are admitted and choose or are assigned to a residential college
• possible recruitment of more out-of-state students
• how best to provide non-major academic advising in New Brunswick/Piscataway
• necessary incentives for faculty to become involved in the transformation of undergraduate education