RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY UNIVERSITY SENATE MINUTES

Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: February 23, 2001

TIME AND PLACE: 1:10 p.m., Multipurpose Room, Rutgers Student Center, 126 College Avenue, College Avenue Campus

MEMBERS PRESENT: Adelson, Barone, Bell, Bhoj, Bittner, Blasi, Borisovets, Burdea, Burns, Caprio, Carlton, Cizewski, Colaizzi, Connell, Cooper, Cowley, Cragin, Darkenwald, Davidson, DeGloma, E. Dennis, R. Dennis, Deutsch, Esser, Falk, Fechter, Forman, Friedrich, Gary, Gaunt, Goldman, Gross, Hamm, Harris, Hartman, Hirsh, Hitchner, M. Jackson, Janes, Kamienski, Kelly, Kennedy, Killingsworth, Kim, Kirschner, Kleinman, Knee, Koehler, Kuenyehia, Laguna-Diaz, Lawrence, Leath, Lee, Manganaro, Manhoff, Maradonna, Markowitz, Marsh, McCloughan, McKay, McKeever, McNeal, James Miller, Jason Miller, Monfils, Moore, Naus, Nordstrom, O’Connor, Oren, Panayotatos, Parikh, Perlman, Puniello, Rabinowitz, Rijhsinghani, Robertson, Rohr, Roth, Saidel, Samuels, Saniefard, Schlegel, Scott, Seneca, Seplaki, Singer, Singh, Slawsky, P. Snyder, Sparano, Spencer, St. John, Strom, Sullivan, Swenson, Szatrowski, Tallau, Tello, Vershon, Wadia, Walker-Andrews, Wasserman, Wozniak

EXCUSED: Adamcik, Axelrod, Boylan, Busia, Cotter, DeCarlo, Diner, Eramian, Goldmark, Griffith, Hall, Haugerud, Hillman, Hyndman, Jesse, Kenfield, Kenney, Lang, Lattimer, Penfield, Regulska, Simmons, Stauffer, Stein, Stevens, Sumner, Tripolitis, Vodak, Wilkinson, Winterbauer, Wolk, Zaborszky

ABSENT: Andalia, Bay, Boucher, Breton, Bushnell, E. Diamond, M. Diamond, Dress, Felson, Finne, Goodman, Hughes, J. Jackson, Kalafat, Keating, Klein, Krueckeberg, Lehman, Leontiades, Li, Marcone, Marszalowicz, Martinez-Fernandez, Massachaele, Matsuda, Moran, Padgett, Pina, Redd, Scheinbeim, Shailor, Sheikh, Silver, R. Snyder, Solomon, Stahley, Tuckman, Webb, Znayenko, Zucker

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY: Faculty: Of 85 total: 46 present (54%), 18 excused (21%), 21 absent (25%); Students: Of 47 total: 31 present (66%), 6 excused (13%), 10 absent (21%); Administrators: Of 38 total: 23 present (60%), 6 excused (16%), 9 absent (24%); Alumni: Of 6 total: 4 present (67%), 2 excused (33%), 0 absent
View Senate attendance record for this year.

NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: Ishayik, Wright

PRESIDING OFFICER: Kathleen Scott, Chairperson

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT: Chairperson Scott called the meeting to order at 1:15 p.m. She said that the cost-benefit analysis of changing from Social Security numbers to unique student identification numbers is progressing, and that she hopes a report will be ready for the next Senate meeting. She thanked Senator McKay and the RUCS staff for their work on the issue.

SECRETARY’S REPORT: Agenda: The agenda was approved as distributed. Minutes: The Minutes of January 26, 2001 were approved as distributed by the Secretary. Communications: The following communications were presented:

Letter from Senator Robert Hamilton, resigning from his position as Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees, and, therefore, from the Senate.

Three letters from President Lawrence acknowledging receipt of the Senate’s advice, and outlining plans for implementing Senate recommendations on:

a revised fee structure for full-time University College students (letter dated February 12, 2001);
the draft university policy on parental notification (letter dated February 15, 2001); and
student financial management and credit-card debt (letter dated February 21, 2001).

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: President Lawrence delivered the administrative report, which included comments on: Governor Whitman’s budget message; the Rutgers Regional Network, which will utilize two strands of the E-Z Pass system’s fiber-optic cable; naming of two Rutgers seniors to the 2001 USA Today All-College Team; and comments on the recent tragic death of a Rutgers-Camden student, as well as Rutgers’ continuing commitment to campus safety.

ELECTION OF GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Vice Chairperson Rabinowitz presented, for the Executive Committee, the nominees for Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees, which position was made vacant by Robert Hamilton’s resignation. Nominated by the Executive Committee were Senators Melissa Cragin of SCILS, and Daniel Knee of EJBSPPP. Vice Chair Rabinowitz asked for nominations from the floor; there were none. Senators Cragin and Knee spoke in support of their candidacies. Voting was conducted on paper ballots which had been previously distributed to all voting Senators present. Completed ballots were collected for tabulation by Linda Mickelsen and Latesha Sims of the Senate office, with the result to be announced at the end of the meeting.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee, Response to Charge S-9913, to "Review the (‘TA Report’) training of graduate students by departments for teaching undergraduate-level courses at Rutgers: Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee Chair Natalie Borisovets summarized the background of the issue which was the subject of the committee’s report and resolution. She noted that Chairperson Scott had chaired the subcommittee responsible for the report. She summarized, then opened the floor for questions or comments on, each of the report’s five areas of recommendations individually, as follows:

Recommendations Related to Teaching Assistant Training
Recommendations Related to International TAs
Recommendations Related to Hiring Practices and Compensation
Recommendations Related to Numbers of Teaching Assistants
Recommendations Related to Other Instructional Personnel

Following comments and questions, the report was endorsed by resolution, as follows: Whereas, the University Senate’s Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee has examined and reported on Teaching Assistant Training at Rutgers; and
Whereas, the University Senate has reviewed the Committee’s Report and its Recommendations, finding those Recommendations to be sound and in the best interests of Rutgers University;
Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Rutgers University Senate endorses the Report on Teaching Assistant Training at Rutgers, and urges the Administration to implement its Recommendations. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Vice Chair Rabinowitz reported on the February 2, 2001 Executive Committee meeting. [The minutes of that meeting will be distributed with the March 2001 Senate meeting packet, and are posted online at http://senate.rutgers.edu/ec020201.html.]

REPORTS OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES, AND OF CAMPUS FACULTY LIAISONS: Senator Janes reported on the February 9, 2001 Board of Governors meeting. Senator Panayotatos reported on plans and recent activities of the New Brunswick Faculty Council.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF ELECTION RESULTS: Chairperson Scott announced that Senator Melissa Cragin had been elected Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees.

ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business before the University Senate, Chairperson Scott declared the meeting adjourned at 2:33 p.m.

Kenneth Swalagin
Secretary of the University Senate