RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: December 13, 2024

TIME AND PLACE: 1:10 p.m., Remote via Zoom

MEMBERS PRESENT: Abdelfattah, Allen, C. Anderson, K. Anderson, Ardeshna, Axelsson, Bachmann, Baker, Barbarello Andrews, Begum, Bernard, Bhuyan, Boikess, Borie-Holtz, Borisovets, Boucher, Boxer, Bridgeman, Cafiero, Cahill, Caponegro, Carney-Waterton, Chao, Clarke, Cooper, Cuitiño, Curchitser, Dane, Davis, DeMatteo, Diaz-Tena, Dock, Easley , Ebert, Esposito, Everett, Everts, Fatahzadeh, Fedorko, Fenker, Figueira, Firat, Foster, Gilmartin, Giraud, Godoy, Gong, Grachan, Graham, Granadeiro, Green-Mercado,  J. Guo, Gurbuzbalaban, Gursoy, Haberl, Haley, Haviland, Izhar, Jaber, Javanmard, John, Jordan-McKinney, Kamen, Kaplan, Kayyal, Kettle, Khan, Kiss, Knievel, Kustka, G. Lam, J. Lam, Lawson, Lee, Lobman, Lutz, Maeng Brown, Mahajan-Cusack, Maliga, Mao, Markowitz, Mazurek, Mbadugha, McCarthy, McKeever, Moghe, Morales, C. Morton, P. Morton, Murphy, Nadeem, O’Connor, Oberle, Olivera, Osorio-Fernandez, Özel, Parsa, S. Patel, K. Patel, Pichugin, Pierce, Pintar, Pontes, Purcell, Quincy, Ramirez Polo, Reshamdalal, Risman, Robles, Roth, Salas-de la Cruz, Saltzman, Santos Mendoza, Sarath, Schafer, Schwartz, Searcy, Sergel, Shaw, Shinbrot, Sloan-Power, Sonnenberg, Spiegel, Suh, Syed, Szatrowski, Taha, Takhistov, Tewfik, Tirino, Torres, Usman, Volino, White, Williams, Wirtenberg, Wolfe, Yusuf, Zhou

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Andrews, Collick, Conway, Keates, Khan, Mattis, Rabinowitz, Rokerya, C. Shah, Simonds, Truschke, Zarouni

MEMBERS ABSENT: Adamo, Adya, F. Ahmed, B. Ahmed, Alkhalili, Ameri, Amjad, Anderson Eloy, Anner, Apel, Askew, Barone, Bond, Boppey, Brown, Chiricolo, Choron, Dai, DiGiovanni, Dylewska, Eastman, Elkholy, Feldman, Feng, Fulton, Geary, Giermanski, Gnanaprakasam, Gower, Graham, Griffin, Halkitis, Hamawy, Hart, Henderson, Henry, Hoffman, Holloway, Jeyaprakash, Johnson, Kaye, Ladell, Lehman, Lei, Leibowitz, Lemish, Lescht, Maerhofer, Maganti, Matise, McCarthy, Murtha, Nickitas, Nucci, P. Patel, V. Patel, A. Patel, Perez, Ramachandran, Ramchandani, Rentzel, Robinson, Robson, Rodriguez, Rossman-Murphy, Ruocco, Savage, Sayde, Schroth, Senger, Sese, M. Shapiro, S. Shapiro, Shobut, Silva, Smart, Muriel Soler, Sow, Span, Starkweather, Strom, Tillis, Wade, Wagner, Weiss, Yang, Zhang, Zwick

CALL TO ORDER, DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM, AND CHAIR’S REPORT – Lucille Foster, Chair

Chair Foster called the meeting to order at 1:10 p.m.

SECRETARY’S REPORT – Vicki Hewitt, Executive Secretary

• Agenda: The meeting agenda was approved, with the addition of one item of New Business.
• Minutes: The minutes of the Nov. 15, 2024 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
• Communications
  • There is a Provosts’ Roundtable scheduled for: Fri. Jan. 31 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
  • Senators are asked to check their attendance records on the Senate website.
  • Senators are reminded to log in to the Senate website for attendance and voting access.

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT – Prabhas Moghe, Executive Vice President, Academic Affairs 

Dr. Moghe then answered questions on the following topics:

• Reviewing Senate resolutions for use in the Middle States reaccreditation process
• Stakeholder input in search processes
• State refund to fringe rates for federal grants but not non-federal grants
• Lecturer participation in department faculty meetings
• Senate committee on Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
• School of Arts and Sciences vote to censure the Executive Dean
• Newark Faculty Council involvement in the Newark Chancellor search

COMMITTEE REPORTS/RESOLUTIONS: The report will be presented/summarized by the committee chair, then will be discussed, and acted upon by the Senate. Substantive amendments to these reports should be given to the Senate secretary in writing prior to or at the time the amendment is moved.

University Structure and Governance Committee
James Boucher and Wendy Purcell, Co-Chairs
Report on S-2402: Institutional Neutrality

The committee was charged as follows:

Should Rutgers adopt a policy of institutional neutrality similar to the principles set forth in the University of Chicago’s Kalven Report, which would require the University, schools, academic units, and departments to refrain from taking stances on controversial political issues, so as to protect the right of individuals in the university community to pursue the fullest extent of inquiry and debate? Such a restriction, it should be noted, would not preclude individuals from taking positions on such issues.

Senator Boucher and Senator Purcell presented this report and recommendations to the Senate. The recommendations were adopted.

Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee
Christine Morales and Arturo Osorio-Fernandez, Co-Chairs
Report on S-2116-2: SIRS
SIRS Analysis Results

The committee was charged as follows:

Investigate the validity and accuracy of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET), as well as the details of how the SIRS is implemented at Rutgers and make recommendations for its role in our new approach to the evaluation and improvement of teaching effectiveness. Please report to the Senate Executive Secretary by March 16, 2022.

Senator Morales and Senator Wirtenberg presented this report and recommendations to the Senate.

A motion was made to add the following: “In university committees, Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) evaluations shall not be utilized in any capacity for making personnel decisions, including but not limited to reappointment, promotion, and tenure appointments.” The motion was lost.

A motion was made to replace the second bullet with the following: “The university, along with individual schools and units, shall collect and review a comprehensive ‘Teaching Portfolio’ spanning multiple years to ensure a thorough and balanced evaluation of teaching performance.” The motion was lost.

The unamended recommendations were adopted.

Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee
Christine Morales and Arturo Osorio-Fernandez, Co-Chairs
Report on S-2204-2: Impact of CourseAtlas
Appendix: CourseAtlas Survey Data

The committee was charged as follows:

Explore the impact of CourseAtlas to benchmark institutional goals of the system, on academic units and departments, on faculty work-life balance, and make recommendations as appropriate. Specifically, (i) Investigate to what degree CourseAtlas has achieved the goals it was designed and implemented to achieve, (ii) explore the impact of CourseAtlas on academic units and departments’ ability to manage their own academic programs, (iii) assess the impact of CourseAtlas on the work-life balance of faculty, and (iv) propose feedback mechanisms which allow timely and meaningful faculty input on scheduling changes.

Senator Boxer presented this report and recommendations to the Senate.

The motion was amended with unanimous consent as follows:

• “At minimum, we recommend the following” was amended to “Be it resolved, the University Senate recommends.”
• The word “full-time” was removed from first and second sub-bullets.

A motion was made to add the following as a second bullet: “The Course Atlas schedule shall avoid conflicts with the instructors’ preferences submitted.” The motion was adopted.

The amended recommendations were adopted.

OLD BUSINESS

Ad Hoc Committee on Review of the University Senate’s Governance Documents and Formulation of University Senate Bylaws and University Structure and Governance Committee

• Draft Article II– updated
• Draft Article III (Information Only)

The committee was charged as follows:

Review the existing governance documents of the University Senate, including University policies, past Senate reports, and the Senate Handbook. Develop Bylaws for the University Senate consistent with Robert’s Rules of Order.

Chair Foster presented the draft of Article II to the Senate. Article II of the Senate Bylaws was adopted.

Chair Foster presented the draft of Article III to the Senate. This will be brought back to the Senate for a vote at the January Senate meeting.

NEW BUSINESS**

A motion to add to the agenda a resolution condemning the administrative response to the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) meeting on December 5, 2024 was adopted. A motion to add to the agenda a resolution on Senate chat was lost.

Senator Godoy and Senator Fedorko presented a Resolution Condemning Administrative Response to the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) Meeting on December 5, 2024.

A motion was made to postpone the question to the January Senate meeting. The motion was lost.

The resolution was adopted.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was extended by 10 minutes with unanimous consent. A motion to extend the meeting by 15 minutes was adopted. The meeting adjourned at 4:24 p.m.

Minutes prepared by:
Vicki Hewitt, Executive Secretary of the University Senate

Committee Meetings

Academic Standards, Regulations & Admissions Committee Meeting

No location or time for this committee meeting

Budget & Finance Committee Meeting

No location or time for this committee meeting

Faculty Affairs & Personnel Committee Meeting

No location or time for this committee meeting

Information Technology Committee Meeting

No location or time for this committee meeting

Instruction, Curricula & Advising Committee Meeting

No location or time for this committee meeting

Research, Graduate & Professional Education Committee Meeting

No location or time for this committee meeting

Student Affairs Committee Meeting

No location or time for this committee meeting

University Structure & Governance Committee

No location or time for this committee meeting