RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SENATE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MINUTES
June 7, 2022

MEMBERS PRESENT: Bachmann, Boikess, Cooper, Foster, Giraud, Oliver (Chair), Roth, Schwartz, Simonds, Thompson, Van Stine, White, Willett

ALSO ATTENDING: S. Abdelwahab (BOG Student Representative), F. Amjad (BOT Undergraduate Student Representative), P. Dane (BOT Faculty Representative), V. Hewitt (University Senate Executive Secretary), J. Holloway (University President), T. Ozel (BOT Faculty Representative), S. Rabinowitz (BOG Faculty Representative), M. Smith (University Senate Administrative Assistant), K. Sokolowski (University Registrar), B. Strom (RBHS Chancellor)

The regular meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee was held on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. remotely via Zoom.

Chair’s Report– Jon Oliver, Senate Chair

Chair Jon Oliver called the June 7, 2022 Senate Executive Committee meeting to order at 12:05 p.m. He welcomed all to the meeting, including members of the 2022-23 Executive Committee and Board Representatives. He thanked participants for their hard work and dedication to the Senate throughout his three-year term as chair. He announced that the agenda items may be taken up out of order as President Holloway and Chancellor Strom had an unanticipated schedule conflict.

Secretary’s Report– Vicki Hewitt, Senate Executive Secretary

• The June 7, 2022 Executive Committee Agenda was approved.
• The April 7, 2022 Senate Executive Committee Minutes were approved.
• The April 29, 2022 University Senate Organizational Meeting Minutes were approved. A suggestion was made to clarify that senators may not run for more than one position at a time in the elections.
• The April 29, 2022 University Senate Meeting Minutes were approved.
• The following policy has been updated in the University Policy Library:
  • University Policy 40.2.15 Payment Card Acceptance Policy
• The following responses by President Holloway to Senate reports were received:
  • Response to S-2113: PTL Pay and Recognition
  • Response to S-1909-1: Searches for University Leadership
  • Response to S-2101: Review of the University Policy 10.2.4 Units of Credit
  • Response to S-2012-1: Procedures for Handling Student Complaints Against Rutgers Personnel Regarding Instruction

The committee discussed implementing a procedure for requesting follow-up on administrative responses. When the Executive Committee agenda is distributed, committee members will be asked to identify administrative responses that need follow-up. These will be discussed at the Executive Committee meetings during the Secretary’s Report, and a timeline for follow-up will be established. The Executive Secretary will track these follow-up requests. When the timeline expires, the Executive Secretary will notify the Chair and the Chair will follow up with the administration.

Selection of the Chancellor’s Commencement Committees (CCC)

The final selection of the CCCs was discussed and finalized as follows:

• Camden
  • Perry Dane, Rutgers Law School in Camden, Faculty
  • Oscar Holmes IV, Camden At-Large, Faculty
  • Sam Rabinowitz, School of Business-Camden, Faculty
  • Jose Torres, Part-Time Lecturer-Camden, Faculty
• Newark
  • Natalie Borisovets, Newark At-Large, Faculty
  • Galathara Kahanda, Newark At-Large, Faculty
  • Gerard LaMorte, University College-Newark, Faculty
• New Brunswick/RBHS
  • Fauzan Amjad, School of Arts and Sciences-NB, Student
  • Gloria Bachmann, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Faculty
  • Mary Bridgeman, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Faculty
  • Mihaela Carla Caponegro, School of Arts and Sciences-NB, Faculty
  • Antoinette Farmer, School of Social Work, Faculty
  • Patricia Morton, School of Arts and Sciences-NB, Faculty
  • Ronald Quincy, School of Graduate Studies
  • Robert Schwartz, New Jersey Medical School, Faculty

Standing Committees/Panels

Draft of 2022-23 Standing Committee Rosters and Assignment of Chairs/Co-Chairs

Executive Secretary Hewitt reviewed draft committee assignments with the Executive Committee, with particular reference to proposed chairs and EC liaisons. Some election results are still outstanding. Hewitt will communicate final committee assignments in the coming weeks.

Review Reports of Standing Committees and Outstanding Charges

Chair Oliver reviewed reports from committee chairs on their work this academic year and outstanding charges the committees will continue to work on next year. Due dates for the following charges were extended:

Administrative Report– Jonathan Holloway, University President

President Jonathan Holloway provided the Administrative Report consisting of the following topics:

• Rutgers Commencement 2022
• Rutgers athletics
• The Rutgers Summer Service Internship Initiative
• Tobacco-Free by ’23 Initiative
• Update on the Telecommuting Policy Relaxation and the Future of Work Task Force

President Holloway then answered questions on the following topics:

• PTL faculty health care

Discussion with President Holloway and Chancellor Strom

President Holloway and Chancellor Strom answered questions on the following topics:

• Advantages of the affiliation with RWJBarnabas Health. Chancellor Strom stated that the affiliation with RWJBarnabas Health provides resources to recruit medical school faculty and access to patients for student training.[1]
• Potential merger of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Holloway stated that consideration of a possible merger had been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The question of the relationship between the two medical schools will be revisited when the new dean of RWJMS starts on Aug. 15.
• Duties of Clinically-Focused University Practitioners (CFUP). These are physicians employed by RWJBarnabas who teach Rutgers medical students as part of their clinical practice and are paid an honorarium to do so. Chancellor Strom stated that CFUPs train medical students but the focus of the position is on clinical practice, as opposed to full-time Rutgers medical school faculty, whose positions are more focused on academic research and publishing.
• Use of U.S. News College Rankings. Chancellor Strom stated that the rankings system is not ideal, but many donors and potential students take the rankings into consideration. President Holloway stated that he does not use rankings in performance reviews of members of his cabinet.
• PTL faculty pay and benefits. President Holloway discussed efforts to increase efficiency in forecasting class demand and other financial considerations affecting this issue.
• New Jersey Medical School Accreditation. Chancellor Strom stated that NJMS has been reaccredited
• Joint Chairs. Chancellor Strom stated that the question of whether joint chairs have been successful needs to be evaluated separately for each department. One department had confidential personnel issues that cannot be disclosed. Another department is losing faculty due to RBHS not being able to pay salaries as high as competitors. He stated that RBHS would never move to a full joint chair model.
• Tobacco-Free by ’23 Initiative. President Holloway stated that the initiative will include a rollout of smoking cessation programs and workshops to help Rutgers community members addicted to tobacco.

Standing Committees/Panels

Proposed Charges:

Proposed Charge on Student Representation on the President’s First Amendment Advisory Panel – Submitted by Michael Van Stine, Graduate School – Camden (S)

Charge: In 2018, the University created a standing panel to advise the Office of the General Counsel and, in turn, the Office of Employment Equity in assessing matters that involve questions of free speech. The panel is comprised of four Rutgers Law School professors and the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. While this constitutes both faculty and administration representation on this panel, there is no student constituent representation. There is a plethora of multi-year recent history surrounding campus community free speech issues that evolve to this very day involving and affecting all members of the campus community including its largest constituent group, students. There have been past efforts to get student representation onto this panel with resistance offered in the form of compromise to attorney-client privilege. While it is noted that the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs is not an attorney and is not protected by attorney-client privilege, the American Bar Association assures that a law student can meet such protective threshold when engaged in such work in a service capacity. Also, any student could be equally protected for needed confidentially via the same form of signed statement used for students and administration when they are engaged in sensitive matters such as service on managing university boards.

Rationale: In May, 2021, this exact charge description was proposed to the EC under the title “Investigate whether a student representative can be added to the University Free Speech panel.” After some discussion, it was deemed then by the EC that a better logistical choice would be to redirect the focus of the charge to something broader defining the Senate’s role in free speech advising. The charge proposal became S-2112: Free speech Issues at Rutgers and the University Senate’s Role, and it was assigned to USGC to review and report. The committee subsequently issued its report to the Senate at its April 29, 2022 meeting. A review of the report suggests the charge was unclear to the committee and resulted in nothing productive being accomplished. Among other things in the report, the committee stated: “…this charge raises a number of concepts that are not well defined. It was unclear what type(s) of free speech it contemplated; whose feedback and advice it contemplated, e.g., the full Senate, the Executive Committee, or otherwise; and what timeframe it contemplated…although the charge specifically references peer practices, USGC discussed the myriad differences among senates at various universities and how they relate to administrative offices. In light of this, USGC determined that it was capable of considering this charge without resorting to a lengthy investigation that would likely yield little actionable information. In light of the foregoing, the USGC recommends that the Senate take no structural action in response to this charge.”

It would appear that the decision to broaden the scope and generalize the original charge proposal was an error. The renewed original language proposal seeks to get past this and properly task USGC to get a qualified student representative on the President’s First Amendment Advisory Panel. This remains important to ensure that the largest constituency of the university is properly represented in qualified confidentiality-assured discussions that determine free-speech policy actions that are frequently in conflict among the various constituent groups of the university.

The Executive Committee asked for additional information on the President’s First Amendment Advisory Panel, including whether the panel is still active and what its function is. Chair Oliver will look into these questions.

Proposed Charge on Review of the University Senate’s Governance Documents and Formulation of University Senate Bylaws – Submitted by Vicki Hewitt, Senate Executive Secretary

Charge: 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.

Rationale: Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (12^th Edition) defines Bylaws as “the documents that contain [a society’s] own basic rules relating principally to itself as an organization, rather than to the parliamentary procedure that it follows.” Bylaws prescribe how an organization functions and allow the organization to tailor standard parliamentary procedure to its own needs.

The Rutgers University Senate does not have official Bylaws currently. Much of the information that should by an organization’s Bylaws is instead listed in University policies, past Senate reports, and the Senate Handbook. Some information that an organization’s Bylaws should contain is not stated in any of these documents. Collecting this information and developing formal Bylaws will make Senate procedures more transparent and ensure that organizational rules are followed consistently.

To address this charge, I propose a small ad hoc committee be appointed consisting of long-term Senators with knowledge of Senate historical practices, particularly past Senate leaders, along with the Executive Secretary. This approach has the advantage of ensuring that informal institutional knowledge will be incorporated into the draft Bylaws.

The Executive Committee charged an ad hoc committee chaired by Vice Chair-Elect Foster and Executive Secretary Hewitt, with a deadline of February 2023.

Committee Reports/Resolutions

Information Technology Committee (ITC) – Adrienne Esposito, Chair
S-2109: Communication Mechanisms Regarding Major Changes in IT Applications

The ITC was charged as follows:

Investigate the existing mechanisms for communication regarding changes in major IT applications.  Propose additional mechanisms that would engage the Senate, through its IT Committee, in such communications and decisions about major IT application changes that would affect major University constituencies.  (See Senate Resolution S-1801)

The Executive Committee docketed this report for the September 23, 2022 Senate meeting.

Old Business

None

New Business

Last Day to Withdraw – Kelley Sokolowski, University Registrar

The Executive Committee approved the proposal to change the deadline for a student to withdraw from all classes at the University to the last day of classes.

Resolution in Honor of the Rutgers Glee Club’s 150^th Anniversary –Thomas Struble, Alumni Association

Discussion was postponed to the September 9, 2022 Executive Committee meeting.

New Senator Orientation and Senate Mentors

A survey sent to incoming senators found the majority preferred an online orientation session via Zoom, along with a social event in person in New Brunswick in the fall. Chair-Elect Simonds announced that Senate leadership would be working on orientation plans over the summer and would like to institute a Senate mentorship program pairing experienced Senators with newly elected Senators. She asked Executive Committee members to contact her if they are interested in participating.

Format of 2022-2023 Executive Committee Meetings

Executive Committee members preferred to keep the Executive Committee meetings online via Zoom in 2022-2023.

Adjournment

The Executive Committee adjourned at 3:46 p.m.

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

[1] After the meeting, additional information was provided: Since the MAA was signed, RBHS has recruited 469 new faculty (greater than or equal to 50% FTE each, which is the threshold for union eligible) into RBHS (excluding AFT faculty). RBHS has recruited 367 faculty into the medical schools, 236 into RWJMS and 131 into NJMS.