RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: January 19, 2024

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Allen, Amjad, Anderson, Anderson, Andrews, Apel, Ardeshna, Askew, Aubry, Axelsson, Ayorinde, Bachmann, Barbarello Andrews, Bhavaraju, Boikess, Boison, Borie-Holtz, Borisovets, Boucher, Bridgeman, Cahill, Caponegro, Chama, Chang, Charles, Chiricolo, Clarke, Collick, Cooper, Dane, Davis, Desir, Dinnall, Dock, Easley , Eastman, Ebert, Edelstein, Everett, Everts, Fang, Fatahzadeh, Figueira, Foster, Fox, Fudge, Fulton, Gahlawat, Giberson, Giermanski, Giraud, Godoy, Gong, Gower, Granadeiro, Griffin, Guo, Gursoy, Haley, Hamawy, Hayes, Henderson, Hennessy, Hewitt, Hong, Javanmard, Kahanda, Kettle, Khan, Kiss, Knievel, Kustka, LaMorte, Ladell, Lamorgese, Lawson, Lee, Lehman, Levine, Manzini, Marchetta, Markowitz, Mazurek, Mbadugha, McCarthy, Moghe, Morales, Morton, Murphy, Murtha, Nucci, O’Connor, O’Halloran, Oberle, Orelus, Osorio-Fernandez, Parsa, K. Patel, S. Patel, Pichugin, Pierce, Pintar, Prihoda, Purcell, Quincy, Rabinowitz, Ramachandran, Rodriguez, Rossman-Murphy, Roth, Salas-de la Cruz, Saltzman, Santos Mendoza, Sayde, Schroth, Schwartz, Serrano, Shaw, Shinbrot, Siederer, Sloan-Power, Smart, Smith, Sonnenberg, Spiegel, Nanjoo Suh, Szatrowski, Takhistov, Tewfik, Thompson, Tirino, Torres, Truschke, Volino, Weiss, White, Whitehead, Wirtenberg, Wolfe, Yusuf, Zhou, Özel

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Campbell, Dai, Ditching, Esposito, Kahng, Kaplan, Lutz, Brown, Searcy, Simonds, Vito

MEMBERS ABSENT: Abusah, Adamo, Adya, Ameri, Amin, Anderson Eloy, Ariwoola, Barone, Bhuyan, Blanchett, Bond, Boxer, Cantor, Carpenter, Choron, Ciolek, Conway, Copeland, Cuitiño, Cundiff, Di Bella, DiGiovanni, Eaton, Edwards, Fedorko, Feldman, Flynn, Geary, Glenn, Graham, Guo, Habeb, Halkitis, Haviland, Hernandez, Holloway, Ibrahim, Inman, Johnson, Joseph, Kamen, Kaye, Keates, Kelly, Kolben, Lei, Leibman, Lemish, Levin, Lildhar, Matta, Mattis, McKeever, Merisier, Meshoyrer, Nickitas, Olivera, Paiste, Papakonstantinou, P. Patel, Perez, Robson, Samaan, Sarath, Savage, Schnetzer, Scott, Sergel, Shafik, M. Shapiro, S. Shapiro, Shobut, Strom, Tillis, Wade, Wagner, White, Winters, Yang, Zhang

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

Vice Chair Foster called the meeting to order at 1:11 p.m. Chair Simonds was unable to attend as she was ill.

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 8, 2023 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
• Communications
  • Jan. 19 is the deadline to volunteer for Ad Hoc Committee to Propose Changes to the Senate Handbook to Add the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee and Ad Hoc Committee to Develop Nomination Procedures for a Senate Representative for the Policy Approval Committee.
  • There is a vacancy on the Executive Committee for an RBHS Student Representative. Please contact the Executive Secretary if you would like to be on the ballot for this position.
  • Reminder to log in to the Senate website for attendance and voting access.

NEW BUSINESS

A motion to adopt a Resolution of Reaffirmation of Endorsement of Freedom of Speech was added to the agenda. This resolution was adopted by the Senate.

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

EVPAA Moghe provided the Administrative Report consisting of the following topics:

• Inaccuracies in Jan. 5 paychecks for some employees
• Rutgers-Newark selected as 2024 Beckman Scholars Program Awardee
• Presidential Employee Excellence Recognition Awards
• Rutgers University Library Staff Advisory Committee established
• Reflections on the Pandemic: COVID and Social Crises in the Year Everything Changed (Rutgers University Press)
• Call for Nominations for the University-wide Year-End Excellence Awards
• Perry N. Halkitis Endowed Chair in LGBTQ+ Public Health in the School of Public Health
• Rutgers startup Queens Carbon to manufacture carbon-neutral cement
• Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH) featured in a film series at the 2023 American Public Health Association annual meeting
• Rutgers Professor Juliane Gross selected as member of the geology team supporting NASA’s Artemis III mission
• Faculty and staff awards
• Office for Research Town Hall in January
• Rutgers commencement ceremony in Shanghai, China
• Inclusion of 129 Rutgers student-athletes in 2023 Fall Academic All-Big Ten
• Graduate student awards
• Rutgers Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC)
• Rutgers Professor Marla Blunt-Carter sworn in as member of President Biden’s Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans
• Albert W. Lewitt Endowed Lecture at the Eagleton Institute of Politics
• New Jersey Reparations Council co-chaired by Rutgers Professor and Graduate School-Newark Dean Taja-Nia Henderson
• Reject Hate website – University Equity and Inclusion
• Navigating Tensions, Affirming Community Speaker Series
• Administrative responses to Senate reports
• Link to submit questions for President Holloway’s budget address at the February Senate meeting

EVPAA Moghe then answered questions submitted in advance via the Qualtrics form:

• Encouraging science communication to the public
• Compensating and retaining staff
• Thanks from the alumni caucus
• Legacy UMDNJ positions
• President Holloway attending Senate meetings
• Rutgers’ response to the demographic cliff
• Faculty opposition to the merger of the medical schools
• Vision for the physical infrastructure of Rutgers
• Rutgers’ administration response to external political pressure

SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT – Lucille Foster, Senate Vice Chair

Vice Chair Foster reported on the January 5, 2024 Senate Executive Committee Meeting.

REPORTS OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES

Senator Pierce reported on the Board of Governors meetings. Senator Schwartz reported on the Board of Trustees meeting.

OLD BUSINESS

COMMITTEE REPORTS/RESOLUTIONS

Research and Graduate and Professional Education Committee
Detlev Boison and Monica Mazurek, Co-Chairs
Report on S-2201-1: Approved Electronic Notebook Programs

The RGPEC was charged as follows:

Investigate the use of electronic lab notebooks. Review the current policies and practice of notebook creation and cloud storage. Recommend the best practices for maintaining the security, integrity, and accessibility of these notebooks.

The phrase “the University Senate recommends” was amended to “the University Senate recommends that the University, in an iterative process involving consultation with the University Senate, the Faculty Councils, and their constituents, will.” The amended recommendations were adopted.

REPORTS OF CAMPUS FACULTY AND STUDENT LIAISONS

Senator Salas-de la Cruz reported on behalf of Camden Faculty. Senator Haley reported on behalf of New Brunswick Faculty.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 3:30 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