- This meeting has passed.
Nov 15th
1:00 pm
Agenda Distributed On
Friday, November 8th 2024
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SENATE
MEETING AGENDA
Friday, November 15, 2024, 1:10 p.m. via Zoom
https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/94226017684?pwd=RTJYUzFDbWp4M3dqSGRnVnNCV1Rwdz09
CALL TO ORDER, DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM, AND CHAIR’S REPORT – Lucille Foster, Chair
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY – Vicki Hewitt, Senate Executive Secretary
- Approval of the Agenda* (including time limits)
- Approval of the October 18, 2024 Meeting Minutes
- Communications
- Provosts’ Roundtable: Fri. Jan. 31 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
- Reminder to log in to the Senate website for attendance and voting access
RBHS CHANCELLOR REPORT – Brian Strom, Chancellor, Rutgers-RBHS (1:20 – 1:40 p.m.)
SPECIAL ELECTION FOR PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES (1:40 – 1:55 p.m.)
Voting Access Link: https://senate.rutgers.edu/election/presidential-search-committee
Slate of Nominees and Candidate Statements: https://senate.rutgers.edu/special-election-for-presidential-search-committee-representatives/
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.
Budget and Finance Committee (1:55 – 2:05 p.m.)
Thomas Figueira and Troy Shinbrot, Co-Chairs
Report on S-2208-1: Divestment of Retirement Funds from Fossil Fuels (Information Only)
The committee was charged as follows:
Investigate whether the investment companies utilized by Rutgers for university employees should divest from fossil fuel companies within their retirement portfolios that are known to contribute to climate change. Report back to the Senate Executive Committee.
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 (2:05 – 2:25 p.m.)
Draft Article I
Draft Article II – updated (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.
NEW BUSINESS** (2:25 – 2:30 p.m.)
SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT – Lucille Foster, Senate Chair (2:30 – 2:35 p.m.)
REPORTS OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES (2:35 – 2:40 p.m.)
REPORTS OF CAMPUS FACULTY AND STUDENT LIAISONS (2:40 – 2:50 p.m.)
ADJOURNMENT
*Note: Addition of items to the Agenda requires a two-thirds vote (Senate Handbook, Article III, Agenda). There is an overall time limit of 3 hours for Senate meetings. Specific time limits are set for questions and debate, not for presentation of reports (Senate Handbook, Article III, Procedures). After approval, extension of time limits requires a two-thirds vote.
**Note: The Senate Handbook, Article IV, 1 states, “All new matters shall be referred to committee before coming to the Senate (unless extenuating circumstances apply, as indicated in Article III, Agenda, 3 above).”]
Remaining 2024-25 University Senate Meetings
All meetings are on Zoom
December 13, 2024
January 24, 2025
February 21, 2025
March 28, 2025
April 25, 2025- Organizational Meeting of the 2025-2026 Senate
April 25, 2025 – Last Meeting of the 2024-2025 Senate
RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE
MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University Senate
DATE: November 15, 2024
TIME AND PLACE: 1:10 p.m., Remote via Zoom
MEMBERS PRESENT: Allen, Anderson, Andrews, Ardeshna, Askew, Bachmann, Baker, Barbarello Andrews, Begum, Bernard, Bhuyan, Boikess, Boppey, Borisovets, Boucher, Boxer, Bridgeman, Brown, Cahill, Caponegro, Chao, Chiricolo, Choron, Clarke, Collick, Cooper, Curchitser, Dai, Dane, Davis, DeMatteo, Diaz-Tena, Easley , Eastman, Ebert, Everett, Everts, Fatahzadeh, Fedorko, Fenker, Figueira, Firat, Foster, Gilmartin, Gnanaprakasam, Godoy, Gong, Gower, Grachan, Graham, Granadeiro, Green-Mercado, Griffin, Guo, Gurbuzbalaban, Gursoy, Haberl, Haley, Haviland, Hewitt, Hoffman, Izhar, Jaber, Jordan-McKinney, Kamen, Kayyal, Kettle, R. Khan, S. Khan, Kiss, Knievel, Kustka, Ladell, Lam, Lee, Lobman, Lutz, Maeng Brown, Maerhofer, Mahajan-Cusack, Maliga, Markowitz, Mazurek, McCarthy, McKeever, Morales, C. Morton, P. Morton, Murphy, O’Connor, Özel, Osorio-Fernandez, Parsa, S. Patel, Pichugin, Pierce, Pintar, Pontes, Purcell, Quincy, Rabinowitz, Ramachandran, Ramirez Polo, Reshamdalal, Robles, Rossman-Murphy, Roth, Salas-de la Cruz, Saltzman, Sarath, Schafer, Schwartz, Searcy, Senger, Sergel, Shah, Shapiro, Shinbrot, Simonds, Sloan-Power, Smith, Sonnenberg, Sow, Spiegel, Strom, Suh, Syed, Szatrowski, Taha, Takhistov, Tewfik, Tirino, Torres, Truschke, Usman, Volino, Wagner, Weiss, Wirtenberg, Wolfe, Zarouni, Zhou, Zwick
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Abdelfattah, Alkhalili, Apel, Axelsson, Carney-Waterton, Esposito, Keates, Mattis, Nadeem, Oberle, Olivera, Risman, Rodriguez, Rokerya, Shaw, Smart, White, Williams
MEMBERS ABSENT: Adamo, Adya, F. Ahmed, B. Ahmed, Ameri, Amjad, K. Anderson, J. Anderson Eloy, Anner, Barone, Bond, Borie-Holtz, Cafiero, Chama, Conway, Cuitiño, DiGiovanni, Dock, Dylewska, Elkholy, Feldman, Feng, Fulton, Geary, Giermanski, Giraud, Graham, Halkitis, Hamawy, Hart, Henderson, Henry, Holloway, Javanmard, Jeyaprakash, John, Johnson, Kaplan, Kaye, Lawson, Lehman, Lei, Leibowitz, Lemish, Lescht, Maganti, Mao, Matise, Mbadugha, McCarthy, Moghe, Murtha, Nickitas, Nucci, K. Patel, A. Patel, V. Patel, P. Patel, Perez, Ramchandani, Rentzel, Robinson, Robson, Ruocco, Santos Mendoza, Savage, Sayde, Schroth, Shapiro, Shobut, Silva, Muriel Soler, Span, Starkweather, Tillis, Wade, Yang, Yusuf, Zhang
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. She announced that Jon Oliver will serve as Senate Parliamentarian for the November and December Senate meetings.
SECRETARY’S REPORT – Vicki Hewitt, Executive Secretary
- Agenda: The meeting agenda was approved.
- Minutes: The minutes of the Oct. 18, 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 reminded to log in to the Senate website for attendance and voting access.
RBHS CHANCELLOR REPORT – Brian Strom, Chancellor, Rutgers-RBHS
RESULTS OF THE SPECIAL ELECTION FOR PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES
The University Senate voted to choose two potential candidates for a Senate representative to the Presidential Search Committee. Of those two, the Presidential Search Committee will select the final Senate representative. The two candidates selected were:
- Lucille Foster, Newark Staff
- Heather Pierce, Lecturer-New Brunswick, Faculty
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.
Budget and Finance Committee
Thomas Figueira and Troy Shinbrot, Co-Chairs
Report on S-2208-1: Divestment of Retirement Funds from Fossil Fuels (Information Only)
The committee was charged as follows:
Investigate whether the investment companies utilized by Rutgers for university employees should divest from fossil fuel companies within their retirement portfolios that are known to contribute to climate change. Report back to the Senate Executive Committee.
Senator Figueira presented this information-only report to the Senate.
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 I
- Draft Article II– updated (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 I to the Senate. The draft was amended as follows:
- In Article I.C.a., “Faculty member is defined as” was amended to “Faculty member, for the purposes of determining unit Senate entitlements through elections, is defined as.”
- In Article I.K.b.iii, “When a senator has been absent without excuse for more than two Senate meetings” was amended to “When a senator has been absent without excuse for more than two Senate meetings per academic year.”
- In Article I.K.b.iv, “When a senator has been absent without excuse for more than three Senate meetings” was amended to “When a senator has been absent without excuse for more than three Senate meetings per academic year.”
The amended Article I of the Senate Bylaws was adopted.
Chair Foster presented the draft of Article II to the Senate. This will be brought back to the Senate for a vote at the December Senate meeting.
NEW BUSINESS**
The topic of chat settings during Senate meetings will be added to the December Executive Committee agenda.
SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT
Chair Foster reported on the Nov. 1, 2024 Senate Executive Committee meeting.
REPORTS OF THE REPRESENTATIVES TO BOARDS OF GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES
Senator Pierce reported on the Board of Governors meeting. Senator Purcell reported the Board of Trustees had not met.
REPORTS OF CAMPUS FACULTY AND STUDENT LIAISONS
Senator Haley reported on behalf of New Brunswick Faculty. Senator Salas-de la Cruz reported on behalf of Camden Faculty.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 2:59 p.m.
Minutes prepared by:
Vicki Hewitt, Executive Secretary of the University Senate
Present Senators
Excused Senators
Absent Senators
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
Caucus Meetings
Faculty Caucus Meeting
No location or time for this caucus meeting
Student Caucus Meeting
No location or time for this caucus meeting
Alumni Caucus Meeting
No location or time for this caucus meeting
Staff Caucus Meeting
No location or time for this caucus meeting