RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: January 24, 2025

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Abdelfattah, Adamo, Ahmed, Allen, C. Anderson, K. Anderson, Anderson Eloy, Andrews, Apel, Ardeshna, Askew, Axelsson, Baker, Barbarello Andrews, Bernard, Bhuyan, Boikess, Borisovets, Boucher, Boxer, Bridgeman, Cafiero, Caponegro, Carney-Waterton, Chiricolo, Clarke, Collick, Cooper, Cuitiño, Curchitser, Dai, Dane, Davis, DeMatteo, DiGiovanni, Diaz-Tena, Dock, Easley , Ebert, Esposito, Everett, Everts, Fatahzadeh, Feng, Figueira, Firat, Foster, Fulton, Giermanski, Gilmartin, Giraud, Godoy, Gong, Gower, Grachan, Graham, Granadeiro, Green-Mercado, J. Guo, Gurbuzbalaban, Gursoy, Haberl, Haley, Hisham Hamawy, Haviland, Henderson, Jaber, Jordan-McKinney, Kamen, Kayyal, Keates, Kettle, S. Khan, R. Khan, Kiss, Knievel, Kustka, Ladell, Lam, Lehman, Lobman, Maerhofer, Mahajan-Cusack, Markowitz, Mazurek, Mbadugha, McCarthy, McKeever, Morales, C. Morton, P. Morton, Murphy, Nucci, Oberle, Osorio-Fernandez, Özel, Parsa, S. Patel, Pichugin, Pierce, Pintar, Pontes, Purcell, Quincy, Rabinowitz, Ramachandran, Ramirez Polo, Robinson, Robles, Rodriguez, Rokerya, Rossman-Murphy, Salas-de la Cruz, Saltzman, Santos Mendoza, Schafer, Schroth, Schwartz, Searcy, Sergel, Shah, Shinbrot, Simonds, Sloan-Power, Sonnenberg, Sow, Spiegel, Suh, Szatrowski, Taha, Takhistov, Tewfik, Torres, Truschke, Volino, Wagner, Williams, Yusuf, Zarouni, Zhou, Zwick

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Bachmann, Eastman, Fedorko, Fenker, Izhar, Kaplan, Lam, Lutz, Maeng Brown, Maganti, Mattis, O’Connor, Olivera, K. Patel, Risman, Smart, White, Wirtenberg, Zhang

MEMBERS ABSENT: Adya, Ahmed, Alkhalili, Ameri, Amjad, Anner, Barone, Begum, Bond, Boppey, Borie-Holtz, Brown, Cahill, Chao, Choron, Conway, Dylewska, Elkholy, Feldman, Geary, Gnanaprakasam, Graham, Griffin, Halkitis, Hart, Henry, Hoffman, Holloway, Javanmard, Jeyaprakash, John, Johnson, Kaye, Lawson, Lee, Lei, Leibowitz, Lemish, Lescht, Maliga, Mao, Matise, McCarthy, Moghe, Murtha, Nadeem, Nickitas, P. Patel, V. Patel, A. Patel, Perez, Ramchandani, Rentzel, Reshamdalal, Robson, Roth, Ruocco, Sarath, Savage, Sayde, Senger, Sese, M. Shapiro, S. Shapiro, Shaw, Shobut, Silva, Soler, Span, Starkweather, Strom, Syed, Tillis, Tirino, Usman, Wade, Weiss, Wolfe, Yang

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

Chair Foster called the meeting to order at 1:11 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 Dec. 13, 2024 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
• Communications
  • Provosts’ Roundtable scheduled for: Fri. Jan. 31 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
  • Panel on Academic Freedom: Expression, Controversy, and State-Level Challenges scheduled for: Thu. Feb. 6 from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
  • President Holloway’s Report on University Finances is scheduled for: Fri. Feb. 14 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
  • There is a vacancy on the Executive Committee for a Student Representative from Camden.
  • Senators are reminded to log in to the Senate website for attendance and voting access.

NEWARK CHANCELLOR REPORT – Jeffrey Robinson, Interim Chancellor, Rutgers-Newark

RESOLUTION ON CHAT SETTINGS DURING SENATE MEETINGS – Submitted by Senator Troy Shinbrot, School of Engineering, Faculty

A motion was made to amend the resolution to remove the first three “Whereas” clauses. The motion was adopted.

A motion was made to postpone consideration of the resolution to the February Senate meeting. The motion was adopted.

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.

Ad Hoc Committee on University Senate’s Communication with Constituents Through Social Media
Abigail Fulton and Christopher Godoy, Co-Chairs
Report on S-2335: University Senate’s Communication with Constituents Through Social Media

The committee was charged as follows:

Charge an ad hoc committee to explore and recommend how the University Senate can utilize social media platforms (i.e., Instagram) to create and enhance communications to foster awareness and engagement.

Senators Fulton and Godoy presented this report and recommendations to the Senate. The 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 III

Draft Article IV (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 III to the Senate. The draft was amended as follows:

• In Article III.E.a., the second sentence was struck.
• In Article III.E.g., the second sentence was struck.
• In Article III.F., the following sentence was inserted as a separate bullet: “The Executive Committee may invite Senate committee co-chairs to attend meetings for the purposes of discussing ongoing and proposed charges to their committees. This attendance should be limited to the specific agenda item about which the guest is invited to participate.”

The amended Article III of the Bylaws was adopted.

With unanimous consent, discussion on Article IV was postponed to the February Senate meeting.

NEW BUSINESS**

A motion to add to the agenda a resolution condemning the cancellation of the Rutgers Apprenticeship Programs Conference was adopted.

Senator Truschke presented a Resolution Condemning the Racist Cancellation of the Rutgers Apprenticeship Programs Conference.

The resolution was amended as follows:

• “WHEREAS Rutgers management has pre-emptively cancelled the scheduled conference” was amended to “WHEREAS the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions has been required to cancel the scheduled conference”
• The sentence “RESOLVED: The Rutgers University Senate condemns actions by any and all members of Rutgers to cancel activities due to political pressure, and:” was struck.
• The following was added to the final statement: “and urges the Center for Minority Serving Institutions to reschedule this conference under this or another auspices.”

ADJOURNMENT

A motion to extend the meeting by 15 minutes was lost. The meeting adjourned at 4:01 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