RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: March 28, 2025

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Allen, K. Anderson, C. Anderson, Andrews, Apel, Ardeshna, Askew, Baker, Barbarello Andrews, Bernard, Bhuyan, Borie-Holtz, Borisovets, Boxer, Brown, Caponegro, Carney-Waterton, Choron, Clarke, Collick, Cooper, Cuitiño, Davis, DeMatteo, Diaz-Tena, Dock, Easley , Ebert, Esposito, Everett, Everts, Fatahzadeh, Fenker, Figueira, Foster, Friedman, Fulton, Giraud, Godoy, Gong, Gould, , Gower, Graham, Granadeiro, J. Guo, Gurbuzbalaban, Gursoy, Haley, Haviland, Henry, Hoffman, Horan, Javanmard, Jordan-McKinney, Kaplan, Keates, R. Khan, S. Khan, Kiss, Knievel, Kustka, La Vigne, Ladell, Lam, Lehman, Lescht, Lutz, Maerhofer, Maliga, Markowitz, McKeever, Morales, C. Morton, P. Morton, Murphy, Nadeem, Nucci, O’Connor, Oberle, Oliver, Olivera, Osorio-Fernandez, Özel, Parsa, K. Patel, S. Patel, Pichugin, Pierce, Pintar, Pontes, Purcell, Quincy, Rabinowitz, Ramachandran, Robles, Rokerya, Rossman-Murphy, Roth, Salas-de la Cruz, Saltzman, Santos Mendoza, Schafer, Schroth, Schwartz, Searcy, Senger, Shah, Simonds, Sloan-Power, Sonnenberg, Spiegel, Suh, Szatrowski, Taha, Tewfik, Tirino, Torres, Weiss, White, Wilkinson, Williams, Wirtenberg, Wolfe, Zarouni, Zhou, Zwick

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Bachmann, Cafiero, Dane, Eastman, Grachan, Green-Mercado, Kettle, Maeng Brown, Maganti, Mahajan-Cusack, Mbadugha, Moghe, Murphy, Ramirez Polo, Rodriguez, Shinbrot, Volino

MEMBERS ABSENT: Abdelfattah, Adamo, Adya, F. Ahmed, B. Ahmed, Alkhalili, Ameri, Amjad, Anderson Eloy, Anner, Axelsson, Bachmann, Barone, Begum, Boikess, Bond, Sai Boppey, Boucher, Bridgeman, Chao, Chiricolo, Conway, Cotter, Curchitser, Dai, DiGiovanni, Dylewska, Elkholy, Fedorko, Feldman, Feng, Firat, Geary, Giermanski, Gilmartin, Gnanaprakasam, Gould, Graham, Griffin, Haberl, Halkitis, Hisham Hamawy, Hart, Henderson, Holloway, Izhar, Jaber, Jeyaprakash, John, Johnson, Kamen, Kaye, Kayyal, Lam, Lawson, Lee, Lei, Leibowitz, Lemish, Lobman, Mao, Matise, Mattis, Mazurek, McCarthy, Moghe, Murtha, Nickitas, A. Patel, V. Patel, P. Patel, Perez, Ramchandani, Rentzel, Reshamdalal, Risman, Robinson, Robson, Rohowsky-Kochan, Sarath, Savage, Sayde, Scott, Sergel, Sese, M. Shapiro, S. Shapiro, Shaw, Shobut, Silva, Smart, Muriel Soler, Sow, Span, Starkweather, Strom, Syed, Takhistov, Tillis, Truschke, Usman, Wade, Wagner, Yang, Yusuf, Y. 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.

SECRETARY’S REPORT – Vicki Hewitt, Executive Secretary

• Agenda: The meeting agenda was approved.
• Minutes: The minutes of the February 21, 2025 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
• Communications
  • The 2025-2026 Senate Calendar is available on the Senate website.
  • EVPAA Moghe was unable to attend the meeting, so he provided a written report: University Senate Administrative Report, March 28, 2025
  • The deadline for the Call for Nominations for 2025-2026 Senate Elections is Fri. April 18
  • The Lecturer elections process has begun:
    • Nomination Deadline: Fri. March 28
    • Voting Open: Thu. April 3
    • Results Announced: Mon. April 14
  • A Senate Social will be held on Fri. April 11 from 12:00 – 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.

PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH UPDATE – Amy Towers and Alberto Cuitiño, Search Committee Co-Chairs

FEDERAL GRANT FUNDING FREEZE ADVISORY GROUP UPDATE

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.

Committee Report and Recommendations
Budget and Finance Committee – Thomas Figueira and Troy Shinbrot, Co-Chairs
Trends in Rutgers Budget Priorities and Allocations

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

NEW BUSINESS**

A motion to add a resolution to establish a mutual defense compact for the universities of the Big Ten Academic Alliance to the agenda was adopted with unanimous consent.

A motion to add a resolution that Rutgers host the Berkshire Conference on Women’s History was lost.

Senator Salas-de la Cruz presented the Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for the Universities of the Big Ten Academic Alliance in Defense of Academic Freedom, Institutional Integrity, and the Research Enterprise to the Senate.

The resolution was amended as follows.

The clause:

“Be it further resolved that, under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit no less than two percent (2%) of their annual endowment spending allocation to a shared or distributed defense fund. This fund shall be used to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement;”

was replaced with:

“Be it further resolved that, under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund. This fund shall be used to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement;”

The amended resolution was 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 IV

Draft Article V (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 IV to the Senate.

The draft was amended as follows:

• In Section D, “the chair of the University Senate ex officio, and” was replaced with “one staff senator”;
• In Section D, “one elected student senator” was replaced with “one elected student senator; and”;
• In Section D, “one of the three above shall be filled by the chair of the University Senate ex officio, with the other two seats filled by representatives from the remaining constituencies” was added.

The amended Article IV of the Senate Bylaws was adopted.

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

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

The motion to adopt this resolution was lost.

SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT

Vice Chair Esposito reported on the March 7, 2025 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 Wilkinson reported on behalf of Camden Faculty.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 3:26 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