RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY UNIVERSITY SENATE

MINUTES: Regular Meeting of the University Senate

DATE: April 25, 2025

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: Ahmed, C. Anderson, Andrews, Apel, Askew, Bachmann, Doug Baker, Bhuyan, Boikess, Borisovets, Boucher, Boxer, Brown, Caponegro, Clarke, Collick, Conway, Cooper, Cuitiño, Dai, Dane, Davis, DeMatteo, Diaz-Tena, Dock, Esposito, Everett, Everts, Fatahzadeh, Fenker, Figueira, Foster, Geary, Giraud, Gong, Gower, Grachan, Granadeiro, Green-Mercado, Guo, Gursoy, Haberl, Haley, Horan, Jordan-McKinney, Kayyal, Keates, Kettle, Khan, Kiss, Knievel, Kustka, LaMorte, Lee, Lobman, Lutz, Maliga, Markowitz, Mbadugha, McCarthy, C. Morton, P. Morton, Murphy, Nadeem, O’Connor, Oliver, Olivera, Özel, Parsa, S. Patel, Pichugin, Pierce, Pontes, Purcell, Rabinowitz, Ramachandran, Ramirez Polo, Robles, Rokerya, Rossman-Murphy, Roth, Salas-de la Cruz, Saltzman, Schafer, Schroth, Schwartz, Sergel, Shah, Shinbrot, Simonds, Sloan-Power, Sonnenberg, Spiegel, Suh, Szatrowski, Tirino, Torres, Volino, Wilkinson, Wirtenberg, Wolfe, Zhou, Zwick

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Ardeshna, Carney-Waterton, Easley , Khan, Ladell, Lawson, Maganti, Oberle

MEMBERS ABSENT: Abdelfattah, Adamo, Adya, Ahmed, Alkhalili, Allen, Ameri, Amjad, Anderson, Anderson Eloy, Anner, Axelsson, Barbarello Andrews, Barone, Begum, Bernard, Bond, Sai Boppey, Borie-Holtz, Bridgeman, Cafiero, Chao, Chiricolo, Choron, Cotter, Curchitser, DiGiovanni, Dylewska, Eastman, Ebert, Elkholy, Fedorko, Feldman, Feng, Firat, Friedman, Fulton, Giermanski, Gilmartin, Gnanaprakasam, Godoy, Gould, Graham, Graham, Griffin, Gurbuzbalaban, Halkitis, Hisham Hamawy, Hart, Haviland, Henderson, Henry, Hoffman, Holloway, Izhar, Jaber, Javanmard, Jeyaprakash, John, Johnson, Kamen, Kaplan, Kaye, La Vigne, G. Lam, J. Lam, Lehman, Lei, Leibowitz, Lemish, Lescht, Maeng Brown, Maerhofer, Mahajan-Cusack, Mao, Matise, Mattis, Mazurek, McKeever, Moghe, Morales, Murphy, Murtha, Nickitas, Nucci, Osorio-Fernandez, P. Patel, K. Patel, V. Patel, A. Patel, Perez, Pintar, Quincy, Ramchandani, Rentzel, Reshamdalal, Risman, Robinson, Robson, Rodriguez, Rohowsky-Kochan, Santos Mendoza, Sarath, Savage, Sayde, Scott, Searcy, Senger, Sese, M. Shapiro, S. Shapiro, Shaw, Shobut, Silva, Smart, Muriel Soler, Sow, Span, Sriram, Starkweather, Strom, Syed, Taha, Takhistov, Tewfik, Tillis, Truschke, Usman, Wade, Wagner, Weiss, White, Williams, Yang, Yusuf, Zarouni, 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. Vice Chair Esposito presented a Resolution of Appreciation for Executive Secretary Vicki Hewitt. The resolution passed with unanimous consent.

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 March 28, 2025 Senate meeting were approved as distributed by the Executive Secretary.
  • Administrative Responses Received
    • Response to S-2116-2: SIRS
    • Response to S-2204-2: Impact of CourseAtlas
    • Response to S-2324: Investigate Sunsetting of Academic Credit Across Campuses and Review Any Proposed Changes
    • Response to S-2325: Explore the Current Virtual Senate Meeting Format and Develop Best Practices and Meeting Format Recommendations
    • Response to S-2332: University Senate Parliamentarian
    • Response to S-2335: University Senate’s Communication with Constituents Through Social Media
    • Response to S-2402: Institutional Neutrality
  • Communications
    • The 2025-2026 Senate Calendar is available on the Senate website.
    • Senators are reminded to log in to the Senate website for attendance and voting access.

NEW BRUNSWICK CHANCELLOR REPORT – Francine Conway, Chancellor, Rutgers-New Brunswick

FEDERAL GRANT FUNDING FREEZE ADVISORY GROUP UPDATE

BTAA STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE CORE MISSION AND VALUES OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Chair Foster presented this statement to the Senate. The statement was endorsed by the Senate with unanimous consent.

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 Ad Hoc Committee on Senate Communications – Robert Schwartz, Chair

Report on S-2334-1: Senate Communications

The committee was charged as follows:

An ad committee will be created with broad representation to evaluate procedures to regulate use of the Senate listserv.

Senator Schwartz presented this report and recommendations to the Senate. The recommendations were adopted with unanimous consent.

Committee Report and Recommendations Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee – Robert Schwartz and Jose Torres, Co-Chairs

Report on S-2404: Inter-campus Inclusion and Equity in the Rutgers Academic Calendar

The committee was charged as follows:

Investigate the most efficient way to broaden the development, implementation, and online display of the Rutgers Academic Calendar to ensure that all campuses are fully included in a manner that supports and promotes major calendar milestones such as convocation and commencement.

Senator Schwartz presented this report and recommendations to the Senate. The recommendations were adopted with unanimous consent.

Committee Resolution (2:00 – 2:10 p.m.) University Structure and Governance Committee – James Boucher and Wendy Purcell, Co-Chairs

Resolution on Productive Shared Governance at Rutgers in a New Era

Senator Boucher presented this resolution to the Senate. The resolution was adopted with unanimous consent.

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 V

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 V to the Senate. Article V of the Senate Bylaws was adopted.

NEW BUSINESS

A motion to add a charge to the agenda to establish an ad hoc committee to investigate current trends and issues regarding federal landscape changes impacting University operations was adopted with unanimous consent.

Senator Keates presented the following charge to the Senate:

Description – Engage Rutgers Senators and University members to assist with ongoing dialogue and investigations concerning the escalating and ever-changing federal landscape. The work of this ad hoc committee is in response to the Senate Resolution approved on March 28, with its key aims to protect academic freedom, institutional integrity, and the research enterprise. Members of this committee will be asked to evaluate ongoing developments in the federal arena as well as local State government initiatives.

Rationale- The Senate should convene an ad hoc committee to review the government landscape for higher education and make recommendations to the Senate for action.

The motion to establish the ad hoc committee was adopted with unanimous consent.

SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT

Vice Chair Esposito reported on the April 4, 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 on the Board of Trustees meeting.

REPORTS OF CAMPUS FACULTY AND STUDENT LIAISONS

Senator Green-Mercado reported on behalf of Newark Faculty. Senator Haley reported on behalf of New Brunswick Faculty. Senator Wilkinson reported Camden Faculty had not met. Senator Roth reported on behalf of RBHS Faculty.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 2:43 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