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Minutes for October 16, 2002 A meeting of the University Senate was held at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, 16 October 2002, in Maxwell Auditorium. Present were: Chancellor Shaw; Senators: Akande, Anderson, Backx, Barth, Behm, Bender, Bennett, Bhatia, Biklen, Bogucz, Boroujerdi, Breese, Brown (A.N.), Brzozowski, Buissereth, Byrne, Caine, Carter, Cavanagh, Cihon, Cooper, Cordova, Cote-Arsenault, Crowston, Dayton, de Berly, Diaz, Donovan, Dudczak, Easton, Ellison, Faiola, Flusche, Freund, Gates, Gensemer, Gilman, Glauser, Gorovitz, Graves, Greenberg, Griffin, Grimes, Hamilton, Harding, Hensel, Heydweiller, Horacek, Horwitz, Hovendick, Kelly, Kenn, Kinsey, Kosar, Lantier, Lee, Letterman (M.), Letterman (R.), Lipson, McGee, Maghran, Maroney, Martin, Massey, Moody, Mosher, Mulconry, Murphy, Noel, Olson, O'Rourke, Palmer, Peck, Pellow, Perdue, Pilgrim, Potter, Robertson, Rosenzweig, Rubinstein, Schell, Schiff, Seale, Sellars, Serpico, Sherman, Simonds, Siow, Smith, Spencer, Spina, Strodel, Thompson, Thomson, Toth, Trento, Tucker, Tussing, Urtz, Waddy, Wasylenko, Watts, Weaver, Webb, Webber, Wells, Zacharia, Zaima, Zinszer. Presiding Officer: Chancellor Kenneth Shaw On motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the minutes of the University Senate meeting of 11 September 2002, as distributed. The Chancellor called on Professor Nahmin Horwitz to present the report of the Agenda Committee. Professor Horwitz began his report by asking the body to rise while he read the following statement in memoriam: The University Senate and the Chancellor and Trustees of Syracuse University join in paying tribute to the life and work of Professor Rodger Mack, who was a treasured member of the Syracuse University community for many years as artist, Director of the School of Art and Design, faculty member and University senator, serving on the Committee on Instruction. His death on September 16, 2002 cuts short a distinguished career as artist and professor of art. He will be remembered with fondness and gratitude by his many students, colleagues, and friends at Syracuse University, as well as by the members of his family, to whom we extend our deepest sympathy.Professor Horwitz asked for a moment of silence, and then made a motion that the statement be included in the record. The motion was approved.
The motion carried. The report continued with Horwitz pointing out the summary of the 2001-2 work of the Senate, which had been included in the packet. He then made a motion, which the body approved, calling for approval of the following non-senators to chair Senate committees, and also be recognized and permitted to speak at Senate meetings when reports from their committees were presented: Louise Phelps (Academic Affairs); Beth Barnes (Appointment and Promotions); Pat Longstaff (Budget); Paula Johnson (GLBT, co-chair); Ernest Hemphill (Instruction); Margaret Hermann (Research, co-chair); Linda Straub (Services to the Faculty and Staff, co-chair); Teresa Gilman (Women's Concerns, co-chair). Professor Horwitz continued his report, bringing the body's attention to the list of committee chairs, notice of the open forum on November 6th, and the list of student senators, which had also been included in the packet. He then explained briefly the procedure that would be followed for consideration of the Vice Chancellor's motion re: the School of Nursing, telling senators that the Vice Chancellor would present her motion, calling for the closure of the school, and that the Chancellor would open the floor to senators and then non-senators, but that the body would not vote on the motion until the November meeting. The Chancellor called Professor Elizabeth Toth to present the report of the Committee on Curricula, which included a motion to approve new courses in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, a new program (B.A. in Religion and Society) and two new minors (Religion and Society, Middle Eastern Studies) in the Colleger of Arts and Sciences. The motion carried. The Chancellor called Professor Louise Phelps, Chairwoman of the Academic Affairs committee, who began by pointing out that the report of the committee's 2001-2 work was in the packet. Phelps then gave some background to the Vice Chancellor's motion re: the School of Nursing, and the committee's process thus far. She said that the Academic Affairs committee was still collecting comments, and that if anyone wished to communicate their views to the committee they could e.mail her (lwphelps@syr.edu). She said that the web address was http://provost.syr.edu/vcprovost/nursingprop.asp and that the motion, with supplemental materials, was posted there and would be updated as the committee's deliberations proceeded. Phelps then introduced Vice Chancellor Freund, who read a rationale for her motion, which was basically that the decision to close the school was based on priorities rather than finances. She said that the future prospects for the School of Nursing and the University's need to invest its resources strategically had led her to conclude that the wisest course was to discontinue the nursing programs. She thanked those who had sent letters objecting to the closure, acknowledging their sincerity and depth of feeling, reiterating the pledge that the University would provide the program of instruction and professional preparation sought by each nursing student when she/he enrolled at SU. Freund ended by announcing that she would be holding an open forum devoted to the nursing issue on Wednesday, October 23, at 4:00 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium. [Full text of the Vice Chancellor's statement is on the above web site.] The Vice Chancellor made a motion, which was duly seconded, as follows: The University recommends to the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees that Syracuse University begin immediately to phase out the undergraduate and graduate degree programs in nursing, leading in a timely manner to the discontinuance of all programs of instruction in nursing and the closure of the School of Nursing. The Chancellor told the body that he would entertain questions from senators first and then from non-senators, followed by discussion in the same order. In the question period, the questions raised included:The Chancellor recognized Professor Bruce Carter, who rose to make a motion that the Senate postpone consideration of the matter until its meeting of November 13th. It was seconded, and approved. The Chancellor called Professor Eric Spina, Co-chairman of the Committee on Honorary Degrees, who presented the committee's call for nominations, reminding senators that the deadline was October 25, 2002 for receipt of honorary degree nominations by the Committee. In response to a query, he told the body that there were two nominations left over from previous years of persons who could be honored at a commencement. Under new business, Professor Carter rose to publicly take exception to having been referred to, in the Academic Affairs committee report, as de facto chair of the SU Scholars committee when in fact he had been the actual chairman, and that he was not responsible for the "loss of institutional memory" also mentioned in the report. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.- whether there was student input in the process; - In light of the positive statements about the Nursing School included in the rationale for establishing the new college, what happened? [Freund said that if the closing was accomplished, she would welcome Nursing faculty involvement in the College of Human Services and Health Professions in other ways.] - Did the closure of the Rochester nursing program affect SU's decision to close Nursing? - Was there consultation with Syracuse community Nursing leaders on the effect of the closing? - What other institutions will SU cooperate with to provide courses (cf. sixth bullet in the report)? [Freund said that SUNY-Binghamton was closest.] - Were alternatives to closing the school explored? [Freund said that she explored the possibility of partnership with at least one other institution, but that it hadn't borne fruit; also that she felt SU really had to do it on its own.] - Can we assume that the decision to close was based on your conclusion that there's nothing, that you can foresee over the next two years, that could turn the situation around? [Freund said that assumption was correct.] - How is it that you don't see nursing as central to the mission and core values of the University? [Freund said that areas with the highest possibility of excellence were a priority in her Academic Plan.] - What would it take from the community's hospitals to help SU to continue the nursing programs? What kind of numbers would you need? - What does "some of SU's most loyal alumni" mean? Does it mean the most money donated? [Freund said that she based her statement on reunions, etc. more than financial donations.] - Leaving nursing programs to the public sector is only recycling nurses, not adding new ones. Has the impact of closing the School on the Syracuse area been considered? - Why are decisions of this magnitude made like this? It seems like a fait accompli. Teresa Gilman University Senate Recorder 
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