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Minutes for April 23, 2003

A meeting of the University Senate was held at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, 23 April 2003, in Maxwell Auditorium.

Present were: Chancellor Shaw; Senators: Anderson, Arvas, Barth, Behm, Bennett, Bernard, Bhatia, Bogucz, Breese, Brown (H.), Caine, Cavanagh, Cihon, Cooper, Crowston, deBerly, Dent, DeVault, Diaz, Dimon, Donovan, Dudczak, Elin, Flusche, Freund, Gates, Gensemer, Gilman, Glauser, Gorovitz, Greenberg, Hamilton, Harding, Heydweiller, Hogan, Hollenback, Horwitz, Hovendick, Kelly, Kenn, Kosar, Lantier, Legaspi, Letterman (M.), Letterman (R.), Lipson, Lloyd, Marcoccia, Maroney, Martin, Massey, Morris, Mulconry, Murphy, Murray, O'Rourke, Peck, Pellow, Perdue, Potter, Schwarz, Sen, Sherman, Simonds, Smith, Strodel, Thau, Thompson, Thomson, Tinney, Toth, Trento, Tucker, Tussing, Urtz, Van Gulick, Vidali, Wadley, Ware (B.), Ware (E.), Wasylenko, Weaver, Wells, Wilbur, Wright, Zaima.

Presiding Officer: Chancellor Kenneth Shaw

On motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the minutes of the University Senate meeting of 19 March 2003, as written. The Chancellor then called Agenda Committee Chairman Nahmin Horwitz to present the report of the Agenda Committee, which included:

  a. A statement in memoriam for Professor Emeritus Michael O. Sawyer, who died on December 24, 2002. Howritz read the statement and asked for a moment of silence, and made a motion to include the statement in the record of the meeting. The motion carried.

Professor Horwitz then asked the Chancellor to speak to the Senate about his plan to step down as chancellor. The Chancellor told senators that he hoped to step down as of August 2004, take a year's leave, and then return to campus to teach. He outlined briefly the search plan for the new chancellor, saying that a search committee would be appointed, comprised of 7 members of the board of trustees, 7 faculty members, 2 undergraduates, 1 graduate student, 1 dean, 1 non-exempt staff member, and a member of the Chancellor's cabinet.

Horwitz continued his report, pointing out that the Senate bylaws called for the Agenda Committee to provide a slate of faculty, staff, and student members to present to the Senate for ratification. He said that because Chairman of the Board Joseph Lampe wished to have the committee in place by May 9th, that the Agenda committee planned to meet on April 30th to come up with a slate of names. He said that these names would then be sent to all senators by e.mail for their endorsement. Horwitz made a motion that this process be adopted, and it was seconded. After some questions Agenda committee, continued about the way students would be chosen, the body approved the motion. Horwitz then continued with the report of the Agenda committee with

  b. A motion, as follows:

The University Senate recommends to the Board of Trustees of Syracuse University the conferring of appropriate degrees on May 11th and 18th, 2003 upon those candidates who will have qualified for such degrees by Friday, May 9th, 2003 or May 16th, 2003 at 12:00 noon, and upon those students who complete requirements for degrees at the end of the various summer terms and at the end of the fall semester of the 2003-4 academic year. Motion carried.

 
  c. A motion to approve the report of the Subcommittee on Nominations, which was the makeup of committees for 2003-4. Motion carried.
 
  d. A motion to amend the bylaws, Article V, Section 4, and Section 21, changing the name of the Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Concerns to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Concerns (LGBT). The motion carried.

Professor Horwitz then made a motion and the body voted to change the day's agenda, reversing items V and VI. The motion was seconded, and approved. He announced that discussion of the Honors proposal from the Committee on Curricula would be postponed to fall 2003, and asked senators to return their Agenda Committee ballots to the Senate Office by campus mail.

Professor Horwitz finished by listing the following items of pending business:

  1. The proposals of the Ad Hoc Committee on Part-time Instruction, that had not yet been implemented (e.g., group health insurance for PTIs, rank and promotion for PTIs);
 
  2. Proposal for a new faculty rank, Professor of Practice;
 
  3. Revision of procedures associated with a proposal to close schools and colleges;
 
  4. Creation of a manual to guide members of the Affirmative Action Grievance Committee, and improved procedures;
 
  5. Classroom scheduling proposal;
 
  6. Issue of SU faculty members being harassed and humiliated by U.S. Customs agents upon re-entering the U.S. from overseas or Canada.

In the absence of the Chairwoman, the Chancellor called Professor Carla Lloyd to present the report of the Committee on Appointment and Promotions, which included the committee's recommendations for promotion, as follows:

Arts and Sciences
to Professor:
Doug Armstrong
Jaklin Kornfilt
Mark Rupert
to Associate Professor:
Zachary Braiterman
Dan Coman
Douglas Frank
Rogan Kersh
Jeffrey Kubik
Daniel Nolan
Joshua Smyth
Assata Zerai
Paul Verhaeghen
Arts and Sciences/Education
to Associate Professor:
John Tillotson
Education
to Associate Professor:
Tiffany Koszalka
Kelly Chandler Olcott
Human Services and
Health Professions
to Associate Professor:
Patricia Coleman
Kenneth Corvo
Robert Keefe
Mary Wilde
Diane Young
School of Information Studies
to Professor:
Barbara Kwasnik
Milton Mueller, Jr.
Visual and Performing Arts
to Professor:
Maria Marrero
Tom Sherman
to Associate Professor:
Linda Cushman
Diane Grimes
Heath Hanlin
Alexandra Koziara
Janith Wright
Wei Yi Yang

A motion to endorse the recommendations for promotion carried. Professor Lloyd then made a motion recommending that the following faculty members, now retiring, be honored with the title Emeritus, to be added to the rank at which they retired:

  • Richard Braungart, Professor of sociology
  • Joan Burstyn, Professor of education and Professor of history
  • Bruce Fredrikson, Professor of finance
  • François Gabriel, Professor of architecture
  • James Karp, Professor of law and public policy
  • Jacques Lewin, Professor of mathematics
  • Travis Lewin, Professor of law
  • Lynne McFall, Professor of philosophy
  • William McPeak, Associate Professor of social work
  • John Palmer, Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
  • Richard Ratcliff, Associate Professor of sociology
  • Gary Spencer, Professor of sociology
  • David Sullivan, Professor of biology

The motion carried.

The Chancellor called Professor Elizabeth Toth, who told senators that the Committee on Curricula was withdrawing its report, and that the discussion of the new Honors proposal would be deferred to fall 2003.

The Chancellor called Professor Fran Tucker, to present the report of the Committee on Athletic Policy. She began by recognizing the work of her committee members and read all 14 names aloud. She briefly described how the committee had worked since its charge had been revised. She said that the Center for Support of Teaching and Learning was auditing the services to student athletes, and encouraged senators to respond if asked to fill out a survey. She said that by fall 2005, there would be new minimum eligibility standards for student athletes (outlined on pp. 11-12 of the report), and brought senators's attention to Appendix B, which reported on the changes.

The Chancellor called on Professor Pat Longstaff, who presented the year-end report of the Budget committee, pointing out two unmet needs, viz., the tier 3 pay level for staff and the faculty development fund running out of money. She said that the committee would continue to look at faculty salaries and sponsored programs, and that the Budget committee did not have any plan to cut the reducible budget because it looked like things were OK basically.

In the discussion, a senator asked if the committee thought that the pro forma budget would address the problem of the category 3 pay levels, and commented that he failed to see the relevance of the mention, in the report, of category 3 employees using the tuition benefits more than employees in other categories. Longstaff responded that mention of remitted tuition use by tier 3 employees did not mean that the Budget committee had less commitment to addressing the issue of the category 3 pay levels.

The Chancellor called Professor Ernest Hemphill, Chairman of the Committee on Instruction, who presented the committee's report, which included a draft of the proposed new class scheduling paradigm, which, he said, was for information only, but that he would entertain questions from the floor. He briefly reviewed the issue, then described plans for the next couple of months, including the Registrar's Office conducting a trial conversion of the fall 2003 classes into the new paradigm to get a better understanding of how it might work and to identify possible problems. Hemphill referred senators to the issues outlined on page 3 of the report, and asked them to talk to their colleagues to get wide circulation of the proposed paradigm, and to give feedback to the committee. He referred senators to the website that had been established at http://cstl.syr.edu/scheduling/survey.asp for submission of their comments and ideas. Hemphill said that the committee planned to hold two open forums in the fall for discussion of the proposal, that the Senate would be asked to cast a vote endorsing the plan in October 2003, but that the decision whether to change the calendar would be an adminstrative one. Professor Horwitz commented that he thought the administration would be reluctant to put in place anything resoundingly opposed by the Senate.

The Chancellor called on Professor Diane Murphy who presented the report of the Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure and Professional Ethics. She thanked her committee members for their dedication and creativity, and outlined the cases the committee had heard in 2002-3. Murphy then made a motion to approve a revision of the wording of a Senate-approved (April,1994) policy regarding meetings with SU staff members when their termination was to be discussed, as follows [revision in bold]:

i. When meeting with an employee, an administator or supervisor shall not initiate a discusssion of the employee's resignation or termination for any cause, including elimination of the employee's position, unless the employee has been notified in writing that this would be a topic of discussion. The written notice from the administrator or supervisor must have been received at least one week prior to the meeting.

ii. If the administrator plans to have anyone else besides himself/herself and the employee present at the meeting, the employee shall be so informed in writing and the written notice received by the employee at least one week in advance of the meeting.

iii. If a legal representative of the University will be present at the meeting, the employee shall be so informed in writing, and the written notice received by the employee at least one week in advance of the meeting. Under those conditions, the employee may have legal counsel present as well.

[Add: iv. These procedures will apply in all cases except in an emergency, e.g., theft or perceived danger to self or others, as determined by two administrators or supervisors.]

This policy as amended should appear in both the Faculty Manual and the Administrative Policy Manual of Syracuse University.

In the discussion, many senators spoke against the motion, and the many queries indicated confusion about the intent of the proposed policy. A senator made a motion to refer the matter back to the committee for further work, and the motion was seconded and carried.

There being no further business, the Chancellor thanked the body for a good year of hard work, and the meeting was adjourned.


Teresa Gilman
University Senate Recorder


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