Meeting Minutes #251

Members Present: Benjamin Paul,  Marybeth Gasman,  Karen Thompson, Francis Ryan,  Laura Bowering Mullen, Eleanor LaPointe, Kenneth McKeever, Jack Bouchard, Nick Linardopoulos,  Jeff Zahn, Carla Cevasco,  Anna Haley,  Ted H. Szatrowski, Anne McPherson , Ryan Womack , Robert Boikess,  Elisa Shernoff,  Enrique Curchitser, Lei Yu , Sanjib Bhuyan,  Thomas Figueira,  Sue Shapses , Thomas Tsakalakos,  Louisa Schein,  Martin Gliserman,  Tugrul Ozel,  Crystal Akers, Haym Benaroya,  Barbara Faga

Non-Members Present: Francine Conway, Chancellor-Provost, RU-NB, Thomas Stephens, NCAA Faculty Representative, Martha Cotter, parliamentarian

1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Chair Marybeth Gasman on Friday, April 22, 2022, at 1:12 pm via Zoom.

2.  Approval of the Agenda

The agenda was approved.            

3.  Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of April 1, 2022

The minutes were approved.

4. Chair's Report – Marybeth Gasman

  Chair Gasman welcomed everyone to the meeting and presented the following updates:

  • The nominations/self-nominations have been submitted for the Chair and Vice Chair positions, the other Executive Committee positions, and the at-large NB Senate representative. In the near future, the election will be held electronically, taken care of by Martha Cotter. Chair Gasman requested that members with expiring terms remind their department chair about departmental elections to replace or reelect them.
  • A group of faculty members contacted the Chairs of all the Faculty Councils expressing their concerns about international research policies and the IRB. Chair Gasman met with a representative of the IRB to get some clarity and, set up a meeting of the group with the IRB to address their specific concerns.
  • Chair Gasman met the senior vice president for research, Mike Zwick, and his team to address concerns of the faculty.
  • In upcoming months, there will be an open forum for faculty to share their concerns about international research and the IRB in general.
  • If faculty members are doing research in countries that are violating human rights, they may have to be flexible to get approvals.
  • The Faculty Survey report is posted on the NBFC website. Chair Gasman will be meeting with the Chancellor-Provost’s staff and communications teams to facilitate a large distribution of the report. The report was received positively by the Chancellor-Provost and will be sent out shortly.
  • For next year, the NBFC meetings will be virtual; the dates will be posted on the website soon.
  • If there are any issues that need the attention of the Executive Committee for next year's agenda, please inform Chair Gasman.
  • A link to the electronic ballot for the Faculty Council leadership positions will be sent out for shortly. 

5. Administrative Report - Francine Conway, New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost.

Chancellor-Provost Conway thanked the group for welcoming her to speak. She then made the following comments:

  • The Academic Master Plan (AMP) was finished, and a final update will be done on Tuesday April 26th, 2022.
  • A survey was done on the NB campus asking faculty to arrange the goals of the AMP in order of priority. Measures associated with supporting students and making their experience better were on the top of the list.
  • Several committees have been formed at the administrative level with the inclusion of faculty. The committees will be working on some structural matters that may need clarification/modification.
  • The Chancellor-Provost aims to give undergraduate students an experience during the first two years in which they can explore different areas and figure out what they want to do. She also hopes to remove barriers to interdisciplinary and collaborative work through the AMP.

6. Faculty Athletics Representative Report - Thomas Stephens, NCAA Faculty Representative

Tom Stephens, Rutgers’ NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative, presented the following report:

  • This past year, college athletics has become a new world. The NCAA has been working to try to transform itself. A report was generated stating that transformation must take place in each division and not just at the national level. Transformation committees are now working in each division.
  • The division 1 Transformation and Vision Committee is currently looking at the transfer portal, which primarily affects student athletes and coaches. There has been pushback from coaches who believe that the portal gives students too much leeway and control – a position with which Prof. Stephens strongly disagrees. The committee will be working on this until August 1st.
  • At the Big 10 level, there have been multiple layouts proposed in the last two or three months about what could happen if the NCAA were no longer viable. At one extreme is a proposal that the Big 10 go it alone, perhaps with some new schools coming in who are like minded and want to focus on academics and play sports. At the other extreme is a proposal to stay in a reformed NCAA.
  • The Big 10, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the PAC 12 have come together to forestall what has been seen as the southeastern conference's incursions.
  • There are about 10 or 12 different committees that are being run at different levels by each conference. Prof Stephens belongs to two committees: the Academics Committee and the competition committee for the three sports of swimming and diving, volleyball, and softball. The three sports are thinking about competing together and branding themselves as the Alliance.
  • The NIL is now a Wild West shooting show. It originally simply allowed a student athlete to take care of his or her own name, image and likeness and sell them if he or she wanted to This permitted some students to make a little money.  Now, however, some institutions with lots of money are setting up LLC s, separate from athletics and the university, to recruit student athletes to come or go to their university.

7. Resolutions

Non-Tenure Track Director’s Taskforce Report/Resolution - Francois Berthiaume, Chair, Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee
Committee Chair Berthiaume provided a brief introduction to the report and resolution:

  • The Faculty and Personnel Affairs committee formed a task force to collect information on Non-Tenure-Track faculty members (NTTs) serving in directorship positions, for example, being directors of undergraduate programs or directors of research centers.
  • The task force, consisting of NTTs serving in leadership positions and Faculty Council members met as a group multiple times during the 2021-22 academic year.
  • Based on the information collected, it made a number of recommendations from the faculty perspective, including
    • Tenure-track teaching positions should be created
    • There should be minimum guidelines and standards for compensation for serving as a director.
    • The university should support NTT Directors better by providing more opportunities for development, as the NTT directors have lots of administrative duties that leave them little time to pursue academic scholarship.

Chair Berthiaume then moved the resolution

Resolution

Be It resolved that the New Brunswick Faculty Council calls for the Chancellor-Provost to take necessary actions to review and implement the recommendations in this report.

The resolution passed.

Honors College Resolution – Bob Boikess, Chair, Academic Affairs Committee

Committee Chair Boikess provided a brief introduction to the resolution.

The Academic Affairs Committee was originally charged with looking into equity concerns at the Honors College. In looking more closely at the Honors College and other New Brunswick first year honors programs, we discovered that there were some strange things going on:

  • A certain lack of coordination at the Honors College.
  • Perhaps excessive autonomy of each individual school that offers an honors program.  
  • The Honors College is not the body that admits students to the Honors College.

Given this situation and some other issues related to first year honors programs in New Brunswick, it was decided to recommend to Chancellor-Provost Conway that she set up a committee to work out solutions to the problems we found.

Chair Boikess then moved the following resolution.

Resolution

Whereas we could make additional specific and narrow suggestions and

Whereas it is our view that some of the problems in NB honors programs are too broad and complex for our committee to tackle and

Whereas a search for a new dean for the Honors College is currently underway.

Be it resolved that the New Brunswick Faculty Council urges Chancellor Provost Conway to appoint a special committee of faculty and honors program administrative staff to investigate and create solutions to the problems associated with first year honors programs in New Brunswick.

The resolution passed unanimously.

Academic Freedom and Diversity Resolution– Bob Boikess, Chair, Academic Affairs Committtee

Committee Chair Boikess noted that this resolution is part of a national movement among many universities to speak out in defense of academic freedom, in light of some very real attacks on it in many parts of the US. He then moved the resolution.

Resolution

Whereas Rutgers University has made the advancing of diversity, equity, and inclusion a key strategic priority; and

Whereas in a nation that has for centuries struggled with issues of racial inequity and injustice, many students do not have adequate knowledge of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersexed community) history and the policies that contributed to inequities, Rutgers faculty have a responsibility and opportunity to help build equity and social justice;

Therefore be it resolved that the New Brunswick Faculty Council resolutely rejects any state and federal legislation or any other attempts by bodies external to the faculty to restrict or dictate university curriculum on any matter, including those related to racial, gender, and social justice, and will stand firm against any encroachment on faculty authority; and

Be it further resolved that the New Brunswick Faculty Council stands with our K–12 colleagues throughout the country who may be affected by pernicious  legislation restricting what they may teach; and

Be it further resolved that the New Brunswick Faculty Council affirms the Joint  Statement on Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism, authored by the AAUP, PEN America, the American Historical Association, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities, endorsed by over seventy organizations, and issued on June 16, 2021; and finally

Be it further resolved that the New Brunswick Faculty Council urges the University Senate, the other Faculty Councils, and other shared governance entities to adopt a similar resolution.

Be it further resolved that we call upon President Holloway and EVPAA Moghe to affirm that they reject any attempts by bodies external to the faculty to restrict or dictate university curriculum on any matter, including matters related to racial, gender, and social justice, and that they will stand firm against any encroachment on faculty authority. We also call upon them to take appropriate actions in the public sphere that will position Rutgers as a leader in the national campaign in the defense of academic freedom from the ever increasing, politically motivated attacks we are experiencing. 

In the discussion that followed, Tom Figueira renewed his proposed amendment to remove “Be it further resolved that the New Brunswick Faculty stands with our  K-12 colleagues… what they may teach.” The amendment, seconded by Sanjib Bhuyan, failed to pass.

After a motion to extend the meeting for 30 minutes was approved, the main resolution passed..
.

8. Committee Reports

Athletic  Affairs – Ken McKeever, Chair

The committee discussed how Rutgers can make better use of the Big 10 Academic Alliance. The attendees were assigned the task of seeing how the Academic Alliance can be used for the benefit of their academic unit. The committee will put a report together by the beginning of the fall semester.

Student Affairs –Christine Morales, Chair

No report was given.

Faculty and Personnel Affairs –Francois Berthiaume, Chair

The committee discussed the possibility of including a diversity inclusion equity criterion in the faculty promotion process.. Further discussion is needed.

Academic Affairs –Bob Boikess, Chair

The committee discussed the following:

  • Library Issuea: There has been a decrease in personnel working in the library, which has negatively affected faculty members in certain disciplines. The committee is looking into the situation, considering contributing factors and trying to get a perspective on what the Rutgers Administration thinks about the future of the libraries.
  • Scheduling: There are several concerns associated with the current class schedules such as classes starting too early and ending too late and students not being allowed to take consecutive classes on different campuses. We discussed possibly recommending having 20-minute rather than 30-minute breaks between classes and/or going back to the old pre-Covid schedule. Any recommended changes would be for the spring semester.
  • Teaching evaluations: The Committee does not want the SIRS student evaluations to be used in personnel decisions but wants the NBFC to try and work with the administration to figure out how faculty can provide the best teaching portfolios possible and to figure out how peer evaluation can be done so that there is no prejudice against faculty members by evaluators.

Budget, Planning, & Infrastructure –Tom Figueira, Chair

The committee continued their discussion of plans to find more information about the programs that have been applied to faculty activities at Rutgers and, ultimately, to survey people in New Brunswick to find out their problems or lack of problems in working with those programs.

9.  New Business

There was no new business.

10. Old Business

Martha Cotter gave a brief update on the upcoming election of NBFC leaders for 2022-23:

  • Campaign statements have been provided by all those who desire to run for positions.
  • There is one candidate for Chair and one candidate for Vice Chair. Seven people wish to run for the five remaining positions.
  • Electronic voting will begin soon. Many thanks to Sanjib Bhuyan for setting up the Qualtrics ballot.

11.  Adjournment

  Chair Gasman adjourned the meeting at 3:21 PM.
 

Respectfully submitted:

Srishti Kaul, Office of the Chancellor-Provost