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DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

Minutes of a meeting of the Senate of Simon Fraser University held on

Monday, December 6, 1999 at 7:00 pm in Room 3210 West Mall Complex

Open Session

Present:

Blaney, Jack, President and Chair

Al-Natour, Sameh

Barrow, Robin

Boland, Larry

Budra, Paul

Chuah, Kuan

Clayman, Bruce

Copeland, Lynn

Crossley, David

D'Auria, John

Davidson, Willie

Delgrande, James

Driver, Jon

Dunsterville, Valerie

Emerson, Joseph

Finley, David

Fletcher, James

Jones, John

Kanevsky, Lannie

Kirczenow, George

Marteniuk, Ron

Mathewes, Rolf

Mauser, Gary

McArthur, James

McInnes, Dina

Munro, John

Niwinska, Tina

Ogloff, James

Osborne, Judith

Paterson, David

Peters, Joseph

Peterson, Louis

Pierce, John

Russell, Robert

Smith, Michael

Steinbach, Christopher

To, Shek Yan

Waterhouse, John

Wortis, Michael

Yerbury, Cohn

Zazkis, Rina

Absent:

Atkins, Stella

Benezra, Michael

Chan, Albert

Gillies, Mary Ann

Harris, Richard

Heaney, John

Hyslop-Margison, Emory

McBride, Stephan

McFetridge, Paul

Naef, Barbara

Reader, Jason

Sanghera, Balwant

Warsh, Michael

Wessel, Sylvia

Wong, Milton

In attendance:

French, Charlotte

Watt, Alison, Director, Secretariat Services

Heath, Ron, Dean of Student Services and Registrar

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

S.M.6/12/99

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Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of November 1, 1999

The Minutes were approved as distributed.

Business Arising from the Minutes

There was no business arising from the Minutes.

Report of the Chair

Rhodes Scholar

The Chair was pleased to report that B.C.'s Rhodes Scholar for 2000 was

Natasha DeSousa, a graduate of Simon Fraser University who graduated

with a B.Sc (Biology/Environmental Toxicology) from the Faculty of Science.

ii)

Presidential Search Committee

Senate was provided with a progress report from Jon Driver which included

an overhead presentation summarizing information about the committee's

mandate, membership, activities which had taken place since the

establishment of the committee in September, and works in progress. Brief

discussion took place about the confidentiality of the process and the

presentation of material to the Board of Governors. Senate was advised that

the Committee had decided that a confidential process was more acceptable

than an open process and recommendations to the Board of Governors

would include very comprehensive packages of information on the short-

listed candidates.

iii)

Budget

The Chair reported that the joint budget submission from The University

Presidents Council (TUPC) had officially been presented to the Minister of

Advanced Education and would be widely circulated within the University

community. The document essentially dealt with core funding (revenue per

student), funding for research, and access.

5. ?

Reports of Committees

a) ?

Senate Committee on Academic Planning/Senate Committee on

Undergraduate Studies

i) ?

Paper 5.99-71 - Faculty of Applied Sciences - Undergraduate

Curriculum Revisions

Senate received information that SCUS, acting under delegated authority,

approved program changes including new courses/course deletions, and/or

minor curriculum revisions in the School of Communication, School of

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Computing Science, School of Engineering Science, and the School of

Kinesiology.

ii) ?

Paper S.99-72 - Faculty of Arts - Undergraduate Curriculum

Revisions

Moved by J. Munro, seconded by

Pierce

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board

of Governors, as set forth in S.99-72 - the proposed

Geography - Environmental Specialty Honors Program"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

Senate received information that SCUS, acting under delegated authority,

approved program changes including new courses/course deletions, and/or

minor curriculum revisions in the Departments of Geography, History,

Humanities, Linguistics, and Sociology/Anthropology.

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries

I) ?

Paper S.99-73 - Annual Report (For Information)

• C. French, Director of Student Academic Resources in the Registrar's Office,

was in attendance in order to respond to questions. The Annual Report of

the SPCSAB was received by Senate.

Senate Committee on University Budget

i) ?

Paper S.99-74 - Annual Report (For Information)

Concern was expressed about the lack of information in the report. Brief

discussion took place with respect to several of the items listed in the report

that SCUB had discussed.

6. ?

Other Business

i) ?

Paper S.99-75 - Commercialization of University Research

Moved by L. Boland, seconded by B. Clayman

"that Senate move into quasi-committee of the whole"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

Concerns were expressed about

• the evident lack of understanding about the role of universities

• the implied suggestion that universities pursue activities for commercial

profit

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• the

with

recommendation

teaching, research

to include

and community

'innovation'

service

as a fourth mission together ?

• the tone of the report and the distortion of common English words, such

as "innovation"

• the implication that universities must accept "innovation" as their fourth

mission in order for researchers to obtain research support

• the discriminatory nature of the policy if funding is directed towards

fields of inquiry that are more easily measured in commercial terms

rather than to areas that contribute to society in other ways

• the nature of the policy which was a major philosophical departure from

the way universities have traditionally viewed their role and their

academic mission

• the impact that the addition of this fourth mission could have on faculty

renewal and tenure and promotion considerations

• the consequence of the policy which would change universities from

public serving institutions and undermine the academic freedom of

university researchers

• the membership of the expert panel which had no representation from

disciplines within the Arts

• the motion being premature and too broad in nature

• the negative perception by the public and government if the university

voted to reject the report outright

The following opinions/suggestions were expressed

• that it was important for universities to consider the issue of innovation

(as defined in the document) as a part of the reward structure and that

the issue of the reward structure at the university should be revisited

• that discussion was required on the best way to commercialize - through

the university or through the private sector; and what role the university

should have in this type of endeavour

• that universities need to do a better job of explaining and promoting

themselves with respect to how they see their role in society and how

they view their academic mission

• that the university needs to acknowledge to the Government that

commercialized scholarship was recognized as legitimate scholarship

but stress that it was not the only form of scholarship which benefited

society

• that the last sentence of the motion be amended to refer to

recommendation two rather than the entire report

• that it would be much more constructive if the university revisited the

document in detail and prepared thoughtful responses to the areas of

concern rather than just rejecting the entire report

• that a committee be formed to develop a detailed response to the report

Moved by G. Kirczenow, seconded by L. Boland

"that Senate move out of quasi-committee of the whole"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

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Moved by

Jones, seconded by

Ogloff

"that this matter be referred to SCAR"

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

The Chair confirmed that SCAR would consider this issue at its next meeting

and would report back to Senate at the January meeting on a course of

action.

ii)

International Baccalaureate Students

Senate's attention was drawn to the change of policy several years ago

whereby the University stopped issuing free library cards to high school

students enrolled in International Baccalaureate programs. Opinion was

expressed that these are potentially very good university students and the

university should do what it can to encourage them to attend SFU.

Suggestion was made that the policy decision related to library cards be

revisited, and the Senate Library Committee was asked to revisit this issue

and report back to Senate.

Senate was also advised that when a group of these students were brought to

Simon Fraser University by their teacher to use the facilities they were made

. to feel unwelcome. It was noted that use of the Library facilities was open

to everyone and it was suggested that details of this particular incident be

brought to the attention of the University Librarian.

iii)

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Concern was expressed about the status of post-doctoral fellows and their

spouses at the University and the consequences of the contract post-docs

are required to sign. Spouses of post-docs are not eligible to work and have

nothing productive to do to occupy their time if they want to accompany

their spouse to the University. Because the post-doctoral fellow is not

considered an employee of the University, spouses are not eligible for

tuition waiver similar to other employee groups. Inquiry was made if there

might be something the University could do to regularize these positions in

such ways as are relevant to other employee groups.

It was noted that there was a gap in university policies relating to post-

doctoral fellows and other categories of employment on campus and that

the Dean of Graduate Studies was currently working on a policy that would

regularize these positions to some extent. However, the issue of employee

benefits would have to be handled separately from the policy issue.

The open session adjourned at 8:15 pm and, following a brief recess, the Assembly moved

into Closed Session.

Alison Watt

Director, Secretariat Services