DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, May 17, 1999 at 5:00 pm in room 3210 West Mall Complex

Open Session

Present: ?

Blaney, Jack, President and Chair

Baldwin, Paul (representing L. Copeland)

Berggren, Len

Boland, Larry

Chan, Albert

Clayman, Bruce

Coleman, Peter

Crossley, David

D'Auria, John

Dunsterville, Valerie

Emerson, Joseph

Emmott, Alan

Finley, David

Gagan, David

Giffen, Ken

Gillies, Mary Ann

Jones, Cohn

Jones, John

Kanevsky, Lannie

Kirczenow, George

Lewis, Brian

Marteniuk, Ron

Mathewes, Rolf

McInnes, Dina

Morris, Joy

Osborne, Judith

Percival, Paul

Peterson, Louis

Peters, Joseph

Pierce, John

Reader, Jason

Russell, Robert

Sanghera, Baiwant

Thompson, Janny (representing R. Barrow)

To, ShekYan

Waterhouse, John

Words, Michael

Zazkis, Rina

Heath, Ron, Dean of Student Services and Registrar

Watt, Alison, Director, Secretariat Services

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

Absent:

Akins, Kathleen

Beattie, Suzan

Bowman, Marilyn

Dhillon, Khushwant

Fletcher, James

Harris, Richard

Heaney, John

Mauser, Gary

Naef, Barbara

Ogloff, James

Segal, Joseph

Veerkamp, Mark

Warsh, Michael

Weeks, Daniel

Wickstrom, Norman

In attendance:

Davis, Leith

Dickinson, John

Gordon, Rob

Hickin, Ted

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Page 2

Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of April 12, 1999

It was pointed out that the April meeting had commenced at 5:30 pm rather than 7:00

pm as indicated in the Minutes. Reference was made to the second paragraph on

page 4. Suggestion was made that the word 'deferred' in line 7 and the word 'defer'

in the last line, should respectively read 'referred' and 'refer'. Following these

amendments, the Minutes were approved.

Business Arising from the Minutes

There was no business arising from the Minutes.

Report of the Chair

The Chair announced that the three Presidents of the larger universities recently met

with the Prime Minister's Task Force on Western Canada and mainly discussed core

funding and research infrastructure. Meetings had also taken place between the Task

Force and representatives from TRIUMF, as well as with colleagues from the Media

and Innovation Centre. Interactions appeared to have gone quite well and the Task

Force seemed to be taking the deliberations quite seriously.

Reports of Committees

a) ?

Senate Committee on Academic Planning

Paper S.99-37 - Establishment of a Department of Earth Sciences

Moved by D. Gagan, seconded by C. Jones

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in S.99-37, the establishment of the

Department of Earth Sciences"

T. Hickin, Earth Sciences Program, was in attendance in order to respond to

questions.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper S.99-38 - Centre for Scottish Studies

Moved by D. Gagan, seconded by B. Clayman

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in S.99-37, the proposed Centre for Scottish

Studies"

L. Davis, Department of English, and R. Gordon, School of Criminology, were in

attendance in order to respond to questions.

Reference was made to the memo to SCAP dated April 7' signed by D. Gagan as both

Acting Vice-President Research, and Vice-President Academic. A member

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Page

•

commented that it was not a good precedent to have only one person sign documents

in which two different officers should be represented. It was suggested that, in the

future, action should be delayed until a second authority was available for signature.

The Chair indicated that the suggestion would be taken under advisement.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

iii)

Paper

S.99-39 -

School of Kinesiology - Academic Plan (For Information)

The Three-Year Plan of the School of Kinesiology and the summary of the External

Review were presented to Senate for information.

Dickinson, Director of the School

was in attendance in order to respond to questions.

Reference was made to the comment in the External Review about the re-

establishment of collegial relations among faculty members, and an inquiry was made

as to the status of that recommendation. Both the Director of the School and the

Dean of Applied Sciences confirmed that relationships had improved dramatically

and the School was operating on a more collegial basis.

It was noted that page 2 of the external review explicitly stated that the reviewers felt

that the streams in the undergraduate curriculum were not functional and yet in the

three year plan the School indicated their wish to retain them. Further information

was requested with regard to this apparent difference of opinion between the external

review and the School. Senate was advised that at the time of the review the streams

• were not functioning well because Kinesiology had uncontrolled entry into the major

programs and students were unable to make effective use of the streams because they

could not get the required courses. Since the review, the number of majors have

been reduced and some courses have been restricted to majors which will enable the

streams to operate more effectively. It was also pointed out that the streams were

areas of specialization which a student could select to pursue a course of study in a

sub-area of Kinesiology. They were not required and do not appear on the transcript.

iv)

Paper 5.99-40 - School of Communication - Academic Plan (For Information)

The Three-Year Plan of the School of Communication and the summary of the

External Review was presented to Senate for information. B. Lewis, Senator and

Director of the School was in attendance in order to respond to questions.

Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules

i) ?

Paper S.99-41 -

Search Committees for Vice-Presidential Appointments

For this agenda item,

Blaney vacated the Chair and L. Boland took over as Chair.

Concern was expressed that a faculty member rather than an administrator would take

over the Chair. . It was noted that Senate had previously approved a motion that the

Vice-Chair of Senate not be a member of the senior administration, and since the

elected Vice-Chair of Senate

Bowman was unable to attend the meeting, L. Boland

had offered to take her place.

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Page 4

J. Blaney announced his intention to move the composition of each search committee

separately since the memberships are somewhat different for each committee, and

then move a motion with respect to the terms of reference which apply to all

committees.

Moved by

Blaney, seconded by

Osborne

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in

S.99-41,

the composition of the Search

Committee for Vice-President, Academic"

A suggestion by M. Wortis that the additional members selected by the President to

assure appropriate representation from the equity designated groups be selected from

faculty members was accepted as a friendly amendment and the wording was

changed as follows:

From: Up to two additional members

To: ?

Up to two additional faculty members

It was noted that the membership could rise to

members - too large to be a

functional search committee. It was noted that there were a number of areas of

overlap of interests/constituencies within the membership and it was suggested that

the President of the Faculty Association and the President of the Student Society might

be deleted since there were already faculty and students on the committee. The

relevance of including the President of the Alumni Association was also questioned.

Opinion was expressed that it was difficult to balance the desire for broad

representation against the desire to have a smaller committee.

It was pointed out that the President of the Faculty Association might not be a faculty

member since previous Presidents have included Librarians and Lab Instructors.

Concern was expressed about making such changes on the floor of Senate without

further consultation with the various bodies.

In response to an inquiry as to why the changes were being proposed, Senate was

advised that the Board of Governors had asked the President to review current

procedures and put together a more comprehensive policy. Some of the changes had

been made because of changes in Vice-Presidential portfolios, and other changes

were based on recently approved changes to the Dean's appointment policy.

Amendment moved by K. Giffen, seconded by A. Chan

"that the selection of students be changed back to the original

wording as follows:

Undergraduate student, elected by and from undergraduate student

body;

Graduate student, elected by and from graduate student body"

Opinion was expressed that the amendment allowed a much more open opportunity

for students throughout the University to participate.

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Page 5

A brief explanation was provided to Senate on how students were selected by the

Student Society and opinion was expressed that the SFSS was an extremely

democratic body and in practice does not differ very much from having an election

at-large. It was noted however that election within the Student Society involved

approximately thirty members of Forum and the feeling was expressed that it would

be more democratic and more representative if the election were open to all students.

It- was also pointed out that the majority of other members on the committee were

chosen from among their own constituents by election and the student members

should be no different.

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken.

AMENDMENT CARRIED

Noting the difference between the previous wording which referred to full-time

support staff versus the proposed wording which eliminated the reference to the full-

time requirement, inquiry was made as to eligibility requirements. Senate's attention

was directed to footnote #2 on page 1 and Senate was advised that a part-time

standard of 50% or more had been approved to allow those persons to vote.

Concern was expressed that ex-officio members were given the right to personally

select a designate. It was the understanding of the administration that the Executives

of the particular associations designate substitutes rather than Presidents making a

personal selection. It was also pointed out that since several searches could be going

on at the same time, one person would not be able to serve on all committees so it

. ?

was necessary to have the option of specifying a designate.

Amendment moved by P. Percival, seconded by L. Berggren

"that the President of the Faculty Association (or designate), the

President of the Alumni Association (or designate), and the President

of the Student Society (or designate) be removed from the

membership"

Senate was reminded that following Senate approval, approval by the Board of

Governors was also required and opinion was expressed that the Board would likely

wish to keep the President of the Alumni Association as a member. The wisdom of

disenfranchising people or constituencies that were part of the previous committee

structure was questioned. Opinion was expressed that while faculty members may

bring different perspectives to the committee, the President of the Faculty Association

was an essential member because of the unique knowledge that he/she has of the

university as a whole. It was also felt that these positions play an important role and

are of considerable benefit to the committee and it would be a mistake to delete them

in order to gain a small advantage in efficiency.

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken. ?

AMENDMENT FAILED

Referring to the appointment of up to two additional members, inquiry was made as

to why the wording had been changed from gender representation to equity

designated groups and clarification was requested with respect to the definition of

equity designated groups. Senate was advised that equity designated groups include

S.M. 17/05/99

Page 6

women, aboriginals, disabled and visible minorities. Senate was advised that this was

an optional clause and would only be used if there was inappropriate representation.

Concern was expressed that the proposed wording would be difficult for the President

to implement and suggestion was made that it would be better to refer to gender

representation only and delete reference to the other equity designated groups.

Amendment was moved by

D'Auria, seconded by P. Percival

"that the wording be changed to ensure appropriate gender

representation"

Senate was reminded that the selection of additional members was restricted to

faculty members and there were not many faculty members, apart from women, who

fit into the equity designated groups. However, since attempts have been made to

broaden the representation to reflect the make-up of the university community,

opinion was expressed that it would be advisable to leave the wording as it is to

ensure those different perspectives.

Concern was expressed that the term equity designated groups could be defined by

different people in different ways. Senate was advised that in terms of both Provincial

and Federal equity programs which affect the University, the groups are clearly

defined as those already mentioned. Discussion ensued in which a variety of

alternative wordings were suggested.

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken.

AMENDMENT FAILED

Amendment moved by J. Peters, seconded by M. Wortis

"that the wording be changed to 'Selected by the President to

mitigate under-representation from the equity designated groups'"

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken.

AMENDMENT CARRIED

Question was called on the main motion

(as amended) and a vote taken. ?

MAIN MOTION (AS AMENDED) CARRIED

Moved by

Blaney, seconded by M. Wortis

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in S.99-41, the composition of the Search

Committee for the Vice-President, Research"

It was understood that the amendments approved with respect to the previous motion

would also apply to the above motion relevant to the search committee for the Vice-

President Research. However, in the case of student representatives, the wording

would read as follows: 'Two graduate students elected by and from the graduate

student

Question

body'.was ?

called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

S.M. 17/05/99

Page 7

•

Moved by

Blaney, seconded by B. Clayman

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth ins S.99-41, the composition of the Search

Committee for the Associate Vice-President Academic"

It was understood that the amendments approved with respect to the first motion

would also apply to the above motion relevant to the search committee for the

Associate Vice-President Academic.

In response to an inquiry about quorum, it was pointed out that the quorum was

specified in the general procedures on page 9 and that all committees have a quorum

of 60% of their membership.

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

Moved by

Blaney, seconded by

Osborne

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in S.99-41, the composition of the Search

Committee for Vice-President Finance and Administration"

It was understood that the amendment previously approved with respect to the

wording for the equity designated groups would also apply to this motion but the

• ?

additional members (up to two) would not be restricted to faculty members.

Concern was expressed about the lack of faculty representation on this committee. It

was pointed out that the representative selected from the Employees' Council could

be a faculty member as could the two Deans and the one Vice-President. The Vice

President Finance and Administration was responsible for many units who needed to

be fairly represented on the committee and if the number of faculty members were

increased, the number of administrators would also need to be increased.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

? MOTION CARRIED

Moved by

Blaney, seconded by

Osborne

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in S.99-41, the composition of the Search

Committee for the Vice-President, University Advancement"

It was understood that the amendment previously approved with respect to the

wording for the equity designated groups would also apply to this motion but the

additional members (up to two) would not be restricted to faculty members.

Senate was advised that this position was currently called Vice-President for

University Development and Chief Development Officer and was held by David

Mitchell.

S.M.

17/05/99

Page 8

Since University Advancement had a great deal to do with the scholarly direction of

the University, concern was expressed that the President of the Faculty Association

was not on the Committee.

Amendment moved by

D'Auria, seconded by

Osborne

"that the President of the Faculty Association (or designate) be added

to the membership of the Search Committee for Vice-President,

University Advancement"

Senate was reminded that the President of the Faculty Association could be the

employee group representative selected by the Employees Council and that the

Faculty Association had reviewed this document and had no objection.

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken. ?

AMENDMENT CARRIED

Amendment moved by K. Giffen, seconded by L. Berggren

"that a member of the Alumni Association, selected by the Alumni

Board, be added to the membership"

Opinion was expressed that since the Alumni Association was heavily involved in

fundraising, it might be helpful to have two representatives from the Association on a

committee which select the University's chief fundraising officer.

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken.

AMENDMENT FAILED

Question was called on the main motion,

as amended, and a vote was taken.

MAIN MOTION (AS AMENDED) CARRIED

Moved by

Blaney, seconded by

Osborne

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, the search committee procedures as set out on pages

10-11 of

5.99-41"

It was noted that search committee procedures for Deans included a five year term of

office and a stipulation that the Dean may be re-appointed once. Since many features

for the Vice-Presidential search committees parallel those for Deans, inquiry was

made as to why there was no limitation on re-appointment and why the positions of

Vice-President Finance and Administration and Vice-President University

Advancement have no terms of office. Senate was advised that historically there has

never been a limitation on terms for Vice-Presidents and that the VP Finance and

Administration and VP University Development do not normally have faculty

appointments and are considered staff positions which generally are not term

positions.

S.M. 17/05/99

Page

Amendment moved by G. Kirczenow, seconded by D. Finley

"to strike Section b.viii on page 10 and replace it by adding the

following to Section 1 on page

9: Each short-listed candidate will

meet publicly with the University community before the search

committee makes its recommendation to the President regarding the

appointment of any candidate"

The view was expressed that Canadian universities are generally moving towards a

more open process in the appointment of senior administrators and it was felt that it

would be better to have uniformity on this issue rather than leaving it up to each

search committee to decide how open they wanted to operate.

It was pointed out that sometimes excellent candidates may wish to keep their

candidacy confidential until such time as they are reasonably assured of an

appointment and concern was expressed that the proposed change would discourage

such candidates from applying. It was noted that the current procedure allowed

committees to accommodate both an open process when possible and a more closed

process if necessary.

Opinion was expressed that recruitment for positions such as the Vice-President

University Development and Vice-President Finance and Administration often

paralleled the world of business where senior executives often do not wish to

• advertise their candidacy because of the competitiveness in the field. Concern was

expressed that many such candidates would decline invitations to be candidates for

these two particular Vice-Presidential positions if the process were too open.

A suggestion to exclude the Vice-President University Development and the Vice-

President Finance and Administration from the motion was accepted as a friendly

amendment. It was understood that Section 8.d on page would then have to be

retained relevant to the two excluded Vice-Presidential positions. The amendment

would read as follows:

"to add as (h) in Section 1 on page 9:

In the case of the search for

Vice-President, Academic, Vice-President, Research, and the

Associate Vice-President, Academic, each short-listed candidate will

meet publicly with the University community before the search

committee makes its recommendation to the President regarding the

appointment of any candidate.

to add reference to the Vice-President University Development and

Vice-President Finance and Administration to Section b.viii on page

10"

Although sympathy was expressed with respect to the spirit of the motion, concerns

were raised about losing very good candidates because of too open a process and

suggestions were made that each case should be assessed individually and left up to

the search committee to decide how open the process should be.

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken.

AMENDMENT FAILED

S.M.

17/05/99

Page 10

Amendment moved by P. Percival, seconded by J. D'Auria

"that Section 3.c on page 11 be amended to include the following

sentence: This term may be renewed only once.

View was expressed that there should be no difference between an academic

administrator at the decanal level and the Vice-Presidential level and the amendment

reflected parallel wording in the policy for Dean searches.

Opinion was expressed that it should be possible for administrators at both levels to

continue on as long as they are solidly supported by the university community and

suggestion was made that the Dean's policy should be changed rather than amending

this policy.

Suggestion was made that the word normally be inserted into the amendment. This

would clearly imply that there was an expectation that re-appointment would not be

automatic but it would not unduly constrain the search process. Also, should the

Deans policy be revisited it would be easier to amend it by inserting the word

normally rather than opening up the whole process.

In reply to who would make such decisions, Senate was advised that the exception to

the norm would be on the recommendation of the search committee. On the

agreement by the Chair that this would be written into the policy, the suggestion to

add the word 'normally' was accepted as a friendly amendment. The amendment

would read as follows:

"that Section 3.c on page 11 be amended to include the following

sentence: Normally, this term may be renewed only once."

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken.

AMENDMENT CARRIED

Question was called on the main motion,

as amended, and a vote taken. ?

MAIN MOTION (AS AMENDED) CARRIED

J. Blaney resumed the Chair at this point.

Other Business

i) ?

Paper

S.9942 -

Senate/Board of Governors Election Report (For Information)

In addition to the election report before Senate, the results of the Convocation

election were announced as follows:

Chancellor

Election of one person as Chancellor of Simon Fraser University for term of office

from June

1999

to June 2002.

Candidates: A. Emmott, A. Macdonald, K. Rieckhoff, M. Wong

Elected: ?

Dr. Milton Wong

S.M.

17/05/99

Page 11

Convocation Senator

Election of four persons as Convocation Senators for terms of office from June

1, 1999

to May

31, 2002.

Candidates: A. Chan, V. Dunsterville, K. Giffen,

McArthur, T. Snutch, S. Wade, S.

Wessel.

Elected: ?

Silvia Wessel, Valerie Dunsterville, James McArthur, Albert Chan

Reference was made to page

of the report which contained a clerical error with

respect to the terms of office for Student Senators. The term was amended from May

31, 2001 to May

31, 2000.

The Chair wished to recognize retiring members of Senate and, on behalf of Senate,

extended thanks and appreciation for time served and acknowledged each member's

years of service as follows: Brian Lewis (4 yrs), Marilyn Bowman

yrs), Peter

Coleman (4 yrs), Len Berggren (7

yrs), Daniel Weeks (1 yr), Kathleen Akins

yrs),

Paul Percival

yrs), Khushwant Dhillon (1 yr), Ken Giffen (11 yrs), Joy Morris

yrs),

Mark Veerkamp (1 yr), Alan Emmott (6 yrs), Norman Wickstrom (6 yrs), and Suzan

Beattie (6 yrs).

7. ?

Information

Date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, June

7, 1999.

0 ?

The Open Session adjourned at

6:50

pm. The Assembly moved directly into Closed Session.

Alison Watt

Director, Secretariat Services