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RECOMMENDATION OF THE

SENATE COMMITTEE

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ON

RULES AND PROCEDURES

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March

20,

1969

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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

MEMORANDUM

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Date

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14733PC

We, the undersigned members of the Senate of Simon

Fraser University, request a special meeting of Senate

to be called at the earliest convenience for the purpose

of discussing the attached interim recommendation of

the Senate Committee on Rules and. Procedures.

It appears imperative that Senate take immediate

action with regard to these recommendations, and that

Senate has the opportunity to implement these recommenda-

tions before any other business meeting.

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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

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MMORADUM

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Dr. Kenneth St-rand, Chairman . ............

Senate Committee on

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Senate

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Subject

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Date ..........

March ........

OPEN MEETINGS

14733-PC

When Senate decided to open its meeting on non-

confidential business to the university community at large,

it was to assure that members of this community would be

enabled to be fully aware of the debate and argument

preceding the decisions of Senate. The only reservation.

individual members of Senate had with regard to opening

the meeting arose out of concern for the effect that such

opennessmight have on the effective and efficient conduct

of business by Senate. To ensure that Senate would continue

to be in a position to perform its duties in open meetings

without interference and free of pressure exerted by tne

presence of observers, Senate laid down certain rules with

respect to observers at its meeting. In particular, Senate

decided that i.a.

(1)

The number of observers be limited and

(2)

Observers be required to refrain from applause and

other audible or visible forms of expression that

could prove distracting to Senate.

It is a matter of public concern and historical record

that partly due to the action of minority groups and partly

due to the lack of discipline and consideration of others,

it has been impossible to enforce these rules.

It is further a matter of record and common knowledge

that this disregard for its rules has led to a most serious

deterioration of Senate's abilities to perform its duties

and to conduct its business effectively and intelligently

with a resulting threat to the proper functioning of the

university as an academic institution.

Clearly Senate would be remiss in its duties if it

continues to allow a state of affairs to persist that inter-

feres seriously with the effective conduct of its business.

It is thus faced with a choice among the following alternatives

to ensure that it will be enabled to perform its duties

adequately and effectively:

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(1)

rigorous enforcement of existing rules,

(2)

abolishment of open meetings altogether,

(3)

changing the existing rules such that the meetings

may

remain open in that the deliberations of Senate

on nonconfictential matters remain available to the

university community while at the same time screening

Senate from outside interference during meetings.

The first alternative does not appear to be viable

unless distasteful measures will be employed and even

under such circumstances success appears to be questionable.

The second alternative seems equally distasteful,

since there appears to exist a wide spread consensus that

the university community and the public have a legitimate

interest in having access to the deliberations of Senate.

The third alternative remains the only one that is

both technically feasible and, also safeguards all legitimate

interests of the university in making the deliberation of

senate accessible while preventing a deterioration of

Senate's effectiveness through exposure to an environment

not conducive to rational conduct and debate.

The Senate Committee on Rules and Procedures is charged

in its Terms of Reference to make recommendations to Senate

on matters such as discussed above. It has given careful

Consideration to these questions and has unanimously agreed

to make the following recommendations to Senate:

(1) Effective immediately upon approval by a majority of

Senate

(a)

That all observers be excluded from Senate

meetings except for the presence of authorized

representatives of the press which will be

allowed while nonconfidentjal business is

being conducted.

(b)

That during nonconfidential parts of all Senate

meetings, procedures and deliberations be made

accessible to the university community through

a closed circuit audio system with speakers

provided in the main student cafeteria and

such other areas as are, in the view of the

Chairman of Senate, desirable.

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(c) That if,

in

the view of the Chairman or a

majority of Senate this appears desirable, the

audio circuits be supplemented by closed circuit

television to the same areas as in (.b).

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(ci) That the Chairman of Senate be requireito

take all necessary steps to rigorously enforce

these rules and that in the event that enforce-

ment of these rules,. in the judgement of the

chairman, would require measures less desirable

than the closing of Senate meetings, he be

empowered at his discretion to close meetings

to the public until such time as he considers

enforcement of these rules by reasonable means

possible.

The Senate Committee on Rules and Procedures in

considering other practises in Senate that tend to interfere

with the effective conduct of business, came to the

conclusion that the use of movable microphones during debate

tended to be disruptive and interfered with the efficient

conduct of debate. It therefore makes the following additional

recommendation to Senate:

(2) That if technically feasible and financially possible

the present system of movable microphones be replaced

by an audio system that will be able to pick up all

discussions of Senate without the presence of people

moving individual microphones to individual speakers.

In conclusion, the Senate Committee on Rules and

Procedures urges the Chairman of Senate to take all necessary

and possible steps to obtain Senate approval for these

recommendations such that they can be implemented at the

next meeting of Senate.

I

K. E. Rieckhoff, Chairman

Senate Committee on

Rules and Procedures

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c.c. Dr. A. R. MacKinnon

Dr. D. Sullivan

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