S ?
DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE
Minutes of a meeting of the Senate of Simon Fraser University held on Monday,?
November 3, 1997 at 5:30 pm in Room 3210 WMC
Open Session
Present: ?
Blaney, Jack, President
pro
tern
and Chair
Bawa, Parveen
Absent: ?
Baert, Jessica
Berggren, J. Len
Barrow, Robin
Boland, Larry
Beattie, Suzan
Bowman, Marilyn
B lazenko, George
Chan, Albert
Clayman, Bruce
Cleveland, William
Giffen, Ken
Coleman, Peter
Hassan, Nany
D'Auria, John
Howlett, Michael
Dobb, Ted
Lewis, Brian
Dunsterville, Valerie
Marteniuk, Ron
Emmott, Alan
Nip, Harry
Etherington, Lois
Overington, Jennifer
Gagan, David
Parmar, Neelam
Gillies, Mary Ann
Reed, Clyde
Jones, Cohn
Segal, Joseph
Jones, John
Tam, Lawrence
Kanevsky, Lannie
Warsh, Michael
Kirczenow, George
Whitbread, Katherine
Mathewes, Rolf
Wickstrom, Norman
Mauser, Gary
Wong, Tim
McInnes, Dina
Yagi, Ian
Morris, Joy
Naef, Barbara
Ogloff, James
Osborne, Judith
In attendance:
Percival, Paul
Brockman, Joan
Peterson, Louis
Pierce, John
Russell, Robert
Sanghera, Baiwant
Waterhouse, John
Winne, Phil
Wortis, Michael
Yerbury, Cohn
Watt, Alison, Director, Secretariat Services
Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary
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1. ?
The
Approval
Chair
of
advised
the Agendathat
one
?
of the resource persons in attendance with respect to
0
agenda item 5-b-i had another commitment at 6:00 pm and there was no
objection to a request from the Chair to move Senate paper
S.97-79
as the next
item on the agenda. The Agenda was approved as amended.
5-b) University Board on Student Discipline/Senate Committee on Disciplinary
Appeals
i) ?
Paper
S.97-79 -
Annual Report (For Information)
Joan Brockman, Co-ordinator of the University Board on Student Discipline was in
attendance in order to respond to questions.
Senate received the annual report of the UBSD and SCODA for information.
?
2. ?
Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of October 6,
1997
The Minutes were approved as distributed.
?
3. ?
Business Arising from the Minutes
Vector changes - Department of Chemistry
Senate was advised that it had been pointed out to SCAR that these changes
were inappropriately before Senate since vectors are the responsibility of
Departments and Faculties. Discussion at SCAR also revealed that the key issue
relevant to concerns about vector changes related to academic quality,
specifically whether tutorials changed to open laboratories and individual marking
changed to computer-aided marking affected academic quality. As a result,
SCAR decided that this issue should be referred to the Senate Committee on
University Teaching and Learning rather than returning to Senate at this point.
ii) ?
Paper
S.97-77 -
Room Arrangements (For Information)
If the only reason against a change of room for Senate meetings was the expense
of purchasing recording equipment for approximately $10,000, opinion was
expressed that the investment would be worth it to have a more suitable meeting
room. However, the information before Senate seemed to imply that there was
no other adequate room and clarification was requested. Senate was advised
that Strand Hall would not seat Senate membership comfortably but Halpern
Centre might be suitable and there was also a room large enough to hold Senate
in the Maggie Benston Centre. Regardless of where Senate might move to,
recording equipment would have to be purchased since Room 3210 WMC was
the only room with the required infrastructure for recording.
There was a general feeling that further investigation should be made to see what
other rooms might be available, and Senate was informed that SCAR would
reconsider the matter and report back at the January or February meeting of
Senate.
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Page 3
Siii)
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University Policies
Senate was advised that SCAR had discussed the question which had arisen
concerning Senate's role in reviewing University policies. The issue was also
discussed informally at a meeting of the Vice-Presidents and Deans . The issue
will be referred back to SCAR at its next meeting for further consideration and
report back to Senate.
Request was made that SCAR also consider the establishment of regulations for
the future with regard to what Senate should review when new policies are
introduced.
4.
Report of the Chair
The Chair reported that he was pleased to see the letter to the editor- in the
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Vancouver Sun from R. Coe which essentially stressed that the University is
functioning very well and that research and teaching activities are actively
continuing.
Senate was advised that the revised harassment policy will not be considered at
the December meeting as hoped but will come forward to the January meeting
of Senate. The Chair explained that the Task Force had been working very hard
but they are again looking at fundamental parts of the policy and simply require
more time to consider thoroughly the many comments they have received.
In response to an inquiry about the status with respect to the eleven harassment
cases where the Investigative Committees were constituted in violation of the
policy, the Chair advised that the complainants and respondents in those cases
have until November 22nd to make inquiries etc. So far ten out of approximately
15-20
persons have done so. Senate was advised that an external person will be
appointed to review requests for review and questions of inquiry, and to provide
advice with respect to handling each individual case. This person will not act as a
mediator but will only help the university manage the process as expeditiously as
possible.
The Chair, on behalf of Senate, welcomed newly elected Faculty Senator, Robert
Russell from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to Senate.
5.
Reports of Committees
a) ?
Senate Nominating Committee
i)
?
Paper S.97-72 -
Elections
Senate was advised that no nominations were received for the one position
noted on Senate paper S.97-72
and the vacancy will be carried forward.
.
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c) ?
Senate Library Committee/Library Penalties Appeal Committee
?
-10
i) ?
Paper S.97-80 -
Annual Report (For Information)
Ted Dobb, University Librarian and Senator and Secretary to the Senate Library
Committee, and Albert Chan, Senator and Chair of the Library Penalties Appeal
Committee were in attendance in order to respond to questions.
In response to an inquiry as to why the fines were reduced when appeals were
denied, A. Chan explained that when patrons are late returning materials, the
Library can charge processing fees in addition to late fees. When the committee
considers appeals, the decision can be made to deny the appeal but one or other
of these fees can be waived and therefore the fine will be lowered in those
situations.
Following this brief discussion, the Annual Report of the SLC/LPAC was received
by Senate.
6.
Other Business
It was noted that a considerable amount of money is being spent on legal fees
and concern was expressed that legal costs have substantially increased over the
past five years. Opinion was expressed that the University appears to be hiring
lawyers when it may not be totally necessary to do so and instead of spending
money to appeal court decisions etc the money could be much better spent on
things such as funding for scholarships and teaching positions.
The Chair pointed out that there are a variety of administrative items that require
legal services including faculty research contracts, and over the past year.a large
amount of legal fees have been spent on the Burnaby land issue. The Chair
stressed that everyone responsible for administering the University would like to
see legal costs reduced and efforts will be made to minimize legal costs as much
as possible.
The Chair also pointed out that this issue is not directly a matter of Senate
concern and perhaps would be more appropriately raised with the Senate
Committee on University Budget.
7.
Information
The next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate will take place on Monday,
December
1, 1997.
The Open Session adjourned at 5:55 pm and the Assembly moved directly into Closed
Session.
Alison Watt
Director, Secretariat Services
