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
0
S.M. 17/05/99
Page 2
1.
Approval of the Agenda
The Agenda was approved as distributed.
2.
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.
3.
Business Arising from the Minutes
There was no business arising from the Minutes.
4.
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.
5.
Reports of Committees
a) ?
Senate Committee on Academic Planning
i)
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
S.M. 17/05/99
Page
3
•
?
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.
J.
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.
b)
?
Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules
i) ?
Paper S.99-41 -
Search Committees for Vice-Presidential Appointments
For this agenda item,
J.
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
M.
Bowman was unable to attend the meeting, L. Boland
had offered to take her place.
S.M. 17/05/99
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
J.
Blaney, seconded by
J.
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
19
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"
Ea
Opinion was expressed that the amendment allowed a much more open opportunity
for students throughout the University to participate.
?
is
S.M. 17/05/99
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
J.
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
J.
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
0
S.M. 17/05/99
Page 7
•
?
Moved by
J.
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
J.
Blaney, seconded by
J.
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
J.
Blaney, seconded by
J.
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
J.
D'Auria, seconded by
J.
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
J.
Blaney, seconded by
J.
Osborne
"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of
Governors, the search committee procedures as set out on pages
9-
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.
0
S.M. 17/05/99
Page
9
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
6
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:
?
9
"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,
J.
McArthur, T. Snutch, S. Wade, S.
Wessel.
Elected: ?
Silvia Wessel, Valerie Dunsterville, James McArthur, Albert Chan
Reference was made to page
2
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
(7
yrs), Peter
Coleman (4 yrs), Len Berggren (7
yrs), Daniel Weeks (1 yr), Kathleen Akins
(3
yrs),
Paul Percival
(9
yrs), Khushwant Dhillon (1 yr), Ken Giffen (11 yrs), Joy Morris
(2
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
0