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DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, October 4, 1999 at 7:00 pm in Room 3210

West Mall Complex

Open Session

Present:

Blaney, Jack, President and Chair

Absent:

Al-Natour, Sameh

Barrow, Robin

Atkins, Stella

Crossley, David

Benezra, Michael

Driver, Jon

Boland, Larry

Dunstervi I le, Valerie

Budra, Paul

Glllies, Mary Ann

Cameron, Rob (representing R. Marten iuk)

Jones, John

Chan, Albert

Kirczenow, George

Chuah, Kuan

Pierce, John

Clayman, Bruce

Sanghera, Balwant

Copeland, Lynn

Warsh, Michael

D'Auria, John

Wong, Milton

Davidson, Willie

Deigrande, James

Emerson, Joseph

Finley, David

Fletcher, James

In attendance:

Harris, Richard

Beckenbach, Andy

Heaney, John

Frisken, Barbara

Hyslop-Margison, Emery

Mahussier, Nicole

Kanevsky, Lannie

Roberts, Mike

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Mathewes, Rolf

Mauser, Gary

McArthur, James

McBride, Stephan

McFetridge, Paul

McInnes, Dina

Munro, Jock

Naef, Barbara

Niwinska, Tina

Ogloff, James

Osborne, Judith

Paterson, David

Peters, Joseph

Peterson, Louis

Reader, Jason

Russell, Robert

Smith, Michael

Steinbach, Christopher

To, Shek Yan

Waterhouse, John

Wessel, Silvia

Wortis, Michael

Yerbury, Cohn

Zazkis, Rina

Watt, Alison, Director, Secretariat Services

Heath, Ron, Dean of Student Services and Registrar

•

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

S.M.04/1O/99

Page 2

The Chair was pleased to introduce and, on behalf of Senate, extend a welcome to

Ms. Susan Bridgeford, Faculty Officer in Arts and Social Sciences, University of

Strathcylde, Scotland who was visiting Simon Fraser University to undertake a study

of student access to higher education.

Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of September 13, 1999

Senate was advised of the following revision to the second sentence of item 4.ii)

Enrolment on page 2: The sentence should read 'final' figures rather than 'actual'

figures, and there has been a 'major' decrease in the number of course registrations.

The Minutes were approved as amended.

Business Arising from the Minutes

Senate was advised that the procedural change regarding Vice-Presidential searches

was approved by the Board of Governors at its meeting in September.

Report of the Chair

President's Task Force on Faculty Renewal and Retention

The Chair reported that his written response to the report from the Task Force was

available on the President's Web page and has been distributed for comment. This

item will be discussed at the November meeting of Senate.

ii)

The University Presidents Council

The Chair reported that TUPC (an organization comprised of the University Presidents

in BC) has recently appointed the current Deputy Minister of Health, Don Avison, as

President in order to provide leadership and stronger liaison at the Ministry level.

Each year at approximately this time the universities prepare a joint submission to the

Ministry. This year's submission essentially deals with access and revenue per

student.

iii)

Convocation

The Chair was very pleased to report that faculty participation had increased

significantly and he felt that the ceremonies had gone very well.

iv)

Convenience Store

The Chair reported that a number of comments had been received, particularly from

students living on campus, about the lack of a convenience store on campus since the

closing of the Shell Station. A small subsidy has therefore been provided to allow the

convenience store in the main level of the AQ to have extended hours Monday to

Friday and remain open on Saturday and Sunday.

S.M.

04/10/99

Page 3

Diamond University Centre

The Chair advised that the opening of the DUC for lunch had been delayed to

October 12

Reports of Committees

Senate Committee on Academic Planning

Paper

S.99-56 -

Faculty of Science - Establishment of the Department of

Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Moved by J. Munro, seconded by W. Davidson

"that Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in

S.99-56,

the establishment of the

Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, effective April 1,

2000"

A. Beckenbach, Director of the Biochemistry Program and Director of the Institute of

Molecular Biology and Biochemistry was in attendance in order to respond to

questions.

. Clarification was requested about the process with respect to contract renewal and

tenure for faculty members holding primary and secondary appointments, and inquiry

was made as to whether there was a formal policy to deal with such procedures.

Senate was advised that contract letters clearly specified which was the primary/home

department of a faculty member and that decisions about renewal/tenure were made

by the home department with input from the secondary department, all of which

formed part of the written record of the case. [Post meeting notation: A.1 1.03 Joint

Appointments is the appropriate existing policy.] Brief discussion followed with

respect to the term affiliate member which was synonymous with the term Adjunct

Professor.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper

S.99-58 -

Moved by J. Munro, seconded by W. Davidson

"that Senate approve, and recommend approval to the Board of

Governors, as set forth in

S.99-57,

the establishment of the Endowed

Forest Renewal BC Chair in Terrain Analysis and Forest Geoscience"

M. Roberts who was Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences at the time the

Endowed Chair was arranged was in attendance in order to respond to questions.

S.M. 04/10/99

Page 4

Concern was expressed about the decline of FRBC over the past few years and its

possible demise and inquiry was made as to how that would impact this program.

Senate was advised that the FRBC had already transferred 3.4 million dollars to the

University for the endowment and assuming that the Chair fulfilled the mandate as set

out in the documentation the funds would be retained.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii) ?

Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules

a) ?

Paper S.99-58 - Report of the Ad Hoc Senate Committee to Review the Student

Conduct Policies

Moved by

Peters, seconded by

Reader

"that Senate approve the revised student conduct policies Ti 0.01, 1

10.02 and T 10.03 and recommend that these revised policies take

effect on 1 January 2000"

J. Peters, Senator and Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee, as well as the other members

of the Committee, R. Harris (also a Senator), B. Frisken, Physics Department and N.

Mahussier, graduate student representative were in attendance in order to respond to

questions.

Concern was expressed about the lack of undergraduate student representation on the

Committee and inquiry was made as to why the undergraduate student had not been

replaced. It was noted that request had been made to the Student Society but a

replacement was not forthcoming.

Concerns/comments/suggestions were expressed about

• Section 1.0 Statement of Principle in T10.01. Suggestion was made that

honesty and freedom from harassment should be inserted. A perceived error

in grammar was noted with respect to the second sentence wherein the student

was referred to in the singular and later on referred to in the plural as 'they'.

Clarification was felt to be needed with respect to how and who would

determine whether a demonstration was considered to be disruptive or not.

• Section 3.1.c of 110.0. Question was raised as to why off campus situations

had been excluded. (Senate's attention was drawn to the newly inserted

section 2.0 which dealt with jurisdiction on and off campus. It was also noted

the 3.1.c referred to attendance at university activities and functions and had

no restriction as to whether they were on or off campus. It was pointed out

that the definition of university related activities was consistent with the

recently approved harassment policy revision.)

• Section 5.2 in T10.02. The list of penalties was felt to be very comprehensive

and the phrase 'but are not limited to' was felt to be unnecessary. This same

comment was also made with respect to Section 4.2.1 of Ti 0.03.

• Section 5.3.b. Opinion was expressed that inadvertent dishonesty could

simply be viewed as an honest mistake and inquiry was made as to the intent

of this section.

S.M.04/10/99

Page 5

. • Section

3.6

of T10.01. Suggestion was made that this section should be

expanded to apply to misuse of any university disciplinary procedures

regardless of who was being charged. (Following discussion, it was agreed

that the word "student" should be removed from the title.)

• Section 8.1 of

TI 0.03.

Suggestion was made that 'inadequate evidence to

support the decision' should be added as an additional grounds for appeal. (It

was noted that 8.1.b would cover the situation where a tribunal made a

decision without having sufficient evidence because that would be considered

an error of fact.)

• Section 8.2 of

Ti 0.03.

Opinion was expressed that the University should not

be able to appeal if the student has been cleared of the charge. It was felt this

was unfair to the student and amounted to double jeopardy. (Contrary views

were expressed as to the meaning of double jeopardy. It was noted that the

only ground for appeal was that new evidence was available and the student

also had the same right.)

• Section 5.4.1 of

T10.03.

It was noted that the Tribunal's decision must be

communicated to the student and the original department(s) and suggestion

was made that the victim should also be notified.

• Section

3.1

.b of Ti 0.01. It was felt that clarification was needed with respect

to what was meant by the term 'well-being' and suggestion was made that

some examples might illustrate the intent.

• ?

Section 5.2 of Ti 0.2. Opinion was expressed in support of the revocation of a

degree.

. With the agreement of Senate, the motion was withdrawn and the document was

referred back to Committee for revision. The Chair stressed that when the document

returned to Senate the intent was to consider the document as a whole without further

editing and Senators having any further questions or comments were asked to submit

them to the Committee within the next day or two.

J. Ogloff, speaking as a member of the UBSD for three years, commented that the

revised policies were very good and had addressed a number of issues that had come

up in hearings. He felt the Committee had done a good job and that the revised

document would be very helpful.

The Chair acknowledged that the Committee had worked very long and hard on these

policies and he extended thanks and appreciation on behalf of the University for their

effort.

7. ?

Other Business

i) ?

Paper S.99-59 - Election Report

Senate was advised that the nominations had been received for the Senate Committee

on International Activities (SCIA) and the International Student Exchange Committee

(ISEC) and that Sameh Al-Natour has been elected by acclamation to both

committees. There were no other nominations received and the remaining positions

remained vacant and would be brought forward to the next meeting.

S.M.04/1O/99

Page 6

8. ?

Information

Date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, November 1,

1999.

The Open Session adjourned at

7:45

pm and the Assembly moved directly into Closed

Session.

Alison Watt

Director, Secretariat Services