DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, November 3, 2003 at

5:15

pm in Room 3210 WMC

Open Session

Present:

Stevenson, Michael

President and Chair of Senate

Apaak, Clement

Beynon, Peter

Cameron, Rob (representing B. Lewis)

Clayman, Bruce

da Silva, Gisele

D'Auria, John

Dickinson, John

Driver, Jon

Dunsterville, Valerie

Fairey, Elaine (representing L. Copeland)

Fizzell, Maureen

Fung, Edward

Giacomantonio, Chris

Gill, Alison

Gillies, Mary Ann (representing J. Pierce)

Gregory, Titus

Grimmett, Peter

Haunerland, Norbert

Heaney, John

Higgins, Anne

Hira, Andy

Horvath, Adam

Krane, Bill

Lemay, Joanne

Love, Ernie

McFetridge, Paul

Percival, Paul

Plischke, Michael

Rozell, Sara

Sears, Camilla

Shaker, Paul

Thandi, Ranbir

Tombe, Trevor

Van Aalst, Jan

Waterhouse, John

Weeks, Dan

Wessel, Sylvia

Wong, Josephine

Yerbury, Cohn

Absent:

Atkins, Stella

Brennand, Tracy

Budd, James

Gordon, Robert

Gupta, Kamal

Honda, Barry

Jones, Cohn

Kaila, Pam

Kalanj, Tiffany

Mauser, Gary

McArthur, James

Naef, Barbara

Peters, Joseph

Scott, Jamie

Smith, Don

Wong, Milton

Woodbury, Rob

Yoo, Rick

In attendance:

Brandhorst, Bruce

Brohman, John

French, Charlotte

Gupta, Arvind

Kenny, Michael

Smith, Michael

• ?

Heath, Ron, Dean of Student Services/Registrar

Watt, Alison, Director, University Secretariat

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

S.M. 3 November 2003

Page 2

Following the announcement by the Chair of the very sad and sudden death of Senator

Jacques Vaisey, Senate held a minute of silence in his memory.

Approval of the Agenda

The Chair gave notice that in closed session there would be a motion to amend the

agenda in order to add an important item. The agenda for the open session was approved

as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of September

15,

2003

The Minutes were approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of October 6, 2003

Reference was made to the last sentence of the second paragraph on page 10 of the

minutes. The option of teaching buy-outs was also mentioned as a possibility and

suggestion was made that reference should be included in the minutes, and the last

sentence was amended as follows:

"With respect to the joint appointment process, departments would not lose half the

teaching services of a faculty member as faculty members

could

be similarly cross-

appointed from the new Faculty to existing departments/schools

or funds for teaching

buy-outs could be provided."

Following this amendment, the Minutes were approved.

Business Arising from the Minutes

There was no business arising from either set of Minutes.

Report of the Chair

i) ?

Paper S.03-102 - President's Agenda (For Information)

The President's Agenda which included a statement of objectives for the coming year

was received by Senate for information.

The Chair reported on meetings in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal with the Association of

Universities and Colleges (AUCC) regarding issues related to the financing of

universities, and with various Government representatives with respect to federal policy

related to the funding of capacity and accessibility with respect to post-secondary

education across Canada. Meetings were also held in Vancouver with the House of

Commons Standing Committee on Finance respecting the need for a new federal-

provincial partnership to address questions of accessibility nationwide and in British

Columbia particularly. In addition, a meeting with the new Provincial Deputy Minister

of Advanced Education to discuss questions of financing and Government commitments

that were not adequately covered in the current budget letters had also taken place. The

Chair believed that issues of quality and accessibility in universities was now better

understood at both levels of Government and there appeared to be a more positive

attitude towards issues surrounding post-secondary education, especially at the federal

level.

S.M. 3 November 2003

Page 3

Question Period

There were no questions submitted.

6. ?

Reports of Committees

A) ?

Senate Committee on University Priorities

i) ?

Paper S.03-103 - External Review - Latin American Studies Program

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by M.A. Gillies

"that Senate concur with the recommendations from the Senate Committee

on University Priorities concerning the advice to the Latin American

Studies Program on priority items resulting from the external review as

outlined in S.03-103"

J. Brohman, Director, Latin American Studies Program and M. Kenny, Department of

Sociology and Anthropology were in attendance in order to respond to questions.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

is ?

ii) ?

Paper S.03-104 - Graduate Diploma in Bioinformatics

Prior to the formal motion, Sënate was advised that since the use of the numbers 601,

602, and 603 for the new courses in MBB would create difficulty with the cross listing of

in Computing Science, both departments had agreed to change these numbers to 611,

612, 613.

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by P. Percival

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

the proposal for a Graduate Diploma in Bioinformatics as outlined in S.03-

104, including new courses MBB

505, 506,

611, 612, 613,

659,

669, 679"

B. Brandhorst and M. Smith, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and A.

Gupta, School of Computing Science were in attendance in order to respond to questions.

A question was posed as to how much more work was required for a Master's degree and

why students would want the diploma versus a master's degree. Senate was advised that

the diploma was designed as part of the master's program but did not require a thesis and

would attract students who were already in the industry and wanted to come back for

updating and some additional advanced education.

. ?

A Senator asked how the new courses being introduced for this program would be offered

without the addition of new faculty. Senate was advised that since the diploma program

S.M. 3 November 2003

Page 4

was a subset of the existing Master's program, many of the new courses were. already

offered as special topics courses so that resources were already in place. ?

40.

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

iii) ?

Paper S.03-105 - Final Update Report External Review - Faculty of Business

Administration (For Information)

Senate received the final update report from the Faculty of Business Administration and

received information that the Faculty had successfully fulfilled the recommendations put

forward by SCUP in September 2001 as a result of the February 1999 external review

report.

B) ?

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships. Awards and Bursaries

i) ?

Paper S.03-106 - Annual Report (For Information)

J. D'Auria, Senator and Chair of SPCSAB, and C. French, Director, Academic

Resources, Registrar's Office were in attendance in order to respond to questions.

It was noted that the value of the Open Scholarships was less than the cost of a credit

hour and inquiry was made as to when the value was decreased from an exact match.

Senate was advised that the diliãr value of the Open Scholarship had started tcidecrease

in 2000/2001 in order to stay within the budget allocated for scholarships. A follow-up

question asked why it had been decided to adjust the value per credit hour rather than

adjust the GPA requirement which has been maintained at 3.70. Senate was advised that

although there was no set policy, the Committee tried to maintain a reasonable GPA and

tried to balance the funds between the different types of scholarships and bursaries so that

as many students as possible received something.

Reference was made to statistics on page 35 and inquiry was made with respect to the

balance remaining for graduate fellowship allocations in Business Administration.

Senate was advised that this particular table was produced in Fall of 2002 and was

intended to show the allocation to departments, not the total number of awards given.

Most departments award their graduate fellowships during the Spring but Business

Administration awards their fellowships in the Fall so the table reflected the difference in

the way graduate enrolment and award disbursement was done in different Faculties.

A question arose as to whether there was a minimum bursary amount for students in need

and reference was made to students who had applied for approximately $100041500 and

only received

$50.

Senate was advised that the needs assessment not only takes into

consideration what the student has requested, it also includes a reasonableness factor used

to make adjustments up or down and an expectation of a minimum contribution from the

student. Amounts allocated also depend on what the total assessed need is in any given

semester and what the budget allocation is in any given year. It was pointed out that

there was no difference between assessments for international and domestic students.

S.M. 3 November 2003

Page 5

In response to a question as to how SFU compared to other universities in terms of

scholarships and bursaries, Senate was advised that in terms of Entrance Scholarships

SFU was competitive with UBC, slightly better than University of Victoria and the

University of Calgary, but slightly behind some of the schools in Ontario where, over the

past several years, there have been significant fee increases with a proportion of the

money directed to scholarships. However the $3000 value of the Entrance Scholarship at

SFU is better than the average range which is usually between $2000-$2500. The Open

Scholarship at SFU is one of the best supports for in-course students at any university in

Canada.

C)Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules

i) ?

Paper S.03-107 - Membership - Senate Committee on University Honours

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by B. Clayman

"that the Chair of the Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards

and Bursaries be added as an

ex officio

member of SCUH with voting

privileges"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

D) ?

Senate Nominating Committee

i) ?

Paper S.03-108 - Elections - Senate Committee Vacancies

Senate was advised that two nominations had been received resulting in the election by

acclamation of Derrick Harder to the Undergraduate Student (at-large) position on the

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies for term of office to May 31, 2004, and the

election by acclamation of Trevor Tombe to the Undergraduate Student (at-large)

position on the Senate Library Committee and the Library Penalties Appeal Committee

for term of office to May 31, 2005. No nominations were received for the outstanding

positions on the Senate Appeals Board, the Senate Committee on University Teaching,

and the Senate Committee on Continuing Studies and those vacancies would be carried

forward.

Other Business

There was no other business.

Information

The date of the next regularly scheduled meeting is Monday, December 1, 2003.

Open Session adjourned at

5:55

pm and Senate moved into Closed Session following a short

break.

. ?

Alison Watt

Director, University Secretariat