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DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, December 1, 2003 at 7:00 pm in Room 3210 WMC

Open Session

Present: Stevenson, Michael,

Absent:

President and Chair of Senate

Apaak, Clement

Atkins, Stella

Beynon, Peter

Brennand, Tracy

Budd, James

Clayman, Bruce

Copeland, Lynn

daSilva, Gisele

D'Auria, John

Dickinson, John (representing B. Lewis)

Driver, Jon

Dunsterville, Valerie

Fizzell, Maureen

Fung, Edward

Giacomantonio, Chris

Gill, Alison

Gordon, Robert

Gregory, Titus

Haunerland, Norbert

Hira, Andy

Honda, Barry

Horvath, Adam

Kaila, Pam

Kalanj, Tiffany

Krane, Bill

Love, Ernie

Nesbit, Tom (representing C. Yerbury)

Percival, Paul

Pierce, John

Plischke, Michael

Rozell, Sara

Sears, Camilla

Scott, Jamie

Shaker, Paul

Smith, Donald

Tombe, Trevor

Waterhouse, John

Weeks, Daniel

Wessel, Sylvia

Wong, Josephine

Woodbury, Rob

Heath, Ron, Dean of Student Services/Registrar

Watt, Alison, Director, University Secretariat

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

Grimmett, Peter

Gupta, Kamal

Heaney, John

Higgins, Anne

Jones, Cohn

Lemay, Joanna

Lewis, Brian

Mauser, Gary

McArthur, James

McFetridge, Paul

Naef, Barbara

Peters, Joseph

Thandi, Ranbir

Van Aalst, Jan

Wong, Milton

Yoo, Rick

In attendance:

Blackman, Roger

Dow, Greg

S.M. 1 December 200

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On behalf of Senate, the Chair welcomed newly elected faculty Senator Jamie Scott to

the meeting.

Approval of the Agneda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

2. ?

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of November 3, 2003

The Minutes were approved as distributed.

Business Arising from the Minutes

There was no business arising from the Minutes.

Report of the Chair

There was no report from the Chair.

Question Period

J. D'Auria presented Senate with statistics on classroom space that indicated a serious

lack of usage at certain hours of the day and days of the week. A question was raised as

to whether steps were being taken to take advantage of the available classroom space at

the unused times and whether this topic was under consideration by the Task Force on

Course Accessibility that was formed several months ago. Senate was advised that the

Task Force had been asked to address this issue and to examine ways in which

departments could be provided with incentives to more fully utilize the unused days of

the week and hours of the day. Recommendations from the Task Force that require

legislative approval were expected to come forward through the Senate decision making

process within the next six to eight months.

Reports of Committees

Paper S.03-109 - Annual Report on Student Discipline (For Information)

The Annual Report on Student Discipline, which included reports from the University

Board on Student Discipline, the Senate Committee on Disciplinary Appeals, the Dean of

Student Services/Re g

istrar and the Associate Dean of Student Services, was received by

Senate for information.

Senate Committee on University Priorities

i) ?

Paper S.03-1 10— External Review - Department of Economics

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by J. Pierce

"that Senate concur with the recommendations from the Senate Committee

on University Priorities concerning advice to the Department of

Economics

inS.03-110"

on priority items resulting from the external review as outlined

S.M. 1 December 2003

Page 3

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G. Dow, Chair of the Department of Economics, was in attendance in order to respond to

questions.

Referring to a statement in the external review with respect to possible opportunities for

increasing links with the rest of the university and thereby increasing the opportunity for

breadth of education for students in Economics, inquiry was made as to whether there

was a possibility of increasing co-operation between Political Science, the Centre for

Global Political Economy, and the Department of Economics.

With respect to the last sentence in recommendation 9 about the integration of searchable

bibliographic databases with digital library holdings, Senate was advised that this has

been a top priority for the Library for years and the particular database which was

referred to was in place several weeks after the review took place.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii) ?

Paper S.03-111 - Proposal for the Development of Graduate Certificate Programs

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by J. Driver

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

the proposal for the development of Graduate Certificate Programs as

outlined in S.03-111 "

It was noted that there were concerns about the length of time students were taking to

complete degree programs, and a question arose as to whether the addition of certificate

programs would have an impact on completion time. Senate was advised that since

students could complete their course requirements for a degree by taking courses that

would also satisfy certificate requirements this was not expected to have a major impact

for the majority of students although it could extend the length of time by a semester or

so for the occasional student.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

C) ?

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

i) ?

Paper S.03-112 - Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Arts

Moved by J. Pierce, seconded by B. Clayman

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

as set forth in S.03-112, the deletion of the Certificate and Post

Baccalaureate Diploma in Public History Programs"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

S.M. 1 December 2003

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Senate received information that the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies, acting

under delegated authority, approved minor revisions to existing courses and programs in

the following departments/schools/programs: History, Humanities, Linguistics, Political

Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Latin American Studies, and

Canadian Studies.

ii) ?

Paper S.03-113 - Deletion of

Courses Not Offered/Temporarily Withdrawn and

Reinstated Courses (For Information)

Senate received information that the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies, acting

under delegated authority, approved the deletion of ten courses, temporarily withdrew

forty-one courses, and reinstated three courses.

Inquiry was made as to why the Department of History was deleting/shelving twice as

many courses as the other departments. Senate was advised that the History Department

had approximately ten times the number of credits required for a major and attempts were

being made to streamline their course offerings. In addition, as a result of demographic

shifts and changes, the department, like many other History departments across Canada,

was in a period of transition and change.

Senate Nominating Committee

i) ?

Paper S.03-114 - Elections - Senate Committee Vacancies

The following are the results of elections which took place by Senate. There were

insufficient nominations received to fill all positions. Vacancies will be carried forward.

Senate Appeals Board (SAB)

One Faculty Member Alternate (at-large) to replace L. Hanlan for term of office to May

31,2005.

Elected by acclamation:

Heesoon Bai

Senate Committee on University Teaching and Learning (SCUTL)

One Faculty Member (Arts) to replace T. Grieve for term of office to May 31, 2005.?

Elected by acclamation: ?

Nicole (Nicky) Didicher

Senate Committee on Continuing Studies (SCCS)

One Student Senator to replace E. Fung for term of office to May 31, 2004.

No nominations received

Senate Nominating Committee (SNC)

One Senator to replace J. Vaisey for term of office to May 31, 2004.?

Elected by acclamation: ?

Tracy Brennand

Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules (SCAR)

One Senator to replace J. Vaisey for term of office to May 31, 2005.?

Elected by acclamation:

John Dickinson

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S.M. 1 December 2003

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Senate Committee on University Priorities (SCUP)

One Faculty Senator (Education) to replace P. Grimmett for term of office to May 31,

2004.

Elected by acclamation:

Adam Horvath

7. ?

Other Business

Paper S.03-115 - Annual Report - University Library (For Information)

J. D'Auria wished to acknowledge and express his strong support for the statements on

page 3 of the report which demonstrate that the University was doing extremely well with

respect to electronic library resources.

The Chair expressed his opinion that the quality of library services should be judged on

the availability of such innovative electronic resources rather than the number of volumes

in their holdings and he was disappointed that MacLeans in their annual rankings of

universities do not take this type of resource into consideration.

ii)

Paper S.03-116 - Motion re National Day of Action

Moved by C. Sears, seconded by C. Giacomantonio

"Be it resolved that Senate requests that no student be penalized

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academically for his or her participation in the February 4, 2004 National

"Day of Action", and

Be it further resolved that Senate requests that faculty make every effort to

accommodate those students who wish to participate in the February 4,

2004 National "Day of Action."

Senate was provided with brief background information with respect to the purpose of the

'Day of Action' and provided information about the expected participation by the Simon

Fraser Student Society in the event.

Although sympathetic to the sense of the motion, a Senator expressed concern with the

specific wording relative to the first clause dealing with academic penalties; wording

which was felt to be unclear and potentially open to misinterpretation. It was noted that

that the wording did not specify to whom the request was being made although the

logical assumption would be the instructor. However, since that request would be

covered by the second clause it was felt that the first clause was redundant. It was further

noted that academic penalty would only occur for failing to complete the academic

requirements of a course, not for participation in the Day of Action, and opinion was

expressed that it was inappropriate for Senate to ask faculty to withhold academic

penalties in this type of situation. There was no objection to the idea that faculty could be

asked to accommodate students by not holding tests on that day or allowing students to

turn in assignments early, etc. but where attendance was required, especially in certain

laboratory or studio courses that could not be rescheduled the student would have to

S.M. 1 December 2003

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make a choice to either forego attendance in the Day of Action or miss the course and

bear the consequences.

Agreement was expressed that it would make sense to specify that the request was

directed to the instructor. In response to the concern about academic penalties, it was

noted that since it was simply a request, not a demand, instructors were free to interpret

the wording as they saw fit and if an instructor decided that it was not possible to make

accommodations it was his/her choice to disregard the request from Senate. Although it

was agreed that there was some redundancy involved, since the motion attempted to

speak to both negative and positive actions. it was felt that both clauses should remain for

the purpose of clarification.

The following revision was accepted as a friendly amendment to the first clause of the

motion:

"Be it resolved that Senate requests that

instructors do not penalize

students

academically for

their

participation in the February 4, 2004

National "Day of Action", and

Subject to the clarifications with respect to the intent of the motion,

Question was called and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

iii) In advance of the Closed Session, the Chair asked the permission of Senate to

invite Warren Gill, Acting Vice President University Relations to the Closed Session.

The Chancellor, who was Chair of the SCUH, was unable to attend this Senate meeting

and since W. Gill was Acting President at the time of the Committee's decisions

regarding honorary degree nominations, the Chair felt it was important that he attend as a

resource person on behalf of the Committee. There were no objections from Senate.

8. ?

Information

The date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, January 5, 2004.

Open Session adjourned at 7:35 pm. Following a brief recess, Senate moved into Closed

Session.

Alison Watt

Director, University Secretariat