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DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE
Minutes of a Meeting of the Senate of Simon Fraser University held on
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Monday, December 1, 2003 at 7:00 pm in Room 3210 WMC
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Open Session
Present: Stevenson, Michael,
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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.
4.
Report of the Chair
There was no report from the Chair.
5.
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.
6.
Reports of Committees
A)
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.
B)
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
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ie
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.
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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.
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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
is
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Baccalaureate Diploma in Public History Programs"
Question was called, and a vote taken.
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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.
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ii) ?
Paper S.03-113 - Deletion of
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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.
D)
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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.
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Elected by acclamation:
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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.?
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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.?
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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.?
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Elected by acclamation:
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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:
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Adam Horvath
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7. ?
Other Business
i)
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
Page6
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.
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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