DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, December 3, 2007 at

5:30

pm in Room 3210 WMC

Present:Easton, Stephen. Vice-Chair of Senate

Abdulwabab, Kamal

Atkins, Stella

Black, Sam

Brebner, Sarah

Corbett, Kitty

Cormack, Lesley

Dagenais, Diane

Driver, Jon

Fizzell, Maureen

Fox, Amy

Gencay, Ramo

Gordon, Robert

Hannah, David

Harder, Derrick

Harding, Kevin

Haunerland, Norbert (representing M. Pinto)

Hemingway, Alex

Krane, William

Laba, Martin

LaBne, John

Lee, Benjamin

Letourneau, Michael

Lewis, Brian

Li, Paul

Liljedahl, Peter

Malcoe, Lorraine Halinka

Mundle, Todd (representing L. Copeland)

Paling, Joe

Percival, Cohn

Percival, Paul

Peters, Joseph

Plischke, Michael

Popadiuk, Natalee

Russell, Robert

Shaker, Paul

Shermer, Thomas

Thompson, Steve

Tiffany, Evan

Tse, Karen

Vaid, Bhuvinder

van Baarsen, Amanda

Wakkary, Ron

Warner, D 'Arcy

Waterhouse, John

Weeks, Daniel

Williams, Tony

Ross, Kate, Registrar and Senior Director Student

• ?

Enrolment

Watt, Alison, Director, University Secretariat

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

Open Session

Absent

Brennand, Tracy

Dickinson, Peter

Francis, June

Hayes, Michael

Javed, Waseem

Lein, Adam

Louie, Brandt

McArthur, James

O'Neil, John

Smart, Carolyne

Smith, Don

Stevenson, Michael

Williams, Peter

In attendance:

Duguid, Stephen

Hinchliffe, Jo

Wister, Andrew

S.M. 3 December 2007

Page

Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval

of the Minutes of the O

en Session of November

2007

The Minutes were approved as distributed.

Business Arisin

g from the Minutes

There was no business arising from the Minutes.

Rep

ort of the Chair

There was no report from the Chair.

Question Period

There were no questions.

Re ports

of Committees

A) ?

Senate Committee on Universit

Priorities

Paper S.07-140 - PhD Pro

gram

in Gerontology

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded on K. Harding

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

proposal for a PhD program in Gerontology in the Faculty of Arts and

Social Sciences" ?

A. Wister, Chair, Department of Gerontology, was in attendance in order to respond to

questions.

A Senator congratulated the Chair, and his colleagues in the Department, for the

outstanding proposal and for all of the work that has been done in bringing this academic

unit up to this point.

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper S.07-141 - External Review - Department of Humanities

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by M. Letourneau

"that Senate approve the recommendations from the Senate Committee on

University Priorities concerning advice to the Department of Humanities

and the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences on priority items resulting from

the External Review"

S. Duguid, Chair, Department of Humanities, was in attendance in order to respond to

questions.

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

S.M. 3 December 2007

Page 3

iii) ?

Pa p

er S.07-142 - Audain Visitin g

Chair in Visual Arts - Terms of Reference

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by K. Harding

"that Senate approve and recommend to the Board of Governors, the terms

of reference for the Audain Visiting Chair in Visual Arts"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

iv) ?

Pa p

er S.07-143 - Merck Frosst LEEF Chair in Pharmaceutical Genomics and

Bioinformatics in Dru

Discovery

Moved by J. Waterhouse, seconded by P. Percival

"that Senate approve and recommend to the Board of Governors, the terms

of reference for the Merck Frosst LEEF Chair in Pharmaceutical

Genomics and Bioinformatics in Drug Discovery"

A general discussion took place with respect to concerns expressed about the corporate

naming of Chairs and the appointment process followed with respect to this particular

Chair. Senate was reminded that Merck Frosst had provided an endowment, not a

research grant or contract, and advised that there were absolutely no conditions attached

to the donation. Assurance was also given that the proposed terms of reference were

followed for this targeted search. In response to a question it was noted that the

appointee has an outstanding research record and it was confirmed that he had retired

from the position of Director of Research from that company.

Reference was made to page 3, point 4, under the heading of Appointment. A suggestion

was made to delete the words 'in the relevant department' in the last sentence pertaining

to teaching load since teaching loads were specified by policy. Since the suggestion was

not considered a friendly amendment, the following formal amendment was made.

An amendment was proposed by D. Weeks, seconded by M. Letourneau

"that the four words —in the relevant department- at the end of point 4

under The Appointment be deleted and a period added to end the

sentence"

Discussion ensued in which it was pointed out that teaching loads vary across

departments and Faculties and therefore the norm for a faculty teaching load could be

quite different from one academic unit to another so reference to the relevant department

was in fact required.

Question was called on the amendment,

and a vote taken. ?

AMENDMENT FAILED

S.M. 3 December 2007

Page

Brief discussion followed about why approval of the terms of reference had been delayed.

Senate was advised that the appointment was made in early 2007 but the formal

announcement of the Chair was not made by the Provincial Government until quite some

time later.

Question was called on the main motion,

and a vote taken. ?

MAIN MOTION CARRIED

Senate Committee on Academic Integrity in Student Learning

i) ?

Paver S.07-144 - Annual Retort (For Information)

R. Gordon, Senator and Chair of the Committee, and J. Hinchliffe, Secretary of the

Committee were in attendance in order to respond to questions.

Support was expressed for the use of the incident reports but concern was raised that their

use was inconsistent with current policy. Clarification was requested as to how the

multiple copies of the reports were being used and whether central record keeping had

been established. In addition, a question was raised as to whether there would be a

mechanism in place allowing faculty to check through a central location for multiple

infractions. Senate was advised that the Assistant Registrar and Academic Integrity

Coordinator in the Registrar's Office was responsible for accumulating and analyzing the

content of incident reports received, and the intent was to produce reports from time to

time. Access to information about a student's record was not something that would be

available to individual instructors under the new policy, but Chairs/Directors and

departmental Academic Integrity Advisors, when determining an appropriate penalty in

cases of academic dishonesty, would be able to check with the Registrar's Office to find

out if there were previous incidents of academic dishonesty in other departments. Senate

was advised that the current policy does not prohibit the use of the incident forms and

faculty and academic integrity advisors are encouraged to use them.

Reference was made to page 3 regarding the paragraph on Turnitin.com . It was pointed

out that although faculty members were not required to use this service, some

departments require students to do so and, a concern was expressed that there was no

alternate option available for assignment submission for students not wishing to use

Tumitin.com

Concern was expressed that there was no discretionary provision allowing instructors to

treat varying degrees of academic dishonesty differently. It was noted that the current

policy allows discretion at the instructor level, and if the incident is relatively minor,

nothing goes beyond the instructor level. However, under the new procedure, all

incidents have to be reported on an incident form with copies going to the Chair and the

Registrar's Office. Senate was advised that instructors would still be able to exercise the

same discretion with respect to the level of penalty under the proposed policy. The

Committee was concerned with trying to standardize practice/penalties across campus

S.M. 3 December 2007

Page

• ?

and it was hoped that as the Academic Integrity Advisor system begins to operate, more

standardized practices will evolve.

It was pointed out that the advantage of filling out the forms for even minor cases was

that the central record keeping unit would become aware of students who received

warnings in several departments across campus.

An opinion was expressed that having to fill out paperwork for every case and deal with

individual students involved in incidents of academic dishonesty puts a considerable

burden on instructors and Academic Integrity Advisors.

The Committee was commended for its work, and there was general agreement that the

Committee was headed in the right direction but more work needed to be done so that the

issues raised could be clarified.

C) ?

Senate Committee on Continuin

Studies

i) ?

Paper

.07-145 - Annual Report (For Information)

The 2006/2007 Annual Report of the Senate Committee on Continuing Studies was

received by Senate for information.

• ?

D) ?

Senate Committee on Underg

raduate Studies

Paper 5.07-146 - Curriculum Changes - Faculty

of A

lied Sciences (For

Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved curriculum revisions in Communication, Interactive

Arts and Technology, and Engineering Science.

ii)

Paper S.07-147 - Curriculum Chan

es - Facult

of Arts and Social Sciences (For

Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved curriculum revisions in Political Science, History,

Criminology, and Explorations Program, SFU Surrey.

iii)

Pa per

S.07-148 - Curriculum Chan

es - Faculty

of Education (For Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved curriculum revisions in the Faculty of Education.

S.M. 3 December 2007

Page

iv)

Paper

S.07-149 - Curriculum Chan

es - Faculty

of Science (For Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved curriculum revisions in Chemistry, Environmental

Science, Physics, Management and System Science.

Paper S.07-150 - Annual Re

port

(For Information)

The 2006/2007 Annual Report of the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies was

received by Senate for information.

E) ?

Senate Graduate Studies Committee

Paper

S.07-151 -

Revision to Graduate General Re

ulation 1.5.1 re

g ardin g

notations -

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by M. Letoumeau

"that Senate approve the change of wording to Graduate General

Regulation

1.5.1"

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper S.07-152 - New Course - International Studies (For Information)

Senate received information that the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, acting under

delegated authority, approved a new course in the School for International Studies.

iii)

Pa p

er S.07-153 - Course Deletions - Health Sciences (For Information)

Senate received information that the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, acting under

delegated authority, approved seven courses in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

iv)

per

S.07-154 -

New Course - Earth Sciences (For Information)

Senate received information that the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, acting under

delegated authority, approved a new course in the Department of Earth Sciences.

F) ?

Senate Committee on A

enda and Rules

i) ?

Paper

S.07-155 -

Changes

to Terms of Reference - Senate Committee on

Enrolment Management and Plannin

(SCEMP)

I ],

Moved by

Waterhouse, seconded by K. Harding

S.M. 3 December 2007

Page 7

•

"that Senate approve that the word 'limiting' be replaced with 'managing'

in article 3; that the word 'limitation' be replaced with 'management' in

articles 4 and

and a new article be added:

7. To coordinate and monitor student enrolment and retention activities

between the Faculties and Student Services"

In response to an inquiry as

why the change in wording was required, Senate was

advised that the revision was intended to convey a change in the Committee's perspective

signifying that it was more concerned with managing a range of issues related to student

recruitment, retention, and attrition rather than a simply limiting student enrolment.

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

ii) ?

Paper

S.07-156 -

Chan

es to terms of reference - International Student Exchange

Committee (ISEC

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by M. Letoumeau

"that Senate approve that ISEC membership include on faculty member

from each Faculty"

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

• ?

Brief discussion took place with respect to Part B of Paper S.07-156 which dealt with a

proposal to change the eligibility criteria for students wishing to go on an exchange. The

intent of the change was to delete the priority given to domestic students over

international students. Opinion was expressed that international students were already

having an international experience by being at SFU, and a suggestion was made to give

domestic students going on their first exchange program priority, following which all

other students - both domestic and international - would then be considered. Senate was

advised there were insufficient students applying for international exchanges and ISEC

felt that the current criteria reduced the pool of potential applicants by signaling to

international students that they would be low on the priority list. The Committee would

like to see if this change makes a difference.

Brief discussion followed with respect to whether it was appropriate for this change to

come to Senate for information or whether it should have come for approval. It was

pointed out that under the existing terms of reference, ISEC has responsibility for

formulating the selection criteria for student participation in exchange programs,

therefore the change was within the committee's mandate.

G) ?

Senate Nominating Committee

i) ?

Paper S.07-157 - Elections

•

Senate was advised that two nominations had been received for the Research Ethics

Board and that balloting was required. Balloting resulted in the election of Benjamin Lee

S.M. 3 December 2007

Page

to the Member from the University position on the Research Ethics Board (REB) for term

of office from January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008. The remaining vacancy for the Senate

Committee on International Activities (S CIA) would be carried forward to the next

meeting.

Other Business

There was no other business.

Information

The date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, January 7, 2007.

The Open Session adjourned at

6:15

pm, and Senate moved directly into Closed Session.

Alison Watt ?

Director, University Secretariat