DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, January 12, 2009 at 5:30 pm in Room 3210 WMC

Open Session

Present:

Stevenson, Michael, President and Chair of Senate

Arsenault-Antolick, Haida

Bains, Aman

Bart, Brad

Bocking, Natalie

Chapman, Glenn

Collinge, Joan

Copeland, Lynn

Cormack, Lesley

Dagenais, Diane (representing S. de Casteli)

Driver, Jon

Easton, Stephen

Francis, June

Gençay, Ramo

Gibson, Eli

Golnaraghi, Fand

Gordon, Irene (representing D. Shapiro)

Gordon, Robert

Hannah, David

Joes, Michel

Krane, Bill

Lee, Benjamin

Letourneau, Michael

O'Neil, John

Parkhouse, Wade

Patel, Ravi

Pavsek, Christopher

Percival, Cohn

Percival, Paul

Pinto, Mario

Plischke, Michael

Popowich, Fred (representing C. Jones)

Russell, Robert

Seal, Brent

Tapia, Earl Von

Thompson, Steve

Tiny, Evan

van der Wey, Dolores

Wakkary, Ron

Warner, D'Arcy

Williams, Tony

Ross, Kate, Registrar & Senior Director Student Enrolment

Watt, Alison, Director, University Secretariat

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

Absent:

Brennand, Tracy

Dow, Greg

Fergusson, Andrew

Fizzell, Maureen

Harding, Kevin

Janes, Craig

Laba, Martin

Leznoff, Daniel

Liljedahl, Peter

Louie, Brandt

MacDonald, Camille

McArthur, James

Paling, Joseph

Peters, Joseph

Popadiuk, Natalee

Scott, Jamie

Shermer, Thomas

Vaid, Bhuvinder

In attendance:

Di Francesco, Concetta

Geiger, Andrea

Hinchliffe, Jo

MacAlister, David

Rahilly, Tim

S.M 12

January

2009

Page 2

Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of December 1. 2008

Reference was made to the use of the word 'incredible' in the last sentence on page 4, and

amendment if necessary, was left to the discretion of the Senate Secretary. The Minutes

were subsequently approved.

Business Arising from the Minutes

Senate had requested a report on questions which were posed concerning tutorials in

Psychology and the offering of summer courses in Political Science. The Dean of Arts and

Social Sciences reported that not all tutorials in Psychology have been eliminated.

Tutorials continue for PSYC 099, 201 and various upper division courses. Scheduled

tutorials in PSYC 100 and 102 have been changed to an open lab format that requires

attendance at various points in the semester. Twelve courses (4 Upper Division [1 by

Distance Education] and 8 Lower Division) are scheduled to be offered in Summer 2009

in Political Science, the same number of courses as was offered in 2008.

Report of the Chair

There was no report from the Chair.

Question Period

There were no questions.

Reports of Committees

A) ?

Paper S.09-1 Annual Report on Student Discipline Matters (For Information)

The following persons were in attendance in order to respond to questions: D.

MacAlister, Outgoing Co-ordinator, University Board on Student Discipline; A. Geiger,

Chair, Senate Committee on Disciplinary Appeals, C. Di Francesco, Secretary, Senate

Committee on Disciplinary Appeals, J

Hinchliffe, Academic Integrity Co-ordinator, and

T. Rahilly, Senior Director, Student & Community Life.

In response to an inquiry with respect to SCODA cases 2 and 3, the Chair of SCODA

briefly explained the basis of the Committee's decision to remove the academic dishonesty

report. The one case involved a procedural error which denied the student an opportunity

to be heard, and in the second case the Committee concluded that the plagiarism was very

marginal and did not warrant retention of the form in the student's file. The Chair of

SCODA expressed the view that the one form fits all approach does not always work as

various departments and faculty members have different views and a broad range of

definitions on what constitutes plagiarism. It was also noted that the form not only acts as

a matter of academic record, it does, in a sense impose a penalty, in that once fried it

actually creates a discipline record in the student's file. It was suggested that it would be

beneficial if the form could take into account the range of acts that support a finding of

plagiarism; some instances are very much calculated and intended to deceive while others

S.M 12 January 2009

Page 3

•

are due to inadvertence. On behalf of Senate and the University, the Chair thanked all

concerned for their work and service to the University in this area.

B) ?

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

Paper S.09-2 - Undergraduate Curriculum Revisions - Facult

of Arts and Social

Sciences (For Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved new courses, deletion of courses, WQB Course

Designations, and changes to existing courses in the following departments/programs:

Archeology, Criminology, Economics, Contemporary Arts, Humanities, Linguistics,

Sociology/Anthropology, Women's Studies, Geography, and the Language Training

Institute.

ii)

Paper S.09-3 - Undergraduate Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Science (For

Information)

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

underdelegated authority, approved deletion of courses in Earth Sciences, Mathematics,

and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

C) ?

Senate Graduate Studies Committee

Paper S.09-4 - Revision to Graduate General Regulation 1.10.6 Examination of

Projects Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of Degree Requirements

Senate was advised that Paper S.09-4 was withdrawn from the Agenda.

ii)

Paper S.09-5 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Applied Sciences (For

Information)

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

delegated authority, approved new courses, changes to degree and program requirements,

and minor revisions to existing courses in the following departments/programs:

Communication, Computing Science, Interactive Arts and Technology.

iii)

Paper S.09-6 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Arts and Social

Sciences (For Information)

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

delegated authority, approved changes to requirements (degree, program, admission) in

the following departments/programs: Geography, Gerontology, Latin American Studies.

• ?

iv) ?

Paper S.09-7 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Business

Administration (For Information)

S.M 12 January 2009

Page 4

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

delegated authority, approved changes to the description of the thesis proposal defense and

minor revisions to courses in the Faculty of Business Administration.

Paper S.09-8 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Facult

y of Health Sciences (For

Information)

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

delegated authority, approved minor revisions to courses in the Faculty of Health

Sciences.

vi)

Paper S.09-9 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Science (For

Information)

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

delegated authority, approved minor revisions to courses in Physics. and Earth Sciences.

D) ?

Senate Committee on Academic Integrtv in Student Learning and Evaluation

i) ?

Paper S.09-10 - Final Report (For Information)

It was

Gordon,

noted

Senator

that R.

and

Gordon

Chair

has

been

SCAISLE

Chair

was

of the

available

Committee

to respond

since its

inception

questions.and

motion moved by P. Percival and seconded by S. Easton was unanimously approved

thanking R. Gordon for his exemplary service to Senate and the committee members for

their hard work in this regard.

Senate was advised that expectations are that the revised discipline polices will be

presented to Senate at the next meeting.

The Final Report of the Committee was received by Senate for information.

7. ?

Other Business

i) ?

Paper S.09-11 - Academic Amnest

Motion

Moved by N. Bocking, seconded by R. Patel

"that Senate requests that faculty and instructors make every effort to

accommodate students who wish to participate in the February 4' rally and

not penalize these students academically"

Senate was reminded that the motion conforms to precedent from past resolutions of this

kind.

S.M 12 January 2009

Page

•

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii) ?

Paper S.09-12 —Revision to Policy A13.05 - Search Committee for the Dean of

Librar y

Services/Universit y

Librarian

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by S. Easton

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

revised updated search committee policy for the Dean of Library

Services/University Librarian"

Reference was made to items 7 and 8 on page 3 of the terms of reference and it was

suggested that since these items relate to terms of appointment rather than issues for the

search committee, they do not belong in the policy. There is a separate policy describing

terms of appointment for Faculty Deans and the suggestion was made that the paper be

withdrawn and revised in order to bring it in accord with other policies. It was pointed

out that this was a not a Faculty Dean appointment and therefore would not fit exactly

with terms and conditions of Faculty Deans.

The Dean of Arts and Social Sciences noted that the proposed change in membership

might result in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences not being represented on this

• ?

Search Committee. She stressed the fundamental importance of the Library to her Faculty

and requested that this matter also should be reviewed. It was pointed out that since

approximately half of the faculty members in the University reside in the Faculty of Arts

and Social Sciences it was unlikely that this would occur.

There were no objections to the withdrawal of the motion and the paper which will be

brought back with appropriate revision.

8. ?

Information

The date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, February 2, 2009.

The Open Session adjourned at 5:55 pm, and Senate moved directly into Closed Session.

Alison Watt

Director, University Secretariat