DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, March 2, 2009 at 7:00 pm in Room 3210 WMC

Open Session

Present: Stevenson, Michael, Chair

Arsenault-Antolick, Haida

Bains, Aman

Bait, Brad

Bocking, Natalie

Brennand, Tracy

Chapman, Glenn

Collinge, Joan

Collins, Colleen (representing D. Shapiro)

Cormack, Lesley

de Castell, Suzanne

Dow, Greg

Driver, Jon

Easton, Stephen

Fergusson, Andrew

Fizzell, Maureen

Francis, June

Gençay, Raxno

Gibson, Eli

Gordon, Robert

Harding, Kevin

Joifres, Michel

Jones, John (representing C. Jones)

Krane, Bill

Lee, Benjamin

Letourneau, Michael

MacDonald, Camille

O'Neil, John

Parkhouse, Wade

Patel, Ravi

Pavsek, Christopher

Percival, Cohn

Percival, Paul

Peters, Joseph

Pinto, Mario

Plischke, Michael

Scott, Jamie

Seal, Brent

Thompson, Steve

Tiffany, Evan

van der Wey, Dolores

Warner, D'Arcy

Williams, Tony

Ross, Kate, Registrar & Senior Director Student Enrolment

Watt, Alison, Director, University Secretariat

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

Absent:

Copeland, Lynn

Golnaraghi, Farid

Hannah, David

Janes, Craig

Laba, Martin

Leznoff, Daniel

Liljedahl, Peter

Louie, Brandt

McArthur, James

Paling, Joseph

Popadiuk, Natalee

Russell, Robert

Shermer, Thomas

Tapia, Earl Von

Vaid, Bhuvinder

Wakkary, Ron

In attendance:

Asmundson, Craig

Hinchliffe, Jo

Johnston, Nancy

Khan Hemani, Rummana

Lee, Jacy

Osborne, Judith

Ruben, Peter

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 2

Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of Februar

2, 2009

The Minutes were approved.

Business Arising from the Minutes

i) ?

Paper S.09-28 - Clarification of Senate Question Response re Senior's Bursary

(For Information)

The above noted paper was received by Senate for information. A follow-up inquiry was

made with respect to questions posed in Question Period concerning the status of the

Canadian Studies Program and the pending re-evaluation process. Senate was advised that

closure of the Canadian Studies Program would have to proceed through the normal

committee process from the Faculty level, through SCUS, to Senate for approval. A

further question was posed as to the rationale behind the decision to suspend declarations

to the program and relocate faculty members from the program. Senate was advised that a

Task Force had been created to establish priorities in light of limited resources for the

Faculty. Canadian Studies had few majors in the program, was funded almost entirely

from soft money which is no longer available, and staffed completely by sessionals and

limited term appointments which meant that it was an area in which resources could be

used for a higher priority area.

Report

The Chair,

of the

on behalf

Chair

of Senate, offered congratulations to Alison Watt who was awarded

the Chancellor's Distinguished Service Award for her many outstanding contributions and

service to the University.

Question Period

There were no questions.

Reports of Committees

A) ?

Senate Committee on Enrolment Management and Planning

i) ?

Paper S.09-29 - Enrolment Plan 2009/10

J .

Lee, Director, Institutional Research and Planning, was in attendance in order to

respond to questions on papers S.09-29 and S.09-30.

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by S. Easton

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

2009/10 enrolment plan as laid out in the document

Enrolment Plan,

February 5, 2009" ?

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 3

Considerable discussion took place with respect to activity and program FTEs

particularly reductions in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS). Questions

were raised about the rationale for the reduction and whether there was any long

term plans to shift resources towards FASS to accommodate student demand rather

than reducing enrolment targets. Senate was advised that expansion in some areas

inevitably lead to reductions in other areas since overall targets were set by the

Provincial Government. It was noted that there has been significant enrolment

pressure in both the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Business

Administration, and decreasing the expectations around enrolments for those two

Faculties was expected to help alleviate some of the course enrollment pressures.

It was noted that several of the total sums in the statistical data provided to Senate

did not add up probably resulting from 'rounding up'.

A concern was raised about the timing of the proposal before Senate. It was noted

that students are already being admitted for this academic year and a suggestion was

made that in future it might be better to consider the enrolment issues in a

different order so that fine tuning of admission targets could take place. It was

noted that quite conservative GPA admission targets were used for the early rounds

of admission pending approval of the plan/admission targets and as a consequence,

admission GPA levels can be maintained or be lowered if the number is not

sufficient to meet the specified targets.

Reference was made to the terminology used in the documentation and Senate

was advised that all of the terms used were described in detail on the web site of

Institutional Research and Planning, and Senate was provided with a brief

explanation of the definitions for activity FTEs and program FTEs. Senate was also

advised that it was the intention of SCAR to request that in future written

rationale and general descriptions for the terms used in the SCEMP data be

included when this information is presented to Senate.

The question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

ii) ?

Paper S.09-30 - Undergraduate Admission Targets for 2009/10

Motion 1

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by R. Patel

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

2009/10 Domestic undergraduate admission targets to each Faculty, by

semester and basis of admission category, as indicated in Table Dl in the

Appendix attached to Paper S.09-30"

Clarification was requested with respect to the last column entitled 'Surplus/Shortfall'.

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Senate was advised that since targets are established by identifying various GPA cutoffi

which may or may not exactly yield what is required in every given instance; some

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 4

projections may come above the targeted value and some may go below but attempt is

made to make that value zero..

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION 1 CARRIED

Motion 2

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by R. Patel

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

2009/10 International undergraduate admission targets to each Faculty, by

semester and basis of admission category as indicated in Table Ii in the

Appendix attached to Paper S.09-30"

Brief discussion took place with respect to the numbers for Health Sciences. It was noted

that because of budget issues hiring plans for Health Sciences have been slowed resulting

in a scaling back of enrolment expectations.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION 2 CARRIED

B) ?

Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules

i) ?

Paper S.09-

31 - Revised Student Discipline Policies and Addition of FD (Fail-

Academic

There were

Discipline)

no objections

Gradeto

a suggestion to sever the motion into two parts which was

then accepted by the Chair.

Osborne, Vice-President, Legal Affairs and J. Hinchliffe, Assistant Registrar were in

attendance in order to respond to questions.

Motion 1

Moved by K. Gordon, seconded by S. Easton

"that Senate approve the addition of the FD (Fail-Academic Discipline)

grade as recommended by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate

Studies, the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, and the Senate

Committee on Academic Integrity in Student Learning and Evaluation for

inclusion in the various parts of the University Calendar and Regulations.

This new grade would take effect on May 1, 2009"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION 1 CARRIED

Motion 2

Moved by R. Gordon, seconded by S. Easton

"that Senate approve the following new policies:

S.M 2 March 2009

Page

• S.10.01 Code of Academic Integrity and Good Conduct

S.10.02 Principles and Procedures for Student Discipline

S.10.03

University Board on Student Discipline (UBSD)

S.10.04

Senate Committee on Disciplinary Appeals (SCODA)

These new policies would take effect on May 1, 2009 replacing the T10.01

T10.03

policies"

Reference was made to the duplication of appendices. Senate was advised that having the

appropriate appendices attached to each policy would aid comprehension of the policies

when being used. Most people access the policies on-line and the intent is to have the

appendices as a link from the policy.

Clarification was requested with respect to the definition of "University-related activities"

(Section

3.0, Policy

S10.01) and whether activities within the Simon Fraser Student

Society could be considered under this section. Senate was advised that depending on the

circumstances, a student could be subject to discipline procedures if he/she were engaged

in misconduct as part of Student Society activities.

Disappointment was expressed about the lack of clarity in the wording of Section 8 in

Appendix 3— Procedures for Academic Dishonesty, particularly with regard to the use of

the academic dishonesty report forms. The report form was designed to make it easier for

faculty and chairs to report cases but SCAISLE felt that there should be flexibility for those

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not wanting to use the form and as long as faculty/chairs followed appropriate process and

provided written reports that included all of the required information, there was no

compulsion to make the use of the reports mandatory. A suggestion was made that

reference to Appendix

(report form) should be moved closer to the beginning of the

paragraph to encourage use of the form.

Reference was made to Section 9 in Appendix 3 and a concern was expressed about the

process whereby a Chair receives information that a student has been involved in previous

offences rather than being able to seek Out the information. Attention was drawn to

Section 15 which states that the Chair must be notified if there are repeat incidents.

Discussion briefly turned to the issue of the FD grade. It was noted that an FD grade

automatically changes to F two years after a student graduates. However, since exchange

students would not graduate from SFU, inquiry was made as to how the FD grade would

impact students on exchange programs. Senate was advised that the FD grade would

presumably transfer to the student's home institution and it would be a matter for the

home institution to decide how they wanted to handle that particular issue.

Reference was made to page 3, Section

4.1.1, Policy S10.01

which mentions the

publication of the standards of academic honesty in the University Calendar. It was

suggested that the University had an obligation to notify students of the changes to these

policies and since many students do not use the Calendar to a great extent, perhaps

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information about the new policies and procedures could be included in the monthly

Student Services bulletin distributed to all students. It was also noted that some

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 6

departments have different policies and processes with respect to academic dishonesty and

student misconduct, and a further suggestion was made that departments be informed that

their departmental policies must conform to the newly revised policies.

It was pointed out that SCAISLE will be succeeded by an Academic Integrity Advisory

Committee which will continue to provide information to students/departments about

student conduct and examination issues and other matters as may arise from time to time.

In addition, over the next several months, the Chair of SCAISLE and the Academic

Integrity Coordinator from the Registrar's Office will meet with every Chair and every

Academic Integrity Advisor across all campuses to provide guidance and information with

respect to policy changes.

Concern was expressed that throughout the documentation there are firm deadlines (3

weeks) mentioned and in order to allow for extenuating circumstances wherever there is a

timeline on the part of students, a suggestion was made that the word 'normally' be

inserted. It was pointed Out that the policies for both SCODA and UBSD are written to

accommodate exceptional circumstances so that a student or the university may appeal to

the Registrar or the Chair of SCODA/UBSD for an extension of the time to file notice of

appeal.

Referring to the Academic Dishonesty Report Form, K. Harding expressed concern that

in his view the form does not reflect the judgment to be used in weighing the elements

affecting a penalty, and indicated he would pursue this issue with J. Hinchliffe, Academic

Integrity Coordinator but he felt it was important to raise the concern to Senate.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION 2 CARRIED

On behalf of Senate, the Chair expressed thanks to the members of SCAISLE and to R.

Gordon in particular as Chair of the Committee for the hard work which went into the

revisions and clarification of the policies.

C) ?

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

i) ?

Paper S.09-32 - Student Success Program— Amendment to the Undergraduate

Academic and Standing Continuance Policy

Moved by B. Krane, seconded by M. Fizzell

"that Senate approve changes to the Undergraduate Academic and

Standing Continuance calendar entry that include options for Required to

Withdraw students to enter the Student Success Program"

N. Johnston, Senior Director, Student Learning & Retention, and R. Khan-Hemani,

Director, Academic Advising & Student Success, were in attendance in order to respond

to questions. ?

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 7

. ?

Reference was made to the Calendar text to be inserted and discussion took place with

respect to the usage of 'term' rather than 'semester' and 'units' rather than 'credits'.

Referring to the second sentence in the paragraph with the tide "Extended Academic

Probation for First Time RTW Students", a suggestion to change the word 'exceed' to

'take more than' was accepted as an editorial amendment.

The intent of the last sentence in paragraph two on page 1 was questioned and opinion

was expressed that it was more important that students complete the program rather than

return to the university. K. Ross pointed out that the return of students was important

because it provides them with more opportunity to complete their degree.

Clarification was requested with respect to the information on student outcomes. It was

noted that the program runs over more than one term so in term one while students'

performance may be improving, their GPA may not be high enough to move them out of

the RTW category.

K. Harding expressed the view that this was an excellent program that helps to improve

the retention rate at the university, and supported the proposal to expand the program to

all faculties and to students on Academic Probation. However, a concern was expressed

that with the increasing costs of expanding the program, students who participate are

being charged more and it was hoped that students would not be denied access if they

were unable to afford the program. The Vice-President Academic advised Senate that

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discussions were currently underway with the Associate Vice President, Students &

International about the costs of the program and how they could be covered for students

unable to afford them. He would report back to Senate on the results of those discussions.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii) ?

Undergraduate Curriculum Revisions

Faculty of Applied Sciences

i) ?

Paper S.09-33 - New Concentration: Exercise and Nutrition in Health and

Disease

Moved by B. Krane, seconded by B. Lee

"that Senate approve the new Concentration in Exercise and Nutrition in

Health and Disease in the Major Program in Kinesiology"

P. Ruben, Director, School of Kinesiology, and C. Asmundson, School of Kinesiology,

were in attendance in order to respond to questions.

In response to an inquiry about the similarity between the new concentration and an

existing concentration called Active Health and Ergonomics, Senate was advised that

while they are similar there are significant differences. The new concentration will only be

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 8

offered in Surrey and contains six required nutrition courses which are unique to this new

concentration. ?

A concern was expressed about graduates of this program calling themselves nutritionists

since there were no metabolism courses included in the program. It was pointed out that

the term "nutritionist' was not a regulated term in British Columbia. Students in the

program will graduate with a BSc in Kinesiology and the term nutritionist would not

appear on the degree.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper S.09-34 - Undergraduate Curriculum Revisions

- Faculty

of Applied

Sciences (For Information'

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

under delegated authority, approved minor calendar changes and changes to existing

courses in the following areas: Kinesiology, Dual Degree Credential, Computing Science,

and Engineering Science.

iii)

Paper S.09-35 - 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 calendar language concerning a moratorium on

admissions to the Canadian Studies Program, a change of title and requirements for the

Certificate in Spanish Language Proficiency program, changes to program requirements

(Mathematics Major in FASS), prerequisite changes to courses in Psychology, and WQB

course designations.

iv)

Paper S.09-36 - Undergraduate Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Business

Administration - Deletion of the Management and Technolog

Concentration

Moved by B. Krane, seconded by R. Patel

"that Senate approve the deletion of the Management and Technology

Concentration from the Major Program in Business Administration"

Question was called, and a vote taken. ? MOTION CARRIED

Paper S.09-37 - Undergraduate Curriculum Revisions -

Faculty of Science (For

Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved minor revisions to existing courses in the following

areas: Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Mathematics, Earth Sciences, and Biological

Sciences. ?

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 9

D) ?

Senate Graduate Studies Committee

Paper S.09-39 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Facult

of Applied Sciences

(For Information)

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

delegated authority, approved new courses and changes to degree requirements in the

following areas: Engineering Science, Resource and Environmental Management, and

Interactive Arts and Technology. A typographical error for a new course (REM 667/668)

was noted and corrected.

ii)

Paper S.09-40 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Facult y

of Business

Administration (For Information)

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

delegated authority, approved a change

grading for BUS 717.

iii)

Paper S.09-41 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Health Sciences (For

Information)

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

delegated authority, approved new courses in

Health Sciences.

iv)

Paper S.09-42 - Graduate Curriculum Revisions - Facult

y of Science (For

Information)

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

delegated authority, approved changes to MSc course work requirements, and minor

changes to existing courses in the Department of Physics.

Other Business

i) ?

Paper S.09-43 - Revision to Policy A13.05 - Search Committee for the Dean of

Librar

Services/Universit

Librarian

Moved by M. Pinto, seconded by P. Percival

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

revised Search Committee policy for the Dean of Library

Services/University Librarian, dated 11 February 2009, for inclusion in

Policy A13.05"

Senate was advised that the definition of Librarian IV or V refers to department heads or

sAssociate University Librarians. In response to an inquiry as to why the wording did not

S.M 2 March 2009

Page 10

just specify that one shall be a Librarian IV or V, Senate was advised that the intent was to

provide maximum flexibility to the Librarian group.

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper S.09-44 - Changes to the Composition of the Senate Graduate Studies

Committee

Moved by W. Parkhouse, seconded by J. Driver

"that Senate approve the changes to the composition of the Senate

Graduate Studies Committee effective April 1, 2009"

It was pointed out that the motion was slightly revised from the order paper to include an

effective date of April 1, 2009.

Brief discussion took place with respect to the deletion of the second student alternate. A

suggestion to retain the two student alternate positions was accepted.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

iii)

Paper S.09-45 - Representation and Transition for the new Faculties (For

Information)

Senate received information with respect to the representation and transition for the new

Faculties with respect to memberships on Senate, Senate committees and terms of

appointment to Senate committees.

iv)

Paper S.09-46 - Change of da

for Senate Meeting in May 2010

Moved by K. Harding, seconded by M. Letourneau

"that the May 2010 meeting of Senate be scheduled for Tuesday, May 25"

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

Information

The date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, April 6, 2009.

Open Session adjourned at 8:15 pin and Senate moved directly into Closed Session.

Alison Watt

Director, Secretariat Services