As amended by Senate

June 1, 2009

DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

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

Monday, May 11, 2009 at 5:30 pm in Room 3210 WMC

Open Session

Present: Stevenson, Michael, Chair

Absent:

Beale, Alison

Arsenault-Antolick, Haith

Brennand, Tracy

Bains, Aman

Chapman, Glenn

Bart, Brad

Collinge, Joan

Bocking, Natalie

Copeland, Lynn

Easton, Stephen

Cormack, Lesley

Fergusson, Andrew

de Casteli, Suzanne

Gençay, Ramo

Dow, Greg

Golnaraghi, Farid

Driver, Jon

Hannah, David

Fizzell, Maureen

Janes, Craig

Francis, June

Krane, Bill

Gibson, Eli

Laba, Martin

Gordon, Robert

Leznoff, Daniel

Harding, Kevin

Louie, Brandt

Hiscocks, Graham

McArthur, James

Joes, Michel

O'Neil, John

Laba, Martin

Patel, Ravi

Lee, Benjamin

Pavsek, Christopher

Letourneau, Michael

Percival, Paul

Li, Ze-Nian

Scott, Jamie

Liljedahl, Peter

Shermer, Thomas

MacDonald, Camille

Tapia, Earl Von

Noble, Cameron

Tiffany, Evan

Paling, Joseph

Underhill, Owen

Parkhouse, Wade

Vaid, Bhuvinder

Percival, Colin

Woodbury, Rob

Peters, Joseph

Pierce, John

Pinto, Mario

In attendance:

Plischke, Michael

Amundsen, Cheryl

Popadiuk, Natalee

Dill, Ryan

Seal, Brent

Hinchliffe, Jo

Shapiro, Daniel

Lougheed, Patrick

Thompson, Steve

Watson, Neil

van der Wey, Dolores

Wakkary, Ron

Warner, D'Arcy

Williams, Tony

Ross, Kate, Registrar and Secretary of Senate

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

S.M 11 May 2009

Page 2

Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of April 6, 2009

The Minutes were approved as distributed.

Business Arising from the Minutes

There was no business arising from the Minutes.

Report of the Chair

The Chair noted the recent death of a former colleague and distinguished member of the

University community, Robin Blaser. The Chair reported that he was grateful to have had

the opportunity to present Dr. Blaser with his honorary degree at a small ceremony at his

home attended by family, close friends, and several members of the senior administration.

SFU mourns his passing and, on behalf of the University, the Chair expressed condolences

to his family and close friends.

On behalf of Senate, the Chair expressed thanks to the following outgoing Senators and

presented them with a Certificate of Appreciation: B. Lee, P. Liljedahl, C. MacDonald, J.

Paling, and B. Seal. Thanks to the following retiring Senators not present at the meeting

were noted; Certificates would be forwarded to them by mail: H. Arsenault-Antolick, N.

Bocking, A. Bains, B. Bart, A. Fergusson, R. Gencay, T. Shermer, B. Vaid, and E. Von

Tapia.

Question Period

G. Chapman submitted a question concerning a 30% funding cut with respect to

electronic journals, and questioned the impact of the cut on the ability of faculty and

students to carry out academic research. A further inquiry was posed as to whether there

were any plans to investigate other sources of support for the Library, such as external

fund raising campaigns.

In response to the question, L. Copeland, Dean of Library Services and University

Librarian, advised Senate that the Library spends approximately $3 million per year on

monographs and $5 million on serials, 90% in US dollars. There has been significant

benefit achieved through consortial negotiation and package purchases. No deficit has

been carried forward from 08/09. The reasons for the cut are complex: the decline in

Canadian dollar from 1.09 to 1.23 (although it may improve); an actual cut of $393,000;

and annual increases to serials which are usually around 6% independent of the dollar

fluctuation. Thus there is an estimated shortfall of $1.9 million. In addition, the Library

has multiyear commitments of $1.4 million meaning a 30% cut to the rest of the budget

(not just electronic journals). Senate was advised that the Library monitors the exchange

rate and prebuys when possible. 'Principles' for the cutback have been reviewed by the

Senate Library Committee and a special Advisory Committee with representatives from

each Faculty as well as undergraduate and graduate students. Data such as usage per dollar

are being gathered; the relative cost of cancelling certain 'packages' and buying individual

titles is being calculated; and 'general' and discipline specific journals are being reviewed

S.M 11 May 2009

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•

for cancellation. The process is extremely difficult because of the size of the cut and the

complexity of subscriptions and before any final decisions are made, there will be

consultation with individual faculty. In a broader sense, brief summary information was

provided with respect to funding at large US university libraries. Senate was informed that

the International Consortium of Library consortia has issued a call to publishers to

ameliorate price increases (also supported by CRKN etc.) and some minor effect has been

detected. The possibility of a funding campaign which may help in the future will be

followed up by the University Librarian.

Reports of Committees

A) ?

Senate Committee on University Priorities

Paper S.09-67 - Major. Minor and Honors Programs in Biomedical Physiology

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by M. Plischke

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

program proposal for Major, Honors and Minor Programs in Biomedical

Physiology from the Department of Biomedical Physiology and

Kinesiology in the Faculty of Science"

R. Dill, Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, was available to respond

to questions.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper S.09-68 - External Review - Department of Psychology

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by G. Dow

"that Senate approve the recommendations from the Senate Committee on

University Priorities concerning advice to the Department of Psychology

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

the External Review"

N. Watson, Chair, Department of Psychology was available to respond to questions.

Reference was made to comments from the Dean in response to the review which noted

that the Department had suffered from attrition for several years and, subsequent to the

review, the situation worsened as a result of faculty taking the voluntary exit package.

Clarification was sought as to why the voluntary exit package was made available in a

Department already suffering from faculty shortages. Senate was advised that there were

no restrictions on the voluntary faculty exit program which was offered to all faculty

members. The funding freed up by faculty retirements was available to departments for

is ?

temporary teaching replacements and, in the next budget year, departments can make a

S.M 11 May 2009

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case for replacement of those positions based upon considerations such as faculty-student

ratios and the research activity within the department.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

in) ?

Paper S.09-69 - Deletion of Education and Technology Minor Program

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by M. Fizzell

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

deletion of the Minor in Education and Technology in the Faculty of

Education, effective September 2009"

C. Amundsen, Faculty of Education, was available to respond to questions.

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

iv)

Paper S.09-70 - Annual Report (For Information)

Senate received the 2008/2009 Annual Report of the Senate Committee on University

Priorities for information.

Paper S.09-71 - Change in Committee Membership

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by K. Harding

"that Senate approve the proposed changes to the membership of the

Senate Committee on University Priorities"

Changes include an increase to the number of academic deans on SCUP from 3 to 4 by

the addition of the Dean of Graduate Studies as an ongoing representative, rotation of

Faculty deans to every two years rather than annually, addition of faculty representatives

from each of the new Faculties, and an increase to student representation by the addition

of a specified position for a graduate student.

Question was called, and a vote taken. ?

MOTION CARRIED

B) ?

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

i) ?

Paper S.09-72 - Elimination of Enrolment Deposit (For Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved the elimination of the registration deposit for

continuing undergraduate students in favour of the requirement that students have a non-

negative account balance, effective for the 2009 Fall semester.

S.M 11 May 2009

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• ?

It was noted that one of the original reasons for the deposit was to make it easier to

determine how many students were actually going to be taking courses in a particular

semester, and inquiry was made as to the impact on those determinations in future. Senate

was advised that since students only have to pay the deposit three days before registration

there would be no impact.

Secretary's Note: The wrong version

of this paper was presented to Senate. The correct version, which

has already been approved by the Board

Governors, pertained to both undergraduate and graduate

students. A revised paper with the correct information will be filed in official Senate records and on the

Web forfuture reference.

ii)

Paper S.09-73 - 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 changes to the lower division requirements and

additional Cohort requirements for the French Cohort Program, effective September

2009.

iii)

Paper S.09-74 - Undergraduate Curriculum Revisions - Facult

of Science (For

Information)

•

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

under delegated authority, approved prerequisite changes to existing courses in

Department of Mathematics, and a Breadth-Science designation for KIN 110 in the

Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology.

iv)

Paper S.09-75 - Changes to SFU Calendar language: Repeat courses.

Examinations. Grade tables. Explanations of grades and notations (For Information)

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

under delegated authority, approved changes to sections in the SPU Calendar to clarify

language regarding repeat courses, examinations, grades tables, and explanations of grades

and notations.

In response to a question regarding clarification about limits on repeating Special Topic

courses, Senate was advised that there were no repeat limits as long as the course content

was different each time the course was taken.

C) ?

Senate Appeals Board

i) ?

Paper S.09-76 - Annual Report (For Information)

Senate received the 2008 Annual Report of the Senate Appeals Board for information.

S.M 11 May 2009

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Senate Graduate Studies Coniniittee ?

i) ?

Paper S.09-77 - Annual Report (For Information)

Senate received the 2008 Annual Report of the Senate Graduate Studies Committee for

information.

Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules

i) ?

Paper S.09-78 - Revisions to the Rules of Senate and Election Rules

Moved by J. Driver, seconded by M. Letourneau

"that Senate approve the revision of the Rules of Senate and Election

Rules as outlined in Appendices 1, 2 and 3 of Senate paper S.09-78"

Revisions to the Rules of Senate include changes regarding electronic balloting for

elections to Senate Committees, Senate, and Board of Governors, and changes with

respect to the selection of the Chancellor as a result of amendments to the University Act.

Other Business

Paper S.09-79 - Report on results of elections to Senate and Board of Governors

(For Information)

Senate received the report with respect to the results of faculty and student elections to

Senate and the Board of Governors for information.

ii)

Paper S.09-80 - Notice of Motion: Revisions to the Rules of Senate and Election

Rules

Senate received a Notice of Motion with regard to a revision to the Rules of Senate

regarding graduate student representation on Senate. A motion with regard to the revision

will be brought forward to the June meeting of Senate for approval.

8. ?

Information

The date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, June 1, 2009.

Open Session adjourned at 5:50 pm and Senate moved directly into Closed Session.

Kate Ross

Registrar and Secretary of Senate