Senate Minutes - October 30, 2000

The regular meeting of the University Senate took place on 30 October 2000 at 3:30 p.m. in Tweedie Hall.

Members Present:
I. Newbould (Chair), R. Summerby-Murray, D. Cameron, C. Riggs, P. Baker, P. Ennals, B.A. Miller, J. vanderLeest, J.-G. Godin, K. Hamer, C. Hunter, M. McCullough, S. Lochhead, R. Adlam, W. Godfrey, R. Lapp, J. Rogers, D. Tokaryk, G. Tucker, R. Aiken, J. Bates, R. Beattie, M. Blagrave, I. Cohen, W. Cross, E. Dawe, A. Fancy, B. Fleming, R. Hawkes, T. Holownia, B. McNally, N. Ralph, J. Read, C. Storm, J. Weiss, N. Anand, B. Carter, H. Matthews, S. Melanson, L. Morrison, Z. Taylor

00.10.01 Approval of the Agenda
P. Ennals, seconded P. Baker, moved that the agenda be approved as circulated. CARRIED

00.10.02 Approval of the Minutes of 28 September 2000
R. Aiken, seconded K. Hamer, moved that the minutes of 28 September be approved. P. Baker noted that the sentences running from the bottom of page 4 to page 5 should read as follows: “Z. Taylor asked whether students on suspension who took courses elsewhere could have those courses count towards a Mount Allison program at all. P. Baker responded that they could not. Students would need to reapply and be readmitted before they could have any further courses count.” D. Tokaryk pointed out that he had been present at the last meeting and asked that the minutes reflect this. With these changes noted, the motion CARRIED.

00.10.03 Business arising from the Minutes
K. Hamer referred to page 4 of the Minutes and gave notice of motion of amending the Admissions Requirements of the Calendar such that ‘students not be admitted to the university on probation but only in good standing’.

00.10.04 Questions
G. Tucker asked whether further information would be coming to Senate regarding the Crawford Teaching Centre and whether there would be an opportunity for consultation with faculty on the nature and directions of the Centre. P. Ennals noted that the initial announcement had been made so as to coincide with a special event, the retirement of the Chancellor, and that further information would be forthcoming. There is a planning process underway.

J. vanderLeest referred to the section of the Calendar on endowed chairs, noting that no new appointments to these chairs had been made since 1990. Who should be providing the initiative to fill these? Also, while acknowledging that these chairs are not fully-funded, what has been happening to the funds set aside for these purposes? I. Newbould responded that these funds are set aside and building and acknowledged that none of the funds would support a full chair. This latter point has been a major difficulty historically and at some point in the future will need to be dealt with in a systematic manner.

W. Godfrey sought clarification of the enrolment figures provided with the circulated minutes and asked for a further breakdown of entry averages by faculty and for comparative figures going back five to ten years. There appears to be an encouraging increase in the proportion of students from Atlantic Canada. Will additional analyses be available to Senate? I. Newbould replied that the new Datatel system should improve our ability to carry out this sort of institutional research.

R. Aiken referred to the university’s web pages and asked whether the English Language Institute had ever been approved by Senate as an academic programme, noting that it was listed on the web as such. P. Ennals replied that it had not been approved as an academic programme, although, as with some other non-credit courses, it had an academic component. M. McCullough clarified that all Continuing Education courses are approved by Senate before they are offered, in part because approval affects the HST status of fees paid for these courses.

00.10.05 Candidates for degrees
Chris Hunter circulated the list of candidates for degrees as recommended by Faculty Council.

J-G. Godin moved, seconded R. Aiken, that Senate act on the recommendation of Faculty Council to award the degree of Master of Science to Tyler Donald Bilsland MacKenzie. CARRIED

K. Hamer moved, seconded M. McCullough, that Senate act on the recommendation of Faculty Council to award the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours to Meribeth Jasmine Deen. CARRIED

K. Hamer moved, seconded B.A. Miller, that Senate act on the recommendation of Faculty Council to award the degree of Bachelor of Arts to Katherine Britton Cherniak, Roy Alistair Francis, Janna M. Graham, Douglas Edward Jarvis, David Frederick Rafferty, and Ervin Ruci. CARRIED

K. Hamer moved, seconded M. McCullough, that Senate award the degree of Bachelor of Arts to Bethany Gabrielle Blanchard and Kimberly Dawn Gould. CARRIED

J-G. Godin moved, seconded D. Tokaryk, that Senate act on the recommendation of Faculty Council to award the degree of Bachelor of Science to John William Creighton and Yuk Ching Wong. CARRIED

P. Baker moved, seconded N. Ralph, that Senate act on the recommendation of Faculty Council to award the degree of Bachelor of Commerce to Sheaw Phing Beh and Daryl Aaron Graham. CARRIED

I. Newbould noted that these graduands would have their degrees conferred at the May Convocation. J. vanderLeest asked why the diplomas would not be mailed to the graduands earlier and I. Newbould responded that these are legal documents that the Act requires to be conferred by the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor. The graduands will receive a statement noting that the degree requirements have been completed and the degree will be conferred in May. M. Elton asked whether there were other ways of conferring the degrees and M. McCullough asked whether a statement about this process could be included in the Calendar so as to be more widely known. Z. Taylor wondered what graduands are to report in the interim and I. Newbould responded that until the degree is conferred graduands can only report that the requirements of the degree have been met.

00.10.06 Committee on Committees Report
I. Cohen moved, seconded by P. Ennals, that the following be nominated to Committees as listed: Monika Boehringer to Committee on Graduate Studies (2000-2004)
Rainer Hempel to Committee on Disabilities
Anita Cannon to Committee on Teaching (2000-2002)
Brian McNally to Committee on University Student Governance (2000-2002)
Wayne Hunt to University Appeals Committee (2000-2002)

K. Hamer asked whether a term of appointment had been considered for the Committee on Disabilities and I. Cohen replied that the Committee on Committees had yet to determine this. C. Hunter questioned the terms of appointment to the University Student Governance Committee and asked that consideration be given to staggering the terms of the two elected faculty members. Would B. McNally agree to a three year term? With B. McNally’s consent, his term was altered to 2000-2003. Following a call for further nominations, it was moved by P. Ennals, seconded J. vanderLeest, that nominations cease. Those nominated were declared duly elected.

C. Hunter enquired of the status of nominations to the Judicial Committee and I. Cohen replied that finding a faculty member had proved difficult because of the onerous nature of this committee. He asked that the Governance Committee consider ways of making this committee work less onerous. I. Newbould asked whether the Dean of Students would follow up on this request and consider making a recommendation to fill the vacancy. C. Hunter noted that the Governance Committee had tackled this task already and that it would be unfortunate if the nature of the committee had to change because of the lack of faculty representation. I. Newbould asked whether a one-year term had been considered. J. Read, seconded by M. McCullough, nominated T. Holownia for a one year term. With T. Holownia’s consent and there being no other nominations, T. Holownia was declared elected.

00.10.07 Report on election to Sabbatical Leaves Committee
R. Summerby-Murray reported that in the recent election W. Godfrey had been elected to the Sabbatical Leaves Committee to complete the term of J. Stewart who is on sabbatical leave.

00.10.08 Report from Planning Committee
P. Ennals provided a report [attached to the file copy of this minutes] and announced 12 proposed probationary appointments. W. Cross asked how many of these were net new positions and how many were replacements for retirements and resignations. P. Ennals responded that appointments in English, Fine Arts, Religious Studies, Psychology (1) and Commerce (1) were the result of resignations. Appointments in Chemistry (1), Economics and Political Science resulted from retirements. The position in History was a probationary appointment last year that was filled by a term appointment. The intention is to re-offer it as a probationary position. Further positions in Chemistry, Psychology and Commerce were net new appointments.

00.10.09 Report from International Exchanges Committee
P. Baker presented the report [attached to the file copy of these minutes], noting the current status of each programme and projections for the future. It was pointed out that some exchanges presently have no students involved. In two of these case, the exchanges are new and are in the development phase. The New Mexico State programme has been reviewed and a decision made to continue but there are no exchangees as yet. P. Baker outlined also the other work of the committee in developing resource materials and guidelines for academic co-ordinators before presenting two proposals for new exchanges as follows. It was moved by P. Baker, seconded J. Weiss, that Senate approve an international exchange programme with the Autonomous University of Madrid. On question put, the motion CARRIED.

It was moved by P. Baker, seconded M. McCullough, that Senate approve an international exchange with the International College of Zhejiang University. On question put, the motion CARRIED.

00.10.10 Report from Faculty Council
J. vanderLeest presented the report, noting that information was still sought on the membership of the Strategic Plan monitoring committee. He reported also on Faculty Council’s discussion of the composition of Senate and it was moved by J. vanderLeest, seconded by B.A. Miller, that Senate act on the recommendation of Faculty Council to strike a committee to review the composition of Senate with a view to making changes as appropriate. In discussion, J. vanderLeest outlined the suggestions of Faculty Council for the composition of the committee and a suggested time frame. I. Newbould noted that there was general acceptance of a possible process here. M. Elton asked whether the present motion included the Faculty Council’s suggestions re composition of the committee and I. Newbould replied that it did not. On question called, the motion CARRIED.

M. Elton urged that the composition of the committee include two students and the chair asked if there were other views on this. J. vanderLeest moved, seconded B. A. Miller, that the composition of the committee be two members of Faculty Council elected by Faculty Council, two members of Senate, one elected by Senate and the Secretary of Senate who would serve as committee chair, one student, and one member of the Board of Regents. It was further suggested that the committee report to the March meeting of Faculty Council for discussion, to the April meeting of Senate for approval, and to the Board at its May meeting. It was moved by Z. Taylor and seconded by S. Melanson, that the motion be amended to include two students. J. Weiss pointed out that the Faculty Council representatives would not necessarily have to be faculty members. On question called, the amendment CARRIED.

J. VanderLeest moved, seconded by J. Weiss, that Senate act on the recommendation of Faculty Council to create an ad hoc committee to review and assess requirements for the honours degree, with a suggested time frame of reporting to the March meeting of Senate. It was also suggested that any report include the date by which the next review of these requirements would occur. M. Elton asked what the membership of this committee would be. J. vanderLeest replied that striking and populating the committee was within Senate’s mandate. K. Hamer noted that this issue was already on the agenda for the Academic Matters committee and that the Academic Matters committee should be able to hold to its timetable and carry out such a review. W. Godfrey suggested that a separate committee would remove this burden from Academic Matters. P. Ennals confirmed that the Academic Matters committee has been considering this issue but has made little progress because of various other issues. Further, a more specific task-oriented committee may be a more immediate way of dealing with this issue. I. Newbould noted that it would make sense to have such an ad hoc committee reporting back to Senate via Academic Matters. Would this be acceptable to the original mover of the motion in Faculty Council? W. Godfrey replied that it would but that it would be wise to give some thought here to the composition of the committee, especially given the divergent needs of each faculty. J. vanderLeest suggested that the Committee on Committees could be charged with developing the composition and then reporting back to Senate. There being no further discussion, the motion was put and CARRIED.

J. vanderLeest concluded his report by noting that the Faculty Council discussion had been productive.

00.10.11 Report from Presidential Search Committee
R. Summerby-Murray read a report from R. Winters, Chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee [attached to the file copy of these minutes] noting the composition of this committee as follows:
J. Keith (Chancellor)
N. Baldwin (Student)
F. Bentley (Board)
J. Bragg (Board)
B. Copp (Board)
S. Dube (Student)
B. Evans (Staff)
S. Hierlihy (Board)
L. Loewen (Board)
J. Laidlaw (Board)
G. MacKay (Alumni)
J. Perkin (Staff)
R. Rosebrugh (Faculty)
E. Steuter (Faculty)
R. Winters (Chair)

The committee held its first meeting on 18th October and decided to hire a consultant. Further reports will provide regular updates to the university community.