May 4, 2007

Columbia University Senate

Structure and Operations Committee

Annual Report

To the Senate and Columbia Community:

This year was another productive year on the Structure and Operations Committee of the University Senate. To that effect, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the most important tasks that we have been able to accomplish.

• We codified the procedure for shadow elections within the student senate seats, allowing for students to be elected at a time chosen by the individual school, but only allowing the Senator to sit when they begin their specific term.
• We did not renew the mandate of the Online Learning committee, and instead have proposed to restructure the Senate by adding an IT committee, and rewriting the mandates for the Libraries and Education committees.
• We began a review of the administrative staff constituency, which will continue in the fall.
• We publicly noted errors in the University Statutes.
• We changed the Senate reapportionment schedule from every 2 years to every 5 years.
• We noted that the use of listservs that you have access to within your position is prohibited in Senate elections.
• We reviewed policy on the confidentiality of Senate documentation, including when committee minutes can be made publicly available, and when discussions in meetings can be kept off the official meeting record.

The committee will be in good hands next year, with Dean Mary McGee of GS taking over as chair. The committee looks forward to working on the issues before it in the fall.

Respectfully Submitted,

Christopher Riano

Chairman – Structure and Operations Committee