MEETING OF APRIL 26, 2002
President George Rupp, the
chairman, called the Senate to order at 1:15 p.m.
in Schapiro Engineering Auditorium. Forty-three of 88 senators were present
during the meeting.
Minutes and agenda: The agenda and the minutes of March 29 were adopted as proposed.
President’s report:
—Noting
that he was chairing his last meeting, the president thanked senators for their
respectful participation in Senate deliberations, and wished them well.
Sen. Michael Castleman (Stu.,
SEAS) expressed concern about the present policy on broadcast phone messages.
He noted that Provost Cole had recently denied permission to a student group to
send out such a message.
Sen. Cole said the policy has
been not to send out messages deemed not to be in the full interest of the
University community, representing the partisan agenda of a limited
constituency. He said access to the
phonemail system was recently denied to a student group that had submitted a
message of this kind. Sen. Cole said he, or the president, ultimately makes
these decisions.
The president said that, as a
consumer of broadcast messages, he would prefer to see permission denied for
more of them rather than fewer.
Sen. Castleman
said he thought the political content of a message should not be the criterion
for preventing its broadcast through the phonemail system.
The president called
attention to the practice of the parents of twelve children in the novel Cheaper by the Dozen of ruling certain
remarks at family meetings out of order as “not of general interest.” He said an analogous standard is suitable in
a university community. He added that he knew nothing of the content of the
message the provost had disallowed. He saw little use in pursuing this topic
further at the present meeting.
Sen. Roosevelt Montas (Stu.,
GSAS/Hum) said the forbidden message announced a strike on April 29, to press
the University to drop its appeal of the recent NLRB decision allowing student
teaching and research assistants to unionize. He said students are concerned
about the extent to which the central administration can exert arbitrary
control over political debate, at least in the dissemination of broadcast phone
messages. He said the right to exclude certain messages should not be left to
the administration without clear guidelines for handling politically divisive
issues.
The president said that
trustees exercise their fiduciary responsibility by appointing a president, and
giving him—and lieutenants he chooses—the authority to speak for the
University as a whole. He said he could not see a reasonable way for some other
group or entity to direct what the president says on behalf of the University.
A committee meeting, or a Senate meeting, to determine the suitability of every
broadcast message would be an unacceptable alternative. He said the criteria
should be made as clear as possible, and admitted that his whimsical reference
to Cheaper by the Dozen was a
simplistic way to raise this issue. But he said the idea of some other entity
making these decisions, besides duly constituted central administrative
authority, is a nonstarter.
The president said he would
resist the temptation to rebut the views of the group preparing to strike over the
issue of student unionization in a few days, and concluded his report.
Report of the Executive Committee chairman, Sen. Paul
Duby (Ten., SEAS):
—The
Executive Committee, at its final meeting on April 19, had deferred two
resolutions from the Faculty Affairs Committee. One, a set of guidelines for
the administrative conduct of deans and department chairs, had been discussed
at the March Senate meeting, but the Executive Committee agreed to invite deans
to comment on the guidelines in the course of the regular deliberations of the
Council of Deans. Sen. Duby said this initiative will be back in the fall. The
second resolution calls on the University to assure a computer for every
full-time faculty member. Sen. Duby said this is a well-meaning resolution,
which notes that a few faculty members don’t have computers for university work.
But he added that the resolution requires more thought.
—The interim report of
the Committee on Online Learning and Digital Media Initiatives was on the
agenda under new business, to allow for more discussion than the annual reports
of standing committees normally receive at the final Senate meeting.
—Sen. Duby
reminded senators of their standing annual invitation to take part in
Commencement ceremonies.
Sen. Duby then presented a resolution not listed on the agenda, to
honor the president. In a short prefatory speech, Sen. Duby told President
Rupp, who had not been an internal candidate for president, that he became a
true Columbian in his nine years here. At the outset, in 1993, the president
listed projects that he wanted to accomplish here, then accomplished them all.
Of these, Sen. Duby singled out the one he considered most important—generating
a stronger sense of the University as a whole. He noted that the Senate was
designed to serve a similar purpose, and that President Rupp had promoted this
aim by fostering open debate at meetings and a sense of collegiality among all
the Senate’s constituencies.
Sen. Duby elaborated on a recent statement by
Trustee chairman David Stern—that Columbia now appears to be running according
to an odd physics, in which what goes up keeps going up—by saying that such
upward movement requires a positive acceleration, which in turn requires a
driving force. Sen. Duby said President Rupp has been that driving force for
Columbia.
Sen. Duby said that Commencement this year will also be President
Rupp’s own Commencement, and Columbia will be sorry to lose him. He wished the
president well in his new role as president of the International Rescue
Committee. He then read the Resolution to Honor President Rupp at His Last
Senate Meeting, to applause.
The president thanked Sen. Duby and the Senate.
Annual committee reports: The Senate received the following annual
reports, in some cases with additional comments from committee chairmen:
—Budget
Review: Sen. Avery Katz (Ten., Law), speaking for chairman William Blaner
(Ten., HS), underscored the committee’s appreciation for the cooperation of the
Budget Office throughout the year.
—Education:
Sen. Letty Moss-Salentijn (Ten., SDOS) called attention to the emphasis in the
committee’s report on the need to uphold the University examination policy,
which forbids the scheduling of exams on study days or on scheduled class days.
The committee had received complaints of violations of this policy during the
year.
—External
Relations
—Faculty
Affairs: The committee’s written report was not ready, and the chairman, Sen.
Eugene Litwak (Ten. A&S, Social Sciences) asked to report orally instead.
The president expressed concern about the precedent, but agreed to a brief
report.
Sen. Litwak
said that the investigation of a recent grievance from a language lecturer had led
to a disagreement between Faculty Affairs and the Vice President for Arts and
Sciences on the import of the vice president’s own guidelines for the
appointment and promotion of language lecturers. Sen. Litwak raised two
problems. One involves the lack of a procedure for resolving such disagreements
between the Senate committee and senior administrators. The other concerns the
vice president’s decision, resulting from his disagreement with the Senate
committee, to rewrite the guidelines for language lecturers in a way that
Faculty Affairs considered entirely inappropriate. Sen. Litwak noted that the
Senate approved the creation of the language lecturer title more than a decade
ago, and will now undertake a thorough review of this decision.
Another main
issue this year for Faculty Affairs, along with the faculty caucuses, has been salaries,
Sen. Litwak said. A recent New York Times
article listing the top 10 universities in average salaries for full professors
ranked Columbia at the bottom, behind Penn and NYU. Columbia’s full professors,
on average, earn $125,500 a year, roughly $19,000 less than their colleagues at
Harvard, which ranked first. A rough calculation of the disparity between such
salaries at Columbia and Harvard in total dollars led to an estimate of $17
million. And this estimate raised the question of what sources might be tapped
to redress this disparity.
Sen. Litwak
said the question of faculty salaries is closely linked to issues of fairness,
such as the severe salary inequities between departmental colleagues at the
same rank in the same departments. He said the whole issue of faculty salaries
has to be considered anew.
Here the
president interrupted to say that Sen. Litwak was straying from the Senate
custom of reporting what a committee did in the past year to talking about what
the committee might do in the coming year. Sen. Litwak said he was reporting on
issues the committee had already discussed at length.
The
president said that if every committee took time in a Senate meeting to report
on everything it had thought about in the past year, Senate meetings would take
too long.
Sen. Litwak
insisted that the issues he was raising were major ones. He wanted to be sure
that the Senate was aware of them.
The
president said the Senate was now aware, and thanked Sen. Litwak for his
report.
—Housing
Policy (no report)
—Libraries: Sen.
Frances Pritchett (Ten., A&S/Hum), the chair, said that the committee is very
glad to have James Neal, the University Librarian, at Columbia and that the
Libraries are now engaged in a number of valuable projects, which are described
in the report.
—Physical
Development
—Commission
on the Status of Women: Earlier in the year, the president said, the Senate had
discussed the Commission’s substantial report, which was a model of clarity. He
assumed no further discussion was needed now.
—Structure
and Operations (no report)
—Student
Affairs
—Ad Hoc
Committee on Research Staff Affairs
New business:
—Report from the
Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing: Prof. Harvey
Goldschmidt, the chair, said the committee was nearing the end of a busy and
successful year, more than doubling last year’s number of recommendations,
which require the votes of seven of the twelve members (four faculty, four students,
four alumni). The Trustees did not accept quite as large a percentage of the
committee’s recommendations (31/39, about 80 percent, compared to 17/19, about
90 percent, last year), but Prof. Goldschmidt said this dip was understandable
given the complexity and diversity of the proxy resolutions this year. Even the
disagreements were not contradictory: in seven of the eight cases this year,
the Trustees abstained on the committee’s positive recommendations.
Prof. Goldschmidt cited
resolutions on “golden parachutes”—large severance settlements for senior
executives—as examples of the complexity of the committee’s work. Generally the
committee must weigh the general merit of a shareholder resolution as well as
its application to a particular corporation. In the case of Sprint, which
recently paid one executive $400 million, the company’s guidelines clearly
required some correction; severance arrangements at Pepsico and GE, by
contrast, were more reasonable and were found not to need the reforms proposed
in shareholder resolutions.
Sometimes shareholder
resolutions have “technical” flaws, Prof. Goldschmidt said, or disqualify
themselves through intemperate language. The Trustees tended to be somewhat
more forgiving of settlement arrangements than the committee, but these
differences were generally cases of good minds coming to different conclusions.
The committee’s working relationship has with the Trustees has generally been excellent.
The committee will produce an
interim report in late May, and a final report late in September. Prof.
Goldschmidt said he was giving his final report as committee chair, and
concluded by expressing delight that the president had talked him into this
assignment, which has been one of his truly enjoyable experiences at Columbia.
The president thanked Prof.
Goldschmidt again for his contribution to the success of the advisory
committee.
—Resolution to Extend the Term of the Temporary Ad
Hoc Committee on Research Staff Affairs (Structure
and Operations): Sen. Stephanie Neuman asked for some clarification on the time
frame for consideration of a plan to expand the role of researchers in the
Senate.
Sen. Duby, a member of
Structure and Operations, said the committee would do its best, but could offer
no guarantees about the time required, or about the success of any resolution
it presents to the Senate. He pointed out that such a resolution, which will
recommend significant changes in the University Statutes, will require the
support of three-fifths of all senators, and then consideration by the Trustees
at two of their quarterly meetings. He said the committee would do its best to
make it possible to have elections for an enlarged delegation of research
officers in the spring of 2003.
By voice vote, the Senate
then adopted the resolution without dissent.
—Interim Report of the Committee on Online
Learning and Digital Media Initiatives: Sen. Herve Varenne (Fac., TC),
standing in for the chair, Sen. Sharyn O’Halloran (Ten., A&S/SS),
emphasized that the report is a work in progress, and invited comments and
corrections. He said the chair has promised to make a full multimedia
presentation to the Senate in the fall.
The president said this
interim report has already garnered a good deal of attention, much of it not
helpful to the University. He expressed the hope that in the future there could
be one report that does its damage once, rather than piecemeal.
—Resolution to Establish Guidelines Governing
the Administration of Dual Degree Programs (Education): Committee chair
Letty Moss-Salentijn (Ten., SDOS) presented the resolution, which she said has
been in preparation for two years. Student senators prompted the Education
Committee to address problems with dual degree programs back then, she said, and
have made key contributions to the committee’s work.
Sen. Jocelyn Songco (Stu.,
SIPA) asked if it was possible for the resolution to include a request for a
regular report from the Vice President for Student Services. Sen.
Moss-Salentijn said such a provision had appeared in earlier versions of the
resolution, but had inexplicably been dropped. She said the Education Committee
certainly plans to request a report at the end of the coming year from this
administrator.
The president noted the
chair’s intent to include such a report in the scope of the resolution. With
this understanding, the Senate adopted the resolution by voice vote without
dissent.
—Resolution to Establish the School of
Continuing Education in the Arts and Sciences (Education): Sen.
Moss-Salentijn presented the resolution, which the Senate adopted without discussion
or dissent.
—Resolution to Establish a Master of Science
in Strategic Communications in the School of Continuing Education (Education):
Sen. Moss-Salentijn said this resolution, approved some time ago by Education,
had to await Senate passage of the previous resolution before it could be brought
for a vote. The Senate adopted the resolution without dissent.
—Resolution to Establish an M.Phil. and Ph.D.
Program in Biomedical Engineering (Education): Sen. Moss-Salentijn
presented the resolution. Sen. Castleman asked if students in professional degree
programs in biomedical engineering could switch to the new programs.
Sen. Moss-Salentijn said she
understood that they could switch. Sen. David Cohen said that changes in degree
programs commonly provide for this kind of switching.
The Senate adopted the
resolution without dissent.
—Resolution Concerning Summer Powers (Executive):
The Senate voted, without discussion and without dissent, to approve this
resolution.
The
president adjourned the meeting at around 2:15 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Tom
Mathewson, Senate staff