University Senate Proposed: February 27, 2004

Adopted:

MEETING OF JANUARY 30, 2004

President Lee Bollinger, the chairman, called the Senate to order shortly after 1:15 pm in the Davis Auditorium of the Schapiro Engineering Building. Fifty-two of 100 senators were present during the meeting.

Minutes and agenda: The minutes of December 12, 2003 and the agenda were adopted as proposed.

Report of the President:

--Campus planning: The president said he would defer his comments on Manhattanville until the town hall meeting scheduled to follow the regular Senate meeting. He said planning is proceeding for space at Health Sciences and at the northwest corner of the Morningside campus, along with an academic planning effort for the sciences led by Provost Brinkley and Health Sciences Dean Gerald Fischbach.

--Other issues: The budgeting process for next year is at an intense stage, and will lead to some major decisions in the next few months. While Columbia’s fiscal condition is not flush at this point, he said, no major crisis is looming.

A new task force on globalization and the University has now met three times. Part of its work is thinking about how Columbia can make its Health Sciences division—including its programs in medicine, nursing, dentistry, and public health—the best in the world.

Report of the Executive Committee chairman:

Sen. Paul Duby (Ten., SEAS), the chairman, said the Executive Committee had devoted a good deal of its last meeting to planning the Senate town hall meeting on Manhattanville that would follow the present meeting. The meeting will be led by Sens. Peter Marcuse (Ten., SAPP) and Sharyn O’Halloran (Ten., SIPA), co-chairs of the Senate Task Force on Campus Planning.

The roster of the Task Force on Sexual Misconduct is now complete, and the group will hold its first meeting soon. Sen. Duby said the group might provide a preliminary report by the end of the academic year.

A subcommittee of the Executive Committee will meet with a counterpart Trustee group on February 18 to discuss nominees for Senate-consulted Trustee positions.

Sen. Duby introduced Dan Mausner, a new member of the Senate staff.

(over)

Old business: Sen. Duby said that, for the second month in a row, there were not enough senators present to vote on resolutions to add one student senator from Teachers College and to use gender-neutral language throughout the Senate By-laws. Both measures would change the Senate by-laws, and therefore require the support of three-fifths of all incumbent senators. He said the Structure and Operations might consider changes in the by-laws which would make it easier for the Senate to act on resolutions like the present ones, which appear to have general support.

There being no further business, the president adjourned the meeting at about 1:35 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Mathewson, Senate staff