University Senate Proposed:
Adopted:
MINUTES OF
President Lee Bollinger, the chairman, called the Seante to
order shortly before
Minutes and agenda: The minutes of November 17 were adopted as proposed. President Bollinger asked to give his report after the Executive Committee chairman’s report.
Report of the Executive Committee chairman: Executive Committee chairman Paul Duby (Ten., SEAS) said that proposed policies on sexual misconduct and research misconduct were unfortunately not ready for Senate action. The Executive Committee on December 5 had decided that the research misconduct policy had not yet been sufficiently distributed among affected faculty, research officers, and students. A Senate vote is now expected at the first meeting of the spring semester, on February 3.
Sen. Duby said the sexual misconduct policy would be discussed later in the meeting, but noted that some student contributions to discussion of the policy had come in after a student town hall meeting on November 28, too late for consideration before the present meeting.
--Trustee relations: Sen. Duby said a few members of the Executive Committee have reached an understanding with Trustees that there will continue to be interaction between corresponding committee of the Senate and the Board of Trustees, which has been reorganizing itself in recent months. At the Trustees’ quarterly meetings on December 2 and 3, Senate committee chairs reported at meetings of the Trustees’ Educational Policy Committee (which actually included all the Trustees), their Finance Committee, and their Community Affairs Committee.
It was agreed that in future all involved Senate committees will provide reports to their Trustee counterparts two weeks before their meetings, so that there can be an opportunity for significant discussion. In the last round of meetings, with one exception, the Trustee committees had open sessions, allowing an opportunity for participation by Senate representatives, followed by an executive session. The exception was Buildings and Grounds, the Trustee committee that is now responsible for Manhattanville, which met in closed session. But Senior Executive Vice President Robert Kasdin told the Senate Budget Review Committee later that Buildings and Grounds will follow the procedure of the other committees at future meetings.
At the Trustees’ December 3 plenary meeting, which Sen. Duby
and student caucus chair Adam Michaels (Stu., Bus.) attended as observers, VP
Kasdin gave a progress report on Manhattanville, which Sen. Duby said contained
no information that Senate groups did not already know. Athletic Director Diane
Murphy also spoke, outlining a plan for reviving
Sen. Daniel Savin recommended holding a series of town hall meetings on the proposed policy on research misconduct. President Bollinger agreed that there should be wide consultation, but doubted a town hall meeting was the appropriate forum.
Sen. Alan Brinkley, the provost, agreed with the president. He said Execuetive Vice President for Research David Hirsh, in response to prompting from the Senate Executive Committee, was now sending out the proposed policy to deans and chairs and faculty, particularly in the sciences. The provost urged Sen. Savin to talk to VP Hirsh about other ways to publicize the policy. He thought there wasn’t sufficient interest in the issue to justify a town hall meeting.
Sen. David Bornstein (Stu., GSAS/Hum) said information about major cases that have been considered under the present policy would be helpful to him in evaluating a new policy. Sen. Brinkley said cases of scientific misconduct are not made public, but it might be possible to provide scenarios of cases that are sufficiently disguised.
President’s report: Searches
to fill two senior positions are continuing. One is a vice presidency for
communications. This role has been
combined with and also separated from community and government affairs a few
times in recent years. The president said the decision about how to allot these
responsibilities depends on the skills of the people involved. He said Maxine Griffith,
the executive vice president for government and community affairs, does her job
so well that it makes no sense to try to combine the two roles now. The
president said he hoped to have a new vice president for communications within
a month.
The other position is the executive vice president for health sciences. A search committee has reached the phase of identifying a dozen candidates in a national search. The goal is a decision by February or early March.
The president mentioned a recent incident of racist,
anti-Semitic, homophobic graffiti in Ruggles Hall. He said he could not talk
about the details of the investigation, which was legally confidential. But he
repeated the main point of his recent message to the community, that such
incidents are not minor, isolated events, but attacks on the whole community,
which must come together in an expression of outrage. He said it is a sad fact
that such episodes seem to take place every year in peer institutions. He said
Sen. Stacey Hirsh (Stu., SEAS) asked what kind of
disciplinary action
Sen. Hirsh expressed a perception she shares with a number
of her constituents—that
--Litigation now before the Supreme Court on the Solomon Amendment: The president said the issue is whether the federal government can, consistent with the First Amendment, insist on certain kinds of access to placement operations on campuses, particularly in law schools, and can withdraw all federal funding if they do not receive it, a penalty that would amount in Columbia’s case to $400 million.
The Solomon Amendment, as most recently revised by by Congress, says that universities shall give “equal access” to military recruiters. For the past 15 years or so, since law schools in particular began including sexual orientation in their anti-discrimination policies, the same ritual is enacted every fall: the military insists on access to campus for recruiting; the law schools resist. Both sides stand on principle. Finally, an accommodation is worked out that allows the military to recruit off campus or in another location on campus.
The president said the federal government decided a year ago
that it was not going to continue the ritual anymore: if federal recruiters were
not granted “equal access” to campuses, all federal funds would be cut off. A group of law schools, including
A recent report in the New York Times suggests that the law schools’ position is unlikely to prevail, the president said.
The president said two theories have been used to support the universities’ position. One maintains that the government’s insistence on “equal access’ to campuses forces the institutions to accept the discriminatory policies of the military and in a sense to endorse them, in an abridgment of their free speech.
Another theory is that the military’s insistence on “equal access” is an intrusion into the academic freedom of institutions. The recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action cases in college admissions supports the proposition that universities have protections under the First Amendment to make their own admissions policies. And by extension one could say that it’s part of the university’s academic freedom to make such decisions also in curriculum selection, the hiring of faculty, and placement, which is the other end of the admissions process. The argument is that all of these decisions are part of universities’ educational function.
The first of these theories is the one being presented to the Supreme Court now, the president said. He said he happens to favor the second theory, but that is beside the point.
One significant development is that
Another relevant development is that members of the
Sen. Michael Adler (Ten., Bus.) said he thought the
arguments the president was summarizing seemed to be missing the point, which
Sen. Adler took to be the need to challenge the discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t
Tell provision directly. He added that
In response to a question from Sen. Bornstein, the president said it was possible for senators to read the briefs he had mentioned.
Sen. Bornstein asked if the president knew of a paper or article applying the second of the theories the president had summarized, the one focused on academic freedom, to the present case. The president said he did not, though he had discussed this theory in other contexts.
Sen. Bornstein asked whether
The president asked what context or setting Sen. Bornstein
had in mind. He noted, for example, that the Catholic church does not recruit
for the priesthood in the
On the other hand, he said, the University would invite all kinds of speakers to participate in discourse at the University as part of the marketplace of ideas. Sen. Bornstein decided to withdraw the question.
Sen. Jay Mohr (Ten., CUMC) asked what implications a Supreme
Court ruling favorable to the government might have for
The president replied that the Senate is always free to decide what position it wants to take, and to change its mind, in response to a Supreme Court ruling or anything else.
Sen. John Brust (Ten., CUMC) understood that the Solomon Amendment applies only to recruiting, and not to ROTC, so a Supreme Court ruling on the Solomon Amendment would not have a bearing on the Senate vote on ROTC.
Sen. Adler said the president had not addressed the question he had raised earlier: Does the administration intend to challenge the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell provision? If not, why not?
The president said the University, as an institution, has no intention to challenge the provision, though individuals within the institution may do so. He said the University doesn’t take a position on all issues of invidious discrimination. But it does have a direct stake in the issue of the impact of the discriminatory provision on its own placement operations.
Report from the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (Merritt Fox, chair): Prof. Fox reviewed the history and function of the ACSRI, and outlined its agenda for the current year. The issues it will focus on this year include animal welfare, corporate board diversity, environment and energy, equal employment opportunity, linking executive pay to social indicators, global labor standards, health issues including access to pharmaceuticals for the treatment of AIDS and other diseases, human rights, military equipment sales, corporate political contributions, and sustainability.
In addition, the committee received a thoughtful student
proposal this fall concerning University investments in companies involved in
the
The committee recently approved an annual report for
2004-05, which is available on its Website (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/secretary/SRI/). He said the group has made an extra effort this
year to be clear and thorough about its work and the reasons for its
recommendations. The committee is also organizing meetings this year with
Prof. Fox looked forward to reporting to the Senate again at the end of the spring.
In response to a question from Sen. Paul Thompson (Alum.). Prof. Fox said the vice president’s staff does the fact gathering for the committee on questions raised by proxy resolutions, with the assistance of ISS, which prepares background papers, and the proxy proposals themselves offer some information.
Sen. Robert Meyerhoff (Stu., CC) asked how wide the range of
actions is that the committee can recommend. Prof. Fox said the committee’s mandate allows
a broad range, from approving proxy proposals to recommending divestment—that
is, either refusing to buy certain stocks or selling the stock
The president thanked Prof. Fox for his report.
Report from the Libraries Committee: Committee chair Jeremy Waldron (Ten., Law) called attention to a draft resolution in senators’ packets on the need to make more study space available. He said the committee hoped to bring the a final version of the resolution for action at the next plenary.
Sen. Waldron said a recurrent theme in his committee’s deliberations in recent years has been student frustration about insufficient study space in the libraries. This year, he said, some vigorous student senators have pressed the committee to present the issue to the Senate.
The Libraries have addressed the shortage in recent years by providing hundreds of additional seats, but the problem persists.
The committee has concluded that this is not just a problem of the libraries. Their mandate is to store information, not necessarily to serve as a study hall. Study space is a problem for the University to deal with, Sen. Waldron said.
Sen. Waldron said the committee brought the issue to the Senate to focus attention on it, and to elicit suggestions. The committee has offered suggestions of its own in the draft resolution, and hope for a more formal discussion in the spring.
Sen. Courtney Shay (Stu., Public Health) suggested that
extending library hours might help as much as providing additional space. At
Health Sciences the libraries close too early to suit many students there, and
some of the floors of
Sen. James Neal, University Librarian, said that providing
security in the late hours is a concern. That’s why students are concentrated
on the lower floors of
Sen. Kacy Redd (Stu., GSAS/NS) asked if there is library space that is not being used.
Sen. Neal said the Libraries have expanded seating and hours significantly in the Lehman Library, have opened new libraries in Social Work and Union Theological Seminary, and are encouraging people to work there.
Sen. Waldron repeated that though these problems are the responsibility of the Libraries, they are not just their responsibility of the Libraries.
Sen.
Sen. Kira von Ostenfeld (Stu., GSAS/SS) stressed the use of Lerner Hall. She said the administration has not fulfilled its obligation to make that building a real student center. One way to rectify this problem is to rethink the use of Lerner Hall, in ways that would encourage more students to spend time there.
Sen. Waldron said reconfiguring Lerner is one of the committee’s main recommendations.
Another senator said expanding wireless coverage would make a difference. She added that perhaps certain schools and units could make study spaces they control available to a wider group of students at certain hours.
Sen. Neal said that the Libraries have tried to provide one hundred percent wireless coverage wherever the technology or the building construction allows it.
Sen. David Ressel (Stu., Journ.) asked who would be responsible for enacting the Libraries Committee resolution if the Senate passes it. President Bollinger said the whole administration is responsible for taking up useful recommendations. He thanked Sen. Walddron for his report.
Report from the
Student Affairs Committee: Sen. Michaels began with a brief update on his
committee’s two main issues. One is
building bridges between
One good project that we’re pushing really hard is the methods to share information among the schools. Sen. Michaels said student senators are hoping for access to the student members on the president’s new committee on student life, and perhaps for an observer seat on that committee.
At a successful November 28 town hall meeting run by the Student Affairs Committee, students discussed the sexual misconduct policy and the Manhattanville expansion.
Sen. Meyerhoff said students in the Wien and McBain dorms have had problems with hot water, heat, and other basic services. He asked to have these problems referred to the Housing Policy Committee.
Report from the Task Force on Sexual Misconduct Policy (Prof. Patricia Grieve, chair):
[This section of the meeting is presented in full in transcript form, at www.columbia.edu/cu/senate. Paper copies are also available upon request]
Sen. Duby adjourned the meeting at around
Respectfully submitted,
Tom Mathewson, Senate staff