Final Senate Meetings of 2006-07

The University Senate at Marquand House

The final work of the University Senate for the 2006-07 academic year ended with meetings in June, October, and November. Meeting of June 28, 2007: A presentation by the president summarized decisions of the Board of Trustees June meeting, and the report of the senate representative at that meeting relieved the routine voting of degrees.

Summary of BOT decisions:

Announcements: An endowment campaign to fund the John Waterbury Fellowships in Doctoral Research to recognize the accomplishments of President Waterbury during his presidency. The election of former dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Nuhad Daghir to the status of dean emeritus. The election of José A. Zaglul, president of Costa Rica's Earth University, to BOT membership. A number of faculty promotions (see AT Vol.8, No.8).

New faculty appointments: Hussein Naim, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, FAS; Philippe Barrière, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, FEA.

Academic decisions: Establishment of the Department of Emergency Medicine. Change of name-the Pediatrics Department becomes the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Acceptance of the new General Education Program unifying general education requirements across all AUB faculties, and providing students with additional course choices and a writing focus.

Financial decisions: Adoption of the proposed capital budget for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008. Changes in structure and location of two committees: election of David Bickers and Nabil Chartouni to the Audit Committee and Walid Chamma and Hutham Olayan to the Finance and Budget Committee.

Financial decisions-construction: approval of additional $12 million funding for development of the Salloum property for operating room expansion/replacement and for a basement addition to the Irani-Oxy Engineering Building. Authorization for negotiation of a $50 million loan to fund construction.

Approval of the AUBMC mission statement.

Report of Senate Representative: Senate representative Samir Seikaly said he attended an Academic Affairs Committee meeting, as well as the plenary session at the BOT meeting, at which he summarized his statement and received positive feedback. He stressed the need to disseminate the representative's statement to the trustees before the meeting and urged the senate to follow up the issues raised, and also to disseminate the statement on the AUB web page.

Meeting of October 26, 2007: The first University Senate meeting of the 2007-08 academic year began with minutes of silence commemorating the deaths and memories of Professor Levon Melikian (August 7, 2007), Professor George Zaarour (August 16, 2007), Dean Farid Hanania (August 22, 2007), and Honorary Marshal Nabil Ashkar (October 7, 2007).

The new Vice President for Finance S. Kenney and new senators F. Sleiman (FAFS), J. Dargham and N. Nassif (FAS), A. Abdul-Malak, L. Musfy, and M. Darwish (FEA), and M. Khawaja (FHS) were welcomed.

Elections to the Senate Steering Committee (SSC) and the Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs (SCFA) produced the following new members: SSC: FAFS, O. Obeid; FAS, N. Nassif; FEA, A. Abdul-Malak; FHS: M. Jurdi; OSB, K. Hindi; SON, L. Farhood; and president's appointee, N. Darwiche. SCFA: FAFS, M. Nimah; FEA, M. Darwish; FHS, M. Khawaja; FM, A. Al-Kutoubi.

The following issues were listed for discussion during the 2007-08 academic year: the role of the senate, admission to the University, tenure, teaching effectiveness, general education, and the academic grievance procedure.

Meeting of November 30, 2007: Discussion of amendment to the senate bylaws was tabled for further consultation. In lieu of no expressed stipulation on the manner of carrying motions, the president said that from now on motions would be carried by a majority of voting members attending and not by a majority of votes cast.

Degrees were voted for candidates for October graduation.