Faculty Senate minutes - June 15, 2006 meeting

The Senate reauthorized the Advisory Committee of the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources to nominate candidates for the PhD degree and authorizes a new stand-alone Master of Science, degree for a period of five years, from September 1, 2007 through August 31, 2012.

The Senate approves revisions to the charge of the Committee on Graduate Studies as recommended in SenD#5854.

SenD#5869

This happened at 3:18 pm, as Chairman Roberts reminded the Senators, those from Senate 39 in attendance, members of the Board of Trustees, and other guests that this was the final Senate meeting of 2005-06.

Il. Approval of Minutes of April 20, 2006 (SenD#5850)

These were approved as submitted.

lll. Action Calendar

A. Steering Committee of the Thirty-eight Senate: List of Candidates for Baccalaureate Degrees SenD#5858

The Chair pointed out that those who wished to look at the lists, there were little piles of those names at the ends of each row. The Registrar noted that there were no changes, and the vote was unanimous in conferring degrees.

B.Committe on Graduate Studies: List of Candidates for Advanced Degrees SenD#5859

This list, also approved as submitted by the Registrar, was approved by unanimous consent of the Senate.

IV. Standing Reports

A. Memorial Statement-

Norman E. Shumway (1923-2006) SenD#5860

This was presented by Professor emeritus James B.D. Mark, M.D.

My good friend, Norman E. Shumway, Jr., the Frances and Charles D. Field Professor of

Cardiothoracic Surgery, Emeritus, died peacefully at this Palo Alto home on February 10, 2006, one day after his 83rd birthday. He was unique in many ways. He went to medical school on the basis of an aptitude test given while he was in the Army without even an application. On a subsequent stint in the Air Force, he was a Flight Surgeon who neither flew nor operated. He is the only surgeon I know who was called away from a dinner party that he was hosting in order to do an autopsy. He was carrying out coronary artery by-pass surgery on the President of Stanford University Hospital while the Executive Committee of the Medical School was voting on whether the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery should become a Department in the School. And he was, of course, the father of heart transplantation.

Norm, Dick Lower and others worked in the laboratory for 9 years before carrying out their first heart transplant in a patient. The famous first heart transplant surgeon watched Lower for a few days, returned to South Africa and did a few in the laboratory and then his first clinical case. And Norman thought this was just fine, that it would divert publicity from him. More than 1,300 heart transplants have been carried out at Stanford, more than 60,000 world-wide, all because Shumway started it, continued it, and studied the problem in a scientific fashion.

A contribution of perhaps equal importance and impact to the heart transplant was the training program that he established here at Stanford. Over 75 Shumway-trained cardiac surgeons are scattered around the world in leadership positions carrying on the Shumway tradition. At least one turned to politics following a successful, but abbreviated, career as a transplant surgeon, and is now the Majority Leader of the United States Senate. Another is President of Johns Hopkins University.

Norman lived simply. He drove old cars and did not wear fancy clothes. One of his daughters said that he dressed with the flair of Columbo. He loved to play golf and especially loved the Stanford Golf Course. He called the 12th hole there "The most beautiful hole in all of golfdom."

Norman Shumway made contributions to the better health of people world-wide that the rest of us can only dream of. He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten, by his family, friends and patients.

Mr. Chairman, it is an honor on behalf of the Committee consisting of Professors Robert Chase, Bruce Reitz and myself to lay before the Senate of the Academic Council this resolution in memory of the late Norman. E. Shumway, Jr., Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

At the request of the Chair, the Senate stood for a moment of silence.

William E. Spicer (1929-2004) SenD#5861 This was presented by Piero Pianetta

Professor William Edward Spicer, a co-founder of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, and Professor of Electrical Engineering with courtesy appointments in the Department of Applied Physics and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Stanford since 1962 died on June 6, 2004 at the age of 74.

Bill Spicer was an innovative researcher, mentor and inventor who pioneered the use of photoemission to study the band structure of solids and the electronic properties of surfaces and interfaces. Bill did path-breaking work to address problems related to novel semiconductor and catalyst materials, two fields of great technological importance. Bill also contributed in a most significant way to the developments of photocathodes, imaging tubes and night-vision devices. He received many awards for his accomplishments, including the Oliver E. Buckley Solid State Physics Prize from the American Physical Society and the Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Bill's most lasting legacy will be his development of the photoemission techniques now being used by hundreds of scientists worldwide to address a broad range of problems in condensed matter physics. Bill will also be remembered for mentoring a large number of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in their education at Stanford and the keen interest he showed in supporting them in their professional careers beyond Stanford.

Mr. Chairman on behalf of a committee consisting of Professors James Harris, Ingolf Lindau (chair), Zhi-Xun Shen and myself, it is an honor to lay before the Senate of the Academic Council a resolution in memory of the late William Edward Spicer, Professor of Electrical Engineering in the School of Engineering.

The Senate stood for the traditional moment of silence.

An unauthorized interruption...Chair started his usual routine, moving to the Steering Committee report. At that point, however, Professor Al Camarillo, vice-chair of the Senate, interrupted to take the floor and present a eulogy/commendation for Chairman Roberts. He spoke with eloquence and great humor.

"Mr. Chairman, I rise on a point of personal privilege as Vice Chair of the Senate. On behalf of the colleagues here today and those who could not attend, I want to thank you for your excellent leadership of the 38th Faculty Senate. With great care and expediency you have managed the work of the Faculty Senate through academic year 2005-06. You made it one of your objectives to reach out to undergraduate and graduate students so their voices could be heard. You have moved along our meetings with dispatch by introducing parliamentary procedures few Senate chairs have used in the past. You were tough but kind with time limits for those who made presentations and reports to the full Senate and you prepared them well during their visits at the Steering Committee meetings. You did all of this and more with a smile on your face and with wit and charm. And for this, we thank you for your able leadership of this august body."

He then broke into song, providing his own creative lyrics for the tune, Blowin' in the Wind, (which he said was written by Peter, Paul and Mary). [Readers are encouraged to sing along]

How many times did we hear him say unanimous consent is the way?

And how many times did he limit reports, report and after boring report?

The answer… my Senators… is sitting in this chair, the answer is Eric our dear chair.

How many times did he lead us upstairs, he thought Executive Sessions were such fun?

And how many meetings did he end right on time, he kept a tight rein on us all?

The answer my colleagues is sitting in this chair, the answer is our distinguished Senate chair.

"The song," pointed out Roberts, after applauding gratefully along with the Senate, "was not written by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Bob Dylan was the composer!" Camarillo accepted this correction from his elder.

B. Steering Committee

Roberts noted the presence in the meeting of members of the Board of Trustees and Senate 39, inviting them to attend the executive session. He reviewed the decisions of the Administrative Session which were all non-controversial items, but interesting ones.

Roberts then thanked the Steering Committee for its hard work, and the chairs of the Academic Council committee. They worked hard as volunteers to keep the academic aspects of the University intact and vital. They are:

Abbas El-Gamal, Committee on Academic Computing & Information Systems

Rosemary Knight, Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Policy

Hazel Markus, Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid

Brad Osgood, Committee on Review of Undergraduate Majors

Elisabeth Paté-Cornell, Committee on Research

David Riggs, Committee on Libraries

Sheri Sheppard, Committee on Committees

Sylvia Yanagisako, Committee on Graduate Studies

A special expression of friendly gratitude was inserted here by Roberts for Roger Noll, who will take his droll humor and scholarly insight into retirement. He will be missed by the Senate. His comments were focused, often very original, and always entertaining.

C. Committee on Committees

Sheri Sheppard, who will be moving up to be Chair of Senate 39, had no report, because the work of the CoC has been finished, and now it is the task of the Academic Secretary to round up commitments from nominees to serve on committees.

D. Provost and President

Good News for Young Faculty

The President would give his comments later in executive session, so the floor was turned over to the Provost. Professor Etchemendy was pleased that the new initiatives that he would announce about the housing program were designed primarily for young faculty, the future of the University.

Travel Grants

First, he announced that he had established a travel grant program for junior faculty, giving a maximum of $500 (post tax) for them to use for meetings, workshops, etc. to help with child care, other dependent care expenses, and expenses related to the problems that young faculty meet while trying to keep a semblance of family life while traveling for academic reasons.

Child Care Center

Next, he announced that a site had FINALLY been found for a child care center that would be available for faculty and graduate students. Why was the wait so long? Because each site suggested initially generated objections from neighbors who did not want "…a child care center in my back yard," this project took a long time to develop. Evan Porteus asked where the final site actually would be. The Provost enjoyed saying, "In your back yard!"… But he was just kidding.

The largest problem for young faculty is being able to stay at Stanford in face of competitive offers from other universities at the crucial career phase of being offered tenure. This is the critical turning point. If Stanford is to retain preeminence in its quality of faculty, it cannot let those chosen for tenure leave for offers because they cannot afford to find housing in proximity to the University. Therefore, the Provost has revised and added to the Housing Supplement Program. Details can be found at http://fsh.stanford.edu A letter summarizing the changes will be mailed to the faculty in July.

1. The basic building block loan, the Mortgage Assistance Program (MAP) will be increased;

2. A loan option for faculty and senior staff who have DIP loans will be able to retain a version of the loan after they retire;

3. There will be several enhancements in housing assistance for recently tenured faculty

First, he reviewed the existing program. The Housing Assistance Program (HAP) is a taxable supplement to salary that declines linearly to zero over the next nine years or until the house is sold.

The Mortgage Assistance Program (MAP) is one of the best subsidies. Faculty can currently borrow up to $500,000 now at 3.5% interest rate. Deferred interest is calculated as a share of appreciation or compounded unpaid interest, whichever is lower.

The Deferred Interest Program (DIP) allows faculty to borrow up to $150,000, or 20% of the fair market value of a home, with zero current interest paid. The interest accumulated (which could be substantial) would be paid at the sale of the residence. This program is obviously dependent upon a significant appreciation of the value of the residence. The IRS requires that zero interest loans to employees be repaid at retirement.

MAP is increaded

During the last week, the Provost was pleased to announce that the amount able to be borrowed from the MAP was increased from $500,000 to $600,000 for eligible faculty and senior staff. A second change in the plan was generated to help those who would face a large dollar cost to pay if they sold their house at the time of retirement if having borrowed $150,000 on the Deferred Interest Program. Those who wish to do so can now convert that to a MAP, deferring the interest owed to when the residence is sold.

Incentives for recently tentured faculty

For recently tenured or just-about-to-be tenured faculty, the cohorts most vulnerable to being raided by other institutions, some special incentives have been generated.

As of July 1, 2006, faculty tenured after September 1, 2004 who want to buy a new home, can have a DIP loan up to $300,000. After ten years, up to $100,000 of the deferred interest will be forgiven by the University, and, in addition, these faculty can have a second HAP.

If these same faculty are pleased with the house they own, but want to make major renovations, they can ask for an increase in the DIP up to $300,000 with forgiveness of deferred interest after ten years.

For these same faculty who own a house and want to make only minor renovations, a second HAP is available.

Although two-thirds of the faculty own a house, that leaves one third who do not. The recently or about-to-be tenured faculty can take their first HAP as a lump sum (i.e., the entire nine years' total) to help with a down payment, and have a DIP up to $300,000. After ten years up to $100,000 in deferred interest on the DIP loan will be forgiven.

The Senators were very impressed with the generous and well thought-out plans for the junior faculty and those reaching tenure, and grateful to the Provost for designing them.

V. Other Reports

A. Committee on Graduate Studies: Recommendation that the Senate request that the new Vice Provost for Graduate Education report to the Senate annually on graduate student diversity. (SenD#5855)

Sylvia Yanagisako, the hard-working chair of C-GS, outlined this plan. She began by saying, "The charge to C-GS from the Faculty Senate states that one of the standing committees of C-GS shall be 'Minority Graduate Student Recruitment and Retention' which shall 'monitor Stanford's activities in the recruitment and retention of graduate students from underrepresented groups, including women in certain departments; and make policy recommendations as appropriate.' " In preparing this recommendation, C-GS reviewed the report of the Commission on Graduate Education, met with the VPGE search committee, ad discussed the initiative with Associate Dean of Graduate Policy, Gail Mahood. From these observations and discussions, C-GS concluded that since there was differential success among departments, it would be useful for the faculty to know where these efforts have been successful and where improvement is still needed. The recommendation to the Senate was:

The Faculty Senate requests that the Vice Provost for Graduate Education report to the Senate annually on the progress being made to increase graduate student diversity at Stanford. The report should summarize initiatives undertaken by each school to increase the graduate application, enrollment, and retention of individuals who would enhance the diversity (broadly defined) of our graduate student body, in particular minority students and women in fields in which they are under-represented. It should include quantitative data on trends in the numbers and proportion of applications, admissions, and enrollment of such students by individual departments and schools, and, where practical, comparison to national applicant pools and statistics for comparable research universities.

Questions and Discussion

Professor Harvey Cohen hoped that the ideas and initiatives of C-GS and the VPGE and his/her staff could be transferred readily to departments such as those in clinical medicine who have post-doctoral fellow and residents. He urged that these ideas not be "balkanized." Professor Yanagisako assured him that all activities would be transparent and available for all.

Professor McNichols admitted to being struck by the absence in the report of recommendations for benchmarks to measure progress against other institutions. She recognized that it would be difficult to get equivalent departmental data from the other research universities. Pat Jones, however, said that the American Association of Universities had a data exchange among 61 universities that should make these comparisons easier.

Professor Sheri Sheppard, the chair of Senate 39, was understandably curious about when this report would be presented to the Senate. Everyone present hoped that it could be as early as the beginning of the winter quarter, although the likelihood of this happening in this year, when the VPGE had not yet been appointed, was not high.

At this point, Chairman Roberts called for the vote. The Senate voted unanimously to accept and implement the recommendation from C-GS.

B. Emeriti Council Report to Senate

Chairman Roberts was pleased to present David B. Abernethy, Professor emeritus of Political Science, to give the report of the Emeriti Council. Abernethy is the third representative to the Senate from this group of past stars.

Professor Abernethy began. "I'm reporting on this year's activities of the Emeriti Council, a group formed four years ago by Al Hastorf and Jim Mark, in close coordination with then Senate chair Hank Greely, to provide informal advice to the Senate on the viewpoints and interests of the University's retired faculty. This year's Council members are myself, Al Hastorf, Dick Lyman, Jim Mark, Nancy Packer, Larry Ryan, Ken Scott, and Tony Siegman. Al and Jim represented us on the Senate in the past. I've done so this year. Nancy will represent the emeriti in next year's Senate, Tony Siegman in 2007-08.

"This year the Council 'went public,' in the sense that we sought out and communicated with our constituency - emeriti and spouses living on campus and in neighboring areas - and scheduled several events for them. To do this we had invaluable help from Provost John Etchemendy (funding) and from Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Pat Jones (administrative support by her assistant, Nicole Reed). Our initial task was to identify 'who is out there'. We compiled a list of local 458 faculty emeriti. We decided to add staff emeriti to our mailing list, as the University has given selected members of the senior staff the same designation as retired members of Academic Council. There were 112 of these. We also took special steps to identify the spouses of deceased emeriti - many of them on no University mailing list - and now have about a dozen of them on our list.

"Our goal in reaching this group of just under 600 people was to help create a community, in two senses: emeriti and their spouses as a cohesive, self-aware group with our own interests and activities, and individuals linked in a variety of mutually beneficial ways to the larger Stanford University community.

"The main vehicles for community-building were three lectures followed by wine-and-cheese receptions, one each quarter, each attended by between 150 and 180 people. We began with a marvelous fall quarter talk by Laura Carstensen on 'Cognitive Changes in Aging,' in which she supplemented the expected 'bad news' by some good news, and what one might call mixed good/bad news that in some respects it's all downhill from our mid-20's. Everyone in this room - except for students - is on a downward slope, not just the 60, 70, 80 and 90 somethings! [President Hennessy, feeling strong and healthy, interrupted with, "Speak for yourself, David!"]

"In winter and spring we shifted from topics of particular interest to us as we age to reflections by distinguished scholars on their intellectual journeys. Ken Arrow (Nobel laureate in economics and recent recipient of National Medal of Science) in the winter, and Pat Suppes (also a National of Science winner, professor emeritus of Philosophy and a person for all disciplines) in spring, spoke about the questions that had engaged their scholarly attention over the years, how they first came upon these questions, how and why their interests evolved, and the major contributions they felt they had made to their fields. What came across from these presentations was the large role of serendipity in taking each speaker down one path rather than another, the importance of scholar-teachers as personal and academic role models, and the continuing vitality of their own intellectual engagement on into their 80's.

For next year we envisage lectures and panels on aging-related topics such as:

the choice between staying in our home and moving,

options in retirement homes and other places,

logistical and psychological aspects of material downsizing associated with moving to smaller living quarters,

technological and economic changes in America's health care system,

examples of individuals who have launched new careers in retirement;

caretaking and bereavement associated with a partner's illness and death.

We plan to continue the 'intellectual journeys' series, which virtually begs to be done given the awesome firepower of this University's emeriti.

"With enthusiastic and consistently helpful support from the Faculty Club, we initiated a weekly social hour in the club library, which at its height attracted over 30 people. Attendance dwindled thereafter, and we're considering a less frequent pattern for next year. These sessions showed their great potential for enabling us to make new friends. I had some fascinating conversations with many people I'd never met before, and others had a similar experience.

"An open-ended discussion at our first public meeting netted several suggestions for activities interested emeriti could engage in through our own initiatives, such as sharing oral histories, setting up computer classes for novices, book groups, fitness classes, etc. Then there were suggestions for how the University could assist us:

with small grants for ongoing research projects or attendance at a conference;

advice on where to send scholarly materials;

and broadband internet connections.

Perhaps most important, providing some accessible place on campus where emeriti could drop in during the week, modestly equipped with a coffee urn, some cookies, comfortable chairs, and a computer or two. [Jim Mark had mentioned last year the lavish quarters provided to emeriti faculty at Yale, made possible by a targeted gift.]

"Considerable interest was expressed, as well, in how we might assist the University. Here are five examples worth exploring in future….

1. Emeriti could invite students to our homes for a meal or dessert and a discussion of a worthwhile topic not normally addressed in classrooms or dorms such as:

questions of personal meaning and purpose noted in an earlier address to the Senate by Scotty McLennan;

what students would like to do with their lives;

debriefing sessions for students returning from Stanford Overseas programs;

adjustment to life in the U.S. for international students.

"There is a huge potential for mutually beneficial faculty/staff-student interaction in the comfortable, familial setting of a home (emeriti now occupy about a third of all campus homes), but almost none of this potential has been realized. We need to search for a viable mechanism to link students who would like to have such conversations with emeriti who would enjoy leading them.

2. Retired faculty could be invited to be guest lectures in existing courses, particularly if their specialty is not adequately covered by the existing members of a department.

3. The University could take advantage of the large number of former students we know, tapping them as volunteers as Stanford in its next campaign seeks to link academia to world outside it. We could join Development Office staffers in soliciting campaign donations.

4. We could be involved in several arenas mentioned in the recent Report of the Commission on Graduate Education, including serving on doctoral dissertation committees and informally and confidentially mentoring graduate students who may be having difficulty communicating with their advisers.

5. We could talk on the evolution of our academic discipline, calling on our personal knowledge of the field when we began our own careers decades ago. This could be very helpful in giving students perspective on the intellectual history of their fields. Looking back is sometimes a good way to project what directions a field may take in the future.

"Discussing these types of service ties to the University brings me to you, elected members of the Senate. In some respects, as emeriti form our own community we will do things with and for ourselves. In other respects - for example, inviting students to our homes - we can be expected to take 'reaching-out' initiatives. But in many ways it makes sense not for us to ask you to dance but for you to ask us to dance. It's desirable all around to avoid a situation where a retired faculty person volunteers to give a lecture or serve on a dissertation committee but has experienced sufficient mental, physical, or emotional deterioration to be no longer up for the job. It is far better if you, in your departments, to keep tabs on your retired colleagues through your personal ties, informally filtering in those who are up to University service and filtering out those who are not. Once you've extended the invitation, it is then up to us to decide whether we want to accept it.

"Retired faculty and staff constitute a quantitatively and qualitatively large - and essentially untapped - potential resource for the University community. This potential won't be realized unless you reach out, on a regular and systematic basis, to see how we are doing, and to explore ways we could reconnect to larger University community in mutually beneficial ways. The better you do this job, the more satisfying your own retirement might be should you be fortunate enough to join our ranks and continue to live in the neighborhood."

Professor Abernethy's report was accepted with sincere enthusiasm by the Senate. All were very pleased at how the emeriti program has matured since its formal inception three years ago.

Vll-Vll. Unfinished or New Business

There were no items of new or old business, and the meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm.

Vlll. The Senate adjourned to Executive session at 4:35 pm

Respectfully submitted,Edward D. Harris, Jr. M.D.Academic Secretary to the University