PRESENT: Dr. Spiegel, Drs. Weidenheim, Cohen, Etgen, Segall, Baum, Ms. Chrisman.
Excused: Drs. Blanchard, Mehler, Olson, Schuster, Walker, Battinelli, Burns, Mr. Walsh.
Absent: Drs. Birshtein, Keller, Townsend.

I. The minutes of the previous Senate Council meeting held on Sept. 3, 2008 were corrected and approved.

II. Updates from the Dean.

A. Gruss MRI Director. A new Director and Associate Director have been found and will be announced in the near future.
B. Stem Cell Institute Director. Negotiations are underway with a primary candidate.
C. Chair for Ophthalmology: The search committee is working hard.
D. Childrens' Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC) Director: A search committee will be charged shortly.
E. Associate Dean for Education. The search committee for this position is being formed.
F. Introductions for New Faculty. Mr. Early is working on a Faculty Development Day for new faculty which will have groups tailored for clinical and basic science faculty.
G. Board of Overseers. The next meeting will be held on campus on Sept. 24. Mr. Earle, Mr. Ciampo and Dr. Burns will present; the presentations will then be made to Senate.

III. Van Etten Plan. Plans for using this building include student related facilities such as facilities for clinical skills learning, gross anatomy labs on Floors 1-3. CERC activities will be consolidated at Van Etten. The upper floors may be used for student housing and/or dry lab space. Wet lab space is not planned for Van Etten.

The issue of shared equipment, and whether such equipment should be kept in a common equipment space or in the individual laboratories (empire concept, used in the Price Center), was debated. It was noted that common spaces promote interactions and allow sharing of large equipment without giving persons not in one's lab group, access to one's entire lab. This issue will be referred to Dr. M. Scharff.

IV. Status of the bookstore. Prices will be aligned with those on Amazon.com in order to be competitive.

The next meetings of Senate Council and Senate will occur on November 5 due to the holidays.

Respectfully submitted,



Karen M. Weidenheim
Speaker, Faculty Senate

Last updated November 3, 2008