Recommended that new chair be elected
By Lev D. Zilbermints
When Dr. Troy Shinbrot, the elected University Senate Faculty Representative to the Rutgers Board of Governors, tried to ask why Charlie Kratovil, editor of New Brunswick Today, was ruled out of order at the June 22 online meeting, he was shut down by the chair.
According to court documents, there were at least 70 different participants in the online meeting, held via Zoom. Attendees included BOG members; faculty; members of the press; administration and others. No one else except for Kratovil and Dr. Shinbrot were ruled out of order by Board Chair Angelson and then removed or banned.
Court documents show that Kratovil joined the online meeting at 1:00 p.m. and left at 2:26 p.m. Dr. Shinbrot joined the meeting at 1:11 p.m. and was removed at 1:31 p.m. Dr. Shinbrot was unable to rejoin the meeting. This occurred after Dr. Shinbrot asked whether the text of the items the BOG was about to vote on was remotely controversial. At that point, Board Chair Mark A. Angelson declared Dr. Shinbrot out of order and ordered University Secretary Kimberly Pastva to remove Dr. Shinbrot from the meeting.
Furthermore, per the court documents, Dr. Shinbrot then experienced a disruption in his ability to watch and participate in the meeting, with the Zoom program abruptly removing him. When Dr. Shinbrot tried to re-enter the meeting using access with information he had been provided as a member of the BOG, he found that the Zoom program blocked him from doing so.
At 2:02 p.m., with the meeting still ongoing, Dr. Shinbrot informed the media by letter that he was resigning from the Board of Governors. The outgoing Faculty Representative told the BOG to replace Mr. Angelson “with a member who is aware and respectful of the laws of New Jersey.”
Five days later, on June 27, Dr. Shinbrot sent a letter to other Board members criticizing both the Board chair for his actions and the Board itself for being a “rubber-stamp disconnected from the community.”
The full resignation letter reads, “You will have noticed at our last meeting that a Rutgers alum and a local member of the press was censored for requesting the text of motions to be voted on. You will also have noticed that I was expelled from the meeting for asking for an explanation. I appreciate the notes of support from several of you, but ultimately feel that the Board has allowed itself to become a rubber-stamp disconnected from community input. Consequently, I am resigning from the Board.
I remind those of you who have not (yet) communicated your support that Rutgers is a public, state, university that exists based on community goodwill. No part of Rutgers is compatible with censorship, with intolerance toward the press, or with expelling representatives without reasonable cause.
I urge you to resolve, now, to publish motions in advance of votes as requested in public comment last meeting, and in the future to speak when something obviously, plainly, glaringly wrong occurs in Board meetings.”
Dr. Shinbrot is a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers and a Senator of the Rutgers University Senate.
An earlier resignation letter, sent to media on June 22, states, in part, “The acts by the chair appear to be in violation of the NJ Open Public Meetings Act, which states among other things that “…all meetings of public bodies shall be open to the public at all times. Nothing in this act shall be construed to limit the discretion of a public body to permit, prohibit or regulate the active participation of the public at any meeting.”
In view of these facts, and the ongoing and worsening refusal by the chair of the Board of Governors to listen to community input, I am herby resigning from the Board. I urge other members of the Board to replace the chair with a member who is aware and respectful of the laws of New Jersey.”
