CCSU Faculty Senate
Minutes—December 3, 2001
VAC 105 3:00 PM
Members Present: Abadiano, Altieri, Austad, Baratta, Benfield, Best,
Blitz, Brann, Braverman, Budwitz, Calvert, Carter-Lowery, Cassella, Chasse,
Cohen, Conway, Crundwell, Fried, Garcia, Gilmore, Halkin, Hicks, Johnson,
Jones, Kjell, Larose, Leake, Lemaire, Martin, Martin-Troy, Merriman, Moran,
O’Connell, Odesina, Phillips, Ritzenhoff, Sarisley, Stanley,
Stoneback, Terezakis, Thornton, Williams.
Ex‑Officio Members Present: V.P
Bartelt, Deans Whitford, Higgins, Lemma, Miller and Kremens,
Guests: Francis Keefe Advising, Susan
Pease (Crim), Jeanne Sohn, Charles Mate-Kole (Psyc)
Meeting was called to order by President
Best at 3.12 p.m. in Vance 105.
I.
Approval of Minutes of 11/19/01
Motion
to accept.
Martin-Troy/Halkin
Carried Unanimously
II.
Announcements
a.
AAUP Report. Sen. Austad
1. Recent data from the CSU System Office 2000-2001
annual report shows that the overall percentage of PT-FTEs are 31.2%;
CCSU-38.46%; ECSU-31%; SCSU-32.46%: WCSU--16%
2.
The Board of Trustees is meeting Friday and AAUP will send a delegation and
attempt to speak to the full board on the state of negotiations and the issues
outstanding
3.The
national AAUP have seen the issues for which we are fighting as a major area of
concern and will be more active in the campaign to reduce or stabilize use of
Part time faculty.
III.
Elections
There were no
elections.
IV.
Senate Committee Reports
There were no
Senate Committee Reports
V.
New Business (moved up the agenda to permit extended discussion of
old business)
a. Candidates for
Graduation
The following Motions were introduced:
…That the faculty Senate approves the candidates
from the School of Arts and Sciences in the December 2000 graduation lists for
the degrees of B.A, B.S and B.F.A subject to satisfactory completion of all
requirements
Dean
Higgins
…That the faculty Senate
approves the candidates from the School of Technology in the December 2000
graduation lists for the degrees of B.S, M.S subject to satisfactory completion
of all requirements
Dean
Kremens
…That the faculty Senate
approves the candidates from the School of Business in the December 2000
graduation lists for the degrees of B.S subject to satisfactory completion of
all requirements
Dean
Miller
…That the faculty Senate
approves the candidates from the School of Education in the December 2000
graduation lists for the degrees of B.S, and M.S subject to satisfactory
completion of all requirements
Dean
Whitford
…That the faculty Senate approves the candidates from the School of Graduate Studies in the December 2000 graduation lists for the degrees of M.A., M.B.A., M.Sc. and Six-Year-degree subject to satisfactory completion of all requirements
Dean Lemma
All seconded by Secretary
All carried unanimously
b. Resolution to
restore Dr. Olusegun Sogunro
Dr. Lemaire presented the following
resolution for senate consideration:
The Faculty Senate hereby resolves to request
President Judd to restore Dr. Olusegun Sogunro to his position of Assistant
Professor, with full back pay, for the Spring semester of 2002 (Academic Year
2001-2002) under the conditions of his initial appointment in the Department of
Educational Leadership at Central Connecticut State University
Sen. Crundwell: What is the historical
background to this situation...he had little information on which to consider
this resolution.
Dr Lemaire outlined the chronological
sequence of events that brought us to this point in time. (This chronology is
available for consultation at the offices of the AAUP and was forwarded with
the resolution to the President along with some signed petitions)
Sen. Mezvinsky: Two issues: Has the
President had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Sogunro and then possibly act on
this and what is the status of the grievance procedure?
Sen. Lemaire: The President has
indicated he sees it as an administrative issue and will not meet with Dr.
Sogunro and the results of grievance is not public knowledge
Sen. Blitz: When he came to Central in
1989 he experienced exactly the same situation, with problems with the
University “assisting†with his visa and the Office of Naturalization and
Immigration disorganized and unable to move with the necessary speed. Thus this
situation comes as no surprise and thus Dr. Blitz strongly supports this motion.
Sen. Ritzenhoff: Similar problems arose
in her case in her immigration from Germany
Sen. Terezakis: this motion is extremely
important to right the wrong that has clearly occurred
Sen. Lapuerta: In her case all her
documentation went to Spain!
Motion: The Faculty Senate hereby
resolves to request President Judd to restore Dr. Olusegun Sogunro to his
position of Assistant Professor, for the Spring semester of 2002 (Academic Year
2001-2002) under the conditions of his initial appointment in the Department of
Educational Leadership at Central Connecticut State University with full back
pay for the fall of 2001
Lemaire/Blitz
Carried
Unanimously
c. Graduate
Studies: New mission Statement and other issues. Dr Jim Malloy
Dr Malloy covered the following areas:
Graduate Open House - There will be an open
house for students interested in exploring the possibility of attending
graduate school on February 6, 2002 in the Constitution Room of Memorial
Hall. The snow date is February 13. There will be radio announcements and
newspaper ads. Departments may wish to
send letters to prospective students.
Graduate Research Day - The Graduate Studies
Committee approved the concept of a Graduate Research day. Preparations are under way to have the first
Graduate Research day in early May.
Academic Honesty Policy - Now that the an Academic
Honesty Policy has been approved by the Senate for undergraduate students, the
Graduate Studies Committee plans to review it to determine its applicability to
graduate students. The Policy Committee
will be reviewing it on December 13 at 1:30 in Henry Barnard Hall, Room
114. Interested persons are invited to
attend.
Graduate Mission and Tenets - The Graduate Mission and
Tenets document was approved by the Graduate Studies Committee on November 29,
2001. The document was distributed to members of the Senate.
By-Laws Change - The Graduate Studies
Committee revised its by-laws on November 29, 2001 to clarify the roles and
responsibilities of its committees. The
word subcommittee was changed to standing committees and the functions of each
committee defined. The scholarship
committee will take on the additional responsibility of coordinating the
Graduate Research Day.
Motion (Fried/Phillips) to accept by-laws change of Graduate Studies
Committee.
Approved.
VI.
Old Business
Jeanne Sohn noted that the
Academic Reorganization Committee had met on November 28 to discuss its final
recommendations. She reported on some
preliminary thoughts that were being discussed for the report to the Provost
and the President with the caveat that nothing had been made final.
With
reference to the Draft Recommendations of Nov. 8, she noted that the Committee
would probably recommend that a committee be formed to investigate further the
development of a Chairs Institute. Likewise a committee would possibly be recommended to review the
possibility of altering the weekly schedule.
Regarding
the creation of an Office of General Studies, Ms. Sohn reported that there were
a number of negative reactions to the concept and that the Committee would have
to consider how to proceed. The
recommendation regarding the four school reorganization plans would remain in
the final report but with no positive recommendation for any single one of
them. The report would contain all of
the comments that had been sent to the Committee along with the information
collected on peer institutions and elsewhere.
It was planned to submit the report to the Provost
and to the President before Christmas.
Discussion at this point was not recorded with the concurrence of
the senators in view of the extensive discussions and the need to permit
wide-ranging debate.
President
Best did indicate that the November 28, 2001 report of the Gen Ed Sub committee
should be read into the minutes:
To: Jeanne Sohn, Chair, Academic
Reorganization Committee
Felton Best, President, Faculty
Senate
From: Stephen Adair, Chair, General Education
Subcommittee
Re: Proposal for Office of General
Studies
The
General Education Subcommittee met on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 and voted
unanimously to recommend that the Office of General Studies not be
created. In general, the sentiment of
the Subcommittee was that the proposal was misguided, misinformed and based on
a misdiagnosis of the stated problems. Several points of discussion were addressed in support of this overall
recommendation:
·
The
rationale for the proposal is presented as the “lack of preparedness of
students at all levels,†which is then attributed to the need for “more
structure and guidance.†The
Subcommittee was entirely unconvinced that another administrative office would
enhance student learning and preparedness.
·
The
Subcommittee was in general agreement that students need to be linked early in
their career with an academic advisor and that too many students do not see an
advisor regularly (even if they have been assigned to one), but concluded that
an Office of General Studies was wholly unnecessary to meet this need. Simpler solutions, such as requiring
alternate pin numbers to register or the submission of signed forms to
register, and a greater effort by currently existing offices, would more
effectively address the problem.
·
The
Office of General Studies would obviously require significant financial
resources. The Subcommittee felt such
resources would be a wasteful and needless expense, and thus an inefficient
means to address the defined problems.
·
Members
of the Subcommittee suggested an Office of General Studies might
unintentionally further stigmatize all general education courses by implying
that first and second year courses are remedial and are only the preliminary
work before the “real education†begins. Such perceptions would further undermine the learning objectives of the
General Education curriculum and reduce student motivation.
·
The
proposal recommends an advisory board consisting of “representatives of the
deans of the academic schools, the Registrar or representative, and faculty
representatives of the academic schools.†Such a board would not be representative of the Departments that teach
the majority of General Education courses. This removes the administration of the General Education program from
the faculty who teach it, which in the long term would weaken the coherence of
the program and the capacity to realize learning objectives.
The
Subcommittee did discuss the possibility of a new Faculty Senate committee on
General Education, similar to the Graduate Studies Committee, which would not
be a subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee, but which would address issues
of advising, assessment, orientation, pedagogy, and coherence of the General
Education Program. The Subcommittee,
however, did not vote or have a specific recommendation on this matter.
The following were motions/resolutions arising from the discussions:
Motion Blitz/Austad
To refer the report of the Academic Reorganization Committee to
the Budget and Planning Board for evaluation of fiscal (budgetary) and Planning
implications
Motion Carried (with one opposed
(Sen. Moran) and two abstentions)
Motion Crundwell/O’Connell
To vote on each of the four Initiatives proposed by Committee on
Academic reorganization as outlined by Ms Sohn.
1. Motion to create a Chairs
Leadership Institute
12 for
1 opposed
17 Abstentions
Carried
2. Motion to
restructure the weekly schedule to provide a 4.5-hour mid-week "no class
time" block
1 for
21 opposed
6 abstentions
Motion defeated
3. Motion to
create an Office of General Studies with advising, learning center, guidance,
and retention responsibilities
8 for
18 against
3 abstentions
Motion Defeated
4. Motion to reject all four plans proposed by the
Academic Reorganization Committee for restructuring Schools, and reject any
other plan for restructuring Schools that would involve splitting current
members of the School of Arts and Sciences into different Schools
28 For
4 against
2 abstentions
Motion Carried
VII.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn
Crundwell/Baretta
Carried Unanimously
The
meeting adjourned at 4.45. p.m.
The next meeting
of the Faculty Senate will be December 17 at 3.00 p.m. Please note that this is a change from what was proposed at the
conclusion to this meeting. Senate will convene in order to address business
that cannot wait until February 4 2002.
Respectfully submitted
Richard W. Benfield
Faculty Senate Secretary