Faculty Senate

CCSU Faculty Senate

Minutes—March 4, 2002

VAC 105  3:00 PM

Members Present: Abadiano, Altieri, Austad, Baratta, Benfield, Best, Blatz, Brann, Braverman, Calvert, Capitao, Cohen, Conway, Fried, Garcia, Gilmore, Halloran, Hedlund, Hicks, Hermes, Jones, Kim, Kurkjian, Lapuerta, Larkin, Larose, Leake, Lemaire, Martin, Martin-Troy, Moran, O’Connell, Osterrich, Phillips, Ribchinsky, Ritzenhoff, Sarisley, Stawicki, Terezakis, Thornton, Ulrich, Westcott, Williams.

 

Ex‑Officio Members Present: Senior V.P Demos, Provost Bartelt, Deans Whitford, Higgins, Miller, Lemma and Kremens,

 

Guests: Paul Petterson Chair Curriculum Committee, Doug Carter, Chair, University Athletic Board

Meeting was called to order by President Best at 3.07 p.m. in Vance 105.

 

I.                    Approval of Minutes of 02/4/02

 

Motion to accept.

Martin-Troy/Cohen

Carried Unanimously

 

II.                 Announcements

 

a.       AAUP Report. Sen. Austad

 

Sen. Austafd there were three major areas to report:

 

(i)                  AAUP won the arbitration case (Official copies of the decision available at the union office) – a round of cheers- and now the administration must negotiate the issues that were put to arbitration. This they have begun to do and the possibility of a “New faculty member” who teaches intro courses at the 099 and 100 level is being suggested. This Thursday is crucial, as this will essentially decide if there is to be a settlement or not.

(ii)                We are in receipt of the Budget from the governor and indeed his budget directives are in line with AAUP goals. There is a proposal to “merge” college administration with that of the CSU administration and that is cause for concern but there are areas of mutual agreement.

(iii)               There is a bill on the floor of the House (HB 5533) to make the ratio of full-time to part timers’ 75:25 and this needs to be followed through the bill passage process but it enjoys some strong support and we have hope.

 

b.       Report on Board Of Trustees Meeting Sen. Abadiano

 

(See below at end of minutes)

 

c.       Audio Visual of Presidents Report to the Board of Trustees. Armand Zottola. Dept. Economics

Dr Zotolla indicated that the project started some five years ago when a group of students made an audio visual of the years events at Central and distributed it through the Central Arts Cable Network. Three years ago they started to feature Dr Judd’s report and in the last year with the expert assistance of the media services division, a professional, informative production on initiatives at Central was played throughout Connecticut on local cable franchises. Dr Zottola noted that this vehicle is an excellent means by which any faculty might get their message out to a wider Connecticut audience.

The AV was played (following a protracted period of the “No Signal” sign showing and the usual embarrassing wait, technically known as “whatsupp?” and where holders of, collectively, 135 advanced degrees sat in a room with no idea on what to do to rescue the situation).

The quality and impact of the production elicited a deserved round of applause

 

III.               Elections

Sen. Braverman indicated nominations have been received for all vacancies and the election can go forth for April 15 for the slates that will be presented. Further nominations from the floor can still be made at this time. Sen. Braverman also noted that members of Senate Committees should also consider extending their service into the following year for continuity of representation

Sen. Halkin: Choice is GOOD and thus she encourages everyone to solicit nominations, preferably with the nominees knowledge. She also noted that the Senate Elections Committee will be accepting nominations for Senate President, Vice President, and Secretary over the course of the summer, and that the elections committee would like to encourage those interested (including those currently in those positions, if they're willing!) to think about nominating themselves (or willing colleagues) in advance of the first Senate meeting in the Fall, at which elections for those positions will occur. Additional nominations will of course also be accepted during the first Fall Senate meeting. Nominations made over the summer or before the first Fall Senate meeting should be sent to Sen.Braverman.

IV.              Senate Committee Reports

 

a.                 Curriculum Committee Report. Paul Petterson.

The report had been attached and was straightforward. Paul did note that in the report under item 18-7 the proposals to permit some departments a 5 or 10 year limit on prerequisites had been referred to Academic standards and Senate will see this later.

Dr. Prescott: What is that?

Paul Petterson: The idea that there may be a limitation on the number of years a prerequisite may allowed prior to a student taking the class without the prerequisite

Motion to Accept Curriculum Committee Report (Moran/Austad)

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

NOTE: In these minutes and subsequent minutes, the approved curriculum Committee report may be found on the Curriculum Committee web site, and this site will constitute the official record.

b.                 Information Technology Committee Sen. Altieri

Sen. Altieri noted three areas were discussed at the last meeting:

(i)                  A web policy is being looked at. Notwithstanding issues of academic freedom there are also legal issues and these must be addressed

(ii)                There are two training options now being offered. One by an outside contractor (New Horizons), which delivers software training and the other instructional in nature and delivered in-house. All faculty should have received notification of the latter from Roy Temple and in addition is available on the Media Services site (one can also book places here)

(iii)               Sen. Altieri indicated that in order to conform to Federal regulations regarding conformity for persons with disabilities all our web sites are being looked at and invariably changed. This has already occurred with the CCSU home page and the faculty senate page has also been redesigned. Sen. Altieri noted that the records of the Faculty senate are on the page but owing to the fact that Sen. Benfield had his computer nicked over Xmas only two years records were there. Widespread grief was immediately apparent but no blame was attached as the accuser could swiftly have been the new secretary.

Sen. Moran: Are the by-laws on the site?

Sen. Altieri: Yes but not committees of senate

P. Petterson: Committee on Committees is working on getting theirs on

Sen. Ritzenhoff: Is it now acceptable to persons with disabilities?

Sen. Altieri: It is at what might be called level one where the basic elements are in place (Text only for example) but other improvements are possible and are being made.

Sens. Braverman and Ostereich: How can a handicapped person read the text and what about colorblind persons?

Sen. Altieri: It is done by degree of contrast in the image.

 

c.                 Ad hoc committee on Academic Integrity. Sen. Moran

 

The promotion and Tenure committee has completed its report and the recommendations gone through to the president. Sen. Moran wished to thank all who was a part of this process. It was hard but fruitful.

The Academic integrity Policy is at a turning point. It is out there, it is in place but students are confused. Thus phase II will begin immediately. This will consist of a dialogue with the students and faculty by means of a survey (this spring) and should the planning grant be approved there will be further studies and a societal marketing of the policy and this will also involve students. The committee essentially seeks culture change form enforcement, through engagement in (academic) discussion to integrity in academic endeavors.

Finally Matt Warshauer has resigned from the committee, he did much of the work on this and will be thanked formally. Accordingly any future work in this area by Matt is his research and not part of the committee work.

 

 

V.                 Old Business

 

There was no old business

 

VI.              New Business

 

a.                 Doug Carter

Doug indicated that in order to reach a balanced budget it was necessary to make cuts in the number of sports at Central. The Athletic department, based on maintaining compliances and removing some “minor” sports, will accomplish this. The Department suggested elimination of the men’s and women’s tennis teams and the men’s swimming. The University Athletic Board considered these recommendations and came to the conclusion the cuts were inevitable, the selection was thoughtful and logical and their other major concern, student athlete well-being (scholarship retention etc) was well taken care of. Thus the Board ratified these recommendations.

Sen. Oostereich: Why men’s (and not women’s) Swimming

Doug Carter: Men’s swimming is non-conference and so there is no problem with compliance.

 

b.                 Endowed Chair in Polish Studies. Sen. Hermes.

 

The Department of History has led the search for a successor to Dr Blejwas. The search committee consists of 12 members from numerous Departments and Area studies committees and they have narrowed the search down to 3 finalists. After consultation with Donna Munroe, Director of Human Resources and Carol Austad CCSU AAUP President, and with their support, the committee approached the CSU/AAUP council to support hiring of a replacement and the granting of tenure IF the candidate already had been through the tenure process. Larry Glenn and the CSU/AAUP council refused to grant this waiver of contractual conditions. Sen. Hermes had asked the CSU/AAUP to consider two resolutions:

                                                                           i.      Allow appointment with Tenure if the person already had tenure at another institution

                                                                         ii.      That the person recommended by the search committee be given an expedited review for tenure and possible accelerated tenure.

 

The council voted down both resolutions

 

The faculty were asked to consider the following resolution:

Be it resolved that the Faculty senate of CCSU is in favor of making the appointment to the Stanislaws A. Blejwas Endowed Chair of Polish and Polish-American Studies, with a simultaneous recommendation from the Promotion and Tenure Committee to the President regarding tenure, if the search Committee recommends appointing someone with tenure to the chair

 

Debate.

Sen. Moran: In other cases a one-year review period is seen as desirable.

Sen. Hermes: (i) this Chair comes with status and a probationary period would hurt this status

(ii) The selection is broadly based and is as rigorous as possible. She was not sure what one-year would reveal

(iii)               It is already difficult enough to get people here and this is not a developmental chair

Sen. Altieri: Do the three people know it is not tenured at this point.

Sen. Hermes: They have been told it is before the Union and no more.

Sen. Altieri: Is it Stan’s old University position? Who pays for it?

Sen. Hermes: The funding for the chair is very complex with monies ($ 1.8 million to date) allocated to various activities. At this point the University pays the salary.

Sen. Halloran: Can we not pay the person a stipend over the salary?

VP Bartelt: The contract does not allow that.

Sen. Halloran: Why is AAUP so against this?

Sen. Hermes: She suspected that:

(i)                  It was unfair to other faculty going for tenure

(ii)                It was not an endowed chair if the money was not coming out of an endowment

(iii)               It is the start of a slippery slope of faculty no longer having governance over appointments to tenure.

Sen. Halloran. Is this not an abnormal case in public institutions in general and therefore may be considered as such?

Sen. Hermes: Yes but it is still a union issue.

VP Bartelt: Any hire must reflect contractual obligations

Sen. Calvert: How can we evaluate teaching and community service anyway from an outside candidate?

Sen. Hermes: Certainly we can get teaching evaluations and see what he or she has done in the community but also the need to present before some 1500 from an interested public (and academicians) should give a good idea of abilities.

Sen. Prescott added: The expedited review was really not that different that asking the person to apply for tenure the first year, since tenure applications are due in October

 

Question called

15 for

7 against

4 abstentions

Resolution passed.

VII.            Adjournment

Motion to adjourn

Westcott/Martin

Carried Unanimously

The meeting adjourned at 4.25. p.m.

The next meeting of the Faculty Senate will be March 18 at 3.00 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted

Richard W. Benfield

Faculty Senate Secretary