Faculty Senate

CCSU Faculty Senate

Minutes—April 4, 2005

VAC 105  3:00 PM

 

Present: Abadiano, Adams, Al-Masoud, Ayalon, Barrington, Bello, Best, Bonnici, Brann, Braverman, Button,Candales, Cohen, Crundwell, D'Addio,  Garcia-Bowen,  Halkin, Hedlund, Hentschel, Kurkjian, Leake,  Lee-Partridge, Machuga, Mahony, Marlor,  Moran, Murphy, Odesina, Orloske, Osterreich, Pancsofar, Park, Passaro, Pevac, Pirog, Poirier, Recoder-Nunez, Rivera, Sadanand, Salerno, Salinas, Sevitch, Terezakis, Tracey, Walo.

 

 Ex-Officio:  Lemma, Pease, Whitford

 Parliamentarian: O'Connell

 Guests: Alewitz (Art)

 

Meeting called to order by Vice-President Adams in the absence of President Craine at 3.03 p.m

 

1.   Approval of Minutes of March 7

            (Murphy/Terezakis): passed unanimously

 

2.   Announcements: Vice-President Adams

a.   Reminded senators and guests of the open meeting scheduled after adjournment today to discuss the proposed changes to the Faculty Senate Constitution and Bylaws. She urged participation and also asked senators to bring it to the attention of their departmental colleagues for review. [The present Constitution and Bylaws and proposed revisions are posted at <http://www.chemistry.ccsu.edu/crundwell/SCCB.htm>]

 

b.   Read a statement to the Faculty Senate from the Department of Art on the situation regarding the Mural Art program and the policy governing the painting of murals, dated April 4, 2005. The announcement provided a brief background to the program and the policy. It concluded,

 

“…we are pleased to announce today that open discussions have begun, including a meeting with Dr. Aebersold tomorrow morning to discuss the approval process for the proposed DiLoreto Mural and a subsequent meeting, requested by Dr. Aebersold with Art Department Faculty, Facilities Management, School of Arts & Sciences Dean’s office representatives and him. We are pleased to see that these conversations will bring a resolution to recent problems and that, once again, we will be able to re-establish a collegial working relationship with Facilities Management. Our department continues to express great interest in being part of Mural conversations and decision-making process, especially since these decisions have direct implications on our established curriculum.

The Department of Art values open lines of communication and appreciates the assistance that our Assistant Dean, Dr. Paul Altieri, has provided to us over the past few weeks. The Department will keep the Faculty Senate apprised of the status of these conversations and resulting outcomes.”

 

Sen. Terezakis (CCSU- AAUP Council)  made the following announcements on behalf of President White of the CCSU-AAUP :

a.   Open meeting on April 13, 12 - 2 pm, Marcus White Living Room, there would be an update from CSU-AAUP President Walsh on State legislative deliberations on the budget for higher education as well as on upcoming AAUP-BOT contract negotiations.

      A light lunch will be provided.

b.   Faculty social on April 14, 4 - 7 pm, Connecticut Room of Memorial Hall

c.   CCSU-AAUP ballots for elections to the council are in the campus mail. They are due back on Friday.

 

 

3.   Unfinished Business : None

4.   New Business

a.   Senate Elections (Sen. Braverman)

Ballots with nominations for the committees below were distributed to the senators. Results would be announced at the next meeting of the Faculty Senate

 

CCSU Foundation Grant Advisory Committee (at large)

Distinguished Service Award Committee (at large)

Excellence in Teaching Committee (AAUP)

Grade Appeals Committee (AAUP)

Library Committee (at large)

Safety and Environmental Health Committee (at large)

Student Affairs Committee (at large)

University Athletics Board (at large)

University Planning & Budget Committee

 

Motion to close nominations (Crundwell/Leake): passed unanimously

 

b.   Resolution of support for President Miller (Sen. Sevitch)

Motions to amend the resolution to make changes as follows:

Substitute “University of Wisconsin at Whitewater” for “Whitewater State University”

(Murphy/Marlor) : passed unanimously

 substitute “academic freedom” for “AAUP principles”

(Murphy/Osterreich): passed unanimously

Motion to add “ Connecticut State University-Board of Trustees ” as recipient of the resolution in addition to Dr. Miller 

(Salerno/Terezakis): passed unanimously

 

Motion to approve the amended resolution (Sevitch/Osterreich): passed unanimously

The full resolution reads as follows:

 

Because we value the principle of Academic Freedom as a cherished right of all professors, the fundamental cornerstone in the notion that a university is “a marketplace of ideas”, the Faculty Senate of Central Connecticut State University hereby salutes the defense of that principle by our president-elect, Dr. Jack Miller. Despite pressure to deny Professor Ward Churchill a platform at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, President Miller did not yield, and courageously defended the right of free speech.

We trust that Dr. Miller will continue to be a beacon of academic freedom in his tenure at Central Connecticut State University.

Be it resolved that the Secretary of the Senate record the vote and forward it and a copy of this resolution to Dr. Miller and the Connecticut State University-Board of Trustees.

 

5.   Motion to make an exception to the agenda to consider an emergency request from the Department of Special Education (Murphy/Osterreich); passed unanimously

      Motion to approve request from the Department of Special Education  to replace Profs.Mitchell Beck and Joanne Walker, who are unavailable to serve on the DEC, with Profs. Karen Beyard (Educational Leadership) and Ronnie Casella (Teacher Education) to serve on the DEC for the Spring semester 2005

(Osterreich/Moran): passed unanimously

 

6.     Adjournment

             Motion to adjourn - 3.42 pm ( Terezakis/Marlor ) : passed unanimously

 

Respectfully submitted

 

Nanjundiah Sadanand

 

Secretary

Faculty Senate, CCSU