Faculty Senate

CCSU Faculty Senate

Minutes—September 26, 2005

VAC 105  3:00 PM

____________________________________________________________________

 

Present: Abadiano, Adams, Alicandro, Al-Masoud, Barrington, Benfield, Cohen, Conway, Craine, Cutler, DiPlacido, Dowty, Foshay, Garcia-Bowen, Gendron,  Grasso, Gould, Hedlund, Hentschel, Hernandez, Jones, Kapper, Kershner, King, Kurkjian, Lane, Leake, Lisi, MacDonald, Mahony, Marlor, Moran, OConnell, Mamed,  Osterreich,Park, Petrosino, Pirog, Poirier, Rajaravivarma, Recoder-Nunez, Sadanand, Sevitch, Spector, Talit, Tower, Warshauer, Westcott, Williams, Zottola

 

 Ex-Officio:  Kremens, Lemma, Miller, Pease, Sakofs, Whitford

 

 Guests: Sianez, Tower

 

Meeting called to order by  President Craine at 3.05 p.m

 

 

     1. Motion to approve Minutes of September 12, 2005

       (Westcott): passed unanimously

 

2.       Announcements:

President Craine (Senate): a. Discussed with AAUP on hurricane relief and the  proposal is to establish a fund for Southern University which has several campuses in Louisiana. The education fund is specifically to help displaced students with textbooks, supplies, etc. A letter will be sent out to all faculty and staff requesting that any check be made out to Southern University Hurricane Relief Fund and sent to the CCSU-AAUP office in Marcus White.

b. Thanked the Elections Committee for organizing the electronic ballot to select faculty representative to the System-wide advisory committee for CSU-Chancellor. A runoff election between Kris Larsen and Gil Gigliotti will be held.

c. Announced  his choice of Faculty Senate Steering Committee members:

Mary Cutler (Business), Daryl Dowty (Technology), Penelope Lisi (Education), George Murphy (Part-Time Faculty), Kevin Oliva (Administrative Faculty)

plus the executive committee of Tim Craine,  Abiagail Adams and Nanjundiah Sadanand, subject to confirmation of the Senate.

Motion to approve the Steering Committee (Best): passed unanimously

 

 President White (CCSU-AAUP):

1. Ballot for wage re-opener has been sent to all AAUP members. It must be returned to the CCSU-AAUP office by October 3
2. Welcome back luncheon for AAUP members on October 19, 11.30 – 1.30, Connecticut Room in Memorial Hall. CSU President Dave Walsh will speak on several issues related to contract negotiations and the recommended increase in dues.
3. A lobbying conference will be held on October 20 to familiarize participants with contract negotiations, higher education issues and relationships with the State legislature. CSU-AAUP will send 6 people to the conference and encourages those interested in going to contact Cindy White, especially those who have not participated in the past.
4.  Part-time faculty issues will be discussed at a CSU-AAUP conference on Friday, September 30 at the campus of WCSU in Danbury. All interested can contact

      aaupw@wcsu.edu for registration.

            Topics include a presentation of CSU-AAUP Part-Time Survey Results.  

            The conference is free, and includes a continental breakfast & lunch.

 

3.       President  Craine invited President Miller (CCSU) to address the Senate.

The President appreciated the Senate’s response to his request for elections to the System-wide advisory committee for CSU Chancellor. He spoke on four main areas as they came up in conversations with people on campus.

a.       Teaching load: There are two possible ways to address the issue of reduction in teaching load – more faculty positions (requiring more money) and/or more effective use of our faculty . We are about the same size as SCSU but we teach about 18% more sections than SCSU faculty. President Miller has the Provost to initiate a discussion with the Deans on what can be done here. He is also willing to work with the AAUP.

b.      New Programs: He supports a School of Engineering. There are issues related to resources, space, faculty and laboratories that have to be resolved. He also supports expanding our Nursing program. In both cases,  the demand for graduates in these fields is strong. 

c.       Graduation rates: Our student athletes have a 20% higher graduation rate than all students. President Miller said that the overall graduation rate, in comparison to other comparable universities, was not acceptable. He wants to consider all possible ways of improving it that include developing connections for the students with the university beyond the classroom. Some ideas are more on-campus housing, living/learning communities, better advising.

d.      Searches: There are three searches that have been initiated for Provost, CFO and CIO. The advertisements came out before the search committees had been finalized because there is already a clear job description in place for all three positions and for reasons of expediency given the number of other administrative positions that have to be filled. The chairs of the search committees were selected so that the people would be, at least,  on a parallel level with the position being filled. The search advertisements did not make specific mention of special qualifications, such as on diversity or multiculturalism, because these matters can be addressed in the search process.

 

President Miller entertained questions and comments from senators.

 

A motion to extend  the Q/A session with President Miller was made by Sen. Dowty and passed unanimously.

The comments included, a comparison of our student graduation rates to SCSU’s (similar), the extra assistance student athletes get by way of tutorial help, study halls, etc that the general student body does not, which might explain their better graduation rates, a comment on the different (less favorable to graduation) “behavior characteristics” of students in the North-East, the lack of courses required for graduation being available in a timely manner, the improved “efficiency” being sought of faculty might come with increased class sizes and thus be unattractive, a request for a formal review of resources (class/lab, office space, travel/research support) at CCSU directed at faculty, a  sense of frustration amongst faculty at the allocation of resources, a request for a time-line on proposed changes/initiatives and the status of our strategic plan in relationship to priorities.

President Miller hoped to have a draft of potential goals from different divisions in about a month and would invite everyone to respond to them. 

President Craine thanked President Miller for coming to the Senate and clarifying several issues.

 

4.       Unfinished Business: None

5.       New Business:

a. Resolution Concerning Campus Equity Week , Oct.27-31  (Sen. Murphy)

Tabled in Senator Murphy's absence  

 

b. Elections (Sen. Barrington)-

Sen. Moran moved to increase the size of the Committee on Academic Integrity to nine. Passed unanimously

Sen. Best moved to keep the size of the Committee on Diversity unlimited and to constitute the elected individuals  into a Steering Committee. Passed unanimously

 

Secretary casts one ballot to elect the following committees:

 

Committee on Committees - Steve Cohen, Jason Jones, Shelley Osterreich

 

Committee on Appointments and Personnel - Candace Barrington, Susan Petrosino

       Michael Gendron

     

      Committee on Academic Freedom - Brian O’Connell, Ben Sevitch, Barry Westcott

 

      Committee on Academic Integrity - Nidal Al-Masoud, Emily Chasse, Dan D’Addio

      Jose Del Ama, Carol Jones, Jason B. Jones, Vivian Martin, Toni Moran,

      Kenneth Weiss

 

 Committee on Diversity - Gloria Maria Caliendo,  Jose Del Ama, Joanne DiPlacido

     Carolyn Fallahi, Ze He, Irena Pevac, Rathika Rajaravivarma, Ben Sevitch

     Janet Stoddard, Mark McLaughlin, Chip Marlor, Cathy Kurkjian, Felton Best

 

The results of the elections for the other committees were as follows:

 

Committee on Constitution and By-laws – David Spector, Robert Wolff

 

University Athletic Board – tie between Jerold Duquette and Jeremiah Jarrett. Run-off at the next Senate meeting

 

University Promotion & Tenure Committee : Cathy Kurkjian

 

6. . Motion to adjourn: (4.40 pm) – (Abadiano): Passed unanimously

 

Nanjundiah Sadanand

 

Secretary

Faculty Senate