Faculty Senate

CCSU Faculty Senate

Minutes—May 12, 2008

Founders Hall   1:00 PM

Next Meeting of the Faculty Senate on September 8, 2008, 3 pm, Vance

 Present:  Adams, A., Alewitz, M., Alicandro, J., Al-Masoud, N., Anderson, C., Baratta, C., Barrington, C., Bernstein, S., Bigley, M.P., Blitz, D., Bonvicini, F., Cohen, S., Craine, T., Cummiskey, M., Czyrnik, K., D’Addio, D., DelAma, J., Donis, F., Deloy, P., Dziuda, D., Fallahi, C., Frank, T., Garcia-Bowen, M.,  George, L., Glagovich, N., Harris, D., Hensley, P., Hicks, L., Jones, J., Kapper, M., Kershner, B., King, T., Kurkovsky, S ., Kyem, P., Larsen, K., Latour, F., Magno, A., Mamed, O., Murphy, G., O’Connor, J., Odesina, S., Rivera-Rowe, T., Sianez, D., Sims, D., Slaga, S., Spector, D., Tafrate, R., Tait, C.,  Talit, L., Wagner, L., Wang, W., Wright, E. , S. Petrosino

Ex-Officio: Lemma, Lovitt, Sakofs

 Parliamentarian: Charles Dimmick

Guests: Laura Fordenti (VP Student Affairs, ECSU), Jane Higgins (AVP, Student Affairs), Tom Burkholder (Curriculum Committee)

 

1.   Announcements
1. Senate President Tim Craine announced that the Elections committee is running part-time senate elections now, and that it will re-examine part-time faculty representation; the Connecticut FOI commission met on the issue of The Recorder’s complaint regarding the closed town hall meeting last Fall, and has made no decision yet.  He is receiving the departmental P&T guidelines, which will be posted to a webpage linked to the Senate homepage.  He announced the Diversity’s committee May 13 event, Conversations in Diversity.  He closed by thanking the Senate for its support, as well as the members of the Steering Committee, the other Faculty Senate officers and the parliamentarian.  He is happy to work with the incoming officers and wishes them the best.
2. Senator Hicks moved the approval of the April 28, 2008 minutes: Passed.

3.      New Business: a) Senator Frank presented the Elections Committee report, including the remaining work to be done and the committee’s recommendations. 

b)      Chair Burkholder moved the whole May Curriculum committee report (http://www.ccsu.edu/curriculum/senate_reports/07_08/may.html): Approved.

c)      Senator Cohen presented an overview of the proposed procedures and observation forms from the ad hoc Peer In-Class Assessment and moved that the Senate adopt these as policy and promulgate to all departments.  Senator Blitz moved to strike the phrase “suggestions for improvement.” Senator Larsen moved to postpone consideration of the motion until Fall 2008:  Approved.

d)     CCSU-AAUP brought up two issues with the department P&T guidelines in terms of compliance with the contract:  the use of the word “creative” rather than “scholarly,” and the proper ordering of the weighted criteria in the contractual language.

e)      Provost Lovitt presented two initiatives that CCSU could join to continue its community engagement work, membership with Campus Compact (http://www.compact.org/) and the Civic Agency initiative of the AASCU's American Democracy Project (http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/civic.htm).  Senator Fallahi moved that the Senate supports CCSU membership in the Campus Compact organization: Approved.  Senator Adams moved that the Senate urges the CCSU administration to accept the invitation to apply for the Fifth Initiative in the Civic Engagement in Action: Civic Agency: Approved.

f)       Chair Mulrooney of Academic Standards presented a report and potential motion regarding Exercise Physiology, which was postponed until Fall 2008.

g)      Chair Mulrooney of Academic Standards also presented the following Proposal for Admission Requirements into the Civil Engineering Program, which was approved by the Senate:

Admission to the Civil Engineering Program requires:

•     Completion of MATH 152 (Calculus I) or Eligibility to enroll in MATH 152 (Calculus I) and 

•     Completion of ENG 110 (Freshman Composition) or Eligibility to enroll in ENG 110 (Freshman Composition)

h)      For the actions concerning the Graduate catalogue publication schedule, see the May Curriculum report above.

i)        Senate heard the ITC report presented by Senator Jones:

ITC Report to the Senate

 

A recap of the year

·         ITC has contributed to the system-wide e-learning platform assessment team, which is evaluating candidates for the next-generation of course management systems.  (I.e., what will replace Vista.)

·         Relatedly, the pilot of the Moodle course-management system has been very interesting, with over 50 courses included from a variety of disciplines.  A preliminary report is forthcoming later in May; the project continues next year, with a formal report to follow

·         Charged with setting up a pilot of in-semester online courses—this has been complicated, but, working with the Instructional Design & Technology Resource Center, we hope to offer courses under this pilot in the spring.

·         Other key committee business included: purchasing software for labs and teaching stations; sequencing upgrades for multimedia classrooms, &c.

The Listserv

·         Frustration with the tone of debate on the academic users listserv crops up repeatedly (a good example is the Statement on Civility from last fall’s town meeting)

·         During the Feb 25 senate meeting, Senator Crundwell asked the ITC to look at alternate forums for academic discussion

·         The ITC took this charge seriously, polling the faculty in March about their experiences with / attitudes toward the listserv, and investigating a host of alternatives, such as: a moderated listserv, blogs, content management systems, and discussion boards.

·         In particular, we wanted to highlight 2 comments from the survey, which is available online (http://www.ccsu.edu/itc/Minutes/2007-2008/2007-08minutes.html - comments, presentation)

o   “I think the problem is not a technology problem. I think the problems with campus communication are the culture that tolerates academic bullies and a lack of respect among colleagues. Technology will not stop rude people from being rude.”

o   “The greatest challenge is teaching people how to use the technology they already have rather than adding new levels (and losing more of the potential audience).”

·         After careful consideration, and faculty and staff feedback, the ITC recommends continuing with the present listserv configuration. The ITC observes that the best solution to the various listserv complaints is education about the use of filters and other mechanisms already present in Outlook & Entourage.  In the fall, the ITC will promote guidelines for using e-mail programs productively.

 

j)        Senate received the Academic Integrity report from Emily Chasse and Senator Kerschner.

k)      The Senate received the Advising Task Force report.

5. Senator Al-Masoud moved to adjourn: Approved.