Faculty Senate

CCSU Faculty Senate

Minutes—September 14, 2009

VAC 105   3:00 PM

Note: Senate Constitution, Bylaws, Meeting Dates, Agenda and Minutes are posted on the CCSU Pipeline under Faculty Resources/Faculty Senate.

Next Meeting of the Faculty Senate is on September 28, 2009, 3pm, Vance.

Present: Aadiano, H.,Al-Masoud, N.,Barr, B.,Barrington, C.,Bernstein, S.,Bigelow, L.,Bigley, M.P.,Bonvicini, F.,Button, C.,Crespi, C.,Czyrnik, K.,DelAma, J.,Dobler, E.,Dziuda, D.,Foshay, J.,Glagovich, N.,Hermes, K.,Hicks, L.,Horan, M.,Iglesias, E.,Jarmoszko, T.,Kapper, M.,Karpuk, P.,Koh, K.,Kurkovsky, S.,Larsen, K.,Latour, F.,Laurent, L.,Mamed, O.,Mulcahy, C.,Mulrooney, J.,O’Connor, J.,Oliva, K.,Poppe, K.,Osoba, B.,Percy, V.,Ratansi, S.,Reagan, T.,Sanders, D.,Sarisley, E.,Sikorski, J.,Sims, D.,Spector, D.,Stankewicz, K., Strickland, A.,Tracey, K.,Vincenti, M.,Wagner, L.,Wang, W.,Warshauer, M.White, C.,Wood, R.,

Ex-Officio: Pease, S., Sakofs, M., Lemma, P., Kremens, Z.,

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

Guests: Hosch, B., Jones, J., Wagner, N.

1. Introduction of Senators:

• All present introduced themselves and their department or   affiliation.

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (J. Jones)

• President Jones advised the Senate of the following:
  • His sabbatical leave has been postponed in order to serve the AAUP membership during his term of office;
  • Reminder of the Retiree Reception, September 16 from 3-5 pm in the Connecticut Room;
  • Projects that he will be addressing this year are;
    • Working with the provost and Office of Institutional Advancement investigating load credit within Contract limitations for advising and assessment activities;
    • Examining the Market Adjustment  process and opportunities for more transparency;
    • Standardization of internship rules in Arts and Sciences;
    • Working with CIE to clarify faculty responsibilities while abroad with students;
    • Explore the difficulties of furlough days under the Concession Agreement;
    • The URL will be available soon for the CCSU AAUP chapter blog, a campus and union sponsored faculty listserv.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (F.  Bonvicini)

• Senator Bonvicini reported that:
  • The membership will be working with AAUP on a joint project for Homecoming;
  • The retirement reception for CJ Jones is scheduled for 10/2/09. Contact Meg Leake for information.

c. President of the Senate (C. Barrington)

• President Barrington introduced Dr. Diamond from campus Health Services, who made a brief presentation on the subject of flu prevention and campus services.
• President Barrington made the following remarks to begin the academic year for the members:
  • The business section of today’s meeting will be rather short, in order to have time for an informal social with wine and food.  Everything is set up at the Barnard Circle, between Marcus White and Barnard Hall.  Because alcohol is being served, you will be asked to sign in one more time. There are not many times the members of the Faculty Senate are able to socialize—and certainly not with a food and beverage in hand.  The steering committee and I hope you will take time to enjoy the good company, good food, good drink, and gorgeous weather.
  • Over the next few weeks, the Elections Committee will solicit nominations and run elections for some important committees. 
    • One, the Advisory Committee on Academic Advising, is a committee newly created at the recommendation of last spring’s ad hoc committee on student advising at CCSU.
    • Another, the University-wide Promotion and Tenure Committee, now selects its new members in the fall.  Because slots are proportionately assigned to full and associate professors, it was important to wait until after all promotions had been determined. 
    • For a few other committees, openings appeared over the summer, and we need to attend to those.
  • Please encourage members of your departments and units to nominate themselves for these positions.
  • Please note the Faculty Senate meeting dates this fall.  We have scheduled the final meeting for 7 December, the first Monday of the month, rather than 14 December, the second Monday of the month.  This change will keep the meeting from interfering with final exam schedules.
  • The Faculty Handbook is complete.  The final drafts are in my mailbox.  Tomorrow, we’ll post pdf copies to the Senate website—as well as forward copies to CCSU-AAUP and Human Resourcdes.
  • Finally, the Faculty Senate will host a series of forums this fall.
    • On Wednesday, October 14, President Miller, Carolyn Fallahi, and Sally Lesik will discuss the Gender Equity Report. 
    • A second forum with President Miller will be held on Thursday, 3 December. 
    • Earlier in the term, we will sponsor an information session with the new Director of Health Services, Dr. Christopher Diamond.  Because some basic information needs to be disseminated earlier, I will turn over the final few minutes of my announcements to him.

3. Minutes:

• Senator Jarmoszko moved to approve the Minutes from the meeting of May 11, 2009. (Passed)

4. President's Report:

• This is the time traditionally set aside for the Faculty Senate President to provide a report on the State of Shared Governance at CCSU. As I began preparing this year’s report, my first tendency was to list all our accomplishments from the previous academic year. I admit, there were some, but not nearly enough to brag about. As I looked over last year’s minutes and reports, I was initially overcome by frustration at how little we had to show for all of last year’s work. But as I studied my notes more carefully, I realized how much some very dedicated and conscientious individuals accomplished last year. But much of their efforts were frustrated by miscommunication, tracking down unwritten and misplaced precedents, and an unclear sense of protocol.  In other words, lots of people good motivations, but the structures in place don’t always facilitate good shared governance.
• With that in mind, the steering committee and I will be spearheading a campus-wide survey on Shared Governance.  More details will follow. Primarily, however, we are interested in the ways the mechanisms of shared governance do and do not work at CCSU. 
• Til then, I will reiterate the welcome I wrote for the short guide you were given:
• The Senate’s officers and steering committee know that when you accept a position on the Senate, it can be a demanding addition to your contractual workload. Though the Senate will ask much of you, its leadership will work to ensure your time isn’t wasted nor your contributions ignored. We will attempt to conduct orderly meetings, bring informative reports to your attention, and encourage committees to bring fully fleshed proposals for your deliberation. 
• It is also our goal that you never feel like a rubber stamp. On the other hand, we hope you will respect enough the work of the committees not to micromanage the proposals and motions brought before you.  For these reasons, it has been the practice of the current leadership to refer issues back to committee--and invite Senators with serious concerns about the resolution or proposal to work with the committees rather than spend undue energies working on the issue during Senate meetings. 
• In exchange for your conscientious efforts, being a Senator has its subtle rewards. After serving on the Senate, you should have a greater sense of how you and your unit fit into the university. Because you will be hearing reports from committees and individuals representing every division and all five schools, the Senate is where you can better understand many facets of the university. 
• It is our hope that you come away from serving on the Senate with a greater understanding of the concerns and issues facing our university, the significant initiatives addressing those concerns, the achievements of our colleagues and students, and a greater sense of belonging to a vibrant university community.

5. Election of Elections Committee:

• The following members were nominated from the floor:
  • Sharon Braverman (Ex-Officio)
  • Steve Bernstein
  • Lisa Bigelow
  • Burlin Barr
  • John Foshay
  • Tim Reagan
  • Marty Kapper
• A motion to close nominations and vote on the slate was made by Senator Glagovich. (Passed)
• The committee was unanimously elected by the Senate.

6. New Business:

a. DEC Exceptions for Fall 2009:

• The following requests for Department Evaluation Committee exceptions were made. Motion to approve by Senator Abadiano. (Passed)

7. Unfinished Business:

a. Election of Advisory Committee on Academic Advising

• President Barrington announced the call for faculty to be elected by the Senate for the Advisory  Committee on Academic Advising.           

8. Adjournment:

• Senator Reagan moved to adjourn. (Passed)