CCSU Faculty Senate

Minutes—September 24, 2012
 

VAC 105 3:05 PM
 



Present: Al-Masoud, N.; Alewitz, M.; Antonucci, C.; Arena, J.; Ayalon, A.; Ball, K.; Battle, S.; Bernstein, S.; Best, F.; Bilisoly, R.; Bishop, R.; Boscarino, N.; Braverman, S.; Cappella, D.; Cohen, S.; Cox, S.; Delventhal, T.; Diamond, C.; Durant, M.; Foster, P.; Fothergill, W.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Greenfield, B.; Hicks, E.; Horowitz, S.; Hou, X.; Jackson, A.; Jackson, M.; Johnson, D.; Kean, K.; Kershner, B.; Kovel, J.; Larsen, K.; Latour, F.; Lisi, P.; Mamed, O.; Martin-Troy, K.; McGuire, M.; Mejia, G.; Pancsofar, E.; Paolino, J. ; Pearson, F.; Percy, V.; Perdue, L.; Perry, W.; Poirier, K.; Ragusett, J.; Reasco, A.; Reska, J.; Santoro, K.; Sarisley, E.; Shen, X.; Shojai, S.; Slaga, S.; Snyder, J.; Tafrate, R.; Tellier, A.; Tully, J.; Wang, W.; White, C.; Williams, C.
Ex-Officio: Lovitt, C.; Lemma, P.; Shojai, S.
Parliamentarian: Absent; Senator Horowitz will be Parliamentarian for today.
President of the Senate: Mulrooney, J.
Guests: Eric Bergenn (SGA President); Stephen Adair (FAC to the BOR)
1. Approval of Minutes, September 10, 2012
Approved unanimously
2. Announcements
a. AAUP President (J. Jones)
No announcements.
b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (E. Hicks)
The Big Green Truck social has been rescheduled to Wednesday, September 26.
A meeting with Prudential representatives, who will provide education on ARP/SERS programs and will provide individual follow-up sessions for members, has been scheduled for Tuesday, 10/2, 8-10am, in the Constitution Room.
The SUOAF-AFSCME sabbatical leave committee elections are in progress.
The chapter officer elections will be postponed until we know whether or not the BOR employees will form their own chapter.
c. SGA (E. Bergenn)
The SGA has a new "Community Liaison" position, whose goal is to develop relationships with businesses and the community.
d. FAC to the BOR (S. Adair)
The FAC met with chairs of the TAP steering committee. It became clear that the projected timeline for implementation of the TAP differs significantly from what the BOR expected (that is, implementation by May 2013, including major pathways). The FAC endorsed the timeline that came out of the steering committee. Now the decision has to be made: should a formal request be made to the BOR to extend the deadline?
There is a clear expectation that our general education will meet all expectations that we require of students transfering from community colleges.
There are concerns about bill SB40, which is now Public Act 12-40. The impact on community colleges is enormous. It's unclear what happens if we have students who are not college-ready. The students may have to get remedial education through one of the six RESC (Regional Education Support Centers), which are public institutions that are outside our system.
e. President of the Senate (J. Mulrooney)
We will hear more about the status of AAUP Sabbatical Leave applications in a couple of days.
3. Committee Reports
a. Elections Committee (S. Bernstein)
There are eight seats on three committees that are available for election: six on the Promotion and Tenure Committee, one on the Sabbatical Leave Committee (AAUP), and one on the Grade Appeals Committee. The call for nominations will be sent soon.
4. Election of Senate Committees
The following senators were nominated for the various Standing Committees of the Faculty Senate:
a. Committee on Committees
P. Foster, B. Hoopengardner, S. Horowitz
b. Committee on Academic Freedom
M. Alewitz, J. Snyder, J. Tully
c. Committee on Constitution and By-Laws
S. Bernstein, S. Cohen
d. Committee on Appointments and Personnel
R. Bilisoly, E. Hicks, J. Kovel
All Senators elected unanimously
5. New Business
a. Approval of Steering Committee
K. Kean has been appointed to the Steering Committee as the part-time faculty representative.
Approved unanimously
b. DEC exceptions FS.12.13.002B
Approved unanimously
c. Transfer and Articulation Policy (TAP) (M. Jackson)
The proposed TAP was presented by Curriculum Committee Chair Mark Jackson. The Curriculum Committee is seeking faculty input; all comments need to be sent to M. Jackson by October 15.
The proposed policy represents a compromise between 17 institutions, and it is not yet in final form. It is a framework for a common, strong general education core, which is not watered down, meets the requirements of the law and is flexible enough to adapt to the different colleges and universities. It was created through a faculty-driven process; the BOR did not tell us how to do it.
It is a competency-based general education framework which allows 30 credits of general education to transfer if a student comes to CCSU with a transfer associate degree. The 30 credits will not be free electives, but a part of the general education core. Our general education program, being around 45 credits, can include about 5 more courses on top of the ones that the student transfers with.
The major pathways will be adressed later; the issue there is transparency. Community college students need to know exactly what they need to take at their community college in order to major in a given field at one of the CSUs.
More details about the proposed TAP:
Highlights from the discussion that followed:
- Because there are 12 different community colleges, the same course could count towards different competencies if taught at different colleges. Nevertheless, we will accept the 30 general education credits of a transfer student as a "package".
- How can we make students graduate in 4 years? It won't work for every major: Engineering? Nursing? Teacher Education? There should be a computer system that warns students that their proposed graduation plan is not possible.
- How can we ensure that the quality of education at community colleges is comparable to that at the CSUs? Will community colleges have to make changes to their minimum qualifications for faculty?
- Will we be routinely accepting students whose general education is inferior to what they would have had from us? Hopefully not, but we need to look at this.
- How can we tell students which general education courses they need to take toward their major, given that some majors need specific general education courses to be taken? Answer: Major pathways will take care of that problem.
- How are some of the competencies defined? What makes a course count as "oral communication" or "written communication", etc.? Answer: That's what the detailed learning outcomes are for.
- Has the steering committee looked at already articulated courses? Answer: No.
- How will the existing pathway program in Engineering fit in this framework?
- Assessment. With a new TAP comes a new request for assessment; since the general education framework is based on learning outcomes, there may be a question of whether or not the learning outcomes are met, and how to use student work to find out. Right now, there are many departments that assess their programs, but there is not much assessment done for general education. There is need for a larger conversation about assessment, but that is a future step in the process. The assessment process should be faculty-driven.
- Can the embedded competencies be assigned on a section by section basis, so that different sections of the same course are assigned different competencies? Answer: No, it has to be course by course.
- Major pathways need to be done university by university.
- The ConnSCU institutions should not be the McDonald's of universities, where you can order any product at any institution, and the product is identical to the same product at any other institution. The 17 institutions need to maintain their individuality.
6. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:39pm.