Faculty Senate

Minutes - March 9, 2015 - 3:05pm

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Anderson, C.; Antonucci, C.; Artamoshin, S.; Baratta, C.; Barr, B.; Best, F.; Bigelow, L.; Bilisoly, R.; Boscarino, N.; Callery, T.; Cistulli, M.; D'Addio, D.; D'Amato, K.; Dharavath, N.; Emeagwali, G.; Fafunwa-Ndibe, S.; Foster, P.; Fothergill, W.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Ghodsi, R.; Hermes, K.; Horan, M.; Johnson, D.; Jones, C.; Kapper, M.; Karpuk, P.; Kean, K.; Kim, Y.; Knopf, K.; Kostelis, K.; Kullgren, A.; Larsen, K.; Marquette, C.; Martin-Troy, K.; Martin, M.; McGuire, M.; Melnyk, J.; Meng, P.; Moffo Simpson, T.; Mongillo, M.; Paolino, J.; Pearson, F.; Phillips, E.; Pozorski, A.; Prozzo, J.; Ragusett, J.; Reasco, A.; Santoro, K.; Sarisley, E.; Schlickmann, P.; Simmons, R.; Solomon, P.; Spear, E.; Spector, D.; Sweeney, D.; Tellier, A.; Tomoda, S.; White, C.; Williams, C.; Wolff, R.; Wood, R.

Ex-Officio: Adair, S.; Malhas, F.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Cohen, S.

Guests: None

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of February 23, 2015

• Approved unanimously

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (M. A. Mahony)

• The Legislature is currently in session, and many bills have been proposed that would have an impact on higher education or CSCU. These include a bill to grant some FAC members voting rights on the Board of Regents (under some circumstances), several bills on textbooks, bills to eliminate college application fees and credit card fees, and a bill to abolish the Board of Regents. Several of these bills are unlikely to move forward because they are not budget neutral.
• The budget situation is problematic. Two weeks ago, CSCU faculty and students were at the legislature to testify in favor of funding for our institutions. A major cause of the budget problems is the poorly designed spending cap that was added to the state Constitution in the 1990s.
• There will be a chapter meeting on March 26.
• CSU-AAUP and CCSU-AAUP nominations have closed, and the election will be held until April 10.
• The BOR's Finance Committee will meet on March 19, and the BOR will meet on March 26. One topic of discussion will be tuition increases.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• The Executive Board will meet on March 10 at 8:30am, and the SUOAF-AFSCME luncheon will be at noon on March 18, and the chapter meeting will be on April 29.
• The criteria for Professional Development Funds have been revised.

c. SGA (S. Sonet)

• No report.

d. FAC to the Board of Regents (S. Adair)

• What is really happening to Transform is not clear. President Gray is saying that it has entered Phase 2.
• It has been made it clear that statements about Transform do not constitute an endorsement of Transform.
• There was concern about the budget at the BOR meeting. If the BOR wanted to balance the budget using tuition increases only, a large increase (8-10%) would be needed.
• Senator Best said that CSU Professors have been meeting with President Gray and interim Provost Melendez, and President Gray seemed interested in monthly meetings with CSU Professors.

e. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)

• The Leadership Group has given President Gray an outline of changes that would need to be made to Transform in order for it to be acceptable to us. These include a reorientation towards academic excellence and the values contained in the Values and Assumptions document.
• The administration has been concerned with late grade submissions. President Cohen asked faculty members who submitted grades late in Fall 2014. He has heard from about two-thirds of them; almost all said that the problem was either with the grade submission system, or a bizarre, unforeseen circumstance.
• Please be aware that, even if a student has a medical excuse note, whether or not a student can make up work due to an absence is at the discretion of the individual faculty member.

3. Committee Reports

a. Elections Committee (J. Melnyk)

• Election of one member - Constitution and Bylaws Committee
• Senator Bigelow elected to the committee

b. Curriculum Committee (P. Karpuk)

• The only items that were discussed were items 5 and 6, the changes to the School of Business programs.
• The main issue is that STAT 201 will no longer be part of the pre-major requirements, it will still be required of all Business majors, which means that it needs to be listed somewhere as a requirement.
• Secretary Latour said that the course could be listed either as a Skill Area II course or a Related Requirement. If the course is listed as a Skill Area II requirement, it will mean that for Business majors, that area will consist of 9 credits (MATH 123, STAT 200 and STAT 201), instead of 6 credits (the standard number). He added that this is the way that the courses are listed on current degree evaluations and in past paper catalogs.
• Senator Sarisley said that, in 1987, when the Engineering program was created, more than 6 credits were listed under Skill Area II for this program as well.
• Senator Spector said that he would prefer the course to be listed as a Related Requirement, since General Education should be common to all CCSU programs (as much as possible).
• Secretary Latour said that, if the course is listed as a Related Requirement, it should be made clear in the program description that a grade of C- or better is required, since that is not always the case for Related Requirments.
• Report approved unanimously

c. Academic Standards Committee (F. Latour for R. Schwell)

• School of Business admission requirements
• Approved unanimously

 

4. New Business

a. Bylaws of the Faculty Senate

• Addition of "Council of Academic Chairpersons" between "Community Engagement Committee" and "Curriculum Committee" in Article 2.7.3 of the bylaws of the Faculty Senate
• Approved unanimously

5. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:11pm.