Faculty Senate

Minutes - October 13, 2014 - 3:05pm

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Anderson, C.; Antonucci, C.; Artamoshin, S.; Bantley, K.; Baratta, C.; Barr, B.; Best, F.; Bilisoly, R.; Boscarino, N.; Callery, T.; Clark, B.; D'Addio, D.; Dharavath, N.; Dukes, C.; Duquette, J.; Emeagwali, G.; Foster, P.; Fothergill, W.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Ghodsi, R.; Haddad, G.; He, F.; Horan, M.; Jackson, M.; Johnson, D.; Jones, C.; Kapper, M.; Karpuk, P.; Kean, K.; Kim, Y.; King, A.; Koplowitz, B.; Kostelis, K.; Kullgren, A.; Kurkjian, C.; Larsen, K.; Mamed, O.; Martin-Troy, K.; Martin, M.; Melnyk, J.; Mongillo, M.; Nelson, W.; Oyanadel, D.; Passaro, M.; Pozorski, A.; Puleo, T.; Ragusett, J.; Reasco, A.; Rosenberg, J.; Sadanand, N.; Santoro, K.; Sarisley, E.; Schlickmann, P.; Shen, X.; Simmons, R.; Solomon, P.; Stookey, S.; White, C.; Williams, C.; Wolff, R.; Wood, R.; Zummer, T.

Ex-Officio: Adair, S.; Alfano, M; Lovitt, C.; Mahony, M. ; Malhas, F; Pease, S.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Cohen, S.

Guests: Helen Abadiano (Reading and Language Arts); Aram Ayalon (Teacher Education); Joss French (Teacher Education); Daniel Mulcahy (Teacher Education); Joan Nicoll-Senft (Special Education); Karen Riem (Teacher Education); Louise Shaw (Reading and Language Arts); Jacob Werblow (Teacher Education)

The Steering Committee recommends the following items for inclusion on the Consent Agenda:

1. Minutes

6a. DEC Exceptions

Items accepted on the Consent Agenda will be approved without discussion or vote. Please indicate if you would like to have any item removed from the Consent Agenda for discussion and/or floor vote.

• Consent agenda approved unanimously

1. Minutes

Minutes of September 22, 2014

• Approved as part of consent agenda
  

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (M. Mahony)

• There will be a chapter meeting on Wednesday, October 15 at 3pm, in the Marcus White Living Room.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President

• The E-Board meeting will be on Tuesday, October 14 at 8:30am.
• CCSU SUOAF-AFSCME chapter elections for executive board will be happening soon. Nominations are due at 5pm on Tuesday, October 14. The election will be on Monday, October 20 in the Philbrick room.

c. SGA (S. Sonet)

• The SGA has been successful in filling almost every student seat on Standing Committees of the Faculty.
• The SGA is supporting initiatives to prevent sexual assault and promote mental health awareness.

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

• The FAC will present to the BOR on October 16. Major topics will be what the FAC learned at the town hall meetings, the importance of keeping distinct missions for the CSUs and the community colleges, and shared governance.
• The BOR will be voting on a policy to make the "normal" number of credits needed for a degree 60 (for Associate's degrees) or 120 (for Bachelor's degrees), unless more credits are needed for accreditation purposes.

e. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)

• President Cohen and other CSU Faculty Senate Presidents will be meeting with BOR President Gray on Tuesday, October 14. A major topic will be Transform CSCU 2020, including the TAP (Transfer Articulation Policy).
• The second General Education forum will be on October 16, at 3:00pm, in Social Sciences Hall 106.. If you have comments that you would like to share, please send them to Implementation Committee Chair Beth Merenstein.
• President Miller's first Open Forum will be on October 23. Transform CSUS 2020 will likely be a major topic of discussion.

3. Election - University Planning and Budget Committee (J. Melnyk)

• David Johnson elected to the University Planning and Budget Committee

4. Committee Reports

a. University Planning and Budget Committee (C. Valk)

• report not available yet

b. Promotion and Tenure Committee - addendum (P. Foster)

• 2013-14 P&T chair Pat Foster thanked Senator Kovel for finding a numerical mistake that was corrected.
• The new version of the report includes demographic data about applicants.
• Report accepted by the Faculty Senate

c. Community Engagement Committee (R. Simmons)

• report not available yet

d. Student Affairs Committee (K. Sugg)

• report not available yet

5. Unfinished Business:

a. School of Education and Professional Studies restructuring of departments (M. Alfano) FS.14.15.006B

• Rationale for restructuring SEPS departments
• Teacher Education department chair's response
• Teacher Education department's statement
• Some Questions and Answers on the SEPS reorganization proposal


• Dean Alfano spoke about several meetings that were held at the request of the Faculty Senate, and said that the resolution is widely supported by faculty in the School of Education of Professional Studies (48 in favor, 9 opposed). The Department of Teacher Education, however, does not support the resolution (3 in favor, 8 opposed). He spoke of accreditation, enrollment, employer satisfaction and stakeholder concern as reasons to restructure the departments of SEPS.
• Teacher Education Department Chair Ayalon responded, saying that the department of Teacher Education is the heart of the teacher preparation programs at CCSU. He does not believe that the Dean has addressed his department's concerns. He said that, while conversation is a good thing, the conversations about the plan should have started earlier, and he feels that his department is not being heard. He stressed that his department is not opposed to change, and in fact has been involved in restructuring for years.
• AAUP President Mahony reminded the Senate that it has advisory capacity in issues such as this one (Article 5.1.9 of the AAUP Contract).
• Senator White would like to see a counter-proposal from the Department of Teacher Education. Professor Ayalon said that he did meet with the Dean and offered an alternative proposal, but his ideas were not incorporated in the Dean's plan. He does not feel that the Faculty Senate is an appropriate place to show his plan.
• Some Teacher Education faculty members said that, while they are not opposed to change, they do not feel that they have been involved enough in the design of the plan. Also, one faculty member expressed concern about how assessment is influencing our teaching practices, and said that the Teacher Education department has been using assessment data for years. Another faculty member spoke of the risk to lose innovation in curriculum initiatives, and another one spoke negatively of the fact that the Dean's plan abolishes a department without the department's consent.
• The question was called twice, once unsuccessfully (29 in favor, 23 opposed) and once successfully (52 in favor, 0 opposed).
  
  • Resolution approved (43 senators in favor, 8 opposed)

b. Central Teacher Education Committee proposal (M. Alfano)

• Postponed by unanimous consent

6. New Business:

a. DEC Exceptions FS.14.15.007B

• Approved as part of consent agenda

b. Academic Standards Committee (F. Latour)

• Priority Registration for Student Veterans and Service Personnel FS.14.15.008B
• Vice Chair of Academic Standards Committee Latour stated that the committee approved the resolution, and asked Senator Pozorski to present it.
• Senator Pozorski stated that this action is not simply a matter of rewarding service but also very practically is about getting funds into the hands of students. Veterans and dependents of veteran can not receive funds from the Veterans Administration without an actual schedule. After submission of the schedule there is still some time that elapses before funds arrive. So this policy responds to a pressing financial need.
• Several senators expressed concern with the third "whereas" in the resolution, but were not opposed to the resolution itself. Those senators wondered about the rationale of who receives priority registration and why.
• Senator Karpuk stated that athletes and honor students receive priority registration because they have particularly difficult schedules.
• Senator Reasco spoke highly of students that she knows who are very hard workers and would be helped by this resolution.
  • Resolution approved (1 senator opposed)

c. Resolution on Financial Aid for Undocumented Students (S. Adair) FS.14.15.001R

• FAC to the BOR Chair Stephen Adair presented the resolution, which seeks to help students who were brought to the United States as children and grew up in this country.
• Senator Reasco spoke highly of students that she knows who are very hard workers and would be helped by this resolution.
  • Resolution approved unanimously

7. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:40pm.