Minutes - September 8, 2014 - 3:05pm
CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Present: Anderson, C.; Antonucci, C.; Artamoshin, S.; Baratta, C.; Barr, B.; Bilisoly, R.; Bochain, S.; Boncoddo, R.; Boscarino, N.; Callery, T.; Cistulli, M.; D'Amato, K.; Dharavath, N.; Dukes, C.; Duquette, J.; Foster, P.; Fothergill, W.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Ghodsi, R.; Hermes, K.; Horan, M.; Jackson, M.; Johnson, D.; Jones, C.; Kapper, M.; Karpuk, P.; Kean, K.; Kim, Y.; King, A.; Koplowitz, B.; Kovel, J.; Kullgren, A.; Kunces, L.; Kurkjian, C.; Latour, F.; Lee, L.; Love, K.; Mahony, M.; Mamed, O.; McGuire, M.; Melnyk, J.; Menoche, C.; Moffo Simpson, T.; Mongillo, M.; Paolino, J.; Passaro, M.; Pearson, F.; Phillips, E.; Pozorski, A.; Ragusett, J.; Rice, T.; Rosenberg, J.; Sadanand, N.; Santoro, K.; Sarisley, E.; Schlickmann, P.; Shen, X.; Simmons, R.; Spear, E.; Sweeney, D.; Tellier, A.; Thornton, E.; White, C.; Williams, C.; Wolff, R.; Wood, R.
Ex-Officio: Fitzgerald, G; Lovitt, C.; Malhas, F; Pease, S.
Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.
President of the Senate: Cohen, S.
Guests: Stephen Adair (FAC to the BOR); David Blitz (Philosophy); Yvonne Kirby (Director, OIRA); Matt Knox (The Recorder); Zdzislaw Kremens (Associate VP); Kris Larsen (Physics and Earth Science); Kathy Martin-Troy (Biomolecular Sciences); James Mulrooney (Assistant to the Dean, SEST); Ernest Pancsofar (Special Education)
The Steering Committee recommends the following items for inclusion on the Consent Agenda:
1. Minutes
5e and 5f. Informational committee reports
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
- Approved as consent agenda item
2. Introduction of Senators
3. Announcements:
a. AAUP President (M. Mahony)
- AAUP members were active this summer, attending the Summer Institute, a workshop on university budgets, COCAL.
- In meeting with the BOR, AAUP and Senate leaders have insisted that faculty needs to have input in all systemwide changes.
- Pay increases will be reflected in the second paycheck in September.
- Contract negotiations will take begin in Fall 2015.
- There will be a chapter meeting on Thursday, September 11.
- You should visit the blog page, CSU CONNects on the web at http://www.csuconnects.org, and on Facebook. Invite people you know in Connecticut to Like it.
b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (O. Mamed for M. Ansarra)
- The new SUOAF-AFSCME President, Lisa Bigelow, is on sabbatical. The acting president is Michael Ansarra.
- SUOAF-AFSCME leaders have met with the BOR.
c. SGA (S. Sonet)
- No announcements.
d. FAC to the Board of Regents (S. Adair)
- The Boston Consulting Group has finished its work, although some representatives are still hanging around.
- There will be 17 town hall meetings on the system's 17 campuses to discuss Transform CSCU 2020.
- On Friday, the BOR voted to request financial support from the state legislature, in order keep tuition down.
e. Secretary of the Senate - new Faculty Senate website (F. Latour)
- The Faculty Senate has a new website, but there may be some broken or otherwise incorrect links. Please inform the Secretary of the Senate if you encounter such links.
- The President of the Senate thanked the Office of Marketing and Communications, and in particular, Derek Pierce and Chad Tower, for their work on the new website.
f. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)
- BOR members and BOR President Gray will be at CCSU tomorrow, September 9, for a town hall meeting to discuss Transform CSCU 2020. Please attend and encourage your colleagues to do so. We need to show that we are involved, interested and concerned.
- There will be two proposals regarding Teacher Education at the next Senate meeting. One will be to reorganize departments in the School of Education and Professional Studies, and one will be to create a new Teacher Education advisory body (CTEC). For the moment, SEPS reorganization documents are for informational purposes only.
- One major item that the Senate will discuss in 2014-15 will be General Education revision. There will be town hall meetings on September 15 and October 16, hosted by the General Education Implementation Committee.
4. Election of Elections Committee
- Senators Barr, Foster, Kurkjian, McGuire, Melnyk and Williams elected to the committee, unanimously.
5. Committee Reports (most will be accepted as consent agenda items)
a. University Planning and Budget Committee (C. Valk) - report not yet available
b. Community Engagement Committee (S. Stookey) - report not yet available
c. Academic Integrity Committee (K. Love) - report not yet available
d. Student Affairs Committee (K. Sugg) - report not yet available
e. Academic Assessment Committee (J. Mulrooney)
- Report accepted as consent agenda item
f. University Athletics Board (P. Resetarits)
- Report accepted as consent agenda item
6. New Business:
a. Approval of Steering Committee
The Steering Committee for 2014-15 will consist of President Cohen, Vice President Barr, Secretary Latour, and Senators Foster, Kean, Kurkjian, as well as one senator from the School of Business (to be announced).
Motion (Cohen/Sadanand): To approve the Steering Committee.
- Approved unanimously
b. DEC exceptions for 2014-15 - FS.14.15.001B
Motion (Foster/Wolff): To approve the DEC Exceptions.
- Approved unanimously
c. Proposal to split Physics and Earth Science department into two departments (F. Malhas) - FS.14.15.002B
Dean Malhas presented the proposal. Teacher Education Chair Aram Ayalon asked whether both groups within the department had agreed to the proposal. The answer was in the affirmative.
Motion (Kovel/Foster): To approve the proposal.
- Approved unanimously
d. Carol A. Ammon School of Arts and Sciences name change (S. Pease) - FS.14.15.003B
Dean Pease presented the proposal.
Motion (Wolff/Wood): To approve the resolution, with the department name "Chemistry" corrected to "Chemistry and Biochemistry".
- Approved unanimously
7. President’s Report (S. Cohen)
- President Cohen talked about the General Education reform. General Education Implementation Committee Chair Beth Merenstein will contact us soon with information about town hall meetings, and committees such as Curriculum and Academic Standards may have to be involved. It is important, when looking at the new General Education program, to ask ourselves how it benefits the students and the university.
- Senator King asked whether Transform CSCU 2020 would have an impact on General Education reform. Answer: it seems like Transform CSCU 2020 does not directly affect the structure of our General Education program. The TAP does attempt to create a system for seamless transfers between the 17 institutions.
- President Cohen encourages faculty to be involved with Transform CSCU 2020, and to ask pointed questions on September 9.
- Transform CSCU 2020 is rather complicated; there are 5 goals or guiding principles, which are broad and mostly unobjectionable. Then there are 36 initiatives grouped in 7 categories. There are also 25 systemwide metrics.
- Out of the 36 initiatives, some (such as strengthening the liberal arts core and graduate program recruitement) seem to have been added due to faculty input.
- One of the initiatives (the common calendar) has already been completed, while some others are long-term projects that extend beyond 2020.
- Professor Blitz said that he sees no point in participating in a BOR initiative that relates to matters that are within the purview of the faculty (such as the "Academic Master Plan"), or matters that should be done at each individual campus (such as Information Technology).
- FAC representative Adair said that the BOR has not been using the phrase "Academic Master Plan" recently; they have been using the phrase "Academic Program Optimization" instead.
8. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:15pm.