Faculty Senate

Minutes - January 25, 2016 - 3:05pm

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Anderson, C.; Andreoletti, C.; Antonucci, C.; Arena, J.; Baratta, C.; Bilisoly, R.; Bishop, J.; Callery, T.; Cistulli, M.; Clapp, S.; Collins, M.; D'Addio, D.; Duquette, J.; Emeagwali, G.; Emiliani, B.; Fafunwa-Ndibe, S.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Ghodsi, R.; Grasso, L.; Gross, S.; Harris, D.; Horan, M.; Jackson, M.; Kapper, M.; Karpuk, P.; Kean, K.; Kim, Y.; Kostelis, K.; Kullgren, A.; Larsen, K.; Latour, F.; Lim, K.; Martin, M.; McGuire, M.; Moffo Simpson, T.; Mongillo, M.; Nelson, W.; Ngazimbi, E.; Paolino, J.; Pearson, F.; Phillips, E.; Pozorski, A.; Prozzo, J.; Ragusett, J.; Rice, T.; Rudzinski, H.; Sadanand, N.; Simmons, R.; Siporin, R.; Spear, E.; Strickland, A.; Styrczula, S.; Sweeney, D.; Watson, S.; Williams, C.; Wolff, R.; Wood, R.

Ex-officio: Adair, S.; Lovitt, C.; Mahony, M. A.; Malhas, F.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Cohen, S.

Guests: Caroline Fox (SGA); Lee Lee (Management and Organization); T. Rein (Anthropology)

1. Minutes

Minutes of December 7, 2015

• Approved unanimously

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (M. A. Mahony)

• President Ojakian will be at CCSU on Thursday, February 4. There will be an open forum from 2 to 3pm, in Alumni Hall. Senate President Cohen will moderate.
• A new issue of Table Talk came out today.
• On Wednesday, February 10, there will be a day long form on “Inequality and the Crisis of Public Higher Education”, in the Constitution Room.
• This semester, there will be an election for 4 CSU-AAUP council representatives, and one alternate. The chair of the CCSU-AAUP Elections Committee is Shelly Jones, of the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President

• No report.

c. SGA (C. Fox)

• The SGA has a retreat over the weekend.
• February is the time to apply for SGA scholarships: about $20,000 in scholarships available for students. There are scholarships for study abroad, and community engagement. Let your students know.
• The SGA has a Public Affairs committee, which is working on Town and Gown issues.
• The SGA Finance committee is looking at possibly increasing the student activity fee, which has not been increased in many years.
• Last semester's rally was successful, with many students speaking to the BOR and a full bus of students attending.
• The SGA Academic Affairs Committee is working with the Student Success Team to update academic maps.

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

• 25 faculty members were present and wearing red T-shirts at the last BOR meeting.
• The discussion of outcomes-based funding continues at the legislature's task force. It is hoped that the task force is becoming more open to our input.
• The FAC met on Friday.
• The FAC's conference on Shared Governance and Student Success will be on April 8, and the submission deadline is on February 15.
• The BOR's Academic and Student Affairs Committee understands that, even though we try to be in compliance, there may be exceptions to the 60/120 credit policy.
• It has been reported that Connecticut is ranked low in terms of transfers from community colleges to universities. To the BOR, this proves that we need TAP.
• Ojakian is working with the Office of Early Childhood to, hopefully, provide subsidized child care for low-income students.

e. Community Engagement Committee (R. Simmons)

• The Director of the Coalition for New Britain Youth will be here on Tuesday, February 2, to discuss projects to benefit New Britain youth.
• The Fall Community Engagement workshop can be found on "CCSU TV", on Youtube.

f. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)

• There are many issues that the Senate will discuss in the Spring, including FYE program revisions, online learning policies, assessment policies, academic integrity policies, etc.
• The Vance Lecture series has been discontinued, and the money has been redirected to programs associated with the Vance Chair.

3. New Business

a. A discussion of anti-Muslim and other discriminatory and harassing behavior on campus

• Motion (Cohen/Latour): To form a committee to investigate anti-Muslim and other discriminatory behavior on campus.
• Senators discussed the absence of a mandatory diversity requirement from our general education program, and the absence of a course on Islam. Others encouraged faculty to have a conversation with their students about diversity.
• Senators and the SGA President mentioned several events that are being organized by various groups (Committee for the Concerns of Women, Muslim Student Associatio, etc.) to address this issue.
• The motion was amended by substitution, as follows:
• Amended motion: (Cohen/Wolff) The President of the Faculty Senate shall sent an e-mail to the faculty, to 1) announce on-campus events promoting diversity and opposition to discrimination, 2) invite faculty members to discuss issues of diversity and discrimination with their sudents in their classes, and 3) charge the Diversity Committee to investigate these issues and to work with CTFD to offer faculty development on the topic of diversity in the classroom.
• Amended motion approved unanimously

4. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:18pm.