Faculty Senate

Minutes - February 27, 2017 - 3:05pm

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Andreoletti, C.; Antonucci, C.; Arena, J.; Baratta, C.; Best, F.; Bishop, J.; Bishop, R.; Blitz, D.; Boncoddo, R.; Boscarino, N.; Button, C.; Cistulli, M.; Clapp, S.; Clark, B.; Collins, M.; Criscola, J.; Dhar, P.; Doolittle, W.; Emeagwali, G.; Emiliani, B.; Forsythe, C.; Fothergill, W.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Garcia, V.; Ghodsi, R.; Givens, E.; Grasso, L.; Gross, S.; Harris, D.; Kapper, M.; Karpuk, P.; Kim, Y.; Koulidobrova, H.; Latour, F.; Lewis, J.; Lim, K.; LoGiudice, S.; Mahony, M. A.; McGuire, M.; Mejia, G.; Menoche, C.; Mongillo, M.; Nelson, W.; Ngazimbi, E.; Paolino, J.; Phillips, E.; Sadanand, N.; Sohn, Y.; Spear, E.; Spector, D.; Strickland, A.; Styrczula, S.; Sweeney, D.; Tellier, A.; Thomas, C.; Thornton, E.; Watson, S.; White, C.; Williams, C.; Wizevich, M.; Zering, J.

Ex-Officio: Adair, S.; Fitzgerald, G; Mahony, M. A.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Cohen, S.

Guests: Monique Durant (Accounting); Ed Sarisley (Manufacturing and Construction Management), Patrick Tucker (Registrar)

1. Minutes

Minutes of February 13, 2017

• Approved unanimously

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (M. A. Mahony)

• Elections for CSU-AAUP and CCSU-AAUP are happening this semester; nominations are open until March 2. The election will be held in early April.
• Senator Harris and Professor Sarisley were thanked for testifying against harmful bills. Faculty members are encouraged to testify, or at least be present at the legislature.
• Senator Harris encouraged faculty to let AAUP know when they are available to testify.
• Senator Latour asked whether there are any good bills being considered by the legislature. The answer: there are a few, but not many. Most of the good bills aim at reducing the cost of college for students.
• Members of the Higher Education committee will be invited to our campus.
• Senator Ghodsi said that he would ask faculty from his department about their availability; CCSU-AAUP President Mahony will ask department liaisons to do this.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• Chapter meeting is March 17 in the Constitution Room.
• SUOAF-AFSCME members are encouraged to get involved. More information can be found on the SUOAF-AFSCME website.

c. SGA (J. Effend)

• No report.

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

• The conference on shared governance and student success is on April 7 at CCSU. 200 people have registered, and registration is capped at about 300, so register as soon as possible.
• The FAC thanks the Faculty Senate for endorsing the statement on the Code of Conduct. The statement was endorsed at all 4 CSUs and a few community colleges.
• The FAC and the BOR met on Friday about the Code of Conduct proposal. The BOR seemed to indicate some willingness to listen. A statement of values may be incorporated in future iterations of the code, and the FAC will be involved.
• The next BOR meeting is on March 2 at Capital Community College.

e. University Marketing Campaign (M. McLaughlin)

• Postponed to the next meeting.

f. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)

• Our statement on the workgroups was sent to President Ojakian.
• Participants in Admitted Students Day were thanked. About 75 faculty were there to greet 130 students and their parents. Another similar event will be held soon.
• Senator Ghodsi said that students at Farmington High School get information from many colleges from Connecticut and elsewhere, but CCSU is notably absent. There is no good reason for this; many companies say that they like to hire our Engineering graduates. Something should be done to remedy this situation.
• Senator Karpuk talked about the importants of CCSU's Honors program in recruiting Honors students from high schools. The Honors program provides students with financial incentives to come to CCSU. Senator Phillips said that if we want to recruit a more diverse pool of applicants for the Honors Program, that program needs to be more diverse than it has been.
• Senator Blitz talked about the importance of our 4 elements of distinction.
• There is a hiring freeze; HR has requested that some or all frozen searches be unfrozen. Some paperwork will have to be filled.
• An update on the CSU Professor search: an honest mistake was made by the committee. The e-mail that was sent to the nominees was based on an outdated version of the committee's bylaws. It asked the nominees to send names of references, who would then be contacted by the committee. But the current version of the committee's bylaws states that the nominees must collect and send eight letters of recommendation to the committee, not names of references. The members of the committee followed the new bylaws in evaluating the files, not realizing the the nominees were following a different set of guidelines; therefore, they treated the files with missing letters of recommendation as incomplete applications. Therefore, in order to rectify the situation, the committee will go back to the point of the process where the mistake was made, and ask nominees to collect and submit letters of recommendation. The committee will then proceed as described in the current bylaws. The Chief Diversity Officer will review the process at the end to make sure that it was followed correctly.
• Professor Sarisley believes that the current process makes it difficult for faculty members in sciences and engineering to compete with faculty members in the liberal arts. Senator Harris believes that the current process makes it difficult for faculty members in business to compete with faculty members in the liberal arts. Senator Latour recommended that faculty members who believe the process should be changed nominate themselves to serve on the committee in a year when there is no CSU Professor vacancy, since that is the most efficient way to propose and have the Senate approve changes to the bylaws of the committee.
• Senator Blitz said that, because CCSU only has 3 CSU professor positions but 4 schools, it is not possible to have one professor per school, and therefore the BOR should be asked to increase the number of CSU Professorships. He suggested that we should trust the committee to look at the evidence and make a fair recommendation.

3. New Business

a. Creation of Committee on Recruitment and Retention

• This ad hoc committee will consist of: Kris Larsen (Geological Sciences), Mary Ann Mahony (History), William Fothergill (Counseling and Wellness Services), Lee Einhorn (English), Michelle Kusaila (Accounting), Derek Pierce (Marketing and Communications - SUOAF-AFSCME, and Joss French (Literacy, Elementary, and Early Childhood Education)

b. Academic Standards Committee (R. Boncoddo for J. Schnobrich-Davis)

• Proposal to add a January degree award period for undergraduates
  • Approved unanimously
• Graduation requirements for students in programs that formerly required more than 120 credits
  • Amended to read: "Students graduating in December 2017 or later from programs that previously required more than 120 credits, but no longer do so, shall be permitted to graduate with the new total credit standard of 120 credits, regardless of their matriculation date. Students are still required to meet general education, professional education, minor (if applicable), major, and related degree requirements in place at the time of their matriculation.", and approved unanimously as amended.

4. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:13pm.