Minutes - December 4, 2017 - 3:05pm
CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Present: Adair, S.; Anton, M.; Austad, C.; Baratta, C.; Bell, T.; Bernstein, S.; Best, F.; Bishop, J.; Bishop, R.; Biskupski, M.B.B.; Blitz, D.; Boncoddo, R.; Boscarino, N.; Callery, T.; Christensen, S.; Cistulli, M.; Criscola, J.; Crundwell, G.; Dhar, P.; Dharavath, N.; Emiliani, B.; French, J.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Garcia, V.; Ghodsi, R.; Givens, E.; Horton, M.; Hughes, H.; Jackson, M.; Jarvis, K.; Kapper, M.; Kean, K.; Kim, Y.; Kyem, P.; Lapuerta, P.; Latour, F.; Leonidas, E.; LoGiudice, S.; McGuire, M.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Menoche, C.; Minor, L.; Misbach, K.; Mongillo, M.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nelson, W.; Ngazimbi, E.; Orange, M.; Oyewumi, O.; Paolino, J.; Phillips, E.; Sakaki, H.; Sohn, Y.; Spear, E.; Stickland, A.; Styrczula, S.; Sweeney, D.; Thornton, E.; Watson, S.; Williams, C.; Williams, L.; Zering, J.
Ex-Officio: Alfano, M.; Colwell, K.; Kremens, Z.; Sommers, B.
Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.
President of the Senate: Cohen, S.
Guests: Charles Button (Geography); Antonio Garcia (Modern Languages); Brendan Kruh (SGA); Carolyn Magnan (Provost Search Committee Chair); Beth Merenstein (Curriculum Committee)
1. Minutes
a. Minutes of November 13, 2017
- Approved unanimously
2. Announcements:
a. AAUP President (L. Williams)
- The chapter meeting and holiday social is on Thursday, December 7, at 3:00pm, in the Southwest Study lounge of Memorial Hall.
- The BOR meets at 10am on December 14. Faculty members are encouraged to wear red t-shirts and to speak to the Board about Students First.
b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)
- The chapter meeting on Wednesday, December 13, from noon to 2pm, in Alumni Hall.
- Members are enouraged to look at the BOR's Finance and Audit Committee reports.
c. SGA (B. Kruh)
- The "Good Neighbor Campaign", which promotes good relationships between the CCSU student community and New Britain residents, is still going, with about 50 students participating in a recent event.
- SGA members had a conversation with someone at the system office regarding the student handbook policy.
- Club base budgets will be due early next semester.
d. FAC to the Board of Regents (S. Adair)
- The FAC will present its report to the BOR on December 14; the entirety of the report will be on the "Students First" initiative.
- Faculty members are encouraged to look at the BOR's Finance committee report for the December 6 meeting.
e. Documents about the BOR and "Students First" can be found on Faculty Senate webpage (D. Blitz)
f. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)
- President Cohen submitted our feedback on "Students First" to Ojakian about a week and a half ago. Ojakian claims to still be considering feedback, but also says that we must act decisively.
- Provost candidates will be on campus this week. The faculty fora are from 10:15am to 11:15am, and open fora from 11:15am to 12:15pm.
3. Committee Reports
a. Graduate Studies Committee (E. Leonidas)
- Approved unanimously
b. Curriculum Committee (B. Merenstein)
- Approved unanimously
4. New Business
a. Committee on Committees (A. Strickland)
- Curriculum Committee Bylaws
- Motion (Blitz/Best): To amend the proposal by adding item 5.4.6: The Interdisciplinary Studies subcommittee shall prepare, and publish on the Curriculum Committee website, a list of all interdisciplinary programs and their coordinators or directors, at the beginning of each academic year.
- Amendement approved unanimously
- Proposal approved unanimously (as amended)
b. Academic Standards Committee (R. Boncoddo for J. Schnobrich-Davis)
- Clarification to Minor Policy
- Approved unanimously
c. Approval of Fall 2017 candidates for graduation (Deans Sommers, Colwell, Alfano, Kremens and Fitzgerald)
- Approved unanimously
d. Resolution on Provost search (H. Koulidobrova)
- Response to first request
- This resolution generated considerable discussion; the consensus seemed to be that:
- The first request is moot (since it has already been addressed; see document linked above);
- The search committee made every effort to come up with a diverse finalist pool, and the main obstacle was that the applicant pool provided to the search committee was not diverse;
- Motion (Latour/Best): To divide the question to allow for a vote on the third request separately from the other two.
- Motion failed (15 senators in favor, 21 opposed).
- Motion to postpone the entire resolution indefinitely was successful (36 senators in favor, 3 opposed).
5. Adjournment
- The meeting adjourned at 4:25pm.