Faculty Senate

Minutes - February 26, 2018 - 3:05pm

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Adair, S.; Anton, M.; Austad, C.; Bailesteanu, M.; Bell, T.; Bernstein, S.; Best, F.; Bishop, J.; Bishop, R.; Blitz, D.; Boncoddo, R.; Boscarino, N.; Callery, T.; Cistulli, M.; Clark, B.; Criscola, J.; Crundwell, G.; Dhar, P.; Duquette, J.; Emiliani, B.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Garcia, V.; Ghodsi, R.; Givens, E.; Gross, S.; Hughes, H.; Jackson, M.; Kapper, M.; Kean, K.; Kelly, D.; Kim, Y.; Koulidobrova, H.; Kyem, P.; Langevin, K.; Lapuerta, P.; Latour, F.; Leonidas, E.; LoGiudice, S.; Martin-Troy, K.; McGuire, M.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Minor, L.; Misbach, K.; Mongillo, M.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nelson, W.; Ngazimbi, E.; Orange, M.; Oyewumi, O.; Paolino, J.; Patterson, Y.; Phillips, E.; Ruhs, T.; Sadanand, N.; Sakaki, H.; Sohn, Y.; Spear, E.; Spillman, D.; Stickland, A.; Thornton, E.; Vedeler, H.; Watson, S.; Williams, C.; Williams, L.; Zering, J.

Ex-Officio: Bigelow, L.; Kostelis, K.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Cohen, S.

Guests: Don Adams (Philosophy); Mary Pat Bigley (SEPS); Monica Hershberger (Music); Brendan Kruh (SGA); Beth Merenstein (Curriculum Committee); James Mulrooney (Biomolecular Sciences); Karen Santoro (Mathematical Sciences); Reginald Simmons (Community Engagement Committee); Ivan Small (Anthropology)

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of January 29, 2018

• Approved unanimously
  

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• On Thursday, February 15, the Higher Education subcommittee of the Appropriations committee of the Legislature heard testimony from CCSU faculty and students.
• Some state legislators are proposing tuition-free community colleges and possibly state universities.
• There will be an opportunity to testify on Thursday, March 8.
• Faculty members are encouraged to make nominations for the Ebenezer Bassett award.
• There will be an election this semester; we need to elect four council members.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• The chapter meeting will be on Wednesday, March 14.
• The legislative breakfast will be in April.

c. SGA (B. Kruh)

• President Kruh expressed his gratitude to faculty members who came to testify on February 15th. It was good to see the large turnout from CCSU.
• The "Good Neighbor Campaign", which promotes good relationships between the CCSU student community and New Britain residents, is still going, with the 4th trash pick-up event on Friday, March 9. Faculty members are encourage to join the students.
• Last night's benefit concert was almost sold out. The proceeds will go to the Connecticut Alliance against sexual violence.

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

• Professor Adair is no longer chair or vice chair of the FAC, and is therefore no longer a member of the Board of Regents.
• The FAC conference will be held on April 13 at SCSU. There are about 20 seats left, so interested faculty members should register as soon as possible. The speakers will be Mark Huelsman and Khizr Khan.
• We should pay close attention to the NEASC letter that was published in the Connecticut Mirror. NEASC has a non-exhaustive list of 58 points on which they want more details, in response to a BOR report of over 80 pages. Faculty members have not seen the report. The BOR response to NEASC is due Friday, March 16.
• The FAC may adopt a letter asking questions about the proposed consolidation at its next meeting.
• There will be a hearing tomorrow on a bill that would prevent the BOR from consolidating the community colleges until the new planned college has been accredited. Senator Blitz believes that this bill would also modify the law to allow the BOR to consolidate the CSUs.

f. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)

• There was NEASC open forum on Thursday, February 22, from 12noon to 2pm, in the Constitution Room. Thanks to all faculty members and others who were there to provide feedback.
• The university is in the process of creating a 5-year Academic Master Plan.
• The Academic Success Team is being modified, with representatives elected by the faculty. The new configuration will be online soon. Interim representatives will be appointed by the President of the Senate until new members are elected in the Spring elections. Even though this is not a Faculty Senate committee, there will be an expectation that the committee will report and be accountable to the Senate.
• The Senate will elect officers for 2018-20 this April. President Cohen and Senator Blitz expressed interest in running for President of the Senate. There was some discussion on whether or not the President can serve for more than two terms, and whether or not the President should be allowed to serve for more than two terms.

3. Committee Reports

a. Community Engagement Committee 2016-17 annual report (R. Simmons)

• Report accepted by the Senate

b. Curriculum Committee (B. Merenstein)

• Resolution on FYE
• Motion (Crundwell/Jackson): To approve the resolution.
  • Approved unanimously
• February 2018 Curriculum Committee Report
  • Three items or groups of items were identified as needing more discussion:
    • 3. Approval of PE 144
    • 2.5 Bachelor of General Studies in STEM
    • 2.191 through 2.206 Replacement of MATH 101 with MATH 102 and 103 and modification of prerequisites of various MATH and STAT courses that currently have MATH 101 as a prerequisite.
  • After some discussion of PE 144, a motion to Lay on the Table was successful (1 senator opposed), and all other items in the Curriculum Committee report were approved unanimously.
  • The discussion of PE 144 was then taken from the table.
    • Some faculty members asked how the members of the Physical Education department are qualified to teach, say financial literacy. Senator Bishop answered that the Director of Financial Aid Office has helped the department prepare materials to teach this topic.
    • Senator Philips asked why the Physical Education department would be moving away from teaching physical activity. Professor Kostelis answered that the previous way of teaching the course was not as effective as it could have been due to the size of the sections. Furthermore, the modified course would allow students more freedom to select an appropriate physical activity.
    • Some senators expressed the desire to see the proposed syllabus.
    • Senator Spear asked whether it will be possible for the instructors to be in contact with the experts in the content of each module.
    • Motion to amend (Blitz/Bailesteanu) by striking the reference to social/emotional, financial, and intellectual wellness from the course description.
    • Motion to refer the entire matter to the Curriculum Committee was successful (29 senators in favor, 14 opposed)
  • The next item to be discussed was MATH 102/103; more specifically, the granting of Skill Area II general education credit for these courses.
  • Motion to amend (Latour/Best) by deleting the Skill Area II general education credit from MATH 102 and 103.
    • The discussion focused on two aspects.
    • First, whether or not it is appropriate to grant General Education credit for these courses. Some senators, and Curriculum Committee Chair Merenstein, expressed the belief that if the Department of Mathematical Sciences agrees that the courses are appropriate for college credit, then the students who take them should be able to use them for General Education purposes. Senator Latour said that the Department of Mathematical Sciences believes it is not appropriate to grant General Education credit for what is essentially a course that teaches students material that they should have learned in high school, and that to do so would compromise our academic standards. Professor Mulrooney said that granting General Education credit for these courses would make our General Education program consistent with the community colleges'.
    • Second, whether or not it is appropriate for the Senate to modify an item that has been approved by the Curriculum Committee. Some senators, and Curriculum Committee Chair Merenstein, believe that the Senate should not do so. Senator Crundwell believes that it is appropriate for the Senate to vet items that are sent to it by various committees, and to modify them if it does not agree with them.
    • The motion to amend was defeated (4 senators in favor)
  • Motion to approve items 2.191 through 2.206 (Latour/Jackson)
    • Approved unanimously
  • The last item to be discussed was the Bachelor in General Studies in STEM.
    • Senator Blitz pointed out that the BGS as proposed had no major requirement, no minor requirement, and of the required upper division credits no requirement that even two be taken in the same program. Consequently, he moved that the proposal be rejected
    • Professor Don Adams, of the Department of Philosophy objected to this proposal, stating that for new programs, a concept paper must be submitted to the BOR before approval, and that it has not been done for this proposal.
    • Professor James Mulrooney, of the Department of Biomolecular Sciences, said that a concept paper was, in fact, submitted to the BOR for this proposal.
    • Motion to reject this proposal was approved (24 senators in favor, 7 opposed)

4. New Business

a. Update/Discussion of recent actions of the BOR and of "Students First"

• Because of the late hour, this item was not discussed. However, Senator Mendez-Mendez said that he has a resolution on this issue that he believes needs to be approved before Spring Break. A petition with signatures of more than 10 senators was presented to the President of the Senate, requesting an emergency meeting of the Faculty Senate on Monday, March 5, at 3:05pm, for the purpose of discussing this item. Therefore, an emergency meeting was scheduled.

5. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:58pm.