Faculty Senate

Minutes - January 29, 2018 - 3:05pm

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present:Adair, S.; Anton, M.; Baratta, C.; Bell, T.; Bernstein, S.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, R.; Blitz, D.; Boncoddo, R.; Callery, T.; Christensen, S.; Cistulli, M.; Criscola, J.; Crundwell, G.; Dharavath, N.; Donohue, M.; Emiliani, B.; Farhat, J.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Garcia, V.; Ghodsi, R.; Givens, E.; Gleason, B.; Gross, S.; Horton, M.; Hughes, H.; Jackson, M.; Jarvis, K.; Kapper, M.; Karas, R.; Kean, K.; Kelly, D.; Kim, Y.; Koulidobrova, H.; Kyem, P.; Lapuerta, P.; Latour, F.; Leonidas, E.; Livingston, P.; LoGiudice, S.; McGuire, M.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Menoche, C.; Minor, L.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nelson, W.; Oliva, K.; Orange, M.; Oyewumi, O.; Paolino, J.; Phillips, E.; Sakaki, H.; Sohn, Y.; Spear, E.; Spillman, D.; Stickland, A.; Styrczula, S.; Sweeney, D.; Thornton, E.; Vedeler, H.; Watson, S.; Williams, C.; Williams, L.; Zering, J.

Ex-Officio: Fitzgerald, G.; Kremens, Z.; Sommers, B.; Toro, Z.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Cohen, S.

Guests: Charlene Casamento (CFO); Mick D'Arcy (Athletics); Shaun Green (Athletics); Brendan Kruh (SGA); Linda Sagnelli (Athletics); Greg Shell (Athletics); David Spector (Biology); Robert Wolff (UPBC); Amanda Zabel (Athletics)

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of December 4, 2017

• Approved unanimously
  

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• There will be a hearing of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee of the state legislature, on the so-called "Students First" plan, tomorrow afternoon, starting at 1pm.
• On Wednesday, February 7, at 9am, there will be an opportunity to meet our legislators, on the first day of the legislative session.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• The chapter meeting on Wednesday, February 7.
• The $750 professional development cap has been increased to $1000.

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 a trash pick-up event on Friday, March 9.
• Voting in the SGA election ends on Tuesday, February 6.
• The Student Life Committee is working on sexual assault prevention, They would like literature posted in dormitories.

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

• The FAC conference will be held on April 13 at SCSU. There are about 260 to 270 registrants, and the limit is 400, so interested faculty members should register as soon as possible. The speakers will be Mark Huelsman and Khizr Khan.
• The FAC has invited the community colleges to form a statewide faculty senate.

f. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)

• There will be a NEASC open forum on Thursday, February 22, from 12noon to 2pm, in the Constitution Room. Lunch will be provided.
• Departments whose curriculum sheets, academic maps, program goals, etc., are not up to date should fix this as soon as possible. It is important for these to be up to date in order for our NEASC self-study to be as accurate as possible.
• The Commencement Committee needs a Senate representative. Please contact President Cohen if interested.
• President Cohen wants shared governance to be part of our university culture. For instance, he wants the Senate (especially the Appointments & Personnel Committee) to be more involved in hiring of senior administrators. He believes that the Senate (and the University Athletics Board) should have been asked weigh in on the changes to the athletics program.
• The Senate will elect officers for 2018-20 this April.

3. Committee Reports

a. Community Engagement Committee 2016-17 annual report (R. Simmons, N. Thai, M. Dischino)

• Postponed to the next meeting

4. New Business

a. Plans for the Spring 2018 semester

• Already covered in item 2e.

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

• CCSU-AAUP President Williams: In a recent meeting with NEASC, many concerns were voiced, including ones involving shared governance. If the 12 community colleges are merged into one, there will have to be a uniform curriculum, with one curriculum committee and one faculty senate. NEASC expressed skepticism towards the consolidation of the colleges; according to them, savings needs to be put back in the system to strengthen academics. The state legislature needs to invest more in higher education.
• Senator Blitz: We have no confidence in "Students First". At the BOR meeting, business people and faculty members spoke for over one hour, and the regents did not attempt to address the issues that had been brought up. The legislature needs to split the community colleges and CSUs into two separate systems, with a small coordinating group between the two to deal with joint initiatives (such as the TAP). The system office does not need over 140 staff members. If a function is done at the campuses, in does not need duplication at the system office.
• SGA President Kruh: Alumni will go to the legislature to speak on these issues.

c. Report on Sustainability of Athletics Program (Z. Toro)

• President Toro talked about her decision on the future of the Athletics program.
• She said that she has been working on understanding the current situation since her first day at CCSU.
• She said that she has met and talked with students, faculty, as well as management, to understand the concerns. She has also attended sporting events.
• She came to the conclusion that the current model is not sustainable, and thus she put together a Task Force.
• She supports transparency; she makes public the financial statements of the university.
• She wants to work with faculty; she recently asked President Cohen to put together a student success committee.
• She said that he door is open and that she is willing to talk about a variety of topics if done in a respectful way.
• The Task Force was publicly appointed (May 22, 2017), and it included the Chair of UPBC and the Chair of UAB, with a few faculty senators and student members. The process included an open forum for interested parties to voice their opinions. No one said that this was not the right way to proceed.
• She said that she stands by her decision. She acknowledges that the decision is difficult, and that the lives of over a dozen individuals depend on it. She said that the decision is not arbitrary, and that she did what she thought was best for the institution. She believes that this is the first step towards sustainability for the athletics program.
• The request for the athletics department to undertake an efficiency analysis was not in the task force's report, it was added by President Toro. She says that we need specific metrics in order to provide guidance and accountability.
• Senator Crundwell said that President Toro should have gone the shared governance route.
• He referred to a Senate request for clarification on the athletics budget data (2011); this was never done. He believes that getting sound data is essential in order to make informed decision, and UPBC advice should be based on sound data.
• He says that he likes to use the USA Today analysis of athletics budget data, since that paper explains in detail how they use the NCAA report.

5. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:20pm.