Faculty Senate

Minutes - October 16, 2017 - 3:05pm

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Adair, S.; Austad, C.; Bailesteanu, M.; Baratta, C.; Bell, T.; Bernstein, S.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Biskupski, M. B. B.; Boscarino, N.; Callery, T.; Cistulli, M.; Criscola, J.; Crundwell, G.; Emiliani, B.; Farhat, J.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Garcia, V.; Ghodsi, R.; Givens, E.; Gross, S.; Horowitz, S.; Horton, M.; Hughes, H.; Jackson, M.; Jarvis, K.; Kapper, M.; Kim, Y.; King, A.; Langevin, K.; Lapuerta, P.; Latour, F.; Leonidas, E.; LoGiudice, S.; Martin-Troy, K.; McGuire, M.; Menoche, C.; Minor, L.; Misbach, K.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nelson, W.; Ngazimbi, E.; Oliva, K.; Oyewumi, O.; Paolino, J.; Puleo, T.; Robinson, C.; Sadanand, N.; Sakaki, H.; Sohn, Y.; Spear, E.; Spillman, D.; Thornton, E.; Watson, S.; Williams, C.; Williams, L.; York, C.; Zering, J.

Ex-Officio: Fitzgerald, G; Sommers, B.; Pease, S.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Cohen, S.

Guests: Brendan Kruh (SGA); Cathy Sylvester (Athletics); Robert Wolff (UPBC)

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of September 25, 2017

• Approved unanimously

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• It has been announced that the Governor and the State Legislature have come up with a "compromise budget"; however, the current proposal still cuts a large sum from the budgets of CSCU and UConn. Furthermore, many of the ideas being proposed would not be beneficial (four-year limits on future contracts, allowing arbitrators to take into consideration the financial condition of the state, etc.)
• We need to work at improving the political climate at the legislature.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• The BOR needs to stop hiring outside consultants to do work that should be done by administrative faculty.
• SUOAF-AFSCME has filed a formal demand for the BOR to negotiate.

c. SGA (B. Kruh)

• Students have been putting carnations throughout campus, to bring happiness to the campus community for Mental Health Week.
• SGA has money to send about 30 undergraduates to a national student leadership/diversity conference. If you have students who might be interested, please encourage them to apply.
• Competition for a Cause is happening again this year; it is a competition between CCSU and New Britain to collect food for the hungry.
• Students are incredibly concerned about the state budget situation.
• The College Republicans and College Democrats are organizing a voter registration drive.

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

• The workgroup reports for "Students First" are being made public on Tuesday afternoon, before the BOR meeting which will be on Thursday in Hartford. The BOR is not expected to be voting on it at this point. The current expectation is for a December BOR vote. However, the schedule is tight, and the changes will need to be approved by NEASC.
• Changes have been made to "Students First", especially as it pertains to the CSUs.
• The FAC presented their requests for changes to the proposed Code of Conduct; the BOR's HR committee approved only one of the recommendations.
• The next FAC conference will be at SCSU.

e. President of the Senate (S. Cohen)

• President Ojakian has declined our invitation to attend our November 27 meeting due to surgery.
• The NEASC Open Forum will be on October 19.

3. Elections

a. Excellence in Teaching Committee (to be elected: 1 member from CLASS)

• The election was conducted, and Heather Rodriguez was elected to the committee.

4. Committee Reports

a. University Planning and Budget Committee (R. Wolff)

• Planning for zero-based budgeting
• CCSU Integrated Budget Model Campus Review Document
• UPBC Chair Robert Wolff explained the concept of zero-based budgeting (ZBB) and answered questions.
• The hope is that the budget process will be more open, that the campus community will be able to better think about how we spend money and propose changes if needed, and that we will be able to move away from the use of one-time funds (if something is a recurring expense, it should be in the base budget).
• Hopefully, the new budget model will allow for the possibility of funding some projects (e.g., interdisciplinary) rather than just saying "sorry, there is no money".
• The pilot is for one year; the expectation is that the new model will be implemented univesitywide for the Fall.
• UPBC will play a large role in evaluating proposals.
• The composition of UPBC is being reviewed; perhaps we need to add more faculty members.
• A portal for submitting budget proposals will be created soon. This portal is NOT the same thing as the "zero-based budgeting" initiative.
• Feedback is sought about the Integrated Budget Model document (see above).

b. Commencement Exercises (S. McKenna)

• Commencement Ceremony Comparison
• Alternative Commencement Options
• President Toro attended her first CCSU commencement exercises last academic year, and it is clear to her that changes need to happen. She thanked the committee for its hard work in producing the above documents.
• Faculty members asked various questions:
  • Would adding a Fall commencement decrease the cost of the May commencement (not really);
  • Do the numbers include the cost of parking, police presence, etc. (yes);
  • Do the costs include the cost of wear and tear to the football turf (there are no such costs; the football turf is designed to take a beating);
  • What is that talk of a reception (it is just a show of appreciation, it would be nothing fancy, and it could be cut if there is not enough money);
• The committee is leaning towards a Fall commencement starting in 2018-19, and having the ceremonies on campus.
• Faculty members who have feedback need to submit it quickly (by Thursday, October 19 at night).

5. New Business:

a. Campus Equity Week (K. Jarvis)

• Senator Blitz asked what is meant by "conversions of non-tenure-track positions to tenure-track positions". Does this mean that people who are in non-tenure-track positions should be moved to tenure-track positions? Answer: No, "positions" really does mean "positions", not "people".
• Approved unanimously

6. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:25pm.