Faculty Senate

Minutes - August 24, 2020 - 3:05pm - Online through WebEx

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Members and Alternates Present:

Ex-Officio: Dauwalder, D.; Farhat, J; Kim, J.; Kostelis, K.; Robinson, C.; Toro, Z; Wolff, R.

 

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President Elect of the Senate: Latour, F.

Guests: Brown-Foster, W.; Burkholder, T.; Cintorino, S.; Claffey, G.; Colburn, L.; Dumouchel, K.; Fallon, M.; Foust, M.; Gallagher, G.; Horan, M.; Jasek, M.; Kirby, Y.; LeMaire, P.; Matterazzo, S.; Maturo, C.; Melnyk, J.; O'Connor, J.; Palmer, J.; Rein, T.; Roark, E.; Suski-Lenczewski, A.

1. Minutes

No minutes at an emergency meeting

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• There will be a Chapter Meeting on Thursday, September 3, at 3pm.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• SUOAF-AFSCME President Bigelow reported a good and productive discussion with President Toro on issues such as health and safety and scheduling/staffing of offices. There is still an issue to deal with; namely, the status of administrative offices after we go fully remote (after Thanksgiving).

c. SGA (B. Kuo)

• No announcements.

d. FAC to the Board of Regents (D. Blitz)

• The System Office is creating a Criminal Justice Task Force; the CCSU program has yet to be consulted on this issue, and does not yet have a representative on the Task Force.
• A notice of a search for Associate Dean of Nursing - Curricular Operations has been recalled. "Curricular Operations" appears to mean "micromanaging what happens at the individual institutions".
• Letter from Higher Education and Employment Committee of State Legislature to CSCU President Okajian

e. Diversity Committee (J. Bishop)

• Many Voices Initiative
• The Diversity Committee is hoping to change its name to "Equity and Inclusion".
• Committee Chair Jan Bishop thanked Kate Ayotte and Barbara Clark for their work on this.
• Faculty, staff, students, and administrators are all invited to send a poem, poster, video, song, meme, dance, photo, or any type of media with a representation of what equity, inclusion, and diversity are to them. Individual and groups entries are welcome; projects will be displayed across our campus. For more information, contact Kate Ayotte or Jan Bishop.
• There is no due date; it is not a competition.
• Senators are invited to pass the word to their constituents.

f. President Elect of the Senate (F. Latour)

• Faculty Senate meeting dates for 2020-21 have been posted on the Senate website. The first meeting is on Monday, September 14. Meetings will be on WebEx, until otherwise announced.
• Departments who have not informed the President Elect of their election results should expect an e-mail requesting this information.

3. Unfinished Business

a. Further Discussion of and response to CCSU Fall 2020 reopening plans
• Possible extension of Bill FS.19.20.022B (Temporary Revisions to Academic Policies) to Fall 2020
  • Proposal for discussion
  • Senator Mendez-Mendez would like to hear from our Registrar on this issue; how did it work in the Spring? Registrar Tucker said that we had about 2700 Pass/Fail elections in the Spring, the vast majority of which were at the undergraduate level. About 18% of underdergraduates and 1% of graduate students had at least one Pass/Fail. Registrar Tucker thanked the Senate for developing this policy, which worked very well according to the Registrar. The majority of students who selected Pass/Fail waited until the last minute. The vast majority of institutions are not extending the Pass/Fail policy to the Fall 2020 semester at this point. Registrar Tucker also believes that the concerns about the Dean's List are valid.
  • Senator Baratta asked about the number of withdrawals for the Spring 2020 semester, and Senator Anton asked about the number of incompletes. Registrar Tucker does not have the data but does not recall significant differences from other semesters.
  • Vice President Bishop asked if it would be possible to approve temporary changes to the policy later in the Fall. Registrar Tucker: no, as long as the core of the policy is unchanged.
  • Senators Martin-Troy and Mahony recommend postponing the discussion since we don't know yet what will happen this Fall, and since students tend to misunderstand the Pass/Fail policy (for example, thinking that they will not get an F if they select Pass/Fail, or thinking that faculty can choose Pass/Fail on behalf of students).
  • Senator Spear argued that many students are not registering this Fall because of the uncertainty. Offering a Pass/Fail option ahead of time might ease their concerns.
  • Senator Halkin believes that most faculty are committed to being flexible in order to help the students.
  • Senator Anton is skeptical that this proposal would send the correct message to the students.
  • Senator Mendez-Mendez moved to replace "X" with "November 24"; by unanimous consent, he withdrew his motion and moved to replace "X" with "November 30".
  • Motion to fill the blank approved (46-3)
  • Motion (Bishop/Jarmoszko): To refer this matter to the Faculty Senate Steering Committee.
  • Motion to amend (Spear/Mendez-Mendez): To refer this matter to the Faculty Senate Steering Committee, who will report back to the Faculty Senate by November 16 at the latest.
  • Senator Mahony supports the amendment and recommends that the Steering Committee should report to the Senate what departments report as the experience of their students, some time after the enrollment freeze, but earlier than November 16.
  • Amendment approved (47-2)
  • Motion to refer to Steering Committee approved (45-1), as amended
• Other topics related to the reopening process
• The Senate moved to the quasi committee of the whole to discuss this item.
• Senator Cox asked if all classrooms are ready for livestreaming. President Toro answered that HyFlex classrooms would all be ready by Wednesday.
• Senator Blitz is concerned that the symptom tracker is asking a single "yes" or "no" question about symptoms, instead of individual questions about each symptoms. He also asked if everyone would be sent a link to the symptom monitoring survey every day. President Toro: yes, at least for the first two weeks. Finally, Senator Blitz asked if the tents had been set up in front of the buildings, with someone to hand out pamphlets. President Toro: that's the plan, and they will also be there to answer questions.
• Senator Halkin is concerned that some symptoms could be from identifiable sources that are not COVID-19 (such as heat from gardening all day).
• CIO Claffey said that if there is any symptom, the appropriate contact tracing team will contact the individual; the decision should be made by a person rather than a questionnaire.
• Senator Mendez-Mendez recommends that the e-mail should be e-mailed to the campus community and put on the university main webpage.
• President Toro said that the university is in the process of developing a dashboard that will be on the Blueprint website. AVP Palmer added that there is a link to the Blueprint on the CCSU main page.
• Senator Mahony is concerned about the delay between testing and reporting of results. This makes it difficult to report results in a timely fashion.
• Senator Halkin is wondering how long it takes for someone to contact a person reporting symptoms. CIO Claffey: it depends on many factors. But no one should come to campus before being contacted if symptoms are reported.
• Senator Pancsofar: How many calls can be handled at one time by Human Resources? CIO Claffey: 6 to 8.
• Senator Anton: If insurance pays, is testing for COVID or providing flu shots on campus logistically useful for people with insurance? President Toro: The problem is that the testing agency is invoicing the university, not the person.
• Senator Martin: Have there been positive tests among the early move-ins? CIO Claffey: No.
• Vice President Bishop: Thanked the Provost for giving HyFlex flexibility for low-enrollment classes.
• A senator asked about the enforcement mechanism for symptom reporting. President Toro spoke of the importance of social responsibility. COO Cintorino said that students who do not symptoms will not be able to participate in some university activities such as athletics.
• Senator Mendez-Mendez asked if there is a way to superimpose data about COVID cases in the state with the hometowns of our students, so as to identify possible hot spots. Senator Garceau of the Geography department said he would inform his GIS specialist colleagues.
• The Faculty Senate emerged from the quasi committee of the whole.

4. New Business

a. Statement on the next President of CSCU

• Motion to amend (Bishop/Foster): change "demands" to "urgently requests" throughout the resolution.
• Approved (36-4)
• Motion to amend (Foster/Bishop): by adding "Nothing in this resolution shall be construed as an endorsement of the current CSCU structure by the CCSU Faculty Senate" at the end of the resolution.
• Approved (42-2)
• Resolution approved unanimously (42-0), as amended

5. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 5:16pm.