Faculty Senate

Minutes - February 10, 2020 - 3:05pm - Vance Academic Center 105

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Adair, S.; Amaya, L.; Austad, C.; Ayeni, T.; Best, F.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Boscarino, N.; Bray, A.; Chakraborty, S.; Chen, S.; Dharavath, N.; Duquette, J.; Fafunwa-Ndibe, S.; Ferrari, N.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garceau, T.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Ghiloni-Wage, B.; Givens, E.; Gutierrez, S.; Halkin, S.; Holt, J.; Hughes, H.; Jarmoszko, T.; Kapper, M.; Karas, R.; Kean, K.; Kriscenski, J.; Kullgren, A.; Kumar, R.; Kurkjian, C.; Langevin, K.; Latour, F.; Leonidas, E.; Mann, B.; Martin-Troy, K.; Martin, V.; Maturo, C.; Menoche, C.; Mitchell, M.; Mongillo, M.; Morales, A.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Pancsofar, E.; Paolino, J.; Phillips, E.; Ruhs, T.; Sakaki, H.; Salama, T.; Schenck, S.; Sikorski, J.; Singhal, R.; Sohn, Y.M.; Spear, E.; Stickland, A.; Styrczula, S.; Sylvester, C.; Tafrate, L.; Williams, L.; York, C.

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

 

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Jackson, M.

Guests: Rusty Barceló (Interim VP, Diversity, Inclusion & Equity); Charlene Casamento (CFO); Martie Kaczmarek (Assessment Coordinator); Yvonne Kirby (Associate VP, Planning & Institutional Effectiveness); Jason Melnyk (UPBC Chair); Janice Palmer (Marketing & Communications)

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of January 27, 2020

• Approved unanimously

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• Higher Education Lobby Day will be on Friday, February 21, from 8:30am to 1pm, at the Legislative Office Buliding in Hartford.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• SUOAF-AFSCME has begun to build the groundwork for next year's contract negotiations.

c. SGA (R. Tahir)

• No announcements.

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

• The next meeting of the FAC will be on Friday, February 21.

e. President of the Senate (M. Jackson)

• The Library's Online Educational Resources (OER) team, with CTFD and IDTRC, invite faculty to a luncheon on Online Educational Resources, at noon on Friday, February 21.
• The First Year Program (FYP) subcommittee is making progress; there are plans for student focus groups, and an Open Forum in March. The plan is to have a Fall 2021 rollout of the new program, if approved.

3. Committee Reports

a. Curriculum Committee (B. Merenstein)

• Senator Blitz asked about whether or not TAP documents are updated when programs involving them are modified. Answer: That is one of the things that TAP workgroups are supposed to do.
• Curriculum Committee report approved unanimously

b. Academic Standards Committee & Graduate Studies Committee (E. Leonidas)

• Accelerate Central
• Senator Halkin asked whether there would be any issues with counting the same course towards two degrees. Answer: Other universities do it, our accrediting agency has no problem with it, and neither does our Registrar.
• Senator Austad asked about the goals of this program. Answer: Increase graduate enrollment, create an incentive to keep our undergraduates at CCSU for their graduate program, boost the strength of our graduate programs.
• Senator Latour asked about the criteria for determining which programs were included in the table of graduate programs. Answer: The goal was to include all programs but some were omitted by mistake. But we are voting to approve the policy, not the table of graduate programs. The table is for information purposes only.
• Senator Barr said that programs like this can be very attractive to students.
• Policy approved unanimously

c. Diversity Committee (J. Bishop)

• Vice President Bishop made a presentation about Black History Month
.

4. Unfinished Business

a. Strategic Plan

• Strategic Plan 2030
• Summary of campus feedback
• UPBC Memo to faculty Senate
• Master-Action Plan to Faculty Senate
  • Proposed Amendment (Strategic Plan Steering Committee & Faculty Senate Steering Committee)
  • There was some discussion of the proposed amendment, and Senator Philips said that we should speak of an opportunity gap rather than achievement gap.
  • Amendment approved unanimously
• Senator Ayeni expressed about the desire to increase the number of international students without more resources.
• Senator Garceau said that increasing access should include increasing physical access and providing an education to students who may have difficulty getting to campus (e.g., those without a car). We should work to improve public transportation, especially for students.
• Senator Halkin expressed concerns about the realism of increasing enrollment to 15,000 students, especially without significant investments in faculty, staff, and infrastructure.
• Senator Blitz said that we should approve the Strategic Plan but reject the financial model spreadsheet.
  • Motion: The CCSU Faculty Senate recommends approval of the 2030 Strategic Plan, as amended.
  • Approved unanimously

5. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:13pm.