Faculty Senate

Minutes - February 24, 2020 - 3:05pm - Vance Academic Center 105

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Adair, S.; Al-Masoud, N.; Amaya, L.; Austad, C.; Ayeni, T.; Baratta, C.; Best, F.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Bray, A.; Broulik, W.; Chakraborty, S.; Chen, S.; Donohue, P.; Fafunwa-Ndibe, S.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garceau, T.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Gardner, P.; Ghiloni-Wage, B.; Gichiru, W.; Gutierrez, S.; Halkin, S.; Holt, J.; Hou, X.; Jarmoszko, T.; Kapper, M.; Kean, K.; Kriscenski, J.; Kullgren, A.; Kurkjian, C.; Langevin, K.; Latour, F.; Mann, W.; Martin, V.; Matzke, B.; Menoche, C.; Misbach, K.; Mongillo, M.; Morales, A.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nicoletti, J.; Pancsofar, E.; Ruhs, T.; Sakaki, H.; Salama, T.; Schenck, S.; Sikorski, J.; Singhal, R.; Skinner, L.; Sohn, Y.M.; Styrczula, S.; Tafrate, L.; Williams, L.; York, C.

Ex-Officio: Dauwalder, D.; Farhat, J.; Kim, J.; Robinson, C.

 

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Jackson, M.

Guests: Rusty Barceló (Interim VP, Diversity, Inclusion & Equity); Yvonne Kirby (Associate VP, Planning & Institutional Effectiveness)

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of February 10, 2020

• Approved unanimously

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• The Chapter Meeting will be on Wednesday, February 26, from 3:00 to 4:30, in the Marcus White Living Room.
• On Thursday, February 27, at 11am, the Higher Education Committee of the State Legislature will hold a hearing on four bills addressing the issues of consolidation and lack of transparency at the Board of Regents.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• No announcements.

c. SGA (R. Tahir)

• No announcements.

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

• The new Chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee is David Blitz. This makes him an ex officio, non-voting member of the Board of Regents.

e. President of the Senate (M. Jackson)

• Faculty members are encouraged to participate in the Campus Climate Survey, and to urge their students to participate in the survey as well.
• The annual CSCU Research Conference will be held on our campus, on Friday, May 1. The deadline for submitting abstracts is Tuesday, March 10. This is a great place for faculty to showcase their work, especially work that involves students.
• Faculty members were funded by the Provost's Office to attend a conference on the First Year Program in Washington, DC.

3. New Business

a. Pledge to withdraw from planning from community college consolidation

• Senator Blitz explained the context for this pledge; faculty members' concerns about the direction taken by the consolidation committees falls on deaf ears and the work of these committees is a waste of faculty time. The FAC approved two resolutions on this issue.
• SUOAF-AFSCME is concerned about their members who work at the System Office. For them, refusing to perform work assigned by their supervisors could be construed as insubordination, which can be punished by termination.
• Motion (Adair/Austad): The CCSU Faculty Senate supports the community college faculty who are withdrawing from consolidation committees and their rejection of these committees as a violation of shared governance.
  • Approved (51 senators, 1 opposed, 1 abstention)

b. Discussion of Master Action Plan

• The Faculty Senate discussed some elements of the Master Action Plan, focusing on the ones marked as "Faculty Senate" or "Faculty".
• For instance, one of the goals is to "Establish criteria to recognize and reward faculty for activities that are innovative, support student success, demonstrate excellence in advising, teaching, and research as well as increase access to higher education and connect with the broader community".
  • We have committees that reward faculty for excellence in teaching and research. Should there be an "excellence in advising" award? And how does that fit with the proposed Dual Advising model?
  • Isn't the Promotion and Tenure process already designed to do this?
  • Maybe the Committee on Academic Advising could design a way to reward outstanding advising?
• Another goal is to "Develop a collaboration among AAUP, Faculty Senate, SUOAF, and administration to develop policies around service and other areas affected by offering courses and programs in alternative times and formats including 8-week terms".
  • Some senators pointed out that their department already offers 8-week courses.
  • Some senators expressed concerns that faculty could be teaching too many courses for 8 weeks, followed by 8 weeks of no teaching at all.
  • An ad hoc committee should be formed to discuss 8-week course offerings; Senators Martin and Mongillo expressed interest in joining such a committee.

4. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:22pm.