Faculty Senate

Minutes - March 9, 2020 - 3:05pm - Vance Academic Center 105

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Amaya, L.; Austad, C.; Best, F.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Bray, A.; Broulik, W.; Chakraborty, S.; Chen, S.; Fafunwa-Ndibe, S.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garceau, T.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Gardner, P.; Givens, E.; Gutierrez, S.; Halkin, S.; Holt, J.; Hou, X.; Kapper, M.; Karas, R.; Kean, K.; Kriscenski, J.; Kurkjian, C.; Latour, F.; Leonidas, E.; Martin, V.; Matzke, B.; Menoche, C.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nicoletti, J.; Oyewumi, O.; Pancsofar, E.; Phillips, E.; Ruhs, T.; Salama, T.; Schenck, S.; Sikorski, J.; Singhal, R.; Sohn, Y.M.; Styrczula, S.; Sylvester, C.; Wang, W.

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

 

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Jackson, M.

Guests: Rusty Barceló (Interim VP, Diversity, Inclusion & Equity); Tom Burkholder (CCSU-AAUP); Rocia Fuentes (Modern Languages); Yvonne Kirby (Associate VP, Planning & Institutional Effectiveness); Reinaldo Rojas (Social Work)

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of February 24, 2020

• Approved unanimously

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (T. Burkholder for L. Williams)

• The Chapter Meeting will be on Monday, March 23, at lunch time. The agenda for the meeting will be next year's contract negotiation.
• The nominations for the CCSU-AAUP council election will close on Friday, March 13, at 3pm.
• Faculty are still encouraged to participate in the campus climate survey.
• Faculty are invited to attend the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, at 7:30 in Maloney Hall, March 11-14; on March 11, the price of admission is a donation to Maria's Place, and on March 12, faculty and a guest get free admission.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

• No announcements.

c. SGA (R. Tahir)

• No announcements.

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

• Faculty unions organized a gathering at the Legislative Office Building, to explain our decision to withdraw from consolidation committees. Students made a presentation about some of the community colleges' unique programs, such as Environmental Technology. This event was covered by CT-N and the Connecticut Mirror.
• The FAC will meet at the end of the month.

e. President of the Senate (M. Jackson)

• The first year program committee invites faculty to attend an open forum, the goal of which is to gather faculty input on the development and implementation of a high quality, integrated first year program for our students. Interested faculty can stop by anytime between noon and 2pm in the Philbrick room (Student Center) on Tuesday, March 10 to share ideas. Snacks and beverages will be provided.
• Faculty members are encouraged to participate in the Campus Climate Survey, and to urge their students to participate in the survey as well.
• There was a lengthy discussion of our preparation for COVID-19. President Jackson said that he appreciates the e-mails that have been sent by the administration on this topic. Another topic was the possible need to conduct meetings electronically, if the campus is forced to close. The result of the discussion was the adoption of a Standing Rule:
• Motion (Ruhs/Foster): The Faculty Senate resolves that holding a virtual meeting under extraordinary circumstances, as determined by the Senate President, does not infringe on the rights of Senators on the representation of the faculty under Article 4.1 of the Bylaws of the Faculty Senate.
  • Approved unanimously
• Senator Amaya recommended that a trial run of an electronic Faculty Senate meeting be held before holding an actual meeting. Senator Menoche said that what applies to the Senate should apply to committees as well; Senator Latour recommended adding a statement to the Functions and Responsibilities of Standing Committees of the Faculty allowing electronic meetings in emergency situations.

3. Committee Reports

a. Elections Committee

• Call for Nominations: President, Vice President, and Secretary of the Faculty Senate
  • Nominations for President, Vice President, and Secretary of the Faculty Senate (for 2020-22) should be sent to Elections Committee via Senate Secretary Frederic Latour.
  • Nominees must be current members of the Faculty Senate. The current list of Senators can be found on the Faculty Senate website, by clicking on "Members".
  • Nominations will close at 5:00pm on Friday, April 3.
  • However nominations will be accepted from the floor during the Senate meeting on Election Day, Monday, April 6.
  • Each candidate will be given the floor to have the opportunity to speak to the assembled Senate.
• Call for Nominations: Standing Committees of the Faculty
  • President Jackson will send out the Call for Nominations electronically. It will be sent later this month.

b. Academic Standards Committee (E. Leonidas)

• Electrical Engineering Admission Policy
  • Approved unanimously

c. Curriculum Committee

• Unfortunately, neither committee officer was able to attend the meeting in order to present the report. Some senators objected to approving a report without having much time to review it and without having someone present to answer questions.
• Other senators said that the report was simple enough to approve without the need to wait until the next meeting.
• Approved (3 senators opposed)

4. New Business

a. Department Name Change: from “Department of Modern Languages” to “Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures”

• It was pointed out that there is no policy on department name changes at the university, and there probably should be one; in the past, some departments asked the Senate to approve a name change, some did not.
• Senator Garceau said that the Department of Geography objects to the word "Cultures" in the name of the department, since the Department of Modern Languages is not the only one that studies cultures.
  • Approved (1 senator opposed)

b. Policy on Department Bylaws

• Some senators expressed concerns that asking for the date of approval by the Dean is not needed and might create an undue burden on departments in cases where no record of approval exists, so a motion to amend (Latour/Austad) was made to add the words "(if available)" after the word "Dean" in item 3.
• Some senators expressed that this gives too much leeway to departments regarding future approvals, so Senator Latour moved to amend the amendment so that the added text would read "(if available, for bylaws approved before adoption of this policy)".
• Before a vote could be taken on either motion, a call for quorum was made. Since a quorum was not present, the meeting adjourned.

c. High Impact Courses

• The meeting adjourned due to lack of quorum before this item could be reached.

5. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:27pm due to lack of quorum.