Minutes - November 25, 2019 - 3:05pm
CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Present: Adair, S.; Amaya, L.; Ayeni, T.; Barr, B.; Best, F.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Boscarino, N.; Bray, A.; Broulik, W.; Button, C.; Chen, S.; Cubellis, M.; Donohue, P.; Fafunwa-Ndibe, S.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Gardner, P.; Ghiloni-Wage, B.; Halkin, S.; Hughes, H.; Jarmoszko, T.; Kapper, M.; Kean, K.; Kriscenski, J.; Kullgren, A.; Kumar, R.; Kurkjian, C.; Langevin, K.; Latour, F.; Mahony, M.A.; Martin-Troy, K.; Martin, V.; Matzke, B.; Menoche, C.; Mongillo, M.; Morales, A.; Nicoletti, J.; Ofray, J.; Oyewumi, O.; Pancsofar, E.; Paolino, J.; Ragusett, J.; Ruhs, T.; Sakaki, H.; Salama, T.; Sikorski, J.; Singhal, R.; Skinner, L.; Small, I.; Sohn, Y.M.; Spear, E.; Spillman, D.; Stickland, A.; Williams, L.; York, C.; Zering, J.
Ex-Officio: Dauwalder, D.; Farhat, J.; Robinson, C.; Wolff, R.
Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.
President of the Senate: Absent; Vice President Bishop presided over the meeting in his absence
Guests: Beth Merenstein (Curriculum Committee); Reinaldo Rojas (Social Work)
1. Minutes
a. Minutes of November 11, 2019
- Approved unanimously
2. Announcements:
a. AAUP President (L. Williams)
- No announcements.
b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (J. Gamache for L. Bigelow)
- The SUOAF-AFSCME holiday gathering will be held on December 12.
c. SGA (R. Tahir)
- No announcements.
d. FAC to the Board of Regents (S. Adair)
- A statement of unity and a pledge to end the so-called "Students First" has been approved by 4 unions representing faculty/staff at the universities and community colleges.
- The Board will meet on December 19, and the FAC will present at that meeting.
e. Vice President of the Senate (J. Bishop)
- Senators should share the report of the Dual Advising Task Force with their consistituents, as we will be discussing this report at the Faculty Senate meeting on Monday, December 2.
3. Committee Reports
a. Curriculum Committee (B. Merenstein)
- Senator Halkin spoke of the fact that some 400-level courses can be taken by graduate students for graduate credit, while some other courses are 400/500 level linked courses. Why are there two types and what is the difference between the two.
- Approved unanimously
b. University Planning and Budget Committee (J. Melnyk)
- UPBC Chair Jason Melnyk said that a large amount of information about the university can be found on the Historical Expenditure Information page.
- He added that the UPBC has been spending much of its time working on the Strategic Plan; however, it has also found time to approve plans for a new Ombudsperson position, and for a BS in Electrical Engineering. Both of these proposals have been sent to the Integrated Planning Council from the UPBC.
- Senator Blitz spoke of the usefulness of spreadsheets and pie charts for understanding the financial situation of the university. He also spoke of his puzzlement and perplexity towards the 20:1 student:faculty ratio goal in the current Strategic Plan proposal.
4. New Business
- Senators asked about the Task Force on Dual Advising report. Senator Barr wants to know if the plan is to vote on it on December 2. Secretary Latour said that this is NOT the plan. The goal is to begin the Senate-wide discussion on this topic on December 2, not to vote on it. The only reason the report was sent to Senators today (rather than Wednesday, November 27 with the rest of the agenda) is that it is a substantial proposal that Senators might prefer to share with their departments before the Thanksgiving break.
- Provost Dauwalder agreed that the administration is not asking the Senate to approve the plan by December 2, and that eventual implementation would be done slowly, with no major changes in the Spring. It would be great if we could have a couple of departments to pilot the new model before moving to a university-wide implementation.
5. Adjournment
- The meeting adjourned at 3:39pm.