Faculty Senate

Minutes - April 19, 2021 - 3:05pm - Online through WebEx

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Atkinson, S.; Austad, C.; Basim, S., Benoit, D., Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Bray, A.; Broulik, W.; Chakraborty, S.; Chen, S.; Donahue, P., Dumpson, N.; Duquette, J.; Elfant, A.; Foster, P.; French, J.; Gamache, J.; Garceau, T., Garcia-Bowen, M.; Ghiloni-Wage, B.; Gichiru, W.; Givens, E.; Greenbaum, J., Gu, S.; Hazan, S. Hernandez, J.; Holt, J.; Hou, X.; Hughes, H., Jain, A.; Jackson, M.,; Jenkins, A.; Jones S.; Karas, R.; King, A., Knox, C.; Kruy, M., Langevin, K.; Larsen, K., Leonidas, E.; Lewis, M.; Mahony, M.A.; Martin, K.; Martin, V., Matzke, B.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Meyer, K., Moore, K., Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nicoletti, J., Nicholson, B.; Orange, M.; Pancsofar, E.; Parady, K., Paolino, J., Petkova, O., Rein, T.; Roark, E.; Ruhs, T.; Salama, T.; Salgado, E.; Santilli, M., Schenck, S.; Scoggins, M.; Scott., T. Sikorski, J., Skinner, L.; Smith, J.; Smith, R.; Spear, E.; Spillman, D,; Strickland, A.; Styrczula, S.; Sylvester, C.; Wang, W., Whittemore, L.; Williams, L.; Zadi, S.

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

 

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Latour, F.

Guests: Cintorino, S., Casamento, C., Claffey, G., Fallon, M.; Goode, G.; Jarrett, J.; Kirby, Y.; Miller, S., Moreland, D., Palmer, J.; Peckham, K.; Suski-Lenczewski, A.; Thomas, J.; Tully, J.; Wolff, R.

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of April 5, 2021

• MOTION: to approve the minutes of the meeting of April 5, 2021. Approved unanimously.

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP (L. Williams)

• Several upcoming events were announced:
  • A rally at Southern (with the skunk) is this coming Wednesday.
  • On Friday, April 30th there will be another big event, co-sponsored by all CSCU unions. Flyers will be sent out. It will be for asking for more funding for higher education in Connecticut. It will be a walk from Capital Community College to the Capitol.
  • On April 27th there will be a sabbatical leave workshop.
  • The CCSU-AAUP held officer and Executive Committee elections and the next president will be Tom Burkholder. John O’Connor has been elected vice president.
  • We go back to the negotiation table next week. Table Talk will continue to be issued on Mondays.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME (J. Gamache)

• No announcements.

c. SGA (B. Kuo)

• No announcements.

<

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

• Sen. Blitz presented the attached report, in 4 parts
  • HERF Funds Distributions across the System
  • CSCU Preliminary Planned Uses of Federal Stimulus Funds
  • Annual FAC Conference on Shared Governance and Student Success was held.
  • Bargaining for the Common Good
• Sen. Blitz announced that he will be running for FAC Representative once again.

e. President of the Senate (F. Latour)

• Reminder: A sabbatical leave workshop will be held on Tuesday, April 27th at 11 a.m.
• The election of faculty committees and other positions are currently underway. Nominations are open and you should have received an announcement by now. If you are interested or know of a colleague interested in serving on a committee, please consult the announcement. There are also several other positions, not committee related, being filled at this time. Committee meeting times are also listed this year, so that you can determine whether a committee’s meeting time works with your schedule. Nominations close on Thursday at 5 p.m.
• The end of the semester is quickly approaching. The last spring Senate meeting is in two weeks.
• Also, please participate in the Campus Climate Survey, now open. It is very important for as many people as possible to participate in it so we can get a sense of the campus climate.
• Fred asked if anyone has any information on the participation rate for the survey.
  • Y. Kirby reported 33% of staff and 33% of faculty had completed it and 40 staff and 30 faculty are in the process of completing it. The response rate is not as high as what is wanted.

3. Committee Reports (reports marked with an asterisk are informational reports intended for consent agenda only; if you would like a report to be discussed, please inform the President and Secretary by Monday, noon)  

a. Elections Committee

• No report.

b. Online Learning Committee (S. Stookey)

• No report.

c. Grade Appeals Committee* (S. Block)

• Hearing no objection, the report was received by the Faculty Senate. If anyone has any questions, please direct them to F. Latour and he will pass them on to the committee.

d. CCSU Foundation Grant Advisory Committee* (B. Lopez)

• Hearing no objection, the report was received by the Faculty Senate. If anyone has any questions, please direct them to F. Latour and he will pass them on to the committee.

4. Unfinished Business

a. Proposal from Task Force on FYE

• J. Bishop presented the proposal in sections.
  • i. The Task Force would like the Senate to accept the report.
  • ii. The Task Force would like the Senate to support the idea that there needs to be leadership for FYE. There needs to be leadership identified to carry this forward. One or two individuals would have the responsibility to carry out the FYE. The FYE is a first-year experience that goes well beyond the course, though the course plays a key role. This is an experience meant to go across all departments and areas. There should be multiple times that things are touched on. It is an entire experience.
  • iii. The third request is for the Senate to have a role in advising the leadership, through an advisory group made up of senators. How that would be structured needs to be determined. A suggestion that we propose accepted that the existing task force be converted into an interim advisory group. That group could potentially be tasked with coming up with rules and regulations for how it would work.
  • iv. The fourth item is the course. Keeping in mind that the pandemic wreaked havoc on the FYE course, the course could not go forward with the mini pilot that we hoped would happen last year. We would like to take 6 FYE course sections and give them some guidance. The Task Force would like the Senate’s support to move forward with the mini pilot. J. Bishop stressed that the task force is not trying to sidestep the Curriculum Committee.
• MOTION (made in four-parts by J. Bishop):
  • 1. That the Faculty Senate receive the report of the FYE Task Force.
  • 2. That the Faculty Senate supports the idea of hiring leadership for the FYE. (The proposal is for a Director of FYE, however, the Senate has no authority to do anything more than make recommendation)
  • 3. That the Faculty Senate support the idea of, on an interim basis, continuing the existing task force and charge it with the role monitoring the FYE and the progress that is being made, serving as an advisory group.
  • 4. That the Conduct a pilot of the FYE course, as noted above. (Understood is the idea that if it is a pilot, a report will be made within one year.)
• Several Senators seconded the motion.
• Discussion:
  • Fred invited anyone from the Task Force to add to what J. Bishop presented.
  • Sen. Menoche noted that the Music department has spent a lot of time talking about this, and there were many concerns. They feel that an FYE course that is not in the Music department would be of little use to Music majors. K. Larsen indicated they can be in the major, regular Gen Ed courses or Gen Ed courses required by the major. She noted that they are not putting forward a program that every student must participate in.
  • Sen. Mahony indicated that she hoped that in the process of moving this forward, she hopes there will be a clear and consistent message to students about why they should participate in an FYE course and what they will gain from attending an FYE course. She also noted we have an increasing number of students whose first language is something other than English, and that should be kept in mind when websites are put together for the FYE program. She feels it is important for students and their parents to get a sense of who they are working with when they have questions.
  • Sen. Chakraborty spoke in appreciation of the report. He asked is we have a clear framework for how the professional advisors will seek information for incoming students. If we are planning to do a mini pilot in fall, is there a timeline for when professional advisors are going to seek input from the department.
  • Sen. Bishop reframed the question to be sure she understood it. She asked for clarification of whether the question pertained to general advising or the FYE mini pilot.
  • Sen. Gamache indicated that as soon as the mini pilot is more fully fleshed out, the professional advisors will work out with the department. The advisors will keep the department in the conversation about what students are participating in the FYE course in their department.
  • A senator commented that an FYE program could be helpful in recruiting students to attend CCSU.
  • Sen. Bray shared a couple of things from her department: (1) There is concern that hiring leadership for the FYE program may take resources away from hiring faculty. (2) The second is a request for a little more information regarding the Mental Health First Aid training.
    • J. Jarrett indicated that hiring leadership for the program might not necessarily require hiring a new person; duties may be shared across several current employees.
    • Regarding the Mental Health First Aid training, J. Jarrett clarified that this is not a substitute for the services of a professional counselor, the task force felt that FYE instructors should be aware of the signs of when a student may need mental health counseling and the resources available on campus.
  • F. Latour read a comment where someone asked whether hiring someone to direct the program was meant to be “hiring” or “appointing.”
    • J. Bishop stated that the report outlines duties that the person should be able to do, and whether it is through a new hire or assigning duties to someone already on staff is to be determined.
  • Dr. Toro shared that the idea of having someone serve in a leadership capacity for the FYE program was raised shortly after her arrival. Prior to her arrival, there was someone in a leadership role and that was not the case when she arrived. In addition, Dr. Toro noted that first-year retention can improve quite a bit at Central. “If we retain more students, even if we do not admit more, we will not only be able to pay for a person to direct the FYE program, but we may also have more money to hire faculty.” She indicated that hiring someone to lead this program could be seen as an investment. She also indicated that there are several positions, already in place, which may have the capacity for forming a team to lead the FYE efforts along with the faculty. She indicated that the faculty must be very involved in this and the feels that the advisory board that includes instructional faculty as well as administrative faculty and students is a very good idea.
  • Sen. Mahony replied to J. Jarrett, thanking him for pointing out the Executive Summary. She clarified that what she is asking for is something phrased in a way that a student will understand. She stressed this is not a criticism, but in her experiences, there needs to be something that students can read to get an answer to the question “what’s in it for me?”
• MOTION passed 59:0.

5. New Business

a. Follow-up on Resolution to Ensure the Health and Safety of Every Member of the Central Family thereby Creating an Attractive Campus for Current and Future Students

• F. Latour asked, “what can the faculty do in order to promote the idea of being vaccinated to our students?” Many of us have been trying hard to get vaccinated as soon as possible, but many of our students have not been eligible very long. Vaccination clinics are happening on campus and many people are trying to advertise it to students, but what can faculty do to promote students getting vaccinated.
• Dr. Toro indicated that yesterday over 725 students got vaccinated and the University had 800 vaccination doses. CCSU offered the remaining doses to members of the community. We will try to do this again if we get support for the State.
• Sen. Smith asked Dr. toro when the 725 students will return for the second dose? Will we be able to offer people to get the first dose when these students are getting the second shot?
• S. Cintorino said yesterday was very successful. Shots were given by appointment, and the second date was scheduled at the same time (3 weeks later). As we can procure doses, we will schedule clinics, giving priority to our students. One of the groups we are focusing on is out-of-state students. We want to make sure they get the second shot. Sal indicated it was a “huge lift” to get the clinics organized.
• Dr. Toro added that Gov. Lamont has sent a letter to governors across the nation, asking them to facilitate second shots for students studying in Connecticut, who will go home with only the first shot.
• Sen. Smith suggested that during the mandatory 15-mintue wait time after getting the vaccination, the University have staff on hand to speak with the students about Fall registration and dorm residency.
• Sen. Blitz asked about the progress towards a mandate for all students coming back in the fall to be vaccinated. Dt. Toro shared that eh Governor has made the decision that he will not get involved in mandating vaccination for students. Therefore, we cannot mandate the vaccine. There are two other possibilities: (1) Pfizer gets FDA approval through the regular process, which is very unlikely. (2) That the legislature include language in one of the bills they are considering as we speak. That is still a possibility.
• To answer the original questions, J. Bishop suggested faculty tell students that “We are doing this for each other. That I am doing it for you and ask you do it for me.”
• Dr. Toro asked faculty to do two things: (1) speak to the benefit of getting vaccinated in classes and (2) send messages to S. Cintorino and J. Palmer if you have other suggestions for getting the word out to students.

b. Emergency Senate Meeting Dates for Summer 2021

• Given the changing landscape of the pandemic and vaccinations, as well as other matters that may come before the Senate, F. Latour alerted the Senate that there may be a need for special Senate meetings over the summer and asked senators to try to make themselves available should special meetings need to take place.

6. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:59 p.m.