Faculty Senate

Minutes - April 5, 2021 - 3:05pm - Online through WebEx

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: AAdair, S.; Al-Masoud, N.; Atkinson, S.; Austad, C.; Barr, B.; Basim, S.; Benoit, D.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Boscarino, N.; 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.; Ghodsi, R.; Gichiru, W.; Given, E.; Gu, S.; Hernandez, J.; Holt, J.; Hou, X.; Hughes, H.; Jarmoszko, T.; Jenkins, A.; Jones S.; Karas, R.; Knox, C.; Langevin, K.; Larsen, K.; Lewis, M.; Liu, Y.; Mahony, M.A.; Martin, V.; Matzke, B.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Misbach, K.; Nicholson, B.; Orange, M.; Pancsofar, E.; Paolino, J.; Phillips, E.; Ratcliffe, J.; Rein, T.; Roark, E.; Ruhs, T.; Salama, T.; Salgado, E.; Schenck, S.; Scoggins, M.; Scott, T.; Sikorski, J.; Singhal, R.; 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.; Robinson, C.; Wolff, R.; Toro, Z.

 

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Latour, F.

Guests: Barnett, S.; Casamento, C.; Cintorino, S.; Collins, S.; Davis, R.; Davis, W.; Dumouchel, K.; Fallon, M.; Fiedler, P.; Hazan, S.; Higham, C.; Horrax, S.; Jarrett, J.; Jost, R.; Kaczmarek, M.; Keays, A.; Kerschner, B.; Kirby, Y.; Palmer, J.; Peckham, K.; Kreeger, J.; Kruy, M.; Kuo, B.; Lupachino-Maynard, K.; Magnan, C.; Marchese, L.; Marquez, C.; Matterazzo, S.; McGrath, K.; Miller, S.; Moore, K.; Moreland, D.; Nadolny, M.; Nicoletti, J.; Reis, S.; Santilli, M.; Simcik, C.; Suski-Lenczewski; Szarmach, C.; Tully, J.; Villanti, S.; Wall, K.

1. Minutes

a. Minutes of February 22, 2021

b. Minutes of March 8, 2021

c. Minutes of March 22, 2021

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP (L. Williams)

b. SUOAF-AFSCME (J. Gamache)

c. SGA (B. Kuo)

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

e. President of the Senate (F. Latour)

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

  • F. Latour will be in touch with the Elections Committee soon regarding the Spring elections, where we will elect all committees (except the Promotion & Tenure Committee) and the FAC rep. We do not have Senate Officer elections this year.

b. Online Learning Committee (S. Stookey)

  • This report was not received and will be on a future agenda.

4. New Business

a. Posthumous degree for Christopher Boothby

  • Posthumous degree conferral. President Latour presented the Ammon College of Liberal Arts and Social Science’s proposal, sponsored by the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, to award Christopher Boothby the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminology with a Minor in Political Science posthumously. President Latour paid tribute to the deceased and asked for a moment of silence in his honor. Prof. G. Givens, Senator from Criminology and Criminal Justice, shared that Christopher was set to graduate this semester, was a fantastic student who was appointed to the Dean’s list and President’s list on multiple occasions, was always prepared and always engaged; and received a highly coveted internship placement this semester. She said that he shared with departmental colleagues that he would be the first in his family to earn a college degree.
  • MOTION: to award Bachelor of Arts in Criminology degree posthumously to Christopher Boothby. Motion passed unanimously 57:0.

b. Request from Diversity Committee: to have its name changed to "Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Committee" (K. Love)

  • Sen. Bishop indicated the term “diversity” is as not as broad as it could be and as a result, the committee would like its name changed.
  • MOTION: to change the name if the Diversity Committee to the “Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Committee”. Motion passed 48:0.

c. On the matter of Moodle

  • Currently, there is an option for faculty to use Moodle as an alternative to Blackboard Learn. Moodle is essentially a Learning Management System (LMS) like Blackboard, but unlike Blackboard, which is owned by a company, Moodle is open source. We received an email from the Provost saying the server on which Moodle resides will be shut down at the end of this semester. This caught the attention of some individual faculty and the Information Technology Committee.
  • F. Latour reviewed the history of use of Moodle that was attached to the proposed resolution. The request is that the decision to terminate Moodle be reversed and it be presented to the Information Technology Committee.
  • MOTION: to reverse the decision to terminate Moodle and to refer the matter to the Information Technology Committee.
  • Sens. Foster and Ghodsi spoke in favor of the motion via the WebEx chat function.
  • Sen. Blitz gave a brief overview of the actions which led to Moodle being approved for use 14 years ago. He indicated this is a matter of shared governance and the appropriate Senate committee – the ITC – should review the matter and make a recommendation.
  • QUESTION: what is the rationale for not allowing faculty to use Moodle since it does not cost any money? President Toro asked the Provost and CIO to respond, given the decision involved a directive from the System Office. She also indicated that she agrees that it should have gone through the UTC. Provost Dauwalder indicated that when he sent out the message, he was not aware that it had not gone through the ITC. His intent was simply to alert faculty not to develop new material for use after Spring 2021 since Moodle would not be available. CIO Claffey used the metaphor of a “free puppy”. The System Office requires that servers comply with the 98- page security policy and IT004. He fully agreed this should go through the ITC and will take it there to discuss the various issues that need to be addressed.
  • QUESTION: What is the student perspective? Has the SGA taken up the issue? Scott Hazan, advisor to the SGA, noted that so far as he is aware, there has been no discussion of his issue in SGA.
  • QUESTION: Sen. Pancsofar asked what "Moodle server at CCSU" means, as opposed by each individual faculty member forming their own Moodle use.
  • Sen. Blitz addressed security issue as it relates to server choice. This was considered at the outset and Moodle is not on the same server. IT does not support it (i.e., reset passwords, provide Help Desk, etc.). All of the security measures were addressed. This is in the same category – obstruction – that we discussed last week whether we are speaking about the Asia Center or the John Lewis Institute. It is an over-reaching on the part of the BOR that I will address in upcoming FAC and BOR meetings.
  • QUESTION: How do we make evidence-based decisions about these matters? Shouldn't we have discussions before decision making? Many unintended consequences can follow when we do not used shared governance activities.
  • QUESTION: are there true security concerns with Moodle at universities? CIO responded that D. Blitz is correct on all points. Anything can be made secure. The question is, can we apply resources to bringing 98 pages of policy to the server? It increases the amount of the administration and T. Burkholder has been doing an excellent job. This is much bigger lift in today’s world to keep this up and running.
  • Provost Dauwalder indicated that Tom Burkholder was notified 2-3 weeks ahead of the email. Perhaps the full set of faculty had not yet been notified and that is what the intent was for the April 1 communication. He indicated a willingness to work with the ITC to review the attendant costs and see what can be done.
  • President Toro spoke to indicate her full support of taking the matter back to the ITC but stressed that we are not back to normal operation and it may not be possible to make a final decision in a pandemic. She suggested that any decision made be deferred until when we are back to normal operations.
  • Reading several other questions, F. Latour suggested that these questions be redirected to the ITC so that they can address them during the review of the matter.
  • ITC Chair Stuart Bennett indicated that the ITC exists to deal with matters precisely such as this, and this issue should not have come to the Senate because the ITC reviews things like this routinely. Academic computing is under the ITC and an MLS is just that.
  • Sen. Chakraborty spoke in favor of the motion. He has been using Moodle for 7 years and has not faced a single access problem, except for students who needed to reset their password. He spoke in favor of having the ITC do a cost analysis of Moodle and compare it to the standard LMS.
  • Pres. Latour reframed the motion: As the administration to suspend this decision and refer the rest of the matter to the ITC. Dr. Barnett indicated there is one more meeting of the ITC this semester. Does this mean the ITC must address this at that meeting? F. Latour referred to President Toro’s remarks, which indicated no final action until post-pandemic conditions existed and indicated the ITC could continue to work on this issue in Fall 2021 if they are not able to complete that review at their next and last meeting of the semester.
  • Amendment to the Revision approved by unanimous consent: to add a Resolved that indicated that the matter be referred to the ITC. REVISED ORIGINAL MOTION: to reverse the decision to terminate Moodle and to refer the matter to the Information Technology Committee. MOTION on proposed Resolution approved 53:1

d. Repopulation and Fall 2021 reopening plans

  • Discussion of repopulation and Fall 2021 reopening plans (quasi committee of the whole)
  • Proposed resolution on health and safety
  • Fred recapped the recent announcement to begin to repopulate campus and summarized faculty concerns. He indicated it is important for the Senate to have a discussion and have questions addressed. He proposed moving to a quasi-committee of the whole for a discussion of the Fall 2021 reopening and the repopulation plan. No objections were heard. He reminded those present that no Senate actions can be taken before emerging from the quasi committee of the whole.
  • Sen. B. Matzke expressed his concerns about the plans to bring librarians back to campus beginning April 9 and this began a robust discussion of the concerns faculty and administrative faculty have about increasing the number of people on campus when there are few students on campus and the pandemic is not over.
  • President Toro indicated that she met with AAUP this morning and had a productive conversation and that she has worked with the unions since trying to begin the repopulation of campus in February 2021 and has tried to take into consideration all feedback received. She stated unequivocally that the reason for repopulating campus is our students. President Toro reiterated the reasons for increasing the number of faculty and staff on campus beginning April 9, stating that a sound plan was in place and, in fact, CCSU was the only institution asked to president their plan to the System Office. She indicated that the University’s leadership team has put much thought and effort into the plan and is making sure that all the existing health and safety measures continue to be enforced. Referencing the violations of the mask policy mentioned earlier in the discussion, she assured everyone that when reported, these violations are addressed and taken seriously. She defended the phased in approach because that is what the Department of Public Health has recommended. She indicated that we are in competition with public and private institutions and that if we do not have students, we will be in financial trouble. She indicated the April 9 plan will bring additional people back to campus ranging from 2 to 5 days per week, with those coming back for 5 days primarily having private offices. President Toro indicated that people age 55 and older have been eligible since April 1st and should be vaccinated by now. She stated she understand the Senate’s concerns and is willing to work with the unions. She asked for respect for the leadership team at the university, who have gone over and above, from union leadership. She clarified that she has tested 100% of the residential students and 25% of the computer students since students returned in January and those tests will continue weekly through the end of the semester.
  • Sen. R. Smith spoke to address the fear and anxiety many members of the campus community are feeling. She urged all parties to be patient with each other as we begin to repopulate the campus.
  • Sen. Bigelow summarized SUOAF members’ concerns about coming back to campus in April. She clarified that the 33 SUOAF members President Toro referenced becomes 250 additional “person days” per week and that is a significant increase in the number of people on campus. She cited examples including offices that do not have enough square footage for all members of the office to come back. She stressed that there are a number of members who are trying to get vaccinated before coming back to campus.
  • President Toro indicated a willingness to review cases on an individual basis. She questioned the June 15 date stated in the proposed resolution. Sen. Bigelow explained that this date was set in relation to July 15th repopulation dates at Southern and Western and August 15 repopulation date at UConn. President Toro reviewed the upcoming summer activities on campus, including four graduations and twelve advising and registration days; she questioned what message we would be sending to students and parents if the faculty and staff only came to campus for the events and not for the planning of the events. She stated we cannot go with a blanked approach; she asked for cooperation to work on a more personalized approach. She indicated that the dates of phases 2 and 3 have purposely not been announced so that we can see what happens in Phase 1.
  • Anna Suski-Lenczewski indicated that the dates for phases 2 and 3 are May 9 and June 4. She also indicated that her office is hearing from the other campuses that there are many more people on their campuses than we have at Central. She also indicated that CCSU cannot ask people if they plan to be vaccinated, if they were vaccinated, or ask them for proof of vaccination.
  • President Toro indicated that she has been asked by Fox61 to join them in a community service campaign to reach out to the State’s community, including the State’s Hispanic community, to express the value of getting vaccinated. She also indicated that she hopes to have a State vaccination clinic on campus to dispense the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to our students prior to their departure from campus. Sal Cintorino addressed the cost factor (some $600K) associated with CCSU offering its own vaccination clinic.
  • Someone asked whether members could come back on a voluntary basis. Anna explained that it is not as easy as it may seem to ensure proper coverage of offices and services when people come in on an individual basis.
  • Sen. Bishop asked how the work getting done will be different once people return to campus. No answer was given.
  • The Senate came out of the committee of the whole. F. Latour reviewed the proposed Resolution, including the three action items.
  • MOTION: to approve the Resolution to Ensure the Health and Safety of Every Member of the Central Family thereby Creating an Attractive Campus for Current and Future Students.
  • Discussion: a request was made to separate the motion into three motions, one for each of the Resolved sections of the resolution. The motion to divide was put to a poll. The motion to divide was approved 37:6.
  • MOTION to approve the first Resolved: “that the CCSU Faculty Senate implores the administration to delay the start date of the three-phase repopulation plan currently scheduled to begin on Friday, April 9, 2021 until Tuesday, June 15, 2021 so as to take into consideration the sound advice of the CDC and State of Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, enabling faculty and staff to have a reasonable chance to receive the full dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.”
  • Motion passed 38:13
  • MOTION to approve the second Resolved: “that the CCSU Faculty Senate calls on the administration to immediately create a health communication campaign to promote vaccination efforts among of faculty, staff, and students.”
  • Motion passed 52:2
  • MOTION to approve the third Resolved: “be it further resolved, that the CCSU Faculty Senate calls on the administration to create a detailed Summer 2021 repopulation plan, based on essential duties, and that the plan outline the external indicators (e.g., CDC guidance, Governor’s directives, national and stated COVID positivity rates, etc.) that will guide repopulation of the campus to its pre-pandemic state.”
  • President Toro expressed her frustration with the reference to “essential duties.” She indicated that was the responsibility of the management. She gave an example about calling people from Institutional Advancement back to campus and indicated that if she did so, she would get pushback. She indicated there is no way that she and her team would be able to please the Senate and that she has been frustrated working with SUOAF for the past 2.5 months.
  • Motion passed 32:11

e. Proposal from Task Force on FYE

5. Adjournment