Faculty Senate

Minutes - November 16, 2020 - 3:05pm - Online through WebEx

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Adair, S.; Atkinson, S.; Austad, C.; Benoit, D.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Boscarino, N.; Bray, A.; Broulik, W.; Chakraborty, S.; Chen, S.; Cox, S.; Dumpson, N.; Duquette, J.; Elfant, A.; Flinn, B.; Foster, P.; French, J.; Gagnon, A.; Gamache, J.; Garceau, T.; Ghiloni-Wage, B.; Gichiru, W.; Gu, S.; Halkin, S.; Harris, D.; He, F.; Hernandez, J.; Holt, J.; Hou, X.; Hughes, H.; Jarmoszko, T.; Jenkins, A.; Jones S.; Kapper, M.; Karas, R.; Kean, K.; Knox, C.; Langevin, K.; Leonidas, E.; Lewis, M.; Mahony, M.A.; Martin, K.; Martin, V.; Matzke, B.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nicoletti, J.; Oyewumi, O.; Pancsofar, E.; Phillips, E.; Rein, T.; Roark, E.; Rode, D.; Ruhs, T.; Salama, T.; Salgado, E.; Schenck, S.; Scott, T.; Sikorski, J.; Singhal, R.; Skinner, L.; Smith, R.; Sohn, Y.M.; Spear, E.; 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.; Wolff, R.; Toro, Z.

 

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Latour, F.

Guests: : Alicandro, J.; Bielawa, M.; Casamento, C.; Cintorino, S.; Claffey, G.; Fallon, M.; Gonzalez, K.; Goode, G.; Jackson, M.; Jasek, M.; Kirby, Y.; Lupachino, K.; Magnan, C.; McGrath, K.; Melnyk, J.; Misra, K.; Palmer, F.; Palmer, J.; Peckham, K.

1. Minutes

• Minutes of November 2, 2020

The minutes of October 19, 2020 were approved unanimously.

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• AAUP sent a newsletter by E-mail today. It will come out biweekly and include position statements, documents, and information about events.
• There is an event this Thursday at noon – a press conference and rally outside the BOR. It is being organized by all the higher education unions - AAUP, 4Cs and UConn. The message to be conveyed is: The State must stop cutting higher ed and start investing in it. Please attend if you can, in a red T-shirt. AAUP masks will be distributed to those who attend.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME Secretary (J. Gamache))

• The next SUOAF Chapter meeting will be this Friday morning at 11 a.m.

c. SGA

• G. Goode standing in for B. Kuo made the following announcements:
• The SGA has ended its voter registration campaign. It was a successful educational program about what would be on the ballot and how to send in an absentee ballot. There was good faculty support of their efforts.
• The SGA Diversity sculpture project is proceeding. The SGA is soliciting ideas and images from everyone in the community. There will be more details to come. The first planning meeting just occurred.
• The SGA President has been contacted by the Chair and Director of the Legislative advocacy Every Voice coalition to see if our SGA is supportive of SB-19 which seeks protect students who report being a victim or witness of sexual assault, stalking or violence from disciplinary action by an institution of higher education. The SGA’s External Affairs Committee met today and after researching the bill are in support of SB-19. Senators Palmer and Stroms will construct a Resolution for the SGA to vote on and hopefully sign.

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

• A meeting of the Advisory Committee for the selection of the CSCU President was held on Friday, November 13. Upcoming dates of importance are:
• November 18: Witt Keiffer, a search firm specializing in academic headhunting, will be giving a report to the two Search Committees – the BOR Search Committee and the Advisory Committee.
• The search itself will launch on 11/23 with a position profile determined by the BOR search committee. The deadline for applying is 2/5/2021. The intention is that semi-finalists will be internally vetted, and interviews conducted March 22-25. The expectation is that the BOR would name a new president in the April/May timefame.
• The BOR will have a special meeting on 11/19 at 10 a.m. The agenda is not yet out. The agenda for that meeting will be naming the interim who will succeed Mark Ojakian. David has asked two things of the BOR: will there be public comment (the answer was “no”) and that a review and revision of the Board amendment to the CSU budget be included on the agenda (he received no response to this request.)
• Questions were solicited.
• Sen. Mahony reported that she was told during the recent CLASS Chairs meeting that the BOR will be beginning to offer degrees. Sen. Blitz reported no knowledge of this or discussion by the appropriate BOR subcommittee (Academic and Student Affairs Committee.) He does not believe the SO can offer degrees, because they are not an accredited institution of public higher education. He believes this rumor is highly unlikely to be true.
• President Latour inquired whether online programs would be centralized at the SO level. Sen. Blitz noted there was an online program working group at the SO that met ten months ago and finished meeting just as COVID hit. He was a member of that group and wrote a dissenting report. The idea of that group was to devote a certain amount of SO resources to amplify the resources of online classes at institutions that met certain criteria. He made the point that it was futile to devote additional resources to what the universities and community colleges could do on their own. He did say the SO could supervise the programs on the constituent campuses and approve or delete them.
• Sen. Chakraborty asked a follow-up question to prior discussions which indicated further action would be needed if the BOR did not heed the advice of the FAC. Sen. Blitz indicated that he would raise at the next FAC meeting that the BOR is not adhering to Section 185 of State Statutes with respect to the way the BOR deals with the FAC. The BOR feels the role of the FAC is to advise, not assist, and they think we only make a report twice a year, which they call the semi-annual and annual reports. The FAC wants to regularize the functioning of the FAC which is a statutory committee in the Statutes of the State of Connecticut charged with making regular reports to the BOR and actually assist then – e.g., moving motions or making amendments to their motions, even if we cannot vote on those motions, in order to avoid the kind of faux pas they made with regard to the recent budget amendment which will cut the salaries of part-time faculty, university assistants and graduate assistants. We are taking a further step forward to bringing to the Legislature’s attention that the attention paid to the FAC by the BOR is irregular.

e. President of the Senate (F. Latour)

• The Senate Steering Committee was charged with reaching out to the Legislature and in particular to the Higher Education Committee and the New Britain delegation regarding the BOR passing resolutions that harm our institutions and the BOR not heeding the advice of faculty and the FAC. At the next Steering Committee meeting, we will be going over the letter that should be sent.
• Every year there are a couple of presidential Open Forums that are cohosted by the Faculty and the President’s Office. These provide a forum for Q&A with President Toro. The first one for this year has been scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. Please mark your calendars.

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. Excellence in Teaching Committee (C. Brewer & L. Casas)*

• Postponed to November 2

b. Student Affairs Committee (C. York)*

• The Student Affairs Committee Report was shown by President Latour. This is an informational report; if anyone has questions, the past-chair can be invited to a future meeting to discuss the report. If no one has questions, the report can simply be accepted. No questions were raised, so the report was accepted.

c. Curriculum Committee (K. McGrath)

• Prof. McGrath noted the following minor changes:
• The Modern Languages Department name change to the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures was pointed out. Accordingly, ML course designators were changed to WL.
• A series of minor changes have been made to School of Business courses to have language that includes that permission could also be provided by the new Advisor to Graduate Students.
• A couple of minor changes that went through the Graduate Sub-committee but somehow inadvertently were not put through the Business Committee. These are included in this report.
• Math 547 changed its course description to update it, reflecting changes made 5-10 years ago.
• TE 115 was also updated to include changes that should have already been made.
• Several items were moved from the consent agenda and will come forward in the next cycle.
• The list of courses approved as part of the consent agenda was displayed.
• President Latour called for questions or concerns. Hearing none, he put forward the Motion to approve the Curriculum Committee report. The Report was approved unanimously, in its entirety.

d. University Planning and Budget Committee (J. Melnyk)

• The UPBC met with the Integrated Planning Council (IPC) last Thursday. Big picture topics were shared and should be shared with the Senate:
• Two big areas that were discussed and will likely go to other committees:
• Related to flexibility, how we need to look at the “new normal’ related to course offerings. What will course offerings look like when the pandemic is over?
• The other piece, also related to flexibility, ties into the budget overall. The BOR has frozen tuition and Residence Hall occupancy is down This is creating more budgetary challenges. Part of the IPC conversation centered around expanding the population we serve; can we offer certificate programs or other types of educational programs that we can afford to offer?
• Sen. Blitz said he received a one-page document presenting a Bachelor of General Studies. He asked if that had been discussed at the UPBC. J. Melnyk said that had not been discussed. Rather, the BOR is working on some sort of online course offering/program and we did talk about how we may be handling our online offerings related to that.
• Sen. Blitz also noted the Online Program Working Group – chaired by someone from the System Office but run by someone at Blackbaud. He will share that and his recommendation with J. Melnyk. Sen. Blitz recommended they not set up an Office of Online Programming at the System Office; he believes it would duplicate the failure of Online CSU and moreover, infringe on the autonomy of the universities.
• Professor McGrath noted that the Curriculum Committee has received a Bachelor of General Studies proposal and it is making its way through the subcommittees. What is going through Curriculum are proposals related to what courses would be included and the process through which students can elect that as an option.
• President Latour pointed to the Curriculum Committee’s website, where proposals, including this one, can be tracked. He noted the process does not allow for a one-page proposal to be put forth; the forms on that website need to be used.
• Sen. Adair apologized for joining the meeting late and asked about the BOR offering online programs, specifically whether the System Office intended to apply for accreditation. J. Melnyk said he was not aware of any such application.

4. Unfinished Business

a. Possible extension of Bill FS.19.20.022B to Fall 2020

• Current version of the Proposal
• Feedback from department chairs, registrar, and OIRA
• President Latour reviewed the Current version of the Proposal as it was left at the 8/24/20 meeting. On 8/24 we decided we would look at this proposal in three parts: Pass/Fail; Withdrawals; Incomplete.
• He then reviewed the proposed policy for Fall 2020. The idea would be to extend the Spring 2020 policy to the Fall 2020. That means that all students would be given a chance to change their classes to P/F. Every student who chooses to do so, would have up until s certain deadline, currently 11/30/20, but could be extended today through an amendment. The idea is that students will get a P^ if they get C- or better, P* if they get a D, and an F if they fail. The rules would be the same as last semester Any class could be taken P/F. It would count toward their major if they earned a P^, but not if they have a P*. There is a slightly different for graduate students.
• The policy on Withdrawals would be amended to allow for a withdrawal deadline of [blank]. The current withdrawal deadline is 11/17. If we choose to approve the portion of the amendment on withdrawals, we must fill in that blank.
• Then there is a third policy which pertains to Incompletes. Undergraduates currently have until 8 weeks into the following semester to complete course requirements, otherwise the Incomplete turns to an F. Graduate students have one year. If we approve this extension, undergraduates will have all next semester to complete course requirements.
• Then, there is a proposed addition, which we did not do last semester: students would have to earn a letter grade for at least 6 credits if they want to be considered for the Dean’s List because we do not want a situation in which a student gets 3 PF and an A and get’s on the President’s list. The new change was proposed ben Sen. Halkin, who also has a proposed change to the Audit policy.
• President Latour noted we already have some feedback has been received from some departments and the Registrar and compiled into a single document, also shared with the agenda.
• Additionally, President Latour looked at website of other universities and learned that a significant number of universities reverted to their normal policy and a significant number is extending the policy (SCSU has and WCSU and ECSU are discussing it this week.]
• Each of the proposed changes were discussed and voted on.
• The Pass/Fail Policy section was discussed.
• Options for action include: Support of it, Opposition to it; propose amendments.
• Sen. Mendez-Mendez indicated that the situation this semester is very different than last semester. After polling the department, he spoke against the proposal. Their rationale included concern for students applying for graduate school.
• Sen. Gagnon indicated the Physical Education and Human Development Department also had concerns/question regarding possible impact of P/F when applying to a graduate program. Does anyone have data on how much of a concern this may be?
• F. Latour asked Sen. Leonidas to speak on this question. He did not raise any issues but said that very few graduate students opted to take this option. For incoming students, there is always a need to get the underlying grades. Academic Standards reviewed this last month but did not come up with any conclusion. There was concern about this for 300- and 400-level courses. We are potentially looking at three semesters in a row where students could take many P/F courses, and this could have an impact on admission for graduate studies.
• Sen. Bray indicated she has reached out to colleagues in her field and most of the graduate programs in entomology would look poorly on their application.
• Sen. Sikorski indicated the Department of Psychological Science feels the policy from Spring 2020 should be continued and P/F should be an option once again based on the fact that the pandemic is ongoing and many of the same issues prevail. There is no expectation anything will get better this semester and that any issues or concerns that may arise can be addressed though good advising.
• Sen. K. Martin indicated that the main difference between Spring 2020 and Fall 20020 is timing and that if done again, students will expect we will do it regularly. She said we will have to go back to some kind of normal and she does not believe that this is helping students in the long run because additional courses need to be taken to earn satisfactory academic progress. She also reported that she has spoken with 85 students in the past several weeks and not many students are expecting this.
• Sen. V. Martin spoke in her role as the CLASS chair representative and indicated she has heard from several chairs who do not feel it should be extended.
• Gregory Goode, SGA representative indicated he feels that students should discuss this with their faculty advisors. Earlier this semester there were changes from one platform to another; Kaltura was a huge problem, classes were merged, etc. He noted the number of students who choose to do this are minimal. He would like to think they are speaking to their advisors about graduate studies and career plans. Having this for them provides some assistance to them currently.
• Sen. Mahony noted that the History Department has no objection to this however, students seem to have misconceptions about how this works.
• Sen. Rein expressed that the views of departmental colleagues were mainly positive. However, there was some confusion as to whether faculty would be told which students have chosen the pass/fail option before final grades are due.
• Sen. Schenck said she wanted to remind everyone that while a lot of us got to choose the modality for the courses we taught, the students did not get a choice in that since we did not do re-registration. Students were stuck in online courses when they did not want to take online courses.
• Sen. Langevin noted that her department has not changed its stance. They are sympathetic but cannot accept P/F for prereqs or for Nursing courses. They found that if students are scoring below a C+ in some courses they do not do well in the program. It is okay for general education and other courses, but not for courses in the major. She expressed agreement with Sen. Mahoney that this needs to be addressed through good academic advising.
• Sen. Blitz stated that the Philosophy Department does not see the need to change the P/F policy.
• Sen. Pancsofar expressed that this extension is a source of "empowerment" for students and along with making choices on their part, they need to take responsibility for any decision they make.
• Sen. Jenkins expressed that a concern with P/F is that we use it to protect the most vulnerable members of our student bodies. We have a lot of first generation and financially insecure students and housing insecure students who have issues that the other half of our students do not have. There are students who are not able to live on campus because they are caring for other family members. There are students who do not have the same computing resources or access to tutoring that they would have on campus. This policy benefits our most vulnerable students, and these students are also the same students who are the most likely not to return next semester. From a business standpoint, this should be considered favorably.
• Sen. Cox indicated that the Criminology Department is against this proposal and sees no need to offer it again.
• Sen. Chen said the Computer Science Department is generally in opposition of extending the policy. It was appropriate in Spring because it changed mid-semester. This semester, students had an idea of what to expect from the start. Although some students may struggle with remote learning, a better way to handle this would be to give Incompletes instead of P/F.
• Sen. Leonidas noted that in the policy last term, students were encouraged but not required to speak with an advisor; grad students had to obtain a signature.
• Sen. Halkin said the Biology Department had some questions and concerns. The grades are hurting students because they do not all understand what their grade would have been had they not chosen P/F. She said another faculty member indicated that some students have already withdrawn this semester and maybe they would have stayed if they knew this was coming. She also has a student who received an Incomplete last semester and has not yet submitted more than one sixth of the coursework.
• Sen. Smith said that the Department of Political Science is split. Some do not feel this is appropriate at this time and that some students made bad choices last semester. Some students have asked now whether they could retract the decision they made last semester. Some faculty are very concerned about first-year students choosing P/F in General Education courses. These students were not prepared for an asynch courses. Political Science would support allowing it in Gen Ed courses, but not anything upper level or required in a major.
• Francesca Palmer from the SGA said that not all students had the option of not taking classes this semester. Though most students will not need this policy, some will. If even a few students would be impacted for the better, it is important that they have this option. She also recommends that students talk with their advisor. A policy with some exceptions is better than not having a policy at all, she feels.
• Sen. Bishop, speaking on behalf of Physical Education and Human Performance, said the department feels strongly we can handle later withdrawals and using Incompletes where appropriate. The arguments made for first year and underserved students are strong arguments. Some students made this call not knowing what their grade would have been. If we do go in this direction, it would be best if students would have an indication of what their grade would be before they make this choice.
• Sen. Jones spoke for the Math Department. Those who expressed an opinion said they did not think it was needed, but if this is passed, they can live with the decision.
• Sen. Bishop asked if anyone supported an amendment that carved out general education courses. F. Latour suggested a vote on the original motion be taken and then, if it fails, an amendment could be considered.
• Sen. Mendez-Mendez called the question. It was seconded by Sen. Sikorski.
• A vote on calling the question was taken. The Motion passed.
• Sen. Latour put forward the original motion. There were 40 Yes votes and 19 No votes. The motion carried. The Pass/Fail policy will be extended to the Fall 2020 semester.
• The Withdrawal Policy section was discussed:
• The deadline to withdraw is tomorrow. The proposal would be to extend the withdrawal deadline to a future date, which at this point is blank. If we want to do this, we must first fill the blank.
• Sen. K. Martin proposed November 30 to fill the blank.
• Sen. Chakraborty proposed extension to December 7.
• Sen. Cox stated the Criminology department is very much against this. For students who are struggling, we advise them to withdraw from one course and attempt to salvage the rest. If we extend this to December 7, students are more likely to get low grades in multiple courses.
• F. Latour conducted a vote on filling the blank with December 7. There were 28 Yes votes and 24 No votes. The motion carried.
• The Motion to extend the deadline to December 7 was put forward.
• Discussion:
  • Sen. Halkin asked to hear from students. G. Goode spoke on behalf of the SGA. While he understands Sen. Cox’s point, giving students the time to see if they can turn around their grade, having more rather than less time is better.
  • Francesca Palmer spoke in favor on behalf of students who plan to catch up over Thanksgiving, noting that if they fail at that plan, they will have the option of withdrawing.
  • Sen. Holt said approving this increases the likelihood that students will not speak with their advisor before dropping a course.
  • (Sen. Bishop asked a technical question about whether votes sent privately in the Chat are made public when the Chat is saved. The CIO indicated that private chats are not recorded.)
  • Sen. Bray said that if this does pass, we need to be very clear this is not a policy that will always be extended again. This university has a very late withdraw policy anyway compared to other universities.
  • The Motion to extend the deadline to December 7 was put forward for a vote. There were 44 Yes votes and 12 No votes. The Motion passed.
• The Incomplete Policy section was discussed.
• The current policy is 8 weeks into the next semester, but a professor can extend it. If not extended and 8 weeks lapse, it turns into an F.
• Discussion:
• Sen. Gagnon said Physical Education and Human Performance has had students from last Spring feeling overwhelmed. We obliged. They then signed up for Summer courses, even though they did not finish our work. The other issue that came up was regarding student teachers. For them to be placed in Fall 2020, they had to have a grade. They rushed through their work, handing in less than what they would normally have submitted, just to get placed.
• Sen. Bray noted that students do have more time between fall and spring semester.
• Sen. K. Martin said that currently, even if a student gets and F, if they finish the course and give us the work, we can if we desire, submit a grade to the Registrar.
• M. Jackson noted that in the current policy, the time to complete an incomplete can always be extended by request of the faculty.
• Sen. Bray said she thinks that if we extended the other two policies, she is not sure why this one would be treated differently.
• Francesca Palmer (SGA) said that while in favor of the other policies, extending the Incomplete last semester was not as effective as it could have been and that keeping the 8 week rule will serve as an incentive for students to resolve the outstanding work.
• Sen. Blitz stated that he thinks whatever policies are adopted today will be renewed for the spring, as the same conditions apply. That will make going back to the pre-COVID "normal" even more difficult, as the previous 3 terms will function as a sort of precedent.
• M. Bielawa reported that there are 694 Incomplete grades for Spring 2020 still outstanding for undergraduate students. Graduate students have one year to complete work. He said 694 is higher than average.
• G. Goode indicated he does not know enough about this policy to weigh in on it.
• Sen. Bray said this extension would put an additional burden on our adjunct faculty, or the department head would need to take over.
• The Motion to amend the Incomplete policy to extend the 8-week deadline until the end of next semester was put forward for a vote. The Motion failed. The permanent Incomplete policy prevails.
• Discussion of Halkin Audit amendment.
• Sen. Blitz stated that he feels this amendment makes no sense. Too many options are being put on the plate.
• Dean Wolff was asked if there was anything that would prevent the Deans' Offices from working with Academic Departments and the Registrar to make exceptions if they seem appropriate on this front? He confirmed it could be done.
• The motion to allow students to declare Audit until November 30 was put for a vote. The Motion failed.

b. Spring 2021 reopening plan

• F. Latour asked if anyone had any questions or concerns at this time.
• Sen. Cox asked if there are any discussion of going online for the first two weeks of the Spring semester, like UConn is doing. Sal Cintorino said yes, we are monitoring the situation closely. As time moves on, if things change, we will adjust accordingly. Our plan is to come back as we did this past fall, but if the situation warrants, we could go to fully remote.

5. New Business

a. Update on the Search for CSCU President - This update was given during the FAC report.

b. Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Center - Sen. Mahony moved that, due to the late hour, this presentation be deferred until early in the agenda for the next Senate meeting (November 30).

c. School of Business Governance Structures - President Latour noted that this item is not yet ready for discussion.

6. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 5:28 p.m.