Faculty Senate

Minutes - November 2, 2020 - 3:05pm - Online through WebEx

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Adair, S.; Al-Masoud, N.; Amaya, L.; Atkinson, S.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Boscarino, N.; Bray, A.; Broulik, W.; Chakraborty, S.; Chen, S.; Corbera, S.; Cox, S.; Donohue, P.; Dumpson, N.; Durant, M.; Elfant, A.; Foster, P.; French, J.; Gamache, J.; Garceau, T.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Garcia-Lozada, A.; 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, V.; Matzke, B.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Nicoletti, J.; Orange, M.; 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.; Spillman, D.; Styrczula, S.; Sylvester, C.; Tellier, A.; Whittemore, L.; Williams, L.; Zadi, S.; Zalewski, L.; Zering, J.

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: Casamento, C.; Fallon, M.; Gonzalez, K.; Jackson, M.; Jasek, M.; Kirby, Y.; Kuo, B.; Larsen, K.; Magnan, C.; Melnyk, J.; Palmer, J.; Peckham, K.

The meeting was called to order at 3:08 p.m.

1. Minutes

• Minutes of October 19, 2020

The minutes of October 19, 2020 were approved unanimously.

2. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (L. Williams)

• This week’s AAUP Chat has been rescheduled to next week.
• AAUP leadership has been asked by the BOR to meet to talk about concessions. This would be to discuss concessions before evening getting into contract negotiations, which is highly unusual. AAUP leadership will talk with them, but it is not likely that AAUP will give them what they want, and if anything results from the talks, the membership will have to ratify any concessions agreed to.
• AAUP has put forth Senator Blitz to represent AAUP on the Search Advisory Committee for the CSCU President.

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

• Chapter Elections will be happening later this month. SUOAF dues-paying members should watch their regular mail and email for details.
• The Board of Regents has invited SUOAF leadership to a meeting to discuss possible concessions. SUOAF is not inclined to give back any concessions.
• The SUOAF Local will be nominating Local President Gregg Crerar to the Search Advisory Committee for the CSCU President.

c. SGA

• The main concern she has been receiving from multiple students is about a possible extension of the pass/fail deadline. She has met with President Toro and SGA discussed it at last week’s meeting. Hopefully, this can be discussed here as well. The SGA Academic Affairs Chair, Gregory Goode, is here today and will be providing names for student seats on faculty Senate committees, per F. Latour’s request.
• Sen. Bishop asked about faculty response to SGA’s request that they be lenient about attendance on Election Day. B. Kuo reported positive feedback.
• Several Senators asked follow-up questions:
  • Sen. Mendez-Mendez noted he was conducting his office and advising hours and is concerned that very few students are showing up for advising. He asked SGA to put out a communication to students to remind them to follow up for advising for next semester. He stressed that Spring enrollment – online and on-ground – is essential. B. Kuo indicated she discussed that with President Toro and agreed to send out an informational email to the entire student body.
  • Sen. Jones asked if students were in favor of an extension of the pass/fail deadline. B. Kuo indicated that yes, students are in favor of an extension. Sen. Bray asked about the reasoning behind their desire for the extension. B. Kuo did not have a clear idea of their rationale. She referenced low Fall 2020 participation rate as one possible reason.
  • Sen. Zaleski underscored the importance of what Sen. Mendez-Mendez said. She also asked about progress on the SGA Diversity sculpture. B. Kuo said the next meeting will be held on Nov. 9 at 11:50 a.m. and the agenda will include development of a timeline for bringing the sculpture to fruition.

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

• Sen. Blitz recalled the “Balducci Amendment” to the FY21 budget passed at the last Board of Regents (BOR) meeting, which called for $8M in additional cuts to the four universities, including a $2M cut to part-time faculty budget, a $500K cuts from Graduate Assistants (GAs) and a $500K cut to University Assistants (UAs). Sen. Blitz described the three things he has done to try to get that rescinded or corrected and noted that none are working: (1) the summary of the last Board meeting had inaccuracies in the budget and the amount to be cut from part-time lecturers and the ensuing discussion, which lasted nearly 1.5 hours was completely omitted from the minutes. He asked for that to be corrected and was ignored. (2) He sent an email to the Finance & Administration committee requesting that a meeting of the committee be convened to discuss the Balducci Amendment and to assess the negative impact on the Universities, our classes and our students and that a modified resolution be put forward at the November meeting of the BOR (which had not yet been called). He put forward another alternative, which is to have the BOR use the System Office’s (SO) reserves (over $22M), in addition to positive reserves at three of the four universities (WCSU has a negative reserve) to cover the full $8M and (3) that the chair of the committee, the CFO and others issue a guidance stating that the categories to be cut were suggestions and that presidents and their administrations could work with shared government structures so that classes and students would be impacted as little as possible.
• Sen. Blitz noted that a special meeting of the Board has been scheduled for November 19 meeting, the agenda for this meeting is supposed to come out today. He asked that an agenda item be added to that meeting, specifically to review and revise, as needed, the budget and an amendment be approved considering the negative impact he just stated.
• Sen. Blitz summarized that he made three attempts and failed three times, and that there is something wrong at the BOR. All has been documented and will be provided to the Secretary for inclusion in today’s minutes. The failure of the Board, even to acknowledge the advice and, moreover, the assistance which Section 185 of the State Statues requires that the FAC provide to the BOR.
• Sen. Blitz also called attention to an email sent to all CSCU employees today indicating that the PACT Program, which provides last dollar funding from SO (possibly out of their reserves), will be suspended for the Spring 2021 term. It has been reported in the newspaper, as well as via email. A number of legislators, including the majority leader, Matt Ritter, Sen. Haskell and another of other senators, have all requested of the Governor and the Legislature that the PACT program be funded, and it looks like that will be happening for the Spring 2021 semester. People in the Legislature who supported that overlaps with those sympathetic to our concerns about Students First and critiques of the SO.
• Sen. Blitz encouraged members of the Senate to indicate to the Board in advance, that they wish to address the Board at the next meeting to keep the focus on what they have done and failed to do and call on them to correct it. He is told the next meeting will be a short one, and he has been told the only agenda item is to name the interim who will succeed President Ojakian.
• President Latour followed up on the request made at the last meeting that the President of the Faculty Senate, in the absence of any corrective actions by the BOR, appeals to the Legislature, members of the New Britain legislative delegation, and the Governor as specified in the Resolution passed at the last meeting. He asked whether D. Blitz felt that this action be triggered, and he agreed. F. Latour noted we must wait until we know who the members of the legislature and Higher Ed Committee will be, following the upcoming elections. It was suggested that it would also be appropriate to send it to the current members of the legislature.
• Sen. Blitz added that a few op-eds are in progress now. They will be in the Connecticut Mirror and should be monitored.

e. President of the Senate (F. Latour)

• Reminder: tomorrow is Election Day. If you have not cast a ballot yet, tomorrow is the last day to do so.
• President Latour stated that last semester, the Senate heard presentations from the various centers on campus. Similarly, he has invited the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Center to present at the next meeting (in two weeks) by Senator Mahoney. He noted this also relates to the proposed University Assistant budget cuts because these centers rely on UAs.
• At the August 24 meeting when we talk about the Pass/Fail policy, it was decided that the Steering Committee would bring this back to the Senate by the November 16 meeting. Therefore, whether to extend the Pass/Fail policy to the Fall 2021 semester will be on the agenda for the next meeting. In preparation for that meeting, if you recall, Sen. Mahoney asked at the August 24 meeting that the Steering Committee should share with the Senate what the departments report as their experience with their students during the Fall semester. F. Latour wrote to all chairs asking them to check with their faculty and report on their students’ experiences this semester. If Senators have not heard of this in their department, they should check with their chair so that they will have enough information to act on this item at the next meeting.
• Also, Chairs should expect another e-mail in the next few days asking for them to send to the Senate, through the Secretary, all department bylaws to be put on a website similar to the DEC guidelines. That is essentially in accordance with something we passed last year, which was that the Senate was to collect and post departmental guidelines.
• Also, students will begin to register for Spring next week. As a reminder, if the faculty present have not met with their advisees yet, this week (and last week) are the weeks to do that. The advising sessions are a chance to talk with advisees to see how they are doing this semester, which will help answer the question faculty and Senators will get from their chair. It will also be useful for our discussion in this forum in two weeks.
• President Latour invited questions
  • Sen. Mendez-Mendez stated it is very important that we act as aggressively as possible to engage students in the advising process. He has been sending numerous emails but again, there is a low response rate. He suggested to his department chair some other options, like mass advising sessions. He stressed that we need students and on-ground, to the extent it is safe and possible. F. Latour agreed with all points, stressing that reaching out individually, which may be hard for faculty with 60-70 advisees, is best.
  • Sen. Langevin asked if they must attend an advising session before getting their PIN? President Latour indicated that should be the process.
  • Sen. Bishop called attention to the survey that was included in the Academic Workgroups report.

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. CCSU Foundation Grant Advisory Committee (K. Moore)*

• There were no questions, so it was accepted as a part of the consent agenda. (Mendez-Mendez/Foster)

b. Student Affairs Committee (C. York)*

• Postponed to November 16

4. Unfinished Business

a. Update on Workgroups for Spring 2021

• The link to the webpage with all the Spring 2021 Workgroup reports was shown. President Latour asked whether anyone had questions about the content which could be addressed by the members of management in attendance.
• Academics Workgroup Final Report
  • Key recommendations were reviewed, as well as assumptions and observations across three possible scenarios ranging from fully remote to fully on-ground. The report also included the results of the Applause and Alerts survey. There is also a section that addresses a possible student schedule very different than what we have had. It covers cancellation of Spring Break and some problems with the Library’s services. President Latour sought questions on the report, which could either be addressed at this meeting or brought forward to the administration in writing.
  • Sen. Mendez-Mendez suggested this be postponed until the next meeting, so that more Senators could read it ahead of a discussion. He made a motion for Senators to send questions/comments to the Steering Committee by next Monday. Sen. Bishop noted the reports are in and moving forward and questions a two-week timeline for Senate input. President Latour asked President Toro when she wished to have Senate feedback. She noted that Deans are working with Chairs, and had visits with faculty departments, to identify rooms with certain characteristics. Other things the University is waiting on include information from the System office as to where the cuts they mandated in the last Board meeting are to come from, because that will impact what recommendations in these reports can be implemented. Sen. Mendez-Mendez asked if a two-week delay in getting Senate feedback is timely. President Toro said this may the best course of action because by then, we may have more information about the budget cuts, and we will have time for submitting more budget requests. If the Senate decides to wait, any recommendations sent to us before the end of November will be useful.
  • Sen. Pancsofar asked if there a strong policy going forward for the Spring semester regarding students attending parties at other schools. There is no such policy.
  • Sen. Zaleski stated her belief that definitions should be clarified. For example, the Plan says "HYFLEX - A hybrid course allowing faculty to teach students in the classroom and students streaming online at the same time." Hybrid requires a certain percentage on ground and the rest online. It is not the same as HyFlex.
  • Sen. Halkin commended that perhaps we should be asking our colleagues, too, who we represent. Did this go to all the faculty?
  • Sen. Ruhs asked about the ventilation standards in classrooms for on-ground classes for the spring?
  • Sen. Harris stated he has his own concerns, having had to reach out to a couple of faculty who disappeared for a few weeks and it appeared to be a mental health thing. He stated that we should think about this and should do more to help each other.
  • Sen. Blitz stated that he would like to see proposals to identify the main problems in HyFlex, asynch and synch classes and address them. The focus is hard to find in a long report, comprehensive as it may be.
• President Latour noted one thing from the student success/services workgroup: the inability to use Zoom has inhibited recruitment efforts. Some schools are using this platform exclusively. He noted having heard many concerns that faculty should be able to choose the platform that meets their needs the best. He is now realizing that the Zoom ban has an impact on other areas he had not thought of, such as enrollment management. This speaks to the need to ask the Board to reconsider their stance. AVP Peckham noted that we have access to handful of licenses to use a secure form of Zoom. President Toro noted that the University continues to work with the SO to expand access to Zoom. Part of the problem is money; part of the problem is the claim for safety and security issues related to Zoom. The licenses that Enrollment Management was able to secure was due to a waiver we obtained from the SO to have a reduced number of people to use it. It does not cover the whole need we have for the use of Zoom. She does not know if it will be successful, but the pressure is on. Sen. Williams noted that AAUP is working on the issue as well.
• Sen. Leonidas: In English, working with the Dean, we were disappointed with the level of systematic student feedback concerning what is happening this semester. In many cases, the data is dated. He asked if there is an ongoing, systematic effort to get student input on the various modalities we are using and the student’s feedback about them. President Toro asked AVP Robinson to respond. She noted she is working with the Online Learning Committee and the Information Technology Committee in a collaborative effort to try to get info from students about HyFlex and online learning without overburdening students with surveys. The groups are trying to work collaboratively with a unified purpose. We now have Teams and Webex in the classrooms; the data we have is from when we only had Kaltura. Student experiences are likely to be different now, and we are also using focus groups. She noted she is in conversations with the faculty and is waiting on final reports from them, as well as finalizing the most recent version of the survey and will have better information within the next two weeks.
• Sen. Phillips noted that during advising sessions some students said they dropped Hyflex classes because of communication issues
• President Toro said she would share all available information as soon as she gets it, hopefully before the next Senate meeting.
• Sen. Mahoney reported on something she did in class last week that was beneficial for some of the newer students: divided class into breakout rooms and had them talk about advising because class ranges from First-Year to upper-division students. Higher-level students were able to help lower-level students. President Latour paraphrased that some level of peer advising is effective. C. Robinson asked for her to share that information with her and Sen. Mahoney agreed.
• Motion to postpone this item to 11/16 so that Senators may get feedback from their departments. Motion passed 54:1.

b. “Everything is on the Table” – Modified version of SCSU Resolution

• President Latour shared a modified version [insert link] of the SCSU Senate Resolution regarding the Revised FY21 Spending Plan for possible passage by the CCSU Senate. He noted that the Senate Steering Committee reviewed the SCSU Resolution and made some modifications as well as added a Whereas regarding impact on our academic centers and additional items to be Resolved. The Motion on the floor was to approve the Resolution.
• Discussion:
  • Sen. Adair spoke in favor of the Resolution, pointing out that at the last BOR meeting, a hiring roster for the one college, which will not exist until 2023, was shared. It listed 88 employees and 55 new positions to be filled between now and February, while we have a hiring freeze.
  • Sen. Blitz spoke in favor of the Resolution and our modification of SCSU’s original Resolution. He said that the FY21 Budget Amendment mobilized faculty across the state, so it advanced solidarity.
  • Sen. Halkin asked whether the numbers S. Adair just gave be added as an additional Whereas?
  • A Motion was made to amend the resolution, by adding what Sen. Adair suggested. Discussion of proposed amendment: None. Motion passed unanimously.
• Returned to discussion of the main Resolution. No discussion ensued. Motion to approve the Resolution, as amended, was passed unanimously.

5. New Business

a. DEC Exceptions for 2020-21, part 3

b. DEC Exceptions for 2020-21, part 4: Carol Austad (Psychological Science) will serve on the DEC for the AAUP Counselors in Counseling and Student Development.

• Motion to approve 5a and 5b (Mendez-Mendez) was seconded (Gichiru). Motion passed unanimously.

c. Academic/Area Studies Centers

• Academic/Area Studies Centers – was placeholder; we will have one in two weeks. Sen. Blitz asked for a list of all the UAs who assist the Centers so that he could have it for the next Board meeting. Sen. Mahoney asked for a list of all the UAs. She indicated that the Provost has a list of those who work in Academic Affairs and that Human Resources should have a complete list of all UAs at the University.

6. Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 4:42 p.m. (Mendez-Mendez/Bishop)