Minutes - September 14, 2020 - 3:05pm - Online through WebEx
CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Present: Adair, S.; Adair, S.; Al-Masoud, N.; Amaya, L.; Atkinson, S.; Austad, C.; Barr, B.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Boscarino, N.; Broulik, W.; Chakraborty, S.; Chen, S.; Cox, S.; Donohue, P.; Duquette, J.; Dumpson, N.; Elfant, A.; Flinn, B.; Foster, P.; French, J.; Gagnon, A,; Gamache, J.; Garceau, T.; Garcia-Bowen, M.; Ghiloni-Wage, B.; Gichiru, W.; Gu, S.; Halkin, S.; Harris, D.; He, F.; Hernandez, J.; Holt, J.; Hou, X.; Hughes, H.; Jain, A.; Jones S,; Karas, R.; Kean, K.; Knox, C.; Langevin, K.; Leonidas, E.; Lewis, M.; Mahony, M.A.; Marchese, L.; Martin, K.; Martin, V.; Matzke, B.; Mendez-Mendez, S.; Moreno-Fuentes, G.; Nicoletti, J.; Oyewumi, O.; Pancsofar, E.; Paolino, J.; Petokova, O.; Rein, T.; Roark, E.; Rode, D,; Rosete, A.; Ruhs, T.; Salama, T.; Salgado, E.; Santilli, M.; Schenck, S.; Scott, T.; Singhal, R.; Sikorski, J.; Skinner, L.; Smith, R.; Sohn, Y.M.; Spear, E.; Spillman, D.; Strickland, A.; Sylvester, C.; Wang, W.; Whittemore, L., Williams, L., Zadi, S.
Ex-Officio: Dauwalder, D.; Farhat, J; Kim, J.; Kostelis, K.; Robinson, C.; Wolff, R.
Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.
President of the Senate: Latour, F.
Guests: Casamento, C.; Fallon, M.; Hazan, S.; Magnan, C.; Menoche, C.; Palmer, J.; Peckham, K.; Phillips, E.
1. Minutes
Approved unanimously.
2. Introduction of Senators
President Latour called upon Senators to introduce themselves.
3. Announcements:
a. AAUP President (L. Williams)
- Provided a reminder to departments to select a liaison to AAUP.
b. SUOAF-AFSCME Secretary (J. Gamache))
- No announcements.
c. SGA
- No representative present.
d. FAC to the Board of Regents (D. Blitz)
- D. Blitz reviewed the Senate’s Resolution, passed over the Summer, regarding the upcoming search for the President of CSCU. The Resolution was passed on to the FAC, the Board of Regents, the Governor, and several legislative committees. Blitz said the Board did not take the Resolution into consideration, but rather said it arrived too late for consideration.
- He noted that Resolution called for a national Affirmative Action search; the Board stated it will conduct an open, competitive, and inclusive search.
- The Resolution called for the majority of the search committee to be faculty or administrative faculty. Instead, two committees were formed: the Search Committee that will make a recommendation to the Chair of Board and an Advisory Search Committee which will have subsidiary roles. The latter will be named by the Chair of the Board; it will consist of 37 members. That will include 13 from the community colleges, 13 from the universities, four from Charter Oak State Colleges, five external stakeholders, and two individuals from the System Office. Of the 13 university representatives, 7 will be faculty; how they will be selected is not known.
- S. Adair asked if the Board was precluding a national search. D. Blitz will investigate that further.
- S. Mendez-Mendez raised concern about increasing COVID cases on campus and asked whether that had been addressed with the Board. D. Blitz noted that he was informed that the CCSU test rate will be increasing to 25%.
- J. Palmer noted it is the first week there has been additional funding for additional tests.
e. President of the Senate (F. Latour)
- President Latour deferred his remarks to Item 7.
4. Elections
- Senate Elections Committee
- Senators Atkinson, Dumpson, Foster, Gichiru, Langevin, Wang were elected to the committee, unanimously.
5. Committee Reports (reports marked with an asterisk are informational reports intended for consent agenda only)
- The Senate accepted the reports of the Academic Assessment Committee, Committee on Academic Advising, Diversity Committee, Library Committee, and Online Learning Committee as a whole as part of the Consent Agenda
a. Promotion and Tenure Committee (for September 28 meeting)
b. Constitution and Bylaws Committee (for September 28 meeting)
c. Information Technology Committee (C. Menoche)
- C. Menoche presented the report. Following the presentation, F. Latour asked about the role of the ITC in vetting the University’s purchases to support the transition to remote learning/HyFlex instruction. C. Menoche noted that it was difficult to gather the full committee over the summer, however some members of the ITC worked with IT informally. He further noted it is expected that there will be closer collaboration with the ITC and the Division of IT this coming semester/academic year.
d. Academic Assessment Committee* (C. Broadus-Garcia)
e. CCSU Foundation Grant Advisory Committee* (date TBA)
f. Committee on Academic Advising* (C. Marquez)
g. Community Engagement Committee (for September 28 meeting)
h. Diversity Committee (J. Bishop)
- J. Bishop provided a summary of the committee’s work during the past year which included conducting a survey and making recommendations for future changes; handling $20,000 in University Curriculum Development grants (which have been suspended due to COVID), and beginning the Many Voices initiative.
- J. Bishop, on behalf of the committee, in her own words, read a statement followed by asking for a moment of personal reflection.
i. Library Committee* (A. Pozorski)
j. Online Learning Committee* (P. Hapeman)
k. Student Affairs Committee (for September 28 meeting)
6. New Business
- Approved unanimously
b. Approval of Faculty Senate Steering Committee
- F. Latour presented candidates for the 2020-2021 Senate Steering Committee, which meets one week ahead of each Senate meeting to discuss the agenda for the upcoming meeting. The proposed Steering Committee consisted of the three Senate officers (F. Latour, J. Bishop, L. Bigelow), the presidents of AAUP (L. Williams) and SUOAF (L. Bigelow) and FAC Representative (D. Blitz) who are permanent invited guests and 5 additional members: Patrick Foster, Wangari Gichiru, Heidi Hughes, Kevin Kean, and Vivian Martin.
c. Request to bring back "University Hour"
- Following a discussion of the origin, pros, and cons of the former University Hour, the item was deferred to the next meeting so that members could take the topic back to their constituencies for discussion and input.
7. President's Report (F. Latour)
- F. Latour presented his views on the important matters facing the Senate in the upcoming year.
8. Adjournment
- The meeting adjourned at 5:05pm.