CCSU Faculty Senate

Minutes - September 13, 2021 - 3:05pm - Online through WebEx

CCSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Present: Acharya, K.; Amaya, L.; Atkinson, S.; Barr, B.; Best, F.; Bigelow, L.; Bishop, J.; Blitz, D.; Boscarino, N.; Bray, A.; Broulik, W.; Crundwell, G.; Donohue, P.; Drew, S.; Dumpson, N.; Elfant, A.; Emeagwali, G.; Farrish, K.; Flinn, B.; Foster, P.; Gamache, J.; Garbovskiy, Y.; Gardner, P.; Givens, E.; Gonzalez, K.; Gu, S.; Halkin, S. Hernandez, J.; Higham, C.; Holt, J.; Huang, Y.; Jarmoszko, T.; June, A.; Kapper, M.; Karas, R.; Kean, K.; Kirby, D.; Kreeger, J.; Kumar, R.; Langevin, K.; Lewis, M.; Liu, R.; Marchese, L.; Martin, A.; Martin, V.; Matthews, S.; Matzke, B.; McCarthy, M.; Merenstein, B.; Meyer, K.; Morano, P.; Orange, M.; Paolino, J.; Patterson, Y.; Roark, E.; Robinson, P.; Salama, T.; Salgado, E.; Savatorova, V.; Schenck, S.; Scoggins, M.; Scott, T.; Sikorski, J.; Smith, R.; Sohn, Y.M.; Small, I.; Spear, B.; Sugg, K.; Sylvester, C.; Tucker, P.; Turner, J.; Vargas, C.; Wang, W.; Whittemore, L.; Zadi, S.; Zhao, S.

Ex-Officio:Burkholder, T.; Farhat, J.; Jarrett, J.; Kostelis, K.; Mulrooney, J.; Robinson, C.; Toro, Z.; Wolff, R.

Parliamentarian: Dimmick, C.

President of the Senate: Latour, F.

Guests: Brooks, R.; Elsinger, N.; Fallon, M.; Jackson, M.; Kirby, Y.; Marinelli, J.; Miller, S.; Palmer, J.; Peckham, K.; Tully, J.;

1. Minutes

The minutes of April 19, 2021 and May 3, 2021 were approved.

2. Introduction of Senators

Each senator and alternate in attendance introduced themselves to the Senate.

3. Announcements:

a. AAUP President (T. Burkholder)

An update on the AAUP contract negotiations was presented. The current contract has been extended until the end of the year. Promotions and special funding is intact; there will be no wage increase during the extension. It is likely that there will be another extension because the new contract would not be in force until the legislature approves it, and that will not happen during the fall semester.
T-shirts, stickers and posters will be given out starting September 14 through next week. Starting Sept. 23, AAUP will be wearing union swag in solidarity with the AAUP negotiating team. More information is forthcoming.
There will be an in-person chapter meeting on October 4th from 3-5 p.m. An e-mail announcement will be coming out and registration will be required because the tent capacity is 40 people. There will be an online meeting on October 5th to share the same information.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME President (L. Bigelow)

Contract negotiations are going very slowly; they have been on hiatus all summer. Both sides are still pretty far apart on many issues.
Hot topics for the membership right now are applications to telework under provisions of our contract rather than COVID and, to a lesser degree today than recently, vaccinations.
Chapter meetings are held monthly on the second Thursday of the month, at noon.

c. SGA (N. Elsinger)

The SGA requests that professors implement a break during the class meeting time because it has been difficult for students to be back in the classroom. If you have the time and are able to do it, please incorporate a 3-5 minute break.
Along those lines, several students expressed concerns about sanitizing in the classrooms. If supplies are in your classroom, please remind students to use them before adjourning class.
From the Student Government: The SGA leadership team is working to fill the student seats on Senate committees.
Long term SGA goals for this year:
- COVID lessons learned â€“ a holistic project. The SGA is taking a look at what went right and wrong with the hope of redefining the experience from the student point of view.
- Revitalizing a sense of community on campus. If you are aware of students who want to be involved on campus, please refer them to the SGA or Student Activities and Leadership Development. We are looking forward to a more vibrant campus.

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

The Fac has passed several resolutions, including one included in the attached report. There are two issues the FAC voted on at the last meeting and will bring to the BOR:
- Non-medical exemptions â€“ this is the Achilles Heel of the vaccine mandate. The FAC recommended not having a non-medical exemption. A complicated sequence of events involving the Attorney General and attorney for the System office caused 2 things to happen: (1) addition of option of a non-medical exemption and (2) all non-medical exemption requests, even if no detail was provided, were approved. There were initially concerns about the vaccines not having full FDA approval. Since then, Pfizer has been approved and by the end of this month, Moderna will be approved. The lawsuits regarding mandates have all been turned down. Related to the case that made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, SCOTUS declined to hear it. For the more local cases, judges cited that students had alternatives (i.e., online courses, transfer to another school, take a semester off.) The first issue in the Resolution updates the resolution to include the FDA and anticipated FDA action and asks that the non-medical exemption be removed.
- Reporting testing compliance statistics â€“ The Resolution provides the FACâ€™s requests in this area.
- MOTION: The Senate endorse the FAC Resolution (Crundwell/Foster)
  - The motion passed 48:1 following a roll-call vote.
e. President of the Senate (F. Latour)
- Voting method: The State legislature has authorized us to have online meetings through April 30, 2022, but any votes that are not unanimous have to be done via a roll-call vote.
- President Latour deferred the rest of his remarks to Item 7.
4. Elections

a. Elections Committee**
- The Senate held the nominations and election for the Senate Elections Committee. Six Senators are needed to fill this committee. The following were elected: Senators Langevin, Dumpson, Atkinson, Foster, Wang, and Schenck.
- MOTION: To accept the slate of Senators who have volunteered to serve on the Elections Committee. Motion passed.
- MOTION: To elect the slate of Senators who have volunteered to serve on the Elections Committee. Motion passed.
5. 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 Elect and Secretary Elect by Monday, noon)

a. Academic Assessment Committee* (J. Mulrooney)

b. Student Affairs Committee* (J. Sikorski)
- Committee reports that were received too late to be on the agenda for the last meeting of the Spring are on todayâ€™s agenda: Academic Assessment and Student Affairs committees. The reports are informational and can be removed from the consent agenda if anyone wishes. Hearing no request to remove either of them from the consent agenda, the Senate received both reports.

6. New Business

a. DEC exceptions for 2021-22

MOTION: To approve the DEC exceptions for 2021 as presented. (Foster/Orange)

The motion was approved unanimously.

b. Approval of Faculty Senate Steering Committee

MOTION: F. Latour moved to approve the Senate Steering Committee as presented, with the caveat that two seats are unfilled and will be filled. Motion seconded by Sen. Foster.

The motion was approved by more than a two-thirds vote (unanimously with one abstention)

c. Addition of one member to Information Technology Committee

MOTION: To temporarily enlarge the committee to add one member to the Technology Committee for a one-year term. Motion passed by roll-call vote (39:1 with 1 abstention)

d. Morale boosting initiative (J. Bishop)

J. Bishop sought suggestions for boosting morale on campus.