Minutes of Faculty Senate Meeting - September 13, 2010

Meeting in Founders Hall at 3:00 pm

The next meeting of the Faculty Senate is on Mon. Sept 27, 2010 in Vance 105

Note: Senate Constitution, Bylaws, Meeting Dates, Agenda and Minutes are posted on the CCSU Pipeline under Faculty Resources/Faculty Senate, or at http://web.ccsu.edu/facsenate.

 

Present:

Al-Masoud, N., Alewitz. M., Alicandro, J., Ball, K., Barr, B., Barrington, C., Bernstein, S., Bigelow, L. , Bigley, M.P., Bishop, R., Bunce, P., Cappella, D., Christensen, S., Crespi, C., Czyrnik, K., D'Addio, D., Day, B., Delventhal, T., Diamond, C. , Dziuda, D., F. Best, Farhat, J., Greenfield, B.  , Hensley, P., Hicks, L. , Horan, M., Jarmoszko, A., Kapper, M., Karpuk, P., Kean, K., Koh, K., Kurkovsky, S., Latour, F. , Mahony, M., Mamed, O., Mendez-Mendez, S., Menoche, C., Mione, T., Mulrooney, J., Osoba, B., Passaro. M., Percy, V., Poirier, K., Pope, C., Poppe, K., Ratansi, S., Reagan, T., Sadanand, N., Sianez, D., Sikorski, J., Stankewicz, K., Strickland, A., Thamma, R., Vogeler, R., Wang, W., White, C., Wood, R.  

Ex-Officio: Kremens, Z., Lovitt, C., Pease, S., Sakofs, M., Shojai, S.

 

 1. Introduction of Senators 

 2. Announcements:

 a. AAUP President (G. Murphy)

The AAUP newsletter is now available electronically and AAUP members should be receiving it in that format. If you aren’t getting it call Ellen Benson at 2-3793.

There will be a chapter meeting social on 11/3 in the Connecticut Room.

The chapter will be holding elections for a number of officers in Spring 2011. Preliminary work for those elections will begin this semester.

b. SUOAF-AFSCME Vice-President (Liz Hicks)

The first membership meeting is on Wed 9/15

Preparations are underway for upcoming elections

c. President of the Senate (C. Barrington)

            i. The business section of today’s meeting will be rather short, in order to have time for an informal social with wine and food.

            ii. Over the next few weeks, the Elections Committee will solicit nominations and run elections for some important committees. 

• The University-wide Promotion and Tenure Committee, now selects its new members in the fall.  Because slots are proportionately assigned to full and associate professors, it was important to wait until after all promotions had been determined. 

• For a few other committees, openings appeared over the summer, and we need to attend to those.

• Please encourage members of your departments and units to nominate themselves for these positions.

            iii. Please note the Faculty Senate meeting dates this fall. The final meeting is scheduled for 6 December, the first Monday of the month, rather than 13 December, the second Monday of the month.  This change will keep the meeting from interfering with final exam schedules.

            iv. The Faculty Handbook has been revised for the 2010-11 Academic Year.  It was distributed to new faculty, and it is available electronically on the Senate website—as well the CCSU-AAUP and Human Resources website.

            v. Please remember the Equity Survey that Carolyn Fallahi and Sally Lesik are conducting as part of their follow-up to last year’s Gender Equity Report. They need to get as much participation as possible in order for them to say what is happening here at CCSU and to offer possible policy recommendations.  The link for the study is available on the Central Pipeline faculty/staff page.  Remember, though, not everyone has been invited to participate.  They hope to have 100% participation from those who since 2000 have (1) either joined or separated from CCSU OR (2) gone through the P&T process or  (3) a merit-based increase.

            vi. Please remind your department that last winter the Senate approved the Major Policy & Project Proposal document.  As we commence on a new academic year, the committee would like to see the document utilized as it was intended to bring to light projects and policy proposals that have large planning & budgetary implications. The form can be found on the UPBC website.

      vii. President Miller and the Faculty Senate will host a series of forums this fall.

• On Tuesday, 12 October, at 3:30 in the Connecticut Room.
• And Wednesday, 17 November at 10:00 in the Connecticut Room.

            viii. President’s report on the State of Shared Governance at CCSU. President Barrington indicated that we have much to be pleased about regarding last year’s accomplishments. Through the work of several hard-working committees, the Senate

• revamped our Academic Integrity policy;
• formed a Child Care Task Force that has made tremendous progress towards the goal of providing quality child care services for more CCSU students;
• helped departments develop P&T Guidelines;
• established a committee on Academic Advising;
• provided guidance on the new block scheduling;
• worked to streamline the budgeting process;
• worked for more accountability from the Board of Trustees and System Office.
• and, last but not least, revised its constitution and by-laws.

Looking towards the new year, the time seems ripe to begin working actively on several new initiatives.  Two at the top of the list are curricular: Writing across the Curriculum AND General Education Reform.  The Senate will be working with established committees and forming ad hoc committees to jumpstart these processes. 

In closing, President Barrington reiterated the welcome she included for the short guide for senators.

 

3.   Minutes of May 10, 2010

Moved and unanimously accepted.         (Passed)

 

4.    Election of Elections Committee*

The following senators were nominated to the Elections Committee:

S. Bernstein, L. Bigelow, C. White, C. Pope, N. Al-Masoud, T. Jarmosko

A motion was made to close nominations and vote on the slate.

The committee was unanimously elected by the senate.  (Passed)

 

6.         New Business:

a. DEC Exceptions Fall 2010

Senator Kapper moves

Unanimously passed      (Passed)

 

b. Approval of steering committee

President Barrington put forth a slate of two names and indicated that a third member (from the School of Business) would be nominated at the next meeting of the senate.

Nominated to Steering Committee:

T. Reagan, O. Mamed

A motion to close nominations and vote on the slate was made. The committee was unanimously elected by the Senate.    (Passed)

 

c. Exemption Requests for waiving term limits

 The department of Biomolecular Sciences requested that Mike Davis continue to serve on the Graduate Studies Committee, even though his term had expired.

Senator Mulrooney made the motion and the senate voted unanimously in favor of the extension.    (Passed)  

The department of Music requested that Carlotta Parr continue to serve on the Graduate Studies Committee, even though her term had expired. Senator Reagan made the motion and the senate voted unanimously in favor of the extension.    (Passed)

 

d. Academic Calendar 2011-2015

President Barrington asked senators to look over the proposed calendar for senate discussion and deliberation at the next meeting. Provost Lovitt stated that the primary difference in the calendar involved moving the start and end dates of the Fall and Spring semesters to an earlier date. He indicated that the rationale was to assist students with employment and internship opportunities. Finishing earlier is perceived as possibly advantageous in the current employment marketplace. He indicated that he believed the proposed calendars met union contract requirements. G. Murphy concurred, but indicated that the calendar was still under review.

 

7.    Unfinished Business

President Barrington explained that we needed to retroactively amend one word from the UPBC report of 2008-09. In the final draft the phrase “cross-cultural” had inadvertently replaced the phrase “cross-curricular”.  A simple paper trail indicated the clear intent of the UPBC. The document requiring amending can be found here (see Elements of Distinction);

http://web.ccsu.edu/facsenate/Reports20082009/UPBCMissionVisionStmt.htm 

 

Earlier UPBC deliberations can be found here:

http://web.ccsu.edu/upbc/Minutes07-08/UPBC%20Minutes%20March%2026th,%202008.doc

http://web.ccsu.edu/upbc/Minutes07-08/UPBC%20Minute%20April%202nd,%202008.doc

 

Senator Wood moved that the change be accepted. Senator Latour seconded.

After some discussion of the difference between interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, the question was called. The Senate passed the change unanimously. (Passed)

 

8.    Adjournment at 3:55 PM.