Faculty Assembly Minutes 10/2/2019

Ramapo College of New Jersey

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

1 pm, Friends Hall

Faculty Assembly

Faculty Assembly Minutes Approved

1. President’s Mercer’s Report

Three Plus One Programs

President Mercer indicated that Three Plus One (TPO) commitments between RCNJ and four New Jersey community colleges have been secured to include the community colleges of Sussex County, Hudson County, Passaic County, and Raritan County.  An agreement with Morris County Community College is in development. The president cited RCNJ’s high graduation rate and increased possibilities for student success as factors that are attractive to two-year institutions’.

It is expected that community college students in TPO programs will enroll in courses for their third year at the two-year institution where they began their associates degree.  According to President Mercer, TPO students may also enroll in online RCNJ courses during their final year in the program. It was also stated that in the third year of TPO programs it is possible that three credit RCNJ courses may need to be developed to be taught at students’ respective community college.

It was confirmed that RCNJ will provide faculty, curricula, and establish the terms for designating and including them in TPO programs.   

President Mercer intends to meet with representatives for Passaic County Community College to further discuss TPO programs.  He contends that three plus one programs have not been finalized or “decided” unless faculty buy-in is evident.

TPO programs are currently sought in Communication Arts, Social Work, Biology, and Business, and  Global Studies [track in BA in liberal studies in HGS].

The President offers that the advantage is fiscal if TPO’s  increase the number of enrolled students at RCNJ for even one year it will make a substantial difference to the budget and bottom line.  He asserts that it is a miscalculation to wait and see how things pan out as appropriations from Governor’s office will not guarantee the economic future of RCNJ. He also contends that TOP’s will enhance the quality of the College, enhance its representation of minority students, and ultimately ensure that more students will graduate with better degrees if they attend or enroll in RCNJ’s courses in their fourth year.

The president suggested that potential TPO students will experience the same challenge of commuting to RCNJ that existing students face and that more marketing and promotion of the virtue of spending time at RCNJ is required.

Several faculty members expressed concerns about the prospect of TPO agreements with community colleges.  The following lists the faculty concerns waged during FA in response to the proposed TPO program:

• The level of academic preparedness and overall quality of TPO students 
• Students’ ability to assimilate to RCNJ’s academic culture during their fourth year
• There is no guarantee that the TPO students’ graduate rate will be sustained  
• Building a relationship with students in one year is not feasible toward supporting their success.  
• The one year relationship is not about educating but about  granting credits.
• The RCNJ degree will be devalued should the administration prioritize bottom-line decision-making 
• TPO seems like an unsustainable stop-gap to financial problems experienced at RCNJ rather than a long term solution
• RCNJ TPO agreements will not provide an economic advantage to students for their fourth if they can obtain a cheaper degree elsewhere
• RCNJ’s degree is being outsourced but will not result in real financial gains for the College
• The Community colleges are reaping the bulk of the financial benefit in the TPO structure
• RCNJ faculty will be positioned to assume additional course supervision and assessment responsibilities that are not outlined in their contracts or negotiated via AFT 
• The concept of the RCNJ education is vague within the context of taking on TPO programs.  The integrity of RCNJ’s liberal arts framework will be compromised
• RCNJ will be outsourcing diversity based on student populations that may never be present on campus
• The vetting of the faculty responsible for upper level courses at off-site campuses cannot be ensured or guaranteed
• Faculty may not possess the appropriate qualifications or credentials to teach 300 level coursework at the community college
• TOP’s appear to constitute a licensing agreement which carries the RCNJ “brand” but will lack the heft of the “real thing”
• The administration has not provided evidence of estimations of the impact of the TOP program’s impact on labor and the faculty at RCNJ.
• Agreements will be signed in 30 days before procedural elements of the TOP program are addressed
• Real geographic limitations may exist for some students and there is no evidence that RCNJ will mitigate such challenges for students to be present on campus for a fourth year
• RCNJ can only benefit from such TOP programs if the two-year institutions have exclusive agreements with them or the right of first refusal
• The marketability of a TPO program at RCNJ in not known or supported by representative evidence
• TPO agreements may potentially “put RCNJ out of business”

Some faculty suggested a positive path forward in consideration of opportunities that TOP programs may afford RCNJ relative to getting ahead of community colleges as they are start granting Baccalaureate degrees.

2. Provost Becker’s Report

The Provost outlined the RCNJ mission, TPO legislation and revenue generation needs as the rationale for the pursuit of TPO programs.

Revenue generation would be characterized by the negotiation of a revenue-sharing model with community colleges for students to enroll in a third and fourth year of coursework toward an RCNJ Baccalaureate degree.

Provost Becker suggests that TPO’s can be used to allocate a share of the profits to academic units to pay for faculty, symposium, and other programmatic needs.  He also maintained that the academic rigor of TPO’s can be ensured as RCNJ will control curricula in students’ third year at their community colleges.

The provost would like to conduct discussions about how will faculty be involved.  Furthermore, he would like conveners sand faculty to meet with community college faculty to develop TPO programs.

3. FA President’s Report

Three Plus One Task Force

FAEC supports the formation of a college-wide 3 + 1 task force or committee to liaise between the faculty and administration.  The body would serve to report 3 +1 planning to the faculty, as well as to represent faculty concerns to the administration. The charge for a prospective taskforce should be decided by the faculty.  

4. Presidential Search Committee

The FAEC will ask for one faculty member from each unit to serve on the RCNJ presidential search committee.  A total of six faculty representatives are requested. 

5. Multicultural Center and Bias Response Team (EDIC)

Two faculty volunteers are needed and three are being sought. One would serve as an alternate.  The volunteers would serve the Exploratory Committee for the proposed RCNJ Multicultural Center and also the EDIC Bias Response Team

The Multicultural Center would serve our students on campus. The Exploratory Committee will assist with conducting research about the mission, processes, training, marketing, entailed in the development of a Multicultural center.

The Bias Response Team will address any bias complaint is and EDIC will conduct investigations related to the complaint.

6. FAEC Election: Over-10 Councilor-at-Large for FAEC 

Roark Atkinson (HGS)  [64%]

• Two terms on FAEC
• Over 11
• Secretary of AFT 

Bonnie Blake (CA) [25%]

• Served a two-year term on FAEC  

Abstain:  11%

7. Cybersecurity and National Cyber Security Month (Robert Doster, CIO)

Don’t let potential hackers in!  Beware of phishing and spear-phishing by verifying the sources of electronic communication including file attachments and links.  Scammers and hackers can employ “key loggers” that record all keystrokes related to online activity exposing faculty to password breaches

Password and Account safety:  

• RCNJ will implement forced password reset every 180 days.
• Don’t reuse or share passwords
• Log off of computers in classrooms

Software updates 

Perform/initiate do software updates on personal computers and school computers to ensure the latest security updates

Cybersecurity workshops will be conducted in the Instructional Design center on the following dates at 1 pm:  Oct 10, 17, 21, 29 

2:00pm Faculty Forum

The FF is an informal, closed discussion session for FA members and adjunct instructors interested in participating

Wednesday, October 2, 2019 (Pavilion) 

12:00 pm AFT Meeting Canceled (see email from AFT)

1:00 pm Faculty Assembly

The FA is open to a general College audience, including administrators, but only FA members may vote.  Faculty, including library faculty, and all full-time employees contractually obligated to teach are FA members as defined by our bylaws.

Categories: FACULTY ASSEMBLY MINUTES, FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2019, RCNJ Faculty Assembly Minutes 2019