FAEC Minutes September 9, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 9/9/2020

Present: Roark Atkinson (HGS), Naseem Choudhury (President), Katie Cohen (Library), Donna Flynn (Councilor-at-Large under 11), Scott Frees (TAS), Kim Lorber (Secretary), Lisa Lutter, (CA), Thierry Rakotobe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS),  Ashwani Vasishth (Councilor-at-Large over 11)

Guests: President Peter Mercer, Provost Susan Gaulden, Martha Ecker (AFT President), Tim Judge (AFT Adjunct Representative)

Voted to begin meeting to order at 10:02am.

Minutes Approval: The 9/2/20 minutes were approved with one abstention.

Indemnification Clause for Fieldwork: The administration did not sign this, which resulted in students losing their field placements.

Personnel HR Deadlines: Schedules are still being addressed.

Fall Schedule Planning: This is being determined for the spring as students will begin to register by the end of October. An assessment of how many face-to-face spaces for spring requests for classrooms is needed.

Pre-requisites: FAEC is continuing to work with the Provost and the Registrar to address missing pre-requisites and student qualifications for courses so the faculty does not have to.

Today’s Meetings: FAEC members reviewed Faculty Assembly and Faculty Forum agendas.

FAEC Councilor-at Large over 11: We are still accepting candidates before the faculty votes.

FA By-laws: Mia Serban is leading the update committee.

Student Study Spaces: Can more be designated on campus for students who do not have space at home to study? Perhaps some unused classrooms can be used.

Library: The library is open from 9am-5pm on Monday through Friday. Reference services are available online 9am-10pm Monday through Thursday, 9am-5pm on Friday, and 5pm – 8pm on Sundays. This will be reassessed throughout the semester. The librarians and library staff are rotating. There are other printing areas (E-wing lab, the Fishbowl, etc.). There are study spaces in the library and they have been meeting current demands using reserve and curbside methods via the online form. One can stop in, sign in, and books can be brought to the person but browsing is not permitted. Interlibrary loans may take time as some libraries are not open. VALE Reciprocal Borrowing is a group of colleges sharing resources directly; this is not working now due to campuses limiting outside visitors.

Faculty/Student Survey for Spring 2021 Course Type Planning: What is the preference for remote versus face-to-face classes this semester as we plan scheduling for next semester? Is there a difference between schools or disciplines? Faculty should be informed about students’ preferences in making their spring course format decision

Restart Committee: Is there a successor committee of the Campus Restart Committee, to identify possible plans for futures semesters well in advance?

Adjunct Space: Do adjuncts have enough space? Can current spaces be repurposed for their use?

AFT Report:

Intellectual Property MOA: is being reviewed.

Class Coverage for A Colleague: Provost Gaulden has informed the deans if any faculty member becomes ill, and another steps in, the latter should be appropriately remunerated.

Return to Campus: Mixed results have been found so far about the return to campus for staff and librarians. Big classes are very hard to manage remotely.

HR: A draft calendar is being reviewed. The promotion binders are being scanned. Promotions will be retroactive to September 1^st. The sabbatical and promotion calendars seem to be on track for this year.

Electronic Packages: What should and should not be in the packages? This needs to be reviewed with HR. There needs to be more structure as to what should be included.

Emergency Help: Strict rules have been implemented about all ITS requests going through the help desk. They respond promptly. During class, how can we ensure immediate responses? Steven Urgo was very helpful, immediately. At this time, ITS has much on its plate. In SSHS we are having trouble with SPSS. Is Social Explorer going to become problematic as it is being offered by the library and running well now?

EOF/CRW: The merging does not seem logical and perhaps should be under Academic Affairs (AA). EOF used to be under AA when Martha Ecker was an administrator and it reported to her. CRW was moved by the previous Provost on a temporary basis due to a lack of help. Why is it still there? It was created to bolster Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC).

PROVOST’S REPORT

Face-to-Face Classes: Students in classes on campus seem to be complying with safety requirements. There are approximately 1,000 unique students taking one or more classes and these might meet 3-4 times in a semester and not on the same days.

Events for On-campus Students: Students need safe options while living on campus. If anyone has a suggestion, it should be sent to the Provost.

Fall 2020: is going well. Faculty is asking about Spring 2021. We do not have a spring course delivery decision date yet. Few students made schedule changes regarding their remote course designations. Provost Gaulden wants the spring schedule to be accurate so students will know the delivery method right away. At minimum, if in-person meetings can be designated in Banner, it will be informative to students. This must be done this month for early November registration. A census was sent to students about preferred course delivery for the fall. A new census will have to be done for the spring. Only 34 rooms can hold a full class. Provost Gaulden is appealing to all offices on campus to identify other rooms that might be able to hold face-to-face sessions. The courses that will suffer the most should have the highest priority.

Cleaning: Facilities cleans the classroom between classes. Will the schedule change? The plan is not to do this and to alternate classrooms so a full session’s time is available between meetings for cleaning. This reduces the number of classrooms. COVID-19 will have the last word. The classrooms have had desks removed and others taped off, to ensure social distancing compliance.

In-person Class Pushback: Some courses have experienced in-person resistance. A survey of faculty and students is being prepared by the Provost. The census asks if faculty will teach face-to-face if the state was in stage 3.

Course Delivery Method Vocabulary: There are many differences between online and virtual classes. These should not be used interchangeably; most of our courses are virtual. Asynchronous classes are less popular.. Remote courses were not allowed to convert to online; existing online courses remain as they were. Students do not prefer online courses. In-person classes on select days can be for exams, for example. If we have multiple sections of a course, it would be good to offer them in different formats. We need to maintain the best course delivery for our college. Parents are providing feedback to the Provost as classes are being held in the home

PRESIDENT’S REPORT 

Students on campus: So far it seems we are doing well and are in compliance with safety requirements.

Federal Relief:  We will receive a modest portion of the $150,000,000 relief aid recently announced by the State.  The total will be divided among public and private institutions.  The new budget will be coming out shortly including increases as in the past. It will make up for the $68 million cut this fiscal year from the state schools. We are hoping we can get at least another million dollars this year which was denied last year. We are doing very well retaining students; we have a full complement. Most are not living in the residences. The financial picture is pretty sound but we will not know our situation fully until the budget is approved. We will have to cover significant amounts from reserves, which we can use once. The President is cautiously optimistic.

Revised Budget: Will be presented to the Board of Trustees (BoT) this month; it is not known if this will be an open meeting. The FA President and Vice President will speak with President Mercer about having faculty representation at the budget meeting

Meeting adjourned at 12pm.

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC