FAEC Minutes Sept 30, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 9/30/2020

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 Rakotbe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ashwani Vasishth (Councilor-at-Large over 11)

Guests: Chris Romano (Vice President of Enrollment Management)

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:04am.

Minutes Approval: The 9/23/20 minutes were approved.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Meeting with President Mercer: FA President and FA Vice-President met with President Mercer to ask him not to make drastic changes in his last year. He agreed in essence.

Presidential Committees: We need formal criteria for these committees. This is beneficial to the College and our accreditors and as an essential part of shared governance .

Funding: Governor Murphy has given more money than expected so we will need to take less from the reserves.

Provost’s Council: Meeting was held last Thursday.
Faculty would be well served to look at the Provost’s website for changed guidelines.
Virtual seat time: the policy to make up seat time due to snow days, etc., is being reviewed.
There is concern about the definition of tracks and concentrations in majors.
Latin Honors: Currently only “native” students (4-year Ramapo) can earn this. Transfer students are currently ineligible. The change would allow transfer students with a minimum number of credits to now receive latin honors. Minimum number of credits will be determined by the transfer agreement under which they are entering Ramapo.

3-1 programs and ARC: FAEC began a discussion about ARC’s central role in the 3-1 curriculum.

CHRISTOPHER ROMANO (Vice President of Enrollment Management)

FA Presentation: Due to lack of SAT/ACT testing availability, nursing faculty voted to make testing optional this fall. Now, all of our Ramapo College majors are testing optional except for a few in TAS, HGS, and SSHS with articulation agreements with other colleges.

CARES Act: Additional student funding is available. Every qualifying student received an email from Chris to apply for a second round of funds; this money cannot be used to offset tuition. Students need to demonstrate expenses due to Covid-19 like needing a laptop or a webcam, etc. The email will be shared with Naseem to share with the Faculty.

3/1: Passaic County Community College (PCCC) is doing well. Social work is set up to begin a 2/2 program with Sussex County Community College (SCCC) once the social work accrediting body (CSWE) and Middle States approve. Hudson County Community College (HCCC) will be the 3rd county college with which we will be developing such programs.
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Admissions: Is virtually remote. Students and their families can visit the college by appointment (2 tours/day and 3 tours every Saturday). These are sold out for the next 7 weeks.

Faculty Involvement in Recruitment: While we are virtual, faculty can still participate in break-out sessions. Chris will work with each dean as each school makes its own plan of who will participate.

Application Review Process: How are applications reviewed without SAT and other testing scores? First, there will be a higher emphasis on GPA (in lieu of the test result). The second priority is the rigor of coursework. EMSA will look at the college essays. There is a focus on community service and leadership as well as depth of experience and not breadth. Interviews will also be used, as necessary. EMSA or students can request an interview. Students can submit test scores; these will not be used in a negative way and they can have a positive benefit. Application deadlines will be used; until two years ago rolling admissions was the model with letters sent within two weeks. The Honors Program and EOF will be test optional.

Diversity in Student Body: 45% of the incoming class is comprised of non-white students, our most diverse class yet.

CRW/EOF: Faculty as well as the administrators of CRW look forward to this move being reversed. Chris Romano said this is part of a bigger centralized need for student services. FAEC stressed the importance of all academic support, remedial or otherwise, fall under the AA division. These are critical to the success of all our students, and to the delivery of our curriculum.

Enrollment Vision for Spring 2021: What are expectations for the number of students who will live on campus? What is the expected number of face-to-face courses? Athletes will be coming back. More information will be forthcoming about athletics, plans to live on campus, etc.

Contract Majors: The SSHS social science contract major seems to be the fastest growing convening group.

Provost’s 9/29/ and 9/30 Presentations: This coming semester, students should know their precise course format at the time of registration.

Faculty Course Delivery Presentation Preference: Provost Gaulden has been consistently supportive of faculty determining which mode of course delivery they prefer/feel safest using.

Undeclared Students: Some are undeclared within a school; others are matriculated as undeclared. CAAFYE is implementing a program to encourage students to settle on a school and major by the end of their first year. There are many liberal art schools which do not encourage commitment to a major until completion of the 2nd year. Naseem has asked for data; faculty input is needed.

FA Voting Items: A Qualtrics survey was sent for faculty to vote for candidates for the following positions: FAEC councilor-at-large over 11 and GECCo’s Coordinator of Global Awareness, Coordinator for Quantitative Reasoning, Coordinator for Scientific Reasoning, and the Coordinator for Values and Ethics, by October 5th at 11:59pm.

Counseling Syllabus Statement Request by SGA: SGA is in discussions with ARC about making a statement mandatory in all syllabi.
Syllabus Details: Is it possible for ARC to provide a link for inclusion in all syllabi for all required/relevant to be regularly updated? This would make the syllabi shorter, consistent and provide students with up-to-date information. Naseem will look into this.

Meeting adjourned at 12:12pm.

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC, RCNJ Faculty Assembly Minutes 2019