Faculty Assembly Meeting, April 7, 2021

Faculty Assembly Minutes April 7, 2021

Presenter: Naseem Choudhury (President, SSHS); Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ed Shannon (HGS)

Meeting began at 1:02pm.

Minutes 

Approved: 2/24/21 minutes were approved.

March 3, 2021 minutes will be approved via Qualtrics.

Guests: President Peter Mercer and Interim-Provost Susan Gaulden

 FACULTY ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Transition Team: Naseem was invited to participate by BoT Chair, Susan Vallario, as FA President. The charge of the team is available on the College website for the President Elect: https://www.ramapo.edu/president-elect/transition-team/ The transition team is working with the search consultants to assist with a smooth change.

Faculty Assembly Calender: This has been set up for the next academic year and it has been shared with our next President, Dr. Jebb.

              Survey: To inform the development of the transition year calendar. This information gathered is shared with the Transition Team and Dr. Jebb.  This will be distributed mid-to-late April. The survey will be in an All-College announcement and links distributed via that and the Daily Digest. 

 Health and Safety:  Ongoing conversations with Provost Gaulden about vaccines, safety, etc.,.  There are  many moving parts with regard to CDC and New Jersey’s guidelines, and Ramapo’s own internal needs. The Provost will keep us informed.

 Next Faculty Assembly Meeting: April 28th: We have invited Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Chris Romano and Vice President for Administration and Finance Kirsten Loewrigkeit to present and discuss concerns.  All College Budget Meeting is on May 11th.

Center for Reading and Writing: The CRW is coming back to Academic Affairs by the end of this AY. Thanks to Provost Gaulden and VP Romano. Thanks to Todd Barnes, Hugh Sheehy and Monika Giacoppe for your work with CRW this year, and for leading the initiative to bring CRW back into Academic Affairs

BoT Committees: Does anyone wish to serve? Current faculty serving have done this for 3+ years and are open to continuing. If you would like to serve, nominate yourself. Professor Larsen and Professor Kim serve on the Human Capital and Resources committee and the Audit committee.

 Campus Leadership Survey: A Qualtrics survey is coming up.  Includes the President, Provost, Deans and all FAEC Unit-representatives and FA President.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

 Budgets: The Governor has made a budget but Ramapo College does not know what it will receive. In the absence of the federal bailouts, we would be in dire shape. Some institutions would not have survived without that support. We are pleased and grateful for the support we received. Questions remain. We have 1,100 signed up to live on campus. This is half of our capacity. We can expect this decision will be based on more in-person course delivery. We all wish to migrate to a model with more face-to-face activities. This will begin with commencement activities in May which will allow more interactions than last year but less than our traditional events and exercises. We will need to do some ceremonies several times due to the number of students being recognized and graduating.

 Dr. Jebb: President Mercer is very pleased with the selection of Dr. Jebb with whom he has spoken several times and will tonight. She deeply supports liberal arts education and shared governance. 

 Faculty Concerns About In-Person Teaching: Many remain uncomfortable with teaching full-time in-person and having split classes half in-person and the others remotely.

PROVOST’S REPORT

 Provost Awards:  These will be given to Dr. Ellen Kaiden and Dr. Lisa Lutter for all of their contributions on 4/28.

 Commencement Exercises: These will be held on May 12th with a rain date of May 14th. If it rains both days, certificates and awards will be mailed. Arching Day will be on campus. The Academic Achievement Ceremony (9am) will recognize the Honors Program, the Nursing Pinning Ceremony, and Rites of Passage. Each student who is being recognized can bring 2 guests. This will be livestreamed and recorded.

 Classroom Logistics: Waiting for OSHE guidance for the Fall. Current guidelines remain in effect: 6 ft distances etc.  Governor Murphy has said K-12 will be hybrid or in-person; virtual will not be offered.

Fall 2021 Technology Needs Committee: Michael Bitz will be the chair. Faculty reps will be included as well as IT people. Remote teaching works better for some courses than others. Many of the courses have not yet been roomed in the fall semester as we are waiting to see what the enrollments are in classes and match these to room size. Delivery mode changes can happen. From a planning perspective, it is easier to plan to be on campus and pull back than to tell the Provost in July or August of a plan to move to in-person delivery.

Shuttle Buses: These will be back in service in the fall for students to use for the regular stops. The Road Runner buses have been running.

New State Legislations 

        New Courses and Programs: One has been signed into law: This has to do with the new program approval process and establishing a branch campus. We need to provide a rationale for adding these. The process is to be tied to the institutional mission and provide that type of evidence going forward.
        Substitute teaching; instead of the 60 college level credits previously required, a reduction will be made to 30 credits for K-12 substitute teachers.

 Vaccinations of Students: The vaccines are only approved for emergency use so we cannot require mandatory vaccinations; we must wait for the State’s guidance. The standards for higher education have not been announced. Inquiries have been sent. 

Webex Meetings:  We might be able to use the room kits to facilitate on and off campus participation.

Conference Travel/Virtual: The Provost is working on this regarding possible funding and allowing faculty to attend more than before.

Fall 2021 Courses: FYS are 64% in-person. Susan will run a report. 

Registration: Begins on Monday (April 12th)

FYS Peers: Will they all be working in-person on campus? Some virtual sections will be allowed. If there are faculty who consider themselves at risk, they must be accommodated. First-years are looking for an on-campus experience. Peers are going beyond what they were doing to assist in provided on campus courses, supporting the faculty with whom they work.

AFT Adjunct Concerns: There is concern among adjuncts that they will be expected to teach first year courses. Many courses they teach FYS, CRW courses are being prioritized as in-person and adjuncts teach many of these. If they can and feel comfortable coming to campus, they can or they can be assigned a different section. 

School Field Trips: There are a limited number of trips. If there is funding in your school or the FYS budget, assistance may be provided. Many trips would require students to travel on their own to meet at the destination.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SCHOLAR’S WEEK (JOEL WEISSMAN): This begins next week, Monday, April 12, 2021, and there are 4 days of programming. Anyone interested, including family and friends, can attend these Webex live events. Thursday, the deans will offer their recorded comments regarding research. https://www.ramapo.edu/scholarsday/

Meeting Adjourned at 1:54pm.

Categories: FA RCNJ 2021, FACULTY ASSEMBLY MINUTES