FAEC Meeting Minutes, Sept 15, 2021

FAEC MINUTES
9/15/21
ASB 135

 Present: Naseem Choudhury (President, SSHS), Bonnie Blake (Councilor-at-Large over 11, CA), Katie Cohen (Library), Donna Flynn (Councilor-at-Large under 11, TAS), Ed Shannon (Vice President, HGS), Lisa Lutter, (CA), Thierry Rakotobe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ken McMurdy (TAS)

Guests: Chris Romano (Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs)

Meeting began at 10:10 with a quorum of 7 out of ten members present (Lisa Lutter & Thierry Rakotobe-Joel arrived via webex at 10:13).

MINUTES:

• September 8 minutes will be passed at the next meeting.

Presidents report 

• OUTDOOR SPACES:
  -The administration has identified several outdoor spaces for teaching and meeting.
  -There were some questions as to whether these spaces will meet the needs of faculty.
• REFUSE COLLECTION:
  -The administration has clarified: suspension of refuse collection was not a result of staff shortages. Rather, staff is stretched thin to keep up with COVID cleaning protocols.
  -We noted that smoother communication of that fact would have been beneficial. FAEC will continue to request better and more complete communication of such matters in the future.
  -Some issues remain uncertain:
  • Unclear access to garbage bags and cleaning supplies
  • Some schools seem to have information on garbage bags and cleaning supplies; others do not.
  • Some offices are reporting that garbage is still being collected.

• SCHEDULE SPRING 2022:
  -Traditionally (pre-COVID) only M/W/R courses were supposed to be hybrid. However, it seems that in practice that in some schools M/ R & T/F courses have been offered as hybrid. 
  • We need some clarity on this.
  • As of now, faculty who wish to remain  off campus in Spring need Deans’ permission to do so.
  • We are not aware how difficult such permission will be to obtain. We are not aware of the criteria. 
  • Other questions regarding the schedule:
    • will summer courses be offered in all 6 modalities? Or will they be restricted to the current spring options? What are the economic consequences of limiting summer options? 
    • Also, regarding Spring schedule: there is confusion regarding communication from Deans. Some Deans have written to their faculty regarding the modalities. Some Deans have only communicated to conveners. 
      • Some schools are hearing different options than the 3 modalities identified by the Provost. 
    • Also, regarding Spring schedule: currently, Webex /synchronous is not an option for Spring. What does that imply for snow days? It would seem that if Webex /synchronous is not available for the regular schedule, would it also not be a snow day option?
• STATE OF THE COLLEGE:
  State of the College will be in person
• FA in-service will be hybrid. Or at least, we agreed to reserve a room to retain the option of a hybrid meeting to accommodate those attending State of the College in person.
  
• DIVERSITY EQUITY INCLUSION:
  Regarding the Diversity training 9/15, we encourage better communication to avoid dating conflicts with religious observances. For a mandatory event, if one date conflicts with a holiday, it could be helpful to communicate that. Perhaps highlighting the May event as being scheduled to avoid the date conflict would have made faculty feel more included. Or perhaps we need to alway schedule 3 sessions, the calendar being as difficult to manage as it is.

NEW BUSINESS

• PRINTERS IN OFFICES:
  Faculty have been told not to print in our offices. Toner & paper will no longer be provided.
  We suggested that we express to the Provost and the president that printers and printing represent a legitimate teaching supplies issue. Perhaps something other than an “all or nothing” printer policy can be considered.

ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT AND STUDENT AFFAIRS: 

• At 11 am, Chris Romano joined us via Webex for our first enrollment meeting of the year. Chris reported:
  • Tomorrow the files will be frozen
  • We are at 99% of our undergraduate enrollment goal and 98% of our graduate goal.
  • There are 400 more students living on campus than we aimed for.
  • Student conduct on campus has been good so far.
  • Planning for next year’s enrollment and on campus living has begun.
  • Chris reported that Pre-Covid, 2700-2900 was the absolute maximum number of students who could be housed on campus. 
  • Many beds are set aside for COVID safety and potential quarantine.
• We discussed Open House / Admitted Student events:
  • Open House attendance has dropped in COVID. The college has increased Saturday tours.
  • Currently Open Houses are being treated as a general introduction to the campus. 
  • Admitted students days are smaller in COVID, faculty are being asked to appear at Admitted Student day, as that is a better use of faculty as presenters. 
• We discussed program growth:
  • Currently 150 high school students are taking classes here at Ramapo
  • 4+ 1 applications are going up; programs that can offer 4+ 1 are growing
  • Some 4+ 1 programs have been created via agreement with another colleges (i.e., Ramapo undergraduates are “guaranteed” a “+1” Masters acceptance at the cooperating school.
  • There was discussion as to whether or not there will be new procedures to help humanities students and programs grow
• Deadline for housing in spring 11/1
  • Currently 33% of our students live on campus 66%Pre-COVID it was about 50-50.  We would like to get back to that.
  • We discussed the viability of increasing commuters and not increase the on-campus population, as that may be more cost effective.

EMeeting ended at 11:58

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