FA Minutes 12/11/24

Faculty Assembly Meeting Minutes
December 11, 2024
1:30 pm*
Pavilion

Faculty Assembly 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.

Meeting minutes taken by FA Secretary Matthew Jobrack.

Agenda:

Approval of Minutes (11/6/2024)

Reports:

Faculty Assembly President’s Report:

• Encouraged faculty to review Mike Yankovich’s ERP and Capital Projects Update from the November Communications Meeting. (slides)
• Two more Faculty Scholarship Symposia are planned for February 19 and April 2.
• Over 50 people responded to Faculty Handbook revision survey. Committee is working to address concerns.
• Academic Freedom Policy is open for public comment until December 20.
• Proposed FA Bylaws revisions have been posted and will be voted on at the next meeting. Addressing concerns raised at the last meeting, term limits in place only for the Chairs of GECCo and WAC. Language regarding the appointment of Directors has also been corrected.
• Final report on the first Morale Survey has been completed and reviewed by FAEC. The next Leadership Survey will take place in the spring, and another Morale Survey will take place next fall, establishing a 2-year cycle for both.

College President’s Report:

• Message of gratitude for the Teaching and Learning Core
• BA in Theater and Film has been approved by the State.
• A Ramapo student was the recipient of the prestigious Gilman Scholarship.
• Encouraged faculty to participate in public comment period for the Academic Freedom Policy.
• Over 6000 applications for next academic year, a new record for this point in the recruitment cycle.
• Impending 5% budget cut across the board from the state government
• Message on remaining committed to our values and weathering uncertainty

Provost’s Report:

• Message on working together and standing for our values
• Thank you to members of the Conveners Task Force and Academic Structures Task Force; both have submitted their reports to the Provost for consideration.
• TAS Dean, Director of Study Abroad, and several faculty searches are ongoing.
• Thank you to faculty who have invited the Provost to their classes, and to faculty who serve on all-College committees.
• Congratulations to Sharon Leathers and Kathleen Ray, winners of the Bischoff and Richardson faculty awards.
• Presented list of faculty recipients of Foundation Allocation Grants.
• Inaugural Research and Engagement Academy next semester: 2 coaches and 6 fellows announced

Announcements:

• Sponsored Faculty Research (Michael Middleton, Provost) (slides)
• Morale Survey Report (Malavika Sundararajan, FAEC) (slides)
  Summary of process was shared. Respecting confidentiality, we ask that you please contact FA leadership if you wish to review specific content from the report.
• CAP Implementation (Kaitlin Sidorsky, CAP Implementation Team) (slides)

Presentations/Discussion Items:

• WAC Updates
  Paula Straile-Costa, WAC Chair; Vittoria Rubino
  • WAC website has been updated.
  • WAC members will be reading The Case for Critical Literacy, by Alice Horning, next semester.
  • Planning a Write-In event for faculty in April
  • Requested that we add additional writing topics question(s) to the NSSE; have received approval from Mike Unger
  • Two WAC members have received funding to attend the Conference on Reading and Writing.
  • WAC is working with IDC to create a Canvas page that will house resources for faculty on writing pedagogy, best practices, discipline specific assignments and other materials. Please share any materials you find useful with your unit rep.
• General Education Program Revision
  Ken McMurdy, FA President
  Proposed charge to GECCo was shared and discussed, prior to the vote. (See results below.)

Voting Items:

• GE Revision – Charge to GECCo (see above)
  Motion was approved by a vote of 51 approve, 10 do not approve, and 14 abstain.
• FA Bylaws Revision – ARC, GECCo and WAC
  Final Proposal shared at this meeting, to be voted on at the next FA meeting, per the existing bylaws revision process.

Elections:

• GECCo: Scientific Reasoning Category Coordinator
  Carrie Miller was elected.
• HSI Exploratory Task Force: FA Representatives (3)
  Cristina Perez, Dolly Sacristan and Inderani Walia were elected.

Meeting adjourned at 2:45 pm.

*For this meeting, the formal FA program was preceded by a Faculty Forum from 1:00-1:25 pm to discuss concerns around academic freedom. Attendance at Faculty Forum is limited to FA voting members.

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