Faculty Assembly Minutes

September 6 2017 Pavilion 1 pm

Faculty Assembly President: Tae Kwak

Secretary: Hugh Sheehy

1)    Tae Kwak called meeting to order 1:05 PM

2)    Update to item described in 8/29/2017 email to all faculty: Luminis termination issue. Luminis will remain available through Fall 2017 and possibly Spring 2018 to create opportunity for faculty to move to Moodle.

3)   Update to item described  in 8/29/2017 email to all faculty: Final exam schedule problems: FAEC is working to solve issues for Spring 2018 (the Fall 2017 exam schedule is locked in). Proposal available to read on the FA Homepage; Suggestions are welcome.

4)    President Mercer’s Address:

1.   Sexual assault on campus. Victim not pursuing charges but this remains a challenge for the College.
2.    In coming weeks, expect discussions and description s of a College Senate. Two points to remember:
3.     Create a body that balances authority of Board of Trustees
4.     Body would deal primarily or even exclusively with academic matters and policy, requiring majority of body to be made up of faculty members
5.    President’s DACA announcement: Mercer is concerned about this and working with President of SGA as well as other college presidents on statements, both for College locally and at state level.

5)    Provost Barnett’s Address:

1.   Provost’s Faculty Service Award: award for faculty service. Dean’s Council has established a program for distributing this, and Provost made first selection of awardee: Donna Gibson.
2.    Provost Barnett announced AY 2017-2018 will be her last year. Expressed gratitude and gratification for collaboration with faculty and optimism for College’s ongoing growth.

6)    Ken McMurdy:

1.   Task Force on Shared Governance: read statement of charge. Vision to fulfill charge with statement to be brought to stakeholder groups. Content almost completed, looking forward to revision, hope to begin rolling out changes within AY, if not semester.

7)    Michael Bitz, Chair of Task Force for Online Learning:

2017.   Introduced task force. Convened in Spring 2017 with report due in October 2017. The task force has expanded the scope of its concern to include hybrid courses, which were not part of original charge. Presented methods of data collection which included interviews with deans and conveners, a faculty survey, course audits and analysis, research on best practices, and an investigation of national and statewide trends. Hopes to return to FA in November with recommendations. A faculty member requested a means of adding new input; Bitz stated that he welcomes emails to that effect.

8)    George Tabback: Has been trying to remove Luminis for almost a decade; the software has been neglected by its owner and will soon be abandoned. ITS will run Luminis for 6-12 more months; beyond that, maintaining the software will be impossible. Promises easy transition to other services. A faculty member requested whether information repositories on L will be available and creatable on other platforms; GT indicated they will and that concerned faculty should contact ITS for assistance in migration to a new platform. Stated ITS open to suggestions of new platforms or services.

9)    New Gen Ed Program: ARC has approved 83 courses for Keystone categories and 55 for Distribution Categories (Total Number:138) for AY 2018-2019. A faculty member asked whether there is a target number of courses for Distribution Categories; there is no target. A faculty member asked who might be contacted about whether a course has gotten in; the answer is that faculty whose submissions have been problematic have been contacted. All others should expect to hear from the Registrar before Fall 2018.

10) Endorsement of New GECCo Members

1.   Schools ASB and CA are underrepresented on GECCo. Tae Kwak requested that CA elect a GECCo representative by end of Unit Council meetings today.
2.    Hand vote on Iraida Lopez as Global Awareness Coordinator, Yolanda del Amo as Culture and Creativity Coordinator, and Ashwani Vasishth for Systems, Society, and Sustainability Coordinator—all were confirmed.
3.   GECCo will develop a plan for assessing new Gen Ed and the current Gen Ed in advance of AY 2018-2019. GECCo members may reach out and ask other faculty member for assistance in the arduous undertaking.
4.  Tae Kwak pointed out that assessment will be important and have implications for courses that are a part of the new Gen Ed., particularly in creating a mechanism to remove courses from GE categories

11) Tae Kwak reminded faculty that 4 credit courses must be taught 200 minutes per week and that 3-day and 1-day courses have extra time scheduled into them; faculty are free to use that time for teaching or for breaks.

12) Tae Kwak reminded assembly that this is his last year as FAEC president and urged eligible faculty to consider running this year. Hopes to restore reserved parking space in the Circle for elected individual.

13) Peter Heinz, SSHS, made an argument against the suppression of free speech on campus: “Limiting free speech is anti-intellectual.”

1.   Articulated belief in hearing out opposing points of view; stated interest in insuring no free speech suppressed here. Presented various documentations of recent examples of suppressed free speech. Presented arguments from a magazine editorial and also testaments from students underscoring the benefits of exposure to different points of view.
2. Proposals to protect free speech on campus:
3.                 ensure invited speakers will not be prevented from presenting
4.                 consider instating rules for student behavior at potentially controversial events
5.                 pedagogy ensuring students will not be penalized for POV
6.                 protect faculty from penalization for POV
7.   Discussion. A faculty member agreed but raised the issue of hate speech as an example of an exception to the kind of speech that ought to be protected. Another faculty member points out that there are legal limits on free speech. A faculty member made a distinction between public intellectuals and provocateurs and raised the question of who should be allowed on campus. A faculty member argued that there ought to be a standard for intellectual speech on campus that faculty can determine. A faculty member pointed out that the common political sentiment calling for “balance” on issues is often fallacious: all “sides” do not always have merit. A faculty member reminded the assembled that College policy on this matter must be mission-driven and governed by the statutes and value statements of the state and the institution; also, the College is not alone in facing this issue. A faculty member expressed concern that authoritarian governments tend to aim for professors. A faculty member reminded the assembled that many Civil Rights heroes and progressive figures were considered troublemakers in their times.

14) Schomburg Program will bring Raoul Peck, director of many films, including I Am Not Your Negro, in October. The program has available funds and welcomes suggestions for programs and visitors. Call or email.

15) Meeting adjourned, 2:00.