FAEC Minutes 4/4/2018

Faculty Assembly Executive Council (FAEC) Meeting Minutes

April 4, 2018

ASB 008 Room

10:30am to 12:30am

Attendees:​ Christina Connor, Kathryn Zeno, Tae Kwak, Gladys Torres-Baumgarten, Kim Lorber, Eva Ogens, Renata Gangemi, Stephen Anderson (for Donna Flynn (for Cristina Perez))

Excused: Cristina Perez, Donna Flynn, Roark Atkinson

Secretary:​ Hugh Sheehy

Guest: Martha Ecker

1.     Minutes 3/28 approved
2.     Faculty Assembly Agenda: The provost continues to offer incentives for faculty members who are willing to teach online; Michael Bitz will discuss security concerns related to the expansion of online learning. Committee members expressed similar concerns related to the adoption of online course evaluations. There was some discussion of how the evaluation instrument might be improved; there was some discussion of how evaluations are used in the material submitted by faculty members for promotion decisions. There was some discussion of the value and reliability of evaluations: a committee member suggested they are valuable for making promotions decisions, while other committee members suggested that evaluations can be corrupted by disengaged or vindictive students, and another argued that it is impossible to measure phenomena such as sexist and racist bias in evaluations data.

It remains unclear whether we will hold a Faculty Forum on 4/25 as scheduled.

The Administration has scheduled a number of meetings involving the Faculty that interfere with scheduled faculty meetings.

        Ben Fine will give a talk about student athletes at the end of FA.

        There will be a discussion of whether the College should pay for OER.

        The College supports a one-semester sabbatical for outgoing FAEC Presidents; FAEC hopes the Faculty will endorse this measure to entice more faculty members to participate in FAEC.

3.     Martha Ecker discussed the New Jersey statute regarding tenure. She discussed the hire of the Vice Provost and the College’s current interest in hiring a new provost. She reminded FAEC that AFT can negotiate procedures but not content of agreements between colleges and state employees. She suggested that faculty concerns about the terms of administrative hires be brought to the floor during Faculty Assembly.
4.     Stephen Anderson described the three new majors proposed by ASB and ARC. He discussed the onerous process of approving courses for the new Gen Ed. He explained that ARC has also had difficulty recruiting members and maintaining continuity from term to term. An FAEC member and Anderson discussed making coordinating points of information in the new GE program on a simple form that might be made available online to students; Anderson said he would discuss it with the GECCo chair. He said he will also look into the mechanism coordinating the old GE with the new one for students who have to work with both.
5.     FAEC will hold a paper ballot vote on whether to update the FAEC Bylaws.
6.     FAEC discussed the candidates for the opening Provost position.
7.     FAEC will be leaving many items on the table for next Fall, and a number of significant meetings are scheduled for the end of the semester. The FA President will be in touch with FAEC members during the summer as needed.
8.     FAEC discussed the progress of the library renovation. Committee members discussed impressions that oversight for the renovation remains difficult to track.
9.     Meeting adjourned 12:30

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