Faculty Assembly Executive Council | Minutes | 10/17/18

Faculty Assembly Executive Council [FAEC] Meeting Minutes

Date: Wednesday, October 17, 2018  | Location: A218  | Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Attendees: Tae Kwak, Donna Flynn, Sam Mustafa, Christina Connor, Cristina Perez

Secretary: Nakia Matthias

______________________________________________________________________

1. FAEC Minutes approved

2. The Lack of Diversity at RCNJ

The current formulation of the Strategic Plan excludes diversity as a goal.  FAEC continues to discuss the need for a diversity plan at RCNJ. A public request for a diversity plan was communicated during the State of the College address on October 10, 2018.  During the RCNJ Cabinet’s meeting with. Zakiya Smith Ellis, New Jersey’s Secretary of Higher Education the President’s Cabinet did not mention the need for appointing  diverse trustees for the Board of Trustees to ensure that it bears a more demographically diverse composition.

During the address students expressed a genuine concern for the lack of diversity at RCNJ, as well as a need to ensure diversity at the college. Additionally students’ concerns regarding their treatment and the lack of diversity at RCNJ are going unheard and being dismissed.

Diversity objectives should comprise two broad features:

• Improving RCNJ’s enrollment of minority students
• Recruiting staff, faculty, administrators and a Board of Trustees that are more representative of the diversity of the population of New Jersey State

FAEC maintains that it is important for RCNJ to create an environment that fosters retention and satisfaction among minority students, faculty, and staff.

3. Reporting Bias and Discrimination at RCNJ

Nicole Morgan Agard informed the FAEC that a bias and discrimination reporting structure is in place for the Ramapo Community.  

Discrimination and Harassment Reporting Policies & Procedures, as well as complaint processing forms for discrimination can be found on the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Compliance Office web pages: https://www.ramapo.edu/affirmaction/complaint-processing-forms/

To report bias and discrimination students can access a link via the RCNJ’s student web pages.

However, a web link for bias and discrimination reporting does not exist on the faculty and staff web pages. The reporting structure requires faculty, staff, and administrators to relay bias and discrimination complaints to the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer.  Additionally, faculty can report incidents to their Dean.

Nicole Morgan Agard researched bias and discrimination reporting processes at Stockton University and is currently working to form a committee to address bias and discrimination at RCNJ.

Although a reporting pathway exists it is unclear and lacks visibility among faculty.

There is a need to increase the visibility of the reporting structure for bias and discrimination grievances.

RCNJ currently follows the New Jersey State Policy Prohibiting Discrimination in the Workplace:  https://www.nj.gov/treasury/purchase/pdf/anti_discrimination_policy.pdf

There is no legal definition of “bias” at the College.  The Provost, Chief Diversity Officer, and FAEC agreed that we need one in order to make reporting meaningful.

4. Sensitivity Training

FAEC supports sensitivity training for administrative staff and faculty. A request for sensitivity training will be submitted to Nicole Morgan Agard by FA President.

5. Sexual Harassment Training at RCNJ

Nicole Morgan Agard’s office will conduct sexual harassment training that elaborates on  instances of sexual harassment beyond the definitions outlined in Title IX of the Education Amendments Act.  This training will be announced through the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Compliance.

6, Shared Governance at RCNJ

FAEC discussed the need to address shared governance with the Provost.  

7. RCNJ Board of Trustees [BoT]

New Jersey is unique in the country whereby the governor has exclusive authority over influencing the appointment of the Board of Trustees [BoT] at Public Colleges and Universities.

FAEC suggest that President Mercer address the need for a diversity in the appointment of new trustees directly with the Governor’s office.

At RCNJ two trustees’ terms have expired and four of the members’ terms will expire at the end of the year.  In total six 6 new trustees need to be appointed to the RCNJ BoT. 

Brittany Williams-Goldstein, liaison to the President’s Cabinet and the Board of Trustees, mentioned that she is aware of a black female alumna that has expressed interest in becoming an RCNJ trustee.

8. RCNJ Course Evaluations

Provost Becker plans to move to all online course evaluations as early as Spring 2019.  The precondition is that response rates be increased to statistically significant yield (83%).

Part of this plan requires that course evaluations be digitized and uploaded to Banner 9 so that students may have access to the course evaluations that they complete while enrolled at RCNJ. This is a concern to FAEC as the demonstrated response rate for a majority of RCNJ programs is low. Ensuring the response rate for electronic evaluations is the responsibility of the Provost’s office and is an administrative goal.

AFT may need to be consulted regarding this matter.

9. RCNJ’s General Education Program

GECCo Chair, Sarah Carbury organized for a speaker to visit RCNJ to address general education and assessment. The speaker, Claire Major, will provide two sessions: the first is on assessment overall; the second is specifically geared toward assessment in General Education. The sessions will run from 11:15-1:45 on November 7. Contact Sarah for the start and end time of each session if you only wish to attend one.

Provost Becker mentioned that the data on this semester’s new general education requirements will be available by the end of the semester. He suggested that RCNJ avoids a “messy” general education requirement such as the one that was recently replaced.   He indicated that the enrollment requirements for general education courses is purely administrative and that goal is to simply offer the right number of courses as needed based on the purpose that they serve and demand.

Provost Becker asserted that the general education requirement allows many courses to run within program that do not have that many majors and special consideration must be made for such programs as they may be under threat if there is no interest in certain courses.

10. Middle States Report

Provost Becker suggested that faculty address RCNJ’s performance in middle states assessment by ensuring that the college implements the recommendations within the previous Middle States report.  

This especially relates to the language used to characterize RCNJ’s global awareness category within the general education requirements which specifies that more than fifty percent of RCNJ students have a “meaningful international experience”.  https://www.ramapo.edu/international/itzn/mie/

Becker advised that schools look toward the example set by the Nursing Program as its curriculum includes a global capstone project that students are required to complete for graduation.

Meeting adjourned at 12:00 pm

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2018