FAEC Minutes 10/23/19

Faculty Assembly Executive Council [FAEC] Meeting Minutes

Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2019  | Location: A 226  | Time: 10:30 am to 12:00 pm

Attendees: Kathryn Zeno, Tae Kwak, Donna Flynn, Christina Connor, Hugh Sheehy, Roark Atkinson, Eva Ogens

Secretary: Nakia Matthias

1. FAEC Minutes Approved 

2. RCNJ’s Career Development and Faculty Scholarship

RCNJ employs career development rather than a post-tenure review process. If the provost envisions a post-tenure review process at the College he can only do that if he negotiates that with AFT. The language on the existing process can be found in the Career Development section of the faculty handbook.  The Career Development procedure is on hold when faculty are working without a contract.

According to the provost scholarship at RCNJ is defined broadly and the terms are vague.   This may be because the provost is applying his own conception of scholarship in the promotion and tenure (P&T) process. Even if each unit devised distinct criteria, this still would not make scholarship across units comparable.  Any criteria that aims to classify scholarship must be performed by committee in conjunction with the AFT and cannot be conducted in isolation. Additionally, there needs to be a re-negotiation of the faculty handbook and a revision of the promotion and tenure criteria within it.   

3. Presidential Search Committee

Susan Vallario informed FAEC that she will respond to the letter that it sent on behalf of FA regarding a request for additional faculty representation on the presidential search committee by the end of the current week. Vallario would like receive the names of the candidates within this same timeframe and will further discuss the process with the FAEC President. Vallario copied the board, and Hillary Goldstein with this communication.  The names of the candidates forwarded to the BoT will not be published in the FA agenda.  

Four schools have volunteered to send a representative to serve on the presidential search committee thus far.  FAEC plans to select the faculty members in keeping with the required number requested for the nomination. A total of three names will be forwarded.

The FAEC believes that the nomination form featured on the presidential search web page should not include questions that serve to vet any potential candidates and that the vetting procedure for nomination should be the purview of the FA.

4. Three Plus One Program Prospects

Concerns about the prospect of Three Plus One [TPO] Programs are evident among the faculty.  FAEC views attempts to tap individual units or convening groups for TPO’s as an inappropriate and problematic way forward. Furthermore, the question remains as to whether there is demonstrated interest in TPO programs from students enrolled in Two Year degree programs. The faculty requires input about this to act constructively toward developing potential TPO programs.  Students would need to apply at the end of this academic year to be eligible for aid for RCNJ attendance and inclusion in a TPO program.

The provost is proposing that students in TPO’s do not have to make-up for credit mis-matches at RCNJ based on the 3 credit granting structure at their two-year institutions.  Any plan to change a three credit course to a four credit course must go through the ARC approval process. TPO programs must undergo the ARC review process and the FAEC is prepared to request that any program that moves forward without adequate review be denied by ARC. Shared governance must be at the heart of any process for creating prospective TPO programs. 

Some faculty view the attempt to expedite TPO’s as part of a process to install numerical rather than real diversity at RCNJ. The administration continues to cite the absence of a transportation hub as a reason for the lack of diversity at RCNJ.  However, the push toward TPO’s is in part seen as an attempt to rectify this and ensure that “diversity numbers” are achieved as a means to secure diversity related funding from the New Jersey Governor’s office. The New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education’s outcomes based funding approach prioritizes degree completion and programmatic service to minority students, thus any potential funding from the governor’s office would not simply be tied to enrollment but also minority students’ graduation rates.   In discussions about prospective students’ successful completion of TPO programs a point must be made to ensure that such discussions are void of assumptions that minority students will fail to succeed simply because they would be emplaced in a new academic environment. This is an artificial construct because if white and black students do not succeed at RCNJ or successfully complete at the same rate it will appear that the service and support given to minority students is disproportionate.

Meeting Adjourned at 12:10 pm

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2019, RAMAPO FAEC, Uncategorized