FAEC MINUTES 02/05/2020

FAEC Minutes 2/05/2020

Faculty Assembly Executive Council [FAEC] Meeting Minutes

Date: Wednesday, Feb  05, 2020 | Location: B226  | Time: 10:30 am to 12:00 pm

Attendees: Tae Kwak, Donna Flynn, Kathy Zeno, Christina Connor, Scott Frees, Roarke, Naseem Choudhury, Ashwani Vashihth (Interim SSHS Representative), Pinar Kayaalp (interim HGS Representative), 

Secretary: Nakia Matthias

Guests:  President Mercer, Provost Becker, Virginia Galdieri

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FAEC Minutes Approved

1.  Tenure and Promotion Assessment Procedures

By practice and precedent tenure and promotion [T&P] is not arbitrarily rejected and faculty  recommendations are normally followed. At some institutions the provost can exercise arbitrary decisions in tenure recommendation and approval but this has not been the case at RCNJ.

Candidates cannot be assessed on criteria that they were not aware of at the outset.  The process needs to include an internal rater and requires clarification of who should establish criteria for tenure and promotion T&P, as well as how they are implemented. The overdue revision of the process is essential for  future T&P considerations.

2. Faculty Handbook Revision Taskforce 

The Charge drafted by FAEC will indicate the following for the revision of the faculty handbook:

It is important for revisions to identify the roles of the convening group, unit, and concentration for each school. Furthermore, deans should be informed that the process is bottom up.  The unit should be responsible for determining these criteria. Also, convening groups are deemed most fit to wage evaluations of candidates’ scholarship and what it must constitute.  There should be six representatives from the faculty assembly, one from the library, one from EDIC, and at least one from Dean’s Council.  Committee members should not be appointed by Deans.

Some concerns raised relative to the criteria for consideration of T&P include: The assessment of faculty of color, service commitments at the all-college level, 

The FAEC will recommend that a representative committee secure a consultant from Stockton to form this committee and Perhaps the AFT president from Stockton can be involved.

If FAEC expects gatekeeping or advocacy this should be specified although the words “gatekeeper” and “advocate” should not be used if a fair process is sought.   

3. 3+1 PCCC Visit last Thursday

Faculty and administrators met from the Psychology, Liberal Studies, and  Social Science contract majors. The plans developed from these contract majors were presented.

A few issues require clarification including, which institutions maintain curricular oversight for the  3rd and 4th years, namely which institution is in charge of the 4th year.  

John Yao will need to clarify issues related to the following:

The RCNJ four year plans are constructed to grant 4 credits.  The Center for Students Success should not be manipulating the curriculum to allow for 4 credit courses to be taught as 3 credit courses. 

Why a couple of classes were added by PCCC, which differed from the original plan.  This was something that was done by advisors. The courses were not recommended by RCNJ faculty.

There is a problem with 4 credit RCNJ courses being taught as 3 credit courses at PCCC. The ARC committees at PCCC pushed the courses through as 3 credit courses.

RCNJ faculty syllabi could be used by PCCC faculty to teach the exact course or a version of it at the PCCC campus. 

It is unclear as to which campus some of the classes will be conducted.

PCCC students are not allowed to take summer or winter classes for the 3rd year since this is not built into their financial aid award structure.  Due to a recent law at the state level students will be granted 4 credits for free in 3+1 programs. [[[Can we add a link to the relevant law?]]] Students carrying 60 credits would automatically receive 4 free credits from RCNJ.  Clarification is warranted for how students will earn the required credits given the fact that summer/winter courses would not be covered by financial aid.  

The psychology program RCNJ would not be able to conduct courses at PCCC due to the fact that there are no faculty at PCCC that can do this.  There is also no supervision or lab facilities. supervise labs. RCNJ faculty would expect the students to come to RCNJ in the 4th year for this program.

FAEC maintains that any course that is an RCNJ course that will be taught at PCC, it needs to be cleared by RCNJ, needs to be assessed by RCNJ and needs to be a 4 credit course.  If it is not the case then this is not a RCNJ course.

4. President Mercer

A copy of the 3+1 exclusivity agreement and MOU between Passaic County Community College and RCNJ will be provided to FAEC.

5. Provost Becker – TPO with Passaic [PCC]

There are opportunities for shuttling students to RCNJ’s campus during the 4th year of 3+1’s.  At present there is no way 3+1 students to enroll in summer courses at RCNJ since financial aid resources will not be available to them.  

Variations of the financial model for 3+1’s demonstrated that students would need 38 credits in the plus one year and if this has changed then this needs to be clarified since summer credits will not be allowed.

Provost Becker asserted that it is an assumption that the Passaic model may not work for other community colleges and RCNJ for potential 3+1’s.  

If students transfer with 60 credits/ and AA degree state law stipulates that 64 credits must be earned upon transfer and 4 credits are given for free.  

Revenue will be generated for students taking 38 credits but that revenue would be less if we are granting 4 free credits.  It would be one summer or winter term less for revenue.

Meeting Adjourned

Categories: FACULTY ASSEMBLY MINUTES, FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC