FAEC Minutes, July 17, 2020

FAEC 7/16/2020 DRAFT

Attendance: Roark Atkinson (HGS), Naseem Choudhury (President), Kim Lorber (Secretary), Lisa Lutter (CA), Thierry Rakotbe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ashwani Vasishth (Councilor-at-Large over 11)

Guests: na

Minutes approved for 7/1/2020 meeting.

President’s Memo (7/15/2020) outlined many details about the fall semester.

Questions: Who is responsible for cleaning classrooms between classes? How will shared adjunct offices be cleaned? Details about the instructional process are needed. How will office hours work as distancing from a second person needs to be sorted out among other issues? Most can work with students via Webex.

Return to Campus: Will all faculty who choose to teach remotely be allowed? Per Provost Gaulden’s email(s), she will approve all requests.

Student Surveys: The majority of students prefer F2F classes.

Discussion re: which courses will be virtual: Some courses like senior seminars might be harder to deliver at the same quality level if they are not in face to face meetings.

Who will live on campus: International students, possibly first year students, housing insecure, and others. See restart document

Discussion regarding “Compliance” and enforcement: What are the repercussions regarding compliance, or lack of, in the email and restart document? What if faculty or students do not do what they are expecting them to. Students already take a pledge regarding behaviors on campus. Who will enforce these? F2F faculty will need specific guidance regarding compliance. What training will be provided? For COVID19? Who cleans the classrooms? We should not be required to police.

Punitive approaches should be reframed; how do we practically lead?

We need a community buy-in contract to be for compliance regarding masks.

Discussion re: “What is Face to Face”: What are the different models?  Not whole class, split classroom, small group F2F. It is more hybrid than the traditional F2F model we usually do. Can we pivot if we feel psychologically or health wise it is not working; can you tell the class you will be remote henceforth? Selecting F2F means knowing all of these things. Should FA make a statement to support faculty teaching F2F?

Faculty Assembly Meeting: FAEC reps should ask conveners to survey members for questions to be pre-sorted by FAEC to avoid repetition by Monday deadline using a Google doc.

Different College Models in NJ: TCNJ, Montclair, Stockton are proposing plans for stage 3 (see their restart docs) and make clear that they anticipate that the state will be in stage 3 at the beginning of the Fall semester. Most colleges are asking for commitments so the College can prepare dorms, classroom assignments, etc.

Faculty in different schools (units) have varying degrees of information: ASB will be off campus for stage 2 and 3; other deans have not made this directive or given as much information. Naseem will ask the Provost for more information about what is happening in each school and to ask the deans to convey information to faculty with more frequency. We need consistency across the college.

Performance courses meeting F2F need guidelines and resources. How does one sing in a chorale with a shield? Naseem will share a contact from K-12 with Lisa.

Return to campus provisions: It seems we will receive a PPE packet which will be given to each person upon return. These will include a washable mask, which will not be appropriate in labs or performance courses.  We would need microphones to use in classes with proper PPE. We do not expect to have these situations arise because we will be mostly remote.

Convening groups should have their needs addressed: masks for musicians, field work; the answer has been “figure it out yourself”. Resources should have been recommended for certain disciplines.

Personnel issues, timelines, and submission times are important to address with Provost Gaulden so electronic methods, etc. can be sent to everyone. Example: The sabbatical application process should be announced and electronic.

Library Construction: It is possible the shell of the building will be prepared and construction stopped because we do not have the money. When will the library be completed? Our library is now in a dorm. FA can make some of these issues public even if the BoT made no mention at the last meeting.

Please see the changes proposed by Provost Council’s Academic Council page and encourage the faculty to look at it. There are transfer, credit and other issues to be addressed.

Read Peter’s reopening email. The link was in the 7/15/2020 email.

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC