FA Meeting July 22, 2020

Faculty Assembly Minutes
7/22/2020

Location: Online
Link:https://ramapo.webex.com/ramapo/lsr.php?RCID=1876dbe847664b8780edce28d98d01e9)

Begin: 1:00
Adjourned: 2:30pm

Presenters: Roark Atkinson (HGS), Naseem Choudhury (President), Christina Connor (Library), Donna Flynn (Councilor-at-Large under 11) Scott Frees (TAS), Lisa Lutter (CA), Thierry Rakotbe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ashwani Vasishth (Councilor-at-Large over 11)

Secretary: Kim Lorber

Faculty Assembly Minutes for April 28^th, 2020: These will be approved on September 9th.

Opening Remarks: This an “off calendar meeting” and while most faculty are off-contract we are pleased that a significant number chose to join (attendance: 180)

FAEC Reps and Secretary have been meeting every other week all summer. Again, our thanks to them as this is above and beyond for FAEC. Members are off during the summer on a typical year.

PROVOST’S REPORT (Susan Gaulden):

Black Lives Matter: Academic Affairs posted RCNJ’s Black Lives Matter statements from each school have been posted on this web page. There will be many Berry Center events relevant to this. Baltimore, a play about this on a college campus, will be offered remotely or performed in person. Dean Peter Campbell said to send questions to him about the BLM programming.

Outreach to New Students: 2 credit courses were developed for the summer to introduce students to the college through Ramapo Virtual. These courses are being offered in summer 2 as 1-hour seminars and are free to all students.

Reopening Concerns:

            NJ Pandemic Stages 2 and 3: In stage 2, we are only able to offer labs, clinical rotations, etc. If we are at stage 3 we are not restricted about classes but reduced occupancy will determine this. These percentages have not been determined by the state yet. It could be determined by the state or left to each institution to determine on its own.

Governor’s Extension of Executive order 103, July 2^nd: Extended the decision to August 3^rd. If the state has not moved to stage 3 by August 3^rd, Ramapo will stick with stage 2 planning. We have 182 sections of labs, studios (mostly hands on and nursing clinical rotations). Based on the census faculty has responded to 87 of faculty assigned to teach these classes planned to have some F2F meetings. F2F this fall is not required twice weekly. Provost Gaulden suggested having students come in for the entire month of September, meet with them and then transition the class to virtual delivery. Maybe once a week, a half hour, or half the class on alternating weeks or some other classes opportunities to meet everyone before going fully remote is a possibility. If anyone else is planning to teach online, let her provost@ramapo.edu) and Diane Couzens (dcouzens@ramapo.edu) know so they can update the Census. People would be happy to meet outdoors. Can you come to campus to teach some of your sections as planned? Many students have been calling admissions about deferring for a year. If we can give some sessions in person, it may make an enrollment difference. If the Governor moves us to Stage 3 before our August 3 deadline, we will have more F2F classes by faculty who said they would at this stage. If the Governor’s decision to move to Stage 3 comes after 8/3, we will stick with current 8/3 plan.

Campus Protocol: Everyone will have to self-access every day for being safely on campus.  Adequate masks will be given but not N95 as only COVID19 hospital units are utilizing these; surgeons are not.

No testing to return to campus: You would only address testing if someone had symptoms.

            Adjuncts Offices: Space will be found including any labs and other empty spaces.

            Faculty Office Hours: These should all be held remotely unless you decide to have a socially distanced walk and talk.

Banner: We are moving to Stage 2. If the Governor moves to Stage 3, we will have more work to do. It seems unlikely we will move to Stage 3 before August 3.

Dates: Registration deadlines, etc. will be made as flexible as possible for students.

            Pass/Fail Grading: No P/F for the Fall; we return to the normal model. IF another crisis arises the model may change for the few classes that may be forced to go remote. This decision will be made as/if needed.

            Respondus/online proctoring: These do not work on tablets and require hard to acquire webcams even when money is available.

Webcams: Many students for numerous reasons may be uncomfortable with being seen on camera.

            Winter/Spring Reopening Decision: We will have to wait until approximately a month before each term.

            Thanksgiving Decisions: Faculty teaching F2F can give in person exams ensuring they have informed the classes of the format change.

            Remote Teaching Unit Experts: There will be one for each unit. These are: Nikhil Varma, Ruma Sen, Paramjeet Bagga, Jackie Braun and Karl Johnson (5 total) who will be unit remote teaching mentors for the Fall. They will connect questions from faculty with IT people who can help.

FRC/IDC Training: Will hopefully continue as these were excellent trainings including the 2-day event in the spring.

Concerns regarding requirements to be present on campus during the fall: Faculty will not be pressured to be on campus. For our surveys 50% of our students do not like online classes. Likely F2F courses: labs, nursing clinical rotations, hands on instructions, and trainings like welding in the community colleges.

Non-compliance with COVID prevention guidelines: The pandemic assessment team has a clear Code of Conduct for violations and HR is developing consequences for employees who are not in compliance. Videos will be provided explaining how to be compliant. This is in draft form but training will be rolled out in early August. Expectations in are in the Restart Plan.

Report of a Concern Website: Some committee members will monitor this and the well-being of others will be addressed. Reactions to first time offenses will inform penalty.

HVAC: There will be more fresh air from the outside; this is a CDC guideline and we will be in compliance.

Phase 3 Occupancy Library: Library patrons will work with appointments which is necessary for contact tracing. Phase 2 will allow curb side pick-up only; this is in process and being developed. THE LIBRARY BOOK DROP HAS BEEN RELOCATED AND IS NOW IN FRONT OF DUNKIN’ DONUTS.

            Computer labs: Those who need these for lack of their own technology and/or need guidance would have priority.

            International Students: They will be a priority for housing and there will be no issues if we pivot. Will there be work study options as others have documentation to work off campus? If they have no other place to live in the US, they will be given priority. Budget cuts will likely reduce the number of student jobs.

Personnel Issues

Faculty Handbook: This is a priority and is on hold due to furloughs, employee leaves, and the pandemic planning priority.

Sabbatical Deadlines and the Submission Process: Five promotion binders from 2019-202 have not been looked at and everything is being scanned.

The Sabbatical submissions will likely be made online. Time will be posted by ER for all other personnel decisions.

 

PRESIDENT’S REPORT (Peter Mercer)

Higher Education: Peter has noted 3 waves in his career. Higher education was important and

should be funded. The second iteration (the envelope phasing stage): Each year the institution would get increased funding to do what it needs with the enveloped funding. Now we are in the 3^rd stage: Public higher education is valuable but funding is not equitable; we have 4 research universities in New Jersey. We are trying to identify the real criteria for the government’s dispersal of funds, which has become more complicated. There are a variety of possible revenue streams and grant funding will be tightened. Base appropriations will be reduced from what colleges are used to. In 2005 about 45% of the operating budget was from the government. This second half of the academic year is about 1/6 of what we were promised. They cut in half what is promised now and removed entirely the next round of funding. We do not know what will come back. The governor signed a $9.9 billion loan agreement. It has been difficult to think of what the college should look like.

We should not lose our roots as a liberal arts college; there is a real need for this. We have to be entrepreneurial: the 3/1 program has 70 students for the fall and is expected to expand. No dire prediction for the College beyond a few difficult years. We will work closely as a faculty, administration and BoT.

Budget Meeting Update: This morning’s presentation by the VP for Administration and Finance (Kirsten DaSilva) gave a many slide presentation. There are still so many variables like enrollment, number of students in the dorms, students deferring, etc. We have no way of knowing. President Mercer’s goal is we will have about 1,000 students in residence. Debt was reviewed and has been well controlled. We have to raise money for the Learning Commons; he is optimistic we will raise those funds. Kirsten said we do not know the COVID19 phase and projections are therefore difficult.

FA PRESIDENT (Naseem Choudhury)
FAEC has been engaged all summer and working with administration to ensure a smooth transition to the Fall and next AY. We will send chat questions that cannot be addressed in the remaining time. Restart Plan: It would be beneficial for all faculty to read this in detail.

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERSHIP (please see document from Provost Gaulden).

 

CDO’s RERPORT (Nicole Morgan Agard)

Forum in June: was well attended with approximately 178 faculty members. Another will be offered to faculty and students in the fall. The student forum was co-hosted with the Office of Counseling Services. In particular, black students are very anxious, concerned about what the campus will be like in the fall.

Everfi: This is an outside consulting firm to administer online diversity, equity and inclusivity courses/modules for all first year and transfer students prior to the start of the year. If students cannot/do not, there will be a registration hold placed.

Diversity Strategic Plan: Late August/early September stakeholders are being identified for the Diversity Strategic Plan.

Title IX Changes: The office is working on the changed mandates for Title IX, which must be completed by mid-August. All officers have to attend weekly trainings and the new process will include a hearing panel.

Racist Incidents in May: Nicole will send out information regarding the completed investigation. This is now with Student Affairs. When it is concluded, she will update the campus.

OER Resources presentation by Hillary Westgate (Reference Outreach Librarian)

            A reminder and the Library subscription guide will be distributed to give all of the contact information for the fall. Librarians work during the summer and can help. They are also looking to create a forum/database of information of information faculty finds to be useful.

link to the recording of FA meeting 07/22/2020
https://ramapo.webex.com/ramapo/lsr.php?RCID=1876dbe847664b8780edce28d98d01e9

Password: ZxDT9nxE

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: FA RCNJ Minutes 2020, FACULTY ASSEMBLY MINUTES, Faculty Assembly Minutes 2020, RCNJ Faculty Assembly Minutes 2019