FAEC Meeting Minutes, May 5, 2021

FAEC MINUTES (draft)
5/5/21

 Present: Naseem Choudhury (President, SSHS), Bonnie Blake (Councilor-at-Large over 11, CA), Katie Cohen (Library), Donna Flynn (Councilor-at-Large under 11, TAS), Scott Frees (Vice President, TAS), Kim Lorber (Secretary), Lisa Lutter, (CA), Thierry Rakotbe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ed Shannon (HGS)

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:01am.

Minutes Approval: The 4/28/21 minutes will be approved next week. 

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

FAEC DISCUSSION

Meeting with Provost: Naseem and Scott met with Provost Gaulden and shared concerns about switching course delivery models and other elements in need of clarification.

Meeting with President: Naseem and Scott met briefly with President Mercer. The Cabinet is discussing vaccinations; details were not shared.

Anonymous Letter:  FAEC did not know about the letter received by the BoT, administrators and some others. It is not representative of Faculty Assembly. A brief response clarifying this will be sent by FAEC.

Program Marketing: Can the College do more to promote the successes of faculty regarding grants received? Publications? Other special programs at the College?

Program Websites: We need to improve ours due to the absence of information included by other colleges and universities in theirs. Students’ success stories, videos, etc. would be beneficial in presenting dynamic majors. Conveners are doing their best but they are untrained.

May 25, 2021 @ 2 pm: Meeting With Dr. Jebb: FAEC will meet with Dr. Jebb for an hour. Topics to be addressed will come from the FA survey and will include governance, shared governance, and a brief discussion. We will summarize our goals in the last minutes of the meeting. In addition, faculty and student scholarship and successes will be invited from the faculty to share with our new President so she can see ours is a community of scholars. 

Committees: The BoT has strongly recommended having students on the hiring committees. It is possible the BoT does not understand why the faculty resists this suggestion. The search committees include members who do not share the candidates’ expertise, limiting the identification of the most qualified by the experts with whom they will work. Should students have knowledge of committee deliberations? They might study with the hired individual in the future. Students can attend candidates’ lectures and talks and complete feedback forms versus being on the confidential search committees..

Convening Groups: Is there a limit to the number of convening groups in which a faculty member can be a member? Nothing has yet been documented. I  thought some one (Mia?) found some kind of documentation.,

Diversity Council: It is not yet clear how FA wll interface with the EDIC council

Hiring committees: Are all approved by Nicole. Joanne Ehlermann is the new Talent Acquisition and Onboarding Coordinator.

 FA Leadership Survey: This will go out this week.

 Diversity Workshops: There will be one in May and another in September. These are mandatory.

 Students in Remote/In-Person Courses in Fall 2021: Where can students go for remote classes while on campus for in-person courses? How many students will this impact? Will headphones be provided? If 50% of students will be at least partially in-person, divided by T/F and M/R, where will all of them meet and be able to participate in their remote courses?

Meeting adjourned at 12:07pm.

Categories: FAEC meeting Minutes 2021, RAMAPO FAEC