September 30, 2021FAEC Meeting Minutes, Sept 22, 2021

FAEC MINUTES 9/22/21

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

Guests: Virginia Galdieri (Assistant Vice President, Human Resources and Benefits Administration); Janet Faber (Assistant Director, Employee Relations & Faculty Services (AFT) )

 Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:07am.

 Minutes Approval: The 9/8/21 and 9/15/21 meeting minutes were approved. 

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

 Spring 2022 Course Schedule: Provost was asked to reconsider not having the virtual option. Questions were asked about Winter and Summer courses, too. Spring 2022 will be hybrid, online, or in-person. There will be no Webex synchronous or asynchronous courses. There are specific guidelines for online courses; recorded asynchronous lectures cannot be used. Traditional online is without meetings or face-to-face.

 Printer Paper: Refuse collection has been clarified to the faculty via Provost’s email. Printers remain in offices; some units have a budget for printer cartridges, others do not. Paper will be provided.

 Faculty In-Service Next Week: The hybrid meeting will be run by the bylaws and handbook committees/taskforce. This will be for faculty only in ASB 136 and via Webex. The meeting will be at 1:15pm after the noon-1pm State of the College by Dr. Jebb.

 DEI Training 9/15/21: This was discussed.

FAEC DISCUSSION

COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Faculty have concerns about contact tracing when a student in their class tests positive for COVID-19. 

Does the faculty member have an obligation to disclose to the students that someone who attended the class tested positive? We need more clarification on these issues.

HR/ER GUESTS (Virginia Galdieri and Janet Faber)

Faculty Handbook Update: Committee  meetings have resumed.  Handbook revisions will be discussed at the Faculty In-Service. Janet will reach out to Rachel Budin to organize committee updates. There is nothing new to report since the last FAEC presentation. This was not worked on during the summer.

Promotion/Reappointment Software: This would be great instead of Google docs. This was discussed in the past and would be welcome if future submissions will be electronic.

Contact Tracing Concerns: Contact-tracing issues (see above) were brought to the attention of the guests. One consideration is whether students in the class are all masked; another is whether there was “close contact.” This could be difficult to assess and problematic for various reasons. Pandemic Assessment Team will discuss this further and provide clarity.

NEW BUSINESS

Faculty Assembly Meetings in the Spring: The meetings will be in-person or hybrid. We will follow Dr. Jebb’s guidelines. Staff is required to be in-person.

Unit Council: Will be fully face-to-face next semester.

Convening Groups: The meeting mode will be determined by each group.

Elections: ITS liaisons are Bonnie Blake (CA) and Thierry Rakotobe-Joel (ASB). Most FAEC representatives are finishing their terms so elections will be held.

 

Meeting adjourned at 11:58am.

 

 

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, FAEC meeting Minutes 2021, RAMAPO FAEC, Uncategorized

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April 17, 2021FAEC Meeting Minutes, April 7, 2021

FAEC MINUTES 4/7/21

 Present: Naseem Choudhury (President, SSHS), Katie Cohen (Library), Donna Flynn (Councilor-at-Large under 11, TAS), Scott Frees (Vice President, TAS), Kim Lorber (Secretary), Lisa Lutter, (CA), Thierry Rakot0be-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ed Shannon (HGS), Bonnie Blake (Councilor-at-Large over 11, CA)  

Guests: Peter Mercer (President) and Susan Gaulden (Provost),

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:32am.

Minutes Approval: The 3/31/21 minutes were approved. 

 

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Transition Meeting: Naseem participated for a half hour. Survey to be distributed soon.

Communication Meeting: Bonnie attended on behalf of FAEC.

• Changes in the State’s Program Approval Process: There are changes proposed in the state’s program approval process. It may pass in the Legislature this August. We anticipate focus on duplication of programs.The impact on Ramapo is unknown. The state approval process already required us to show new programs are not “unduly expensive, duplicative, or exceeding the institution’s programmatic mission.” This may (or may not) impact the introduction of new majors and has been in the works for a year or longer. 
• Are they marketable? Can institutions collaborate?  This will impact the introduction of new majors and has been in the works for a year or longer. How much interference will there be from larger universities, like Rutgers and Rowan, when new majors will be introduced? ·     
• Student Enrollment is Dropping in NJ: President Mercer and VP Romano highlighted the drop. We have been aware of this and we do not know the future. NJ has long been the greatest exporter of students to other states. NJ state institutions have higher tuition than most state schools. Can a tuition incentive be made to creatively have graduate students live on campus?

 Meeting Calendar: Naseem will work to establish a central calendar, with Brittany A. Williams-Goldstein. A goal is to allow all to attend the Communication Meetings in the future.

 Meeting with Brittany: Naseem has submitted the schedule for FA and FAEC meetings, as well as the Bischoff’s and Thomases Awards and Scholar’s Day to be included in a central calendar. Dr. Jebb has made herself available to come to Ramapo on May 25th or 26th in the afternoon. Perhaps she can come on the earlier date to meet before the start of Summer Session 1.

 Transition Team Survey: There will be 3 surveys : Faculty/Staff, Students/Alumnae, and Friends of Ramapo. The purpose of the survey is to inform the central calendar being developed. The unions will also meet with the new President.

Presidential Advisory Council (PAC):  Still working on the recommendations for shared governance. 

 

PRESIDENT MERCER’S REPORT

Sister Institution Announcements: Some are announcing they  are “returning to normal” in Fall 2021. The President is skeptical.  5 states in the nation have the highest rates; NY and NJ are two of these. We are being more prudent about Ramapo’s plans. The CDC has provided different guidelines in an often confusing fashion. ; We need to know more about who will be eligible for vaccines as new categories of individuals are opened.

 Layoffs: Nothing is being planned or modeled but anything can happen. Peter very heartily believes the prospects of the College will be  challenging over the next 5 years. The State will not be able to continue subsidizing colleges.

PROVOST GAULDEN’S REPORT

Communications Meeting: There were approximately 90 people in attendance. The biggest question comes from staff asking why faculty can decide if they will be remote while staff does not have a choice.

Vaccination Site: Rowan is going to be a site and will take care of the on and off campus community members. While there is interest in Ramapo becoming a vaccination site, the process is opaque and complex. For instance, OSHE long ago received Provost Gaulden’s request to become a testing site. Were the college selected as a vaccination site, Ramapo would  have to build the infrastructure and staffing.  While some colleges are requiring vaccinations of students, faculty, and staff, the Department of Health informed Ramapo  that schools may not require anyone to take a vaccine approved “for emergency use only.” This made Rutgers’ announcement requiring vaccinations questionable. Ramapo awaits clarification from the State before making an announcement. Some schools have building swipe systems, which helps in contact tracing. Can we mandate students to use such an app?

Fall in-person practices: We do not know if CDC recommendations regarding  seat spacing and mask wearing will change.  Any such changes  will affect logistical planning.

“Hope is not a plan!”

Delivery Modes/Residence Halls: Students signing up for in-person courses are more likely to live in the residence halls. If there is a legitimate concern and request, delivery methods can be changed. Decisions would be better made earlier. OSHE’s currently encourages one student per bedroom. Some  institutions exceed this number ; our plans can change, too, if we become more comfortable. We can change the number of in-person students and beds per unit if we decide this is safe. We are operating within recommended practices. 

Sixty-two percent of FYS courses will have at least some on-campus course meetings. Most of our typical classrooms can safely accommodate  6, 12, or 15 students. If you have a large class and smaller classroom, you may need to use multiple groups to cycle through in-person meetings. In a Hyflex classroom, a professor could ask students to choose their preference. Enrollment and delivery methods will determine classroom assignments.  .

 Delivery Methods: OSHE Restart Guidelines require we  accomodate  students requesting  remote learning options. The college has wide latitude in how this is accomplished (for example, moving students from an on campus section of a course to a virtual one rather than demanding the on campus section change).

Students cannot be told there isn’t a remote option. 

In NJ, K-12 is supposedly going to be fully in-person without a virtual  option. OSHE has not updated higher education guidelines since last summer.  FAEC requested clarity on who must  be accommodated. For instance, under what circumstances may a student  who chose an on campus course request a mid-semester change? (For instance, must the student demonstrate a documented medical issue?).  

Substitute Teacher Credit Changes: The State is considering but has not  yet voted on reducing substitute teacher credits from 60 to 30 college credits. 

Graduation: Academic Achievement Ceremony: Wednesday, May 12th will start at 9am; Lisa Lutter will provide  the music. This should end at 11am. At 11:30am the nursing pinning ceremony begins . 2pm Rites of Passage event begins. The College is not ordering regalia; those who own regalia may choose to wear theirs . Graduates will wear regalia and may attend  in person with up to 2 guests (or they may attend virtually). The rain date is May 14th but if it rains for both, we will celebrate virtually. No hugging or shaking hands.

Furloughs:  Current planning suggests that announced retirements, anticipated retirements, and a lower  hiring  rate will forestall more furloughs. Some hiring continues. This fall we hope to include 3 new faculty lines. It will be a while before we have the level of confidence of hiring many tenure track faculty.  No faculty members have lost their jobs including temporary hires. Any imminent loss of temporary lines would have happened regardless of the pandemic. 

 

Meeting adjourned at 11:57am.

 

 

 

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC, Uncategorized

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January 26, 2021FAEC Minute, November 18, 2020

FAEC MINUTES  11/18/2020

 

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

 

Guests: Virginia Galdieri (Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Director of Employee Relations) and Janet Faber (Assistant Director of Employee Relations)

 

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:05am.

 

Minutes Approval: The 11/11/2020 minutes were approved with one abstention. 

  

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

 

Personnel Committees: Naseem and Scott met with the Provost. We need a new schedule with dates and deadlines. The calendar and process for promotion need to be clarified. The official number of promotion slots has not been announced. 

 

Teaching Observations:  How will teaching observations be done? Will there be time for letters to be gathered from on and off campus sources? What are the College guidelines? The BoT is supposed to address these promotions at their January meeting. This affects people’s promotion applications, reappointments, etc.

 

Spring Meeting Calendar: Naseem will redo this as Spring Break has been cancelled. Information is needed from various campus constituencies.

 

Registration/Online Courses: Caps have not been reduced to the online number per the Provost’s direction.

 

Meeting with Rob Doster:  Scott and Bonnie had a discussion about Help Desk response times. The Help Desk had 2/3 of their student support removed. Also, some feel Canvas and some of the other services are not appropriate for students to be able to access.  There are three times the number of help tickets with 1/3 of the support. Use helpdesk.ramapo.edu portal, which can provide more feedback versus emails. Deans are the next step for a very urgent request. Canvas should automatically have students added/dropped per their registration status. If they were dropped and come back a few days later, their prior submissions should still be available.

 

  

FAEC DISCUSSION

 

3/1: Following the Faculty Forum, questions arose about the 3/1 discussion. Mia reported about the follow-up meeting with The Provost. Faculty input is/will be sought. PCCC received a $3 million dollar grant of which $500,000 is for Ramapo. Still withstanding, FAEC seeks clarity on ARC’s involvement.

 

Advisement Challenges: Associate’s degree transcripts seem to not have been updated; it is hard to know which courses have already been completed re: substitutions, etc. U.Achieve has them as sophomores and they are actually second semester juniors, for example.

 

VIRGINIA GALDIERI’S REPORT

 

Furlough Dates: The AFT Executive Committee is working on a revised MOA that will address which dates faculty may or may not record as furlough days.

 

Unemployment Guidelines: FAEC expressed that it would be helpful for faculty, who will be furloughed, to know the steps to anticipate. Beyond signing up, one needs to certify unemployment to be paid, even for a week. This would be useful on the HR website.

 

Promotion Calendar: This has been announced today including the number of promotions available for associate, full, and librarians. The calendar has been adjusted on the website. Candidates will be required to let Janet Faber know in advance so the Google Drive can be set up accordingly. Virginia will send an announcement and/or attend Unit Councils today. Training will be available 11/20, and HR anticipates more after Thanksgiving. 

 

Online Process: FAEC offered suggestions in determining the most organized way of submitting electronic applications. Scott, Naseem and Katie will meet with Virginia and Janet.

 

Dates: Friday is the promotion training date: November 20, 2020.

 

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:41pm.

 

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC

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January 26, 2021FAEC Minutes, December 2, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 12/2/2020

 

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

 

Guests: Peter Mercer (President), Susan Gaulden (Provost), Chris Romano (Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs.

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:04am. 

Minutes Approval: The 11/18/20 minutes were approved. 

  

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Meeting with President Mercer: Report by Scott Frees. Updates about COVID-19 vaccine administration on campus and the challenges were noted as this is not as easy to distribute as the flu vaccine.

 

Meeting with Provost Gaulden: Report by Naseem Choudhury. What are the anticipated budget concerns for the next semester? Will students be able to live on campus?

 

 

FAEC DISCUSSION

 

Under Enrolled Programs: Some students are choosing to take a year off until they can attend face-to-face courses.

 

Pass/Fail Grades: SGA has a petition seeking to use this model for this semester as done last.

 

R/F Policy: Can this policy be clarified?

 

Student Opinion Surveys: How can these be most useful for all constituencies?

 

Faculty Service Expectations: This was discussed. Some do more service and others do much less. How do junior faculty find service opportunities? 

 

Furlough Questions: AFT will be having a meeting today about this.

 

PRESIDENT MERCER

Budget: FAEC asked to understand budget implications if a portion, or the entirety of the spring semester moves to remote. Currently it is difficult to estimate.

 

Pandemic Impact: The President would like us to be inward focused as well as outward focused as most of the Ramapo community is suffering some sort of stress.

 

PROVOST GAULDEN

 

R/Fs: This is being discussed to expand this grading option to 4 courses or 16 credits. This does not have to be for a failed course but also for anyone who earned a grade they wish to improve. This policy is based on a review of what other colleges are doing.

 

Y Grade: Theatre 021, 022 and Pathways courses, for example, are zero credit courses and students who do not complete them earn an F. This can appear misleading on a transcript so a Y grade is being developed.

 

Student Complaints to Deans: These are handled differently in units. Students should be referred back to the professor. Provost Gaulden will remind deans of this at tomorrow’s Dean’s Council.

 

Online Courses: These do not have a specific schedule and therefore do not have an assigned exam window; leave the exam window open for 24 hours so all students can take the exam on the day.

 

 

 

VICE PRESIDENT ROMANO

 

Finances: One third of students who live on campus have chosen to stay. Ninety percent of those who are living on campus now are choosing to come back in the spring. The refunds for fall 2020 are minimal. More than 600 students are expected to live on campus in the spring. The biggest concern is the status of academic athletics. Decisions have not been made about the winter and spring. If athletics is allowed, we will likely have closer to 1,000 students in residence. Students who deferred from fall to the spring has resulted in having more students enrolled for the coming semester.

 

Junior Registration: There seems to be a delay in juniors registering for spring courses. The data is being explored. Freshman registration is a bit delayed. Students still need to get immunization paperwork to the Student Health offices even if they are learning remotely and never on campus. They cannot register without this by state law.

 

High School Student College Applications: High school senior student applications are down 60% nationally from the past fall. Much of the application process is running 30-45 days behind. Many high school guidance counselors are behind. Ramapo is only 19% down in applications. We have the lowest decrease in the state when compared with last year. The test optional change has been beneficial. Early decision acceptance letters are going out tomorrow; these students are committed to coming to Ramapo College. Private colleges are struggling. Provost Gaulden noted people are busy dealing with crises so the timeline is a bit delayed but it does not mean we are losing students.

 

 

Gen Ed Completion: There is an increased focus on students to complete their general education requirements by the time they have completed 60 credits.

 

Registration Data: Chris is crunching numbers to see the trends in delayed registration.

 

Banner Down: U.Achieve, Banner, etc. all went down this week. Chris will make sure faculty is informed in the future.

 

Meeting adjourned at 11:52am.

 

 

 

 

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC

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November 17, 2020FAEC minutes, November 4, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 11/4/2020

 

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

Vote to bring the meeting to order at 10:08AM.  Ed Shannon will take minutes for FA today..

Minutes Approval: Approval of the minutes from the 10/21/2020 and 10/28/2020 minutes will be deferred to next week. 

FA President’s Report 

Naseem met with Susan Gaulden this week.  Susan is aware of the discrepancy between paper and online evaluations. Susan will ensure this is coded correctly. 

Faculty concerns regarding due process were discussed.  

Faculty need to complete the CUTE survey.  

Naseem also discussed promotions with Susan.  Susan will speak about promotions today at the Faculty Assembly. 

 

FAEC Discussion 

ITS:  Still some ongoing issues. FAEC would like to compile  a list  to discuss with Rob Doster. Theirry reported that as part of the ITS committee, faculty need additional training on technology related to service. For example, how to vote on committees for tenure and promotions. HR should ensure confidentiality of voting to ensure a fair and equitable process. 

New Business

Connect: Ed Shannon reported that Connect often closes out faculty comments when they have not been adequately resolved with the faculty. Academic Flags should be resolved by faculty. The gradebook has been removed from Connect. 

Student Evaluations: Mihaela reported that online student evaluations are available to anyone Faculty evaluations in Web Self Service.  This is concerning to FAEC. We will let Susan know. Katie will report to AFT. 

Spring Break:  SGA is coming up with additional proposals regarding spring break to bring to administration. 

Vice Provost: Ed brought up that the absence of a Vice Provost is noticeable to others.

Hiring Committees: Scott Frees brought up the issue of  Search Committees.  There was discussion about a Hiring Pool to increase diversity in the search committees.  There are inconsistencies as to how search committees are formed.   We would like a formal policy on this issue.  Naseem has asked Nicole for a Diversity plan.  

Faculty Credentials: Bonnie inquired as to credentials of adjunct faculty. Adjunct hiring is the purview of the deans.  

3 + 1 Programs:  There are discussions about concentrations vs tracks. This will be discussed at the Faculty Assembly. 

President’s Report:  

Parent’s Council:  Peter discussed that he met with the Parent’s Council last week virtually.  The parent’s would like to see their students back on campus.  

They also discussed spring break. Peter is meeting with SGA tomorrow.  Our early applications for early decision is up 6%.  This is in addition to students that have deferred for a semester.  

Peter reported that we are losing money on dining services at this point. We need to keep services and buildings regardless. There are currently about 400 students living on campus. 

Support for Interim Vice Provost: 

Ed Shannon brought up the issues of academic integrity and current load on the vice provost. He suggested the possibility of a course release or stipend to someone to assist with some of these job functions. FAEC concurs. 

Interim Provost’s Report:  

Fulbright Program: We have three Fulbright Scholars that have not yet arrived. Susan was asked about in person meetings by the Fulbright Program.  

ITS:  IT is working with Webex Teams to field and correct some of the immediate IT issues. 

Promotions:  Susan is waiting for a number.  Susan stated that we are out of compliance with current Board policy. She is meeting with Virgina and Janet to  clarify this week. Considering the delay, there will be modifications to the dates for packets and guidelines for digital submission. 

Meeting adjourned at 12:05 pm. 

Respectfully submitted,

Donna Flynn

 

 

 

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC

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November 17, 2020FAEC Minutes October 28, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 10/28/2020

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

 Excused: Kim Lorber (Secretary)

Vote to bring the meeting to order at 10:03 AM

Minutes Approval: Approval of the minutes from the 10/21/2020 minutes will be deferred to next week. 

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Naseem spoke with Provost Gaulden regarding Promotions, ER/HR issues.  No significant resolution. Naseem will follow up next week. 

FAEC DISCUSSION

 Promotions:  Faculty shared concerns regarding the process for upcoming promotions. Nothing further on the reconvening of the Task Force.

Spring Break:  Spring break has been cancelled. Calendars will have to be adjusted. FA was not consulted in the process. Peter informed Naseem and Scott of this decision on Monday. Furlough decisions have not been finalized.

Evaluations: The online evaluation and the paper evaluation are somewhat different.  Naseem reached out to Tae and Lysandra to clarify.  Naseem will send a copy to FAEC.

Faculty Repository:  Katie reported that the library is looking into this. If anyone has ideas, please let Katie know. 

Vice Provost vacancy:  Ed brought up why we don’t have a temporary person in the position to ease Provost Gaulden’s load, perhaps at least deal with the plagiarism cases.  We used to have an Academic Integrity Committee in the past. 

Schedules: Faculty brought up errors in scheduling. If there are errors with courses, submit a course modification form. 

 

Meeting with VP Chris Romano: VP Romano stated CARES ACT funding will be distributed soon.  We have approximately 160 courses being delivered on campus for spring. This will increase the number of students living on campus.  Registration will begin on November 16, 2020.  Housing requests open November 17, 2020. The college is aiming for a target of 1000 students in single bedroom units for the spring semester. As a result of the calendar change, move in dates will have to be adjusted.

Enrollment Management is holding smaller open houses.  The small tours are booked up through November 7, 2020. 

VP Romano feels students will be happy to live on campus. The college will look to creating some things to create meaningful experiences for students. Over 60% of first year students participated in arching. 

Three graduation ceremonies were held for the 2020 graduates. 

 

Meeting adjourned at  11:30 AM

 

Respectfully submitted,

Donna Flynn

 

 

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC

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November 17, 2020FAEC Minutes October 14, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 10/14/2020

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

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:05am.

Minutes Approval: The 10/7/20 minutes were approved.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

FA Minutes Approval/Graduate Council Vote: Naseem will send the minutes of our last meeting to the faculty for approval. Ashwani Vasishth is running unopposed to be the Faculty Assembly Graduate Council representative. The bylaws do not indicate if it is a voting position. We encourage tenured candidates. Clarification of the role will be sought from Provost Gaulden.

Student Survey: The construction of the questions seemed directional. Could questions have been framed in a more neutral way to gather specific information?

Budget: Naseem and Scott met with President Mercer to discuss the budget.  President Mercer will address this in his next FA address.

FAEC DISCUSSION

Spring Course Catalog: Multiple issues have been found. Faculty are sending corrections to the deans. Naseem will meet with Susan to discuss issues.

Provost’s Council: Naseem would like to ask the committee working on the Student Code of Conduct be expanded to include additional faculty in order to represent more of the units on campus. Emma Rainforth is leading the subgroup in Provost’s council.

Students’ Names: Students change their names and these are applied in some areas and not in others. Need to have a more efficient name change procedure

To change Canvas name: https://ramapo.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6WfGGEGxfLEXjeJ

To change Webex name: https://help.webex.com/en-us/nmig1kcb/Edit-Your-Webex-Meetings-Profile

We recommend these links be distributed more widely to students and faculty.

Evaluations: Faculty has concerns about how these will reflect on faculty. We are concerned that course evaluations be filled out in private by students alone. We hear anecdotal evidence of family members and others who are present during webex classes. If evaluations are used for promotion and tenure, etc. then we need to have confidence they are filled out only by student in the class in question.

Canvas Page Review: Would faculty be interested in having their Canvas pages reviewed/graded? We all think differently. Perhaps some sample Canvas courses can be used as examples.

Urgent ITS questions: We have a system to contact/text our deans for urgent ITS needs. They contact the CIO. This seems not to be working as well as expected. We need a new system; this will be addressed with the Provost.

3/1 Programs: Mia will give information about who will moderate the faculty forum on November 4 about the 3+1 program.

Academic Advisement Council: Naseem and Scott discussed with the Provost the formation of a program for non-matriculated majors.

CASP.  Committee that addressed academic suspensions and probation should be re-envisioned and brought back. Will discuss with Susan.

BIT: This committee seems especially necessary now. Informing the faculty about what is appropriate to refer to this group, is needed. Dean Lorenz runs this. Maybe he can give an FA reminder.

Meeting adjourned at 12:04pm.

 

 

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC

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October 21, 2020FAEC Minutes October 7, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 10/7/2020

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

Guests: Pinar Kayaalp (Sabbatical/Tenure Promotions), Peter Mercer (President), Susan Gaulden (Provost)

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:02am.

Minutes Approval: The 9/30/20 minutes were approved with one abstention.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

SGA Report: FAEC representative, Ed Shannon, attended the last meeting. FAEC attendance was well received. Concerns were raised about not having a spring break. Students also requested courses addressing the current political circumstances in our nation.

Spring Break Discussion: The College is working to identify the best course of action in order to keep the campus safe from possible new exposure risks due to traveling.

EOF/CRW: Was discussed and we hope to have more information, soon. Todd Barnes is now the CRW faculty liaison.

3/1: SSHS has the most programs involved. HGS is also part of this first round of this new model. We understood we would have some assessment of the first semester at Passaic County Community College before other community colleges would be added. Course/program preparation at Sussex County Community College has already begun for the spring and discussions are in process with Hudson County Community College.

2/2: Social work is the first program to offer the 2/2 model. First it will be at Passaic County Community College (PCCC) in spring 2021.

FA Representation on Administrative Committees: Openings will be made available to all full-time faculty and a vote implemented as needed.

Virtual Classroom Concerns: Concerns about non-registered individuals having access to course content and being “present” in virtual classrooms was discussed. FERPA issues, safety concerns and intellectual/academic rigour concerns were discussed.

REPORT FROM PINAR KAYAALP

Sabbatical/Tenure/Promotions: FAEC received MFSA report asking FAEC to review and consult with faculty on issues of Sabbaticals, Tenure Clock, and how these procedures may or may not provide equity. FAEC agrees that this is an important part of the faculty handbook revisions.

Handbook Committee: No new information is available.

Spring Break: We will need an MOA.

PROVOST’S REPORT

Spring 2021 Planning: Most faculty completed the course Census and most courses have been added to Banner. Advisement week will be starting on Monday (Oct 12). The deans will send an email regarding the course listings. A document will also be issued explaining all of the codes/course types. Registration begins November 16th. Students will also be notified if changes are still possible.

Fall 2021/Spring 2022: Six sabbatical semesters will be offered for the next academic year. We await the MOA numbers for promotions.

Spring Break Spring 2021: Many colleges are posing the same question as we are regarding canceling spring break and possibly adding that week to winter break.

In-person Classes & Sick students: The faculty are responsible to accommodate the student’s learning needs.

Student Survey: Will be distributed upon request and when completed.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Promotion/Tenure/Sabbatical Concerns for the President: Faculty is eager to see the revised handbook. The committee has not been reconvened. There are many current issues, which are not answered in the current version of the handbook. The Provost will make the ultimate handbook approval. We have asked for a final draft in February so it can be discussed in the remaining two Faculty Assembly meetings.

AAACSB Site Visitors: President Mercer and Provost Gaulden met with this group, which accredits the Anisfield School of Business (ASB). Their observations found the ASB faculty and students interactions are very positive. “We have a vibrant learning community happening in ASB”. Another positive accreditation experience!

Spring break: It is hard to know which model will be safer: changing spring break to something else or not, possibly inviting a cluster of COVID-19 cases as cases and deaths are currently increasing in NJ. Yesterday, there were 700 new cases in New Jersey and 9 deaths.

Meeting adjourned at 12:04pm.

Categories: Faculty Assembly Minutes 2020, FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC

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October 21, 2020FAEC Minutes Sept 30, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 9/30/2020

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

Guests: Chris Romano (Vice President of Enrollment Management)

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:04am.

Minutes Approval: The 9/23/20 minutes were approved.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Meeting with President Mercer: FA President and FA Vice-President met with President Mercer to ask him not to make drastic changes in his last year. He agreed in essence.

Presidential Committees: We need formal criteria for these committees. This is beneficial to the College and our accreditors and as an essential part of shared governance .

Funding: Governor Murphy has given more money than expected so we will need to take less from the reserves.

Provost’s Council: Meeting was held last Thursday.
Faculty would be well served to look at the Provost’s website for changed guidelines.
Virtual seat time: the policy to make up seat time due to snow days, etc., is being reviewed.
There is concern about the definition of tracks and concentrations in majors.
Latin Honors: Currently only “native” students (4-year Ramapo) can earn this. Transfer students are currently ineligible. The change would allow transfer students with a minimum number of credits to now receive latin honors. Minimum number of credits will be determined by the transfer agreement under which they are entering Ramapo.

3-1 programs and ARC: FAEC began a discussion about ARC’s central role in the 3-1 curriculum.

CHRISTOPHER ROMANO (Vice President of Enrollment Management)

FA Presentation: Due to lack of SAT/ACT testing availability, nursing faculty voted to make testing optional this fall. Now, all of our Ramapo College majors are testing optional except for a few in TAS, HGS, and SSHS with articulation agreements with other colleges.

CARES Act: Additional student funding is available. Every qualifying student received an email from Chris to apply for a second round of funds; this money cannot be used to offset tuition. Students need to demonstrate expenses due to Covid-19 like needing a laptop or a webcam, etc. The email will be shared with Naseem to share with the Faculty.

3/1: Passaic County Community College (PCCC) is doing well. Social work is set up to begin a 2/2 program with Sussex County Community College (SCCC) once the social work accrediting body (CSWE) and Middle States approve. Hudson County Community College (HCCC) will be the 3rd county college with which we will be developing such programs.
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Admissions: Is virtually remote. Students and their families can visit the college by appointment (2 tours/day and 3 tours every Saturday). These are sold out for the next 7 weeks.

Faculty Involvement in Recruitment: While we are virtual, faculty can still participate in break-out sessions. Chris will work with each dean as each school makes its own plan of who will participate.

Application Review Process: How are applications reviewed without SAT and other testing scores? First, there will be a higher emphasis on GPA (in lieu of the test result). The second priority is the rigor of coursework. EMSA will look at the college essays. There is a focus on community service and leadership as well as depth of experience and not breadth. Interviews will also be used, as necessary. EMSA or students can request an interview. Students can submit test scores; these will not be used in a negative way and they can have a positive benefit. Application deadlines will be used; until two years ago rolling admissions was the model with letters sent within two weeks. The Honors Program and EOF will be test optional.

Diversity in Student Body: 45% of the incoming class is comprised of non-white students, our most diverse class yet.

CRW/EOF: Faculty as well as the administrators of CRW look forward to this move being reversed. Chris Romano said this is part of a bigger centralized need for student services. FAEC stressed the importance of all academic support, remedial or otherwise, fall under the AA division. These are critical to the success of all our students, and to the delivery of our curriculum.

Enrollment Vision for Spring 2021: What are expectations for the number of students who will live on campus? What is the expected number of face-to-face courses? Athletes will be coming back. More information will be forthcoming about athletics, plans to live on campus, etc.

Contract Majors: The SSHS social science contract major seems to be the fastest growing convening group.

Provost’s 9/29/ and 9/30 Presentations: This coming semester, students should know their precise course format at the time of registration.

Faculty Course Delivery Presentation Preference: Provost Gaulden has been consistently supportive of faculty determining which mode of course delivery they prefer/feel safest using.

Undeclared Students: Some are undeclared within a school; others are matriculated as undeclared. CAAFYE is implementing a program to encourage students to settle on a school and major by the end of their first year. There are many liberal art schools which do not encourage commitment to a major until completion of the 2nd year. Naseem has asked for data; faculty input is needed.

FA Voting Items: A Qualtrics survey was sent for faculty to vote for candidates for the following positions: FAEC councilor-at-large over 11 and GECCo’s Coordinator of Global Awareness, Coordinator for Quantitative Reasoning, Coordinator for Scientific Reasoning, and the Coordinator for Values and Ethics, by October 5th at 11:59pm.

Counseling Syllabus Statement Request by SGA: SGA is in discussions with ARC about making a statement mandatory in all syllabi.
Syllabus Details: Is it possible for ARC to provide a link for inclusion in all syllabi for all required/relevant to be regularly updated? This would make the syllabi shorter, consistent and provide students with up-to-date information. Naseem will look into this.

Meeting adjourned at 12:12pm.

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC, RCNJ Faculty Assembly Minutes 2019

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October 7, 2020FAEC Minutes Sept 23, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 9/23/2020 

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

Guests: Virginia Galdieri (Assistant Vice President of Human Resources; HR), Janet Faber (Assistant Director, Employee Relations & Faculty Services (AFT; HR)

Vote to begin meeting to order at 10:04am.

Minutes Approval: The 9/9/20 minutes were approved. One abstention. The 9/16/20 minutes were approved.

Councilor-at-Large Over 11: We have two candidates. The vote will go out on Monday. A quorum will require a minimum of 50 votes. The candidates are: Bonnie Blake and Alexandre Olbrecht.

As a future discussion:  The roles of the Councilors at large needs to be defined. Should these be tenured/untenured, other time breakdowns (less than 15 years and over), etc.

President’s Council: The President’s Committee On Campus Sustainability (PCCS)- Dr. Ashwani Vasishth has been the chair. Dr. Vasishth was notified by President Mercer he would no longer be chair. Faculty have a unique opportunity to push for more sustainability practices than Facilities or another campus group due to job security. Faculty on PCCS believe it is essential to have a faculty chair.  Dr. Vasishth asked that FA support having a faculty member as the chair of this and be in charge of the committee? FAEC feedback was invited. Some examples are below:

• An example was given about recycling bound journals from the library. Facilities said it was too expensive to remove the bindings for recycling. Dr. Vasishth asked for a few students to be hired and very inexpensively to prepare the volumes for recycling. This could have been a press opportunity showing student volunteers doing this to maintain our sustainability mission.
• Sustainable and beneficial trees should be planted as recommended by the committee; instead, others have been planted, which die, requiring reinvestment. Expertise about sustainability should be utilized.
• The FA President and Vice President will ask President Mercer to consider during his last year to not make these changes before a new president is installed in less than a year. What are the bylaws, how are decisions made for presidential committees?
• Can the PCCS be moved from under the President as sustainability issues have changed since it was established and perhaps another body on campus can do more? The committee can seek members with expertise from all campus bodies and address this under FA, for example.

Good News:

• Pre-requisites: The pre-requisite issue is being resolved by the Registrar regarding students being dropped from courses due to pre-requisite courses not having been completed or passed. This semester will be a trial period following the recommendations of TAS. The goal is to remove from faculty the need to find out who was missing the pre-req and should be in their class.
  
• ITS immediate issues: Contact your dean, who will contact Rob, who will dispatch immediate assistance. This means the dean would need to give their cell numbers to all faculty and adjuncts in their units.
  

SGA: Would like information on how to access help for mental health issues included in all syllabi. ARC is in discussion with SGA regarding this.

Spring Schedule:  The Provost is finalizing the spring schedule. There are 200 live classes and a variety of formats will be used for the others.

Spring Break: It is possible spring break may be cancelled this year to allow faculty to have more time to prep for the spring during a longer winter break while also minimizing the risk of students leaving campus for spring break and bringing COVID-19 back upon return.

ITS Issues: Assistant Dean Kathy Burke has been advocating with ITS for assistance in the Respondus exam process. For the moment, Jefferson Sampson will be available by phone for the indefinite future. A shortage of student assistants (due to student job budget cuts) has resulted in great delays and the needs for more immediate response opportunities. There is a proposal to divide help desk requests into urgent and non-urgent. Is there a hotline number we can call if something is happening in class and must be addressed immediately? Contact your dean for the immediate future regarding urgent ITS needs (such as in-class tech issues).

HR Report by Virginia Galdieri and Janet Faber:

Promotion Process: All of the binders have been scanned to make the process electronic. Candidates’ can give their final approval of their binders by the end of day tomorrow; at least 7 of 9 have approved.

Spring 2020 Promotion Schedule: 

• Candidates complete their electronic application by close of business tomorrow.
• Committee reviews 9 applications through 9/29 and will be asked to meet on 9/30.
• Then allow candidates to submit additional information.

Virginia will send an email to see if this schedule is viable. It is hard to fit another committee into the fall schedule: Sabbatical, Tenure, FDF are already taking up most Wednesday meeting slots. Since we are working remotely, it may be possible to have meetings on other days at other times.

Once the committee begins, candidates cannot add further information to their application packets.

10/14 or 10/15 might be the deadline for adding anything to the tenure packages.

Virginia will ask if the tenure committee can have an extension. The HR calendar is coordinated with others on campus. Perhaps working backwards from the final deadline will provide more time than the 9/29 deadline for the Promotions Committee from the last academic year. The committee will be solicited.

Faculty Handbook: Can this be revised this academic year? In our digital world, much is not addressed in the handbook. Units function differently.

• A timeline is needed. The last Faculty Assembly meeting will be in April, at which we would vote. A final draft received by February or March would be very helpful.
• The promotions section is almost ready for the committee to review.
• There should be guidelines about digital binders and remote committee meetings.
• It is planned to reconvene the faculty handbook task force by the middle of October.

Faculty Handbook Concerns: 

• Streamlining rules for how to conduct promotion and other votes; in some schools one can vote for oneself. In other units, the candidate leaves the room and cannot vote in support of their own application. If someone has a partner in a unit, should they stay in the room while their significant other is being discussed? The Faculty Handbook is silent regarding these and other matters.
• Guidelines for applications for promotions to different ranks are unclear or missing in the handbook. Some details are in the checklist but not in the handbook. If the checklist is not known to an applicant, their handbook may be missing peer observations or something else. This compromises their application due to the gaps in the handbook.

Meeting adjourned at 11:57am.

Categories: FAEC MEETING MINUTES 2020, RAMAPO FAEC, Uncategorized

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