Faculty Assembly

March 30, 2021FAEC Minutes, March 10th, 2021

FAEC MINUTES 3/10/21

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 Rakotobe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ed Shannon (HGS)

Guests: Stephen Rice (ARC, Chair and FA rep to BOT), Stephen Larson(FA representative to BOT)

Vote to bring meeting to order at 11:05am.

Minutes Approval: The 2/24/21 and 3/3/21 minutes were approved.

FAEC DISCUSSION

“Satellite” Campuses:

3+1: Concerns were discussed about how students will be advised about 3/1 courses at the satellite campuses. Courses are encouraged in certain sequences in many majors–there is concern that this will complicate advising..

Enrollment Numbers: We discussed enrollment numbers; Naseem will ask Provost Gaulden about PCCC enrollment.

SCCC: 3/1 and 2/2 (social work BSW) programs will be offered here in the fall.

Unit Personnel Decisions and Procedures: Questions have been raised about how to appeal a unit or dean’s decision about a recommendation.

Web Pages: Some groups are updating their own and others are sending theirs to IT. FAEC agreed the college needs to identify someone in IT who can facilitate these updates.

Vaccines at NJIT and Saint Peter’s University: These institutions have made arrangements for vaccines for their faculty and staff. Can Ramapo try to access a block of vaccines to raffle off to our faculty and staff?

Space Committee: Ashwani Vasishth reported the committee has not met since the beginning of the pandemic.

FA governance review committee: There was discussion about the role the review committee played in the past, their charge. The current subgroup in FAEC, led by Mia, has a similar charge.

ARC REPORT (Stephen Rice, Chair)

ARC Update: ARC is close to finishing its review of syllabus and program proposals. The committee will next turn to working on revising to the ARC manual and the ARC forms, and proposing changes to some of the submission procedures.

BoT The Mission Fulfillment Committee Report: Stephen Rice will submit a brief report to Naseem.

Diversity Committee Report: The Diversity Committee did not formally launch, there were hurdles in lack of structure/direction and in creating boundaries between the committee’s role and that of EDIC. FA/FAEC will discuss further how to best proceed.

SUBMITTED REPORTS

BoT Report (Dr. Yongbum Kim, BoT Audit Committee)

Dr. Yongbum Kim provided this recap of the latest meeting on January 14, 2021 as follows.

Discussed the report of the Internal Auditor which included (1) reaffirmation of internal audit organization independence, (2) Audit Universe 2021, (3) internal audit plan for fiscal year 2021, (4) issued audit reports regarding executive summary for Athletics Team Gear and executive summary for student accounts collections, and (5) audit issue follow-up as of January 2021.
Discussed disclosure of related party transactions – Vendor List Ethics Filing with State Ethics Commission
Discussed the report of the Vice President for Administration and Finance
Discussed the review of MD&A and Draft Financials presented by the external auditor, O’Connor Davies, required auditor communications, and
review of audit wrap up communication from PFK O’Connor Davies

Garden State Guarantee Plan (Stephen Larson, Professor of Finance)

Stephen Larson presented a review of the proposed plan by Governor Murphy to provide students in families with incomes less than $65,000, two free years of higher education. It is in the discussion phase. Funding from the state has not been determined nor is it yet known if additional costs will have to be covered by the College. It is unknown if this plan will be implemented.

Meeting adjourned at 12:35pm.

Categories: FAEC meeting Minutes 2021, RAMAPO FAEC

March 14, 2021FAEC meeting minutes Feb 24, 2021

FAEC MINUTES 2/24/21

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 Rakotobe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ed Shannon (HGS)

Guests: Todd Barnes (CRW), Monika Giacoppe , Hugh Sheehy,

Christopher Romano (Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affair)

Vote to bring meeting to order at 10:03am.

Minutes Approval: The 2/17/21 minutes were approved.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

EMSA: We await information about a report of fall 2021 101% enrollment.

Discussion with Todd Barnes, Monika Giacoppe and Hugh Sheehy

Center for Reading and Writing: FAEC invited Todd Barnes, Monika Giacoppe, and Hugh Sheehy to clarify current CRW concerns. Todd Barnes served as the CRW liaison. He helped to clarify questions about recent data. Faculty remains committed to CRW returning to Academic Affairs. Tom Kitchen created a structure and handbook 10 years ago, which is still the model used.

HR Employment Question Dedicated Email Address: hr2020@ramapo.edu.

New President: We await the final decision.

FA President/VP Meeting with President Mercer: They discussed the state of the state appropriations.

FA President/VP Meeting with Provost Gaulden:

Cleaning Schedule: High demand classrooms are not being cleaned in order to not lose teaching slots. The conversation is continuing. Naseem has written to the deans. ASB135 does not get cleaned, for example. Why are some classrooms required to be cleaned and others not?

Covid Vaccines: Provost Gaulden has asked the state to make us a vaccination distribution center. There has not been a response. Is there consideration of whether or not all faculty will be able to be vaccinated in advance of teaching in-person?

CARES Act Technology Reimbursement Funds for Faculty: Naseem has not heard anything about this. Are funds available for the faculty as at other colleges?

Alert Me Now: Why are text messages directing us to emails? Can we please return to having the complete alert in the first text?

VICE PRESIDENT FOR EMSA REPORT (Chris Romano)

Enrollment Goals: EMSA froze Spring 2021 file on 2/13/21. We are having a strong semester. Grad enrollment was the strongest of all: 131% of its target. Many programs exceeded their projections. Undergraduate enrollment was 98% meaning Ramapo has met its 100%, overall. Program interest and enrollment information has been shared with deans. More student payment plans have been added. It has been a strong enrollment year, especially during a pandemic.

Total Number of Ramapo Students: We do not have a cap. There are first year and transfer goals, which contribute to the undergraduate total. Scott just enrolled 41 high school students taking a computer science class (dual high school/college enrollment). Graduate programs are done differently, as well. Elements reviewed: what is of interest in the market and how was enrollment last year? The 4+1 programs also contribute to increased enrollment. The budget does not drive enrollment numbers.

Comparison to Other NJ State Colleges and Private Schools: It is hard to get enrollment goals from other institutions. Nationally, the average school enrollment is down because of online learning fatigue, challenges in high school counseling, etc. Urban schools are suffering the most for enrollment. Nationally, colleges are down 40% in applications. New Jersey is 25-27% down, and Ramapo is 15% down. Applications to Ivy League schools remain the same while private schools’ enrollments are down the most. SUNY enrollment is down 20%. Applications have never been a primary indicator of enrollment. The common application allows students to easily apply to many schools. Ramapo does not have free applications. Most applicants choose to pay the $60 application fee; those who need assistance do not pay to apply. Two of 3 majors’ deadlines are done. Going test optional made a difference; students can be looked at more holistically. This helps CA and HGS as some students did not always do well in math. TAS enrollment has gone down, which has balanced programs a bit. Over than 200 deposits have been received which is equivalent to last year. We have accepted 50 more students than last year despite having fewer applications. The focus is on demonstrated interest. Ramapo is one of the few state schools offering tours during the week and on Saturday; these are booked through June. The important target is the total of May/June deposits. Early decision acceptances increased by one. Recruiting opportunities are reduced due to lack of in-person school and community events. Marketing is up.

Dorming: More students live on campus as compared with last semester?. We opted out of some sports related to COVID-19 risk so some athletes chose to not live on campus. There has been a fluctuation of 475-500 this year. We will target 1,200 residents for the fall, which allows one student per bedroom. 57% of first year students who have given deposits have expressed interest in dorming. 500 freshmen are planning and 700 higher classmen are anticipated. Priorities are freshman, EOF, foreign, geographically distant students, etc. Some dorming decisions will be based on which courses are offered in person.

CRW/EOF Decision: FAEC sent a letter to VP Romano and Provost Gaulden. We did not receive a reply and retain the same position that the move and eventual moving of these program was made without discussion by the previous Provost and CRW, at least, should be in Academic Affairs, where it was previously. Chris said there were assertions in the letter without data, which is untrue. Two assertions were based on who uses these and one argument was philosophical and how it was moved. There was no data used to move it to Student Affairs, a temporary move, thus why is there discussion of data to move it back? A request has been made to know which assertions are believed to be false.

There will be a meeting on Friday; Todd, the Provost and Dean Hangen will attend from Academic Affairs. This will be re-evaluated by the end of the year. The data behind the conversation is important. Who is using the CRW? Friday’s meeting is about understanding the strategy of academic success at Ramapo and not about moving it back. A centralized resource for a variety of needs is not available at RCNJ. Students are sent to different places across campus to find out where to gain assistance other than CRW. FAEC does not disagree and feels this is an Academic Affairs discussion. A discussion was held about where this should lie and who would centralize these resources.

FAEC DISCUSSION

Course Delivery Modes: Provost Gaulden distributed an email with very clear guidelines. There is much interest in in-person courses.

All of the above noted topics were discussed.

Meeting adjourned at 11:51am.

Categories: FAEC meeting Minutes 2021, RAMAPO FAEC, Uncategorized

March 14, 2021FAEC Minutes March 3, 2021

FAEC MINUTES 3/3/21

Guests: President Peter Mercer, Interim-Provost Susan Gaulden

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

Minutes Approval: The 2/24/21 minutes will be approved next week.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Next Year’s Budget: President Mercer told Naseem and Scott we are on track to be in better shape next year.

Faculty Handbook Revision: The committee has been reconvened and has had its first meeting. Committees have been established and sub-committees may be included.

Center for Reading and Writing: FAEC is advocating for the return of this resource to Academic Affairs by the end of the academic year.

Faculty Assembly: General information will be addressed and then faculty and adjuncts will meet.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

FY’22 Budget: We are doing better than many other state schools and are only slightly below our enrollment goals. The increase in graduate applications has made up for the slight drop in undergraduate enrollment. Hopefully, 1,000 students will be able to live on campus.

New President: President Mercer looks forward to the announcement.

Free Tuition: Governor Murphy is interested in providing free tuition for the first two college years of income-qualifying students at two and four year colleges. There is concern about the impact this might have on Ramapo, as the State would decide the level of financial compensation allocated to replace the loss in tuition.

PROVOST’S REPORT

Fall 2021 Course Schedule: Last semester, one review was conducted before the schedule was made live. A second review is being done this semester to ensure accuracy in delivery modes.

Provost’s Council Policies: These are on the Provost’s website and faculty are encouraged to review policies under review.

Minimum Technology Policy: Laptop Upcycle will likely move to Ramapo in the Fall. This would allow volunteers on campus to upgrade/repair tables, laptops, etc. to ensure all students will have some sort of technology as many have been dependent on campus labs.

Covid-19 Positive Students: Notify Debra Lukacsko; students should inform her directly. Alerts will be provided by the tracing team and no one should be identified by faculty in abidance with HIPPA regulations.

Meeting adjourned at 12:00pm.

Categories: FAEC meeting Minutes 2021, RAMAPO FAEC

February 25, 2021FAEC Meeting Minutes, Feb 17th, 2021

FAEC MINUTES 2/17/21

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)

Guests: Virginia Galdieri (Assistant Vice President of Human Resources), Janet Faber (Assistant Director/Deputy ELO)

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

Minutes Approval: The 2/3/21 and 2/10/21 minutes were approved.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Teaching Faculty List: has been received so announcements can be shared with adjuncts and full-time faculty.

Presidential Candidates: Today we will meet the 3rd candidate.

Course Delivery Plans for Fall: Deans should have all fall plan information. Students will know their scheduled fall format by the time registration starts. Room utilization for 50/50 hybrid courses will depend on enrollment. Twice weekly courses require faculty selection of which day they wish to teach in-person so another can split the in-person timeslot.

Cleaning: The state follows the CDC guidelines. If someone is concerned about their studio spaces or other rooms, contact Lauren Tibbetts, Associate Director of Facilities.

HUMAN RESOURCES’ REPORT (Virginia Galdieri and Janet Faber)

Faculty Handbook: Virginia has reconvened the task force for 2/24 and will create subcommittees to work on different sections. This will be a collaborative effort and is a big project. Changes recommended by the committee will be approved by the legal department, Provost, faculty and other College constituencies. This may not be ready this semester. An agenda and a project management plan will be established and shared. Virginia will share the schedule with faculty at Faculty Assembly.

Faculty Promotion/Sabbatical/Tenure Committees: Members will be trained in advance of participating to ensure best practices.

COVID-19 Vaccinations & Testing on Campus:

Testing: How quickly can we move to full in-person course delivery without requiring vaccinations? The Pandemic Assessment Team makes these decisions. Students living in campus housing are tested based on CDC best practices for communal living. We currently have approximately 178 courses with some in-person components in spring 2021. What will be the plan if there are 500+ courses offered? Additional testing options for the fall will be explored based on who will be on campus in the fall.

Vaccinations:FAEC posed questions about on-campus testing and the possibilities of providing vaccinations on campus to best prepare us for the fall with more in-person courses and people on campus. HR reports that RCNJ follows EEOC guidelines.

Flu Clinics: FAEC informed HR that more faculty may be able to participate in flu clinics if they are held on Wednesdays in the future.

Unemployment: Difficulties with unemployment filings were discussed. AFT has been providing the guidelines about unemployment despite the fact that it is not the union’s responsibility. HR reports that there is information on the HR website. Virginia will strategize with Johnie Burton. A dedicated email address is being considered to receive all unemployment questions.

Meeting adjourned at 12:08pm.

Categories: FAEC meeting Minutes 2021, RAMAPO FAEC

February 23, 2021FAEC Meeting Minutes Feb, 3, 2021

FAEC MINUTES 2/3/21

Present: Naseem Choudhury (President, SSHS), Bonnie Blake (Councilor-at-Large over 10, 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)

Guests: Interim-Provost Susan Gaulden

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

Minutes Approval: The 1/27/21 minutes were approved.

FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Mercer: will not be able to attend today’s meeting. Naseem and Scott are scheduled to meet with President Mercer on Monday.

Presidential Search: one candidate has withdrawn their name. Links will be sent to faculty for their time with each candidate. The search committee has received many questions from faculty and will make selections for inclusion in this and at the town hall meeting. We can raise our hands and ask questions at the faculty meeting. President Mercer will meet with each of the presidential candidates.

Acting-President Meeting: Kirsten Loewrigkeit and Brittany A. Williams-Goldstein, Chief of Staff and Board Liaison, met with Naseem for 2 hours. The budget and fiscal planning were discussed. We will need approximately $3 million from our reserve account for losses this year. Kirsten has been asked by the BoT to make a 3 year fiscal plan. She is also working on restructuring our debt to save as much money as possible. This was encouraging news. There is also no plan to restructure our school with William Paterson University.

FAEC DISCUSSION

Enrollment: We look forward to hearing the enrollment status for fall 2021 at the end of the month.

Space Committee: Many changes seem to be occurring. We will, hopefully, know specific details soon.

Layoffs: We have no information and much will depend on state and federal income as well as our auxiliary sources of income (ex: dorm rooms).

Faculty Assembly Committees: We are working to establish a more formal reporting function from FA representatives about their committees.

Course Delivery:

There are 6 delivery modes provided by the Provost.
Scott Frees said there are difficulties with setting up delivery modes, which has to do with software like ours. There are many steps involved in getting everything ready for advisement month. Unit secretaries are currently using a new web application that manages schedule changes. All of the course modifications will be trackable. Eventually, conveners will make the changes. Scott Frees set up this software with the help of ITS, Beth Foster, and Diane Couzens.
If one is in a course that will have some asynchronous class dates, the student will receive an email letting them know some meetings will be asynchronous. This has been confusing for students who were waiting to register.

Common Hour: Requests are coming from faculty, which will require many schedule changes. The TAS lab situation will have to be manageable for this to happen.

Snow Day Alert Me Now: Can the message be more specific to be complete and not refer all to their email accounts for the full message. Is it possible to explain which departments will be open, like the library, advising that any in-person courses will be held synchronously. Some did not receive the text alerts.

Websites: Conveners are responsible for updating their program’s websites; why is this another convener responsibility? Conveners send updates needed. It would be helpful to not leave the hands-on role to conveners.

PROVOST’S REPORT

Websites for convening groups: Students and faculty, and the general public, seem to have challenges navigating them. Provost Gaulden is looking at a mapping model and this is being discussed at AAC. She feels videos, testimonials, etc. would give a much more interesting introduction to Ramapo College and the majors, minors, and certificate programs they might wish to choose. The website should be exciting and engaging. She hopes to be able to contribute to this and would convene a faculty subgroup to help determine what a convening group’s template should look like. She also agreed with the idea of highlighting some of our outstanding adjuncts.

Ramapo Rebranding: This was being done by an outside source and was dropped when Covid-19 hit. Is there an update?

Archway Application: The students use this more regularly than the website.

Social Media: There is a very tight rein about what can be posted; permissions have to be granted first. If something is wrong and a correction is posted why is permission needed to provide correct facts?

Spring 2021 Operations Plan: Was approved by OSHE. Some clarification was needed regarding the Governor’s statement that all students can study remotely. If one person wants to study remotely in an in-person course, we can direct them to a remote section but we must provide them with an education. We can suggest someone delay taking the course.

Fall Course Delivery Plans: These need to be known by March in time for registration. If one has health concerns at this time, opt for a model that will not be in-person. In mid-August, students make their final decisions about living on campus. Rutgers’ University’s President has told their community fall delivery will be back to normal. Provost Gaulden’s approach is more flexible to accommodate everyone’s needs. General education and first year students need in-person courses the most. It is an easier switch to deliver an in-person course and switch to synchronous if needed.

Fall Course Scheduling: The goal is to have at least 500-600 in-person course offerings in the fall. Many details need to be addressed. All rooms are losing class delivery times as hybrid in-person courses might use different days. More courses could be offered if one of two day courses is offered on a specific day each week allowing another to use the second day. This would allow two hybrid in-person offerings. This might be a model post pandemic. Example: two Monday/Thursday courses could share a classroom with each picking one of the days for in-person teaching.

Classroom Cleaning: There are requirements for very specific cleaning between class sessions. It seems at least some classrooms are not being cleaned before or after. Provost Gaulden will follow up with this. Research suggests surfaces do not need to be cleaned so if this is true, cleaning might be eliminated allowing for more in-person teaching slots and thereby course offerings.

Fall Support Service Planning: Is it possible to identify which departments, like the Library, will be open/in-person. Much depends on Governor Murphy and OSHE.

Meeting adjourned at 12:00pm.

Categories: FAEC meeting Minutes 2021, RAMAPO FAEC

February 2, 2021FA Winter Retreat Jan 12 2021

Teaching During the Pandemic

FAEC Summary

The past two semesters have been incredibly difficult for faculty. Challenges include managing working and homeschooling their own children simultaneously, lack of student engagement, a general lack of a standard student code of conduct in the virtual setting, along with high general levels of stress and fatigue.

Suggestions from faculty on ways to improve teaching experience:

Reduce the expectations placed on students, within reason.
Increase student engagement by randomly calling on them during virtual class.
Allow students time to socialize with one another during breakouts to promote better class dynamics.
Use tools such as:
1. Flip Grid
2. Miro
3. Mural
4. Vocaroo
5. Slack
6. Camtasia
7. Padlet.com
8. Jamboard

A key problem raised several times is student participation with webcams. Many faculty are still not sure how to handle the situation, however all agree that without students on camera, instruction and participation is significantly degraded. ASB forwarded potential wording for syllabi to encourage the use of webcams:

“For your WebEx presence to count for attendance and/or class participation, students are expected to keep their cameras on during virtual synchronous class meetings. If there is some specific reason that you cannot keep your camera on, please notify the instructor before class.”

A second core issue is the lack of a student code of conduct for virtual instruction. Faculty find students have inconsistent and incorrect expectations, have trouble using email professionally, and that there is an inappropriate level parental involvement in academic activities and decisions.

Faculty remain interested in learning more from their colleagues. There are requests for another faculty showcase on instruction similar to what was held last Spring. Faculty noted several campus groups and programs which have been invaluable, including the library’s Interlibrary Loan program.

Adjunct Instructors at Ramapo

Adjuncts appreciated the invitation to join the retreat and welcome further involvement at FA meetings and activities.
There is a general feeling that Ramapo can do a better job recognizing the value adjuncts bring to the College, particularly those adjuncts that have been at the College for many years.
Ways adjuncts can be recognized:
1. Creation of an adjunct teaching recognition award
2. Make adjuncts eligible for the Bischoff Award.
3. Adjuncts should appear in the faculty profile web pages associated with each school.
4. A web presence for adjuncts will also help students contact their instructors.

Faculty Concerns

Faculty expressed concerns about the following broad topics:

Presidential Search:
1. What level of commitment will the new President have to liberal arts?
2. How can we feel confident with a virtual-only interview?
Enrollment:
1. Is Ramapo seeing an influx of local students who would normally be attending universities outside NJ?
2. How are the Spring ‘21 dorm and enrollment numbers shaping up?
Finances:
1. Faculty continues to hear rumors of mergers, and questions about Ramapo’s financial sustainability.
2. Is there additional CARES funding expected, and if so, to what amount? Are there other inflows of funding expected?
Students:
1. Faculty would like to see better coordination with SGA on student issues.
2. Faculty expressed concern for international students – citing inconsistent reports on how well they are being responded to from the College.

There are several procedural and administrative issues that faculty remains uninformed about, and request additional clarity:

Schedule going forward: the course delivery mode and expectations from faculty and students.
Faculty Handbook revisions, or lack thereof.
Tenure clock, reappointments, and promotion opportunities. There are disciplines whose core research work and output revolves around access to equipment and labs on campus, professional conference meetings, and other things drastically limited over the past 10 months. There is concern that issues such as pausing the tenure clock have not been addressed or clarified. There are concerns regarding the limited promotion opportunities creating bottlenecks in the future.
Faculty would like to be more confident setting their own course policies – with a more informed understanding of the Provost’s position, and what other instructors are doing.
It would be helpful if faculty (esp. adjuncts & untenured profs) knew that they can schedule additional asynchronous days even if their course is listed as “virtual”.
The administration’s encouragement of students participation in the course evaluation in the Fall suggested the use of extra credit, and other grade-related incentives to complete surveys. Faculty is not comfortable with this language.

Additional non-academic concerns remain:

Faculty requests more complete and clear information regarding filing for unemployment while furloughed, and requests more support from the AFT and HR.
How will vaccination be handled for faculty? Will vaccination be mandatory for faculty, staff, and students?
What plans are being made for assisting / supporting all campus members after the pandemic, in particular the mental and emotional toll the past year has taken.

Ramapo going forward

There were several suggestions offered relating to changing the way things work at Ramapo in the future, as a result of our pandemic experiences:

Many faculty would like to see virtual meetings become the norm. Virtual participation in meetings would allow more flexible schedules, and allow for a reduction in commuting. Virtual meetings have been surprisingly efficient and effective.
The College should move to a paper-free work environment. We have switched mainly to electronic PDF forms, and this trend should continue.
FA should maintain a shared resource page for faculty.
Some faculty expressed a new confidence that alternative teaching strategies – such as hybrid and virtual synchronous learning – have benefits, and should not be dismissed for some courses going forward.

The following issues arose during the Winter 2021 Faculty Assembly Retreat:
Summary of the “raw data”

Suggestions for FAEC and Provost Council:

Respondus and problems with it, Steve Rice bringing it back to Provost council.
Organize FA and FF around one item, and discuss in depth.

Presidential Search/Administrative Issues

There was concern that the next president might not be fully committed to the College’s liberal arts mission.
A likely a concern across the faculty: Tenure clock, reappointments, and promotion opportunities. Of special concern here, issues such as pausing the tenure clock have not been addressed or clarified. There are concerns regarding the limited promotion opportunities creating bottlenecks in the future. We could even have situations where faculty are competing for promotion against faculty who started at Ramapo perhaps afterthe pandemic.
Many also brought up their confusion on how the last two semesters will be considered during tenure/promotion applications. Can the tenure clock be paused during the Covid crisis?
There are disciplines whose core research work and output revolves around access to equipment and labs on campus, professional conference meetings, and other things drastically limited over the past 10 months.
While some faculty have suggested that students have unrealistic expectations of faculty to respond to emails, others note faculty have similarly unrealistic expectations also of administration and staff.
Faculty expressed concern about the way that the administration “encouraged” student participation in the course evaluation in the Fall. The administration asked faculty to provide incentives (extra credit) for students to participate in the course evaluation. There are real ethical issues here.
There was concern for clarity around the future of the college: rumors about mergers. How sustainable is it?
Faculty looked for new information on budget, residence hall/dorming numbers, CARES act and next round of fund.
Faculty Handbook revisions or lack thereof was discussed.
Some asked: are we getting all the students from Bergen who would have otherwise gone to national universities?

Adjunct Faculty Issues

The following issues related to adjunct faculty were discussed:

Several adjunct faculty expressed appreciation for being invited to attend the retreat but feel that Ramapo doesn’t value or express appreciation to those who have been teaching there for years.
It was suggested that adjunct faculty be recognized for their teaching accomplishments. One suggestion wasthe creation of a teaching recognition award, similar to the Bischoff, (or expand eligibility for Bischoff to adjunct faculty).
Adjunct faculty should be acknowledged more and also included in all school “faculty profiles” pages on the Ramapo site. The fact that the adjunct faculty is not in the college website did create problems; students wanted to contact them but they couldn’t find them anywhere.
It was suggested that with a new Provost and a new President coming in, we have an opportunity to “train” the new admin about the best way to protect and help our adjunct faculty.

Virtual Teaching Issues

Some faculty found they were less stressed when they adjusted student expectations in the classroom. Recognizing that student engagement would take different forms in Webex and asynchronous sessions, many recommended we embrace new measures for what it means for class participation and discussion under the current circumstances.
Breakout groups offered various points of view and teaching strategies regarding “Student Screen Engagement.”
There was a sense faculty can feel more confident setting their own course policies – with a more informed understanding of the Provost’s position and what other instructors are doing.
Some faculty with young children at home expressed the anxiety they’re feeling because of working and homeschooling simultaneously.
Faculty experimented with different teaching methods during the fall and shared some of the more successful outcomes.
Useful online teaching resources suggested included Flip Grid, Miro, Mural, Vocaroo, Slack,Camtasia, Padlet.com, Jamboard. and others.
The issue of keeping cameras on was raised more than once.
Most agree that keeping cameras on is preferred for connection between students, faculty and other students.
Clear recommendations on camera use would be helpful.
Some language suggested by The Dean of ASB: The Cameras Issue: here’s some language to use in syllabi takes the tone not of demanding, but allows faculty to but err towards “opt in” rather than “opt out”:
- “For your WebEx presence to count for attendance and/or class participation, students are expected to keep their cameras on during virtual synchronous class meetings. If there is some specific reason that you cannot keep your camera on, please notify the instructor before class.”
- The above, however is not a formal policy statement.
Also noted was that many students may not have the bandwidth to accommodate keeping cameras going.
As a way of engaging students, someone suggested allowing time to socialize with each other during breakouts.

Students behavior, expectations, experience

Issues of academic integrity seem to also be exacerbated by the current situation.
How do we improve student motivation?
How are international students doing? We have some inconsistent reports on how well they are being responded to from the College.
Issues about the student code of conduct were brought up. Students need instruction in email etiquette and proper communication. Students have unrealistic expectations around email response times during the pandemic.
One suggestion was a shared list of “expected or norms of student behavior” (maybe FA take the lead?)
Some students are expressing a “customer” model of demanding “service” rather than engaging in learning in the classroom. Virtual classes seem to exacerbate this problem.
Parental involvement in academic activities and decisions was discussed. Are parents and other family members present during Webex classes? How do we deal with privacy issues?
Many recommended a need for more coordinatation with SGA on student issues.
Going forward, we need to give students more clarity on course delivery modes and expectations from faculty and students.

Furlough/ Unemployment Application

Faculty shared firsthand experiences, concerns and confusion about the process. It would be good to continue to receive updates from AFT / FAEC on this topic.

Wellness

Faculty expressed concerns about student and faculty fatigue.
It would be helpful if faculty (esp. adjuncts & untenured profs) knew they could schedule additional asynchronous days to mitigate anxiety on both sides of webex courses.
What are the covid vaccination policies for faculty, staff and students?
Will the College mandate covid vaccinations for faculty, staff and students to return to campus?
Many faculty expressed anxiety and stress regarding returning to campus.
There was concern about returning post-Covid. How to help one another after this? Will we all have PTSD?

Resources

The library’s robust ILL program was commended and recommended.
The possibility of using Webex/ etc. for faculty meetings in the future.
There was a desire for a shared resource page for faculty.

FA Planning

Some suggested FA should please plan ahead so that next Fall, FA can include virtual attendance.
Likewise, some suggested UNIT COUNCIL meetings also allow for virtual attendance.

Sustainability/ Post-Covid

Will our distance learning experience move us toward abandoning paper processes for good?

Categories: FA RCNJ 2021, RAMAPO FAEC

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

January 26, 2021FAEC Minutes, December 2, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 12/2/2020

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

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

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

Faculty Assembly

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