CSUDH Academic Senate Meeting
Loker Student Union 9/25/02
Amended 10/9/02
Voting Members Present: Casten, Chlebicki, Christie, Cruise, Dominguez, Frickel, Furtado, Furusa, Gasco, Goders, Gould, Jacobs, Jennings, Johnson, C., Johnson, J., Kowalski, Long, Malamud, McDermott, Moscovici, Moy, Parker, Saunders, Sheu, Smith, L., Sturm, Todd, Vanterpool, Waller, Watson, Welch, and Whetmore
Voting Members Absent: Charnofsky, Cockelez, Ganezer, Kaplan, Kim, Lyons,
and Smith, J.
Non-Voting Ex-Officio Members Present: Ambrosetti, Dowling, Lindsay, Parham, Rodriguez, A., and Williams, S.
Guests: Woods, Mellblom, Bohman, Bell-Waters, Porter, and Yao
Call to Order at 2:40 p.m.
Chair Whetmore announced that the President and Provost were out of town and would not be at the meeting today. He said that the meeting would be shorter.
Approval of Amended Agenda M/S/P
Approval of Minutes 9/11/02 M/S/P
Whetmore thanked Senator Gould for his input on the minutes before they were distributed. Senator L. Smith noted a few grammatical problems that he would forward to Assistant Brooks.
Chairs Report
· Whetmore said that the announcement would go out this afternoon for faculty who wish to participate on the National Training CenterTaskforce. Six faculty members will be chosen, and the President will appoint several people. The first meeting will be September 30th or October 2nd. There will be a lunch with the President and we will begin discussion on how to process requests from faculty and others for projects related to the NTC. There will be three distinct project areas 1). faculty research projects and student internships 2). physical status of the University buildings and grounds; and 3). academic programs that meet specified needs of the new campus partners.
· Senator Malamud noted that a lot of these areas already have committees. Before we set up new committees, why don’t we run these ideas by already established committees? Why is the Executive Committee circumventing this process? Has the Executive Committee approved this structure without going through the Senate? Whetmore said that there was nothing in the constitution or bylaws that addresses this issue. Malamud said that Whetmore could do what he wanted but that the Senate had not worked this way before. Whetmore offered to hear from other Senators and McDermott said that given the large nature of the NTC and the conversations we have had the collaboration of the Senate is necessary.
· Whetmore said that the best way to proceed would be for the Executive Committee to draft a set of guidelines for such a committee and bring it back to the Senate in a couple of weeks and then the Senators could vote up or down. Senator Gould said that he remembers a few years ago that Acting Dean Dowling drafted a document that addressed guidelines for creating committees. Malamud asked what Whetmore meant by “up or down?” Whetmore said that he meant yes or no. Malamud was concerned that by using this language that there would not be senate consultation. Whetmore said that was not what he meant and that he would continue to consult with the Senate.
· Whetmore said that the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) has proposed an open forum to discuss the NTC project with faculty and answer any questions that faculty might have. Senator Goders wanted clarification on who is forming the taskforce. He was also concerned as to why AEG would be conducting open forums. They are tenants who are subleasing from the Foundation. Goders was not sure why we would bring our concerns to them. Why aren’t we holding the open forums? We have the opportunity to read the agreements. Goders went on to say that we might want to have our own open forum and have our President or his designee carry our concerns to AEG. Goders was concerned that AEG might be influencing the consultative process on this campus. Maybe we need the definition of that relationship before the open forum takes place. Whetmore said it was part of a public relations effort. Malamud suggested that AEG visit the Senate and let the Senate hear what they want to say. Goders said that he wanted AEG to hear what we are saying (emphasized). He proposed that we prepare our comments and present them through the appropriate campus designee. Whetmore said that he would take these ideas back to the Executive Committee for their review.
· Whetmore announced that all Senate meetings would be held in the Welch Hall Symposium next semester and explained the advantages of the new location.
· Whetmore said that the agenda of the next meeting would include the following: 1). a rough draft of the proposed scholarship, research and creative activity award. 2). the resolution on procedures for renaming and restructuring programs; and
3). more information regarding untenured chairs. There are also a lot of part time issues that fall within the governance area that may require Senate action.
· Whetmore said that our constitution states that the Senate is to serve as a medium for expressing the opinions of the faculty members on matters affecting the operations of the University. R. Gordon thought that the Senate might want to speak to the issue of the USA going to war with Iraq. Whetmore wanted to know what the Senate’s feedback would be on this issue? Gould remembered discussing the war in Vietnam at a Senate meeting years ago and the discussion never got to a vote. Senators Welch, Malamud and Jacobs did not understand the relevance to the Senate of the possibility of a war in Iraq. Goders brought up two factors: 1). Student’s who would be eligible for the draft, and, 2). the cost of a war—education funds might be cut . Gould suggested an open discussion on campus to determine whether there are Senate issues.
· Whetmore said that despite higher enrollment it was not clear how much additional funding would be forthcoming. The President has said he did not want to get into another “Detweiler situation” where the University enrolled students beyond our allocation and then didn’t get funded. This observation led to a discussion about a funding formula that continues to underfund the campus. AVP Ambrosetti said that Deans of schools and colleges have been advised to “go forth in faith.”
· Whetmore said that Proposition 47 would be on the ballot in November. There will be $ 1.65 billion in funding for higher education with $ 495.9 million targeted for the CSU. $6.65 million will be coming to CSUDH with an additional $400,000.00 directly coming to us. Whetmore would welcome your thoughts via email on this opportunity for Administration, Faculty and CFA to have a fund raising event.
· Our library expansion was in the original list of priorities for Proposition 47, but it did not make the cut for this package. It will probably be part of another bond issue two years from now.
· Whetmore thanked everyone for the responses to the Eddlines e-mailer he sent out.
· Whetmore introduced the new Senators: Marco Turk from Behavioral Sciences, Ralph Saunders from Earth Sciences and Ted Frickel from Economics. We are very pleased to have them serve as Senators.
Parliamentarian
· Parliamentarian Johnson conducted the first election for the Program Review Panel. Three faculty were nominated--Gay Goss, Kirti Celly, and Caron Mellblom--we need two more faculty on the ballot. Cathy Jacobs was nominated. Gould moved that we approve these four names by acclamation. M/S/P.
· The next election was for the Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Committee. Jaime Webb was elected by acclamation. M/S/P
· The next election was for the U Campaign Grants Awards Committee. Cynthia McDermott was elected by acclamation. M/S/P
· The next election was for The Writing Competency Committee. We have two faculty nominated--John Davis and Munashe Furusa-- there were no other nominations. John Davis was elected to this committee.
Second Reading Item: Exec 02-09 Academic Calendar 2003-2004
· Approval of the academic calendar 2003-2004 was moved. Senator Vanterpool moved that the calendar be amended to include the Honors Convocation which will be on April 23rd, 2003 and every 4th Friday in April thereafter. All were in favor. Senator L. Smith asked why commencement was being held on the 21st of May instead of Memorial Weekend? He pointed out that this would seemingly not make a 16 week semester. Senators were asked why the break was moved to the middle of the semester. Vice Chair Waller said that an informal survey was taken of the faculty and most were in favor of having the break in the middle of the semester instead of at Easter. Waller said that the goal was to move graduation away from Memorial Day Weekend. Waller also noted that spring break was moved to the middle of the semester by the Senate. Smith moved that the Senate amend the calendar so that spring break would overlap the Cesar Chavez holiday changing the dates from March 22 - March 27 to March 28 - April 3rd. ASI Representative Abaya said that ASI prefers that the Cesar Chavez holiday be separate from the spring break. The amendment passed by a vote of 19 to 10.
· Gould moved that we change the name of spring break to Cesar Chavez Spring Recess. This amendment was defeated. L. Smith said that the intent of his amendment would be that Cesar Chavez holiday always be during spring break. Vanterpool moved the question. M/S/P. The amended motion to approve the calendar was passed. M/S/P. Whetmore proposed that next semester the calendar committee bring a two-year calendar to the Senate. McDermott thanked the calendar committee for all of their hard work. Gould asked the calendar committee to consider making Thanksgiving holiday a full week.
Discussion Items
· Whetmore said that while full time faculty hires have remained stationary, student numbers have risen and Management Personnel Plan (MPP) category administrators have risen by approximately 40 percent. At the Provost’s open forum 9/17/02 Walton said that her role was to gather information only. Faculty wanted to know where these extra administrators/MPPs are. What are they doing? How many are in each area? Whetmore indicated Dr. Schoenwald was counted because he had not received tenure at Channel Islands. Campus fundraising efforts have brought more MPP’s but the bulk of the growth appears to be at the school and college level. One VP position for WASC is gone, one AVP has retired which will bring numbers down. Malamud wanted to know why it is taking so long to get this information? Goders, who attended most of the Provost’s open forum said that we are spending too much time looking at the details and that we don’t understand the big picture. If we want to move into the ranks of a top ten University how can we aspire to quality when we have a demoralized faculty?
Reports
· Vanterpool reported that the Statewide Senate met on September 12 and 13th, in Long Beach. Vanterpool reminded us to support Proposition 47. He also said that the Statewide Senate passed a resolution that unit three employees could use their parking fees as pretax dollars. And he said that the Statewide Senate voted to change the number of transfer units from 56 to 60.
· L. Smith wanted to remind the Social Science faculty that there is space available in the Title V faculty seminar. To avoid confusion with the Liberal Studies Title V grant, the new grant will now be referred to as ECLP(Enhancing Critical Literacy Project). Faculty associates and student tutors for CLASS are still needed.
Open Forum
· Goders said that he read through the entire NTC contract and he encouraged all faculty to review the document. He contended that the parking situation is going to be a problem. There will be 106 events per year. During NTC events the corporation will take control of all parking. Those arriving on campus without prepaid permits will be admitted at their discretion. Stack parking is a possibility. How will faculty teaching schedules be affected? We need damage control. We may need our President to talk to their attorneys.
· McDermott wanted to know why the Home Depot NTC is on our electronic sign. We should charge them for advertising. Who allowed this to happen? Casten thanked Goders for reading the NTC document. Malamud wanted to know if faculty would be assigned a parking lot to use during NTC events and would the walking distance be far.
· McDermott said that faculty were concerned about enrollment data including enrollment per section campus-wide and general enrollment data.
Meeting Adjourned at 4:25p.m.
Respectfully Submitted By
Mary Brooks
Chair’s Assistant