Academic Senate Minutes

December 3, 2003

Amended

Members Present: Anuakan, Eyedat, Feuer, Furtado, Ganezer, Gasco, Goss, Gould, Greenwald, Han, Hay, Heinze-Balcazar, Heuschkel, Jacobs, Jones, Kaplan, Karber, Kowalski, Long, Malamud, McClane, Moy, Needham, Parker, Robles, Saunders, Turk, Vanterpool, Watson, and Weber.

Members Absent: Chlebicki, Christie, Cokelez, Danis, Dominguez, Dowling, Frickel, Johnson, C., McCarthy, McDermott, Newton, Pu, Sheu, Smith, Todd, and Waller.

Ex Officio Members Present: Gordon, Levine, Mori, Pardon, Parham, Reyes, and Rodriguez. A., Strong, Whittemore, and Williams.

Guests: Bohman, Cruise, Levine, Luong, Mellblom, Pomerantz, Porter, Prosser, Rhodes, Woods and Yao (if you signed the attendance sheet but your name is not here it is because your handwriting was not legible)

Approval of Agenda M/S/P

Approval of Minutes M/S/P

First Reading Item:

Exec 03-16 Summer Session 2004-There was a discussion about the proposed resolution, which would allow for two sequential six-week sessions during the summer of 2004. The configuration eliminates the problematic 3rd session, which is truncated and leaves Student Affairs insufficient time to process grades and financial aid. It also better serves students by not allowing them to take an excessive course load during the overlap (beginning some course(s) while finishing others). The same applies to faculty who teach an excessive workload during the overlap. It also better serves programs that offer sequential courses. Finally, some believe that the university will be able to generate more FTE with two distinct sessions because departments can create more attractive course schedules and students can take more courses.

Summer Session –This is a brand new summer schedule different from any other we have ever had. Whetmore said that a student could take up to 12 units. Greenwald said that one must take up to 2250 minutes of contact hours. Mori said that those standards are set by commissions and accrediting bodies, but he wondered whether online courses should have the same number of minutes. Dr. Mori hopes the Senate will work with this and hopes it will bring some order. Malamud said that the time frame for night students is not good, and wondered if we could extend modules to 8 or 9 week sessions with 2 class meetings per week? Whetmore said that the modules were set up to be 12 weeks total. Whetmore asked for a sense of the Senate about these changes and all were in favor except for one.

Teaching Time Modifications

There was a discussion about the new module for summer and fall. Greenwald said that the majority of classes excluding evenings are two days a week. We should not let modules overlap. Furtado, concerned about GED students who work, said that these new models are not geared towards them. Jacobs said that IDS has Saturday classes and there are no allowances in this schedule for them. Provost Mori said that these models maximize use of the facilities. Malamud said that it’s good that we will have MWF and evening classes but that we would probably lose students. Yvette Velarde said that we could create new modules as long as they don’t overlap what is already in place. Whetmore asked for a sense of the senate as to how many feel these changes are acceptable and all were in favor except for one. Gould asked that the modules when published include a statement that classes could be scheduled outside the regular modules, if necessary, subject to administrative approval.

Reorganization

Whetmore said to Mori there were two questions regarding reorganization. 1. Why reorganize and 2. How will this affect the way departments receive their budget, and regarding impact will it be revenue neutral.

The Provost said the President was concerned about reorganization. He had looked at the reports and literature on campus and it is clear that there was a great amount of dissatisfaction regarding the current organization. Resources are seemingly being wasted. The Provost gave an example of 3 unmentioned departments on campus: one with 60 FTE and the chair has ½ release time; another with 54 FTE and the chair has ½ release time; and lastly another with 1000 FTE and the chair has ½ release time. If we continue this pattern it’s not going to work. We need to be organized in a different way. We need to look at the future and not just focus on the next two years, which are going to be financially difficult. The Provost said that at his meeting for the first time the system architecture was brought up and it was suggested that colleges be shut down, say three colleges of engineering be shut to avoid duplication of programs (e.g. engineering). We can allocate resources to keep existing programs and when we come out of this the only way we will get new money is to grow. The Provost said that 9 local campuses are impacted and only two are not—Dominguez Hills and Cal State LA. This means that we are going to grow explosively and we need to be ready.

The Provost also said that we have the resources to cover a 5th dean module. Dr. Mori also said that if a configuration does not work, it will not be set in stone, and that he was committed to looking at the structure and changing it if it needs to be changed.

Senator Kaplan spoke and said that he noticed all models relocated the Political Science Department to business Administration. Believing this change fait accompli Kaplan said he is resigned to it. His colleagues however are not. There is a wall of opposition to this change in the Political Science Department; they believe they should be aligned with the social sciences.

Gould urged strongly that we work cautiously about merging departments, especially if it’s to save resources; perhaps a department would like to give up resources instead of merging with another department. Provost Mori asked senators to please ask questions and that he was not there to debate.

Senator Anuakan wanted to know if the department of Africana Studies would maintain degree granting authority and Provost Mori said yes. The reorganization is not to reduce or eliminate programs but to create synergy to bring new programs on line to meet student’s needs.

Mori said that he does not know what the release time situation will look like over the next two years after today’s meeting regarding budget.

Senator Gasco noted that the Anthropology Department is curious about being in humanities and said that Anthropology is a social science and there is not a college in the country that puts Anthropology in the Humanities area. Provost Mori said that affinity and synergy would be created with this module.

President’s Report

The President said that he is not hearing enough discussion about the proposed models: he asked Senators to critique the models and use the web board to dialogue. Once the decision has been made, he is not going to hold additional town hall meetings etc. its not going to happen. It is going to be difficult to handle the budget cuts but we can’t stop moving forward.

Regarding CMS there is a problem between the CSU and CFA, and we can’t be the only school in the system that doesn’t use CMS. The President wanted to know how far behind we would want to fall because CMS is not going away. We have delayed long enough.

Provost’s Report

At the meeting the Provost attended today at the Chancellor’s Office it was announced that there would be a $100 million cut in 03-04 budget and the cut will be over the next 18 months. In addition, there will be $200 to $300 million-dollar reduction next year. We received no guidance from Sacramento yet about how to deal with this. Our proportionate cut will be 15-17% of our current state budget, which is $67,000,000. It’s about as bad as it gets.

The Provost announced that tomorrow there will be a system wide conference and we need to get students graduated ASAP. Our hope is that the conference will lead to action. He also said that our system wide enrollment is down. We anticipated a 415,000 head count but did not reach that number.

Senator Smith asked if there was any plan to stop searches and the Provost said we are being asked to go slow with our 45 searches and wait for the governor’s budget and we won’t do any heavy hiring. Dean Williams asked whether he should hold up on money his college is actually spending because of travel and interviews.

The Provost said that currently we have a heavy part time faculty population and he would like to reverse that and have many, many more Full Time Tenure track faculty.

Senator Feuer asked if after the reorganization takes place faculty would be able to teach in other colleges if they want to, and the Provost said yes. And that he is committed to make sure General Education gets what it needs to prosper and thrive.

Senator Watson praised model 3 and said that he really liked the placement of Quality Assurance in that model.

FPC Report-Chair Hay deferred to EPC Report

EPC Report-Chair Smith mentioned that on December 12 Maryellen Weimer would be here to give a workshop.

Statewide Senate Report—Chair Smith said that today’s discussion about the budget has outdated the information he was going to give.

Open Forum

Senator Kaplan said that he was so sorry about the fight he had with Senator Smith regarding WI classes last year--now it does not make any difference. They both laughed.

Meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

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Mary E. Brooks Edd Whetmore

Assistant Chair, Academic Senate