California State University Dominguez Hills

Academic Senate Minutes

September 19, 2007

Voting Members Present: Berlin, Best, Bordinaro, Butler, D’Amore, Erbe, Fawver, Ferris, Furtado, Furusa, Ganezer, Harvard-Hinchberger, Heinze-Balcazar, Herbert, Jacobs, Jones, Kalayjian, Kaplan, Kowalski, Malamud, McCarthy, Murrey, Needham, Pawar, Russo, Sneed, Weber, and Welch.

Voting Members Absent: Bohman, Clark, Faraji, Gould, Hancock, Levine, Ma, Papa, Park, Shakib, Vanterpool, Wang, and Zoerner.

Ex-Officio Members Present: Blue, Ferris for Hohm, Garcia, Gordon, M., Long, Maki, Robles, Strong, and Wiley.

Guests:

1.The meeting was called to order at 2:35 p.m.

2.The agenda was approved MSP.

3.The minutes were approved with minor amendments MSP.

Time Certains:

3:00 p.m. Laura Robles-RSCAAP Criteria and Points-Robles passed out a flat sheet with the old and new mini grant criteria. Robles reported that some of the criteria have remained and/or been expanded, and some points remain the same while some have changed. Best mentioned that at a senate meeting in the spring it was suggested that we go with more of a holistic approach than a point schedule. Malamud said that this point system does not help senior faculty. Butler said that this was an information item only and that no action was to be taken. Robles said that if any senators feel strongly about the way the criteria is set up to join the committee. Belu said that 10 points for student involvement is a disadvantage to faculty who don’t work with students on their advanced research. Robles pointed out that the criteria say “or” so that it is not just involvement with students in research. Sneed said that it is really easy to involve a student in faculty research by mentoring. Malamud said that he agreed with the holistic approach and that the point system does not work. Herbert pointed out that this was not just for teaching faculty and that the psychologists in student development and the health center do research as well. Furtado said that she sits on the committee and that all of the proposals submitted are high quality and carefully reviewed.

3:15 p.m. Jan Gasco and Rachael Wangui-International Opportunities-Gasco and Wangui visited the senate and encouraged faculty to encourage their students to experience a year long study abroad program. Gasco and Wangui were also at the meeting to advertise the need for faculty to serve as Resident Directors in these programs. Wangui reported that she has been visiting classes informing our students about the programs and encouraged the faculty to allow her to speak to their classes. The first deadline is February 1, 2008 for the International Program applications. Wangui said she would be conducting a meeting on October 9, 2007 from 12 to 1p.m. for anyone that is interested.

3:30 p.m. Pete Vanhamersveld-CSUDH Quick Survey Fall 2007-VanHamersveld reported to the Senate on the Quick Survey format and wanted any input from the Senate before it was administered. He said that the purpose was to have data that describes our student population. He reported that in creating the survey he took items from a 20 year old survey (Student Needs and Priorities Survey) that took an hour of class time to complete which is too long. This survey is shorter and takes about 5 minutes to complete. Weber suggested that he add what the gender is and if they are single heads of household. Bordinaro wanted to add “other” as to how they are paying for college. Malamud suggested that this survey be done online. Fawver wanted to include sex and age cohorts. Heinze-Balcazar suggested that Latino be added along with Hispanic. Malamud suggested that VanHamersveld could send the survey to 300 or 400 students via email. VanHamersveld said that this was a good idea but that he first would like to survey the 40 classes and then post the survey on Blackboard.

Executive Reports:

Chair’s Report-Rod Butler-None

Parliamentarian Report-Pat Kalayjian-Kalayjian passed out a ballot for the Search Committee for AVP of Student Affairs. The four nominees were Michele Linden (CAH), Nancy Erbe (CAH), Doris Ressl (CAH), Mohammed Eyadat (BAP). Michele Linden and Mohammed Eyadat were elected. The next election was for Program Review Panels. The nominee was Nancy Erbe. There were no nominations from the floor. Nancy Erbe was elected by acclamation. The next election was for the Search Committee for the Director of EOP. The nominee was Jose Lopez-Morin. There were no nominations from the floor. Jose Lopez-Morin was elected by acclamation.

EPC Report-Cathy Jacobs-No Report

FPC Report-Munashe Furusa-Furusa reported that FPC is working on finalizing the PTE instrument and that the results should be ready by the end of spring. They are working with Gus Martin in Faculty Personnel.

Statewide Senate Report-Caroline Bordinaro-

  • GEAC Committee – General Ed Advisory Committee
  • The committee is in the process of revising EO 595 with the goal of including more current and relevant language regarding diversity, technology and international initiatives.
  • Also, we examined the UC report and determined that the CSU has a more cohesive system that more easily allows for inter-campus transfer.
  • There will be a one-day system wide GE colloquium with invited representatives from campus GE committees and selected administrators.
  • Faculty Affairs Committee -- Textbook affordability resolution and task force report
  • The FAC drafted a resolution thanking the task force for their work and agreeing with the spirit and direction of the document, referencing an earlier resolution that included targeted language regarding academic freedom and the ability of classroom faculty to select their own course texts.
  • Faculty Affairs committee –
  • Regarding the $210/unit surcharge to MBA students, there was great debate in the senate. The senate passed a resolution to halt any progress with this fee until the senators can study the full report from the CO in depth.
  • The report states that the CSU is unable to attract faculty with business doctorates because of our low salary offers. This fee would help alleviate the problem.
  • The report also states that most MBA students are subsidized by their employers, and both enter and exit the programs with a markedly higher salary than students in other programs, so the fee would not pose a hardship for these students.
  • CCC ballot initiative – the ASCSU passed a resolution against the initiative, stating that it would unfairly allocate limited state public education funds and undermine the mission of both the UC and CSU systems.

Interim Provost’s Report-Sam Wiley-

Action on the Joint Task Force on Freshmen Success Recommendations.

  1. We have allocated an additional $60K to each of the Colleges CAH and NBS to partially offset the additional costs associated with the developmental courses.
  2. Through a grant from the Chancellor’s Office we are now offering enough sections of UNV 101 for all first-time freshmen this year. These courses are being team taught, allowing us to bring in new faculty to work with those experienced in teaching the course. We expect that this will result in at least 12 additional faculty experienced in teaching UNV 101.
  3. UNV 101 courses are being teamed with GE courses so that cohorts of students are taking the same two courses.
  4. We have just approved a plan from Undergraduate Studies to test cohorting developmental courses or other appropriate English or Math courses with paired UNV 101 and GE sections, starting next fall.
  5. We have expanded the “Early Warning System” to all developmental courses this fall. Students in developmental math or English who show work quality or attendance issues in the first 3 weeks are notified by the advising center that they need to come in and see an advisor.
  6. The English department currently offers “flippable” 088 and 099 sections that can be changed, based on student enrollment.
  7. They have also established ENG 195, an alternative course to 110 for the “near miss” students with EPT or 099 scores near passing.
  8. Math tutoring has been expanded with mandatory Math Labs for students in developmental Math.

The Provost encouraged faculty to encourage their students to get involved in the International Programs. He said that when the NSSE was administered to students one of the questions asked was “What would they like to do versus what they did? And the number one answer was that students would have liked to have had an overseas experience. Through our International Program we can make that happen.

President’s Report-Millie Garcia-The President said that she is continuing to learn more about Dominguez Hills and she thanked everyone for being so open with her. She said that her office has sent out a survey to over 400 people on the campus and the first day 27 surveys came in. She has been reviewing the data and will have a content analysis done. She said that we need to be proud we are here. She sees students and staff and faculty working and being helpful. She said that we need to be Ambassadors, and that we need to look at what we do extremely well and document this. She said that we can celebrate for the grants we have received. The President said she is bringing in three consultants to look at enrollment management.

The President said that the whole area of financial stability will come together. She said that we have to deal with reality and go back and balance the checkbook, and that all the money on the campus is University money.

The President said that the Board of Trustees is talking about remediation and that Dominguez Hills submitted a report to the board before she arrived. The board is very interested in what we are doing.

The President wanted to thank everyone and said that we have a wonderful institution.

Open Forum-Weber thanked the President for her work with the HomeDepotCenter and asked her if she had any thoughts on the funding system and the President said our campus is being looked at very carefully along with other campuses that have the same problems.

Kalayjian announced that the Sandra Cisneros event was a phenomenal turn out and that tomorrow night Luis Rodriguez will be giving a lecture. The President said that the fact that we are bringing so many visitors to our campus is very impressive the Directors of Alumni Associations met here last week and loved our facility.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:25 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted By,

Mary Brooks, Chair’s AssistantRod Butler, Chair, Academic Senate