Orient Point Room, BSC

Minutes

September 26, 2016

11:15 am

Present: C. Stoss (chair), C. Bosco, E. Lauer, E. Chropufka, D. Hannigan, L. Altman, J. Losordo, M. Alonso-Almagro

Survey: Based on the Professional Development Day session held in spring 2016, a rough draft of a faculty survey was generated by Dean Munsch. Senators Alonso-Almagro and Hannigan will inform the Senate that the survey has been created and ask for feedback as to the best time to send out the survey. They will also advertise the New Senator Mixer.

A complaint generated from Professional Development day was the inadequate information available on the college website in general. Stoss recently received a complaint about missing or wrong phone numbers and contact information for disability services.

Clarify Conference Reimbursement and Tuition Reimbursement: Losardo volunteered to investigate the process for reimbursement. Almagro-Alonso discovered that the form on the FA website is incorrect. It was suggested that Linda Kuehhas, as the secretary to the Executive Dean, may be able to clarify the process.

Updates from Bookstore and Food Service Committees: The Grant campus now has a salad bar in response to student requests for more healthy options. Starbuck may be coming to the Ammerman campus. The next Food Service meeting will take place on 10/7/2016. The Bookstore Advisory Committee did not have any major problems to report. In general faculty and students are pleased with the bookstore’s services.

Department Websites: The new online platform that is meant to provide uniformity to department websites has not yet been released. The ability of departments to update their webpages varies based on the access to the old platform.

Security Issues: Two female students were harassed in the Ammerman building parking lot. The women took pictures of their harasser and, feeling that campus security failed to take serious steps to protect them, posted those pictures to Twitter. Security has the name and information of this person but has not informed the college community of the incident. Questions were raised about the efficacy of the campus security and the need for greater communication. Stoss will find out if there is a campus safety committee to which one can bring these concerns. Lauer suggested that campus security should also provide emergency and safety training for faculty, students and staff on an on-going basis.

Alonso-Almagro was reimbursed for a three day stay at a Manhattan based conference. She needed to include an additional justification regarding the need to stay overnight. This information allowed the college to make a case by case decision regarding NYC based conference reimbursements.

Hannigan raised the issue of dangerous pedestrian and driving conditions across campus because of students picked up and dropped off in the traffic lanes, the traffic circle and faculty parking lots. A new traffic circle will be constructed on the North Road. Construction will potentially begin in the summer of 2017.

There is a need for intercampus busing. It would reduce traffic, support the college’s mission statement of sustainability and aid students with limited transportation options. Stoss will bring this idea to the Student Liaison Committee.

There have been problems with the computers in the classrooms in the Southampton and Islip buildings. Chropufka will investigate.