Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting
April 1, 2009
http://www.scsu.ctstateu.edu/organizations/facultysenate
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The eleventh meeting of the 2008-2009 year was called to order at 12:10 PM.
Members Present: Emenyonu (Accounting); Selvaggio (Anthropology); Vu (Art); Pang (Chemistry); Madlock (Communication); DaPonte (Computer Science); Lawler (Counseling); Fopiano (Couns/Sch Psych); Fleming (Earth Science); Mills (Econ/Finance); Diamantis (Education); Goldberg (Education); Madonia (Ed Leadership); Larocco (English); Shea (English); Johnson (English); Petrie (English); Schmitt (Foreign Language); Olson (Foreign Language); Heidkamp (Geography); Paddock (History); Metaxas (History); Dunklee (Journalism); Hedreen (Library Services); Toce (Library Services); Prince (Marketing); Scheuermann (Mathematics); Gubitose (Mathematics); O’Brien (Media Studies); Nelson (Nursing); Rebeschi (Nursing); Anderson (Part-Time Faculty); Pettigrew (Philosophy); Horch (Physics); Buterbaugh (Political Science); Sherman (Psychology); Faraclas (Public Health); Jones (Recreation/Leisure); Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud); Rofuth (Social Work); Bloch (Sociology); Brucker (Special Ed/Reading); Nye (Theatre); Weiss (UCF); Gilliland (Guest); Vaden-Goad (Guest).
Members Absent: Lavin (Art); Maloney (Athletics); Feng (Biology); Jirsa (Com Disorders/MFT); Swartz (Exercise Science); Calahan (Exercise Science); Olson (Foreign Language); Bielefield (Library Science); Page (Management); _______ (Music); Carrano (Part-time Faculty); Goldblatt (Part-time Faculty); Ciarlone (Part-time Faculty); Colwell (Psychology); Cameron (Social Work); Tamura (Special Ed/Reading).
The minutes of March 4, 2009 were approved.
Guest: Dr. Wendy Chang, Chief Information Officer
Dr. Chang informed the Senate on Vista e-learning software and its benefits. By Fall 2009 all courses will be loaded on Vista instead of the MY SCSU course management system. This means that all course rosters will be accessible at the e-learning Vista. This course management system has greater capabilities and it is the strategic platform for the CSU system, which means that it will be one of the first items loaded up after a disaster recovery procedure. Mr. Stan Walonoski is working and will continue to work with faculty to train them on the Vista use, during spring, summer and fall semesters if needed. Group services will remain at MY SCSU for now. Concerns were raised on the email use in Vista, currently it doesn’t seem to be working right either in receiving or sending emails. Dr. Change replied that it can be enabled to achieve this service. Current course material from MY SCSU can be archived and moved to VISTA for future use; VISTA can hold the material for two years.
Summer Tech: she didn’t know of the program, doesn’t know if it will be offered and continued.
Dr. Chang has introduced and invited faculty participation in a new Technology Award Program; please feel free to contact her for further information. Hi Tech Classroom support for evening and weekends will be investigated since the issue was raised at different meetings and it has not been addressed yet. She is working on new mass email procedures and policies and working with the PR department to utilize other channels.
Announcements:
ü Cinema Du Monde tonight at 7:30 in EN A 120 – all are welcomed.
ü The week of April 20th is devoted to many Holocaust events – all are welcome to attend.
ü May 9th, the Graduate Reading program is sponsoring the 4th annual Literacy conference: “Literacy Lights The Way” with Don Perrish the keynote speaker.
ü Friday, April 17th, at 1-2:30 there will be a Town Hall meeting from faculty opposed to the proposed General Education Program, please attend to hear their concerns.
ü New course offering: Principles and Practices – REC 216 offered in the fall as an elective.
ü Book Reading and Signing: Brian Johnson is reading poems from his book: Torch Lake and Other Poems, on Thursday, April 2, at 7:30 pm in the Miller Hall at First Presbyterian Church.
At this time President Johnson announced that Dr. Herron asked for two volunteers from the Senate to serve on the Food Services Committee. The volunteers are: Joy Foppiano and Bill Sherman.
President’s Report ~~ President Johnson distributed the report and opened discussions on the following:
· Status of current faculty searches: very unclear and it seems that some chairs have heard different news than others. No new tenure track positions will be filled and no new 1-year positions will be filled for fall 2009. Only the 2nd year renewals will be honored for fall 2009.
President Johnson requested permission to change the order of items on the Agenda, it was approved and President Johnson moved to the New Business.
Chairs’ Council Statement on non-contractual reassigned time: the Chairs’ council authored a statement on Non-Contractual Reassigned Time at SCSU and was presented to the Senate for endorsement.
A motion from the floor: the Senate fully supports and endorses the Chairs’ Council Statement of Southern Connecticut State University Department Chairs on Non-Contractual Reassigned Time. The motion was accepted unanimously.
UCF General Education Proposal:
There was lengthy discussion on the Senate’s vote on the LEP proposal, the meaning of the action taken at Senate and the implication of the results to the faculty referendum. The following motion was presented from the floor, which defines the wording as the results of the Senate votes will be presented to the faculty:
The Senate voted on the LEP proposal; ____ number of Senators voted “for” the proposal and ____ number of Senators voted “against” the proposal.
The question was called and accepted. The main motion was voted upon and it was accepted by majority, with 4 Nays and 1 abstention out of 43 attending Senators.
The discussions continued on the LEP proposal but the vote on the proposal was postponed for the next Senate meeting, April 8. All Senators were asked to make another effort to read the proposal carefully and poll their departments on how to vote next week. The next step will be the Referendum and all individual faculty members will register their votes on the LEP proposal.
Motion to adjourn at 2:05 was accepted.
Respectfully submitted,
Maria Diamantis
Secretary of the Senate