FAEC Dec 16, 2020

FAEC MINUTES 12/16/2020

 Present: Naseem Choudhury (President, SSHS), Katie Cohen (Library), Donna Flynn (Councilor-at-Large under 11, TAS), Scott Frees (Vice President, TAS), Kim Lorber (Secretary), Lisa Lutter, (CA), Thierry Rakotobe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ed Shannon (HGS)

 Guests: Ashwani Vasishth (SSHS)

 Vote to bring the meeting to order at 10:04am.

 Minutes Approval: The 12/2/20 minutes were approved. 

 FA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

 Meeting with President Mercer: Scott and Naseem had a brief meeting with the President. They thanked the President for limiting layoffs this semester even though even one round was too many.

 Meeting with Provost Gaulden:

 Provost Council: Faculty would benefit from reading the minutes and policies. An example of an important policy is about remote teaching and course delivery guidelines. Some policies were voted on. Items included number of credits for Latin Honors, course caps, concentrations versus tracks, etc. Clarification is needed regarding concentrations and tracks for course and program design by faculty,

 Student Evaluations:

•     This is not the same as the revised paper version; it is close but not the same. Hopefully, this will be fixed for next semester.
•     Janet Faber was going to organize a folder for each promotion candidate but Fall 2019 is missing due to a scanning issue. Naseem will check.

 Sabbatical Announcements: These were due 12/3. FDF announcements were due 12/11 and have been moved to 12/18.

 Committee Decision Rationales: The Provost will ask committees to have rationales for recommendations.

 Personnel Decisions: The Provost wants to make sure there is enough time and to know more about applications, reviews, how often candidates have previously applied, as well as the rank of applicants. She will ask questions and not rubber stamp. 

 Personnel Handbook: The meeting has not been scheduled nor has an email been sent. Possible that ER plans to submit a completed draft without input from faculty. 

Connect/Advisement/CSS: Who does advisement? We need to discuss this.

GUEST ASHWANI VASISHTH:

Sustainable Development Goals: A two-fold program curricular co-curricular hub idea was proposed. One is a UN sustainability plan to be achieved by 203: Sustainable Development Goals (STGs) A number of colleges are using STGs linking courses to these goals. Ex: If a student wants to study poverty, they would have a master list of courses relevant to this topic. Clubs can also be mapped to STGS to create alliances. A second part would be to reach out to Bergen County to include STGs as well. This would include business management. ASB is working hard on this.  A faculty presentation is being considered. SGA involvement is very important.

FAEC DISCUSSION

Advisement: Faculty accountability seems to be part of the agenda. Students have more resources than ever with U.Achieve. There are competing opinions about documenting on Connect, for example. We need to discuss this with the Provost.

Mandatory Diversity Training: Nicole Morgan Agard made an announcement at FA. Faculty has questions. Timely announcements are needed and not 2 days before Unit Council, which likely has an agenda. Many instructors, adjuncts, etc. do not come to Unit Council; this is not the best way to reach all. Naseem will email Nicole about the weaknesses of using Unit Council and to find another way to make these announcements.

Susan Vallario: She asked if she could come to the Faculty Assembly’s open meetings. She will be invited. She attends SGA meetings and others on campus.

FA Morale Fund: If we donate the funds, will we lose our budget for future in-person meetings? Naseem will talk to Brittany.

January Retreat: planning in progress. 

Meeting adjourned at 12:32am.

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