Faculty Assembly Meeting, Feb 3, 2021

Faculty Assembly Minutes February 3, 2021

Presenters: 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 Rakotbe-Joel (ASB), Mihaela Serban (SSHS), Ed Shannon (HGS)

Meeting began at 2:17pm.

Assembly Minutes: December minutes will be approved via Qualtrics.

Guest: Provost Gaulden

Faculty Assembly President’s Report

New Meeting Format: Today’s meeting is being presented for open participation instead of an event to allow easier interaction. Please mute yourself upon joining the meeting. Please remain muted unless you are the speaker.

President Mercer: is unable to attend today. He is fine following an automobile accident.

SGA Rep: Angelina Farallo joined today.

BoT Chair Vallario: is attending. BoT members have been invited to attend Faculty Assembly meetings.

ARC Voting: will take place via Qualtrics.

January Faculty Assembly Retreat: A summary document has been distributed to the faculty and administration. The notes are also available on the FA website.

Faculty Handbook:  We discussed this at our last meeting. We are attempting to move this forward with the task force.

Presidential Search: This is ongoing. Naseem sends the faculty a link for the faculty presentation. The presidential website search has the links for the Town Halls.

PROVOST’S REPORT

Welcome:  Provost Gaulden welcomed us to the spring 2021 meeting.

Spring Operations Plan: This has been updated as of this morning with new language.

Cameras On: Students should meet with professors if they are unable to have a camera on. Be flexible and find ways to help students participate.

Recording Classes: This cannot be done with video unless the distributed release form has been completed and received from everyone.

Course Schedule:

•     App: Thank you to Scott Frees for creating the course modifications app. Paper no longer needs to be filled out. It will allow instantaneous updating in Banner. It is very difficult to set up courses in banner requiring 5+ steps for each change.
•     In-person courses: Labs and studio courses may need more in-person time. First year students would benefit from some on-campus in-person courses. Hybrids are encouraged with one day in-person/hybrid and the other synchronous allowing two courses to share a single class slot.
•     Cleaning of classrooms: CDC guidelines require specific cleaning between meetings limiting the number of available hybrid classrooms.
•     Fall 2021 Courses: While we do not know what is happening in September, we need to put a course schedule together. There are many unknowns. We will be able to make changes to course delivery methods as students will not commit to housing until August. Some forms of our course delivery methods will be retained after we return to normal.

Presently, many factors like CDC guidelines will inform how courses are delivered. Provost Gaulden has been receiving many suggestions from faculty. Once we are closer to normal, a task force may be involved. Students will be informed of the various course delivery formats.

In-person Room Priorities: Which courses will be prioritized? Enrollment was utilized to determine which classes needed the bigger rooms. Social distancing and wearing masks will be ongoing for the indefinite future. Unless one has a specific need for a larger room, speak with your dean.

Executive Order Requesting Remote Courses: How does this work with labs? K-12 parents can tell their district if their children will be fully remote. This executive order requires anyone who is immuno-compromised to be accommodated. What if a student does not want to come in? We cannot force a student to take an in-person course. Sometimes we can tell them to take another section or take it during another semester. We cannot tell them they cannot come to Ramapo College. We want all of our students to have their full academic experience.

Academic Integrity Concerns: There has been an increase in violations. Cheeg Study offers itself as a tutoring service; now they offer a premier option offering answers to questions within the hour. Unless a student uses a Ramapo email address, it is hard to know where those questions come from.

Hybrid Room Kits: These are working well.

Academic Review Committee Report (ARC): Chair Stephen Rice presented three proposals for faculty approval. 

ARC Voting Items

1. Name Change: M.S. in Educational Technology (MSET) to an M.S. in Contemporary Instructional Design.
2. New minor program in Graphic Communication
3. New graduate program: M.S. in Applied Math and
4. New graduate program: M.S. in Computer Science

Meeting Adjourned at 2:52pm.

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