ACADEMIC SENATE

 

MINUTES

 

October 2, 2008

 

 

11:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.                                                                ACADEMIC SENATE CHAMBERS

Members Present: Arnold, Au, Bedell, Bhattacharya, Bruschke, Buck, Carroll, Carvin, Dabirian, Drezner, Gass, Green, Grewal, Guerin, Hagan, Hernandez, Hewitt, Hickok, Kanel, Klassen, Liverpool, McMahan, Mead, Nyaggah, Pasternack, Randall, Rhodes, Rhoten, Shoar, Smith, Walicki, Walk, Williams

Absent: Bullock, Burgtorf, Dalley, Fidalgo, Gordon, Gradilla, Jarvis, McConnell, McLain, Shapiro, Stang, Taylor

 

 

I.          CALL TO ORDER

Chair Hewitt called the meeting to order at 11:32 a.m. He requested a moment of silence in memory of Tso-Hwa Lee, Professor of Geography, Emeritus, and Eugene B. Hunt, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus; both former colleagues passed away earlier this year.

 

II.        URGENT BUSINESS

None.

 

III.       ANNOUNCEMENTS

Senator Buck extended an invitation to the body to the following events:

·         The University Club’s afternoon at the theatre. The group will see Our Townat the Hallberg Theatre (CSUF Performing Arts Center) on Saturday, October 18th. Dinner in downtown Fullerton will follow. Contact Andi Stein at astein@fullerton.edu for more information.

·         “Town and Gown” lecture at the Fullerton Library, hosted by Jochen Burgtorf will be held on October 14th.

·         Pre-Election night discussion at Reyes Fidalgo’s home.

·         Election Night party at Diana Guerin’s home.

 

Senator Hagan announced that he will provide his “Fiscal State of the University Address” at the next meeting.

 

Senator Walicki encouraged the body to attend a World Music Series performance featuring Algerian Rai music artist, MC Rai, tomorrow night, October 3rd,  at 8:00 p.m. in Meng Concert Hall.

 

IV.      APPROVAL OF MINUTES

M/S/P Pasternack/Guerin to approve the following minutes as edited:

4.1 ASD 08-137 Academic Senate Meeting Minutes 4-29-08

4.2 ASD 08-138 Academic Senate Meeting Minutes 5-1-08

 

V.       CONSENT CALENDAR

The Consent Calendar was approved unanimously:

5.1 Nominees to Miscellaneous Committees

 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST COMMITTEE

Nominees:    Gordon Bakken (SOC SCI); Steve Walk (HHD); Ofir Turel (MCBE);

               Chris Peterson (ARTS)

Continuing:   Amy Beth Cohen (CNSM)

 

TITAN STUDENT UNION GOVERNING BOARD

Nominee:      Peggy Shoar (HHD)

Continuing:   Debra Lockwood (ARTS)

 

TSU FOOD ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Nominees:    Mark Ellis (EDUC); Elaine Rutkowski (HHD)

 

UNIVERSITY BOARD ON WRITING PROFICIENCY

Nominees:    Willie Hagan (ADMIN); Iaokim Boutakidis (HHD); Katherine Kantardjieff (CNSM)

 

 

VI.      CHAIR’S REPORT

Chair Hewitt reported the following:

·         All Senators should have received their CSUF All-Sports passes.  He expressed gratitude to the Athletics program.

·         The PAB and Senate Executive Committee Retreat was held last Monday. A number of topics, including the following were discussed:

o   How to stimulate research; more funds are needed for intramural grants

o   The Faculty Development Center

o   Options for a smoke-free campus

o   Online degree programs

o   Faculty mentoring

·         Auxiliary Services Corporation meeting: The loan for University Heights at Creekside is due December 15th. Many of those units have not been sold. It looks as though ASC will have to take out a loan in order for the Housing Authority to continue its service. Discussion took place regarding loan options for up to $22 million. A small group of experts has been assembled to study this and make recommendations for the best option.

·         Parking Advisory meeting: Up to 2,200 parking spaces on the Fullerton campus will be lost next fall due to construction of the new parking structure. Options to serve the campus’ parking needs during construction (i.e., stacked parking, shuttles, incentives for other means of transportation), are being looked into.

·         The Academic Senate will meet on October 23rd. President Gordon will give his “State of the University Address” at that meeting.

 

VII.     STATEWIDE ACADEMIC SENATE REPORT

No report was given due to lack of time.

 

VIII.   TIMES CERTAIN

Time Certain

11:45 a.m.

Subject: Recognition of Hector Ramos, Recipient of the William Randolph Hearst/CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement

CSUF student, Hector Ramos was congratulated on his receipt of this $10,000 scholarship.  Mr. Ramos is the first in his family to graduate from high school and go to college. In addition to his studies, he works as a teaching assistant on campus and as a clerk in a local video store, volunteers in the community, donates blood, and visits a home for Alzheimer’s patients. He has a triple major in Philosophy, Psychology, and Political Science and maintains a 3.8 GPA. Hector expressed thanks for the recognition and thanked the body for all that it does.

 

 

Time Certain

11:50 a.m.

Subject: Update on the “University Club”

Willie Hagan, VP Administration and Finance, CFO

Kim Apel, Facilities Planner, Facilities Management

It is desired that the proposed “University Club” facility would provide a professional environment that fosters collegiality. (The name of the center has not been finalized.)

 

In the last update provided to this group, it was reported that (1) the demand for this club is strong, (2) the original plan is not viable, and (3) it would be serving a very limited market (faculty and staff only). Since then, steps have been taken to define a business model that works, to evaluate the first floor of Pollak Library south as a potential location, and to estimate the cost of construction and outfitting. According to the latest consultant report, a successful model would be a larger, multi-venue, food service operation that operates on longer hours and coordinated management; it would service a much broader set of needs. Under this model, the losses of the “University Club” would be covered by the profits of the other parts of the operation, but University subsidy (an estimated $200,000 - $250,000 per year) would still be required.  Also, under this model, the facility would not operate on a dues structure.

 

The revamped program includes an enlarged kitchen and a coffee bar accessible to the full campus community.

 

Issues to follow up on:

·         Finalize discussions related to Emeriti office space.

·         Continue value engineering to further reduce costs.

Finalize level of university subsidy necessary to make project financially feasible

·         Resolve issues related to proposed incursion into space currently occupied by The Learning Commons and by Information Technology staff.

 

VP Hagan showed pictures, illustrations, and ideas. He stated that he would report back when the review is complete, but commented that if the University can provide the subsidy, for what the center would do for campus, he would recommend moving forward on it.

 

VP Hagan addressed several questions from the body before concluding this report.

 

 

Time Certain

12:20 p.m.

Subject: Update on the Administration of Student Opinion Questionnaires (SOQs)

Amir Dabirian, CITO

Jim Dietz, AVP Academic Programs (Acting)

Mougo Nyaggah, President, CFA Fullerton Chapter

Senator Nyaggah suggested instead of hearing how the administration of SOQs will be implemented this year, to consider that this is an issue that has been in dispute over the last three years, and that CFA has filed grievances against the SOQs policy. He suggested that the presentation should focus on this issue rather than on implementation. The CFA should be allowed equal time to present its position, which is that faculty should oppose online evaluations while the grievance is in progress; this policy should not be permitted until the outstanding grievance has been settled.

 

Chair Hewitt responded that it would be useful to the body to hear Senator Dabirian’s report so that it would be informed well enough to raise good questions. Secondly, he added that this body plays no role in the outcome of the grievance.

 

Senator Dabirian reported the following:

·         A pilot study of online SOQs was conducted three years ago: 65% participation rate

·         10 departments participated in another pilot study conducted last semester. They conducted fully online SOQs. During Intersession 2008, 30% of students who took online courses participated in the online SOQ process. The shorter window of time for students to submit the SOQ (one day, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.) resulted in a lower participation rate. In spring 2008, students were given between April 24th and May 9th to complete online SOQs and the participation rate jumped to 56%. Students were given 4 days during summer 2008 to respond and the participation rate was 30%.

·         To improve online SOQ participation: (1) Aggressive campaign:  multiple emails to students and faculty; (2) Blackboard integration: increases participation by 15-20%; (3) Faculty campaign: make multiple announcements in class and email from faculty to all students; and (4) Increase the duration of SOQ administration

·         The SOQ mainframe application is being replaced by Class Climate. Advantages of this program: (1) it has already been implemented and proven on five CSU campuses, (2) it supports both online and paper evaluations, (3) faster turnaround for paper evaluations [10 to 20 times faster; paper forms will be scanned into the system], (4) results will be available online in .pdf format for both paper and online evaluations, (5) results are saved and archived in the system.

 

Mr. Dabirian addressed various questions and comments from the body until the meeting adjourned.

 

IX.      NEW BUSINESS

Items 9.1 and 9.2 were not discussed due to lack of time.

(Note: Item 9.2 was listed incorrectly on the 10-2-08 Academic Senate meeting agenda as item “9.3”)

9.1 ASD 08-139 Revised UPS 100.000 Academic Senate Constitution – Article VII, Section 14 [PRBC]

9.2 ASD 08-140 Revised UPS 100.000 Academic Senate Constitution – Article IV, Section 3 [AS Executive Committee]

 

X.       ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 1:02 p.m.