Meeting Minutes #248

Members Present:  Marybeth Gasman, Francois Berthiaume, Francis Ryan, Christine Morales, Robert Boikess, Crystal Akers, Elisa Shernoff, Tugrul Ozel, Karen Thompson, Jeff Zahn, Thomas Figueira, Martin Gliserman, Elisa Shernoff, Sanjib Bhuyan, Kenneth McKeever, Haym Benaroya, Marc Kalan, Eleanor LaPointe, Benjamin Paul, Jack Bouchard, Nick Linardopoulos, Gary Taghon, Ryan Womack, Sue Shapses, Nina Shapley, Laura Bowering Mullen, Julie Ritter, Enrique Curchitser, Megan Threats, Gedi Mainells.

Non-Members Present:

Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke, Jonathan Zimmerman

1. Call to order

The meeting was called to order by Chair Marybeth Gasman on Friday, January 28, 2022, at 1:12 pm via Zoom.

2.  Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved.

3.  Approval of the minutes of the meeting of November 12, 2021

The minutes were approved.

4. Chair's Report – Marybeth Gasman

Chair Gasman welcomed everyone to the meeting and presented the following updates:

  • The faculty councils have been officially added to the university policy library, making our role and importance much clearer at the university.

Chair Gasman conveyed that Chancellor Provost Conway congratulated the NBFC on this and that she has been working hard to engage the NBFC a lot more and is looking forward to NBFC input and guidance on faculty and academic issues.

  • Chair Gasman has been meeting with members of the Chancellor-Provost staff to set up regular check-ins on various issues that the NBFC feel very strongly about, including processes and systems at Rutgers and procedures where we there needs to be more regular and timely faculty input.
  • We administered the faculty survey to the Rutgers New Brunswick faculty, and we are preparing a report to share with the NBFC and the faculty overall and the Chancellor-Provost.

Chair Gasman expressed that she thinks that the results will help NBFC to get some traction in a variety of areas, and it's always good when you can come to these issues with a lot of evidence.

  • Chair Gasman shared the resolution related to scheduling with the Chancellor-Provost and Carolyn Moehling, including specifically the Faculty Council having regular and timely input on these matters going forward.

Chancellor-Provost Conway came to talk to the EC and engaged in a discussion in that way as well. We are trying to stress timely input while things are happening.

In the conversation, Carolyn Moehling said that if there are other comments related to scheduling that you have, please send them to Chairman Gasman to pass them on to her.

  • Chair Gasman noted that she keeps a running list of all concerns, and if they don't get answered, then they will be brought up in the monthly meetings with the Chancellor-Provost and report back to the EC.

5. Administrative Report – Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Vice Provost Tomlinson-Clarke gave a presentation and updates on the following:

  • Chancellor-Provost report
  • Admissions and Enrollment
  • Poet Laureate
  • Honors College Dean search

Chancellor-Provost report:

  • Academic Master Plan - completed the data collection process, analyzed the data through the various working groups, and putting narratives together.

Information will be shared for feedback to ensure that identified priorities fit with the data that was gathered.

President Holloway visited the last steering committee meeting and expressed using the Academic Master Plan as a roadmap for New Brunswick.

Aiming for the end of the spring semester to have more information to share with New Brunswick.

  • Faculty Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure –

February 4, 2022 new faculty workshop for tenure track, tenured, and NTT faculty.

Working with promotions ALR to make sure to streamline NTT promotion packets.

  • Community and Publicly Engaged Scholarship –

Promoting its value at the university and redesigning the Chancellor-Provost website, to ensure that their important information is available to the New Brunswick community.

Admissions and Enrollment:

  • Enrollment Management is examining the test validity of the admissions data. There was some concern expressed that some of the students who came in under the test optional option weren't doing as well as students who came in with SAT scores.
  • There was some preliminary data gathered for some of the gateway courses, and  finding that they are doing about the same. There was a little dip in fall of 2020 but nothing significant.
  • In original report from September, percentages of African American and Latinx students at Rutgers New Brunswick was suggesting an increase in the number. it stayed steady since fall of 2019, fall 2020, fall 2021.
  • This data is available for each campus.  Camden, the numbers are significantly higher.

Poet Laureate:

  • Researching other universities who have poet laureates. In the Big Ten, Penn State has a great poet laureate model. They have it as a full-time faculty member in the arts or humanities.
  • Chancellor-Provost Conway is interested in highlighting the humanities and the arts.
  • Discussion on the idea that poet laureate should come from the Chancellor Provost Office, and it should be seen as a faculty honor.
  • There are a lot of awards for faculty in the STEM area. Not as many in the arts or humanities.
  • Chancellor-Provost Conway would like to see a proposal.

Honors College Dean search:

  • The position announcement went out January 7, 2022 in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  • A search firm was hired.
  • Decision to move from two deans to one dean.
  • The all-executive searches now appear on the Chancellor-Provost website along with the members of the search committee.
  • The committee has representation from various communities in New Brunswick
  • The desired appointment date is July 1, 2022.
  • Dear Farris from Engineering is chairing the committee.

Following the presentation, discussion ensued on the following:

  • Path to tenure for non-tenure track faculty.
  • Decision on one dean from two deans for honors college.
  • Enrollment breakdown for honors college and True Inclusion group.
  • Academic Master Plan and a teaching conference.
  • The need for support programs for potential incoming students.
  • Raising the quality of our student values.
  • Operationalizing the Academic Master Plan.
  • Clarifying community and publicly engaged scholarship and helping to value that more at the university.

6.  Special Guests: Jonathan Zimmerman, Judy & Howard Berkowitz Chair at the University of Pennsylvania

Discussion on free speech and academic freedom.

Jonathan Zimmerman’s view/highlighted points:

  • If you're a faculty member and you're not controversial in some way, you're not doing your job. You're just repeating the conventional wisdom, but there is so much fear and so much anger in the air that controversial, like free speech itself, has been coded negatively.
  • This strikes me as deeply ironic and sad that one day you could be bemoaning cancel culture on campuses and the next day you could be voting for and passing a law that cancels literally by the force of law the discussion of certain topics. I do think that's the most frightening development on the land.
  • On our campuses itself, the critics aren’t wrong because there's a different kind of censorship that goes on. It's not censorship by law - it's the censorship that encourages us to bite our tongues. It's self-censorship. I think it's mostly generated and brought to you by people on the left, not on the right. Like all forms of censorship, at the end of the day, it works on fear. That's what all censors do. Censors are themselves afraid, and they're generally cowards. What they do is they try to build on that fear. This isn't just a problem for academic freedom in my view. This is a problem for learning. If we are afraid to say what we think, our education is narrowed and limited.
  • As best I can tell, none of our university leaders are speaking up. I think that we should be demanding that they say something, and we should be saying something ourselves about that.
  • When we don't have a diversity of opinion, our intellectual lives are narrow.
  • I don't think the answer is ever to be silent, for anybody to be. I think the answer is always for there to be more voices. Speaking doesn't really help unless you're listening as well.
  • We all need respectful challenge.

7. Committee Reports:

Athletic Affairs – Chair: Ken McKeever, Chair

  • Meeting attendance was small.
  • Big Ten Alliance discussed.
  • Mentioned inviting the coordinator of the Big Ten Alliance to a NBFC meeting to discuss program.
  • Integration of the faculty and how we can better use it to benefit both the athletics program and the academic program.

Student Affairs – Christine Morales, Chair

  • Meeting attendance was small.
  • Welcomed new member, Crystal Akers to committee and to NBFC.
  • Discussion of - our camera-on policies for synchronous classes.
  • Students’ mental health was discussed and reaching out to CAPS for data.

Faculty and Personnel Affairs – Francois Berthiaume, Chair

The committee discussed the following:

  • Discussed the report from the task force on non-tenure track faculty members serving as directors of programs and centers (will share with the group).
  • Tenure lines for teaching-focused position for directors of programs, for more academic freedom and more stability to conduct their jobs properly.
  • Would like to address this with the Chancellor-Provost or Vice Chancellors.
  • Discussion on diversity and inclusion.

 Academic Affairs – Bob Boikess, Chair

  • Discussed Honors College and the issues of how it is running.
  • Would like to offer suggestions to the Chancellor-Provost on the future of honors programs that helps resolve current issues.
  • CourseAtlas and the scheduling grid was discussed.
  • Issue of consultation and faculty.
  • Upcoming teaching conference.

Budget, Planning, Infrastructure – Tom Figueira, Chair

  • The committee attendance was low at the meeting.
  • Discussion with NBFC Chair Gasman on athletic expenditures.
  • Massive upheavals in computer programs.
  • Amazon Marketplace
  • Box

8.        New Business

No new business. 

9.      Old Business  

            No old business.

10.        Adjournment

            Chair Gasman adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted:

Maria Crocco, Office of the Chancellor-Provost