Meeting Minutes #252

Members Present: Marybeth Gasman, Andrew Baker, Enrique Curchitser, Thomas Davis, Anne McPherson, Ted H. Szatrowski, Rafiq Huda, Alexander Pichugin, Kenneth McKeever, Christine Morales, Ellen Williams, Francois Berthiaume, Jeffrey  Zahn, Tugrul Ozel, Carla Cevasco, Sanjib Bhuyan, Ryan Womack, Madeline Flahive-DiNardo, Eleanor LaPointe, Benjamin Koerber, Evan Kleiman, Jeffrey Zahn, Jack Bouchard, Nikolaos Linardopoulos, Francis Ryan, Elisa Shernoff, Robert Boikess, Heather Pierce, Barbara Faga, Mei Ling Lo, Karen Thompson, Anna Haley, Sue Shapses, Thomas Davis, Thomas Figueira, Crystal Akers.

Non-Members Present:

Laura Curran, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, Martha Cotter, Parliamentarian

1.  Call to order

The meeting was called to order by Chair Marybeth Gasman on Friday, September 16, 2022, at 1:10 pm via Zoom

2. Approval of the agenda

The agenda was approved

3. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of April 22, 2022

The minutes were approved with the proviso that Martha Cotter will fix some typos.

4. Chair’s Report – Marybeth Gasman

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

  • The Faculty Survey Report was sent out to all the faculty on the New Brunswick Campus.
  • Over the summer, Chair Gasman personally sent out the report to all the entities mentioned in the report’s recommendations. This included a lot of people from HR, IRB, the office of teaching evaluation, members of the Chancellor’s staff, etc.  Each of the recipients also received a personal message pointing out the recommendations relevant to him or her. To Chair Gasman’s surprise, responses were received from all the recipients. Those who responded are being invited to meet with the NBFC Executive Committee to discuss the relevant recommendations and lead, we hope, to real changes.
  • Academic Freedom Day is being planned for the Spring. Speakers will include both scholarly experts and noted champions of academic freedom and strong student engagement will be sought. If anyone is interested in assisting Chair Gasman in organizing the event, please reach out to her.
  • Chair Gasman agreed with Bob Boikess’ suggestion that we reach out to the AAUP chapter to participate, as the current concept of academic freedom was essentially created by the national AAUP. She asks that other ideas/suggestions regarding Academic Freedom Day to be sent to her.

5.  Administrative Report: Laura Curran, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

Vice Provost Curran introduced herself and presented an update on the Office of Faculty Affairs. She discussed the following aspects of the Office:

  • Its formation in response to COACHE survey results on faculty development and mentoring satisfaction and the recommendations of the COACHE working group on Faculty Development & Mentoring
  • Its mission to “support the Chancellor-Provost and provide leadership in all areas related to faculty, recruitment, mentoring, retention and success at Rutgers-New Brunswick
  • Its Leadership and Infrastructure
  • A number of its activities, projects, and initiatives, including 
    • Supporting Faculty Success Workshops for departmental leaders
    • The Associate Professor Project
    • Supporting NTT Faculty
    • Faculty Success Community Groups
    • The Center for Faculty Success

6.  Committee Reports

Budget, Planning, & Infrastructure – Chair: Tom Figueira

  • The committee is thinking about electronic environments, such as the graduate acceptance portal, the consideration port, Canvas, Course Atlas, the travel environment, etc. and are trying to figure out how to refine them.
  • Another concerning matter is the university’s financial standing. They will wait until they see what President. Holloway has to say in the Senate meeting, and what supporting documents are issued..

Athletic Affairs – Chair: Ken McKeever

  • The committee continues to consider how to improve Rutgers use of the Big Ten Academic Alliance. They were unable to meet today but will have a committee meeting before the next Council meeting.

Student Affairs – Chair: Christine Morales

  • The committee welcomed a new member, Min Ling Lo;.
  •  Committee members reviewed their standing charge and shared some ideas, passions, and visions for supporting students and promoting student success.
  • They are thinking of inviting Sal Meena or someone from his office to a committee meeting.
  • They noted that the Voices of Diversity Panel for faculty scheduled for October 7th will hear the perspectives of students with disabilities or students who are differently able.
  • They considered the possibility of recommending a scholarship specifically for indigenous students

Faculty and Personnel Affairs – Chair: Francois Berthiaume

  • The committee welcomed a new member, Heather Pierce.
    • In the committee meeting, members discussed:
    • PTLs teaching too many courses. They want to prepare a survey to ask PTLs about their workloads. 
    • Making GREs optional.
    • Including diversity, equity, and inclusion criteria in the promotion packet for faculty.
    • Status of the faculty workload, that has potentially doubled during the pandemic.
    • The possibility of converting Library non-tenure track faculty into tenure track.

Academic Affairs – Chair: Bob Boikess

  • Committee members discussed a draft resolution related to the Honors College and honors programs. They are planning to introduce a resolution in the next meeting and have Honors Dean Bowers present.
  • They also discussed whether applying students should be able to check a box indicating their interest in the Honors College and whether or not to require GREs should depend on departmental preference.

 

7.  New Business

The members present discussed the possibility of formally considering the following matters:

  • The closure of the faculty dining rooms in Brower Commons. Chair Gasman informed the group that Alex Perez, the Chancellor-Provost’s chief of staff, is working on this.
  • Bringing a new traditional faculty club to one of the old buildings on College Ave, replacing the faculty club on Livingston.
  • The need to require input on electronic design from faculty members who are not administrators.

 

8. Old Business

There was no old business.

 

9.  Adjournment

Chair Gasman adjourned the meeting at 2:43 PM.
 

Respectfully submitted:

Srishti Kaul, Office of the Chancellor-Provost