Meeting Minutes #257

Members Present: Marybeth Gasman, John Kolassa, Sanjib Bhuyan, Francois Berthiaume, Robert Boikess, Thomas Figueira, Anna Haley, Kenneth McKeever, Anne McPherson, Christine Morales, Tugrul Ozel, Heather Pierce, Ted H. Szatrowski, Karen Thompson, Francis Ryan, Jeff Zahn, Ryan Womack, Thomas Davis, Barbara Faga, Crystal Akers, Nick Linardopoulos, Elisa Shernoff, Atif Akin, Jack Bouchard, Enrique Curchitser, Javier Diez, Mei Ling Lo, Karen Sanchez, Sue Shapses, Benjamin Paul, Alexander Pichugin

Non-Members Present: Francine Conway, New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost, Martha Cotter, Parliamentarian

1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Chair Gasman on Friday, February 24, 2023, at 1:11 pm via Zoom.

2.  Approval of the Agenda

The agenda was approved.

3.  Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of January 27, 2023

The minutes were approved.

4. Chair's Report – Marybeth Gasman

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

  • The teaching conference was a success. Unlike last year, which focused on research in teaching, this year the focus was on how to be better teachers and how to manage classroom discussions.  Special thanks to Christine Morales, who was one of the teaching fellows presenting on, Un-grading. There was great representation and turnout. Chancellor-Provost Conway made warm remarks about the NBFC.
  • Martha Cotter is reaching out to all the departments that need to elect a representative to the NBFC and has been getting a lot of responses. Members should remind their chair if they did not respond.
  • Another pitch was made to encourage members to run for Chair/Vice Chair or the Executive Committee of the Faculty Council. Members were told to reach out to Chair Gasman if they have any questions or would like to get an overview of how things work. Elections will be sometime in April. A current list of members can be viewed at https://nbfc.rutgers.edu/members
  • A vote is planned to determine whether future meetings will be virtual or in-person. 
  • There will be no NBFC meeting in March, and the next meeting will be in April. Those who are thinking of writing resolutions should prepare them for the April meeting. 

5.  Administrative Report: Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway

The Chancellor-Provost began by reiterating her appreciation of how her office interacts with the New Brunswick Faculty council. She then discussed a number of other topics.

  • She made the following comments on the recent NBFC DEI Resolution
    • We are committed to higher education and appreciate the thought that went into the resolution. The Administration will take it under advisement.
    • This resolution brings to light the fact that many of our faculty members want clarity and guidance on how they are doing and how they present themselves and their work.
    • The NBFC is encouraging but not requiring faculty to self-disclose and is in support of candidates who can themselves decide what is the way that is most appropriate to share this information.
    • We accept that there is a diversity of perspectives reflected in the work of faculty members.
    • We will discuss implementation with the Deans, Chairs, EVPAA office, and PRC and will keep the NBFC informed on the updates.
  • She announced that the next Operational Excellence listening tour event would be with Mike Gower on March 29th at 3:15 p.m. at the Cook Student Center, Multipurpose Room.
  • She briefly discussed the Discovery Advantage initiative, which is under Kathy Scott’s leadership and is organized in 6 work streams:
  1. Advising and Academic support
  2. Living and learning communities
  3. Enrollment management
  4. Marketing
  5. Administrative and Financial structures
  6. Data core

Each working group includes diverse members from the Rutgers-New Brunswick community. There is a good conversation happening and this is a great opportunity to provide ideas and come up with an outcome that works for the community. Dr. Scott will be providing recommendations at the end of the summer.

  • Chancellor-Provost Conway then made several comments concerned with mental health.
    • The Scarlet Well initiative is making steady progress. It takes a public health approach to mental health and wellness for the entire community and aims to both increase awareness of mental health issues and develop better strategies for supporting the mental health and well-being of all members of the Rutgers New Brunswick community.
    • The Chancellor-Provost's office sent out a newsletter with mental health events .
    • The cornerstone event is the second annual Chancellor-Provost’s Mental Health and Wellness Lecture on Wednesday, April 5. Dr. Vivien Wen Li Anthony, Associate Professor at the School of Social Work and Scientific Director for Video Gaming and eSports at the Center for Gambling Studies, will give a presentation on “The Trouble with Technology: The Negative Impact of Technology on Wellness.” The lecture will be held via Zoom; a Zoom link will be emailed to individuals who register via this page..

The discussion in the NBFC meeting after the Administrative Report included the following topics:

  • Including PTLs in the teaching fellows program.  
  • The fact that communications to the listserve for all faculty do not go to PTLs; nor do commencement announcements.
  • The need to revitalize the Cook/Douglass campus.  (The Chancellor-Provost said that this is a priority for her office.)
  • Status of the SAS Dean search (It’s in the candidate review stage according to the Chancellor-Provost)
  • Faculty unhappiness with the School of Social Work Dean search. SSW faculty members were given a one week notice for the search and only had one hour with each candidate with pre-determined questions. (The Chancellor-Provost said that one week is the norm. We are competing with other school searches and time is an important variable.) 

6.  Committee Reports:

Student Affairs – Christine Morales, Chair 

The committee did the following:

  • Debriefed on the Sal Mena meeting.
  • Highlighted the issue of mental health and connected it to the Teaching Conference, and to the focus on mental health, not just for students, but also for faculty.
  • Discussed Chat-GPT, AI, and their impact on student work. We are trying to see how we can harness the way students use these tools.
  • Discussed the Buffalo school of social work initiative on self-care:

Academic Affairs – Bob Boikess, Chair

The committee discussed the following matters concerning the libraries.

  • Creating a survey based on people’s experiences with the librairies
  • Inviting Dee Magnoni, head of the libraries, to the next committee meeting

Athletic Affairs – Kenneth McKeever, Chair

  • Due to a scheduling conflict, the committee was unable to meet. 

Budget, Planning, & Infrastructure – Thomas Figueira, Chair

The committee discussed the following:

  • Deciphering the response it got to questions it submitted about commissions and finances of the travel program.
  • Improvements to Marketplace, letting people receive appropriate orders at home.
  • Drafting a resolution on the closing of the dining hall.
  • Long-standing parking issues.

Faculty and Personnel Affairs – Francois Berthiaume, Chair

The committee discussed the following:

  • Part-Time Lecturer report: The committee is continuing to work on the report based on the survey on PTL workloads. It is in draft form now, and the next step is to meet to go over the data. Those interested in providing feedback can contact Chair Berthiaume. The full report is expected to be completed by April.
  • GREs and Graduate Studies: The committee is continuing to discuss the response from the President’s office. 
  • Teacher evaluation discussion: Concerns were voiced that teaching evaluations can be weaponized against a faculty member. Current teaching evaluations are an unfair way to evaluate the teaching and they are known to be biased.

7.  SIRS Resolution - Bob Boikess

Chair Boikess introduced the resolution then briefly discussed the background, which summarizes the problems with SIRS (Student Instructional Rating Survey) and its use in evaluation of faculty teaching for personnel purposes and presents some guidelines for redesigning the survey. He then moved the resolution proper; i.e.,

Resolved: The NBFC calls on the administration to work with the NBFC, the other faculty councils, the University Senate, and OTEAR to refashion the SIRS so that it provides specific information that faculty members can use to improve their teaching effectiveness and so that it is no longer be used in personnel decisions.

After a brief discussion, the resolution passed nearly unanimously.

8.  New Business

There was no new business. 

9.  Old Business  

 There was no old business.

10.  Adjournment

Chair Gasman adjourned the meeting at 2:59 pm.

Respectfully submitted:

Maria Crocco, Office of the Chancellor-Provost