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Faculty Council Minutes

2024-2025 Faculty Council Meeting Minutes

CAL Faculty Council

Meeting Location:  Webex

Time: September 3, 2024 4–5:20 p.m.

Voting members = 41 Quorum = 22 Attendance

Present (36) Alamina, Alam, Allred, Baltus, Al Hariri, Beatty-Medina, Bland, Christman, Damschroder, Edgington, Feldmeier, Grazzini, Kim, Kinsey, Layng, Rouillard, McBane, Mezo, Kistner, Miner, Moteleone, Mossblad, Mungo, Dudley, Sakowski, Nelson, Semaan, Smirnov, Stauch, Smith, Taylor, Ward, Yamazaki, Zeigler, Zych, Foss

Absent (5) Fitzgerald, Crookston, Amialchuk, Wang, Nemeth,   Guests: Pryor, Gregory, Keith, Lawrence, Lingan, Mattison, Mcinnis, Sullivan, Vay

Call to Order

Motion to begin; Second; Motion Approved (22 Yes, 0 No, 14 Abstain)  

Approval of Agenda/Minutes

Motion to approve Agenda; Second; Motion Approved (22 Yes, 0 No, 14 Abstain)
Motion to approve past meeting minutes; Second; Motion Approved (23 Yes, 0 No, 13 Abstain)  

Dean’s Report (Dean Melissa Gregory)

(See included PowerPoint in the OneDrive)

• A reminder that our job is the students and getting them through graduation.
• What happened over the summer - recruitment, 1:15 meetings, many events to highlight our programs and recruit
• New branding campaign
• Merger activity (next meeting is September 13th)  
• Welcome week  
• CAL and JHCOE had a Goal Setting Retreat
• CAL Chair’s Retreat
• Welcome to the team new staff and faculty (see report for list)
• A New Vision - New president brings new vision (see report for list of priorities).
• Entering phase two of program prioritization (See report for more info).
• Enrollment and recruitment need to be thought about as related.
• Retention - First-year cohort retention is UP by 4.4 percentage points! Good job all! 
• Enrollment - (See report for a screenshot of the Fall Tracker).
  • This data is undergrad only.
  • We don’t have data to compare where we are compared to other schools nationally.
• A reminder that September 9th is census day.
• See the report for a list of questions that we should all consider and Enrollment Action Items.
  Upcoming Dates!  
• Sept 10-Nov 1: Withdrawal dates  
• Friday, September 27th @ 4:00 p.m.- CAL Fall Reception  
• Friday, October 5th- Homecoming
• Friday, October 11th- Dean’s and President’s List Lunch  

Executive Committee Report (Jami Taylor)

• Met Aug. 23rd and discussed staffing committees, merger, and possibly moving some meetings to in-person.
• Everyone was present.  

Faculty Senate Report (Gaby Semaan)

• The interim President was there.
• The Senate has not received a response to the letter sent requesting a national/international search. The letter is a priority of BOT to answer.
• The interim president mentioned the next president may not be an academic.
• Provost Molitor will be at the next Senate meeting to address unanswered questions.

Graduate Council Report (Patrick Lawrence and TBD)

• Updates and information for new members of the grad council.
• Program prioritization on the graduate side will continue with a discussion shift to strategic reinvestment and growth.
• A search committee for a provost has been formed and is underway.
• The COGS office was introduced and explained.
• Please stay up to date on training in compliance for PI.
• Call for volunteers to chair/staff committees.
• Several policies will go out for a 30-day public review on September 9th (four of them graduate-specific).

Elections Committee Report (Sam Nelson)

N/A

Bylaws/Constitution Committee Report (Jami Taylor)

N/A

Curriculum Committee Report (TBD)

N/A

Old Business

• Formation of an Ad Hoc Committee to look at College requirements.
  • Reasons cited: impact on financial aid, ability to take classes, flexibility for students esp. transfer students.
  • The committee would be staffed by the Dean’s office, with no ability to make curricular changes, but charged with making suggestions, suggestions can be made by CAL Council.
  • Fact-finding committee on the impact of financial aid changes, how the upcoming merger might impact things, and staying competitive with other colleges/Universities.
  • We have additional college requirements on top of University requirements.
  • BE and BS degrees can’t be held to the same requirements as the BA. Could make different requirements for each degree type.
  • It is a good time to look at the requirements as they exist.
  • Also asked to explore if the additional requirements within our own college are increasing staffing struggles.
  • Point made that this could result in credit hour production.
  • Question raised if programs should be doing any specific data crunching or figure presentation for the committee.
  • Are requirements assisting students, or are they barriers?
  • Purpose is to explore core requirements and flexibility for students not necessarily to eliminate anything.
  • Curriculum is just one place to look at addressing faculty burnout.
  • No perceived outcome or plan
    Motion to close debate; Seconded; Motion approved (27 Yes, 2 No, 7 Abstain)
    Motion to form committee; Seconded: Motion approved (22 Yes, 2 No, 12 Abstain)

New Business

• Meeting modalities online vs. in person.
• Deliberations online have not always been as effective as in person.
• In-person may lead to more productive discussions.
• Want the opinion of the council.

This is not necessarily a matter for voting as it is the President who schedules meetings.

Survey results

• Slightly more people wanted to stay online,
• Most people brought up accessibility, which would be addressed regardless or modality,
• Generally people thought business was achieved online,
• Larger meetings that include President or Provost could be held in person

Motion to extend meeting; Seconded; Motion approved (27 Yes, 0 No, 9 Abstain).
Back to meeting modalities.
It is felt that people hired since 2020 aren’t well-known to each other.
There isn’t a specific schedule in mind, it could be an every other meeting online (four per semester online and four per semester online).
This would allow for planning so that items requiring more discussion could be scheduled for in person.
Hybrid is difficult, but in limited cases may be an option.
Doing one meeting in person per semester was suggested, or four per year.
Asking for a vote next meeting.
Motion to table the discussion; Seconded; Motion approved (27 Yes, 0 No, 9 Abstain)

Populate Standing Committees

The executive committee populates the committees with the approval of CAL council.

• Election committee: Sam Nelson (chair), Becca Monteleone, Matt Foss.
• Constitution Committee: Jami Taylor (chair), Stephen Sakowski, Michael Stauch.
• Curriculum committee: Melissa Baltus, James Bland, Anthony Edgington, Ben Grazzini, Jason Cox, Gunnar Mossblad (no chair as of yet).

Motion to approve committees; Seconded; Motion approved (30 Yes, 0 No, 6 Abstain)

Need a replacement on Faculty Senate (A. Day vacating seat)

Announcements

The next CAL council meeting is Tuesday, September 17th at 4 p.m. 

(Two events mentioned that have passed as of the release of these minutes.)  

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn; Seconded; Motion approved (27 Yes, 0 No, 9 Abstain)