Faculty Council Minutes - Oct. 1, 2024
2024-2025 Faculty Council Meeting Minutes
CAL Faculty Council Meeting
Location: Webex
Time: October 1, 2024, 4鈥�5:20 p.m.
Voting members = 41 Quorum = 22
Attendance
Present (36): Alamina, Allred, Baltus, Al Hariri, Beatty-Medina, Bland, Christman,
Damschroder, Edgington, Feldmeier, Foss, Grazzini, Kim, Kinsey, Kistner, Layng, McBane,
Mezo, Miner, Moteleone, Mossblad, Mungo, Nelson, Rouillard, Sakowski, Semaan, Smirnov,
Smith, Stauch, Taylor, Ward, Yamazaki, Zeigler, Zych, Mattison for Fitzgerald
Absent (5): Alam, Amialchuk, Crookston, Dudley, Nemeth
Guests: Cheng, Gregory, Keith, Lawrence, Lingan, Sullivan, Vay, Black
Call to Order
Motion to call to order; Second; Motion Approved (26 Yes, 0 No, 10 Abstain)
Approval of Agenda/Minutes
Motion to approve Agenda; Second; Motion Approved (26 Yes, 0 No, 10 Abstain)
Motion to approve past meeting minutes; Second; Motion Approved (29 Yes, 0 No, 7 Abstain)
Dean鈥檚 Report (Dean Mel Gregory)
The Dean鈥檚 Report is available in the materials folder.
- New VP for Strategic Enrollment Management, Dr. Tony Bourne
- AY25-26 schedule in Banner
- There are a lot of big events going on nationally and internationally that may be causing stress to both students and faculty, just be aware and mindful.
- Enrollment is down, but retention is up
- We need to bring in new students
- Partner with admissions and work with recruitment
- Make sure program is friendly to transfer students
- Make sure you have the sort of experiences students are looking for
- Does it bring enrollment? Does it bring resources? 鈥� A good way to prioritize
- College DEI committee- (see Dean鈥檚 Report for list of members) May be willing to take volunteers if interested.
- Budget Advisory Committee- (see Dean鈥檚 Report for list of members)
- Provost office has asked each college to form AER committee (Academic Engagement and
Retention) (see Dean鈥檚 Report for list of members)
- Use data to make recommendations about academic policy,
- Program, and course redesign, including pre-reg review,
- Strategic course scheduling
- Direction of appropriate resources to courses with high DFW rates
- Merger committee met
- Next newsletter will collaborate with Judith Herb College of Education and CAL
- New College name coming soon
- Joint Constitution and Bylaws Committee formed
- Banner college code will be 鈥淎E鈥�
- Criminal Justice and Paralegal will be joining the new college
- Question posed about whether or not the enrollment drop in STEM will cause any rethinking
on the STEM-H rebranding?
- Dean Gregory responded that the new President has said in multiple meetings that we are more than a STEM institution.
- Question was brought up about a previous period of time where dual majors with education
were easier to accomplish, and whether it would be a possibility moving forward
- Dean Gregory responded that this opens up the possibility for more conversations with fewer barriers. But difficulty comes in with the level to which the state has micromanaged the education curriculum. I'm not saying no, but it will require a lot of conversation and thoughtful work on how to make that work.
- Process discussed on how much money is required to get your name on a college, building,
etc., which is all handled through the foundation.聽
- Including a specific discussion on Judith Herb鈥檚 donation to Education
Executive Committee Report (Jami Taylor)
- Exec committee met on Friday
- Discussed updates from core curriculum committee
- Discussed creation of the committee for retention and recruitment
- Discussed process for the creation of these committees
- Should be representation of all divisions on committees
- Talked about who to invite to the council
- Heard that the merger committee would be meeting
Faculty Senate Report (Gaby Semaan)
- September 24th, 2024 Senate met, shared executive committee summary report
- Big take away from that is to remember that the deadline for curriculum changes to be included in 2025 catalog was backtracked to February 25th meeting.
- Program prioritization plan will be shared during the October 8th meeting
- Provost report mentioned that we are
- Still trying to fill committees such as Health Care, AI-based tools, and professional development.
- Goals of the office for the next academic year are organizational restructuring, finalizing mergers, increasing students access to mental health
- Carnegie elective committee is working on reclassification application
- Vote passed on name change from Department of Biological Science to Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
- Committee on Academic Regulations reported that policy related to class schedules
was tabled.
- Some express how Friday classes may be ignoring the needs of students from some colleges (ours in particular)
- Presented the 鈥淧ower to Do鈥� campaign, and a toolkit will be available for download to help promote events with the new color shades, etc.
- It was brought up that there are concerns over the course scheduling policy, which
has been posted for comment despite not being voted on by Senate.
- Constrictive and takes agency away from individual departments
- It was reported that Engineering students don鈥檛 have issues with Friday classes, but it was countered that students in our college don鈥檛 necessarily have paid internships, so they need to be able to work outside of that.
- Evidence that this might be good for students has not been delivered upon request of several individuals
- Students were not consulted in the formation of this policy.
Graduate Council Report (Patrick Lawrence)
No report this week as Grad Council did not meet
Elections Committee Report (Sam Nelson)
N/A
Bylaws/Constitution Committee Report (Jami Taylor)
Will meet to prepare for the merger meeting with the Chairs of both of the colleges鈥�
Constitution Committees.
Curriculum Committee Report (Anthony Edgington)
- Proposal submitted by Communications in regards to COMM 2600: Public Presentations
- Request to be added to the University core
- Please see October 1st meeting folder for more information on the course proposal
- Motion to approve moving the course to Senate; Seconded; Motion approved (30 Yes, 0 No, 6 Abstain)
New Business
- In regards to guests to invite to future meetings
- Stella Vay to discuss advising
- Reps from College of Education as well as Criminal Justice and Paralegal Studies to meet with us to get to know each other and their programs
- Provost to discuss scheduling issue
Old Business
- Brought up a concern for upcoming in person meeting, that it wasn鈥檛 an overwhelming
majority and two issues came to mind
- Concern for people who can鈥檛 be in person due to childcare or other commitments
- And if they can鈥檛 attend, does that mean we are denying representation to those departments
- Wondered if there was a possibility for a hybrid model
- Response was that in person meetings can be under discussion moving forward, but ultimately that was a consultive vote because it is the Chair who sets the meetings.
- Purposefully did not set an immediate in-person meeting so as to give people time to shift schedules as needed.
- Except in cases of accommodations addressed through HR, attendance is expected in person because hybrid models are hard to do in a way that is equitable.
- Also, one of the reasons that only one or two meetings per semester would be scheduled was so that should people not be able to attend, that number of absences would still leave them in good standing.
- Anyone absent for an in-person or online meeting has the ability to appoint a substitute who can vote on their behalf in regard to departmental representation.
Announcements
The Next CAL council meeting is October 29th at 4:00 pm (this meeting will be in person;
the location is Center for Performing Arts, Recital Hall) because the October 15th
meeting will be canceled due to Fall Break.
Joey Kim presented information about the October 12th event at the Art Museum.
Michael Kistner reminded people that October is the month for enrollment in the next benefits program for next year, so make sure you complete that before the end of the month, or you will not receive benefits. Changes to benefit structure and cost are minimal.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn; Seconded; Motion approved (30 Yes, 0 No, 6 Abstain)