Minutes: September 23rd, 2003

MINUTES

of the Academic Senate Meeting onTUESDAY, September 23, 2003

Senate Members Present:

Eunice

Aaron

Robert

Fung

Aina J. Otero

Alvin

Alvarez

Oswaldo Garcia

Pete

Palmer

Guadalupe

Alvia

John

Gemello

Wenshen Pong

Patricia

Bartscher

Deborah

Gerson

Brett

Smith

Marian

Berstein

Jan

Gregory

Miriam

Smith

John

Blando

Bruce

Heiman

Saul

Steier

Tara

Bohannon

Marlon

Hom

Genie

Stowers

Christopher

Carrington

Rick

Houlberg

Rob

Strong

Gene

Chelberg

Scott

Jerris

Dean

Suzuki

Yu

Charn Chen

Karen

Johnson-Brennan

Dawn

Terrell

Caran Colvin

Joel

Kassiola

Connie

Ulasewicz

A.

Reynaldo Contreras

Martha

Klironomos

Mary

Ann Van Dam

Robert

Corrigan

Midori

McKeon

Pamela

Vaughn

Robert

Daniels

David

Meredith

Penelope

Warren

James

Edwards

Leroy

Morishita

Robert

Williams

Ned

Fielden

Amy

Nichols

Nini Yang

Senate

Members Absent:  Natalie Batista, Robert Cherny (excused), Sam Gill,

Jaimes Guerrero, Don Scoble

(excused)

Visitors:  Judith Bettelheim, Lilia Chavez, Wan-Lee Cheng, Ann Hallum, Trustee Kathleen Kaiser, Bruce Macher,

Mitch Turitz, Marilyn Verhey,

Sylvia S. Walters, Gail Whitaker

CALL TO ORDER 2:10

p.m.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Senate Chair Edwards

issued a welcome to the new CSU faculty Trustee Kathy Kaiser, who is

making San Francisco

State University her first campus visit today.

Senate Chair Edwards

noted two town hall meetings to be held on campus to address questions and

concerns about the university budget. The meetings will occur on Wednesday

1 October 12:00-1:30 p.m. and Thursday 2 October 2:00-3:30

p.m. in McKenna theater, and will include remarks by

President Robert A. Corrigan, Vice President for Administration and

Finance Leroy Morishita, and Vice President

for Academic Affairs/Provost John Gemello.

Senate Chair Edwards

announced that a reception to welcome all senators, faculty members and staff

back to campus would be held directly after the senate meeting adjourns at

4:00 p.m. today at the University Club.

Senate Chair Edwards

announced that nominations for the four administrative search committees

were now closed, with an impressive group of faculty who have

put their names forward for election. The ballot will be in faculty mailboxes

on 1 October and there will be one week, until Wednesday 8 October at 5:00 p.m. to complete voting.

Secretary Fielden

mentioned the introduction of a new sign-in sheet for senators, now present

at the placard table outside the senate room. He asked all senators and visitors

to sign in on their arrival, particularly if arriving after the 2:10

p.m. call to order. This new procedure will improve attendance

accuracy.

Senator Meredith,

chair of APC, announced that his committee needed to meet directly after today’s

senate session.

CFA Chapter President

Turitz announced that yesterday was the last day to

register new voters before the October election, and that total number had

reached 1,375. He further mentioned that statewide CFA President John Travis

will be on campus this Thursday 25 September to address campus senators, who

are invited for lunch at 12:00 p.m. in the Verducci room of

the University Club. Additionally, he will address the budget on the same

day from 3:00-5:00 p.m.

at the University Club.

Senate Chair Edwards

congratulated CFA, the President’s office, and Associated Students for their

outstanding efforts on the voter registration initiative.

Senate Chair Edwards

noted that he would defer his chair’s report in order to make more time

for remarks from our visiting Trustee.

Senate Chair Edwards

noted an agenda change, that item 7, a resolution on the K/U Education Bond

Initiative, is a consent item from the Executive Committee and is in first

and second reading.

AGENDA ITEM #1 - APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR 23 September, 2003

m/s/p Stier,

Carrington

AGENDA ITEM #2 - APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FOR 9 September, 2003

Senator

Otero asked for correction on her surname

spelling.

m/s/p Houlberg,

Aaron

AGENDA ITEM #3 - FACULTY TRUSTEE KATHY KAISER.

Trustee Kaiser

gave thanks for having her at her first campus and noted that SFSU’s

statewide Senator Cherny is representing David Spence in Sacramento and also mentioned Gary Hammerstrom

as another example of strong SFSU representation at the state wide level.

As far as my current remarks go, the phrase in real estate is “location, location,

location” - my remarks today and for some time will be “budget, budget, budget.”

Some of the specific issues are CMS, enrollment, contract issues, and student

fees - all budget issues. She mentioned coming to office in one of the worst

possible years, and noted the significant political issues before the CSU.

She mentioned being told

by the legislature not to ask for faculty compensation and not to ask for

enrollment funding. But of course many more students are coming. The UCs are turning away students, and

even CSU Chico has turned away 25 percent of the new students. The private

universities can absorb a small overflow and the community colleges are really

hurt badly. Where are the students going to go? How will we be able to teach

them with fewer resources?  How can we continue to get more productive?

The board will approve

a budget on 1 October, and Richard West estimates that $54 million

will be our mandated increased cost as a system. She mentioned issues such

as faculty salaries and other difficulties. She stated that the board will

ask for more money for faculty compensation, will ask for money for students.

And the crisis will be when they receive the answer to those questions.  Funded

student enrollment has already been decreasing over time.

Bright spots include the

Board’s discussion of Proposition 54. Normally the board is not a political

board unless political events affect the CSU, and this affects the CSU big

time. It is a crime to erase knowledge about our students.

The board is supporting

new funding - building increases, enrollment increases. The board cannot speak

to the contract, since that is a collective bargaining issue. SFSU student

David Abella is a member on the CSU fees

panel and Trustee Kaiser hoped for a good strategic plan from the panel.

The Teacher Integrative

Program is an attempt to resolve legislative qualms about cleaning up our

act and she hopes that we will be able to have effective teachers out in 4

years.

Trustee Kaiser

ended by noting the importance of voting and monitoring legislators and legislation.

During the Question period:

Senator Daniels

asked about limits of enrollment listed in the master plan, and whether we

could revise the numbers.

Trustee Kaiser

wondered if Senator Daniels wanted the truth or not. She noted that

the theoretical Master plan stipulated that the UC system would take the top

12% of students, and the CSU the top 25%, whereas in fact UC takes the top

8% and we take 25%. Campuses do do selective applications,

although this is a tricky issue. Impacting is an issue - there are ways to

do it, but you have to make sure it works properly

Senator Williams

expressed pleasure that Proposition 54 was handled well by the Board, and

that it makes an important statement.

Trustee Kaiser mentioned the mixed appointment profile on the board, and thus was

especially pleased that board came together on this issue.

Senator Meredith

wondered if the board is taking notice of teacher training issues.

Trustee Kaiser

mentioned educational equity and Title 9, and that huge tension in education

now involves school principals. She mentioned federal guidelines that she

felt were color-blind in the worst possible way. Little attention is paid

to internal student demographics and she felt that our job is to educate for

the best possible chance of success. Nothing gets more attention than the

“no child left behind” initiative.

Senate Chair Edwards noted the need to move to time certain

Agenda item 6.

AGENDA ITEM #6 - MASTER

OF ARTS IN ART 1ST READING: Time certain - no later than 2:30 p.m.

m/s/p

Nichols, Vaughn

Senator Nichols,

chair of CRAC, noted that in the senate packet was the request to revise the

requirements for the Master’s of Arts in Art.   This proposal was reviewed

by CRAC 2 times prior to being placed on the Agenda.  The first proposed change

was to define specializations in “Art of Asia” and “Art of the Spanish-speaking

World” in the bulletin.  A wide range of courses in both areas of study already

exists.  The department wished to formalize these courses by grouping them

into emphasis areas for advising current students and informational purposes

for prospective students.  Page 3 of the proposal has the course listings

grouped by emphases.

The second proposed change

was the addition of one new core course (Art 703 Art History Research Applications)

to the curriculum which will reduce the required elective options from

6 to 3 units total. The number of units required

to graduate would remain the same.  Art 703 will be a prerequisite for ART

898.  Currently, students have difficulty completing their MA thesis independently

of a structured seminar situation.  This change would assist matriculating

students to graduation in a timelier manner.

Faculty representing the

proposal includes Judith Bettelheim and Sylvia

Walters.

Dean Whitaker made

a modest comment—formalizing this not a request for new concentration but

an emphasis, which is useful for advising purposes.

Senator Steier

asked for clarification about course 897 -  is that

a thesis course?

Walters

answered in the affirmative.

Move to second reading

m/s/p

Carrington, Houlberg

Senator Steier

commented that he didn’t make his first question clear: there is a course

898 as well as 897, which seems to overlap 703.

Bettelheim noted that course 897 is for a student who needs

more preparation for their thesis, to be undertaken before 898. 703 is a dedicated

seminar for all thesis students to discuss methods. This is a four semester

program, and 703 is the beginning of thesis preparation.

Senator McKeon

asked a question regarding the emphasis on the Spanish speaking world, whether

students needed to demonstrate a certain level of Spanish language proficiency.

Bettelheim noted that there is a language requirement for a

thesis, and students must pass a language exam before their thesis work.

Moved

to close debate.

m/s/p

Houlberg, Vaughn

Revision is approved unanimously.

AGENDA ITEM #4 - PROVOST JOHN GEMELLO - Budget Impact and

the Instructional Program.

Provost Gemello outlined the current academic plans for the

University Academic Affairs, which took a 4.6 million dollar reduction in

its budget, split into two parts. We allocated some reduction to colleges,

about 2.2 million dollars. The college budgets were reduced by 6 %; 4-6% in

other academic units. The impact was similar to previous years - reductions

took place by salary savings, leaving positions unfilled and the like. The

second part, a reduction in the faculty budget was accomplished by altering

the student/faculty ratio (SFR).

One way to look at this

is by comparing other years, and we now are back at the student/faculty ratio

from 5 years ago, which had gradually been improved over that time.  So we

are not going into uncharted waters - we have been here before. The University

has received growth funds, based on additional 1,300 FTE, which has helped.

Academic affairs has received 2.2 million dollars

extra. We increased target to colleges, allocated increased funds, and spread

them over several semesters. We just sent out the augmentation to the colleges

for the spring allowing us to meet our spring target. The net result, from

faculty budget, is similar to last year, but we need to teach more students.

In fall 2002 we offered 3,676 sections, in fall 2003 3,639 leading to reduction

of 37 sections. We did everything we could to keep things close. In 2002 there

were 20,274 FTES, in 2003 there are 20,793. We have an extra 500 students

in roughly the same number of classes.

We have kept the instructional

equipment budget intact and the library materials budget intact.

We relied on units making

reductions, sometimes in short-term ways. The University Budget Committee

(UBC) has discussed this at length, but the lateness of the budget makes this

a transitional year. We have had to make one-year decisions to finish off

the year. Next year, if nothing worse happens, we will have a 10 million dollar

shortfall, a permanent shortfall. This is now a permanent issue - the question

is how will we handle this.

UBC has added 3 new faculty

members: Velia Garcia, John Kim, and Lisa White.

We had the first meeting with the faculty members last week, desiring to involve

more faculty in the budget process. Provost Gemello

planned to meet with faculty members to discuss the budget as often and

long as necessary.

Senator Houlberg suggested that the notion of “going back”

to SFR from the past is not appropriate. Going “back” to a 22.1 SFR doesn’t

reflect reality.  Teaching back then meant you were able to count on photocopiers,

support, etc.  We are actually in uncharted waters, which don’t reflect what

we need to say as an institution.

AGENDA ITEM #5 - REPORT FROM STATEWIDE ACADEMIC SENATE.

Senator Gregory

noted that her report from the Faculty Affairs Committee as well as minutes

of the Plenary taken by David Hood at the last meeting were sent out

on email, and had nothing further to offer. Aaron commented that the

Fiscal and Government Affairs committee is facing some grim decisions. Until

discussion continues with trustees there is nothing further to report.

Senator Chelberg had a question to Gregory about what

email list was utilized for her mailing.

Several Senators were

not included in the list and so the Senate Email list will be updated.

AGENDA ITEM #7 -RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF K/U PUBLIC EDUCATION

FACILITIES BOND ACT, 1st and 2nd Reading.

This agenda item is a recommendation from the executive committee, as a

consent item, in first and second reading, concerning the approval of the

resolution in support of the Kindergarten through University Public Education

Facilities Bond Act.

m/s/p

Aaron, Gregory                                     

Senator Aaron felt

troubled to even have to speak to this at all. We are in tough times for our

young people and students. We did the first half of this last year, in supporting

proposition 47, but we need to do this kind of thing again because we need

to take the long view. We need to send a strong message to young people that

we care about their education.

Senator Gregory

added only to say that we take a position on this terrible thing, and directed

our attention to a typo in the resolution in third “whereas” clause - line

2, “more than 300 school districts and their school construction and their

repair projects funded.”

Senator Carrington

asked if there is any particular project at SFSU to which this is directed.

Should we mention them?

Vice President for Administration

& Finance Morishita responded that the only current ones are the

minor capital outlays, but deferred maintenance will be affected in the future. 

There may be one project on next year’s list that will be affected.

President Corrigan

stated that if this bond doesn’t pass, it will put us further back in the

queue for funding. We have major project in next major bond, which would put

us in worse shape.

Senator Heiman noted another typo in final clause: it should

be “it” not “if” in the last clause.

Move to close debate.

m/s/p

Houlblerg, Smith

Motion

to second reading.

m/s/p

Meredith, Carrington

The resolution is passed

by consent of the senate.

Trustee Kaiser expressed thanks for a fine and productive day at SFSU.

AGENDA ITEM #14—Adjournment of the Senate

Senate adjourned at 3:07PM

Respectfully Submitted

Ned Fielden, Secretary to the Faculty

Meeting Date (Archive)