Minutes
of the Academic Senate Meeting
of September 24,
2002
The Academic Senate was
called to order by Chair Robert Cherny at 2:10 p.m.
Senate Members Present:
Avila, Guadalupe Bartscher, Patricia Bernstein, Marian Blando, John Blomberg, Judith Carrington, Christopher Chen, Yu-Charn Cherny, Robert Collier, James Consoli, Andres Corrigan, Robert A. Daniels, Robert |
Edwards, James Fielden, Ned Fung, Robert Garcia, Oswaldo Garcia, Velia Gemello, John Gerson, Deborah Gill, Sam Gonzales, Dan Gregory, Jan Houlberg, Rick Jerris, Scott |
Johnson-Brennan, Karen Klironomos, Martha Luft, Sandra McKeon, Midori Meredith, David Morishita, Leroy Nichols, Amy Noble, Wade Pong, Wen Shen Raggio, Marcia Smith, Brett |
Smith, Miriam Steier, Saul Stowers, Genie Strong, Rob Su, Yuli Turitz, Mitch Vaughn, Pamela Warren, Penelope Weinstraub, Aram Whalen, Maureen Williams, Robert Yip, Yewmun |
Senate Members Absent: Aaron, Eunice (exc), Colvin, Caran (exc), Terrell, Dawn, Kassiola, Joel (exc), Strong, Rob (exc), Newt-Scott, Ronda (abs) |
Guests: Paul Sherwin, Sheldon Axler, Gerald Platt, Gail Whitaker, Gilda Bloom, Dan Buttlaire, Jerry Combs, Helen Goldsmith, Lavonne Jacobsen, Bruce Macher, Deborah Masters, Eloise McQuown, Val Sakovich, Catherine Powell, Jaih McReynolds, Georgianna Wong, & Marilyn Verhey |
Announcements
Senator Mitch Turitz announced that George Diehr, faculty candidate for the CalPERS
Board will be at the University Club, Verducci Room 4-5 p.m., October 1.
Professor Diehr will answer questions and
refreshments will be served. All faculty are invited to attend
Senator Rick Houlberg invited all faculty and staff with “talent of any
kind” to participate in the “Cabaret Night” at the University’s Asilomar
retreat. He and Jim Bebee are
organizing this special cabaret night and are asking all interested faculty and
staff to present their talent. Contact Rick at houlberg@sfsu.edu or Jim Bebee
Chair’s Report
The senate chair did not give
a report in order for the senate to have more time for debate.
Agenda Item #1 -
Approval of the Agenda for
September 24, 2002
m/s/p (Carrington, Turitz) to approve the
agenda
Agenda
Item #2 - Approval of Minutes for September 10, 2002
m/s/p (Turitz, Houlberg)
to approve the minutes as amended
Agenda
Item # 3 - Introduction of New College Deans
Dean Sheldon Axler, College of Science & Engineering stressed an active faculty
engaged in teaching, research, and service, especially research programs that
provide hands-on student activities. The largest challenge that the college
must face is the development of external resources to support our continuing
need for equipment and space. The college will continue to increase efforts to
be more competitive in attracting faculty especially in the areas of start-up
funds that are competitive with other universities.
Dean Gerald Platt, College of Business emphasized a closer working relationship between faculty and college
administrators and working toward the integration of curriculum across
departments and colleges. Dean Platt noted that he began his career at SFSU in
1976 as a lecturer and looks forward to working with the very talented existing
and new faculty in the college. He noted that the college would continue to
play a strong roll in both the academic community as well as in the San Francisco business community.
Dean Paul Sherwin, College of Humanities stressed several issues including strengthening GE Segment II &
III courses; external funding, and integration of the Humanities with campus
partnerships. The dean noted the impressive quality of the humanities faculty
and the need to reduce teaching loads to attract the best new faculty. The Dean
indicated that he would be working very aggressively at securing external funds
for new programs, new journals, and new opportunities for faculty.
Associate Vice President Gail Whitaker noted that she had taken on the additional role as head of the College of Extended Learning. In this regard she would no longer have the
responsible for campus program review as this task has fallen to AVP Richard Giardina. She stressed the role
of the college in extending the mission of the university to the community
coupled with the ability to generate funding for campus colleges and
departments. She also indicated that CEL would be focusing on the academic
quality of its programs and guarding against turning curriculum into a purely
business adventure. The college would be looking to work with other colleges
for opportunities to collaborate on courses offering and curriculum
development.
Agenda
Item #4 - Report from Statewide Senators
Senate Chair Robert Cherny recognized the three statewide senators: Jan Gregory, Eunice Aaron, and Robert Cherny (himself). He emphasize that the three statewide
senators are elected by the SFSU senate and report back to the senate on CSU
Senate activities.
Senator Cherny noted his e-mail report and emphasized the need for
all departments that have teacher education single subject waiver programs to
consult the changes in the statewide standards. A copy of the following report
from the meeting of the Academic Senate CSU, Friday, September 13, 2002, was provided to all senators via e-mail:
The
statewide academic senate meeting was called to order at 8:45 a.m.
The roll call concluded with Len Mathy, the new senator representing
emeritus/a faculty; Mathy was the first chair of the Academic Senate CSU in
1963-64. Lynne Cook, chair of TEKR,
announced that faculty on each campus should participate in an online survey on
new teacher preparation standards. Chancellor
Reed: CSU still does not know the
details of what is in the budget that the governor signed, because the
legislature passed a lot of "trailer bills" that change what was in
the budget that was approved by the senate.
Some of these trailer bills are themselves in conflict. One trailer bill cuts $750 million from
"governmental operations"; governor has until December to do
this. CSU qualifies as part of this, but
some major parts of the budget are excluded (e.g., debt service payments,
transfer payments to school districts).
Once one excludes those parts of the budget and prisons, CSU and UC are
the largest remaining components. This could be as much as 5%. Governor's office and Department of Finance
won't say what to expect. One
possibility would be for DOF to put a series of cuts into a bill to go before a
special session of the legislature, after the election. One rumor is that the legislature may approve
a vehicle fee increase once the election is past, and this would cover the full
$750 million. Term limits has affected
the legislature to the point where virtually no one has any significant
experience in the assembly; no one on the budget committee or in the speaker's
office had any previous experience in passing a budget! Reapportionment has compounded the problem,
as nearly all-Democratic seats are safe, and nearly all Republican seats are
safe, so there's no reason for anyone to be amenable to compromise on anything.
Rumors: Salary increase would be rolled back.
Reed: "We will meet
every part of that contract that we ratified."
Budget
includes 5% increase for enrollment, but we have about a 7% increase in
enrollment. CSU will have more than
400,000 students this fall. CSU needs to
give more consideration to some of the enrollment management tools that have
not yet been used. Only SLO and San Diego have real experience with impaction as a tool for
managing enrollment. Given the calendar,
we need to make decisions on next year's admission in the next 6-7 weeks. Spring transfer applications are also way
up. Reed would like to use careful
enrollment management to have a net increase of 3% next year, to recoup the 2%
that we are over this year. 3% is less
than half of the increase we experienced this year. However, legislature and Governor are very
sensitive to issues of access.
Reed: if they want us to accept
the students, the legislator/governor needs to pay for them. In addition to access, "we also have to
preserve quality." Regarding
capacity, "we're flying the airplane and fixing the engine at the same
time." Summer is a one-time way to
increase capacity a little. It may be
necessary to require students to take some number of units during the summer. 2003-04 budget: We don't know the base at this time; so
building a budget is a difficult exercise.
CSU will ask for 5% enrollment increase although we'll try to keep the
increase to only 3%. CSU will ask
funding for mandatory costs (compensation, health benefits, etc.). The cost of health benefits is "out of
control" and eating up other parts of the budget; health costs are as high
as 25-28%. All this is over $297
million. Other requests: $70 million on
compensation increases, ACR 73 funding ($36 million), off-campus centers ($2.25
million), and high-cost academic programs ($8 million).
Reed complimented
the senate on its role in the ACR 73 taskforce.
CSU will do 1200 tt searches this year. Last year the CSU did 1100 searches, with
about 75-78% success. Implementing the
recommendations of the ACR 73 taskforce will require $36 million up front and
about $10 million per year thereafter.
CSU needs to compete nationally in hiring, and needs to improve
SFR. CSU will have to do about 1800
searches to meet the ACR 73 goals. It is
do-able. Academic technology issues: The infrastructure will be there in a few
years. 16 campuses will be implementing
the new CMS programs for finance. Fewer will be implementing the new student
and HR systems. CSU needs to encourage
more smart classrooms on campuses and more online courses. CSU will try to highlight best practices. It
may be possible to squeeze out 5% more capacity. Only 0.5% of classes are taught online.
Q: where are your priorities if the
budget is cut? A: depends on where the cuts come. Access is a high priority. Q: why not expand study abroad programs
dramatically as a way to increase capacity? Q:
how will Master Plan affect us?
A: probably not a major impact
BOT Chair Farar: Thanked senate for its fine work--reports,
resolutions, letters, etc. Polite
nagging is a successful way to get things done.
ACR 73 an important success for the CSU.
Need to get out the vote on Prop 47. Re facilitating graduation: Trustee Achtenburg
says that we have too many coming in and not enough going out. We need to work on this. Committed to shared
governance--a necessity. Need to
work together--need to approach legislators together. Trustees should not be micromanaging, need to
keep focused on meeting the needs of students.
Pledged, "always to listen." Q: priorities as chair? A:
Access, but access with quality.
However, quality without access is meaningless. We should not exclude anyone from access to a
quality liberal arts education. Trustees
and faculty are more alike than we realize. Q: reference facilitating
graduation? A: need to focus on number of units rather than
time to degree, because many CSU students are part-time, working students,
etc. UC has an additional charge for
going over some number of total units. Q:
urge members of BOT to visit campuses, either with the Faculty Trustee
or by themselves. A: campus visits are part of a trustee's
job. She comes when she is invited.
In response to a question
about toleration and civility, Farar mentioned that
she had attended a meeting at the Simon Weisenthal Center on campus issues, and that the SFSU handling of May 7
was generally understood as an appropriate and proper response but the Regents'
response to an issue at UCB was more criticized.
Action items:
1. Modifications of the 2000
CSU Enrollment Management Policy, AS-2580-02/AA, first reading/waiver. What is at issue in this resolution is a
pending change in BOT policy on enrollment management, to come before the BOT
next week. The major changes in BOT
policy include an increased emphasis on campuses' local region, the need to
publicize each campus's enrollment target ten months prior to the beginning of
each academic year, the situation of students applying to particular programs
(impacted programs or programs that do not exist at the student's local
campus), the definition of local region, and the creation of a new body on each
campus (the presidential advisory group), and requirements regarding
notification of supplemental admission criteria. In some major part, these changes will have
the most effect at those campuses that are most seriously impacted and that
have formally declared impaction.
However, there is a requirement for every campus to have the
presidential advisory group, in part due to legislative pressures to guarantee
admission to eligible local students.
The resolution affirms the role of faculty in developing campus
admissions policies. We'll have copies
of this resolution, the BOT resolution, and previous ASCSU resolutions on
related issues.
The waiver was moved,
seconded, and passed. There was extensive
discussion and a number of amendments.
Finally a substitute motion was drafted, moved and seconded. The original motion was perfected. The substitute motion was then
perfected. The motion to substitute was
approved, so the substitute became the main motion. The motion passed.
2. Support for Proposition
47, AS-2581-02/FGA, first reading/ waiver. Proposition 47, the
Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Act of 2002, allows
issuance of $13.05 billion in general obligation bonds for construction and
renovation of educational facilities across the state. The proposition would provide $496 million to
the CSU. The resolution is to support
the measure. There was discussion and
some clarifying amendments. The waiver
was moved, seconded, and approved. The
resolution was approved unanimously.
3. Modification of
Upper-division Admission Requirements, AS-2582-02/AA, first reading. The resolution would require that a
community-college student complete 60 transferable semester units to establish
eligibility for admission as an upper-division transfer student, instead of the
current 56-unit maximum. There was
discussion of the measure. It will
return for a second reading in November.
4. Amendment to Bylaw 2a,
AS-2583-02/floor, first reading. The
motion, co-sponsored by 37 senators, proposes a change in the senate's bylaws
that would specify that no officer of the senate serve more than two
consecutive terms in the same office. It
would not limit service on the executive committee in a different office, nor
would it prevent a senator from seeking the same officer after a break in
service. The wording of the bylaw was
introduced and will be voted on at the next senate meeting. There was some
discussion. One senator suggested an
amendment to strike the "grandfather" clause, and others suggested
clarifying language.
5. Including Unit 3 Employees
in the Program to Pay for Parking with Pre-tax Dollars, AS-2584-02/FA, first
reading/ waiver. Moved and seconded. Waiver moved, seconded, approved. Approved unanimously.
Senator Gregory
emphasized in her report from the statewide academic senate’s Faculty Affairs
Committee the important issues of: protection of campus “whistle blowers”;
faculty role in curriculum development; hate crimes versus free speech; and the
recommendation for funding of faculty parking fees. A copy of the following
report from the meeting of the faculty affairs committee was provided to all
senators. At its first meeting of this academic year, FAC/ASCSU held
preliminary discussion of several matters:
1) Protection for individuals
on the campuses who "blow the whistle" on wrongdoing of another or
others, an item brought to FAC by Christine Helwick
(office of General Counsel, CSU). The
broader issue is due process for all concerned in such cases. In October, FAC plans to discuss the
distinction between cases in which the behavior in question is Democratic on
starkly illegal as against those which may fall into the category of professional
misconduct. It is now seeking policy
documents or guidelines, if any, from the campuses to serve as background for
the upcoming discussion.
2) Affirmation of the
traditional role of faculty in development and housing of curricula. On several campuses faculty in colleges of
business and science as well others have been dealing with the possibility of
inappropriate intervention of outside entities in the creation and development
of new programs or additions to existing programs.
3) Possible access to and
disclosure of electronic and other forms of communication on the campuses -- in
other words, privacy of communication.
Again, FAC will be seeking information from the campuses to guide its
discussion.
4) Hate crimes and free
speech, and the role of the Academic Senate (if any) in acting on this matter.
5) The issues of roles and
rewards for faculty participation in teacher education. Brought to FAC by TEKR, this item has
implications for the criteria for RTP on each campus. It is expected that TEKR will take the lead
on this item at the outset.
6) Impromptu audits of some
departments in which faculty were given no opportunity
to read and correct possible errors of fact on draft reports. As reported, this issue may be a matter of
faculty members' rebuttal rights when an audit is performed in such a way as to
make anonymous allegations that create what faculty believe
to be misperceptions about them.
7) An unexpected action item
that took the form of a resolution that passed unanimously in the plenary. The resolution urges CSU and CFA to bargain
for collection of parking fees from PRE-tax dollars, its rationale noting that Unit 3 faculty are the only CSU employees who pay for
parking from net income.
In addition, the committee
had a lengthy discussion with CFA President Susan Meisenhelder
about various matters including dissatisfaction about the chancellor's framing
of compensation in the 2003-04 budget request; remaining difficulties in
implementation of the 'new' contract; and hopes for the success in getting the
legislature to fund first steps in response to the report on ACR 73 (increasing
the number of tenure-track faculty in CSU without negatively affecting existing
lecturer positions).
Agenda
Item #5 - Report from Vice-President Leroy Morishita
on the University Budget and from Vice President John Gemello
on Academic Affairs budget planning.
VP Morishita outlined the University Budget process and the plans
for a possible December 1% to 5% cut in 2002-2003 funding. A three page
detailed report covering the San Francisco State University General Fund and
Indirect Cost, “Working Draft”, budget proposal for fiscal year 2002 and 2003
was provided for all senators. VP Gemello
presented Academic Affairs planning to protect and maintain the spring semester
instructional programs from the possible budget cuts. Gemello passed out to all senate
members a copy of his presentation that covered Academic Affairs possible
budget reduction planning. He emphasized that the priority is to protect the
classroom. He indicated that no one is looking forward to the reduction that
may come after the November election. Senator
Williams indicated his concerns that faculty/student mentor, Ethnic Studies
Access and Retention, and teacher diversity programs might be targeted for 27
to 33% cuts. VP Gemello
indicated that these programs are very valuable activities for the university,
that the proposed budget reduction plan is being developed to protect the
classroom. Senator Jerris
asked about the implication for budget planning of the present and future
increase in enrollment demand brought about the “title wave II” students
reaching college age. VP Gemello agreed that a restriction in income from the state
would create problems for the university to meet enrollment demands. However,
he indicated that the university does not control student fees and our income
is set by the state legislature. President
Corrigan also addressed the enrollment growth problems in relation to a
lack of a related increase in state support. He outlined that for the last 16
years that there has not been much of an education policy in the state. We know
we are going to have more students now and in the future. VP Morishita indicated that the campus is
actively engaged with the CSU to get more money to support our increased
enrollments.
Agenda
Item #6 - Report from University Librarian Deborah Masters on Planning for the
Library Construction
University Librarian Deborah Masters outlined in an extensive PowerPoint presentation, the fall
2004 to winter 2007 construction and renovation plans for the library. A copy
of her report was provided to all senators. Her complete report is available on
line at the University Library web site. She also indicated that all faculty,
staff and student are invited to participate in the any of six planning meetings
scheduled for October 7-18, contact dmasters@sfsu.edu.
Senator Consoli
asked if the library planning had taken into consideration the expected
enrollment growth for 2007. VP Morishita indicated that our FTE in 2007 would be at
20,000, which is within the library’s plan.
Agenda
Item #7 - Report from Professor Jerald Combs on Planning for the Year of Civil
Discourse
Professor Combs
indicated that as a faculty we could do something to raise the level of discussion
so that it was civil and rationale. He indicated that anticipated international
event looks like this is going to be a very difficulty year. There is a strong
likelihood that we will be facing tension over international issues or facing
an actual war. We want to maintain a rational and civil atmosphere on our
campus during times of tension. We as a faculty must step up and make sure that
stability can be maintained. Professor
Combs outlined a series of on campus events and activities at the Asilomar
conference, which will emphasis free speech in relation to hate speech. All faculty are invited to play lead roles as models of civil
discourse and free speech. Announced that renowned free speech expert Robert
O’Neil will be featured at a presentation and panel discussion on October 17th,
2-4, Nob Hill room in the Seven Hills Conference Center.
Agenda
Item #8 - Recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee: Approval of
Changes in the policy for the Committee on the Protection of Human Subjects.
Senator Williams, acting for the chair of Facutly
Affairs Caran Colvin, recommended the approval of
changes in the policy for protection of human subjects
m/s (Wiliams, Turtiz)
discussion
Senator Houlberg recommended that senators vote against the proposed
changes. He felt that there was a procedural conflict by placing committee
oversights with both the Graduate Dean and the Vice President for Research and
Grants. Bruce Marcher, Acting Director of ORSP, indicated that both the Dean and the VP deal
with issues of human subject protocols. In the instance of the Graduate Dean
almost 90% of all applicants are graduate students. Only 5% are faculty
research projects.
Senator Vaughn indicated that the committee's overriding concern
was the need to be in compliance with Federal protocols and Federal guidelines.
Senator Wolfe asked about changes in language in the proposal. Senate Chair Cherny indicated that the language was there to clean up
the original document. Gilda Bloom, Secondary Education and former chair of the Human
Subject Committee, indicated that the Committee composition was guided by
federal requirement and it does require that the assurance officer sit on the
committee. Having the graduate dean on the committee is very important since so
many or the applications are from graduate students. She also recommend that
the seven member committee was too small and recommended that it be increased
to 12. Senate Chair Cherny indicated that the Senate policy that created the
committee indicates a minimum of 7 members.
The proposal will
return to the senate in two weeks for a 2nd reading.
Agenda
Item #9 - Recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee: Approval of
changes in composition of hiring committees.
Senator Williams, acting for the chair of Faculty Affairs Caran Colvin, recommended the approval of the changes in
the policy for the composition of hiring committees to include probationary
faculty.
m/s (Williams, Steier) discussion
Senator Houlberg indicated that he objected because the proposal does
not require a department to provide rationale or reason why they are making a
request to the president for a probationary faculty to be a member of the
hiring committees. Senator Meredith indicated that it was his understanding that the
President had approved probationary faculty as members of hiring committees so
why do we need a policy to ask for their approval? Marilyn Verhey, Interim Dean of
Faculty Affairs, indicated that the proposal was to bring the policy in
compliance with the collective bargaining agreement. The agreement indicates
that Department may request that probationary faculty be a part of the hiring
committee. A request is not automatic. Senator Vaughn suggested that when the proposal returns to
committee that the language would be cleaned up to separate the process and to
deal with the rationale request. Senator Williams indicated that the proposal was developed to place
the procedure for selection of the hiring committee at the department level, so
that each department could make their determination on a rationale for
including probationary faculty on hiring committees. Senator Stowers raised the concern that we might be making the process more complex for
department and committees.
The proposal will
return to the senate agenda in two weeks for a 2nd reading.
m/s/p (Steier,
Meredith) to extend the agenda to 4:15 P.M.
Agenda
Item #10 - Recommendation from the Student Affairs Committee: Approval of
resolution on voter registration.
Senator Gerson, chair of Student Affairs Committee, asked that
the Senate approve the resolution on voter registration.
m/s/p (Gerson,
Garcia) unanimously
The
Senate adjourned at 4:15 PM
Respectively Submitted
Jim Edwards
Secretary to the Faculty