Minutes: April 16th, 2002

Minutes of

the Academic Senate Meeting of

April

16, 2002

The Academic

Senate was called to order by Chair Vaughn at 2:12

p.m.

Senate

Members Present:

Chair

Pamela Vaughn

encouraged all faculty to consider participation in senate and campus committees

by either nominating themselves or a colleague.

Chair’s

Report

Chair

Pamela Vaughn: I

was moved by a statement in Jon Carroll’s column this morning, when he

said that “what needs to happen most of all, regardless of the assertion

of rights on any side, is for the fighting and the noise to stop, so that

the world can hear the crying.” I think we are all very aware that the

various conflicts in the world -- of necessity -- are spilling over daily

into our lives and the lives of our students – students who are worried

about family and friends in various parts of the world. And all I ask is

that perhaps from time to time we can take a moment, realizing that the

monumental change wrought by September 11^th is not by any means

finished – if it ever will be – that we take time from our lectures, from

our busy office hours, and yes our committee meetings, to allow some silence

and quiet reflection so that we can “hear the crying” and do what we can

to work for peace.

Agenda Item #1: Approval of

Agenda for Meeting of April

16, 2002

m/s/p

(Gregory, Houlberg) to approve the agenda

Agenda Item #2: Approval of

Minutes for Meeting of April

2, 2002

m/s/p

(Duke, Steier) to approve the minutes

Agenda Item #3: Report from Vice President La Belle

Tom La Belle: I would like to talk to you

about the issue of the changing composition of our faculty. Several years

ago we made the decision to put most of our recruitment at the assistant

professor level. We believe that is was a wise decision. These new hires

are making a difference. We are not into our third year of focusing our

recruitment at the assistant professor level. This year we have the highest

level of searches going at about 105. We have been typically recruiting

50 to 60 new faculty hires each year. At the other end of the spectrum

we are increasing the number of retirements. Retirements will increase

given the normal age patterns of retirement. We talk about the retirement

age at about 65 and either side of 65. If we look at the demographics of

our faculty you will note that we will have more and more retirements.

FERPS will also increase. We probably have 130 to 140 faculty on the early

retirement program or FERPS. The challenge on the other end is to define

roles and responsibilities of FERPS to make sure that they are included

in university activities. Let me start with the Assistant Professor recruitment

and hiring. We certainly put a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of

effort into recruiting the best that we could find. We compete with other

like institution and to some extent we compete with research universities.

I still note that the research universities are recruiting stars and their

faculty by age is on the other end of the continuum. The loss for us, for

example, of Jeff Marcy was an example of how the research universities

pick the stars out where they find them, attracting them through additional

resources and infrastructure. I think we will experience that over and

over again during the next few years. Our challenge is to make the Assistant

Professor special and to pay tribute to the tremendous investment we have

made. That starts with a support system that isn’t just resources it is

collegial support, it is mentoring, it is finding a way to make the individual

feel that he or she has a role to play and a supportive set of colleagues

around him. The issue I think is one of how do we orient these new

faculty and how do we receive them and how do we make sure that the kinds

of opportunities that they have at first during the probationary years

increase the likelihood that they are going to be successful here. The

Deans and I were talking about this issue yesterday and one of the issues,

for example, while it is going to be quite lucrative for many faculty to

teach during the summer given the new contract when it kicks in not this

summer but the following summer. We will want to make sure that the Assistant

Professors are not so overworked in the teaching side in terms of their

workload that they don’t have time to do other things. So

one of the issues that came out was the establishment of summer fellowships

for Assistant Professors.Raising the issues about

workload for the first year or two of Assistant Professor. Purposely

reducing the teaching loads to acclimate

them or socialize them into the institution. So they in fact don’t get

so burdened early on that they can’t find their way. I think a lot of that

is happening. I just don’t think it is happening in a systematic level

enough. I don’t think it is born by all colleagues, as it needs to be.

We all have got to think of a way that we can be supportive of these new

people.One of these issues, I think,

is to introduce the individual to more than just the department faculty.

It is interesting that as the President holds the Thursday night dinners

with faculty that the individuals that come to the table know each other

and they know each other because they went through orientation together.

They met each other there and they have been able to connect as a university

community because of orientation not because departments necessarily connect

them with the rest of the institution but because orientation interconnects

them in the institution, so that those 30 to 40 individuals who come into

orientation each year tend to conduct themselves almost as a class, a particular

class of individuals, and they define themselves that way. It think

that is healthy. As we lose more senior faculty, issues of HRTP and searches

are going to become more difficult. Some of them are more difficult given

the contract because they are the ones that have to sit on the search committees

and the promotion committees and Assistant Professors are restricted, again,

by contract. It would be interesting to find ways that Assistant Professor

could become perhaps observers or adjunct to some of the processes. The

UC, for example, purposely puts Assistant Professor as non-voting members

of HRTP committees so that they learn and socialize and they see the process

at work. I think the shift is going to call on us to look for ways that

we can accommodate to the changing composition of faculty and some of that

means policy changes and rule changes in some of our practices. I think

what you are doing now in stating criteria and expectation for new faculty

and trying to make the probationary period more productive is fine. My

only observation is don’t isolate the department

from the Dean’s role, don’t isolate the department from the Provost role,

because really it is at this point not a department decision, it’s a university

decision and all levels are engaged in that. I think it is important that

you lay out expectations but I think it is also important that you realize

that this is not just a single decision made at a single level. There are

the other start-up issues. In the sciences it costs to bring a new faculty

member in $150,000 or more, due to laboratory costs and equipment costs

and so on. In others it is a computer, in others it is different kinds

of resources, it might be travel, or other forms of support. But all those

costs have to be born at the department and the college level. The long-term

benefits may be worth the short-term sacrifices. FERPs can be used as mentors.

Mentors, however, can’t just be assigned; the mentee must have something

to say about it, because if the mentee doesn’t have confidence or rapport

with the mentor then it doesn’t work. Mentors have to be trained and prepared;

it is something that we all don’t necessarily know how to do. At the Assistant

Professor level we can expect more and more pressure on promotion and tenure

decisions. I think Assistant Professor will likely constitute an interest

group in and of them. One college is already experiencing the organization

of Assistant Professors as a special interest. I think as more and more

of the Assistant Professors - we bring on - we will have interest groups

surrounded by levels of interest. They will begin to change policies and

procedures and expectations because they will be pushing the system from

that end. At the Associate Professor level I think one of the issues to

watch carefully are those individuals who are not promoted to full professor

within the normal six-year pattern. Those individual that are there in

rank for seven, eight, and nine years - and there are about 70 to 80 of

them on the campus. That group I believe needs a special intervention -

it needs someone to come along say “where are you, how can we support you,

how can we invest in you, or support you to the next level.” I don’t think

faculty are frustrated or don’t feel part of the campus. Post-tenure review

for full professor, I think, remains an issue and again, chairs, department

colleagues, deans, - we are trying to get deans to meet with every post

tenure review candidate, but in a college like Science and Engineering

with 20-130 faculty members a dean has to meet with 20 to 25 faculty members

a year to be apprised of where they are, invest in them and move them along.

Again, post-tenure review – a five year cycle – still requires resources

and some full professors need special care, some special handling, some

special investment. FERPs I believe provide and additional challenges.

There are resource issues, space issues, faculty office space issues, other

resources that the department will find will become more and more scarce

when assistant professor are brought in while the FERPs maintain their

same space. There will be teaching load issues, what will be the teaching

loads for FERPs and how will they be negotiated. This changing composition

of the faculty, whether you are looking at the coming in end or the out

going end, will clearly challenge, I think, all of us. It will challenge

the institution, not just administrators, but colleagues up and down. We

have to be open to it and think it through, and the Senate obviously is

going to play a major role. Sandra Luft indicated that it is helpful

to give attention at the Assistant Professor level to the problem of heavy

teaching loads that leave little time for research activities. However,

the rest of the faculty are in the same position and they should be included.

Tom La Belle: I agree with you. Andres Consoli asked if the

Provost would elaborate on the summer fellowships for assistant professors.

Tom La Belle: From where I sit I look at the kinds of opportunities

for faculty that we have in place now. There are multi-cultural grants,

or travel grants, probationary faculty awards, and so on. It strikes me

that we have got to have the resources in place to match more or less the

stage of career that individuals are in. My thought is that those needs

change over time. I grant the issue of workload for everyone. But the transition

for an Assistant Professor from a research university where they see how

there professor mentors had little teaching, strong infrastructure support

system and then to come to work at a teaching university with our heavy

teaching load and limited support infrastructure requires some support

for the transition. It doesn’t mean that the workload is fair, it just

means that it is different. The summer fellowship I think is one where

the assistant professor salary doesn’t really match the kinds of cost of

living that will face this individual when they move here. In order to

make ends meet the assistant professor may well gravitate to teaching in

the summer for extra income. He or she is using that valuable time for

activity that may not be productive for the entire period over four to

six years and it would be to provide use the time for scholarship or research.

One thought is to have fellowship that would be equivalent to what one

might get for teaching. So if teaching one course would be a $5,000 to

$6,000 gain then to have a fellowship of that same amount. We are thinking

now that there is something called the vice president’s assigned time.

It only allocates .2 to faculty, we’re thinking that that is not enough,

.2 doesn’t get you much. So we are thinking it should be expanded and maybe

we will take that program and put it into summer fellowships or something.

It is issues like that and trying to map along the way what are the needs

and how can we predict what faculty interests are and their needs are at

various times and establishing programs of an intervention source that

responds to those needs at that point. It is trying to do that from the

point of recruitment and hiring and orientation and all the way through

to retirement and/or FERPing. To lose for example, 130 to 140 individuals

who have FERPed is a major resource loss to an institution. Just as there

are certain restrictions on Assistant Professors there are certain restrictions

on FERPs. I not sure that make sense and I think we should review some

of those policies as well. Minoo Moallem asked what we are doing

to keep our “star” faculty from leaving.

Tom La Belle indicated

that we do not let them leave without hearing form us. We have a policy

to try to match outside offers that they may have received. We typically

hear about a faculty that is leaving and then begin a process of review

that goes from department chair, the dean and the president and after weighing

all the issues and if the faculty is interested in staying we will match

the outside offer if we believe it is a reasonable offer.

Midori McKeon

indicated that helping incoming faculty is good but as a department chair

she has many concerns about the growing inequities between support for

the newer faculty and the faculty at higher levels. Specifically the problem

of hiring new faculty at salaries that are much higher than what we are

paying some faculty who were hired in previous years. As a department chairperson

she indicated that the teaching loads of 4 classes per semester must be

reduced to 3 and even 2 as found at other universities. Tom La Belle

indicated that teaching load issues change from department to department

and from college to college. In some departments teaching loads are driven

by accreditation requirements that require small class sizes. A department

HRT committee that can make a recommendation for a salary increase to the

college dean can resolve the issue of equity in salary within a department.

Agenda Item #4: Report on Legislative Days

Robert Cherny reported on his attendance

at the statewide academic senate legislative day. He spent the day meeting

with community college representatives and state legislature discussing

issues of preparation and transfer of students from the community colleges

to the CSU. A draft of the statewide master plan for education will be

available for review and input in the next few months. Will take it on

the road to get hearing around the state. Invited them to come to a CSU

campus, this may happen. The legislature believes that the impact from

the state’s economic downturn will have less of an effect on this year’s

CSU budget but profoundly affect next year’s CSU budget. Cherny encourage

all to write to the governor outlining that any further cuts in the CSU

budget will directly affect our ability to effectively serve the people

of California. Eunice Aaron found the legislative representative

very committed to public higher education, however, it appears that the

governor will not finalize the budget until after the November elections.

Warned that we should all be prepared for some drastic decrease in the

budget and student fee increases.

Agenda Item #5: Elections

All-University Committee for International Programs

The

Academic Senate has one vacancy (2002-2005) on the All-University Committee

for International Programs. Mariam Smith has agreed to stand for

re-election to the committee

m/s/p

(Houlberg, Steier) Mariam Smith elected by acclamation

Alumni Association Board

The

Academic Senate has a two-year position on the Alumni Association Board

(2002-2004) Charles Egan, the Academic Senate’s current representative,

has agreed to stand for re-election.

m/s/p

(Houlberg, Scoble) Charles Egan elected by acclamation

Children’s Center Advisory Board

Grace

Yoo

has agreed

to stand for reelection to the Children’s Center Advisory Board (2002-203).

m/s/p

(Steier, Mary Ann Warren) Grace Yoo elected by acclamation

Agenda Item #6: Faculty Merit Increase and Faculty Activity Reports

The

Academic Senate Executive Committee submits for consideration a resolution

on Rescinding Policy on Faculty Merit Increase and Faculty Activity Reports.

Jan

Gregory indicated that this is a good idea and she supports the resolution.

m/s/p

(Houlberg, Gregory) to second reading

m/s/p

(Houlberg, Steier) to close debate

Voting on the resolution - Passed

Agenda

Item #7: Proposed Revision to the Undergraduate Curriculum in California

Studies

Amy

Nichols

, Chair

of the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC), introduced the

proposals. The proposal is coming as a consent item from CRAC. The

College

of

Behavioral

and Social Science and the California Studies Program submit for consideration.

This is a proposal to revise the California Studies minor in the following

way. The minor would consist of 21 units instead of the current 24 units.

There would be 22 courses offered by 15 departments from five colleges.

Four courses that are not longer offered would be removed (NEXA 398, HUM

317, IAC 370, ECON 530). Four regularly offered

California-related courses would be added (HM 421, PLSI 475, and RAZA 660).

Students would complete one core course (HIST 450), one course from each

of three interdisciplinary categories (California Artistic and Cultural

Landscapes, California Social and Ethnic Landscapes, and California Environmental

Landscapes), and choose three elective courses from at least two of these

categories. Dean Kassiola, Dean of BSS and Lee Davis, director

of the California Studies Minor, were present to answer questions. Saul

Steier indicated that a course, HUM 375, should appear as part of the

emphasis on Los Angeles. Asked that it be included.Lee

Davis, Director of the minor, and members of CRAC had no objections.

HUM 375 will be included as part of the emphasis on Los Angeles.

m/s/p

(Velia

Garcia, Steier) to second reading

Minoo Moallem asked if courses in ethnic

studies could be added?Lee

Davis indicated

that she is willing to include courses that are recommended by other faculty.

If a course has not been included, it is because we did not know about

it. She encourages all interested faculty with recommendations to contact

her. Pamela Vaughn noted the excellent variety of courses that constitute

the minor and complimented those involved on a fine job.

m/s/p

(Houlberg, Shrivastava) to close debate

Voting

on the proposal – Passed unanimously

Robert

Cherny asked for

a special order of business to amend the agenda and add two new items.

m/s/p

(Nichols, Penelope Warren) to amend the agenda.

m/s/p

(Steier, Mary Anne Warren) to second reading

m/s/p

(Steier, Duke) to close debate

Voting on the motions to amend

the agenda – Passed unanimously

Agenda Item #8 – Resolution Commendation

of Pamela Vaughn

COMMENDATION OF PAMELA

VAUGHN

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn was the first of her family to graduate from college and

takes seriously the importance of teaching, as it was a teacher who inspired

her interest in the ancient world, and

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn has been teaching Latin and Greek for more than twenty years,

and

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn has been a valued member of the Classics Department at San

Francisco State University since 1993, and

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn redesigned the Latin and Greek curriculum at San Francisco

State, in which curriculum she actively teaches Latin and Greek authors,

as well as courses in translation and in classical mythology, and

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn is the author of Finis Rei Publicae: Eyewitnesses to the

End of the Roman Republic (Focus Classical Texts, 1999), an excellent

textbook written in collaboration with R.C. Knapp, and

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn’s students have said such things as

§"I

am continually impressed by her vast reservoir of knowledge, her expertise,

and her passion and love for all that she does."

§"I

had never seen such joy in teaching before."

§"Every

time she conjugates a verb or corrects a pronunciation, she does it with

love -- for the verb and for the student."

§“Who

would have ever thought Greek morphology and syntax could be medicinal!"

§"She

is a born teacher. And her students love her. Perhaps that is the best

definition of success," and

WHEREAS

the American Philological Association, at its annual meeting in January

2002, in recognition of these many accomplishments, bestowed upon Pamela

Vaughn its Excellence in the Teaching of the Classics Award for the year

2001, and

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn is now completing her second and final term as chair of the

Academic Sen­ate of San Francisco State University, and

WHEREAS

Pamela Vaughn has generously and on many occasions shared with the Academic

Senate and the entire faculty of San Francisco State University her fluency

in the language and precepts of those she once described as "my adopted

people, the Romans," and

WHEREAS

alea

iacta est and, as is ever the case, tempus fugit, even when

one is having fun, now therefore be it

RESOLVED

that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University extend its heartiest

congratula­tions to Pamela Vaughn on her impressive accomplishments

in the classroom that have brought her the national recognition of her

peers, and be it further

RESOLVED

that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University thank Pamela

Vaughn for her many services to the Senate and People of the University

(SPQU), and be it further

RESOLVED

that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University bestow upon

Pamela Vaughn the titles of Doctora egregia and Dea linguae Latinae et

Graecae, and be it further

RESOLVED

that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University, effective at

the end of the cur­rent academic year, bestow upon Pamela Vaughn the

additional title Tribuna perpetua et emerita

magistrorum.

m/s/p

(Cherny, Duke) to adopt a the resolution - Passed unanimously

Agenda Item #9 - Resolution Senatus

Consultum De Pamela Vaughn

SENATUS CONSULTUM DE PAMELA VAUGHN

Idem

femina fortissima, idem orator eloquentissima, Pamela Vaughn suos discipulos

bene docet inspiratque:una cum Cicerone,

magistre suo, hoc contendet, cum ad naturam eximiam et illustrem acceserit

ratio quaedam confirmatioque litterae, tum allud nescit quid praeclarum

ac singulare solere existere; quod si non hic tantus fructus ostenderetur

et si ex his studiis delectatio sola peteretur, tamen, ut opinior, hanc

animiadversionem humanissimam ac liberalissimam iudicaretis; nam certae

neque temporum sunt neque aetatum omnium neque locorum:haec

studia adolescentiam acuunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant,

adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt

foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur.

Quod

permulti Senatores verba fecerunt de rebus suis

litteratis praeclaris, et item quod iidem verba fecerunt Pamela Vaughn

operam fortem et fidelem Univesitati nostrae navasse, ut pro rebus bene

gestis ab sua fortiterque factis in Universitatem nostram honor sua haberetur:

De ea re ita

censuerunt:

Pamelam Vaughn

"Doctorem Egregiam"

et

“Deam

Linguae Latinae et Graecae”

et

“Tribunam

Perpetuam et Emeritam Magistrorum”

appelari.

Honoris

caussa Pamelam Vaughn censuere.

Translation:

At

once a woman of the highest courage and the most eloquent of speakers,

Pamela Vaughn greatly teaches and inspires

her students:Along with Cicero,

her Teacher, she holds that when noble and elevated natural gifts are supplemented

and shaped by the influence of literary studies, the result is then something

truly remarkable and unique.And yet

let us leave aside for a moment any practical advantage that literary studies

may bring.For even if their aim

were pure enjoyment and nothing else, you would feel obliged to agree that

no other activity of the mind could possibly have such a broadening and

enlightening effect.For

there is no other occupation upon earth which is so appropriate to every

time and every age and every place.These

literary studies stimulate the young and delight the old, they increase

one’s satisfaction when things are going well, and when they are going

badly, they provide refuge and solace.They

are a delight at home; they can be fitted in with public life; throughout

the night, on journeys, in the country, they are a companion which never

lets you down.

Whereas

many Senators have spoken of her illustrious scholarly activities, and

likewise whereas these same have declared that Pamela Vaughn has rendered

valiant and faithful service to our University, so that public acknowledgement

might be accorded her in return for the good service and valiant deeds

performed by her on behalf of our University:

Concerning this matter

it was decreed [by the Senate] as follows:

That Pamela Vaughn be called

"Extraordinary Teacher"

and

“Classics Goddess”

and

“Emerita Tribune of the

Faculty in Perpetuity”

In

honor of Pamela Vaughn.

m/s/p

(Houlberg, Colvin) to adopt the resolution - Passed unanimously

The Senate

adjourned at 3:19PM

Respectfully

submitted,

James

Edwards

Secretary

to the Faculty