February 16, 2021

 

ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING

MINUTES

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

ZOOM MEETING 

2:00 – 4:30 p.m.

 

Attendance:

Absences: 

Guests: 

 

OPEN FLOOR PERIOD:  2:00 - 2:05 p.m.

The Open Floor Period provides an informal opportunity for campus community members to raise questions or make comments directed to Senate officers or to university administrators.  Please arrive promptly at 2:00 p.m.

CALL TO ORDER: 2:05 p.m.

·       Chair Albiniak began the session by introducing a new way of voting through Zoom.

·       A quick reminder that when our time is pressed, we will only have 3 speakers for and 3 speakers against any item. 

1.    Approval of the Agenda for February 16, 2021

·       Approved as submitted @ 2:05pm

2.    Approval of the Minutes for February 2, 2021

·       Approved @ 2:05pm

3.    Announcements from the Floor

·       Sen. Le – as we celebrate Black History Month and Lunar new Year, we recognize the large number of hate crimes against Asian Americans during the pandemic. As educators, it is our duty to bring attention to these crimes. Please continue to promote anti-racism in your classrooms. 

·       Sen. Way – we have launched the WASC self-study process. We could use some more nominations for the work groups. https://sfsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cCOM3GTAbxBhWUC

·       Sen. Ramirez – Want to bring to everyone’s attention that the number of staff members on search committees has been very low in the past.

4.    Reports

4.1. Chair Report

·       Chair Albiniak spoke about the origins of the phrase “shared governance” and its meaning in the academic community. 

·       Info about the AS Sponsored forum with President and Provost, Feb. 19th, 10:30am-1:30pm: https://sfsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cCOM3GTAbxBhWUC

4.2. President’s Report

·       Although times are still very difficult, the budget news is better than expected. 

·       72 staff and 11 MPPs were laid off, ended up saving $4.7M, but that was short of the goal. This year we will need to use more of the reserves than we expected. 4.9% of our staff was laid off. 4% of our MPPs were non-retained. Also, MPPs non-retentions will continue in an on-going system. Cuts were across the board, but some units needed to use one-time funds to cover a recurring, core-mission things. This practice pre-dates the pandemic. We will continue to reduce the number of admin costs. All units are working hard to align spending with budgets. About half of our students, who were recently surveyed, do not feel comfortable coming back to students. International enrollments have been declining as well for a few years. The CSU is under pressure to re-bench budget to reallocate fund to overenrolled campuses. 

·       We are predicting a minimum budget reduction of $12M

·       All cabinet areas are working for more strategic ways to bridge the budget gap. Much of the focus is on Academic Affairs simply because the majority of spending comes from that unit.

·       We must align our resources with our spending so that the next bump in the road will not include lay-offs. 

o   Sen. Drennan – looking at the budget directive it is hard to see this as “not layoffs,” 

§  President Mahoney – a healthy campus needs faculty, staff and admin. Student success remains a priority, but with the woefully small allocation from the state it is not sustainable. Lecturer employments follow enrollments due to this fact. This likely won’t change, because there are likely not going to be more funds coming from the state. 

o   Sen. Wilczak – yield to Professor Shapiro.

§  Prof. Shapiro – part of the formula that warrants more consideration is the question of enrollment. Our campus affiliation with community colleges and why we are not drawing more interest from those colleges is a huge question. Another consideration is around the number of resignations around campus. This is likely partially due to morale and should be considered because it leads to the lack of retention. There is a long-term impact of lower enrollments on our community and our campus impact on social justice and equity in our region. 

·       President Mahoney – not giving up on growing enrollments, but for now there is likely not much we can do to improve enrollments right now. It’s going to take a few years. You are absolutely right about the CC transfers. 

o   Sen. Yee-Melichar – was hoping to get your advocacy on a couple of items. In particular the introduction of a CSU-wide LMS. Our campus is very happy using iLearn. Also, one-time funding for faculty development in approximately $10M. Hoping that you will support and protect our right to retain campus autonomy on these two items. 

·       President Mahoney – thank you for the opportunity to talk to plenary.

4.3. Provost Report

·       Thank you to the senators that submitted feedback from the last plenary session regarding the “directive memo.” Thank you to those who have submitted through the Academic Affairs website.

·       There are a number of clear themes emerging from the feedback:

o   Faculty are worried about increasing class size

o   How to bring together budget planning and directive memo in light of Fall 2021 planning to return to campus. 

o   Minimum enrollments may penalize smaller programs

o   How does the memo affect our liberal arts mission and how do we balance it?

o   Accountability for the 4th course equivalent and are we moving toward institutionalizing a 12/12WTU load. 

o   Why don’t we consider service as another option for the “fourth” course?

o   Why do we need to make cuts, in light of the new federal funding and the state allocation?

§  We will be working to make the AA budget and budget challenges more transparent in order to show the answer to this more clearly.

§  Last year, one-time carry forward was used to smooth it over. 

§  The most meaningful changes will take time. 

·       Budget gap is a large issue and needs clarification.

·       Fall 2021 planning – F2F classes will likely have to be smaller, the federal funding will help us deliver those classes and fill in the budget gaps created by smaller classes. There are a lot of unknowns, especially regarding public transportation. Our space capacity will be gauged by our spaces and their safe usage capacity. Possibly looking at about 30% capacity campus-wide. 

o   Sen. Drennan – yield time to Professor Blanca Missé 

o   Professor Missé – Regarding the instructional gap – it is good to know that we will be getting more information on Friday. We all know that there is an instructional deficit, but many of us do not understand where the structural deficit comes from. It would be good to have historical data for all to see.  Many colleagues are discussing shared governance and who is making decisions. This information needs clarification. 

§  Provost Summit – the directive memo does include a process for nearly all points. There is a map of actions, but some of the processes is yet to be determined. 

o   Sen. Hulik – as we move froward I would like to see a holistic approach to how we address our engagement through RTP. It is important to keep all three aspects of the RTP criteria on even ground. We are a destination campus, and we should be able to make a publicly known fact!

4.4. Standing Committees

4.4.1.   Student Affairs Committee

·       No report, due to time constraints

4.4.2.   Strategic Issues Committee

·       No report, due to time constraints

4.4.3.   Academic Policies Committee

·       No report, due to time constraints

4.4.4.   Curriculum Review and Approval Committee

·       No report, due to time constraints

4.4.5.   Faculty Affairs Committee

·       No report, due to time constraints

Old Business

5.    Recommendation from the Academic Policies Committee (APC): Proposed Revision to #S20-275 Academic Probation and Disqualification—second reading

·       Sen. Stowers moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item. 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Way – speaking for the item. The push for the change was to get rid of a hold. The change will be an alert instead of a hold for students.

·       VOTE – item passed @ 3:05pm

o   Yay: 48

o   Nay: 0

o   Abstentions: 1

6.    Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): Revision of the Graduate Certificate in Business Principles—second reading

·       Sen. Drennan moved the item to the floor and directed questions from the body to Professor Gupta. 

·       No discussion

·       VOTE – item passed @ 3:07pm

o   Yay: 46

o   Nay: 0

o   Abstentions: 1

7.    Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): New Graduate Certificate in Data Science for Biology & Chemistry—second reading

·       Sen. Drennan moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Stowers – speaking in favor but also have a concern that the academic unit said there was no need for new resources, but the text indicates different information. 

o   Sen. Gerber – speaking in favor of this item. The department has been working on this for a long time and urge the body to vote yes.

o   Sen. K. Nielsen – speaking in favor. There is high interest in the environmental biology in this as well. These interdisciplinary programs with grants are good for enrollments and the future of the programs

·       VOTE – item passed @ 3:12pm

o   Yay: 49

o   Nay: 1

o   Abstentions: 1

8.    Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): New Bachelor of Arts in Bilingual Spanish Journalism—second reading

·       Sen. Drennan moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Gerber – speak in favor. Since we are a Hispanic Serving institution, this is a really exciting interdisciplinary preparation for many employment opportunities.  

o   Chair Albiniak – also speaking in favor. This is a very important to offer these kinds of opportunities for our students. 

o   Sen. Collins – speaking in favor – the linkage of SLOs is particularly important, thank you to everyone who worked on this. 

·       VOTE – item passed @ 3:

o   Yay: 49

o   Nay: 0

o   Abstentions: 2

9.    Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): New Bachelor of Arts in Race, Ethnicity, and Health—second reading

·       Sen. Drennan moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Gerber – speaking in favor – in light of the pandemic and the inequities that have been highlighted, this is really important right now.

o   Sen. Collins – speaking in favor – it will unify programs in CoES

o   Sen. Carillo – speaking in favor – very exciting to see us moving forward with this program. 

o   Sen. Woo – speaking in favor – this is a really timely and mindful program that is really important. 

o   VOTE – item passed @ 3:19pm

§  Yay: 50

§  Nay: 0

§  Abstentions: 2

New Business

10. Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): New Certificate in Climate Change Causes, Impacts, and Solutions—first reading.

·       Sen. Drennan moved the item to the floor and yielded time to Professor Burrus who spoke to the item.

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Pesci – speaking in favor of this and wishing that it was available when I was starting the program. Allow certificate programs like this are 

o   Sen. K. Nielsen – strongly support this. Reminding everyone about the sea-level that will be affecting our communities in the region who will be impacted soon. 

o   Sen. Rubin – strongly support as well. This is a moment for our campus to connect to the city community. Commend everyone who has worked on this.

·       Returned to committee @ 3:27pm

11. Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): Graduate Certificate in Enterprise Cybersecurity—first reading.

·       Sen. Drennan moved the item to the floor and yielded time to Professor Sayeed.

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Hulik – support this because businesses have often put security to the side and not incorporated it into the foundational structures. Students should be understanding the whole picture.

o   Sen. Gerber – in favor of this type of certificate but wondering about the resources. It seems that there is one course that is new and one that must be un-banked. 

§  Professor Sayeed – one is offered every semester. The new course is already in the pipeline and the banked course was banked because it was not being offered. It will be swapped out with another course in the current curriculum. 

·       Returned to committee @ 3:32pm

12. Recommendation from the Student Affairs Committee (SAC): Resolution on Prioritizing in the Recruitment, Hiring and Retention of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Staff, Faculty and Administrators—first reading. 

·       Sen. Olsher moved the item to the floor and asked SAC member, Sen. Daus-Magbual to speak to the item. 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Carillo – yield time to student, Ja’Corey Bowens, who also participates in SAC.

o   Mr. Bowens – representation among the counseling has been a concern for a while. It is important that students are able to access people who have similar life experiences on our campus. 

o   Sen. Pierce yielded time to student, Dae P. 

o   Dae P. – it is important to see ourselves in our educators. Seeing yourself in your educators and being educated by people who have similar experiences

o   Sen. Wilczak – support this, but as a practical point, can we have it sent to AVP Mandolfo in Faculty Affairs

o   Sen. Le – strongly support this because it aligns with our mission and commitment of social justice and equity. 

·       Returned to committee @ 3:39pm

13. Recommendation from the Executive Committee (Ex Comm): Resolution Affirming Shared Governance and Budget Transparency in Times of Crisis—first reading. 

·       Chair Albiniak yielded the gavel to Vice Chair Wilson

·       Chair Albiniak moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item. 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Gerber – there are likely several senators who hope to have a robust discussion after discovering that we did not agree. It started as a response to the “directive memo.”

o   Chair Albiniak – remember that you can email any of the ExComm members for feedback. 

·       Returned to committee @ 4:07pm

Presentations

14. Presentation by Andrew Roderick, Assistant Vice President of Academic Technology, “Updates on Two Factor Authentication,” time approximate—3:35-3:45 p.m.

·       Andrew Roderick addressed senate to ensure that faculty are signing up for 2FA. The deadline is 2 weeks away. 

15. Presentation by Karen Boyce, Director of Health Promotion and Wellness, “Presentation on the National College Health Assessment Survey,” time certain—3:45-4:00 p.m.

·       Karen Boyce addressed senate about the national college health assessment survey. There is a need for faculty members to help. Gretchen George and Karen Wolin joined Karen Boyce for the presentation. 

·       This survey is one of the most important ways in which we can determine how are students are doing health-wise, and it is every more impotent this year due to the pandemic.  

·       There are incentives such as gift cards and iPods. 

·       Survey will be open for 3 weeks: February 22 – March 12

·       Students will receive emails about this.

16. Presentation by Senator Collins, Senator Yee-Melichar, and Senator Gerber, “Report on ASCSU Activity,” time approximate—4:00-4:15 p.m.

·       Statewide Senators Yee-Melichar, Collins, and Gerber presented the summary of the most recent state-wide senate meeting. 

·       The ASCSU website contains the minutes for all plenary meetings. 

·       Resolutions approved include:

o   Protecting Fair Workload for Faculty in CSU

o   Disparate Impact of Technology on Underserved Students

o   Ongoing Collaboration on Ethnic Studies in the CSU

o   Call for internet Bandwidth Expansion for CSU Students, Faculty, Staff and Administrators (unanimously approved) 

o   Condemnation of the Insurrection of January 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C.

o   Commendation for Executive vice Chancellor Loren J. Blanchard, Ph.D.

o   Need for Compassionate treatment of the CSU Employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic

o   Communications with the Board of Trustees of the CSU System 

o   Apportionment of Academic senate CSU Seats (unanimously approved)

o   Items in first reading

§  Faculty Emeritus/Emerita Status, Revocation and Appeal

§  Endorsement and Adoption of General Education B4 mathematics/Quantitative reasoning Course Guidelines and Principles

§  Call for a Moratorium on Facial Recognition Technology in the CSU. 

17. Adjournment @ 4:07pm