March 16, 2021

 

ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING

MINUTES

Tuesday, March 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.

·       Ingrid Williams – inviting all to a virtual Zoom event in celebration of Women’s History Month: 10-11am on March 29^th

·       Sen. Stowers – on behalf of the UBC steering committee, there will be periodic office hours, beginning this Friday, from 10-11am. There will be representation from each of the areas present. For access to the Zoom link, please email. Future office hours dates will be April 16, May 21^st. 

 

CALL TO ORDER: 2:05 p.m.

1.     Approval of the Agenda for March 16, 2021

·       Approved as submitted @ 2:06pm

2.     Approval of the Minutes for March 2, 2021

·       Approved as submitted @ 2:06pm

3.     Announcements from the Floor

·       Vice Chair Wilson ceded time to Guest Christian Lozano. Mr. Lozano is a team member of DECI and invited everyone to a training to help support students in suicide prevention and intervention.

·       There is an opportunity to apply for grants to support programs that support Equity and Community inclusion. If you have any questions, please contact me via-email christianlozano@sfsu.edu.

4.     Reports

4.1.   Chair Report

·       PSA: Stop the Hate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24z0uWww8_U

·       Sign up for: Faculty Service Pool 2021-22

·       Sign up for: Faculty Administrative Search Pool 2021-22

4.2.   President Report

·       President Mahoney spoke briefly, starting by acknowledging the continuing the white supremacist violence against Asian Americans. On a positive note, the federal and state funding that has come through in the last several weeks has put us in a much better place than we thought we would be at this point. 

·       However, there are many concerns about our students and their experiences during the pandemic. Especially our students who will have spent nearly two years learning online. 

·       There are lots of changes that have been mandated over this year that will stay part of our campus community. But the campus community is missed by many of our students, faculty and staff. We must be as aggressive as we can about returning to campus in a safe way.  We should start thinking positively about returning to campus. 

4.3.   Provost Report

·       Provost Summit will be presenting later in the plenary session

·       The directive memo is “off the table.” When it was released our financial outlook was very different. Now that the financial situation has changed significantly it is no longer necessary. 

·       We will be moving forward first with the T2S2 hires in the near future. 

o   Sen. Drennan – what is T2S2

§  Provost summit

4.4.   Standing Committees

4.4.1.Academic Policies Committee

·       Sen. Stowers – three items on the agenda today. One of those is from EPC, the other two are from APC. There are a number of other policies pending. 

4.4.2.Curriculum Review and Approval Committee

·       Sen. Hines – three items on the agenda today, two in old business, one new item. 

4.4.3.Faculty Affairs Committee

·       Sen. Rubin – one item on the agenda today. See below.

4.4.4.Student Affairs Committee

·       Sen. Olsher – one item on the agenda today. See below.

4.4.5.Strategic Issues Committee

·       Sen. Goldman – awaiting final consultation on a resolution that should come to plenary for our next session. The RSO policy remains on the committee’s agenda for future meetings, including possibly changing the name from RSO to something more similar to other CSU names. Continuing to gather feedback about transparency and shared governance in terms of what kinds of information constituents want and in what capacity constituents on campus wish to have in the governance process. Also looking into cultural taxation on campus.

Old Business

5.     Recommendation from the Academic Policies Committee (APC): Proposed changes to F20-264, Online Education Policy—second reading. 

·       Sen. Stowers moved the item to the floor and ceded time to Sen. Beatty to speak to the item. 

·       Discussion

o   Vice Chair Wilson – Speaking in favor. One question about line 251 regarding the ability to use material is consent is given. Does the release include student who have anonymized themselves? 

§  Sen. Beatty – it would be all of those present in the class session. We did not discuss that specifically. 

o   Sen. Gerber – Speaking in favor. Appreciate the LMS clarity. It seems that applying it to the entire class is best because it will get very complicated. 

o   Sen. Yee-Melichar – It is important to recognize the changing workload for our students and faculty. Wondering how this will be affected if we need to change LMS. Will this stand up if we are forced to change?

§  Sen. Stowers – Yes, it will still hold up. It does not preclude any changes.  

o   Sen. Speaking in favor – suggestion to replace the word “video” with the term “recording” on line 253. 

§  Accepted by Sen. Stowers as a friendly amendment.

§  Sen. Drennan – same change is needed on line 250

·       Vote – item passed @ 2:43pm

o   Yay – 51

o   Nay – 0

o   Abstain - 1

6.     Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): Revised Degree Title for the BA in Family and Community Sciences—second reading.

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

·       Discussion

o   none

·       Vote – item passed @ 

o   Yay – 51

o   Nay – 0 

o   Abstain - 1

7.     Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): New Certificate in Ethnic Studies Empowerment—second reading.

·       Sen. Hines moved the item to the floor and ceded time to Dean Sueyoshi

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Collins – Speaking in favor – excellent way to showcase the ways in which the CSU can engage in rehabilitation which leads to many positive outcomes. 

o   Sen. Ramirez – Speaking in favor and want to recognize the changes to the language that really clarifies the differences between the different types of degrees and the ways in which student access their education. 

o   Sen. Hines – thank you to Sen. Ramirez for his hard work on this. In particular in helping us to clarify the language. 

·       Vote 

o   Yay – 51

o   Nay – 0

o   Abstain – 1 

8.     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—second reading. 

·       Sen. Olsher moved the item to the floor, recognized the committee members hard work, then recognized Sen. Daus-Magbual who spoke to the item. 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Carrillo – Speaking in favor of the resolution. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard on this resolution. 

o   Sen. Le – Would like to acknowledge the work of the committee. This resolution really aligns with what we aspire to be on our campus. 

o   Sen. Woo – speaking in favor of this resolution. It is very timely right now. Representation really matters

o   Sen. Hulik – moved to amend lines 69-70. But lost the internet connection.

§  Sen. Way – cut “should be handled by departmental hiring committees, and even in cases where . . . to a full committee process” then add at the end “where possible” after “handled by department committees”

·       Suggested amendment: Resolved that the hiring of lecturer faculty should be guided by anti-racism and JEDI best practice principles, utilizing a hiring checklist similar to tenure/track hires, but revised appropriately for lecturer faculty and best done by committee when possible.

§  Sen. Gerber – second

·       Discussion of the amendment

o   Sen. Olsher – support the amendment and think it still supports the spirit of the resolution. 

o   Sen. Gerber – also support the amendment. During uncertain times, it will make it stronger. 

·       Vote on the amendment – motion passes @ 3:05pm

o   Yay – 50

o   Nay – 1

o   Abstain - 3

·       Vote 

o   Yay – 50

o   Nay – 0

o   Abstain – 1 

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

·       Sen. Albiniak passed the gavel to Sen. Wilson

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

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Gerber – speaking in favor of the item. Have amendments to propose

§  Resolved 4 – move to add “or course equivalency for lecturer faculty” at the end of that clause. 

§  Sen. Albiniak – second

·       Discussion

o   None

·       Vote – amendment passes @ 3:10pm

o   Yay - 47

o   Nay – 0

o   Abstain – 4

§  Sen. Gerber - Move to change the language in Resolved 7 to: Essential role in the use of budgeting processes to establish …

§  Sen. Albiniak – second

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Drennan – what does Resolved 7 mean, what is the goal?

§  Sen. Albiniak – perhaps Sen. Harvey wants to speak to this

§  Sen. Harvey – We were coming at this from a prioritization perspective. Understanding how we want to spend our money at multiple levels.

§  Sen. Gerber – budgeting processes are everything to do with the budget from start to finish. 

§  Sen. Bloom-Levin – point of information – this seems to be using budget to establish priorities, instead of the other way around. 

·       Sen. Gerber – this is why I suggested the change. The entire budget ”process” includes prioritization….then arranging the budget surrounding those priorities.

§  Sen. Wilczak – perhaps we can say something like “use the budgeting process to set priorities.”

§  Sen. Stowers – something like, “play an essential role in budget decision-making”

§  Sen. Van Cleave – concerned that the current wording is too declarative and affirming. Maybe it should be altered to say “must.” 

§  Sen. Gerber and Sen. Albiniak accepted this friendly amendment: Departments and equivalent units must play an essential role in budget decision making to establish priorities and serve student needs;

o   Vote on amendment – motion passes @ 3:24pm

§  Yay -  51

§  Nay – 0

§  Abstain – 2

o   Sen. Yee-Melichar – suggest that we include ALL of the unions represented on our campus, and that we send to our student reps. Amendment: Union (e.g. CFA and CSUEU) Presidents, and Associated Students Incorporated (ASI).

o   Sen. Hulik – second

§  Discussion

·       None

§  Vote – motion passed @ 3:28pm

·       Yay – 51

·       Nay – 0 

·       Abstain - 1

o   Sen. Way – suggest an amendment: 9 Whereas: The Directive Memo on Academic Affairs Budget Realignment issued by the Provost on January 28, 2021 has been withdrawn given the new economic outlook;

o   Sen. Albiniak - second

o   Discussion

§  None

o   Vote – amendment passed @ 3:30pm

§  Yay – 52

§  Nay – 0

§  Abstain - 2 

·       Vote – resolution passed with changes @ 3:31pm

o   Yay - 52

o   Nay – 0

o   Abstain – 0

·       Virtual Gavel was handed back to Chair Albiniak

New Business

10.  Recommendation from the Academic Policies Committee (APC): Proposed New Policy S21-XXX, Graduate Admissions Policy—first reading. 

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

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Gerber – wondering why there is so much strike-through. 

§  Sen. Stowers – that portion of the policy was taken from an old policy.

o   Sen. Nielson – wondering if any groups are considering non-GRE use.

§  Sen. Stowers – we did consider that. The GRE resolution passed in the fall encouraged academic units and only addressed the GRE, no other tests. 

o   Sen. Nielsen – the resolution also references a “holistic review”, and this policy does not seem to have that same spirit. Also, some of the language in this policy right now seems older in style and would encourage the committee to consider the JEDI recommendations. 

§  Sen. Stowers ceded time to Guest Sophie Clavier – we need to keep it fairly general to allow departments to operate in the way that they see fit. 

o   Sen. Yee-Melichar – suggest that on line 226 we include some information about Scholars Program 

§  Sen. Stowers – we do mention the Scholars program on line 120

·       Sen. Yee-Melichar – maybe more information would be good. 

o   Sen. Stowers – would submit that process is not appropriate for a policy.

·       Returned to Committee @ 3:42pm

11.  Recommendation from the Educational Policies Committee (EPC): Proposed Discontinuance of the Certificate in Commercial Real Estate—first reading.

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

·       Discussion

o   None

·       Returned to committee @ 3:44pm 

12.  Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC): New Certificate in Ethnography—first reading. 

·       Sen. Hines moved the item to the floor and asked Sen. Wilczak to speak to the item. 

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Collins – really like the focus on ethics. Given that some many topics are being covered, do you know what kind of draw it will have to the wider student body?

§  Sen. Wilczak – we think students in the social sciences will be very interested!

o   Sen. Hulik – in many areas of studies ethnography is a necessary component design

·       Returned committee @ 4:26pm 

13.  Recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC): Proposed Resolution to adopt “lecturer faculty” as term for lecturer employees—first reading. 

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

·       Discussion

o   Sen. Gerber – speaking in strong support of this resolution. Suggest we move this to second reading today, if the chair would be open to that. 

o   Sen. Nielsen - we might need to think about adjunct faculty who are literally titled “adjunct.”

·       Returned to committee @ 4:29pm

Presentations

14.  Presentation by Interim Vice President of Administration and Finance Jeff Wilson, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Jennifer Summit, and Vice Provost for Academic Resources Dwayne Banks, Resources, “Budget Planning Update for the University and Academic Affairs,” (time approximate 3:45-4:15)

·       AVP Jeff Wilson presented a series of slides that gave a general overview of the state of the budget for the entire university. 

·       AVP Dwayne Banks presented a series of slide that gave 

o   Sen. Gerber – for VP Wilson – slide 5, MPPs are mentioned. Can you clarify what is meant?

§  VP Wilson – the current slides reflect January, when only one MPP was not renewed. 

o   Sen. Gerber – for VP Banks – since we barely hired any faculty, wondering where the savings is from the hiring freeze. 

§  VP Banks – the focus for today was on the process more than the numbers, but I can bring that information later. 

o   Sen. Drennan – where did the initial budget gap come from? Can we get more information about that? We could probably use it to plan better for the future. 

§  AVP Banks – the gap does exist. What you can see during a period of time there are budget gaps there each year. 

o   Sen. Hulik – question about the last slide. #3: restoration of strategically critical positions” does this include staff positions that were lost?

§  AVP Banks – yes, it does. 

o   Sen. Wilson – question about slide #5. Wondering why the balance across divisions is so different?

§  VP Wilson – it is not an exhaustive list. Some of the discrepancy is due to the CBA and how it deals with layoffs. Some units that didn’t have a lot of initial layoffs had to sustain other kinds of reductions. 

·       Provost Summit summarized that we are in an active budget planning phase, but we are still working out many aspects. We are, most certainly, in a better position than we were a few months ago. There are still uncertainties, such as building the Fall schedule. HERF funds will cover some of the additional space needed to deal with returning to campus. 

15.  Adjourned @ 4:30pm 

 

POST-PLENARY FLOOR PERIOD: 4:30 - 5:00pm

The Post-Plenary Floor Period provides an informal opportunity for senators and guests to meet, exchange information, or follow up on items or questions emerging from the meeting.