March 17, 2020

ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING

MINUTES

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

ACADEMIC SENATE CONFERENCE ROOM

ZOOM MEETING 911 028 661

2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

 

Attendance:

Absences:

Guests:

 

 

The meeting will start a 2:00 p.m. with an introduction to Zoom communications instead of our normal open floor period. Instructions are available on iLearn for Senators and through email (senate@sfsu.edu) for guests.

CALL TO ORDER: 2:10 p.m.

1. Approval of the Agenda for March 18, 2020

• Sen. Yee-Melichar moved to add an item to the agenda – Resolution regarding SETE partial suspension – Added as item #14
  • Seconded
  • Discussion
    • Sen. Yee-Melichar – important to offer as much flexibility at this time
  • Vote
    • Approved @ 2:13pm
• Sen. Yee- Melichar moved to add an item to the agenda – Resolution regarding temporary modification of the RTP policy -  Added as item #15
  • Seconded
  • Discussion – none
  • Vote
    • Approved @ 2:14pm
• Approved with changes @ 2:10pm

1. Approval of the Minutes for March 3, 2020

• Approved as submitted @ 2:15pm

1. Announcements from the Floor

• None

1. Reports
   1. President Mahoney

• Thanks to everyone.
• The situation and the planning is changing daily
• Update: there will be another email coming out. The last one was a more general one. The next one will be more detailed.  Moved to remote modalities for the remainder of the semester. All CSU campuses will follow. Maximizing social distancing. Helping the residential students who can go home to do so. Moved to a skeletal staff, but trying to keep basic operations up and running. Resident Halls must have staff. Over the next few days most building will close. Faculty can return for the next few days to get things from their offices. Library is essentially closed, the only thing that is open is the Research Commons. Trying to keep a few basic needs open such as Gator Groceries and the showers at the Mashouf Center.
• Thanks in particular to the custodial staff

1. Provost Summit

• Lost of acknowledgment for the heavy-lift of all of the people making adjustments. Especially the faculty who are changing modalities in the middle of the semester.
• CEETL also deserves a lot of thanks for their readiness. Maggie Beers for her work.
  • Questions for the President and Provost:
    • Sen. Bui – can a resource be kept open for faculty to deliver content?
      • President Mahoney – we will get back to you
    • Sen. Wilczak – given the stress level, if we could cut down on the non-essentials?  We need to realistic about what we are doing with the online components. We are doing the best we can, but not the best we have.
    • Sen. Glanting – what is happening with paper checks?
      • President Mahoney – we will get back to you
      • Sen. Scott – research-related checks are being mailed.
    • Sen. Sinha – once we make it through this, we may find that we have improved in many areas
    • Sen. VanCleave – the library staff and faculty has a lot of concerns and would like to have more clear information about the cleaning protocols.
    • Sen. Goldman – commend our administration acting to mitigate our situation. Still would like to stress that we were caught napping when it comes to emergency preparedness. We should try to be ahead of the next inevitable outbreak.
    • Sen. Yee-Melichar – thanks to the President and Provost, thanks to the senate colleagues for the kindnesses you’ve shown each other and our students. I am worried about students who are student assistants who depend on that wage. How can we help them?
      • President Mahoney – currently we have committed to pay student assistants through April 7^th.
    • Sen. Wong – appreciate the message about faculty who are figuring out how to teach online and that we are doing our best. Faculty teaching activity classes have great concerns. C/NC deadline has been extended, but are there other options be considered? Regarding advising and C/NC, there are limits to the number of C/NC a graduate can take
      • Sen. Way – Many of these rules come from the Chancellor’s office and they are considering options now. We are in conversations with them about all of these options. And students need to know what is the best choice for them.
    • Sen. Drennan – Lab fee refunds are something that students are asking about.
      • President Mahoney – the CSU is discussing this, but it is not a priority for them at the moment because everything is changing so quickly.
    • Sen. Weinberger – echo the appreciative sentiment. There needs to be more conversation and messaging about leniency to the faculty. Also, what are the students’ rights in this difficult situation?
      • Provost Summit – everyone is taking big risks and in this time we need to be more kind in taking these risks. We sent out an email today that highlighted humane acceptance. Some faculty will need to change attitudes. We need to be gentle to ourselves and our students
    • Sen. Bloom – thank you for your leadership and concise emails. There was a concern from a faculty member that the infected person was in Annex I on March 6^th.
    • Sen. Chen – thanks you for your human and thoughtful leadership. As counselor-faculty, we remain open and trying to provide services. It’s important that we continue to act kindly to each other.
      • President Mahoney – Chancellor and CSIU Presidents have been meeting daily. WE have made some hard decisions quickly.
    • Sen. Le – I’m deeply concerned with the racism that is happening to our Asian and Asian-American students. How can our institution support our Asian-American staff, faculty, and students?
      • President Mahoney – we will continue to message that people should be compassionate and treat each other with kindness.
    • Sen. Stowers - thanks for the quick and collaborative leadership. Many of our students who are first responders and they need our consideration about their increased workload.
    • Sen. Albiniak – truly extraordinary times. Adding a voice to the others in thanks to the President and Provost. Thanks to the other senators who made time to be on the Zoom today.

1. Chair Report/Discussion

• Something we tell our Chemistry students when they say they don’t know where to start: “just start”. Encourage everyone to look at the end goal and accept that we may make some missteps along the way.

1. Standing Committees
   1. Student Affairs Committee

• Sen. Olsher – nothing on today’s agenda
• Continuing work on resolution to support CAPS and starting to revise the undergraduate advising policy, and Title IX services

1. Strategic Issues Committee

• Sen. Mooney – one item on today’s agenda. Also considering other resolutions that pertain to this situation

1. Academic Policies Committee

• EPC meeting will be cancelled due to required notification being inaccurate. Additionally, the four proposals can likely wait until the fall due to the nature of the proposals and the lack of time to consider.
• APC has two items on today’s agenda.

1. Curriculum Review and Approval Committee

• Sen. Hines – thanks to the committee
• Two items on today’s agenda

1. Faculty Affairs Committee

• Sen. Rubin – two items on today’s agenda

Old Business

1. Recommendation from the Executive Committee: Proposed Changes to the By-laws of the Academic Senate of SF State – second reading

• Sen. Albiniak moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • Sen. Mooney – support - should help to ease some senate work
• Vote
  • Passes @ 3:18pm

1. Recommendation from the Executive Committee: Proposed Changes to the Constitution of the Academic Senate of SF State – first reading

• Sen. Albiniak moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • Sen. Yee-Melichar – support – long overdue changes that make sense
  • Sen. Albiniak – support – this is a way that we can support staff
  • Sen. Mooney – support – needed changes. The staff have been talking about a staff senate.
  • Motion to move the item to second reading
    • Seconded
    • No discussion
    • Moved to second reading @ 3:22pm
  • No further discussion
• Vote
  • Passes @ 3:23pm

1. Recommendation from the Strategic Issues Committee: Proposed Revision to #S12-151, Policy on the All University Committee on International Programs – second reading

• Sen. Mooney moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • No discussion
• Vote
  • Passes @ 3:26pm

1. Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee: Proposed Graduate Certificate in International Business and Global Leadership – second reading

• Sen. Hines moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • No discussion
• Vote
  • Passes @ 3:27pm

1. Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee: Proposed Certificate in Pre-Master of Business Administration (MBA) Foundations – first reading

• Sen. Hines moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • Sen. Small – support – it is a really exciting collaboration between Lam Family College of Business and CEL
  • Motion to move to second reading
    • Seconded
    • No discussion
  • No further discussion
• Vote
  • Passes @ 3:31pm

New Business

1. Recommendation from the Academic Policies Committee: Proposed Revision to #S16-16, Graduate Paired Courses Policy – first reading

• Sen. Stowers moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • Sen. Wilczak – concerned about lines 54-56 because it would be hard to maintain the number of graduate seat to undergraduate seat ratios as stated in the policy.
  • Sen. Hines – lines 72-74 addresses Sen. Wilczak’s concerns
• Returned to committee @ 3:38pm

1. Recommendation from the Academic Policies Committee: Proposed Revision to #S15-004, Use of Human Subjects in Research at SF State Policy – first reading

• Sen. Stowers moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • Sen. Scott – explain the motivations – federal government changed the rules and we were not compliant. So we had been using a work-around. Also there have been a couple of violations on our campus, but there is no guidance on punishment about that behavior.
  • Sen. Harvey – thanks to all of the people involved in the process of this revision.
• Returned to committee @ 3:44pm

1. Recommendation from the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee: Proposed Revision to the Bachelor of Arts in Music – first reading

• Sen. Hines moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • No discussion
• Returned to committee @ 3:45pm

1. Recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee: Proposed Revision to #F11-145, Policy on Department Chairs and Equivalent Unit Directors – first reading

• Sen. Rubin moved the item to the floor and spoke to the item
• Discussion
  • Sen. Thomas – there may be some possible challenges with offering an option to forward or not. I believe it should be mandatory for the review to be forwarded. We should err on the side of transparency.
  • Sen. Hulik – agree. There could be some issues surrounding how the review could be used in a challenging situation.
• Returned to committee @ 3:51pm

Presentations/Information Items

1. Resolution (RS20-##) – Suspension of Academic Senate Policy on Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness (#S15-213) in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis – first reading

• Sen. Drennan – Could we perhaps change the questions. Will provide language to address this idea.
• Sen. Hulik – what about units that have departmental questions? Also, there is a lot of evidence that these scores are popularity contests and there are some students who may use this opportunity to take out their fears and frustrations.
• Sen. Stowers - Motion to adjust the time of adjournment to 4:15
  • Seconded
  • No discussion
  • Passes @ 4:03pm

 

1. Resolution (RS20-##) – Suspension of Academic Senate Policy Retention, Tenure and Promotion, #F19-241, in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis – first reading

• Sen. Bui – is this optional?
  • Chair Gerber – yes
  • Sen. Hulik – in their faculty meeting there was a lot of excitement about this.
  • Sen. Bui – if a faculty member chooses to opt in would they do a comprehensive in their 6^th year?
  • Sen. Goldman – in previous challenging times, there was some language that went along with a decision change. There should be clear language that addresses the fact that there would be no penalty for changing minds or opting in at a later date.
  • Chair Gerber – please reach out for as much feed back as we can get.

1. Reapportionment summary

• Tabled due to time

1. Adjourned @ 4:08pm

 

Agenda Item 5

The Executive Committee brings to the Senate proposed changes to the by-laws of the Academic Senate. These changes clarify a quorum for voting on constitutional changes, adjust the membership of CRAC and APC, makes minor changes to the charges of FAC, SAC and CRAC, adds a responsibility for the Vice-Chair of the Academic Senate, eliminates the Committee on Committees, allows for the reconstitution of the membership of a committee not able to carry out its work and clarifies that all meetings of the Academic Senate and its committees are open unless in executive session.

Agenda Item 6

The Executive Committee brings to the Senate proposed changes to the Constitution of the Academic Senate. Some of the changes include expansion of the responsibilities of the Senate, expansion of the apportioned members of the Senate to include lecturer faculty, an expansion of staff representation, permanent Senate membership for the Dean of Undergraduate Education and Academic Planning, and the Vice-Provost for Academic Resources and a reduction in the number of administrative appointments by the President, and clarification of how vacancies in the Senate are filled.

Agenda Item 7

The Strategic Issues Committee brings to the Senate proposed changes to the policy on the All University Committee on International Programs (AUCIP). The changes include changes to the charge of the committee adding specific duties outlined in Executive Order (EO) 1080 and changes to the titles to adhere to EO 1080 and reflect current university structure.

Agenda Item 8

The Curriculum Review and Approval Committee brings to the Senate a proposal for a 9-unit Graduate Certificate in International Business and Global Leadership. The certificate consists of courses already being taught. The purpose of the International Business Certificate is (1) to provide MBA students with specialized knowledge and skills to facilitate high performance in a highly international/multicultural working environment, both within and outside organizations, (2) to provide community members (BA/BS degree holders) a way to study International Business without enrolling in an MBA Program.

 

Agenda Item 9

The Curriculum Review and Approval Committee brings to the Senate a proposal to create a new Certificate in Pre-Master of Business Administration (MBA) Foundations. This 24-unit certificate is offered through CEL, in self-support. The certificate is designed to prepare students for entry into an MBA program, and consists of a range of business disciplines. The courses exist now and are taught by faculty funded by CEL.

Agenda Item 10

The Academic Policies Committee brings to the Senate a revision to #S16-126, the policy on graduate paired courses. The revisions clarify a number a number of requirements for a course to be offered in a paired format.  It also adds clarity to the types of programs in which graduate core courses may not be paired and includes graduate certificates in the list.

 

Agenda Item 11

The Academic Policies Committee is bringing to the floor of the Senate a new policy on Human Subjects Research at SF State. The policy pulls out and updates some language from the old policy on human subjects (#S15-004) but transfers much of the information from #S15-004 into a Guidebook to be developed and maintained by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

 

Agenda Item 12

The Curriculum Review and Approval Committee brings to the floor of the Senate a proposed revision to the Bachelor of Arts in Music. The revision eliminates emphases in the degree for clarity and compliance with EO 1071.

 

Agenda Item 13

The Faculty Affairs Committee brings to the floor of the Senate a revision of the policy on Department Chairs and Equivalent Unit Directors to clarify that the policy applies to any degree-granting unit and allows for the sharing of the mid-term review with the appropriate Dean by either the review committee or the chair under review.