TOURO UNIVERSITY – CALIFORNIA
MINUTES OF THE FACULTY SENATE MEETING, November 13, 2013
ATTENDANCE: Jennifer Abueg, Robert Anderson, Peter Baginsky, Nathalie Bergeron, David Eliot, Tamira Elul, Greg Gayer, Justin Heard, Evan Hermel, Kenneth Hisley, Kevin Ita, Daniel Keppler, Gloria Klapstein, Grace Landel, Trina Mackie, Alison McCormick, Shin MurakamiPamela Redmond, Patricia Rehfield, Jean-Marc Schwarz, Bruce Silverman, Catherine West
· Call to order
The chair called the meeting to outer at 12:05 p.m.
· Adoption of Agenda
Agenda approved with no abstentions
· Approval of Minutes from October 2013 .
Spelling error corrected for in minutes and they were then approved with no abstentions.
· FSEC Recap from meeting with the Provost
○ Biosafety Training and Mock OSHA Inspection (12/11)
· Faculty are concerned that this is an all day commitment without any alternate dates and with short notice given for them to put it on their calendars. Some have requested that it be offered on multiple occasions their requests were denied. FSEC with take these concerns to the Provost. FSEC will propose that it be webcast and made available after the fact.
○ Senior Provost Search (direct input to Dr. Athena Lin – faculty representative on search committee)
· FS input against a Senior Provost position has been clearly communicated. In spite of this Dr. Kadish firmly wants a senior provost.
○ COP Dean Search
· The TUC COP faculty and staff are under-represented on the search committee. Concerns were communicated that TUC COP faculty and staff should comprise at least half of the committee. They will be interviewing 3 people/day in January on campus, followed by 3 two-day interview in February for the top 3 candidates. Dr. Kadish has the final say on who is selected.
○ Budget
· The new senior provost will not be hired in time for the budget decisions. Dr. Hopkins is now on the budget committee, though she is waiting for confirmation of this after being approved by Dr. Kadish.
· Deans should make any requests now.
· Nov. Executive Committee Update
o US DOE Visit Nov. 18-22
o Academic Calendar – there is a move to simplify the academic calendar. It is expected to be approved by spring 2014 semester.
o IPE Committee – FS had recommended that IPE form an admin committee and this was very well received. It will include students and SGA has been asked to create a position that will become part of the steering committee.
· Committee Reports and Business
○ Grievance Committee – New bylaws were approved with no abstentions. One grammatical error was corrected.
○ Program Review Committee – need to recruit an MPH faculty member to serve on the committee –THIS IS AN INSTITUTIONAL COMMITTEE NOT A FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEE. FS does recruit and vote on members. Dr. Mackie will make sure that all in the public health program no of this opening, by re-notifying the Gayle Cummings.
○ Faculty Benefits and Retention Committee – New members needed from PA program, School of Education, and from the Library.
○ Research Committee- Tamira Elul was introduced as the new chair. The committee met in late September and will meet again in December. Tamira will provide another update at the December FS meeting.
○ Library Committee- has an opening for a public health representative, but they already have a nomination who FS can vote on next month.
○ Rank and Promotion Committee- has two new nominees who will be brought to FS next month for vote.
· IT Issues for FTAC
o People in many programs are getting enrolled in every course (literally hundreds) and are unable to select in which courses they want to be enrolled. They would like this to be changed and since IT has been unresponsive they want an explanation and justification for this policy.
o Need to get podcasting available.
o Many have windows XP but it is an obsolete platform.
o Need IT support for editing course capture.
o Need webcams and speakers on classroom computers
· Announcements
○ Limited feedback on style of half-open, half-closed session for last month’s FS meeting which dealt with course capture. Some felt that it was not enough time. Text changes have been submitted to Dr. Velasco and these have been incorporated into the draft policy. Additional changes relating to ownership will be submitted as well.
○ Dec. FS mtg. planned synopsis of Blackboard App uses – Pamela Redmond (intended as an open meeting’). It was suggested that this is really relavant for faculty not others, and that there is no need to make it an open meeting. Others commented that they would not want to see the meeting become regularly opened to others outside of faculty.
○ Dean of Online Education of Touro was on campus 11/12 and made clear the push for all Touro campuses to have online programs. This prompted concerns over intellectual property relating to course materials and presentations. This needs to be researched as no one had the answer. As was iterated over and over in the CEHS meeting with Marian Stoltz-Loike, Ph.D., Vice President for Online Education at Touro College and Dean of the Lander College for Women, the FS re-articulated strong concerns with the push for online relating to job security and a unanimous desire to advocate and push for tenure.
○ Course Capture was approved for purchase and will be purchased in the next month and the 5 rooms slated for installation should have the technology started for spring 2014 courses.
· Next Faculty Senate Meeting
○ Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 in Lander 111 at 12 noon.
· Adjournment – meeting adjourned at 12:55