Baruch College Faculty Senate Minutes of 11/5/2009
MINUTES
Senators Attending: L. Bolce (PolSci), A. Brandwein (S/CIS), C. Christoforatou (ENG), A. Croker (S/CIS), G. DeMaio (PolSci), F. Donnelly (LIB), B. Ferns (S/CIS), W. Finke (ModLang), R. Freedman (ZBUS), G. Graves (ModLang), K. Guest (Soc/Anth), G. Hill (FPA), C. Howard (MTH), G. Jurkevich (ModLang), L. Klusek (LIB), C. Kulatilleke (NatSci), M. Lubetski (ModLang), T. Main (SPA), T. Martell (Eco/Fin), R. Myers (COMM), J. O'Keefe Bazzoni (COMM), M. Ozbilgin (ACC), G. Petersen (Soc/Anth), B. Rosen (MKT), H. Ross (Eco/Fin), S. Stein (S/CIS), K. Tandon (Eco/Fin), Y. Tsurumi (MKT), A. Vora (Eco/Fin), A. Wolf (Eco/Fin)
Senators Absent: M. Dumas (S/CIS), K. Frank (ENG), A. Grein (MKT), D. Hoffman (SPA), R. Holowczak (S/CIS), S. Johnson (PSY), D. Jones (PolSci), D. Kaminer (Law), S. Korenman (SPA), R. Nishan (ModLang), D. Schepers (MGT), D. Williams (SPA), X. Yin (MGT),
The meeting was convened at 1:03 p.m. in VC 14-250 by Prof. Terry Martel.
I. Approval of Agenda: The agenda was approved by assent.
II. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of October 1, 2009 were approved by assent
III. Report from the Vice President of Student Affairs (Ben Corpus)
VP Corpus introduced Baruch’s new senior registrar, Leslie Sutton-Smith. Ms. Sutton-Smith joins Baruch from Harvard University, and previously at Cabrini College and the University of Tampa. VP Corpus thanked Beverly King for her outstanding work as the acting registrar.
IV. Report from the Ombuds Office (Mindy Engle-Friedman):
Professor Engle-Friedman (Psych/Ombuds) discussed the role of the Ombuds Office at Baruch College (her written report is at Attachment A):
o Faculty/Student conflicts: These are the primary types of conflicts that come to the Ombuds Ofice. Sometimes students come with concerns about the faculty providing general respect in classroom, but usually the conflicts about grades. Grading conflicts are becoming less common; Mindy attributed this change to the use of enhanced syllabi that have clear grading procedures.
§ Typical grading problems included:
· Students feel they deserve a higher grade, and the faculty member thinks that grade is better than they deserve. The faculty should give the students the grade they deserve, not higher, and not lower;
· A student may want the faculty member to assign a grade of ‘F’, so that the student can take advantage of the CUNY ‘F’ policy. Mindy emphasized that in these cases, the students should still get the grade they earned; if the grade is a C- or a D, that is the grade that the student should be assigned;
· Faculty should not provide extra credit to specific students, but instead provide the extra-credit opportunity to all students;
§ Sometimes faculty contact Ombuds Office when the faculty member perceives a problem with a student. Some faculty may be reluctant to do this, but Mindy emphasized that the Ombuds Office’s involvement is not punitive, but rather a means for figuring out and handling problems;
o Faculty/Faculty conflicts: Sometimes faculty members have conflicts, and the Ombuds Office can mediate between faculty. Faculty/faculty conflicts are becoming more common, and the Ombuds Office can help especially in areas not covered by collective bargaining contract.
o Adminstrator/Faculty and Administrator/Student conflicts: Faculty and students may have conflicts with administrative staff, or vice-versa, and not addressing these conflicts lead to ineffective working relationships;
Mindy noted that, whenever people interact, there are possibilities for conflict. We should allow ourselves to acknowledge that conflicts exist, and address them instead of moving away from the conflict. If problems are not raised, they still stay in the room. Mindy recommend that people contact her, so that she can help them develop the skills to open up the discussion.
Q&A: Glenn Petersen (Soc/Anth) stated that he had developed a handbook for his department’s new faculty. He asked whether that the Ombuds Office could prepare a handbook that would be more generalized for faculty. Mindy said her office could do that. Terry Martell pointed out that the Ombuds Office works on confidentiality, and encouraged faculty members to utilize the Ombuds services more frequently.
V. CUNY Performance Management Process Report Card for AY 2008-2009 (Mary Gorman Hetherington):
Mary Gorman, the president’s chief-of-staff, presented Baruch’s 2008-2009 ‘report card’ for the CUNY Performance Management Process (PMP). Most of the items were ‘met or exceeded targets’. She first presented the general grading scale that the PMP uses:
o Meets all and exceeds most expectations
o Meets all and exceeds some expectations
o Meets all expectations
o Does not meet some expectations
o Does not meet most expectations
She recapped the university’s nine major objectives of the PMP, and how Baruch rated on each of those objectives:
1. Strengthen CUNY flagship and college priority programs, and continuously update curricula and program mix: Meets all and exceeds some expectations
2. Attract and nurture a strong faculty that is recognized for excellent teaching, scholarship and creative activity: Meets all expectations
3. Ensure that all students receive a solid general education and effective instruction, particularly in the first 60 credits of study: Meets all and exceeds some expectations
4. Increase retention and graduation rates: Meets all and exceeds some expectations
5. Improve post-graduate outcomes: Meets all expectations
6. Improve quality of student academic support services: Meets all expectations
7. Increase or maintain access and enrollment; facilitate movement of eligible students to and among CUNY campuses: Meets all expectations
8. Increase revenues and decrease expenses: Does not meet some expectations
9. Improve administrative services: Meets all expectations
(Secretary’s note: The remaining discussion concerning the PMP contained internal organizational information; the full minutes are available through the Faculty Senate BlackBoard site; faculty senators can contact the secretary for access to the BlackBoard site).
VI. Chair’s Report (T. Martell):
Mission Statement: Terry Martell presented the most recent version of the proposed Mission Statement (Attachment B). This version was developed by the Middle States Steering Committee on September 29, and revised by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on October 29, 2009. There were recommendations from the flor to include mention of teaching to the list of faculty’s activities, mention of liberal arts and science majors, and knowledge of information technology in the skill sets of our students. Terry asked faculty to send recommendations to the secretary, and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee would revise the proposed mission statement based on those recommendations. That revised mission statement will be presented to the Faculty Senate plenary meeting of 12/3/2009.
Budget: Terry serves on the Board of Trustees Fiscal Affairs committee, which has approved the Academic Year 2011 budget. It looks like the state’s fiscal health is sinking—we are looking at a $3.1B deficit in this year’s budget. NYS has only dealt with $1.2B of that deficit, so we will be seeing an additional hit. There will be a $68M cut for CUNY, but it has not yet reached the senior colleges. This anticipated cut has been relieved a bit because the increased student numbers have provided increased tuition receipts (and because 1.5% of the original senior college allocation has been held in reserve)..
CUNY Compact: CUNY is putting forward a new CUNY Compact to the NYS Legislature, with the following proposals:
o CUNY will increase tuitions will go up by $45 per credit;
o CUNY will increase its headcount by .5%
o CUNY will need $72M in mandatory cost increases
o CUNY is looking at 250 new hires and 20 research facilities throughout the university;
CUNY is putting forth a budget that includes modest budgetary growth, but in light of the projected $12B state deficit, the 2012 budget will be considerably worse; it will be a difficult budget negotiation.
Q&A: Howard Ross (Eco/Fin) noted that the economy is supposed to turnaround in 2010, and that would help the picture. Terry noted that there is pressure to put limits on the compensationfor the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) industries, and typically, 20% of the NYS income tax revenues are from those industries.
VII. Old Business: None
VIII. New Business: None
IX. Announcements:
Next Meeting’s Topic: The next plenary meeting of the Faculty Senate will include a reading of the revised mission statement after faculty comments, and a vote on approving the mission statement.
X. Meeting Adjourned at 1:58 pm
Respectfully submitted,
William J. Ferns, Jr., Faculty Senate Secretary
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Baruch College Faculty Senate Minutes of 11/5/2009
The Baruch College Ombuds is Mindy Engle-Friedman and the Assistant to the Ombuds is Glenda Hydler. They serve the entire Baruch College community including students, faculty, staff and administration to clarify disputes, provide strategies for conflict resolution, and mediate disputes. The Baruch Ombuds works independently and is neutral. The Ombuds is not an advocate. Conversations with the Ombuds are confidential.
The goal of the Ombuds office is to support open face-to-face communication between members of the Baruch Community to resolve disputes. The Ombuds office recommends that persons in conflict attempt to speak with each other first to resolve the dispute. If a resolution can not be found through that interaction, it is recommended the complainant bring the issue to the next level of administration (e.g. a problem with a professor should be next brought to the department chair). After attempts at resolution have been unsuccessful, the Ombuds will meet with the complainant and provide potential solutions for resolution. The Ombuds may help the complainant formulate a plan to speak directly with the person who is the focus of the complaint. If it is agreed that the Ombuds will gather additional information, the Ombuds will speak with specific persons related to the conflict.
There are a number of repetitive conflicts that have come before the Ombuds and suggestions are offered to obviate these conflicts:
Syllabi should be updated when changes are made to the grading system mid-semester. The most common conflicts are complaints about grades. Fortunately, the fine-tuning of syllabi has reduced the number of these complaints. However, such complaints still exist. Most conflicts of this sort seem to stem from syllabi changed during the course of the semester but not updated on paper or on blackboard. The syllabus a contract to which the student and faculty member can refer regarding the calculation of grades. Without an updated document, grade complaints based on some new but unwritten scheme requires the original document serve as the contract.
Students should only receive the grade they earned. Students who request a grade received be reviewed by professor and themselves are within their rights. Students are entitled to know how their materials were graded and how the grade was calculated. Students who receive an A- grade are as entitled to review as students receiving a B-. Faculty who say they were “generous” in giving the grade should be not generous. They should be fair and give students what they earn.
Some faculty will give students a grade of “F” when they earned a “D” to make it possible for the student to retake the course. If the student earns a “D” they should receive a “D” grade. To do otherwise, is unacceptable given Baruch’s current rules and regulations. In addition, some faculty will give individual students extra credit work in order to help the student receive a higher grade in the course. Extra credit must be offered to all members of the class and cannot be offered to individual students during the course or after the course has been completed.
Faculty who are having discomfort with students can speak with the Ombuds. Often the Ombuds will discuss a case with a professor after a student has brought the case to the Ombuds and the professor will say, “I knew this student was going to go to you.” Typically, this means the professor has been having trouble with the student in class but has been at a loss with regard to what to do. If the student is disrupting class, interfering with the learning of others or cheating, the professor can contact Ron Aaron. When the difficulty doesn’t include these types, the professor can seek out the Ombuds for discussion and generation of strategies that might result in a more comfortable classroom environment and better interactions with the student.
Faculty members serving on committees and personnel working in offices often have conflicts. As long as people work together there will be conflicts. It is natural. An “ignored” conflict is an unattended conflict and one that is likely to grow and get worse. It is recommended committee chairs, department chairs and administrative supervisors acknowledge conflicts within their domain and discuss them. Such discussions should occur first in private with each of the persons involved and if needed, with the persons together. Such conversations provide information, generate solutions to resolve the conflict and lead to many favorable outcomes. Some benefits include these:
1) It gives voice to a problem that has been simmering,
2) It gives space for each person to share their perspective, to be heard and to be appreciated,
3) It offers subordinates a chance to be heard without having to muster the courage to speak up about an issue to a person in a position of authority,
4) Leaders demonstrating this type of engagement in conflict resolution provide a model from which others can refer when addressing conflicts in the future.
Members of our community can approach the Ombuds with regard to how best to initiate and work with such conversations. As in all other situations, unless the person bringing the issues requests otherwise, all conversations with the Ombuds are confidential.
Policy issues are raised by the Ombuds. Concerns about policy issues and procedures that affect the health, safety, security and educational environment of the College are brought by the Ombuds to the attention of those creating policy. The Ombuds takes up policy issues and makes recommendations for addressing them, with or without a case alerting the Ombuds to the issue. As in all other situations, unless the person bringing the policy concern requests otherwise, all conversations with the Ombuds are confidential.
Prof. Mindy Engle-Friedman - Baruch College Ombuds
Room -VC 8-283; walk-in and by appointment