MINUTES

Senators Attending:E. Axelrod (Law), K. Behar (FPA), C. Bellamy (Soc/Anth), A. Croker (S/CIS), B. Ferns (S/CIS), K. Frank (ENG), R. Freedman (ZSB), M. Goodman (COMM), A. Grein (MKT), K. Guest (Soc/Anth), C. Hessel (Eco/Fin), R. Jain (S/CIS), S. Johnson (PSY), G. Jurkevich (ModLang), C. Kulatilleke (NatSci), A. Levitus (CNSLNG/PSY), T. Main (SPA), T. Martell (Eco/Fin), B. Murphy (HIS), J. O'Keefe Bazzoni (COMM), R. Ormsby (LIB), M. Ozbilgin (ACC), A. Pearlman (PSY), G. Petersen (Soc/Anth), L. Rath (LIB), M. Seltzer (SPA), P. Sethi (MGT), M. Stark (SPA), A. Vora (Eco/Fin), J. Weiser (Law), S. Wine (S/CIS), J. Ye (ACC), X. Yin (MGT), R. Yue (S/CIS)

Senators Absent: M. Carew (Eco/Fin), C. Christoforatou (ENG), S. Dishart (COMM), W. Finke (ModLang), D. Jones (PolSci), S. Korenman (SPA), W. McClellan (ENG), S. Wong (MTH)

The meeting was convened at 12:57p.m. in VC 14-250 by Prof. Terry Martell,Chair of the Faculty Senate.
  1. Approval of Agenda: The agenda was modified and approved by assent.
  1. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of April 3, 2014 were approved by assent
  1. Resolution of Appreciation for Terry Martell

The Faculty Senate unanimously passed the following resolution:

The Faculty Senate of Baruch College acknowledges the outstanding contribution of Terrence Martell for his years of leadership and unstinting efforts on behalf of Baruch College and the entire City University of New York community. By proclamation, we publicly recognize his extraordinary performance, and thank him for his years of service on our behalf.

IV Resolution of Appreciation for Bill Ferns

The Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution thanking Bill Ferns for his eight years of service as the Faculty Senate secretary.

  1. Report from the Chair(Prof. Terry Martell)

Terry pointed out that in some CUNY colleges faculty and administration think they are on two different ships.At Baruch, we are aware that we are on the same ship, although possibly different decks. Terry noted that the Faculty Senate and the administration has worked together on several important issues, such as increasing Baruch’s base funding by $7M, and adapting to Pathways without creating a fractious environment at Baruch.

Terry noted that we have two good candidates for chair, and a candidate for secretary. He asked that the Senate give the new officers the support that he received from the body. It is a difficult job, and new officers will need a lot of support.

Governance: Terry raised the issue of governance committees at Baruch. A proposal to create an Enrollment Management Committee (Attachment A) was moved and approved by assent.

The UCC Committee (Attachment B): Ashok Vora had questions about the authority of the committee. Terry said it is not perfect, but there needs to be some venue for inter-school negotiation. Ashok asked about General Faculty approval; Bill Ferns said that he would manage that GFM approval process at the next General Faculty Meeting.The College-wide Undergraduate Curriculum Committee was moved and approved by assent.

PATHWAYS: Interim Chancellor Kelly has modified certain provisions associated with the Pathways process. He has requested that faculty members to the Pathways Common Core Course Review Committees (CCCRCs) be selected in accordance with the campus-based faculty governance procedures of individual colleges. Baruch College does not have a specific procedure to do this. Terry has suggested that, for the time being and until an alternative process is established, the newly established Faculty Senate Undergraduate Curriculum Committee nominates Baruch’s representatives to these CCCRCs. The Faculty Senate will approve the nominations. Q&A: Glenn asked about jurisdiction; the GFM voted 150-1 and the WSAS faculty voted 120-5 that Baruch should not help facilitate Pathways at Baruch. Terry thought that, if other courses at other schools are approved to be transferred to Baruch, it will be a mistake for Baruch to not be involved in the approval process for those courses. He understood that there remained a lot of sentiment to not support Pathways in any way, but he did note that his anti-Pathways: The vote was: 33 yeas, 1 nay.

  1. Reports from Vice Chairs: None
  1. Report from the President (Mary Gorman, Chief of Staff)

Mary read the following statement from President Wallerstein:

“I regret that illness prevented me from attending your final meeting as chair of the Faculty Senate. As you conclude your tenure, I wanted to congratulate you on a job well done. Your leadership has been characterized by intelligence, wit, and good judgment. You set a high bar for those who follow in the position and the Baruch College community is better as a result of your service. On a personal note, you showed great generosity to me at the beginning of my presidency by helping me to learn the strengths of Baruch and the challenges that it faced. I have continued to seek your advice and counsel on many matters over the past four years, and just in case you think you are finally off the hook in this regard, be forewarned that I fully intend to do so in your post-chair retirement.”

  1. Report from the Provost (David Christy, Provost)

New Associate Provost:Provost Christy introduced Erec Koch, the new Associate Provost for Academic Administration and Faculty Development (includes sponsored research and research compliance). The Provost had previously announced to the Senate a plan to develop two faculty task force groups to suggest richer ideas about how Baruch could assess teaching and service in reappointments. Those task force groups have been formed and Erec will work with them. Any outcomes from these groups will be shared widely with faculty, and only implemented after broad review.

NYC City Council:The New York City Council Committee on Higher Education chaired by Councilwoman Inez Barron held a hearing last Friday on Faculty Diversity at CUNY. CUNY Central Office officials, the PSC and several Baruch faculty and staff made presentations. The full video of the hearing is available on the City Council website. Several non-personnel issues concerning Baruch were raised at the hearing for which we are collecting information and responses.

  • Baruch is preparing its first annual report regarding our Faculty Diversity Strategic Plan. This plan was developed by a committee chaired by interim provost John Brenkman.
  • Baruch’s data on faculty hiring pools is simply insufficient. For this reason, beginning this summer, all faculty applications for positions must be made through CUNYFirst, which will enable us to collect complete information on the candidate pools. We cannot authorize hiring when we have not developed candidate pools that are inclusive, or provided conclusive evidence that there are no persons who are qualified from underrepresented groups.

Online Student Evaluations:Associate Provost Dennis Slavin and Vice President Arthur Downing have been working diligently to introduce the on-line student course evaluations. In this process we discovered that it could be possible for a student who has received a W to complete the course evaluation. There were some differences of opinion as to whether W students could contribute valid observations or distort the evaluation outcomes. The good news is that CIO Arthur Downing has a solution. When grades are submitted, we can then filter the evaluation responses to include only responses from students who earned credit or an F grade for the course. The Provost thanked Arthur and his team for addressing this issue effectively.

Q&A: Glenn Petersen noted that the administration had exhorted faculty to attend commencement. Glenn distributed a NY Times article about the settlement of the NYC doormen of residential doormen. He pointed out that the current pay of NYC doormen make $44.4K, while CUNY assistant professors at the first step make less--$42.9K. He thought thatthe Baruch administration should equally exhort the CUNY Central Office to provide realistic pay raises and pay scales for the CUNY faculty.

Teaching and Service Evaluation Task Forces: Glenn noted that such committees are important, but the development of such committees should go through the governance process by which the Faculty Senate selects the CUNY representatives. It is particularly problematic when many of the individuals invited to these committees are junior untenured faculty who are relatively vulnerable.

CUNYFirst: Warren Gordon (MTH) noted that CUNYFirstis problematic because it handles a lot of tasks badly with no awareness of the academic/curricular needs of courses at Baruch. The Provost noted that problems existed; for example, CUNYFirst assumes that grades can only be collected at the end of the semester, creating problems for 1.5 credit courses that may be offered in half a semester. The Provost noted that we can get only so many changes to CUNYFirst at a time, so Baruch was going to prioritize its requests.

BlackBoard:Chris Hessel noted that, if students drop a class, the student remains on BlackBoard; he expressed concern that he had asked about this problem, but it remain unresolved. AVP Arthur Downing noted that much of the problem lies outside of the BCTC’s control and lies with CUNYFirst.

  1. Report from the Senior Registrar (Ed Adams)

Senior Registrar Adams reported on some information on degree candidates in this May’s graduating class:

  • 1537 Undergraduate students
  • 654 graduate students
  • 2191 total candidates will graduate this May.

Terry noted the faculty do the teaching, the faculty do the grading, and so the faculty should certify the results.

Bill Ferns noted that the Registrar’s Office had worked incredibly hard to get through the new CUNYFirst registrations.

  1. Candidate Statements

The faculty running for chair of the Faculty Senate made statements about their candidacies. The Faculty Senate elections will be held on May 8th.

  1. Announcements: None

Meeting Adjourned at 1:56 pm

Respectfully submitted,

William J. Ferns, Jr., Faculty Senate Secretary

Baruch College Faculty Senate 1Minutes of 5/01/2014

ATTACHMENT A (Continued)

Proposal: Amendments to the Baruch College Faculty Senate By-Laws

Enrollment Management Committee

Charge: Enrollment Management Committee will participate in the formulation of policy related to graduate and undergraduate enrollment management, including qualifications and numbers of incoming students, the deployment of financial aid resources, and responses to Central Office enrollment management policies. The committee will report at the next available opportunity to the Baruch College Faculty Senate (BCFS) plenary at least once a semester.

Members:

A.The BCFS Vice-Chair for Educational Policy will serve as Chair.

B.Five additional faculty:

1.The BCFS Vice-Chair for Planning & Finance

2.One additional tenured faculty senator and three other tenured faculty elected by the Baruch College Faculty Senate;

3.Of the six faculty representatives, at least one will be from Zicklin, one from Weissman, and one from SPA. The Executive Committee will make reasonable efforts to include representatives from the Independent Units.

C.VP for Enrollment Management or designee.

D.Each of the three School deans or designees.

E.Registrar or designee.

F.Provost or designee.

G.An undergraduate student chosen by the Undergraduate Student Government

H.A graduate student chosen by the Graduate Student Association

Baruch College Faculty Senate 1Minutes of 5/01/2014

ATTACHMENT A (Continued)

Proposal: Amendment to the Baruch College Faculty Senate By-Laws

College-wide Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Charge: The College-wide Undergraduate Curriculum Committee will review and approve college-wide curricular matters including the undergraduate core curriculum and curricular mandates imposed by NYS, NYC or CUNY that have a broad impact on College curricula. The committee will report on its deliberations and actions at the next available opportunity to the Baruch College Faculty Senate (BCFS) plenary, or in any case, at least once a semester.

Members:

A.School curriculum committee chairs (three):

  • If a school has a separate undergraduate curriculum committee, the chair of that committee will be a member;
  • If a school does not have separate curriculum committees, the chair of the school curriculum committee will serve.as a member;

B.Provost or designee

C.Dean or designee from each of the three schools

D.Twofaculty elected by the Faculty Senate from different schools or units;

E.The chair of the committee will be elected by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee from the committee membership.

Baruch College Faculty Senate 1Minutes of 5/01/2014