The College Council Executive Committee meet with the President, the Provost, and the President's Chief of Staff on April 5th
We had a robust discussion on many items:
Middle States what lessons were learned and what does the College need to do at the request of the evaluation committee?
We heard that not requirements were mandated; that assessment could be improved and there are plans to address the gap by further institutionalization and de-personalization. Assessment here is not limited to assessment of student learning.
We asked
Is our mix of offerings consistent with expectations created by CUNY policy regarding vaccination, most recently summarized by unvaxxed students will be allowed to take fully online classes.
In response, we heard that many concerns are weighed: accreditation, licensure, and importantly student performance. We heard that a survey showed some student preference for online instruction, but this didn't align always with student success. (DFW rates slipped, was the example.) We heard we have several tentative classes for the fall schedule to give the flexibility to add online sections if demand warrants it but to minimize the changing of madalities for any given section. We heard that it is expected for 1N and 2N will be fully available.
Would it be possible for the CCEx to get a clarification from President Lynch about a statement that he made today? He said that around 20 of the Gittlesons had been lost, but that about 30% of those had been replaced. Have the Gittleson staff been replaced with Gittlesons, or are their duties now being assigned to other titles?
We heard 8 of 17 were replaces; that we exceed the contractual minimum number of such lines; that some of those who separated are still on Travia leave. We heard hiring pools can make the process slower than others as there are additional steps involved. We asked if there were staffing guidelines, so that departments and programs can plan for consistent staffing and heard that the AVP of Finance was developing a staffing analysis.
We have been asked to followup on the cost/benefit analysis for the High Performance Computing Center. We were told this was requested about 6-7 weeks ago.
We were told
The President was surprised this was on the agenda, as there was a meeting two weeks ago where this was all discussed
Some faculty suggest we have to think about not affording this, as it costs 1M per year
That the cost center model is being looked at, but would need to make investments
That we need to make a decision in the next few months
In followup conversations, I learned that:
the followup was indeed apt, as there had not been final numbers assigned to the cost of the facility until today
The number 1M is, as our colleague Paul Krugman might write, a zombie figure that has no basis in the actual costs (which after tallying for 2020-21 are 1/3 that figure and the tally includes personnel who separated on 5/7/2021. Outside of personnel costs and electricity – which is borne by CUNY – , 7108 was spent.).
We have been asked to follow up on concerns related to safe work environments especially in regards to rodents, mouse droppings and the transparency of cleaning uses, namely the use of pesticides in offices. Is there awareness of such concerns, and if so, what is being addressed?
We heard that there have been a lot of efforts at remediation; that some poisons have been employed (for wasps) following OSHA standards. It was mentioned that an office in 1P continues to have mouse droppings and that there are ongoing concerns expressed in 3S.
The steps in from on 1A were mentioned as in need of repair. We discussed a presentation by the VP of Facilities to the College Council.
We asked
At the last meeting we heard of plans for the Athletic Director to visit various constituencies. Have any such meetings been announced? Last semester, we had a discussion with then president Fritz about rumors of bullying and harassment occurring in the women's sports programs. Did this get handed off in the transition, and if so, is there any news that can be shared regarding this topic?
In followup, we learned that this search will be extended and there will be additional faculty participation.