The College Council Executive Committee met with President Lynch to welcome him to the College. I assume he will bring up many of these topics in his chair's report, so will not go into detail, but we discussed the following:
His experience with shared governance
His three big pressing items: Middle States, enrollment, the College finances
The safe return to campus
Transparency and communication issues of the past
That this is an 18 month posting.
At our monthly meeting with the President and Provost the president began with several items. Again, I'll defer to his report on these.
The Executive Committee asked:
Enrollment: The college enrollment has declined over 13% spring to spring with a headcount south of 10,000 for the first time in a long time. We'd be eager to hear what strategies are in place and/or are needed to stem this long slide that has recently accelerated.
We heard the enrollment task force was refocused after the IPC meeting the previous Friday to emphasize the urgency of enrollment and leave the longer-term thoughts to a master planning process. The belief that the outgoing president used task forces to avoid governance was shared.
We need to consider both new students and retention of our current students. For the latter we need to ensure our student-facing services are not a source of loss.
We need to streamline communications, such as between Academic Affairs and Advisement
We spoke of students being more tech savvy now; competition from SUNY
We had a discussion about modes of instruction and CUNY mandates; the vaccine mandate for in person instruction; estimates on the proportion of non-vaccinated students and the impact on enrollment
Concerns about academic integrity were shared.
We asked:
Interim positions: The College Council Executive Committee has been privy to ongoing complaints about the past athletic director and the athletics program. Currently, the program has an interim appointment who had no past background in overseeing a athletics program (he was a coach). It seems appropriate to search for an experienced, permanent AD. Is there any interest in pursuing this?
It was mentioned that this search was ongoing.
We asked:
The registrar's office is without current leadership. The burdens on this mission-critical office have amplified due to the pandemic. Will there be an immediate search for a director?
We were told of Juline Robinson's appointment as interim and an intention to search.
We learned about 15 lecturer lines coming to CSI from CUNY with an intent to help with DFWI rates and fill equity gaps.
The Committee on Organization has a TBD seat. This committee is chosen by the Council. The executive committee unanimously endorses Suzy Shepardson for this open seat.
Similarly (though really a FS issue), the Faculty Personnel Policy Committee has FIVE open seats at the moment including one for a faculty senate member and one from the P&B. Please consider participation.