Minutes of
the Academic Senate Meeting of
April
16, 2002
The Academic
Senate was called to order by Chair Vaughn at 2:12
p.m.
Senate
Members Present:
|
Aaron,
Eunice
Alvarez, Alvin
Bartscher,
Patricia
Boyle,
Andrea
Cherny,
Robert
Collier,
James
Colvin,
Caran
Consoli,
Andres
Daniels,
Robert
Duke,
Jerry
|
Edwards,
James
Fung,
Robert
Garcia,
Oswaldo
Garcia, Velia
Gerson,
Deborah
Gregory,
Jan
Harnly,
Caroline
Henry,
Margaret
Hom, Marlon
Houlberg,
Rick
Hubler,
Barbara
Jerris,
Scott |
Kassiola,
Joel
La Belle,
Thomas
Langbort, Carol
Levine,
Josh
Luft,
Sandra
McKeon,
Midori
Moallem,
Minoo
Nichols,
Amy
Oñate,
Abdiel
Pong,
Wen Shen
Raggio,
Marcia
Sayeed,
Lutfus
Scoble,
Don |
Shrivastava,
Vinay
Smith,
Miriam
Steier,
Saul
Strong,
Rob
Su, Yuli
Terrell,
Dawn
Vaughn,
Pamela
Warren,
Mary Anne
Warren, Penelope
Yip,
Yewmun
|
|
Senate
Members Absent:Corrigan,
Robert A.(exc), AdisaThomas, Karima (abs), Bishop, Anna (abs), Concolino,
Christopher (exc), Ganji, Vijay (exc), Gillotte, Helen (exc), Higgins,
Susan (exc), Newt-Scott, Ronda (abs), Turitz, Mitch (exc), Wolfe, Bruce
(abs).
|
|
Guests:Amber
Brookner, Lilmarie Birr, Dan Buttlaire, Gail Whitaker, Paul Barnes
|
Chair’s Announcements
Chair
Pamela Vaughn
encouraged all faculty to consider participation in senate and campus committees
by either nominating themselves or a colleague.
Chair’s
Report
Chair
Pamela Vaughn: I
was moved by a statement in Jon Carroll’s column this morning, when he
said that “what needs to happen most of all, regardless of the assertion
of rights on any side, is for the fighting and the noise to stop, so that
the world can hear the crying.” I think we are all very aware that the
various conflicts in the world -- of necessity -- are spilling over daily
into our lives and the lives of our students – students who are worried
about family and friends in various parts of the world. And all I ask is
that perhaps from time to time we can take a moment, realizing that the
monumental change wrought by September 11th is not by any means
finished – if it ever will be – that we take time from our lectures, from
our busy office hours, and yes our committee meetings, to allow some silence
and quiet reflection so that we can “hear the crying” and do what we can
to work for peace.
Agenda Item #1: Approval of
Agenda for Meeting of April
16, 2002
m/s/p
(Gregory, Houlberg) to approve the agenda
Agenda Item #2: Approval of
Minutes for Meeting of April
2, 2002
m/s/p
(Duke, Steier) to approve the minutes
Agenda Item #3: Report from Vice President La Belle
Tom La Belle: I would like to talk to you
about the issue of the changing composition of our faculty. Several years
ago we made the decision to put most of our recruitment at the assistant
professor level. We believe that is was a wise decision. These new hires
are making a difference. We are not into our third year of focusing our
recruitment at the assistant professor level. This year we have the highest
level of searches going at about 105. We have been typically recruiting
50 to 60 new faculty hires each year. At the other end of the spectrum
we are increasing the number of retirements. Retirements will increase
given the normal age patterns of retirement. We talk about the retirement
age at about 65 and either side of 65. If we look at the demographics of
our faculty you will note that we will have more and more retirements.
FERPS will also increase. We probably have 130 to 140 faculty on the early
retirement program or FERPS. The challenge on the other end is to define
roles and responsibilities of FERPS to make sure that they are included
in university activities. Let me start with the Assistant Professor recruitment
and hiring. We certainly put a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of
effort into recruiting the best that we could find. We compete with other
like institution and to some extent we compete with research universities.
I still note that the research universities are recruiting stars and their
faculty by age is on the other end of the continuum. The loss for us, for
example, of Jeff Marcy was an example of how the research universities
pick the stars out where they find them, attracting them through additional
resources and infrastructure. I think we will experience that over and
over again during the next few years. Our challenge is to make the Assistant
Professor special and to pay tribute to the tremendous investment we have
made. That starts with a support system that isn’t just resources it is
collegial support, it is mentoring, it is finding a way to make the individual
feel that he or she has a role to play and a supportive set of colleagues
around him. The issue I think is one of how do we orient these new
faculty and how do we receive them and how do we make sure that the kinds
of opportunities that they have at first during the probationary years
increase the likelihood that they are going to be successful here. The
Deans and I were talking about this issue yesterday and one of the issues,
for example, while it is going to be quite lucrative for many faculty to
teach during the summer given the new contract when it kicks in not this
summer but the following summer. We will want to make sure that the Assistant
Professors are not so overworked in the teaching side in terms of their
workload that they don’t have time to do other things. So
one of the issues that came out was the establishment of summer fellowships
for Assistant Professors.Raising the issues about
workload for the first year or two of Assistant Professor. Purposely
reducing the teaching loads to acclimate
them or socialize them into the institution. So they in fact don’t get
so burdened early on that they can’t find their way. I think a lot of that
is happening. I just don’t think it is happening in a systematic level
enough. I don’t think it is born by all colleagues, as it needs to be.
We all have got to think of a way that we can be supportive of these new
people.One of these issues, I think,
is to introduce the individual to more than just the department faculty.
It is interesting that as the President holds the Thursday night dinners
with faculty that the individuals that come to the table know each other
and they know each other because they went through orientation together.
They met each other there and they have been able to connect as a university
community because of orientation not because departments necessarily connect
them with the rest of the institution but because orientation interconnects
them in the institution, so that those 30 to 40 individuals who come into
orientation each year tend to conduct themselves almost as a class, a particular
class of individuals, and they define themselves that way. It think
that is healthy. As we lose more senior faculty, issues of HRTP and searches
are going to become more difficult. Some of them are more difficult given
the contract because they are the ones that have to sit on the search committees
and the promotion committees and Assistant Professors are restricted, again,
by contract. It would be interesting to find ways that Assistant Professor
could become perhaps observers or adjunct to some of the processes. The
UC, for example, purposely puts Assistant Professor as non-voting members
of HRTP committees so that they learn and socialize and they see the process
at work. I think the shift is going to call on us to look for ways that
we can accommodate to the changing composition of faculty and some of that
means policy changes and rule changes in some of our practices. I think
what you are doing now in stating criteria and expectation for new faculty
and trying to make the probationary period more productive is fine. My
only observation is don’t isolate the department
from the Dean’s role, don’t isolate the department from the Provost role,
because really it is at this point not a department decision, it’s a university
decision and all levels are engaged in that. I think it is important that
you lay out expectations but I think it is also important that you realize
that this is not just a single decision made at a single level. There are
the other start-up issues. In the sciences it costs to bring a new faculty
member in $150,000 or more, due to laboratory costs and equipment costs
and so on. In others it is a computer, in others it is different kinds
of resources, it might be travel, or other forms of support. But all those
costs have to be born at the department and the college level. The long-term
benefits may be worth the short-term sacrifices. FERPs can be used as mentors.
Mentors, however, can’t just be assigned; the mentee must have something
to say about it, because if the mentee doesn’t have confidence or rapport
with the mentor then it doesn’t work. Mentors have to be trained and prepared;
it is something that we all don’t necessarily know how to do. At the Assistant
Professor level we can expect more and more pressure on promotion and tenure
decisions. I think Assistant Professor will likely constitute an interest
group in and of them. One college is already experiencing the organization
of Assistant Professors as a special interest. I think as more and more
of the Assistant Professors - we bring on - we will have interest groups
surrounded by levels of interest. They will begin to change policies and
procedures and expectations because they will be pushing the system from
that end. At the Associate Professor level I think one of the issues to
watch carefully are those individuals who are not promoted to full professor
within the normal six-year pattern. Those individual that are there in
rank for seven, eight, and nine years - and there are about 70 to 80 of
them on the campus. That group I believe needs a special intervention -
it needs someone to come along say “where are you, how can we support you,
how can we invest in you, or support you to the next level.” I don’t think
faculty are frustrated or don’t feel part of the campus. Post-tenure review
for full professor, I think, remains an issue and again, chairs, department
colleagues, deans, - we are trying to get deans to meet with every post
tenure review candidate, but in a college like Science and Engineering
with 20-130 faculty members a dean has to meet with 20 to 25 faculty members
a year to be apprised of where they are, invest in them and move them along.
Again, post-tenure review – a five year cycle – still requires resources
and some full professors need special care, some special handling, some
special investment. FERPs I believe provide and additional challenges.
There are resource issues, space issues, faculty office space issues, other
resources that the department will find will become more and more scarce
when assistant professor are brought in while the FERPs maintain their
same space. There will be teaching load issues, what will be the teaching
loads for FERPs and how will they be negotiated. This changing composition
of the faculty, whether you are looking at the coming in end or the out
going end, will clearly challenge, I think, all of us. It will challenge
the institution, not just administrators, but colleagues up and down. We
have to be open to it and think it through, and the Senate obviously is
going to play a major role. Sandra Luft indicated that it is helpful
to give attention at the Assistant Professor level to the problem of heavy
teaching loads that leave little time for research activities. However,
the rest of the faculty are in the same position and they should be included.
Tom La Belle: I agree with you. Andres Consoli asked if the
Provost would elaborate on the summer fellowships for assistant professors.
Tom La Belle: From where I sit I look at the kinds of opportunities
for faculty that we have in place now. There are multi-cultural grants,
or travel grants, probationary faculty awards, and so on. It strikes me
that we have got to have the resources in place to match more or less the
stage of career that individuals are in. My thought is that those needs
change over time. I grant the issue of workload for everyone. But the transition
for an Assistant Professor from a research university where they see how
there professor mentors had little teaching, strong infrastructure support
system and then to come to work at a teaching university with our heavy
teaching load and limited support infrastructure requires some support
for the transition. It doesn’t mean that the workload is fair, it just
means that it is different. The summer fellowship I think is one where
the assistant professor salary doesn’t really match the kinds of cost of
living that will face this individual when they move here. In order to
make ends meet the assistant professor may well gravitate to teaching in
the summer for extra income. He or she is using that valuable time for
activity that may not be productive for the entire period over four to
six years and it would be to provide use the time for scholarship or research.
One thought is to have fellowship that would be equivalent to what one
might get for teaching. So if teaching one course would be a $5,000 to
$6,000 gain then to have a fellowship of that same amount. We are thinking
now that there is something called the vice president’s assigned time.
It only allocates .2 to faculty, we’re thinking that that is not enough,
.2 doesn’t get you much. So we are thinking it should be expanded and maybe
we will take that program and put it into summer fellowships or something.
It is issues like that and trying to map along the way what are the needs
and how can we predict what faculty interests are and their needs are at
various times and establishing programs of an intervention source that
responds to those needs at that point. It is trying to do that from the
point of recruitment and hiring and orientation and all the way through
to retirement and/or FERPing. To lose for example, 130 to 140 individuals
who have FERPed is a major resource loss to an institution. Just as there
are certain restrictions on Assistant Professors there are certain restrictions
on FERPs. I not sure that make sense and I think we should review some
of those policies as well. Minoo Moallem asked what we are doing
to keep our “star” faculty from leaving.
Tom La Belle indicated
that we do not let them leave without hearing form us. We have a policy
to try to match outside offers that they may have received. We typically
hear about a faculty that is leaving and then begin a process of review
that goes from department chair, the dean and the president and after weighing
all the issues and if the faculty is interested in staying we will match
the outside offer if we believe it is a reasonable offer.
Midori McKeon
indicated that helping incoming faculty is good but as a department chair
she has many concerns about the growing inequities between support for
the newer faculty and the faculty at higher levels. Specifically the problem
of hiring new faculty at salaries that are much higher than what we are
paying some faculty who were hired in previous years. As a department chairperson
she indicated that the teaching loads of 4 classes per semester must be
reduced to 3 and even 2 as found at other universities. Tom La Belle
indicated that teaching load issues change from department to department
and from college to college. In some departments teaching loads are driven
by accreditation requirements that require small class sizes. A department
HRT committee that can make a recommendation for a salary increase to the
college dean can resolve the issue of equity in salary within a department.
Agenda Item #4: Report on Legislative Days
Robert Cherny reported on his attendance
at the statewide academic senate legislative day. He spent the day meeting
with community college representatives and state legislature discussing
issues of preparation and transfer of students from the community colleges
to the CSU. A draft of the statewide master plan for education will be
available for review and input in the next few months. Will take it on
the road to get hearing around the state. Invited them to come to a CSU
campus, this may happen. The legislature believes that the impact from
the state’s economic downturn will have less of an effect on this year’s
CSU budget but profoundly affect next year’s CSU budget. Cherny encourage
all to write to the governor outlining that any further cuts in the CSU
budget will directly affect our ability to effectively serve the people
of California. Eunice Aaron found the legislative representative
very committed to public higher education, however, it appears that the
governor will not finalize the budget until after the November elections.
Warned that we should all be prepared for some drastic decrease in the
budget and student fee increases.
Agenda Item #5: Elections
All-University Committee for International Programs
The
Academic Senate has one vacancy (2002-2005) on the All-University Committee
for International Programs. Mariam Smith has agreed to stand for
re-election to the committee
m/s/p
(Houlberg, Steier) Mariam Smith elected by acclamation
Alumni Association Board
The
Academic Senate has a two-year position on the Alumni Association Board
(2002-2004) Charles Egan, the Academic Senate’s current representative,
has agreed to stand for re-election.
m/s/p
(Houlberg, Scoble) Charles Egan elected by acclamation
Children’s Center Advisory Board
Grace
Yoo has agreed
to stand for reelection to the Children’s Center Advisory Board (2002-203).
m/s/p
(Steier, Mary Ann Warren) Grace Yoo elected by acclamation
Agenda Item #6: Faculty Merit Increase and Faculty Activity Reports
The
Academic Senate Executive Committee submits for consideration a resolution
on Rescinding Policy on Faculty Merit Increase and Faculty Activity Reports.
Jan
Gregory indicated that this is a good idea and she supports the resolution.
m/s/p
(Houlberg, Gregory) to second reading
m/s/p
(Houlberg, Steier) to close debate
Voting on the resolution - Passed
Agenda
Item #7: Proposed Revision to the Undergraduate Curriculum in California
Studies
Amy
Nichols, Chair
of the Curriculum Review and Approval Committee (CRAC), introduced the
proposals. The proposal is coming as a consent item from CRAC. The College
of Behavioral
and Social Science and the California Studies Program submit for consideration.
This is a proposal to revise the California Studies minor in the following
way. The minor would consist of 21 units instead of the current 24 units.
There would be 22 courses offered by 15 departments from five colleges.
Four courses that are not longer offered would be removed (NEXA 398, HUM
317, IAC 370, ECON 530). Four regularly offered
California-related courses would be added (HM 421, PLSI 475, and RAZA 660).
Students would complete one core course (HIST 450), one course from each
of three interdisciplinary categories (California Artistic and Cultural
Landscapes, California Social and Ethnic Landscapes, and California Environmental
Landscapes), and choose three elective courses from at least two of these
categories. Dean Kassiola, Dean of BSS and Lee Davis, director
of the California Studies Minor, were present to answer questions. Saul
Steier indicated that a course, HUM 375, should appear as part of the
emphasis on Los Angeles. Asked that it be included.Lee
Davis, Director of the minor, and members of CRAC had no objections.
HUM 375 will be included as part of the emphasis on Los Angeles.
m/s/p
(Velia
Garcia, Steier) to second reading
Minoo Moallem asked if courses in ethnic
studies could be added?Lee
Davis indicated
that she is willing to include courses that are recommended by other faculty.
If a course has not been included, it is because we did not know about
it. She encourages all interested faculty with recommendations to contact
her. Pamela Vaughn noted the excellent variety of courses that constitute
the minor and complimented those involved on a fine job.
m/s/p
(Houlberg, Shrivastava) to close debate
Voting
on the proposal – Passed unanimously
Robert
Cherny asked for
a special order of business to amend the agenda and add two new items.
m/s/p
(Nichols, Penelope Warren) to amend the agenda.
m/s/p
(Steier, Mary Anne Warren) to second reading
m/s/p
(Steier, Duke) to close debate
Voting on the motions to amend
the agenda – Passed unanimously
Agenda Item #8 – Resolution Commendation
of Pamela Vaughn
COMMENDATION OF PAMELA
VAUGHN
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn was the first of her family to graduate from college and
takes seriously the importance of teaching, as it was a teacher who inspired
her interest in the ancient world, and
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn has been teaching Latin and Greek for more than twenty years,
and
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn has been a valued member of the Classics Department at San
Francisco State University since 1993, and
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn redesigned the Latin and Greek curriculum at San Francisco
State, in which curriculum she actively teaches Latin and Greek authors,
as well as courses in translation and in classical mythology, and
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn is the author of Finis Rei Publicae: Eyewitnesses to the
End of the Roman Republic (Focus Classical Texts, 1999), an excellent
textbook written in collaboration with R.C. Knapp, and
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn’s students have said such things as
§"I
am continually impressed by her vast reservoir of knowledge, her expertise,
and her passion and love for all that she does."
§"I
had never seen such joy in teaching before."
§"Every
time she conjugates a verb or corrects a pronunciation, she does it with
love -- for the verb and for the student."
§“Who
would have ever thought Greek morphology and syntax could be medicinal!"
§"She
is a born teacher. And her students love her. Perhaps that is the best
definition of success," and
WHEREAS
the American Philological Association, at its annual meeting in January
2002, in recognition of these many accomplishments, bestowed upon Pamela
Vaughn its Excellence in the Teaching of the Classics Award for the year
2001, and
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn is now completing her second and final term as chair of the
Academic Senate of San Francisco State University, and
WHEREAS
Pamela Vaughn has generously and on many occasions shared with the Academic
Senate and the entire faculty of San Francisco State University her fluency
in the language and precepts of those she once described as "my adopted
people, the Romans," and
WHEREAS
alea
iacta est and, as is ever the case, tempus fugit, even when
one is having fun, now therefore be it
RESOLVED
that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University extend its heartiest
congratulations to Pamela Vaughn on her impressive accomplishments
in the classroom that have brought her the national recognition of her
peers, and be it further
RESOLVED
that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University thank Pamela
Vaughn for her many services to the Senate and People of the University
(SPQU), and be it further
RESOLVED
that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University bestow upon
Pamela Vaughn the titles of Doctora egregia and Dea linguae Latinae et
Graecae, and be it further
RESOLVED
that the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University, effective at
the end of the current academic year, bestow upon Pamela Vaughn the
additional title Tribuna perpetua et emerita
magistrorum.
m/s/p
(Cherny, Duke) to adopt a the resolution - Passed unanimously
Agenda Item #9 - Resolution Senatus
Consultum De Pamela Vaughn
SENATUS CONSULTUM DE PAMELA VAUGHN
Idem
femina fortissima, idem orator eloquentissima, Pamela Vaughn suos discipulos
bene docet inspiratque:una cum Cicerone,
magistre suo, hoc contendet, cum ad naturam eximiam et illustrem acceserit
ratio quaedam confirmatioque litterae, tum allud nescit quid praeclarum
ac singulare solere existere; quod si non hic tantus fructus ostenderetur
et si ex his studiis delectatio sola peteretur, tamen, ut opinior, hanc
animiadversionem humanissimam ac liberalissimam iudicaretis; nam certae
neque temporum sunt neque aetatum omnium neque locorum:haec
studia adolescentiam acuunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant,
adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt
foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur.
Quod
permulti Senatores verba fecerunt de rebus suis
litteratis praeclaris, et item quod iidem verba fecerunt Pamela Vaughn
operam fortem et fidelem Univesitati nostrae navasse, ut pro rebus bene
gestis ab sua fortiterque factis in Universitatem nostram honor sua haberetur:
De ea re ita
censuerunt:
Pamelam Vaughn
"Doctorem Egregiam"
et
“Deam
Linguae Latinae et Graecae”
et
“Tribunam
Perpetuam et Emeritam Magistrorum”
appelari.
Honoris
caussa Pamelam Vaughn censuere.
Translation:
At
once a woman of the highest courage and the most eloquent of speakers,
Pamela Vaughn greatly teaches and inspires
her students:Along with Cicero,
her Teacher, she holds that when noble and elevated natural gifts are supplemented
and shaped by the influence of literary studies, the result is then something
truly remarkable and unique.And yet
let us leave aside for a moment any practical advantage that literary studies
may bring.For even if their aim
were pure enjoyment and nothing else, you would feel obliged to agree that
no other activity of the mind could possibly have such a broadening and
enlightening effect.For
there is no other occupation upon earth which is so appropriate to every
time and every age and every place.These
literary studies stimulate the young and delight the old, they increase
one’s satisfaction when things are going well, and when they are going
badly, they provide refuge and solace.They
are a delight at home; they can be fitted in with public life; throughout
the night, on journeys, in the country, they are a companion which never
lets you down.
Whereas
many Senators have spoken of her illustrious scholarly activities, and
likewise whereas these same have declared that Pamela Vaughn has rendered
valiant and faithful service to our University, so that public acknowledgement
might be accorded her in return for the good service and valiant deeds
performed by her on behalf of our University:
Concerning this matter
it was decreed [by the Senate] as follows:
That Pamela Vaughn be called
"Extraordinary Teacher"
and
“Classics Goddess”
and
“Emerita Tribune of the
Faculty in Perpetuity”
In
honor of Pamela Vaughn.
m/s/p
(Houlberg, Colvin) to adopt the resolution - Passed unanimously
The Senate
adjourned at 3:19PM
Respectfully
submitted,
James
Edwards
Secretary
to the Faculty