January 16, 2024 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

In attendance: Curtis Bennett, Krzysztof Slowinski, Barbara Taylor, Jesse Dillon, Lijuan Li, Lora Stevens, Will Murray, Prashanth Jaikumar, Jim Kisiel, Christine Whitcraft, Babette Benken, Henry Wu, Margaret Karteron, Lindsay Aymar, Chris Frost (11:00am)

  1. Approve agenda (10:00) – Approved
  2. Approve minutes from December 5 – Approved as amended
  3. Announcements
    1. Operations 
      1. Lecturer Range Elevations
        1. Emails sent out to eligible lecturers
        2. Due date for candidates to submit materials to Margaret Karteron via email is February 29
        3. Deadline for Department review and recommendation notification is March 26
        4. Deadline for candidates to respond to department level review is April 8
        5. Deadline for Dean decision and forward to Faculty Affairs is May 6
        6. Deadline for candidates to appeal the Dean’s decision is May 13
      2. Commencement Awards
        1. Department Honors awards for graduate/undergraduate students are made at the department level
        2. No Commencement meetings yet, so no hard deadlines – but likely second week of March
        3. No new awards this year
          1. Outstanding master's degree recipients, one from each department will be recognized with either the Graduate Dean's list or the Richard D. Green Outstanding Graduate Student Award
          2. 1 undergraduate outstanding bac degree from the Richard D. Green from each department
          3. Departmental honors are nominated and decided at the department level for graduate and undergraduate
          4. Outstanding thesis award (deadline for Spring thesis is usually the last week in March)
    2. Dean
      1. How do we move forward more appropriately with student support
      2. Dr. Bennett's surgery rescheduled for March 22
    3. Budget
      1. No updates - just spend your money
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Fall Completion Rates
        1. Improved in Math – overall completion is 2% more than last fall
          1. Overall completion is 78%
        2. Concerns about completion in 1st semester courses for transfer students
        3. Strong completion in general chemistry for freshmen
      2. Beach XP
        1. Comparison of non-Beach XP freshmen with Beach XP freshmen is difficult because of possible differences in majors between those in and not in learning communities
        2. Based on that data, expanding Beach XP to students with lower high school GPAs is not feasible
        3. Looking at GPA, completion rates and percentage of students on probation, Beach XP makes a small impact, if any
      3. Funding Proposals
        1. Due February 5
        2. SOAR and Beach XP funding was discussed
        3. Submitted proposal similar to last year with some expansion of tutoring
        4. Need to be mindful of ISA costs – we do not know if we will have as much money next year
    2. Research
    3. Graduate Programs
      1. New call out for applications for the Graduate Equity Fellowship and D. Green Graduate Research Fellowship awards:
        1. Shared January 5
        2. Additional GEFs for Spring '24 - we put in 7 applications and did not get any
      2. Non-resident tuition waivers (NRTs) starting Fall '24
        1. Graduate advisors have been informed that we will only get a handful of waivers for the entire college, so they need to be used for recruitment only
        2. This is not good for Biology, which has a lot of out-of-state graduate students
          1. If we have fewer graduate students, we will have to hire more lecturers
          2. Henry Wu will give Dr. Bennett a spreadsheet explaining fiscal impacts of graduate students as employees
        3. Dr. Benken will share NRT history for CNSM past few years
        4. CSU mandates that each campus can only set # of NRTs that is based on a % of # of those who qualify for an NRT; our university was not compliant (misunderstanding of policy) and thus we are decreasing the # give across university
  5. Preparing for the first week of the semester
    1. You cannot ask faculty about striking, unless it is about lab safety (not the safety of lab equipment)
    2. Who is teaching labs/breakout sections?
      1. Because ISA's do not get paid if they are not assigned work, faculty should make arrangements
      2. Chairs should make sure all ISA/TA/SA know to be here at the appropriate times – nothing is cancelled
      3. If an ISA is not scheduled to work, then nothing has changed (some do not begin work until February 1)
    3. Safety with Chris Frost (11:00am)
      1. Labs will not be shut down – the issue is regarding supervision and availability of expertise
      2. In the event of an emergency, safety office needs to contact the faculty member overseeing, but faculty will not be available to respond while striking
      3. Emergencies then may require a bigger response like calling the fire department
      4. If faculty cannot directly supervise or be available for consultation, research activity should be scaled down – not stopped – to steady-state operations
      5. Safety office needs wet lab locations and labs with hazardous materials
  6. Adjournment (12:13pm)

Upcoming Dates

  • February 2: AAC external review visit
  • February 5: HVDI SEF, SOAR, and BEACH XP budgets due
  • February 5: Due date for Mini's & ETF's
  • February 26: CNSM Graduate Fellowship Deadline (GEF/DGGRF) – 5:00pm
  • March 8: CSULB Student Research Competition
  • March 12: Beach Scholarship Applications Close
  • March 23: Math Day at the Beach
  • March 29: Mini Review Due from Departments
  • April 13: Day at the Beach (for Admitted Students)
  • April 1-7: Spring Recess
  • April 1: Cesar Chavez Day Observed
  • April 2: FAFSA Deadline (Altered timeline this year only due to "late" change of federal process)
  • May 10: Last Day of Classes (FRIDAY)
  • May 23: Graduation @ Angel Stadium 9:00am

Meeting minutes were APPROVED Tuesday, January 30, 2024.

Note: The minutes above reflect discussion on the date of the CDC meeting about policies, not actual policy. Faculty and staff should wait for official communication on each subject before acting.