November 17, 2020 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

In attendance: Curtis Bennett, Barbara Taylor, Chris Brazier, Andreas Bill, Babette Benken, Christine Whitcraft, Lisa Martin, Margaret Karteron, Dessie Underwood, Rick Behl, Kris Slowinski, Will Murray, Henry Wu, Allie Puz.

NOTE: THESE MINUTES REFLECT DISCUSSIONS THAT HAPPENED ON THE DATE OF THESE MINUTES.  DUE TO THE COVID-19 SITUATION, THINGS ARE RAPIDLY CHANGING.  FOR OFFICIAL POLICY PLEASE WAIT FOR DOCUMENTS FROM THE APPROPRIATE OFFICES.

  1. Approve agenda (10:30)
  2. Approve minutes from Nov. 3
  3. Announcements
    1. ASM
      1. Spring Hiring Projection, including ISA needs, Spring budget needs to Henry as soon as possible; financial assessment on December 8th.
      2. CARES payments
        1. All Summer PD payment requests have been processed.
        2. Department requests for digital recordings will not be processed until December.
      3. PERS has temporarily waived the 180-day wait requirement for people to work. At this time, any retired people can work full time. PERS may stop this waiver at any time, so be careful hiring people more than half time.
      4. SEF Course Fee/SEF Items
        1. Please buy items.
        2. Course fees for Spring; if you have course fees that you don’t think will be spent, suspend it now so we don’t have to do refunds later.
      5. CSU Buy Launch in the Next 2 Weeks
        1. Vendors can be accessed through campus SSO.
        2. Everyone has access and look at prices and fill up a cart.
        3. Requires University/Foundation P Card to purchase.
      6. Remaining CARES funds must be spent by this fiscal year.
    2. Operations
      1. 13 applications for sabbatical leave from the college; will be able to grant 6.
      2. 55 applications to RSCA for assigned time and faculty small grants.
    3. Communications Report
      1. End of Year Donor Video; Parameters pending.
      2. Eblast Services Moving In House.
    4. Academic Senate
      1. Differentiating between GA and IA amendment got rejected.
    5. Dean’s report
      1. COVID Spike
        1. We don’t know anything yet, but be aware that we may return to more restrictive guidelines pending county health department.
        2. Students can get tests at the health center; currently there tends to be a 3-day turn around.
      2. Approvals – Staff
        1. The Dean sent a list of staff who do not need dean’s approval (or AD approval) to come to campus to each chair.  Those staff do need approval from the department chair (this can be an ongoing approval however).
        2. If there are other staff members who need to be on campus regularly, please send their names to the Dean’s office so we can include them on our list of staff who are regulars on campus to HR (this also allows them to forgo individual approvals from Dean and AD).
      3. Student Concerns about Effective Teaching on Zoom.
        1. Students have come to the Dean regarding a hope that everyone can have compassion for each other (professors towards students and vice versa).
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Week of RSCA/Student Research Symposium
        1. Chairs received an email from the Dean that included the information that we need.
          1. Need to finalize this information this week.
          2. Discussion: Posters, flash talks around posters, recordings made around flash talks for students to use and for the college to use.
      2. Withdrawals and Course Completion
        1. The normal withdrawal rate in the college is about 6%, causes of high withdrawal rates in some courses/sections were discussed
        2. Will continue this discussion at the Student Success Meetings and summary recommendations will be shared with departments
      3. Update on Enrollment Management Solutions for Spring ‘21
        1. We will be allowed to put some classes in No Print – but this does not solve over enrolled upper-division courses. We will continue to follow up on this.
        2. Concerns: Wait lists are erased and cannot be used after a certain time and lack of access to grade rosters.
    2. Research
      1. N/A
  5. Picture a Scientist
    1. Postponing the screening date until the Spring semester – possibly end of January.
    2. Consider combining the screening with concrete steps to take to address issues presented in the film.
      1. We may need a disclaimer before people watch or a warning that it may cause some distress in folks who’ve experienced these issues.
      2. Take a “what can we do” approach.
  6. Graduate Student Workload Issues
    1. Biology Graduate Student Association brought up a number of concerns about workload.
      1. Spending a lot of time grading extra assignments. ISAs often have multiple lectures and there is often a lack of grading rubric for smaller assignments, causing an unintentionally heavier than normal workload.
        1. Some faculty are assuming grad students are attending the lectures; but are unaware they need to be paid for that.
        2. Miscommunication, or assumption, between faculty and TA/GAs has caused some issues; connecting people over the phone has been helpful in resolving issues.
        3. Considering hiring as GAs as ISAs and be clear with faculty what is expected and how many hours per week they can expect to be paid.
          1. Consider issues with university support for GA/TAs vs. ISAs and CARES funding concerns.
          2. Look closely at the duties, requirements, and hours expected before hiring a person as a GA/TA/ISA.
          3. Submit student support needs to the Dean with justification to see if the college can fund. This won’t guarantee funds, but it will give the Dean an opportunity to campaign for the needs.
  7. Measuring Student Success
    1. Will be discussed at December at Student Success Meeting.
      1. We’ve done a lot of resource splitting by FTES; but that doesn’t capture successful FTES. Discussion: Is there a better way to do it?
        1. We can measure each department’s contribution to graduating CNSM graduates.
  8. Other Business
    1. Would like to host departmental Summit/Town Hall where we discuss what we have learned over this unique semester so we can carry these lessons over to the next semester.
      1. Chairs Advisory Committee has planned campus-wide town hall for Chairs in January 2021 to discuss what has worked, what does not work, and how to help create community with students in our programs and majors, etc.
      2. Faculty feels over extended and may not be receptive to a town hall.

Upcoming Dates:

Nov. 6, 20 – CO grant writing workshop
Mar. 19 – 9am-1pm ORSP Virtual Research Competition
Apr. 5-9 – CSULB Week of RSCA
Apr. 9 – Nobel Prize Lecture