Behrend Faculty Council Meeting Minutes
Friday, October 8, 2021
1:30 p.m. in Reed 114 and via Zoom
- Call to Order – Edward Evans, Faculty Council & Senate Chair
- Approval of minutes from prior Faculty Council Meeting
- Linda Hajec & Carol Putman
- Welcome and Comments from the Chair
- The next Senate meeting to be scheduled for late October/appx 2 weeks
- Wintergreen Gorge tree harvest has ended, fallen trees will be left for wildlife habitat
- The Covid contact tracing process is underway and seems to be working
- Report from the Chancellor, Ralph Ford
- Re: Contact tracing, our people have been doing it here but are now transitioning it back to University Park
- Part of the Strategic Plan is to create a Chancellor’s Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Charter is now being drafted to include: track metric, hold accountability, collaborate, coordinate committees, make recommendations. When it is ready, Ralph will present it to the associated groups and the Faculty Council.
- H&SS Director search is underway
- Ralph is meeting with all departments regarding enrollment
- Federal House update – it is on its way to completion, which is expected by end of calendar year. Expect a February/March grand opening
- Erie Hall is coming down
- Covid update:
- Student vaccination rate is about 75%, faculty/staff is 83%, and the positivity rate is 1.7%
- We are working hard to get the non-compliant (three strikes) students into compliance, originally over 500, this is now down to four
- Q: If a student missed two tests then tested, does this reset them?
A: No. - Q: Will exemption process repeat for next year?
A: Yes, but the process needs to happen sooner - Comment – Federal regulations for contractors may be updated and this could affect the Penn State System
- Report from the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Pam Silver
- We are in the process of data-driven curricular planning – starting with reviews of each program to verify they are up to date and meeting the needs of the students
- This involves a college-level strategic view of data regarding curriculums
- Report from the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Ivor Knight
- We are reviewing sabbaticals
- We awarded 50+ undergraduate research grants at $1,200 each
- At Faculty Senate, there was a request for tours of the new bio-med lab; three tours were offered with little turnout
- Committees and Charges discussion with Chair, Ed Evans
- Proposed charges sheet was handed out to committee chairs
- Retention is a priority – retention of both students and faculty: Faculty Affairs, Student Life, and Student Affairs can work on this
- The six-year graduation number needs to improve
- We need to identify Behrend majors that can meet student career goals, as well as the University Park majors that can
- There are 280 Senate members – do we consider a representative/elected Senate to open dialog and encourage participation? Faculty Affairs to look at that. Compare our structure to comparative campuses and determine the pros and cons.
- Comment – our participation is not an outlier – it happens similarly at other campuses
- Comment – lack of participation is because we are down by several faculty members and the service part falls off
- Comment – lack of participation exceeds the last five years of short staffing
- Comment – gender disparity in salary could reflect retention also, look at promotion and tenure reports
- Comment – Chancellor’s office offered any data they have to the Faculty Affairs committee and requested any recommendations they can make (e.g., mentoring)
- Committee chairs are asked to refer to the page of charges listed to start their committee’s discussions. All this is on Teams or will be added to Teams.
- Review your committee charges and decide what you want to work on this year and report back at next meeting
- Discussion – format for Faculty Senate meeting as in-person, Zoom, or hybrid
Comment – All Zoom is preferred as an equity issue
- Dates/times for upcoming meeting to be determined
- Motion to adjourn
- Matt Ciszek and Matt Swinarski