Behrend Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
Thursday, August 17, 2023
3:00–4:00 p.m., 117 Reed
I. Call to Order—Lena Surzhko-Harned, Faculty Senate Chair
A. Approval of the minutes from previous Faculty Senate Meeting
- Motion made: Vickie Kazmerski
- Second: Luciana Aronne
- Approved with one abstention.
II. Welcome and Comments from the Chair
Welcome back! There's a lot going on with Faculty Council and Senate this year. Historically, there have been problems with attendance, hoping to change it. Some confusion about what Faculty Senate is. Need to address that too. We have important duties to provide consultation to administrators and ensure transparency. Thanks to Lisa Jo and Massimo for leadership last year. On the agenda for this year:
- Encourage faculty to use time at Senate meetings for conversations of concern. Administrators asked to submit reports in writing – they will not present at every meeting. Will be available for questions – allows us to use time meaningfully.
- Hoping to be able to use the time to hear what the faculty have to say – your voice, your representative/college leadership team. Input is always welcome – At meetings, approaching Lena directly, discussions are to be kept between you and Lena.
- Met with members of Faculty Council, discussed charges with goals to have them finalized at the first formal Council meeting on 9/18. Senators – if you have concerns/issues to be discussed or charges to be made for committees, bring them to Lena – as senators you can bring charges forth to Lena as chair of Faculty Senate.
- Big agenda – work with administration and student government to help advance Academic Portfolio, Advising Plan, look through to evaluation for Strategic Plan implementation.
- How to contribute and engage faculty with research agenda, graduate programs, outreach and community engagement opportunities, and DEI initiatives.
- Technology – Artificial Intelligence – October 10 will be a visit from Stephen Monroe. There will be a special meeting for the committees of Faculty Senate and Faculty Council.
- Overhaul of the existing constitution of Behrend Faculty Council/Senate.
III. Introduction of Members of the Faculty Council
- Chair – Lena Surzhko-Harned, Associate Teaching Professor, Political Science
- Vice-Chair – Jason Bennett, Associate Professor, Chemistry
- Secretary – Zachary Williams, Lecturer, Accounting
- PT Rep – Brooke Lyle, Lecturer, Communication
- Parliamentarian –Matt Ciszek, Head Librarian
- Ombudsperson – Jodie Styers, Associate Teaching Professor, Math Education
- Alternate Ombudsperson – Scott Stroupe, Assistant Teaching Professor, Management
Committee Chairs
- Academic Computing – Elisa Beshero-Bondar, Professor of Digital Humanities, DMAT
- Athletics – Adam Simpson, Associate Teaching Professor, Biology
- Curricular Affairs – Glenn Kumhera, Associate Professor, History
- Faculty Affairs – Lynne Beaty, Assistant Professor, Biology
- Graduate Affairs – Mike Rutter, Associate Professor of Statistics, Mathematics
- Research – Babajide Osatuyi, Associate Professor, Management Information Systems
- Scholarship & Awards – Aimee Pogson, Associate Teaching Professor, Creative Writing and English
- Student Life – Gabe Kramer, Assistant Teaching Professor, Mathematics
- Undergrad Studies – Charlotte de Vries, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
- Inst. Ed and Diversity – Kyeiwaa Asare-Yeboah, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engr.
Faculty senate is fully in-person for this school year, though there is a hybrid option (Zoom) without recordings. Minutes will be posted on Faculty Senate Website. On this webpage you can find previous minutes and reports, the existing constitution, list of officers and senators, and so on. Additionally – Behrend Canvas page was created by Lisa Jo last year. It has information on Senate, Council, and much more: Procedures and policies, academic integrity resources, and so on. Access to Canvas has not been universal – we are working on getting everyone added to Canvas. If you need access, let us know; universal access is coming soon.
IV. Introduction of Members of the Penn State University Faculty Senate
- Elisa Beshero-Bondar – Professor of Digital Humanities, DMAT
- Terry Blakney – Associate Teaching Professor of Statistics, Mathematics
- Chris Harben – Associate Teaching Professor, Management
- Tracy Halmi – Associate Teaching Professor, Chemistry
- Glenn Kumhera – Associate Professor, History
- Sara Luttfring – Associate Professor, English
- Kathy Noce – Teaching Professor, Management Information Systems
- Matt Swinarski – Associate Professor, Management Information Systems
V. Faculty Senate Updates
Matt Swinarski – Behrend's faculty rep on University Senate Council:
- Senate is trying to get faculty more information and get feedback so faculty can be better represented. Two weeks before senate, senate board gets reports from committees, council reviews two weeks before vote to see what gets put on agenda. We can't share information via email, but, since we have Canvas, right after the council meeting your representative can post what was approved, discussed, and various appendices. You will now have access to more information to look at, including reports (something coming on workload, survey, etc.) to have your opinion voiced before, and not have time crunch afterward. Also, a focus on more communication and more listening to your concerns. You can talk to any senator about questions/issues coming up.
- July – President Bendapudi restated her commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, as well as holding discussions about the budget (now two-year, so people are more informed about how money is allocated). Concerned about local/national coverage with trends. Restated her commitment to commonwealth campuses. She is onboard with commonwealth campuses being critical to Penn State overall, regardless of enrollment trends. Rankings of university – up from 96 to 83. Reporting/accountability – she has been responding to comments, reports, resolutions, etc. posed by senate. You can go and see President Bendapudi's response to workload expectations and recommendations made in regard to all commonwealth campuses and University Park.
- A taskforce has been created focused on making sure we get the data, look at workloads for faculty. Kathy Bieschke (Penn State's vice provost for faculty affairs) and Laura Pauley are putting together a tracking system allowing for every resolution, recommendation, etc., put forward by University Senate to have a date of entry along with date of response. Additional information on workload can be found on the Senate site.
- Tracy presented her report on visiting high school students, main concern was students that are under 18, we must abide by certain laws and policies. If you see students coming in that are under 18 years of age, make sure to check the policy.
- Q – At the previous council meeting, health insurance was an interesting topic, discussion was long. They included whether we should have more categories/tiers instead of fewer, some people would be better off. There are visual aids that could be good to post to Canvas.
- A – We can do that. Removing cutoff to 180,000, able to allocate that. Some people took more burden, those in that range saw a 1.45% increase throughout the year. Benefits committee has been assigned to look at what happens if we do multiple tiers, where is the cutoff, where is it fair.
- Q – Update of timeline of pass/fail implementation?
- A – Issues ongoing with that – no timeline set at this point.
General Note: Good to know all senators are able to help assist with questions.
Lena Surzhko-Harned - Faculty Senate Chair
We are going to be revamping the constitution. Jason Bennett, Vice Chair of Faculty Council, will be heading the committee. Last April, council decided instead of piecemealing amendments, we were just going to do a complete overhaul. Vice Chair handles this duty. Looking for faculty, two members from each school. Ideally, one will be tenure track and one NTT. Eight (8) committee members are requested, well representing the population, ideally have been here for at least 5 years. Next week, watch for an email with a call for nominations. You can nominate yourselves. Speak up if you're interested. First council meeting on 9/18 will decide makeup of committee. Timeline is to have more information throughout year with the final constitution to be voted on by March.
Introduction of new faculty by School Directors
- Ozgun Demirag, Black School of Business
- Soomin Park – Assistant Teaching Professor, Supply Chain Management
- Tim Kurzweg, School of Engineering
- Ahmed Elnakib – Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Zhengran He – Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology
- Issah Ibrahim – Assistant Teaching Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Jie Zhao – Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering
- Melanie Hetzel-Riggin, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Martin Carrion – Assistant Teaching Professor, Spanish
- Erica Edwards – Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology
- Lauren Liebe – Assistant Teaching Professor, Game Design
- Marty Kociolek, School of Science
- David Bialas – Assistant Professor, Chemistry
- Natalie DeVos – Lecturer in Mathematics
- Benjamin Gerstner – Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor, Biology
VI. Presentation of Faculty Awards
- Dr. Ford Presents Council of Fellows Excellence in Teaching Award
- Joshua Shaw – Professor, Philosophy and Bioethics
- Dr. Filbeck Presents Guy W. Wilson Academic Advising Award
- Carol Putman – Associate Teaching Professor, Management
- Dr. Rhoades Presents Council of Fellows Faculty Research Award
- Blair Tuttle – Professor, Physics
- Dr. Surzhko Harned Presents Council of Fellows Excellence in Outreach Award
- Beth Potter – Associate Professor, Biology
VII. Announcement and Comments
Meeting Schedule Fall 2023
-
Senate
- Thursday 8/17 @ 3:00 p.m. (117 Reed)
- Friday 10/13 @ 1:30 p.m. (114 Reed and Zoom 99817638410)
- Wednesday 12/6 @ 1:30 p.m. (113 Reed and Zoom 98735465410)
-
Council
- Monday 9/18 @ 8:00 a.m.
- Wed 10/11 @ 3:30 p.m.
- Mon 12/4 @ 8:00 a.m.
VIII. Adjournment
- Motion to Adjourn: Charlotte De Vries
- Second: Jason Bennett