Behrend Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022
4:30 p.m. via Zoom
- Call to Order – Lisa Jo Elliott, Faculty Senate Chair
- Approval of minutes from April Faculty Senate Meeting
Ed Evans; Charlotte De Vries
- Approval of minutes from April Faculty Senate Meeting
- Welcome and Comments from the Chair
- Vice chair: Lena Surzhko Harned. Secretary: Massimo Verzella. Lisa Jo Elliott thanks Ed Evans for his work as Chair during AY 2021/22.
- Behrend Faculty Senate has a new Canvas page
- Faculty members should consult the Canvas page to find links to the recordings, committee reports, and several other documents. You can enroll in Senate Canvas site.
- Committee reports are uploaded on this Canvas page.
- College Updates
- Chancellor Ford provides information on budgets at the Senate meeting. Projected University deficit for AY 2022/23 was $200+ this summer. Units were asked to recast budgets to lower projected deficit for 2022/23. This is the reason for the strategic hiring freeze. Through changes the projected deficit has been reduced to $140, but the challenge is to reduce it to 0 by 2025. Behrend is in a good financial state having complied with requirements set by the central administration. Behrend continues to be strong and is doing well and has excellent credit ratings. Chancellor Ford also showed the Behrend financial dashboard with revenues and expenditures to explain how Behrend runs in a financially responsible manner.
- Pam Silver, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
Faculty should use Starfish: Raise flags for students who are not participating or not coming to class. New curricular management system (CIM) is active. The system is different from CRCS, more intuitive. Pam will provide examples to illustrate every possibility. Behrend has departments that have been working hard to help faculty deal with changes in students’ levels of preparation. Faculty are invited to visit the advising Team in MS Office; the advising center is also running training and workshops. Participation can be added to Faculty Success (digital measures) for annual reviews and PT dossiers. It lets us know you are actively trying to improve. Pam reminds faculty of resources offered by the Center for Teaching Innovation and Center for e-Learning Innovations. She mentions teaching triangles. Those who need help or know someone interested to be peer mentor and help junior colleagues manage our current challenges, please direct them to Qi Dunsworth or the advising center. It’s important that we support each other.
- Alicyn Rhoades, Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
- Faculty interested in research. Shows Behrend website for grant and contracts.
- The website is behind the login walls. The Grant and Contracts office is now at Balmer House. Workshops will be offered to faculty to help them submit grants. The team is trying to be of service to us. The Undergraduate research project deadline is next Wed.
- NWRIC grant due October 2nd
- Erikson discovery grant will be opening October 31, 2022, and closing in February (February 12, 2023).
- Q – What can we ask of your office? Can you add an FAQ section for faculty?
A – I will mention this to the grant team. All is in flux as the group prepares for the new task. The group will prepare monthly updates, or a newsletter for faculty.
- Chancellor Ford provides information on budgets at the Senate meeting. Projected University deficit for AY 2022/23 was $200+ this summer. Units were asked to recast budgets to lower projected deficit for 2022/23. This is the reason for the strategic hiring freeze. Through changes the projected deficit has been reduced to $140, but the challenge is to reduce it to 0 by 2025. Behrend is in a good financial state having complied with requirements set by the central administration. Behrend continues to be strong and is doing well and has excellent credit ratings. Chancellor Ford also showed the Behrend financial dashboard with revenues and expenditures to explain how Behrend runs in a financially responsible manner.
- Constitution Day (September 17)
- Lisa Jo Elliott asks if we want to do something for Constitution Day.
- Pamela Silver explains that the student affairs office generally organizes an event.
- Lisa Jo Elliot invites faculty to contact her if they have ideas.
- First Year Seminar Task Force Recommendations
Lisa Jo Elliot explains we are not going to have a vote today. We only start the discussion. Our Canvas page contains the task force key recommendations. Lisa Jo Elliot shows and reads the file entitled “FYS task force key recommendations”. Each School and Department has a different approach to first-year seminar; this approach is frequently embedded in the disciplines. The recommendations do not ask that faculty submit new first-year seminar courses; they contain directions the task force is sharing with faculty.- Faculty member A: At the University level, it’s been 20 years since we looked at the seminars. More changes might be coming from UP.
- Faculty member B Confirms there will be a discussion at University level.
- Faculty member C: It’s important to create a model instead of sitting back and waiting for changes made by UP.
- The Senator who is on the curricular affair committee (Al Warner) is the person to contact.
- Lisa Jo Elliot will contact Al Warner to collect information on the discussion on the first-year seminar.
- Faculty member D: We need to understand what students need and deliver consistent courses. Students have many questions: What is general education? How do they pick a major? How do they understand if a major is good for them? What is a career fair? Students should be looking at internships starting from their first year. The task force prepared well to produce the report on first-year seminars.
- Lisa Jo Elliot: First-generation students need special guidance. They might feel lost and disoriented. She will speak with Al Warner and ask him to speak at our October meeting.
- Lisa Jo Elliot: Adds that future Senate meetings will be a week after the University Faculty Senate meetings.
- New Business
- Q – Do we know why PSU decided to change health insurance companies?
A – Highmark and Aetna are the only options in Pennsylvania. Our healthcare will not change as a result. Members of the faculty benefits committee learned about this change when all other faculty members were informed. There was no consultation. There is a certain lack of transparency in terms of how these changes occur. It’s important for Behrend employees to go to open enrollment. The benefits calculator is useful to determine the best plan. Experts from Highmark are coming to Behrend Tuesday., Sept. 20. - Lisa Jo Elliot agrees that the benefits calculator is very useful.
- Q – Do we know why PSU decided to change health insurance companies?
- Lisa Jo Elliott moves to adjourn
- Alicyn
- Ed Evans second