Behrend Faculty Council Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, April 12, 2022
8:00 a.m. via Zoom

  1. Call to Order – Edward Evans, Faculty Council & Senate Chair @ 8:01a.m.
  2. Approval of minutes, with name correction, from prior Faculty Council Meeting on March 2, 2022.
    1. Matt Swinarski and Carol Putman.
  3. Welcome and comments from the Chair, Ed Evans
    1. The First Year Seminar task force has recommended that we offer a consistent delivery; this would be starting Fall 2023. The School of Business model would be incorporated into all FYS, and we are looking for a big list of resources (e.g., list of speakers about Equity). The model will incorporate Tech Academy, Brave and Bold dialog (DEI), and such. School working groups can create discipline content. The task force is meeting the week after finals to work on this. We are going to present this update to Faculty Senate at next week’s meeting.
      1. C: Pam Silver has three years of task force notes and documentation to share.
      2. Q: Is there success data on the FYS?
        A: We have some data but have not gone through all of the files.
      3. C: An advisee complaint regarding their...
  4. Report from the representative to University Senate, Matt Swinarski
    1. There is a working group to help Ukrainian scholars. Ralph Ford advised that Behrend can host a scholar; we are on a list but have not heard back.
    2. There are two legislative reports: Clarifying language for deferred grades and rescinding proctoring exams Policy 44-40. They are both coming up for vote.
    3. Advisory report on guiding principles for designing the health care plan.
    4. There are Informational reports from Faculty Affairs on tenure flow and a Covid tenure report. Other Informational reports are NTT promotion flow report, Sustainability report, Research report from Commonwealth Campuses, and UP Research facility utilization report. All these reports will be presented at the upcoming meeting on April 26.
    5. See the full Senate Council Report from April 12, 2022.
    6. There is a full list of Committee work going on, and that will be sent to Ed Evans for distribution.
    7. C: Carol Putman, Athletics Committee, announced it is the 25th anniversary of the Conference, and on Tuesday, April 26, 1:00 p.m. at the home baseball game, there will be cake to celebrate.
  5. Report from the Chancellor, Ralph Ford
    1. Thank you to everyone for a very successful visit with President-Elect Dr. Bendapudi.
    2. We just had a successful Admissions open house. We are working on yields. First-year residential numbers are up year over year, and we are showing some recovery.
    3. Federal House/Susan Hirt Hagan CORE Center open house will be on April 27.
    4. Commencement will be in-person on Friday, May 6. Our speaker is Dr. Ala Stanford, a CNN Hero’s finalist, 80s Behrend student, and Hershey Medical graduate.
    5. Thank you to all Council members; it has been a successful year. Thank you to Ed Evans for all your work this past year, and I look forward to working with Lisa Jo Elliott as the incoming chair.
    6. C: The final Faculty Senate meeting is Wednesday next week.
  6. Report from the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Pam Silver
    1. Academic Honors and Awards was on Sunday. McGarvey Commons was nicely full.
    2. Sigma Xi is on April 23, and Fasenmyer is on April 30.
    3. Watch the Registrar page and LionPATH for online forms to replace paper forms. New forms are rolling out often. Paper forms can still be used, but the online process may be much easier and more efficient.
    4. A new pass/fail policy is coming very soon.
    5. There are changes to Convocation Day. This is the college opening ceremony and activity day. Encourage all faculty to come to this. New students need to see our faculty engaged. It is Saturday for only about an hour.
    6. NSO is starting. Faculty advisers are a big part of that experience, we need to support our advising team, and I encourage you all to help out if asked.
    7. The PASSS program will be a little different this year. A slightly smaller cohort, but it is growing fast. This summer, the PASSS students will be in class with a trained faculty member, but we will also admit other ‘regular’ students in the class this year.
    8. C: NSO training also helps you as an adviser.
  7. Closing remarks from the Chair, Ed Evans
    1. From A. Rhoades/Research Office: Faculty Seed grants are due by April 15.
    2. Committee minutes and reports – Please get them in by next week, especially if you have suggested charges for committees. Send these to Ed Evans, Lisa Jo (LJ) Elliott, and Lisa Nelson.
    3. C: Ralph Ford commended Emily Cassano and her crew for their work on the musical Chicago because it was phenomenal.
  8. Motion to adjourn @ 8:42 a.m.
    1. Matt Swinarski and LJ Elliott.