April 7, 2020 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

Please note that 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.

Attendees (4/7/20): Curtis Bennett, Christine Whitcraft, John De La Cuesta, Barbara Taylor, Henry Wu, Tangan Gao, Richard Behl, Chris Brazier, Krzysztof Slowinski, Andreas Bill, Lisa Martin, Dessie Underwood, Babette Benken, Margaret Karteron, Maryanne Horton, Chris Frost

Attendees (4/8/20): Curtis Bennett, Christine Whitcraft, Henry Wu, Tangan Gao, Richard Behl, Chris Brazier, Krzysztof Slowinski, Andreas Bill, Lisa Martin, Dessie Underwood, Babette Benken, Margaret Karteron, Maryanne Horton, Barbara Taylor

  1. Approved agenda
  2. Approved minutes with minor corrections
  3. Discussion of Hibernation or Near Hibernation of Research Labs (Chris Frost and John de la Cuesta)
    1. Email sent April 7 to the college, endorsed by Provost, hibernation with no people on campus starting Wednesday evening
    2. Hibernation with minor exceptions, minimizing lab operations (liquid nitrogen, plants, animals)
    3. Faculty need to inform Safety when they have finished hibernation, and then need to report when they are coming to campus for lab monitoring (if approved in hibernation plan) to chairs and in Qualtrics form.
    4. Babette will send an email to graduate students explaining situation.
    5. Goal: Minimizing personnel; how to consolidate people needed
      1. Clear out Qualtrics form with D. Ames, have people fill it out again to see who still needs to come in (as part of the hibernation request)
      2. Staff needs to document all of their hours and cannot be coming onto campus for tasks that are not assigned and approved.
  4. Announcements
    1. ASM
      1. Emergency pay for staff
      2. Met with all administrative staff this morning to discuss the student pay - change is for March we will pay all student if they were scheduled to work even if they did not work. Starting this week, we can only pay the students what they actually work. If they cannot work remotely, their 128 hours CPAL start this week.
      3. How to report April time
        1. Regular - Each student has up to 128 hours from CPAL.
        2. Work study - get paid up to their FWS Award
        3. Learning assistants - Physics need to check, expecting to get 5 hours for week and will be paid only for that
    2. Operations
      1. Commencement program - thanks for getting the updates to Margaret on OneDrive for thesis titles
        1. Still needs Science Ed., Chemistry titles
      2. First commencement award speech - could record these and still find a way to present them
        1. Kris suggested getting student testimonials up on our web site. He will write up something for Curt to present to student council
  5. Dean's report (COVID-19 changes)
    1. Search updates - all of the candidates that we had verbal offers out to have signed contracts. Yay!
    2. Position Requests - The position requests have all been received and are being reviewed.
    3. "Grace" for our students
      1. We have heard anecdotal evidence from peer mentors about how classes are going. We should work to be forgiving of our students this semester. Our students are going through a lot this semester.
      2. Discussed withdrawals. Guidance on WU versus WE will be forthcoming.
        1. Instructors can assign WU grade and the university could assign withdrawal without consequence. But students might need to initiate the petition after the grade is assigned. More information is forthcoming. Central website with all policy changes will be established.
        2. Discussed if we could automate withdrawal conversion from WU to WE
        3. Provide feedback on this document too (sent over email 4/8/20)
      3. Tenured track faculty - Faculty Affairs is working with CFA to come up with a way that will allow probationary faculty to extend their tenure clock if so desired. See official emails.
        1. Concerns discussed include
          1. "early" promotion and tenure
          2. Need to provide consultation with department chair and dean so that probationary faculty are made aware of all the ramifications of the choice.
      4. Everyone needs to be messaging students that we understand the stresses they are facing - not just from Dean but in other ways
      5. Need to also provide support for lecturers, faculty - all college workshops to be hosted
        1. Potential for an all college/instructor meeting with Dean - lecturers and tenure-track faculty alone or together?
          1. Goals - Monday and Wednesday next week, 4-5 pm (Happy hours)
            1. 3 five-minute presentations on topics that are relevant to everyone. Send other ideas to the Dean by Wednesday 4/8 by noon.
              1. Support for students (advisors?)*
              2. Self-care during this time
              3. Managing your email (techs)*
              4. Specifics of assessment
              5. Involve peer mentors for student perspectives*
            2. Breakout rooms afterwards – self-selected (e.g. 10 people rooms)
          2. Ideas
            1. Large meeting, then course breakout rooms - led to support of each other
            2. Potentially have one meeting for lecturers only and a second meeting for all faculty and staff
    4. Individual check-ins
      1. Checking in with faculty
      2. Chair one-on-one meetings are not happening right, but if you are interested in having these, let Curt know. He will also try to reach out.
      3. Also willing to come to department meetings - feel free to reach out to request.
    5. Next meeting - Wed (April 8) 1:30-2:30 pm
    6. Other from Deans' meeting in the morning
      1. Summer - all sessions are now online
      2. Fall 2021 - freshman admissions will not be using SAT or ACT, details: COVID-19 Interim Impacts on CSU Undergraduate Admissions Policies and Practices (PDF)
      3. Horn center - shut down on April 10. The administration is aware that this will have a negative effect on students who need to use the Horn center, but it is a CO directive. Students may be directed to use Lot E2 and work in their cars for WiFi access.
      4. Discussed outlook for hires
        1. Chairs should start prioritizing assigned time and which small classes need to run in case the budget requires belt-tightening
        2. The goal is to make decisions at the departmental and college level rather than have a one-size fits all requirement from the university.
  6. Associate Deans
    1. Research
    2. Academic Programs
      1. Admissions changes discussed
        1. Admission rules for transfer students - F2020 both systems will honor CR/NC grades in all courses in S2020 that are being transferred from Community colleges including major specific courses. CSULB native freshman will be held to the same MSR rules.
        2. Updates on CR/NC rules will be communicated shortly
        3. Freshman intents are higher than 2019 at the same time
      2. SOAR
        1. will be run like a course via Beach Board, details tbd
      3. Academic regulations changes and plans
        1. CR/NC Senate memo was discussed
      4. Academic departments may be able to petition to have their course excluded from this due to accreditation or other similar requirements.
        1. Should not be on the course basis, should be done on major or program
        2. Departments should give strong recommendations on what would be appropriate.
        3. The grade will remain recorded in PeopleSoft - in case students need to go back to the letter grade via petition (the process has not been decided)
      5. Can we do CR/NC for BIOL 496?
      6. Challenges - very quick turnaround
      7. Several changes/suggestions were discussed
      8. Share with faculty (esp. executive committees, curriculum committees and advisors) to get feedback (due by end of the day Friday).
        1. Which course are not appropriate for this sort of option?
        2. Which programs are not appropriate for this sort of grading option?
        3. The process - who should students contact in the first step? Faculty teaching the course, academic advisor, college office, enrollment services directly? Other suggestions?
          1. Suggestion that this not be the faculty
    3. Summer session
      1. All online for the summer; hybrid/face-to-face will not be allowed in any session.
      2. List of sections that you think can be converted (pending discussion with faculty). Have to cancel the sections that cannot be moved online. Inform Kris by Friday 10.
      3. Need a list of technical requirements for students to participate in the class - as soon as possible when you have discussed.
      4. Splitting classes into lab and lecture elements is a potential option. Question will be how do you want to split it. Need this information - two weeks from now.
      5. Potentially if we can slow down the spread, we might have changes to who is allowed on campus but we need to prepare for the possibility that we will have to stay off campus
      6. All effort of converting to online sections - question: will there be compensation for faculty to do the conversion? Under discussion.
      7. How to communicate with students that this is all online? CPIE will move forward to convert all courses this week and will put on the webpage this week.
  7. Graduate Programs - moved to next week (April 14)
  8. Exams discussion (4/8/20)
    1. Faculty are concerned about how administer exams. Ideas:
      1. MC are relatively easy to administer. Lockdown browser might work but has some problems (not allowed in Chrome Book).
      2. Students have to be with camera during the exam.
    2. Need a different framing - students need to material to be able to progress. Have they learned that? Can they progress through the curriculum?
      1. Encourage faculty to develop short study guides and have students work through them.
  9. Lecturer evaluation (4/8/20)
    1. Timeline - Between now and June 1, scan evaluations. If you gave Kris evals in paper format or emails, then you are done. If you are at the point of department-level evaluations are not yet signed, Kris sent instructions. Must send completed evals to lecturer by May 4. Lecturer has until May 18 to respond and then they must be sent to Kris. If they do not respond, you still need to send to Kris by May 18.
    2. When you send anything to the lecturer, they need to be aware of what you have included in the file (e.g. completion rate tables or similar).
    3. Class visits are not obligatory. If you added them at the time, do not add them now.
    4. In lieu of signature, they can send an email back acknowledging receipt and acceptance. Kris should be cc'ed on the email.
    5. If no response, communicating via phone is fine.
  10. Open Discussion

Submitted by Christine Whitcraft (Director, ES&P)

Meeting Minutes were APPROVED on Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Upcoming Dates:

  • Tuesday, May 19 – Commencement, 1pm - Postponed

*Note: This reflects discussion on the date of the CDC meeting about policies, not actual policy. Faculty and staff should wait for official communication on each subject before acting.