January 26, 2021 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

In attendance: Curtis Bennett, Barbara Taylor, Margaret Karteron, Chris Brazier, Andreas Bill, Babette Benken, Christine Whitcraft, Lisa Martin, Dessie Underwood, Rick Behl, Kris Slowinski, Will Murray, Henry Wu, Allie Puz.

NOTE: 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.

  1. Approve agenda (10:00)
  2. Approve minutes from Jan. 12
  3. Announcements
    1. ASM
      1. CARES Money Update
        1. May 15th Deadline means we can only have payroll up to April 30th and all students can only work up to March 31st  Under CARES Act funding:
          1. Departments must send a real spending projection through end of the fiscal year to Henry by Friday, February 5th, 2021.
            1. Most important will be all student spending (student assistant and ISA).
            2. Spend as much as we can up front; including equipment, classroom, and teaching, etc.
          2. All spending projections must be sent to Henry in dollar amounts.
          3. If you need to buy or refresh any computers, do it now.
        2. Consider digital recordings costs.
    2. Operations Update
      1. Scholarships are now open.
        1. The application period is until March 5th, 2021.
        2. Collegewide email with a flier and links will go out.
      2. Spring 2021 Commencement
        1. Scheduled for May 18th – 21st
        2. Will include 2020 & 2021
        3. Hybrid, drive-thru, jumbotron ceremony.
        4. Waiting on more details.
    3. Dean’s report
      1. F2F courses and Teaching from offices delayed until at least 3/1/2021
        1. Face to Face classes and teaching from offices is delayed until at least March 1st, 2021.
        2. There will be  building occupancy limits regarding how many people can teach from offices.
      2. Multi-Factored Authentication
        1. ITS wants a unified announcement for MFA, so please be careful in your messaging.
      3. Picture a Scientist Announcement
        1. Tentatively planning a screening date with discussions on March 5th, 2021.
      4. Tutor/TA Training
        1. We want to have some unified trainings for our Tutors.  We hope to roll out the SAS center training to other tutors in the college.
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Incoming Freshmen and SOAR
        1. The dates are TBA
        2. Slight changes in placement mechanisms due to elimination of SAT.
          1. Using MATH GPA to place students into 113 and GE courses.
          2. Projecting icreased number of students who must take Early Start
      2. College Showcase
        1. Format TBA; leaning toward having a cycle of webinars over 5 or 6 days.
      3. Lecturer Materials
        1. Deadline to submit materials to InterFolio is February 8th, 2021. This deadline cannot be extended.
        2. Notify lecturers to make sure the deadline is met.
        3. Lecturers hired in Spring 2021 do not need an evaluation but a short evaluation is recommended.
  5. Fall 2021 Semester Classes (Vanessa Hernandez; Time Certain: 10:30)
    1. We are planning to be back to 50+% population density for on-campus courses in Fall 2021. We believe the university will need to abide by the county public health department’s tiered system for higher education ( https://files.covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-higher-education--en.pdf)
    2. Departments are asked to send information/input on the “Priorities” and “Process” sections below to Kris.
      1. Ranked list of sections that should be face-to-face; from highest priority to lowest priority by 5 p.m. January 27, 2021.
      2. Labs that can be hybrid.
      3. If campus is in Tier 1 or Tier 2 (the orange and yellow tiers from the state COVID response), we assume that we will not be able to teach large lectures in person.
    3. Priorities
      1. Students in research labs enrolled in 496/697/698
      2. “Wet” science labs
      3. Seminar/problem solving sessions
      4. Small lectures
      5. Medium lectures
      6. Large lectures
    4. Process
      1. Which classes/sections can be moved to online format (worked well in Fall 2020)?
      2. If class is face-to-face, how do we accommodate students who are required to quarantine?
      3. Priorities for Laboratories
        1. Once per week (281 sections)
        2. Twice per week (71 sections)
      4. Identify large lectures (move online vs. open additional sections)
      5. Identify key medium size lectures (move online vs. use vacated large-lecture space)
      6. Identify small lectures/ACT/SEM (limited by the number of available rooms).
  6. 7) changes to schedule building deadlines will be needed SEF Money and MRI Grants – We need a process for when something is approved for SEF funding and something similar gets funded through an MRI grant (one such case this year).  The process will be to bring such situations to the CDC with the knowledge that MRI grants are typically aimed at research, while equipment purchased through SEF money is ideally to be used for training students.
    1. MRI Grant for Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was successful.
      1. Aimed at research.
    2. The SEF AFM Instrument
      1. Would be used for training undergraduate students.
      2. Easier to use; more student friendly.
      3. Rich data analysis capability.
    3. The consensus was that we would continue with the purchase of the AFM as in our SEF proposal last year.
      1. Biology did note a need for a new truck to pull the boats.
  7. College Priority List for Searches: (Margaret Merryfield; Time Certain: 11:40)
    1. Diversity Issues – there will be continued emphasis on the likelihood of having a diverse pool when decisions are made on which positions to fill.
      1. Breadth of Search
        1. Narrow searches make it harder to attract diverse candidates for two reasons: (1) typically underrepresented candidates are more likely to opt out of a search if they feel they don’t satisfy all of the desired qualifications. (2) Having a restricted set of fields means that if there doesn’t happen to be an under-represented candidate in that field in that year, then you won’t be able to attract anyone.
      2. Wording
        1. Word your position in a way that is inclusive of up-and-coming scientists and mathematicians.
      3. Joint hires?
        1. It was suggested that one way to potentially get a new position for the college would be if Science Ed or Math Ed could arrange for a joint hire with one of the Ethnic Studies departments. .
      4. If you have a position that can relate to racial justice/economic justice, it is recommended that you include these aspects in your requests.
  8. New business
    1. Babette will send finished Spring stipend solicitation for faculty with graduate students who have been delayed in graduation due to COVID-19 (specifically didn’t have access to lab, materials, etc.).
      1. Easy application for faculty member to explain the student(s) situation.

Upcoming Dates:

January19 – March 5: Scholarship Applications will be Open
February 1: Applications due for Student Research Competition
February 5: Dr. Nicole Joseph Workshop
March 11: GRF/D Gereen Applications due to CNSM
March 19: 9:00 am-1:00 pm ORSP Virtual Student Research Competition
April 5-9: CSULB Week of RSCA
April 5: Nobel Prize Lecture

Meeting Minutes were APPROVED on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

*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.