October 18, 2022 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

In attendance: Curtis Bennett, Margaret Karteron, Henry Wu, Prashanth Jaikumar, Lijuan Li, Will Murray, Lora Stevens, Jim Kisiel, Jesse Dillon, Babette Benken, Barbara Taylor, Krzysztof Slowinski, Christine Whitcraft. 

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 Oct. 4
  3. Announcements
    1. Operations Update
      1. Scholarships: Reviewing Rubrics for College Scholarships to expand qualifications of merit to be more inclusive and equitable and thus help grow diversity in CNSM. CNSM’s main scholarship season is spring semester.  We are establishing consistency in awarding all funded opportunities.
    2. ASM update
      1. New salary schedule – process faculty 3% raise, which has made minimum $4530.  We are unaware about how this will affect individuals who are below minimum but at different rate.
      2. Many Additional Employment submissions are waiting for Faculty Affairs action.
      3. If faculty/TA/GA want to meet with chairs with their union rep, then chairs need to reschedule the meeting to ensure that someone from Faculty Affairs/Deans Office is there.  Chairs should not answer any questions in front of the union rep without FA/DO representation.
      4. Finishing the departmental budget updates.
      5. Chairs should start submitting SEF items now for FY 22/23.
        1. We are having delays with vehicle purchases.
        2. Dean’s office will contact Purchasing to see what is the best route to get the vehicle delivered.
      6. Chairs/departments should start thinking about what the department will want for SEF for FY 23/24.
    3. Communications Update – None
    4. Dean’s report
      1. Online Teaching Training from ATS
        1. ATS is creating Badges that will let you decide on “more qualified” for Lecturers under careful consideration.  Kris will send out information.
        2. Recommendation for chairs to discuss with executive committees and/or departments to discuss online methodologies.
        3. One more 1-year extension for declaring courses online through curriculog. 
        4. Please remember that FERPing faculty and staff are not allowed to get Additional Employment for trainings (and most things are additional employment).
      2. Servers – move to ITS, faculty research servers will be moved over time.
        1. Newer servers will be last moved.
      3. BEACH 2030 group is discussing “Grand Challenges”
      4. Transparency on resources on program proposals.
      5. Campus Welcome day on April 15th
      6. Spring freshmen starts (starting Sp.24)
      7. EDI/College
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Advising
        1. Descriptions from Math, Physics, and Biology, on advising expectations.  We will merge and send out.
      2. Scheduling
        1. Portal opened on Monday.  We received 50-60 requests for schedule changes.  Please ensure that schedule changes are minimal and only made for necessary reasons.
        2. We will give freshmen registration dates.  However, once students see the schedule, they can put items in shopping carts. 
        3. Discussion regarding methods for setting up schedule before it becomes public.  Sections should be hidden before schedules become public.
        4. We can’t easily argue for changes once the schedule is out.
      3. Curriculum
        1. We need to keep to timelines.
        2. Deadlines include steps that are necessary on the technical side.  (Proposals are reviewed for technical compliance).
    2. Research Programs
      1. QR codes will go on lab rooms soon.  The goal is to be able to defend that our space is needed. 
        1. Let Barbara know if students are having trouble using them. 
        2. Could do other form for lecturer office hours – please send requests to Barbara
      2. Computer theft last weekend (between Thursday and Monday evening).  Please alert David Goulet or Barbara if this happens. 
      3. Please get back to Barbara on the email about problems with research support
    3. Graduate Programs
      1. Get back to Babette on accuracy of graduate program counts; she will send the information from Enrollment Services to chairs and graduate advisors.
  5. Chair’s comments & questions
    1. Service expectations on TT faculty – how do you get faculty to do service when they decline?
      1. We give our faculty 3 WTU for service.  Should we just document this?  Would require standardization.
      2. Dean can give duty and reprimand if faculty doesn’t do it.
      3. Math (anyone else?) requires faculty to stand for election on some committees.  Cannot opt out.
    2. Are we supporting travel -
  6. College Web Issues – Time Certain 10:40 – Danny Ames & David Goulet
    1. Danny supports emails, web, etc.
    2. Drupal upgrade from 7 to 9 (on June 20).  While it looks similar, all the code on the back end was built from scratch.  7 was reaching end of life, and had to be replaced.  Currently aren’t a whole lot of content contributors from college.  Trainings are available for faculty who need to use Drupal (use and accessibility).  Use training typically 2nd Thursday of every month.  Accessibility training is typically 2nd Tuesday of every month.  (https://cws.csulb.edu/training/its/calendar.php). 
      1. Danny will help faculty needing to making updates once they do a draft.
      2. Some functionality in old version was not duplicated in the new version.
      3. Upgrades and still working on functionality.
      4. Some cleanup is still needed because of the upgrade.  Please reach out to Danny if you see any problems on your webpage. 
    3. Faculty Personal Websites
      1. Need to standardize web presence within departments through faculty profile pages.  Content listed on handout.
    4. Faculty Personal Websites:
      1. Trickier to manage.  Can request Personal Web Page & FTP accounts.
      2. Uses FTP to upload web files, so no native built in editor.  Dreamweaver is available on Software Database
        1. Strongly recommend avoiding WIX??  On campus hosting provided for free.
      3. Personal website space has no set template (but less space).
      4. Would like to support personal websites at some point, but not the bandwidth for this.  Trying to create basic profiles.  Need a student assistant.
      5. If faculty want a personal webpage, please direct them to alert Danny, although he is not available for execution/creation.
    5. Student Assistant Accounts
      1. Known as SA-accounts.
      2. Automatically generated for student assistants who receive a paycheck.
      3. Generated automatically by HR.  Typical format is Firstname.Lastname-SA@csulb.edu
      4. Needs to be used when the person is acting as an employee of the university.
        1. Required for FERPA compliance
        2. Helps protect students from records request and litigation
        3. SA accounts gain access to software available for staff and faculty
        4. Can be assigned to employee resources such as shared resources.
        5. Other problem is when someone doesn’t have an assignment from one semester to the next.  But unterminated Student Assistants are not automatically terminated.  We need to terminate them when they graduate.
        6. BeachBoard accounts/Canvas accounts – When SA issues come up, please email David Goulet and can bypass personal systems.
        7. Research Assistants who are students should be appointed as student assistant on state-side.  We cannot have Foundation side employees on state-side issues, but do not submit vouchers/time-sheets.  Presence known to HR. – note that non-student foundation employees who need to drive should be appointed as volunteers.
        8. Recommend that student assistants open a browser in incognito mode or other mode so they can get into their SA account.
    6. Regular Web Content Review
      1. We need to keep info on websites fresh and relevant.
      2. Highest impact pages that need to be updated regularly:
        1. Department Directory
        2. Jobs
        3. Advising pages
        4. Scholarships
        5. Student clubs
      3. We would like to come up with a method for reminders for departments to update, please think about suggestions and send emails to Danny.

Upcoming Dates:

Oct. TBA: Lecturer evaluation meetings with AD Slowinski
Oct. 31:  Dept. (and chair) RTP evaluations for reappointment and tenure & promotion due to interfolio
Nov. 4: Mini-Grant Summer Stipend (MGSS) applications due in InfoReady
Nov. 14: RSCA/Faculty Small Grant applications due in InfoReady
Nov. 14: Dept. (and chair) RTP evaluations for promotion due to interfolio
Nov. 21-23: No classes – Campus Open
Nov. 24-25: Thanksgiving Break
Dec. 9: End of semester party
Dec. 12-17: Final Exams
Dec. 12(?): Chairs Dinner
Dec. 23: Last day of the semester

Meeting Minutes were APPROVED on Tuesday, November 11, 2022

*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.