September 17, 2024 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

In attendance: Curtis Bennett, Krzysztof Slowinski, Kelly Young, Jesse Dillon, Lijuan Li (via Zoom), Lora Stevens, Will Murray, Prashanth Jaikumar, Jim Kisiel, Christine Whitcraft, Babette Benken, Jeanine Pociask, Christina Hall, Margaret Karteron, Lindsay Aymar, Tatiana Avila

  1. Approve agenda (10:00am) - Approved
  2. Approve minutes from September 3 - Approved as amended
  3. Announcements
    1. ASM
      1. Prioritize filling personnel vacancies
      2. Budget concerns could begin as soon as next semester, so everything should be in by January  
    2. Operations
      1. Scholarship reception Friday, 9/20
        1. Approx. 100-125 people attending - students and faculty/several donors
        2. Everyone should encourage faculty to go
        3. 23 recipients will have posters displayed 
        4. Will not read names, but will have certificates for each recipient 
        5. Chairs will be given a list of names of their students
        6. Departments will stand for acknowledgment
      2. RSCA Report
        1. Margaret Karteron will send chairs the list of who has RSCA and what semester
      3. We need a tenured full professor to take 6th place on RTP Committee
        1. College council will meet 9/27
    3. Communications
      1. 75th anniversary kick-off booth
    4. Development
      1. Catharine is back as of 9/17/24
      2. Any development-related requests should go through Christina
    5. Dean
      1. Workplace Violence Plan
        1. By law we have to have one - our plan follows Cal OSHA
        2. New rules from state of CA regarding protocol when employee feels threatened
      2. Information Security issues
        1. 2 CSUs have had security infiltrations, so we need to be aware of security concerns
          1. If you're using any 3rd party software, go through ITS (that's the biggest weak point in security)
        2. The beginning of the semester is most vulnerable, but infiltration can happen at any time
      3. AB656 Doctoral Programs
        1. Bill says CSUs may offer doctoral programs not offered by UCs
          1. This year there will be a process for us to request from the Chancellor's office
        2. Focus will be on professional program
        3. UC Chancellor could say no - at which point program is cut
      4. Discussions happening on on-campus voter registration and post-election planning
      5. Space is currently very tight
        1. Looking into more office sharing between temporary lecturers, but that could be an issue
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Advising and tutoring
        1. Handout of annual report of advising appointments (roughly 7k during calendar year) 
        2. 90% of CNSM majors and pre-majors are advised annually by the college 
      2. Spring 25 scheduling, challenges due to a large incoming first-time first-year class were discussed
    2. Research
      1. Please encourage faculty to attend Student Research Symposium Friday 9/20
      2. Kelly Young will send out memo to departments about internal funding deadlines + schedule on who is eligible for what grant-wise
      3. ORED/ORSP is hosting opening Research Writing Time in one of their conference rooms Mondays and Fridays 1:00pm-5:00pm
        1. Nora is busy so route early - let faculty know they should be contacting chairs and Nora ASAP if they're going to submit
      4. CNSM Research Snapshots page is live
        1. Featuring 1 CNSM researcher + their students/month
    3. Graduate Programs
      1. ORED put out a call for student awards at undergraduate and graduate level (deadline is October 7 at 5:00pm)
      2. We haven't had a lot of students put in for those, so faculty should encourage them 
        1. Cannot be students who have graduated (must be current students)
  5. Budget Planning
    1. Information from dean's retreat
      1. 11 mil structural deficit this year, will be worse next year
      2. 2% budget cut to base there will also be an additional 1.8% cut to base (each college)
      3. Faculty affairs has not updated contracts for GSI - as of 9/17/24
      4. Faculty RS might be included in the cuts next year
      5. Spend your CE money this year
      6. Anticipate carry-over for next year will be less 
      7. They might sweep our carry forward – then we need to access RS funds 
      8. May need to plan for a 5-8% cut to base without a plan for FTES
      9. Anticipating a cut in ISA from this year to next year
      10. Need to think about large class sizes (more for next year than this year) 
      11. We need to start reporting excess enrollment 
      12. Jeanine Pociask will share with coordinators how to report codes and what codes to report 
      13. Down the line Summer may move stateside
  6. Adjournment - 11:53am

Meeting minutes were APPROVED Tuesday, October 1, 2024.

Note: The minutes above reflect 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.