November 12, 2019 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

Attendees: Behl, Benken, Bennett, Bill, Brazier, Gao, Henriques, Karteron, Slowinski, Taylor, Whitcraft, Wu

  1. Approve agenda (10:00)
  2. Approve minutes
  3. Announcements
    1. Operations updates
      1. Sabbaticals – Chairs need to explain the impact in the Department Chairs Impact Statement, not just say how many could be afforded.
      2. Open House room requests are in for 25 April, 2020
    2. ASM update
      1. Commuter Survey;
        1. Email was sent. Everyone needs to complete this. TA, GA, SA should click "Employee AQMD", not "student". Need to get to 90% respond rate.
      2. Procurement
        1. P-Card users can set up Amazon business account. Must use csulb.edu email address.
        2. Faculty should forward any requests for chart field or other account data to Henry.
      3. Faculty who are invited to speak at other CSUs and are offered honorariums should realize that they are required to be paid through their home campus as additional employment.
    3. Academic Senate Report
      1. Slow progress on GR policy
      2. GR's (Global issues, Human diversity) will be likely upper division only.  
      3. Discussed GEAR submission of Area B courses, meeting GELO's, etc.
    4. Rick O'Connor (FLC) is on the planning committee for City of STEM. Might attract 1k people. Nov 4 kick-off day. Who will be CNSM point person?
  4. Dean's report
    1. Discussed next Fellows colloquium speakers. Physics and Science Ed haven't presented since Curt arrived.
    2. Discussed ways of creating community in the College. Gathering ideas.
  5. Associate Deans (minimal reports)
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Update on advising and tutoring
        1. Advising
          1. AAC: 1,160 (appointments) + 534 (mandatory freshman)
          2. Faculty: 1,005 (BIOL, CHEM, MATH; PHYS and GEOL not in the system yet, all appointments)
        2. Tutoring:
          1. LINDGREN (BOTH ROOMS): 1,120; SAS: 1,892
          2. PHYSICS: registration not functioning
        3. Discussed how mandatory freshman advising spreadsheet, with information on preparation, career goals, etc. can be helpful for advising
      2. Discussed Belonging PERTS Survey
      3. Winter Transfer SOAR and Advising
        1. Enrollment Deposit by Sunday, December 1, 2019 (transfer advising starts)
        2. SOAR: Jan 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14 (no college-specific dates)
      4. Discussed advising self-study
        1. Will do a pilot analysis that will be attached to Departmental self-studies.
      5. CNSM EAB training for Department Chairs –  ½-day workshop. Dec 17
      6. S'20 placement and CNSM welcome event for freshman
        1. Spring 2020 welcome event for freshmen in STEM – late Feb or Early March. Saturday Open House. Connected to online site that has math and chemistry placement. Talk with faculty who are interested in developing presentation or material to offer to present the programs. 3500 given offers, so maybe 300 would attend.
      7. Map how growth mindset is present in the college. Growing body of research on the impact of faculty GM attitudes on student attitudes and success. Discussed having growth mindset and implicit bias workshops for faculty vs. making short presentations in each department meeting.
    2. Research
      1. Remind faculty of ORSP- open-access funding support. Everyone who applied between 7/1 and 10/31 was funded.
    3. Graduate Studies
  6. Computer Research Lab(s)
    1. Discussion of CNSM's computational resource needs for teaching and research. there seems to be a need for more computer labs in which students can work (graduate students and undergraduate students for coursework and research. Could CNSM be more efficient in sharing computer facilities more generally in the college? Would shared space for computer-based research be effective and efficient? How important is a department specific shared research space with computers? To answer these questions and further the discussion, Chairs have been asked to gather information about computer needs (includes: computer rooms and scheduling, stations, servers with respect to classes, homework, research). Data due to Dean Dec 1. Rick, Andreas, Tangan, and Dessie are to create a spreadsheet to be shared with Chairs to collect data from all departments. Spreadsheet due Nov 15. Dean will strike a Computing Task Force to review data and propose ways to meet our collective demands for computing resources.
  7. SATO Academy – do we want to try and do something as a college? Not discussed
  8. Active Shooter Response Training – do we want to sponsor one here? Not discussed
  9. Staff training (Assistants and training) Not discussed
  10. Adjourn

Meeting Minutes were APPROVED on Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Upcoming Dates

  • Wednesday, November 13 - Sabbatical Leave Applications Due
  • Thursday, November 14 - Fellows' Colloquium
  • Friday, November 15 - Deadline for Department Chair to submit Impact Statement
  • Tuesday, November 19 - Graduate Research Conference 4-7 PM
  • Monday, December 9 - Deadline for College Professional Leave Committee to make recommendations on Sabbatical Leaves
  • Tuesday, December 10 - CNSM Holiday party 2-4 pm
  • Monday, December 16 - Deadline for Deans to submit recommendations on Sabbatical Leaves
  • Monday, March 2 - Final Decisions on Sabbatical Leaves
  • Saturday, April 25 - CNSM Open House