April 21, 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 (4/21/20): Curtis Bennett, Barbara Taylor, Tangan Gao, Chris Brazier, Henry Wu, Andreas Bill, Babette Benken, Christine Whitcraft, Dessie Underwood, Lisa Martin, Margaret Karteron, Maryanne Horton, Rick Behl, Kris Slowinski

  1. Approved agenda
  2. Approve minutes
    1. April 7 minutes, approved as amended
    2. April 14 minutes, approved as amended
  3. Announcements
    1. CNSM – Operations
      1. Department recognition of graduates. University is considering having multiple physical commencement ceremonies over Thanksgiving in the Pyramid if large groups allowed at that time. Also thinking about a virtual “celebration” this June that would be somewhat professionally done. Our Department recognition could either be at the same day as the CSULB June event, or separate and earlier in May.  But, the university is very supportive of Departments or Colleges having their own ceremonies. Departments should coordinate with each other and with CNSM IT staff so organization and support is easier. We will have a digital program that Margaret and Departments can review and modify for our future use.  Zoom meetings work up to 500, but you need special webinar status requested from ITS for larger. We will investigate possibility of return/refund of purchased regalia, but this is likely out of our hands.
    2. ASM
      1. All CNSM staff are on telecommute assignment, but Henry is missing ½ of them.  Need to have them all submitted, then they are being extended to May 22. 
      2. Everyone coming on campus even for a short visit need to fill out the health status form on SSO before coming in that morning.  CNSM Qualtrix form now only needs to be filled out by people who are coming in repeatedly.
    3. Academic Senate
      1. Nothing beyond the approval of COVID-related CR/NC, withdrawal policy, etc.
    4. Dean’s Report
      1. Last Tuesday (4/14), one of the Swinerton workers’ wife tested positive for COVID-19; he later tested positive himself. Anyone there that day or a few days before or after should be notified. We would know who was in from the SSO health Status form that must be filled out before coming in any time.  The dean will send a message to all CNSM faculty and staff.
      2. SPOT Evals – student notification delayed due to change in server and email protocols. Trying to get fixed, but SPOT submission for classes has not begun as planned. (Note: that SPOT evals cannot be used for RTP or review except by the professor’s choice). ATS reported this fixed at the end of the CDC meeting.
      3. Budget. May revise will be flat, but Admin expects at ~10% cut in August. This is just a guess and it is reasonable to expect worse in 2021-2022. But, the situation is unique and cannot be predicted. Academic Affairs will try to prevent faculty furloughs.  Be very careful about approving any state-side travel (including matching). 
      4. It is prudent to assume that we may need to start Fall 2020 fully online.   The Dean is predicting that face-to-face classes will be restricted in size.
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Admissions healthy – freshmen and transfers
      2. SOAR
        1. Freshman SOAR (see documents from Kris Slowinski – read and advise)
          1. All online, need to make friendly and convincing that online can work for classes.
          2. Need help preparing modules, office hours with Dept Chairs or Dept advisors or faculty to encourage students and make connections. Need to let Kris know if we will do this by Friday, April 24 and complete by May 8. Also, could have Zoom 1-minute welcome from Department Chairs or reach out to students outside of this process.
          3. On SOAR day, only advising and registration.
        2. Transfer SOAR
          1. Need to digitize presentations typically given to transfer students (about course plans and Fall registration) or could do a freeform Zoom discussion/interaction with them.
          2. CNSM 150 students on each of 2 main days + many other days with smaller numbers. Day that student registration holds are released. They should have been advised by faculty advisor prior to that.
      3. Summer session
        1. Good enrollment
        2. Are any special resources required to teach online? Will students need anything beyond typical internet access and computer/tablet.
        3. Instructors assigned must be comfortable and capable of teaching online. Chairs should check if you hear or know something. Deans will let us know if they hear about problems.
        4. NSCI-190A-
          1. Fully online with synchronous and asynchronous components.
          2. Looking for faculty to participate, serve on panels and help with development of a single module – for a stipend, possibly $500.
          3. Have all new students enrolled to provide a scaffold for success.
    2. Research
    3. Graduate Programs
      1. Mentoring Policy
  5. Planning F2020 - Summer FLCs
    1. Faculty Interest/Prioritization? Provost is considering using CARES funds to pay faculty $1000 each to work on Fall classes over the summer. Decision by May 1 about what school will do.  Dessie raised question of role of Lecturers and TA’s. Will discuss by email or at later
    2. Faculty Leaders?
    3. Types?
      1. O: Turning a class into an online class (as per national standards for online).
      2. L:  Doing a remote lab consistent with national standards.
      3. N: Remote teaching for novices.
      4. R: Reflecting on remote teaching and how to do it better.
      5. C: Course based FLCs.
  6. Planning F2020 – Budget Cut Planning
    1. Might get a up to 15% cut in assigned time (impact on S-factor, coordinators, RSCA, etc.)
    2. Expectations (see https://www.chronicle.com/article/major-cost-cutting-begins-in/248558)
    3. Preparations (I hope we won’t need, but let’s be prepared). Dessie - Chronicle recommends that large classes be reduced in size, but we can’t afford that.
      1. Department chairs are asked to:
        1. Prioritize assigned time (with 15% cut in mind, but what if it were 25% or 50%)
        2. Prioritize small classes.
        3. Prioritize SA positions
        4. Think about what multi-sections might be able to be combined in a way that would save money
        5. Look for other ways to save money on instruction.
      2. If cuts must be made, and we can save money in a better way, the dean will fight for the better way.
  7. Meeting Adjourned.

Submitted by Richard Behl (Chair, Geological Sciences)

Meeting Minutes were APPROVED on Tuesday, April 28, 2020

*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.