December 17, 2024 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

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

  1. Approve agenda (10:05am) - Approved
  2. Approve minutes from December 3 and November 5
    1. December 3: Approved as amended
    2. November 5: Approved as amended
  3. Announcements
    1. Operations
      1. RTP
      2. Our constitution has been ratified by faculty (over half voted)
      3. Next step is advancing policy through to Provost office for final approval
      4. Department policies need to be approved by College Council by beginning of May in order to have the policy effective by Fall
        1. Last meeting is last week of the semester
      5. Awards
        1. Annual President's Award for Outstanding Faculty call out soon
          1. We should get more applications than we did last year (only 3)
          2. Encourage tenured faculty to apply
        2. $500 grants available for use on 75th anniversary celebration activities
          1. Apply through the end of February 2025
          2. Sponsored by LBSFCU
        3. Commencement awards need to be in progress from beginning of Spring semester
          1. Departmental Awards
          2. Graduate Dean's List
          3. D. Green Outstanding Graduate Student
    2. Communications
      1. No updates
    3. Development
      1. Congrats to Math/Stat on planned gift for the Melvin D. Lax Endowed Fellowship in Mathematics
      2. Considering setting up lunches with dean/development/chairs to go over donor strategies
      3. If you get checks between 12/20-1/2 take them to the Foundation window in Brotman/Brotman 397
        1. Donors should mail checks to address on website
    4. Dean
      1. Personnel over break
        1. December 23 – we're ok with people telecommuting, but we need to have people available by Teams
        2. All advising centers will be online
      2. USU
        1. April: stairs and Coffee Bean will be shut down for construction (for Fall opening)
          1. No alternative/accessible route available yet
        2. Document with planned USU updates available on Sharepoint
        3. We don't know how this will affect SOAR in the Fall
        4. The Pointe will be available and cost what the USU costs
        5. Food will be difficult - Outpost will still be available
      3. Youth activities
        1. CSULB got audited on youth activities and there’s going to be some slight changes – probably won’t affect us much
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academics
      1. Interfolio will be blocked after deadline for lecturer evaluations - lecturers have been notified
      2. Remind lecturers to send documents to Interfolio - 2/10 is due date - Interfolio is on East Coast time
      3. Margaret Karteron has access to see who has submitted files
      4. Need to figure out how to monitor compliance going forward  
    2. Research
      1. Electrical shutdown all went smoothly
    3. Graduate Programs
      1. No updates
  5. Fall 2025 scheduling - Time Certain 11:00am (SCED and ERTH don't need to be here) - please have schedulers attend.
    1. Reducing Freshmen and Transfer enrollments by 500
    2. Need to have new schedule building processes
    3. Previously de-centralized
    4. We will provide enrollment targets for Fall and Spring and will have key courses spreadsheet with enrollments by college and cohort
    5. We won't be reserving seats in particular courses - seats will be opened as scheduled
    6. Use reserve capacity to manage and equalize enrollments
    7. Sections will be added as needed
    8. Professor names could be removed from schedule for lower-division classes
    9. Will re-assess this system in May - last touch point will be early June after Spring semester grades are in
  6. Adjournment - 12:00pm

Upcoming Dates

  • Continuing: (started Monday 11/18/24) Open Period begins for Periodic Mini Reviews and ETF (through Monday December 9)
  • December 12-18, 2024: (Thursday-Wednesday) Final Exams
  • December 24, 2024: (Tuesday) Last Day of Fall 2024 Semester
  • December 25, 2024 - January 1, 2025: (Wednesday-Wednesday) Winter Break
  • January 2, 2025: (Thursday) Winter Session Begins
  • January 7, 2025: (Tuesday EOD) deadline for CNSM departments to complete phase 2 schedule building for Fall 2025 
  • January 14 or 15, 2025: Chairs retreat
  • January 17, 2025: (Friday) Winter Session Ends
  • January 20, 2025: (Monday) Martin Luther King Holiday - Campus Closed
  • January 21, 2025: (Tuesday) First day of Spring Semester - First day of classes
  • January 27, 2025: Phase 3 Fall 2025 online schedule building begins for all departments
  • February 10, 2025: Lecturer files are due in Interfolio
  • February 21, 2025: Phase 3 Fall 2025 online schedule building ends for all departments and colleges
  • March 10, 2025: Fall 2025 Class schedule 'live' via MyCSULB and Enrollment Services website
  • March 10, 2025: Deadline for Department Committe's or Chair's evaluation of lecturers
  • March 21, 2025: Deadline for candidate's response/rebuttal to Department

Meeting minutes were APPROVED Tuesday, February 4, 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.