Meeting of the CCAS Faculty Senate
Approved Minutes
February 25, 2025
The meeting was called to order at approximately 12:45 p.m., with CCAS Faculty Senate Vice President Rafey Habib presiding. There are 33 Senators, including 3 officers and 0 senators-at-large. Of the 33 voting members, 29 were present. A quorum was met.
I. A motion to approve the minutes of October 29, 2024, was made. The motion to approve the minutes was approved.
Voting record: 29 ayes, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions.
II. Discussion of APC courses and programs – APC chair
a. APC Chair, Alex Roche, announced that a week is given after Senate meetings to allow Senators time to review courses/programs, formulate any comments, and email him for follow up. If no comments are received, it is understood there are no issues with the courses and APC will move forward with the approval process.
There were no questions or comments during the meeting regarding the following APC courses:
|
Courses presented for discussion and recommendation by APC to Faculty Senate |
||||
|
Department |
Course # |
Course Title |
Credit Value |
New/ Revision |
|
Childhood Studies |
50:163:200 |
Careers in Childhood Studies |
3 |
NEW |
|
Childhood Studies |
50:163:230 |
Child Protection in Emergencies |
3 |
NEW |
|
English and Communication |
50:192:300 |
Communicating Social Justice |
3 |
NEW |
|
English and Communication |
50:989:320 |
Writing for the Public |
3 |
NEW |
|
Health Sciences |
50:499:350 |
Community Health |
3 |
NEW |
|
Health Sciences |
50:499:360 |
Social Relationships and Health |
3 |
NEW |
|
History |
50:512:304 |
America’s Birthdays: The History of Celebration and Memory |
3 |
NEW |
|
History |
50:512:341 |
Activism & Protest in US History |
3 |
NEW |
|
History |
50:512:369 |
History of Sex & Sexuality |
3 |
NEW |
|
Philosophy and Religion |
50:730:232 |
Philosophy of Death |
3 |
NEW |
|
Physics |
50:750:199 |
Professional Development for Physicists and Engineers |
1 |
NEW |
|
Visual, Media, & Performing Arts |
50:080:281 |
Studio Lighting for Photography |
3 |
NEW |
|
Visual, Media, & Performing Arts |
50:080:323 |
Photo Production |
3 |
NEW |
|
Visual, Media, & Performing Arts |
50:080:462 |
Photography Capstone II |
3 |
NEW |
|
Visual, Media, & Performing Arts |
50:203:125 |
Introduction to Tap |
1 |
NEW |
|
Visual, Media, & Performing Arts |
50:203:225 |
Tap I |
3 |
NEW |
|
Visual, Media, & Performing Arts |
50:203:325 |
Tap II |
3 |
NEW |
|
Programs presented for discussion and recommendation by APC Committee to Faculty Senate |
||||
|
Department |
Minor |
Date when program will begin |
||
|
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
||
III. Senate Business
a. Updates by Dean Griffin:
i. Online courses – An ad hoc committee was put together last fall at the request of the CCAS Faculty Senate, to look at online teaching. The result of the few meetings of that group is that it’s hard to come up with a policy that fits everything being done across Arts & Sciences, both at the undergrad and graduate level. We have some very successful fully online undergraduate programs in Economics and Liberal Studies, as well as successful programs at graduate level, and individual courses. A common point of these successful programs is that they are student-centric; they benefit the student and are not just because someone doesn’t want to come to campus. When it comes to creating a policy for online teaching, what makes most sense is including a conversation that departments and programs will have during program review as to how online teaching is being used in curriculum and coming up with something that can be included in the program review that says why a course or program is taught online.
ii. Program review – Official program review was started this year. The two departments currently going through the process are Economics and Psychology. You may have heard from your chairs, via Associate Dean Schiavo, that program review goes along with a new process for assessment, as the whole university eases towards reaccreditation in 2027. Every department and program will go through the review process every five years. Department chairs will receive a list of when to expect to undergo the process. An external review team (of three faculty members from other universities) will write an independent external review report, upon completion of self-studies and spending a day and a half on campus meeting with departments/other constituencies/students. Departments will get a chance to respond to the external reviewer’s report and a discussion will take place regarding next steps.
iii. Faculty handbook – A statement was brought to Dean Griffin’s attention that is mentioned in the faculty handbook, and repeated in the part time Lecturer handbook, that says if any instructor misses a class for any reason, they must pay for what it costs to be replaced for that class. Dean Griffin advised that he is not aware of, nor has he heard where there is a practice of this, and he has never confirmed this practice. We have become accustomed to our culture as a community of covering each other if going away or covering our courses to make sure there is work for students to do. The statement will be removed from both handbooks. While reviewing the handbooks, it was discovered they have not been updated since before Dean Griffin’s arrival, and there were many administrative things that could also be removed. For example, instead of listing who the dean and associate deans are, a link was added to refer to the FASC website. This is a good opportunity to have the Senate review the handbooks, like was done for the bylaws. If there are any comments or suggestions for additions, they can be forwarded to Dean Griffin. After the Senate’s March meeting, the handbooks will be shared with the full faculty well in advance of the April full faculty meeting to take a vote on the changes.
iv. EAB and its resources – The Education Advisory Board produced the NAVIGATE system. They have a robust advising system, that is used by some of the colleges across Rutgers (but not by Camden), as well as a dean’s advisory service that a group of deans across Rutgers have now subscribed to. The President started this pilot to see if some of us could take advantage of a huge wealth of knowledge from the group. An initiative may come over the summer from Associate Dean Schiavo and the advisors, to better describe our coursework and the way to get a degree. Dean Griffin has talked to the EAB group about putting together a proposal to work with Naomi Marmorstein and the Provost Office, along with Associate Dean Ramaswami in putting some workshops together about how to do assessment in the world of AI, because AI is not going away. If there are any topics the Senate would like to hear more about, please let Dean Griffin know.
IV. Announcements
a. The AAUP will have a strategy session on Monday, March 3rd at 12pm. The session will be about the new Administration’s assault on DEI and how it’s going to affect our campus, students, faculty, staff, etc. Registration is required, if interested.
b. Bill Fitzgerald organized a workshop on AI that will be held on Wednesday, February 26th at 12:45pm in the Faculty Lounge.
The meeting adjourned at 1:36 p.m.
Present: Craig Agule, Ross Allen, Sarah Allred, Paul Bernstein, Margaret Betz, James Boucher, Kendra Boyd, Michelle Carlin, I-Ming Chiu, Brian Corbett, Iman Dehzangi, Travis DuBose, Jamie Dunaev, Chris Fitter, Carly Goodman, Anthony Grasso, Rafey Habib, Ann Heidelberg, Yoona Kang, Hunter King, Alejandro Loureiro Lorenzo, Clinton McNair, Randy Mershon, Tamara Nelson, Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, Kayla Preito-Hodge, Xingyun Qi, Alex Roche, Stass Shpanin
Absent (Senators): Naomi Fair, Amy Savage, Longmei Shu
Excused Absent (Senators): Robert Emmons
Present Senators-at-Large: n/a
Absent Senators-at-Large: n/a
Excused Senators-at-Large: n/a
Present (Invited Guests): Dean John Griffin, Jennifer Thiel
Drafted by Melinda Aviles, 3/19/25