Steering Committee Chairperson Dr. Steven Dahlke called the sixth regularly scheduled meeting of the Academic Senate to order at 3:13 PM. The meeting was held in a hybrid format, with attendees both in M136 and on Zoom. Chairperson Dahlke chaired the meeting from M136.

I.              Attendance

47 votes were recorded at the time attendance was taken; 60 members of the Academic Senate were present during the meeting.

II.            Approval of the Agenda

Chairperson Dahlke used unanimous consent to approve the agenda. There were no objections.

III.         Consideration of the minutes from the February 15, 2022 meeting

Chairperson Dahlke used unanimous consent to approve the minutes (Attachment A). Senator Pecorino noted a mistake in the recording of a negative vote. Given this amendment, there were no objections.

IV.        Communications from:

A.            President Mangino

The Senate received President Mangino’s March report.

President Mangino thanked Senator Rezan Akpinar for taking on Senate Technology Officer (STO) duties for the remainder of the semester and to those senators who attended senate in person. She reminded the campus community that masks are no longer required, but that people should wear them as they are comfortable; the college is currently taking down the signs across campus that indicate required masking. Random testing is still in place and the current positive rate is .3%. She also encouraged the college community to use the QCC connect app, which among other features, will also alert those who have been chosen for testing.

President Mangino offered a budget update: the college has an 18-million-dollar deficit. There are three taskforces working on budget since the beginning of the fall semester. They are working on many efforts including increasing enrollment, offsetting the budget crisis, and reducing OTPS spending. She will share the recommendations from those committees later this semester. One of the biggest issues regarding enrollment is retention, which is an issue across the university.

President Mangino also discussed the changes in the bylaws and guidelines suggested by the FEC and reviewed with the President and others in the administration. The final decision about the bylaws will come from the campus and the FEC will hold a vote on them. Some discussion followed about the timeline regarding voting on the guidelines and it was decided that the voting would wait until after several open forums to discuss the changes.

B.            University Faculty Senate

Senator Tai noted quick three items from the February meeting of the UFS. The UFS approved three measures. The first recognized Matt Sapienza for his service as Senior Vice Chancellor. The second was a measure related to restoring TAP access to incarcerated students. The third was approved in response to the 70%/30% in-person versus online course offering; it affirmed that faculty should be consulted in decisions about teaching modalities.

C.           Steering Committee

The Senate received the March report from the Steering Committee.

Chairperson Dahlke welcomed Senator Akpinar as STO and urged faculty to nominate themselves for Senate seats. He emphasized the need for a commitment to serving our college and noted that participation in Senate and committees is lower than in the past. He thanked Christine Mooney, Raj Vaswani, and Julian Stark for their hard work on the Committee on Committees’ database. He recognized Senator Jeanne Galvin’s retirement and welcomed Senator Connie Williams (who will be taking Senator Galvin’s seat) and Leslie Ward to the Senate. He noted that the survey on Senate effectiveness was emailed out that morning and urged Senators to complete it. The survey is the second step in a three-year process of Senate assessment as recommended by Middle States and Senator’s input in the process is essential.

V.           Monthly Reports of the Committees of the Academic Senate

There were two votes from the report from the Committee on Curriculum (Attachment B).

A.            A motion was made, seconded, and adopted 59-0-0 to approve two new courses (PE-551 and ENGL223).

B.            A motion was made, seconded, and adopted 59-0-0 to approve two course deletions (ENGL-502 and ENGL-631).

VI.        Old Business

There was no unfinished business.

VII.      New Business

A.            Senator Renee Rhodd offered a presentation on behalf of the Transfer Resource Center. Her PowerPoint covered updates to the office and a review of the services the center provides. She shared the student transfer timeline and asked faculty and staff to help make sure students are aware of the timeline, the Transfer Resource Center’s website, and CUNY Transfer Explorer. She also offered links to Live Chat Support for Students and the events calendar.

B.            Senator Ferrari raised the issue of whether QCC was prepared for a nuclear attack. Chairperson Dahlke said he would follow up on this question. 

C.           Senator Pecorino announced the Spring Faculty meeting on March 30^th, when the President will respond to questions from the FEC and attendees.

D.           Senator Nguyen inquired about the new equipment in the Fitness Center and Vice President Faulkner announced that the Fitness Center is opening thanks to the student activity reserves fees.

E.            Senator McGill announced that students will once again be performing in the Shadowbox Theater and the performance will also be livestreamed. She will distribute the details. 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:07 PM.

Zivah Perel Katz, Secretary

Academic Senate Steering Committee