Steering Committee Chairperson Dr. Steven Dahlke called the second regularly scheduled meeting of the Academic Senate to order at 3:18 PM.  The meeting was held in a hybrid format, with attendees both in M136 and Zoom.  Chairperson Dahlke chaired the meeting from M-136.

I. Attendance

55 votes were recorded at the time attendance was taken and 62 members of the Academic Senate were present during the meeting.

Absent:  Andrea Alfaro, Parisa Assassi, Nadia Baquaei,  Shenaz Georgilis,  Julian Jiménez, Azita Mayeli, Brian Mitra, Renee Rhodd, Celia Sporer, Magala Tawde, James Timbilla, Ashley Tobar, Abdul Wahab, Haishen Yao

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 September 12th Meeting

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

IV. Communications from:

A.  President Christine Mangino 

The Senate received President Mangino’s Report

President Mangino welcomed Nelmy Negrete as the Executive Director of Human Resources.  Discussion was held on the budget which includes a 3% cut from the spring semester and future cuts that will come in November. November 6^th is the State of the College meeting. On October 25^th the CEO of AmEx will do a Q and A with students at QCC. To date, 781 students have visited the Food Pantry.  Numerous donations have been given to the Food Pantry. Amazon gave $25,000.00, Grubhub gave $7500.00 to use for the Thanksgiving Food Drive.  The City Council donated $50,000.00 to address religious-based hate across the university.  A donation of $20,000 was donated to the Kupferberg Holocaust Center.  Art and Design received a donation of $250,000.00 from a woman of the community who donated part of her estate. There will also be Fight Campus Hunger tomorrow with volleyball and basketball games.  October is Advisement Month and please remind students about registration and advisement.

B.      UFS Report

The University Faculty Senate Meeting was on September 19^th and the guest speaker was Vice-Chancellor Wendy Hensel who spoke about CUNY online. There has been an increase in fully online programs and the hope is to add 25 to 43 more programs.  Discussion was also held on the new learning management system, BrightSpace, with more information to follow. 

C.      Steering Committee Monthly Report

Steering Committee Monthly Report

Dr. Dahlke welcomed Mark Chropufka as the new Senate Technology Officer (STO).  New Senate materials will come out a week before the senate meeting and encouraged everyone to read these reports.  The Academic Senate Committee has office hours which can be found on the Steering Committee webpage: Monday from 11 AM to 12 PM and Friday from 1 PM to 2 PM.  Dr. Dahlke thanked Dr. Mangino for accepting the request for reassigned time for senate activities. All were reminded to fill out the Senate Effectiveness Survey and the report will be delivered in December 2023.  On October 18^th during club hours the SGA is sponsoring a Fight for Campus Hunger Basketball and Volleyball games

Dr. Dahlke thanked the committee members of the Pedagogical Response to Artificial Intelligence.

On October 18^th at 12:10 PM in room S-111, the History Department will hold a lecture on the inclusive history series.

V.  Monthly Reports

Dr. Dahlke acknowledged and thanked the members of Assessment, Committee on Committees, and Food Insecurity committees for submitting their annual reports.

VI.  June 2023 Graduate List 

Dr. Dahlke congratulated the graduates of June 2023.    

VII. Monthly Reports

Committee on Curriculum Report

Shall the Biology Department Revision to align with Degree Works need and articulation agreements, be approved - The vote was unanimously approved – 54-0-0.

There was one correction that needs to be made which is that Chemistry II is 152 and not 151 and the correction will be made.

VIII. Monthly Reports

Special Committee on Pedagogical Response to Artificial Intelligence – preliminary report

The charges of this committee are to consider and provide recommendations to the Academic Senate on 2 categories as they pertain to QCC. 

1. Using AI in the classroom as a way of leveraging strengths of learning
2. Policy proposals regarding the student use of AI including possible department and college-wide responses to any potential infractions, based on the policies that QCC adopts. 

A full report will be presented to the Academic Senate on November 14, 2023.

IX: New Business

Report from the Common Core Course Review Committee 

Dr. Franca Ferrari thanked everyone for electing her to be the representative of QCC for the Common Core or Pathway Committee.  If anyone needs help completing the application for common core courses, there are resources on the CUNY webpage with samples and criteria.  Dr. Ferrari offered assistance to anyone who is completing the application.  Michael Barnhart and Anya Spector of the CUNY Common Core Course Review Committee are also willing to assist before anyone applies.

The Academic Freedom Manual is posted on the Senate webpage which includes how to start the grievance process and previous court cases regarding academic freedom.   There are only 30 days to file a complaint with the union which starts on the date of the incident.  Dr. Ferrari thanked everyone at QCC for their work on the syllabi as the syllabi are very well written. 

A suggestion was made to adjust the timeline when voting on major issues. Senators need to talk with faculty to get input from faculty before issues are voted upon at the Senate. A thought to consider is to send a recommendation to the Bylaws Committee and have them consider whether the one-week period is enough time or if more time is needed. A consideration is to give more time for major issues and for Senators to discuss with faculty.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:10 PM

Philip Nelan, Secretary