Steering Committee Report April 2021
The April Senate meeting will mark the end of a major phase of this year’s shared governance election season. Thanks go to Stephen Hammel and Committee on Committees and Raj Vaswani of the Office of Information Technology for their work in managing elections.
The results of the election for Faculty-Member-at-Large Senate seats have been distributed and will be presented at the meeting. There were thirteen nominees for the thirteen available seats, but a vacancy remains -- if all nominees were seated, one department’s Senate representation would exceed the limit of five senators per department. Therefore nominations are sought from eligible departments. Departments at capacity are Biology, Business, English, and Social Sciences. Nominees from all other departments are welcome and encouraged. Robust participation in shared governance is important to the health of our college.
The Senate will also vote on the ballot for membership on Standing Committees of the Academic Senate, which the Committee on Committees has compiled. Patrick Wallach, current chair of Curriculum Committee, will be added to the Curriculum Committee ballot. Though his three-year term on the committee has ended, his name will be added to the list of new nominees, to be voted on by the Senate, through the process of Nomination by Petition. Patrick undertook this process according to provision under Article VII, section 4a of Senate Bylaws.
Thanks go to Arthur Corradetti and the President’s Task Force on Community Engagement for two successful Strategic Planning Open sessions, a third on Academies to be held April 5th and 6th. Look out for emails from Dean Arthur Corradetti encouraging everyone to participate in Strategic Planning Discussions.
Vice President William Faulkner sent an email on March 30th inviting everyone to an April Covid Town Hall, to be held Friday, April 9thfrom 3:00 – 4:00 PM. What has been learned since last month’s Town Hall and what we know about plans for a limited re-opening in the Fall will be discussed. We thank VP Faulkner, QCC COVID 19 Coordinator and VP Stephen Di Dio, CUNY COVID 19 Liaison for their efforts in keeping our community informed. As always, it’s important to understand that each and every one of us is learning together as the situation evolves, and as guidelines and regulations come from CUNY and from New York State. See VP Faulkner’s March 30th email to register.
Margot Edlin, chair, and the Faculty Executive Committee presented an informative Faculty Meeting on March 24th. It was good to see high attendance and the valuable work of Sharon Lall-Ramnarine, Inaugural Faculty Fellow for Research Activities and Kerri-Ann Smith, Inaugural Faculty Fellow for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Sharon and Kerri, thank you for serving our college and helping us all to grow together, and thank you Margot, and FEC for your work on behalf of our faculty.
As always, we thank Standing Committee members and especially chairs and secretaries for your work, and we appreciate chairs’ and secretaries’ participation in recent coordination meetings. This year, committees are undertaking assessment of committee effectiveness, and next year we will assess Senate Effectiveness. The year following will be assessment of governance webpages. Assessment of shared governance is a recommendation of Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and we thank Dean Corradetti for his guidance in our efforts. Remember the three-year cycle with our handy acronym – CEW (“C”ommittee Assessment, Senate “E”ffectiveness, and “W”ebsite Assessment). Acronyms are here to stay. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!
We are honored to be part of a community that seeks always to better serve our students – let’s remember together to move forward with optimism, and to be proud of our team.
Academic Senate Steering Committee ([email protected])
Dr. Steven Dahlke, Chair [email protected]
Dr. Jannette Urciuoli, Vice-Chair [email protected]
Dr. Zivah Perel Katz, Secretary [email protected]
