Faculty Senate Minutes February 28, 2019

February 28, 2019
3:30 p.m., Faculty Reception Room
(Approved 3/8/19)

Present: T. Moretti (Chair), D. DeFino (Secretary), J. Alstete, M. Bard, D. Brophy, A. Bishop, M. Draeger, A. Howerton-Fox, M. Hughes, R. Jantzen, J. Kaalund, A. Kelso, E. Mariola, M. Nadel, C. Tsai, M. Veyvoda
Excused: L. Ivanov, C. Martins, H. Park

T. Moretti called the meeting to order at 3:36 p.m.

Announcements

• J. Nyre will present the “State of the College” at 10 a.m. on 3/7 in Romita
•  E. Procario-Foley is seeking 5 more faculty to teach COL 150, and 8 more faculty to teach in Learning Communities

Faculty Handbook

T. Moretti has collated all available proposed revisions to the Handbook, and will be presenting it to the general faculty for comment in the coming weeks through a web portal. The Senate will take up its discussion of the Handbook in earnest once the comment period has closed and the comments have been collated.

Committee Selection Procedures

The Senate approved the following policy for seating faculty on search and other ad hoc committees:

• All requests for faculty representatives on said committees should be made at least two weeks prior to the date those names are required.  The Senate will then e-mail a call for self-nominations to all voting faculty.  All self-nominations must be submitted within 72-hours of e-mail receipt
• In the event that the requisite two weeks cannot be provided, the Senate will forego the self-nomination process, identify potential representatives, and reach out to them directly

Adjunct Faculty Information on the College Website

Members of the adjunct faculty of the College recently alerted the Senate that MarCom had removed all adjunct faculty information from Iona faculty webpages. This was done without notifying adjunct faculty, chairs, or faculty members of College governance. T. Moretti has set up a meeting with MarCom and the deans of A&S and LaPenta to discuss the matter, and to talk about better ways of managing information on the website. The Senate raised several issues to be brought up at that meeting:

• Adjunct pages provide students with important information about our faculty, including academic fields, scholarly work, and basic contact information
• Removing adjunct faculty from Iona’s website sends the message that Iona values the teaching of full- and part-time faculty differently.  This is especially problematic, given the essential role of adjunct faculty in delivering the Core curriculum
• Adjunct faculty webpages may serve as recruitment tools, especially where adjunct faculty are hired to cover areas of specialization beyond those taught by full-time faculty
• Listing all active faculty on Iona’s website presents current and prospective students with a more accurate representation of the number of our faculty, giving further evidence of our commitment to small faculty-to-student ratios

Old Business

• D. Wheeler has asked the Senate to further consider the role of Faculty Development in the success of the College, particularly in light of the number of students who left Iona without completing degree requirements in Fall 2018: 129 (the highest number in three years).  He has asked the Senate to consider whether there are ways faculty might better connect with students. 
  • Several senators suggested that the relatively low number of student exit interviews indicating that students did not feel connected with faculty (3 or 4) is evidence that faculty are already doing an excellent job in this area
  • Also discussed was that the classroom is where faculty-student interactions matter the most. One way to further strengthen that connection would be to redesign classroom space to allow for various classroom dynamics beyond lecture.
• The Senate discussed the role and membership of the Executive Committee.  In particular:
  • Having members of the Executive Committee accompany the Senate Chair in meetings with senior administrators
  • Arranging for Executive Committee members to review items of business together prior to College Council meetings
  • Recruiting folks to serve on the Executive Committee

New Business

The Senate discussed the recent news concerning the College of New Rochelle and the potential impact on Iona University. The Senate commended the College’s efforts to make room for qualified CNR students whose degree progress would be interrupted by CNR’s closure in June. The Senate also discussed concerns about plans arising from this news, in particular the possible launching of an Iona University nursing program. Those concerns focused on three areas:

• Timing: would Iona be able to develop and deploy a high-quality program quickly enough to be competitive in the market?
• Funding and Scale: how big would such a program be, and how would it be resourced?
• Competition with Mercy College: Mercy already has an active nursing program, and CNR has made a concerted effort to direct current students toward Mercy

T. Moretti adjourned the meeting at 5:32 p.m.