University Council Minutes, February 8, 2023

February 8, 2023, 3:30 p.m., via Zoom

Present: D. DeFino, D. Brophy, B. Gaines, A. Howerton-Fox, A. Kelso, E. Mariola, A. Saccoman, A. Connolly, K. Geslak, T. Mulligan, J. Stabile, K. Dhanwada, M. Gioiosa, J. Haber, B. Sanner, M. Callaghan, E. Procario-Foley, N. Kane, M. Newell, C. Winkler

Excused: A. Aggarwal, C. Andruk, M. Bard, S. Carey, J. Carroll, E. Muller, N. Naqvi, L. Poupis, L. Richardson, M. Veyvoda, M. Volza, C. Winkler

D. DeFino called the meeting to order at 3:35. Quorum was met.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from the 11/9/22 University Council meeting were approved via e-mail on 1/29/23

Announcements

E. Procario Foley announced upcoming events:

Violence Against Jews is On the Rise: What does it Mean? Tuesday, February 28 at the 12-noon activity hour, Spellman Hall, Burke Lounge
Assessing Achievements of Pope Francis in Jewish-Christian Relations after 10 Years. Wednesday, March 1 at 7:30pm in Ryan Library, Romita Auditorium
Pope Francis’s record in interreligious relations Anti-Muslim Bias: Women, Religion, and Politics” A Conversation: Tuesday, March 21 at the noon activity hour, Ryan Library, Romita Auditorium
Smyrna: Paradise is Burning Thursday, March 23 at 7pm, Ryan Library, Romita Auditorium
Religious Differences Student Panel—Share an Experience on Religious Difference: Why it Matters in Life and Work. Wednesday, March 29 at the 12:30pm-1:48 activity hour, Spellman Hall, Burke Lounge
Feminicide and Practices of Resistance. Thursday, March 30 at the noon activity period, Spellman Hall, Burke Lounge
Never Quite at Home: The Postwar Lives of Holocaust Survivors. Tuesday, April 25 at 7:30pm, Ryan Library, Romita Auditorium

B. Gaines announced the deadline to submit proposals for Scholar’s Day is February 24

Information Item: President’s Report (M. Callaghan)

The search committee for Iona’s next provost under the leadership of search chair and Trustee Dr. Eric Robinson reviewed almost 90 applicants for the position. We had a very strong pool with former and sitting deans, associate provosts and provosts from excellent institutions. The faculty and staff committee did a wonderful job vetting the candidates and ultimately selecting three to move forward for campus visits. The community presentations were well attended and I think said a great deal about the priority the provost position is for Iona. I look forward to making an announcement on the outcome shortly.
Major Initiatives
Moved forward new academic programs in the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences in nursing education and healthcare organizational leadership, these were developed in partnership with NewYork-Presbyterian and are currently awaiting state approval
Announced another major 7 figure gift to Iona to establish the Gabelli endowed professorship in finance in the LaPenta School of Business
Iona has been recognized as The Business Council of Westchester’s winner of the 2023 Hall of Fame Award for Corporate Citizenship
Iona cut the ribbon on the magnificent new Kelly Center in Bronxville allowing us to hold our first classes at the new campus this semester
Other projects underway in Bronxville include:
- Renovations to Feth Hall as the central welcome space to campus and the Dean’s suite including plans to install an elevator and renovate the front entrance to create an ADA compliant space and advance accessibly on the Bronxville campus.
- Planning for faculty offices in Sieker Hall as well as Performing Arts Space in the Sommer Center; Acrobatics & Tumbling space in Schoenfeld and Baseball and Club Sports spaces in Meyer Athletic Center. Iona’s club sports participation grew 69% year over year and has become an important part of our student experience and retention initiatives.
In New Rochelle we are looking at adding science labs to accommodate needs in the School of Arts and Science, particularly in Chemistry, Microbiology, and Anatomy & Physiology as well as the new proposed undergraduate program in Neuroscience. We will be working with existing space in Cornelia as well as Holy Family.
We are also developing a plan to upgrade faculty offices, particularly those departments in housing along President and Hubert streets. These plans will be advanced through the semester with the assistance of Iona faculty.
Our enrollment initiatives continue – on the undergraduate side inquiries and applications are up compared to the prior year and campus visits – an important indicator of yield – are up 10%. We will be hosting accepted students’ days in March and April and hope to see strong turnout.

Information Item: Provost’s Report

Announcements

Incomplete grades- last day to submit grades to Registrar is February 15th (160 outstanding)
AI, Chat/GPT Faculty Panel Discussion, February 15th 12:30pm via Zoom
Honors Thesis Day, February 16
Cornerstone Reboot session 3, “Diversity Toolbox, February 23 LaPenta Student Union, McGrath Room
Progress grades due: Friday, February 24 at noon

Updates

Iona University welcomes new TRIO McNair Postbaccalaureate Award Director, Carrie Underwood. Iona also welcomes this week Mayulie Luciano, our new Director of TRIO Student Support Services.
DEIB collaborative initiatives for Black History Month are underway. Please visit the DEIB website and see Iona University communication for specific information. Included are presentation tomorrow by Stacia Morris’s presentation 2/9 at noon “Finding your Personal and Financial Path”; a screening of the documentary “James Hemmings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen” on 2/16 at 7pm in the Endzone; and Iona’s collaboration with the Links of Hudson Valley and Black Health Matters for the “Hearts Around the Globe” event 2/18 2-6pm in Murphy Center.
Honors Program Task Force will be presenting proposed revisions in a faculty town hall on February 27th 12:30pm.
Iona will be partnering with Follett’s Campus Store to launch the Access Program in the 2023-24 academic year. Initial presentations with Chairs have begun and an introduction to Iona faculty was part of 2/8 Faculty Gathering. The Follett ACCESS program delivers required course materials to students when they register via their Blackboard course sites. The cost will be included on their bill as “books and course materials,” so there are no surprises about costs after enrollment and materials are included in student cost of attendance and therefore a consideration in their overall financial aid packages. The goals of the program are to ensure students have their books and material by removing barriers and to reduce costs for students. This will help facilitate student success by ensuring students have course materials, facilitates accommodation needs for assistive technology, and reduces the overall costs for students for course materials. Students and faculty can decide to opt out.

Information Item: Core Curriculum Report

Core Committee has met four times: 12/1, 12/8, 1/19, 2/2
Assessment Activities
- a) Fall Assessment: collected approximately 5,000 CSAs; recruited 32 faculty volunteers to score the uploads; conducted assessment training via zoom on January 10; successfully completed 2 rounds of multi-rater, randomized assessment
- b) Spring Assessment: preparation of Blackboard organizations is underway for the spring; all departments who are offering core curriculum courses during the spring semester have been provided with their spring core curriculum SLO maps and scoring rubrics
Fall Columba Cornerstone Learning Communities Schedule: a schedule of 32 complete learning communities has been submitted to the registrar; the schedule is in accordance with a new block scheduling approach; faculty are needed to provide free-standing Cornerstone sections for transfers for the fall
Cornerstone Faculty Training: with leadership from Nadine Cosby and TJ Moretti, two professional development sessions have been held for next fall’s Cornerstone faculty to help implement the new Cornerstone changes: Dec 5 and Jan 23
Cornerstone Faculty Training: with leadership from Nadine Cosby and TJ Moretti, two professional development sessions have been held for next fall’s Cornerstone faculty to help implement the new Cornerstone changes: Dec 5 and Jan 23
New core course requests: reviews ongoing
March 2 Core Town Hall Announcement: 12 noon by zoom; time for open questions and answers/comments/feedback on the curriculum; briefing on revamped Cornerstone; and briefing on assessment insights

Information Item: Reports from Constituent Assemblies

Faculty Senate

The Senate will talk to the Libraries regarding possible alternatives to All Access and survey departments for information regarding their use of textbooks and average cost.
The Senate reviewed revisions to their Workload Recommendations and agreed to send the recommendations to the President, Provost, Deans and eventually all faculty.
After some recommended additions to the Committee and Governance Recommendations, D. Defino will email the final draft to the Senate for approval.
D. Defino will reach out to Br. Gunn regarding forming a panel representing several departments to discuss CHATGPT and AI.
D. Defino will contact the Dean of A&S regarding the distribution of Adjunct Faculty Promotion Criteria

Staff and Administrative Council

SAC will meet next to work on electing a new chair
SAC will request nominations for the Br. Bray award

Student Government Association

SGA has tweaked our governance structure in accordance with several institutional practices:

Town Hall meetings and found great success and will continue.
Annual recognition packet – revised minimum standards for all clubs and organization to meet in order to remain in good standing with the SGA.
Currently rewriting our constitution to align with institutional changes. Deadline set for the end of the month for all corrections to than be processed

Current SGA Goals:

Spring Calendars – CLUB / STUDENT LIFE / SGA & UMBRELLA.
Pushing elections up to allow for seamless transition and better future planning. Streamlined through the SGA & DOS.
April – focus is to create a transition period with CSE/Club Sports/Performing Arts/DOS
Creation of Transition Packet
- Funding guidelines
  - Student handbook policies
  - Constitutions
  - New club formation
Emphasis on students living up to their responsibilities until changing of the guard the first week of May

Main focus moving forward is streamlining communications and changes with student organizations

Accelerate the standard of student leadership
- Rethinking expectations of students in club leadership positions
  - Multiple obligations from school and outside curriculars
  - Find a sweet spot where expectations are clear, and we do not promote a burnout culture.
  - We are still students and balance is necessary for success inside and outside of the classroom.
  - Campus Events – Increasing attendance and participation

Information item: Reports from the Standing Committee

Committee on Rank, Tenure and Awards: No report

Committee on Academic Affairs

CAA voted unanimously to approve the new Neuroscience major and revisions to the Spanish major

Committee on Budget: No report

Committee on Human Resources and Compensation

HR&C met on 1/27 and reviewed policies on Drug and Alcohol, Employees’ References, return of property, and tuition remission

Committee on Libraries and Information Technology

The committee met on 1/30
The committee discussed Blackboard course creation and batch enroll dates
N. Sawchuk is working to collect information on CHATGPT and AI technology as a resource for the university
The committee discussed TikTok and data security concerns based on the recent push by several states to ban the social media platform on state-owned devices and networks.
Several library workshops are scheduled for the Spring semester.

Committee on Institutional Advancement: No report

Committee on Student Life

Over 500 students committed to providing an artistic outlet for students who are musically inclined performed last Tuesday. The program has grown from 8 students to 53 students this year
The Counseling Center is able to accommodate requests for “walk-in” sessions. The Center strives to offer same-day appointments upon request. The Center has seen 164 through the end of November
Esports is being featured by Yahoo which can be followed as Yahoos In The Know who interviews team members and documents their season

Committee for Athletics

Highlights from winter sports include: Women’s basketball with a record of 13 – 5 with 7 wins in a row and are first place in the MAAC. Men’s basketball has a 6 – 2 record and is in second place in the MAAC. Darryl Strawberry, formerly of the NY Yankees and Mets presented a 90-minute talk on campus to the men’s baseball team.
NY state passed Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) legislation in November which went into effect on January 1. NIL allows intercollegiate student athletes to earn compensation for the use of their NIL
Iona will induct 7 former student athletes into the Arrigoni Hall of Fame on Feb. 25
A search for a new MAAC commissioner is underway with input from ADs from the colleges and universities of the MAAC

Committee on Diversity

The main item was a discussion on the structure and function of COD given the fact that the committee was founded before Iona appointed a Chief Diversity Officer. Although this matter has yet to be voted on, we believe it is appropriate to make the COD an ex-officio member of the committee. Our hope is that it will improve the coordination between the Office of Diversity and COD resulting in more efficient use of university resources.

Committee on Enrollment Management: No report—first meeting date is set for 3/1/23

Committee on Environmental Sustainability: No report

Old Business: None

New Business: None

There being no other business, D. DeFino adjourned the University Council meeting at 4:05 p.m. The next meeting of the Council will be held on 3/8/23.