University Council Minutes, October 11, 2023

General Assembly October 11, 2023 3:30 p.m, via Zoom

Present: A. Rosenfeld, B. Gaines, C. Carlson, D. Gunn, A. Howerton-Fox, Y. Kang, A. Kelso, A. Qayyim, C. DelliCarpini, A. Saccoman, S. Silverberg, S. Carey, M Callaghan, T. Mulligan, N. Kane, J. Stabile, K. Dhanwada, E. Procario-Foley, C. Winkler, C. Smith, J. Carroll, O. Soluade, O. Huk, N. Naqvi

Excused: S. Curko, J. DeMelis, B. Sanner, M. Volza, C. Andruk, T. Pope, T. Pichardo, J. Breslin

A. Rosenfeld called the meeting to order at 3:32. Quorum was met

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from the 9/20/23 University Council meeting were approved via emai on 10/3/23

Announcements

• E. Procario-Foley: there will be a multifaith service for peace featuring Catholic, Muslim, and Jewish clergy on October 12, at noon at Ginkgo tree. At 5pm in Faculty dining room there will be a rabbi leading Jewish prayers for peace for anyone who wants to attend.

Information Item: President's report

• Continued visits to departments across campus to talk about the strategic direction for the year and to have open discussions. Will continue to make visits.
• In May, Iona will send first cohort to Iona Ireland. Hope to grow program in coming years.
• Earlier this month Iona hosted almost 3,000 attendees for the NY Archdiocese “Spirituality Day,” an annual celebration including principals, teachers, counselors and leaders from over 150 Catholic schools. His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, began the day with a special Mass.
• Held the first of two open house events for this fall this past weekend. Over 370 prospective students and their families were in attendance, exceeding last year’s attendance. Open house was held two weeks earlier than last year which will hopefully help impact engagement and interest. Dr. Carey expressed appreciation for staff and faculty that were involved in ensuring a successful event. Next event on November 19th.
• This weekend Iona host’s Homecoming and Family Weekend with events beginning Friday including the 50th and 60th class year reunions. There will be special recognition and celebration of the class of 1973, which had the first women graduating from Iona.
• Dr. Carey encouraged attendees to take part in upcoming events and programming.

Information Item Provost’s Report

• Thanks to faculty and staff that participated in last week’s Open House. Was a very successful event with over 370 families in attendance. Important to note that last year, about 30% of the attendees at Open House ended up enrolling at Iona.
• Student Success offices hosted four student success fairs to introduce offices including Advising, ASO, CAP, Rudin Center, Counseling, TRIO SSS, TRIO McNair, and Student Success.
• Student progress grades due Friday, October 6th. 1028 grades are still outstanding. There will be follow up for all students with DFW grades, Gaels Success, student on academic recovery, CAP, Honors, Student Athletes, TRIO SSS, and TRIO McNair as needed. Faculty are asked to please follow up with their students who may need extra assistance. Staff from Rudin Center are available to conduct sessions on note taking, study skills, and test taking strategies.
• Registration for Spring 2024 classes begins on October 15th with priority registration.
• Annual Program Review for each academic program (undergraduate and graduate) is underway with the Provost, Deans, Chairs, and OIEP. Important conversations about achievements of programs, areas for review and growth, and student outcomes
• Workload Working Group has begun meetings. Has met three times since last University Council. The next meeting is scheduled for next week.
• Faculty Handbook review is underway with RTA. Members are fully engaged and provided inputs and comments
• Faculty Development session, virtual, focusing on AI in higher education, will take place on November 15th, 12:30pm.
• Office of DEIB has held many events over the last few weeks and has worked to acknowledge various cultural, religious traditions and events. Chief DEIB Officer presented the findings of the survey the Iona Diversity survey. The results will be shared with the larger stakeholder group focusing on DEIB initiatives as well as other campus constituents on actionable items. Please see the DEIB shared calendar for upcoming events.
• Peace events tomorrow are very important to acknowledge the terrible violence going on.

Information Item Core Curriculum Report

• Core committee met 10/2 and 10/9 since last meeting of UC
• Continue to Recruit faculty for first-year learning communities; 30 LCs are needed and faculty are encouraged faculty to find a partner and create an LC with one person teaching COL 150 and another teaching a paired core course or introductory major course.
• Reviewed a good number of courses in several departments, either for changes to existing courses or new courses.
• Continued with the ongoing cycle of assessment work.

Information Item Reports from Constituent Assemblie

Faculty Senate

• Last met on September 28. Working on revising constitution of senate, overdue for revision, looking for areas where we can make it clearer.
• Subcommittee empaneled to look into compensation issues and what’s out there from faculty perspective.
• Charged to seat committee to select next Honor director, trying to seat committee by end of week
• Looking at issue of faculty participation and what faculty need in order to participate more in events on campus, and various projects and things we do here. Trying to collect information.
• Bringing all chairs of committees together to communicate with each other, and have a workshop on Robert’s Rules

Staff and Administrative Council (A. Saccoman)

• SAC will once again participate in the Thanksgiving Basket collection, as well as the toy drive for the Iona Christmas party
• Include SAC meetings in the Campus Announcements email on the Tuesday of the week we meet so that staff or admin in the Iona community wishing to join the meeting can do so.

Student Government Association

• Homecoming is this weekend!
  • Numerous events planned for both current students and alumni.
  • On Friday, Maroon Madness game as well as the declaration of Homecoming Royalty.
  • The SGA will host a game booth on Saturday night
• Latin American Heritage Month -- many events held throughout month to celebrate.
• Working on updates to SGA constitution and in process of creating more umbrella organizations so that students will be equally represented across all clubs/organizations.
• Senior Events committee is in full effect and had their first meeting regarding Senior Week, a much earlier start than last year.
• SGA visited the Bronxville campus last week as a group and tried food from the dining hall/ walked around. Students impressed by the campus and facilities in the dining hall
• If you would like to speak at an SGA meeting to directly address the representatives of the student body please email ssilverberg1@gaels.iona.edu.

Information item Reports from the Standing Committee

Committee on Rank, Tenure and Awards

• Making steady and substantial progress in revising the faculty handbook, hoping to have draft by the end of semester.
• First Monday of November will take up clinical faculty renewals.

Committee on Academic Affairs

• CAA voted to change ex-officio members of the committee: the Director of Academic Civic and Global Engagement and Institutional Review Board Chair are removed as ex-officio members and the Senior Director of Center for Advising and Academic Services is added as an ex-officio member. As a change to Standing Committee composition, this serves as notification of the prospective change, and it will be voted on at the next University Council meeting.
• 5-year departmental review: CAA voted 7-0 to stop asking departments to submit 5-year reviews.
• Modes of instruction: In the description for asynchronous online courses, CAA voted 7-0 to add “Students and instructors can meet at agreed upon times as long as attendance is not mandatory.” after “OL courses (sections named OLA) are ones which do not have any set meeting times.” The Course registration page should soon be worded as “Asynchronous OL courses (sections named OLA) are ones which do not have any set meeting times. Students and instructors can meet at agreed upon times as long as attendance is not mandatory.”

Committee on Budget

• The Budget Committee met over Zoom on September 27th and October 4th. Issues discussed included:
  • Comparison information about tuition and food/board pricing at local and peer institutions;
  • Enrollment projections and strategies
  • The Committee voted to approve a recommendation for a 4% increase to Undergraduate Tuition on October 4th and will continue discussing the recommended increase to Room and Board at our next meeting.

Committee on Human Resources and Compensation

• Committee met 10/6; issues discussed included
  • HRC Policy Review: The Drug & Alcohol Policy has been endorsed by HRC and will now move to PC for final endorsement;
  • Retiree Benefits: The Iona Retiree Benefit plan is transitioning to an Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan. Benefits broker presented the new plan details to HRC. The new plan offers better rates to the retirees and the University. In addition, the plan offers benefits and services that cater to the retiree population. Change effective 1/1/24. Questions can be directed to Human Resources;
  • Health & Wellness Initiatives: HRC updated on Fall Health & Wellness initiatives;
  • Fall Walking Challenge underway with 84 members of the campus community participating;
  • Health Fair is scheduled for Monday, November 13
  • Open Enrollment meetings will be announced in the next few weeks.

Committee on Libraries and Information Technology

• The LIT committee met on October 11th. Issues discussed included:
  • Migration of Blackboard to Blackboard Ultra
  • Training sessions for faculty/staff on use of Blackboard Ultra
  • Strategy for use of space in library.

Committee on Institutional Advancement

• Committee met on 9/21. Topics discussed included:
  • Laura Doherty asked each member of the committee what Advancement needs to know to become top of mind for all at Iona. The committee asked:
    • What does Advancement actually do? Might help to better explain what the money is being used for
    • Important to know from a student perspective what the point of all of it is – better understanding on student’s parts to know what BOT, alumni, etc. are doing.
    • How are the priorities for advancement determined? Who is involved in that process?
    • Where does the money go? What does Advancement do on a day-to-day basis?
    • How do we share the news of advancement with faculty and get them involved? Maybe an introduction to all new faculty, possibly when onboarded?
    • How can legacy families help tell the Iona story to further Advancement’s goals?
• Laura discussed the following priorities for Advancement in the coming year, including:
  • A new dining hall! Enhance the academic experience and appeal to undergrads for recruitment;
  • New green space underway by Blessed Edmond Rice Chapel – “Upper Green” - looking to name it after a new donor;
  • Renovating baseball field on Bronxville campus – currently our team is playing on New Ro public fields – received $2 million gift for this – need to raise another $1million – dirt is expensive;
  • Faculty development/scholarship support;
  • Pay it forward campaigns (ex: Wingfoot scholarship recipients – will you give back? Meet & Greet lunch at Homecoming for scholarship recipients and grantors).
• Upcoming Events:
  • Homecoming/Reunions/Family Weekend, October 13-14, 2023
    • New strategy: consolidate all events into one weekend, get a lot of buzz and excitement on campus;
    • Gather as much data about participants as possible – scan in for email addresses/contact info, etc. - one way in and one way out for Tailgate.
• Next Steps:
  • How can we advance Advancement in the Iona community?
    • Oksana will request all department chairs discuss within departments..

Committee on Student Life (J. Quintong)

• Committee met 10/6. Issues discussed included:
  • Full-time undergraduate enrollment is up nearly 4% over last year.
  • 6% increase in residential students over last year;
  • 806 freshmen and 91 new transfer students enrolled for Fall 2023;
  • The Department of Club Sports has launched 3 new sports this Fall: Men's Volleyball, Women's Field Hockey, and Co-ed Running;
  • The Iona G.I.V.E. (Gaels Interpersonal Violence Education) Grant program will kick-off Domestic Violence Awareness Month for the month of October;
  • We look forward to welcoming our Gael Families on campus for 2023 Family Weekend happening October 13th through October 14th;
  • We look forward to welcoming alumni and students on campus for 2023 Homecoming happening October 13th through October 14th;
  • SGA has been working on updating constitutions for each of their groups to ensure that they are up to date and up to standard.

Committee for Athletics

• Committee met via Zoom on 9/21, and elected Jack Breslin chair. Topics discussed included:
  • Academic Report presented by Jamie Fogarty: Team GPA’s for Spring semester were reported. All teams are at or exceed a 3.0 average except for Men’s Basketball;
  • The Athletic Report was presented by Jamie Fogarty: Fall sports are underway. Highlights include women’s soccer with a 1-7-1 record, Women’s volleyball with a 6-7 record but 2-0 in conference, and Water polo with a 4-6 record;
  • The Community Service Report was presented by Jamie Fogarty: Teams renewing involvement with local charities including Golotta house, New Rochelle Boy’s club and Toughman competition;
• In the absence of Athletic Director Matt Glovaski, the Director’s Report was presented by Jamie Fogarty:
  • Men’s Basketball is rebuilding after exit of Rick Pitino and loss of many players
  • Men’s Lacrosse is continuing to recruit with first season to start Spring of 2025
  • Acrobatics and Tumbling team practicing in facilities on Bronxville campus.
  • A donation was made for reconstruction of the Baseball field at the Bronxville campus. Baseball continues to hold games off campus
  • The film room in Hynes was renovated.
  • A new director of men and women’s rowing, Ben MacDougald, was hired.
  • New Athletic trainers and strength and conditioning coaches have been hired to meet demand of the new sports introduced.
  • Currently searching for staff for a new position in Athletic Communications
• Next meeting 10/24

Committee on Diversity

• No meeting since last University Council meeting

Committee on Enrollment Management

• Has not yet met this academic year.

Committee on Environmental Sustainability

• Committee met on 9/28. YTopics discussed included:
  • Cenergistic award, currently soliciting suggestions for projects, allocation of some funds will go to student club Gaels Go Green.
  • Interest from students for club; events planned for September and October.
  • Main concern at the first club meeting was cited to be plastic waste in the cafeteria.
    • Suggestions from committee on NY-based company Redish that offers alternatives to throw away plastic waste.
    • Currently no dishwashing capacity in any dining hall on either campus.
    • Information about the organization sent to student representatives. Business services has also received cost estimates from company for consideration.
  • Composting project continues with service hours from COL 150 students and offers hours for students needing service credit.
  • Iona member of “Clean-Green Campus” for NY State and they provide some funding for energy efficiency in specific categories.

Discussion item Agenda for General Assembly (November 15)

• Some possible options include presentations from Student support services- maybe TRIO.
• Repeat some topics from last year, for new population on UC.
• We could discuss the plan for increasing enrollment at meeting like this, including what impact this increase would have across campus.
• Another possible topic: Discussion of how to increase participation in different university events.
• Action Item: We will put a request for suggestions in the weekly Campus announcements. Announcement in next two Tuesdays, 17th and 24th, and then cut it off.

Discussion Item: Meeting of All Committee Chairs and Visit from Westchester Parliamentarians on Robert's Rules of Order.

• Will schedule meeting of all committee chairs. Provost’s office organizing visit from Westchester Parliamentarians; meeting will also encourage open lines of communication between committees. Possible dates of 10/25 or 11/8, but in person, so may want to come up with a few alternative dates/times. Budget committee meets in UC off-weeks at this same time. Those two dates both currently have budget meetings. Other options proposed included a Friday activity period or a time on Reading Day?
• The Westchester Parliamentarians presentation would be 75 to 90 minutes.
• There was a question of if we should split the two meetings up, or set aside 2 hours, do it together? For now, since we want it in person, It was agreed to attempt to do it together.
• Action Item: Send out a doodle poll including all possible dates/times. Be explicit that this is an on-campus in-person event.

Old Business: None

New Business: None

There being no other business, A. Rosenfeld adjourned the University Council meeting at 4:20 p.m. The next meeting of the Council will be held on 11/15/23.