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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes - February 26, 2003
Roll call:
Excused: Anthony, Carroll, Kobrynowicz, Ruane Miller, Preti, Wolz, Wu
Absent: Wright
FUNDING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
-2 documents were distributed, one from Crofts and one from the SGA, about funding for higher education in New Jersey.
-Crofts said that TCNJ faces a double hit. Not only do we stand to lose as much as the other state colleges through across the board cuts, but we also stand to lose OSRP, which is 70% funded by the state and which attracts students primarily to TCNJ and Rutgers. Because the college had already committed itself to OSRP students in the current admissions cycle, it faced the very difficult responsibility of absorbing 100% of OSRP costs for these students for the next four years, unless OSRP is resurrected by the legislature.
-Venturo added that between 30-50% of TCNJ students are OSRP and that TCNJ has a much larger concentration of OSRP students than any other state college.
-Edelbach asked if the college was definitely picking up the cost and where they are getting the money to do it - Crofts clarified that the college said it was, and that the costs were a major problem.
-Crofts introduced Chris Portera, president of SGA, to talk about a letter writing campaign opposing drastic cuts for higher education. Portera said that the SGA hoped to flood mailboxes and to get 3000 letters to state legislators by Thursday. He urged everyone to write a personal letter to their legislators and announced a rally to be held on March 6 to get support for this cause.
-Edelbach commented that in the past students have been too willing to accept tuition increases and that we should try to address how we can increase the size of the pie rather than getting a larger piece of the shrinking pie.
-Vandegrift asked about the dollar amount - Portera said that it will be a $143 million cut.
-Knobler suggested that the SGA consider inviting outside media and sending material via satellite to other television stations.
-Knobler also suggested that it might be useful to write to Mayor Palmer of Trenton.
COMMITTEE ON FACULTY AFFAIRS, REPORT ON FACULTY WORK
-Palmer spoke about what was happening with CFA - she said that CFA is trying to go through the comments and apply them to the preliminary document.
-Palmer said that a lot of attention was given to the template and that she wants to highlight critical areas and wants input. The trouble is creating a system to include the diversity of what the faculty does. Palmer talked about the economics behind everything CFA is doing; if there are smaller class sizes, there must be a balancing off somewhere. Palmer mentioned that CFA had to come up with definitions to use a common language to shake out the similarities and differences. Palmer began talking about Part 2 (teaching/scholarship/service); said that we want a system that is flexible, equitable, and transparent - asked for comments.
-Kamber asked if there was a plan for the revised document - Palmer said that CFA is working toward a March 1 deadline.
-Behre responded that the whole report could be useless if we can't afford to pay for it; suggested that we have to balance the budget and make the plan at the same time.
-Gross assured that we are in the ballpark in terms of being able to afford it.
-Fradella said that real numbers weren't announced until last week; that the fundamental problem is definitions of tutorials, seminars, etc.
-Morrison said that there will be feedback from the campus community on the second version before it is finalized.
-Paul is nervous that teaching 140 students will cause us to lose things like undergraduate research, etc. - Palmer assured that that would not be true.
-Quinton said that the School of Business has large class sizes and he doesn't see the opportunity to move toward a more enriching environment.
-Morrison clarified that the number 140 has been thrown around but it won't be in the document so it is not set in stone.
-Palmer said that the document is not meant to micromanage.
-San Pedro said that Modern Languages techers already had more than 140 students and it is too many.
Meeting adjourned
