Author: Lisa Brundage

-Accepted and approved 2/27/19

Minutes from the meeting of the Macaulay College Council

March 28, 2018
Lecture Hall, 6-8pm
Members Present: Joseph Ugoretz, Mary Pearl, Darren Staloff, Regina Bernard, Mike Benediktsson, Grazyna Drabik, Elizabeth Reis, Roni Natov, Jonathan Peters, Douglas Cohen, Ira Bloom, Lisa Brundage, Kelly O’Donnell, Owen Gutfreund, Gillian Stewart, Richard Ocejo

Members Absent: Jennifer Ball, Nicolette Tepenu, Madhav Bhatt, Jonathan Penuela, Alexandria Brown-Panisse, Genevieve Buccigrossi, Christine Chow

Others/Guests Present: Amanda Hick, Diane Phillips, Wynter Greene, Benjamin Ross, Lev Sviridov, Eileen Makak, Robert Small, Eli McClain, Chrystle-Claire Greene, Geoffrey Glick

Introductions and Attendance:
Welcome from Dean Pearl to our college council.

Approval of Minutes:
Discussion/review of previous minutes from 10/13/17 meeting. Discussion of the bylaws and how we may improve. Due to this meeting’s lack of quorum, it was notated as being an open discussion meeting. The URL to review previous minutes:
eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/collegecouncil

Election of Council Secretary:
Darren Staloff volunteered and was unanimously elected.

Dean’s Report:
Dean Pearl provided updates and began a discussion on Macaulay’s institutional governance. This being a joint effort among several parties: faculty, academic, staff, administrators, and the CUNY trustees.

Faculty governance was discussed. Faculty members have primary responsibilities:
• Determine the curriculum, subject matter, methods of instruction, and other academic standards and processes.
• Establish the requirements for earning degrees and certificates.
• Exercise, where the faculty deems it appropriate, primary responsibility for determining the status of colleagues, especially appointment and reappointment.
• Establish procedures for awarding honorary degrees, promotions, sabbaticals, research support, and other rewards or prerequisites.

In this capacity, faculty bodies are essentially making collective recommendations to the administration and governing board on academic standards and policy, and on faculty status matters.
Discussion of Macaulay’s revised By-laws: April 2013, Macaulay’s revised By-laws established a College Council to be Macaulay’s governing body, with the role of the council being:
• Formulate educational policy and develop standards for admission, academic performance and degree requirements for students and establish standards for the appointment and reappointment of faculty consistent with the Bylaws and policies of the CUNY Board of Trustees and other CUNY policies and procedures
• Approve programs and curricula
• Recommend to the Dean and the CUNY Board of Trustees the granting of undergraduate degrees to qualified candidates (for which only the Dean and faculty members of the College Council may vote)
• Recommend to the Dean and the CUNY Board of Trustees the granting of University honorary degrees
• Consider any other academic matters and make recommendations to the Dean and the CUNY Board of Trustees
• Establish or abolish such standing or temporary committees as it deems necessary and consider reports and recommendations of those committees
• Recommend revisions to the governance plan

Advisory groups also play a role in Macaulay’s management, and include:
• the Macaulay College Foundation Board, which consists of members of the philanthropic community dedicated to raising funds for the college
• the Macaulay Advisory Council, which consists of members appointed by the dean from the worlds of business, arts, professions and other sectors who advise the Dean with respect to the non-academic programs of Macaulay Honors College
• the Directors Council, consisting of the Dean, the Associate Deans, the Campus Directors, and other persons designated by the Dean, whose members advise the Dean with respect to the policies and operations of Macaulay Honors College. Campus Directors, who are appointed by the president of each of the participating colleges after consultation with the Dean, are responsible for coordinating the programs at the college with Macaulay Honors College and the other participating colleges
• and the Scholars Council, the body of elected student representatives from each participating campus, whose members advise the Macaulay administration on student issues related to academic affairs, campus affairs, community service, and student life

Strategic Planning Process:
• co-chaired by Director of IR Diane Phillips and Coordinator of Dean’s Initiatives Su Ng to manage the strategic planning process.
• website: https://macaulay.cuny.edu/about-macaulay/macaulay-honors-college-strategic-planning/
• Chancellor’s Priorities for MHC (which underlie and inform Macaulay’s Strategic planning):
o Outstanding STEM education signature
o STEM student developments: STEAM festival, ASRC and NY Genome Ctr days
o Diversity: Transfer program with BCC and BMCC
o Financial sustainability
o Institutional Effectiveness

Dean Pearl discussed the Bridge Scholars Program:
• Bronx Community College and Borough of Manhattan Community College transferring to Lehman College
• 20 students maximum

Discussion of financial sustainability:
• Streamlined administrative structure
• Fundraising
• Academic innovation
• Cultural accountability
• Student services increased

Approval of June Graduates:
• Motion to approve en masse the list of June graduates – approved.

Committee Elections:
a. Curriculum Committee: Grazyna Drabyk, Owen Gutfreund, Lisa Brundage, Elizabeth Reis, Kelly O’Donnell, Regina Bernard, Darren Staloff, Joseph Ugoretz

b. Admissions Committee: Lisa Brundage, Gillian Stewart, Douglas Cohen, Ira Bloom, Joseph Ugoretz

c. Appointment Committee: Roni Natov, Elizabeth Reis, Joseph Ugoretz, Jon Peters

Presentation on the Macaulay GPA Requirement:
• visual presentation given (slides attached and posted)
• once a committee is formed, Diane Phillips will kindly need to provide data
• this would be JUST for the Macaulay degree (no change to any campus requirements)

Formation of ad hoc committees:
a. Governance Amendment/Revision: Ira Bloom, Joseph Ugoretz, Lisa Brundage, Mike Benediktsson
b. GPA Requirement Amendments/Revision: Owen Gutfreund, Lisa Brundage, Kelly O’Donnell, Joseph Ugoretz, Elizabeth Reis, Gillian Stewart, Regina Bernard, Javiera Morales-Reyes

New Business:
• Recommendation from Owen Gutfreund: the inclusion of directors/advisors in ad hoc groups.  Dean Pearl acknowledged this suggestion and agreed to bring it up at a future Directors Council meeting (Directors/advisors, if joining ad hoc groups, would not have voting status)
• Discussion for student input, will attempt to recruit student representatives via electronic vote for committees.

Public Comments:
• Hunter student Eli McClain requests that the Student Council and Macaulay make a stronger effort to alert all students of these meetings.  Future Council meetings will be announced in Macaulay Monday, in addition to the notifications already in place.

There being no further new business, the College Council meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted:

Darren Staloff, Secretary (by Amanda Hick)

Minutes from the meeting of the Macaulay College Council

October 13, 2017
Classroom 3N 3-4pm

(No quorum present–open discussion meeting only)

Dean’s Report:

Dean Pearl provided updates and began a discussion on the next election for a renewed College Council.  Until we have more Macaulay Faculty, how do we maintain faculty governance, given the inevitable dropping off of faculty seconded from the campuses who were never identified as Macaulay cluster hire faculty.

Suggestions were made for the Future structure of the College Council:

• Hold elections every year; in order to be eligible, faculty must be teaching a Macaulay seminar in the current and prior year.
• In order to change by-laws, a proposal must be approved by a quorum of the College Council, then agreed to by consortial college presidents, and then the CUNY Trustees.

Suggestions were offered for improving turnout at College Council meetings:

• Google hangout
• New elections
• Circulate qualifications for being part of the College Council
• Change qualifications for being part of the council
• Include faculty who teach upper level courses; not just the seminars
• Give members more of an active, creative role
• At consortial colleges, tie new hires to teaching Macaulay seminars; remind presidents of their Macaulay cluster hire faculty.

Curriculum Committee:  New course proposals–All approved

• • Spring 2018: War and the Arc of Human Experience – Glenn Albright and Glenn Petersen
  • Cross-campus seminar 4: Eric Gioia
  • What is Life?: David Jeruzalmi
  • Humanitarian Intervention: Raj Menon
  • Shakespeare and Musical Adaptations: Steven Monte
  • Bullshit [Nonsense] – Kelly O’Donnell
  • Medical Ethics: Elizabeth Reis
  • Springboard, part 1 and 2: Lizzie Reis and Lisa Brundage
  • Unsolved Problems in Astrophysics: Emily Rice
  • Media Marketing: Robert Small
  • Purpose, Practice, and Politics of Science: Harold Varmus

Proposal: Approve the four city seminars as Macaulay courses through the Grad Center.  AA staff will work on this.
The Curriculum Committee will circulate the RFP to the other committee members and get information to other faculty.

There being no new business, the College Council meeting was adjourned.

Attendees:

Joseph Ugoretz
Mary Pearl
Su Ng
Darren Staloff
Nathan Lents
Zoe Sheehan Saldana
Roni Natov
Alex Reichl
Steve Monte
David Rosenberg
Tom Koutavas
Richard Blot
Owen Gutfreund
Elizabeth Reis

College Council/Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes

(unofficial notes)
May 18, 2017
4:00-6:00pm
Classroom 3S

No quorum present. Open discussion meeting only.

Agenda

College Council

• Dean’s Remarks
• College Council Governance

• The committee reviewed and discussed a suggestion to change the By-laws with three additions: to revise wording on the Dean’s appointment of all faculty to Macaulay; to allow two members of the Directors Council to participate in the Council meetings as non-voting members; to allow members of the Directors Council to serve as non-voting members on standing committees.  Such decisions require passage by the CUNY trustees; it was concluded that a fuller group of Council members should review the current By-laws as part of a dedicated task force.

• Suggestion for election procedure for new Council membership. Emails will be sent to all eligible faculty, noting that people can self-nominate, and can nominate even if going on leave. Voters can select one nominee from their home campus, and one from another campus.

With no new business the College Council meeting is adjourned and the curriculum committee meeting will commence.

The meeting was adjourned.

Minutes from the meeting of the Macaulay College Council
April 21, 2017

(unofficial notes)

Classroom 2, 4-6pm
Members: Joseph Ugoretz, Mary Pearl, Darren Staloff, Nathan Lents, Zoe Sheehan Saldana, Roni Natov, Alex Reichl, Steve Monte, Catherine Lavender, David Rosenberg, Tom Koutavas, Richard Blot, Owen Gutfreund, Elizabeth Reis
Others: Su Ng

New courses:
Three proposals for Spring 2018 were reviewed by the Curriculum Committee

• The Politics of Disability (Elizabeth Reis) (approved)
• Shakespeare and Musical Adaptations of Shakespeare (Steven Monte) (some revision requested)
• Detecting Nonsense in the Age of Big Data (Kelly O’Donnell) (some revision requested)

Refining wording of thesis requirement options:

• The wording will be circulated; curriculum committee and MHC Directors will also be looped in.

Preparing Board of Trustees resolutions for Macaulay courses:

• A course is allowed to run three times through the Graduate Center. After that, it needs Board of Trustees approval in order to become a permanent part of the curriculum.

Intellectual Property agreement for new courses

• This would be for new courses proposed by non-CUNY faculty only.

Report on themed seminar 4 (cross-campus section)

• Thoughts on a themed seminar class:
  • A theme could be viewed as another hoop to jump through; however, the theme could then be made broader.
  • Hybrid approach: teach the theme but students pick their own research topic.
  • Any prerequisite would be a burden; would need to announce the pre-requisite well in advance.

Study Abroad/Internship requirement in new Opps Fund era

• The requirement has been part of the experiential learning component for Macaulay students.
• Opps Fund awards have never been need-based.
• Some students have other priorities or issues and can’t travel; could include study away as an option. Study away can be a substantive cultural experience. We would need good language to specify what that means.

Elections

• Brief discussion around holding elections and election requirements as the membership of some faculty on the council will expire.

New business

• Ann Kirschner and Rick Schaeffer are interested in teaching a cross-campus Seminar 4 class next year. Owen Gutfreund will advise them

There being no additional new business, the College Council meeting was adjourned.