Deans’ Council Meeting
Held: February 21, 2013
Attendees: B. Barnett, E. Daffron, L. Chakrin, E. Saiff, S. Perry, S. Rosenberg, E. Siecke, H.
Nejad, C. Romano and invited guests J. Connell, E. Rainforth and E. Karlin.
Review of RF Policy
B. Barnett welcomed J. Connell and C. Romano for discussion of the RF policy.
Original recommendation was to eliminate the due date for the RF application and instead
allow students to use their two RFs at any time during their academic careers when the RFs
benefitted them the most.
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Recommendation is to make this change effective fall of 2013.
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Deadline for closing the process would be the January 20th deadline for May graduation
or March 30th for August graduation.
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When this procedure is introduced to students it must be impressed upon them to repeat
the failed course as quickly as possible; thus ensuring that the course will still be
available to be repeated.
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Need to communicate accurately to everyone on campus about changes to procedures.
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There were no objections to this change among the deans. Procedure revision has to be
ready to go to Provost’s council – preferably in May 2013.
There was discussion on academic forgiveness and increasing the number of RF’s that a
student may be able to take – to be brought up at a future deans’ council meeting.
New Faculty Orientation – Lysandra Perez
Some Current Problems:

Ability to identify new hires in a timely way.

Providing orientation for adjunct faculty – more needs to be done by conveners or at the
unit level.

Trying to make sure new faculty are aware of the orientation and
Increasing attendance
Why faculty should be encouraged to participate:
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A lot of new faculty are unaware of CEC or ARC guidelines which can be covered in
the orientation.
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Suggestion to add faculty orientation dates in new faculty hire letters. Lysandra will
send deans the actual dates and links to program and deans will include in their
hire/welcome letters.
Faculty and Adjunct Hiring Process
Notes on discrepancies in 1st paragraph.
Suggestion for deans to work independently on the document and send corrected copy to
Provost. Once corrections or additions have been input will be reviewed again at next deans
council meeting.
There is no procedure for hiring adjuncts. This document will also need to be reviewed and
returned to Provost within a week, to be reviewed at next deans council meeting. C. Naporano
to resend the documents electronically to all deans for their input.
Course Scheduling
The Academic plan goal has been to launch a year-long schedule of courses. This will help
with advisement of students.
This topic will be reviewed more extensively at a deans council meeting in the fall, around Oct
15.
Provost would like to move away from scheduling classes once a week.; more classes should
be offered twice a week. In addition, the Provost would like to consider scheduling classes
both two and three times a week.
Enrollment Update
C. Romano gave an update on enrollment.
Public colleges in NJ – few schools are increasing enrollment – only 2 schools have increased
their numbers - Rowan and Stockton. All other state schools are decreasing in enrollment.
Fewer students are going to college – even community colleges are feeling the downturn.
Ramapo leveraging items:
Providing out of state students with housing scholarships.
A new scholarship is being launched for transfer students. This will be an SSAIS scholarship.
Up to three scholarships will be awarded to generate more enrollment in SSAIS. This is in
addition to the 475 traditional transfers. These students will have to remain an SSAIS student
their entire time at Ramapo in order to keep this scholarship.
E. Rainforth – ARC – Curriculum Policy
This policy/procedure focuses on majors, minors, tracks and concentrations. Comments on this
policy were encouraged so that it can be brought to Provosts Council on Feb. 28.
Elementary Algebra
E. Saiff – gave a proposal that was developed by the Math convening group on enrolling
students directly into a Pre-Calculus course. This option would be available to students who
test into Elementary Algebra topics course and score between 41 and 64. It would also require
a weekly 30 minute Precalculus Developmental session. One of the benefits of the program
would be allowing the student to skip a semester of a developmental math course; there are
also indications that one less Elementary Algebra class could be offered in the future.
There was a request for more supporting data; the provost also noted that this proposal could
be considered at the upcoming provost’s council meeting.
Celebration of Creativity
E. Karlin – Discussed a proposal called “Celebration of Creativity.” This idea came from a
COPLAC conference where there was a discussion on Increasing the celebration or recognition
of students engaging in faculty student research.
The Provost has already asked SPFF for funding for this event.
An inaugural event has been proposed for May 1 for up to 24 students. All students would be
welcome to participate, but they would have to submit an abstract and have the backing of the
convening group. A selection committee would review all entries. A webpage that celebrates
the event would also be developed. Submissions would be due April 8. Budgetary items will
have to be worked through J. Capizzi in the Provost’s Office.
General Education
Discussion of task forces and their charges.