Deans’ Council Meeting
August 15, 2013
Attendees: B. Barnett, L. Chakrin, E. Saiff, S. Rosenberg, S. Rice, L. Chakrin and C. Romano,
and E. Daffron. Guests included: J. May, P. Rice, M. Dunn, and J. Jeney.
Michele Dunn the new registrar was introduced to the deans.
Summer Scheduling:
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Deans are asked to become more efficient and effective with summer schedule.
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Deans are also asked to look at courses that have been cancelled consistently and see if
they are doing any damage to overall schedule and enrollment.
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There have not been any Saturday-only classes in the last few years. If a Saturday
course is needed it can be combined and be run over the course of Summer I and II.
Thus, the Saturday session will be eliminated.

The provost decided that summer session days for in-seat classes will now be Monday,
Wednesday and Thursday, replacing the typical Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
schedule currently in place.
Ramapo’s early decision process - Deadline for early decision is Nov 1. – The Admissions
Office will make decisions by December 1. If accepted during early decision process, the
student agrees to come to Ramapo.
The multicultural open house has been deleted from the open house list as interest is small and
diversity has been increased through other initiatives.
C. Romano reviewed enrollment results.
Convener Appointments :
Must come to deans for their approval and then to the Provost. This information should be
provided by mid-summer. Provost would like to have this included in all the annual reports.
Gen Ed Update – Task forces met twice this summer. The next big meeting will be August 26
and 27 with guest speaker Ann McFerren. She will give a public talk on August 26. All are
encouraged to attend.
J. Jeney – Discussed the Affordable Health Care Act which may impact on adjunct scheduling.
A decision has been made by the Whitehouse to postpone implementation of this plan for
adjuncts until January 2015.
The NJ div of pensions and benefits has already determined that adjuncts will have to be
granted 8 hours credit for each day that they come to work. This will impact on adjunct
scheduling as once they reach 30 hours – Ramapo is required to offer benefits. Adjuncts can
teach two courses in two days or two courses in three days but cannot do two courses in four
days because that would make it 32 hours. According to the AFT, Ramapo should be hiring
people at full-time level if there is a need to teach 3 courses, with overload preferred over
additional adjunct hiring.
Faculty Offices – B. Barnett asked that deans make sure that every faculty member have an
office for the fall and that everyone knows where it is located.
The Provost would like to develop a task force to follow up on the 2003 grading task force; this
would review the progress of the last 10 years.
She would also like to engage a group of faculty for serious conversations about academics and
first year students.
Deans are to forward the name of at least one faculty member from their unit who will work on
the third year portion of the student engagement project.