Dean’s Council Meeting
Held: March 29, 2012
Attendees: B. Barnett, E. Daffron, L. Siecke, L. Chakrin, S. Perry, E. Saiff, H. Nejad, S.
Rosenberg
B. Barnett welcomed R. Brown, E. Davis and E. Seavers to speak about Platinum Funding and
Honor Societies.
Platinum Funding - observations and recommendations on the program – E. Davis and
Graduate Assistant will be main points of contact for Platinum Funding.
Transportation Costs:
Faculty when submitting requests for funding have not always included cost of transportation.
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Van drivers are not available free of charge.
Van driver for Ramapo can accommodate 13 passengers in van.
Many of the events that are funded are for more than 13 students.
Ramapo van or driver cannot be guaranteed.
Another option is to purchase bus tickets through Ramapo Central or reserve the Coach Bus
Service which costs approximately $700. The bus holds a maximum of 54 passengers. School
buses are also available for hire but are usually only available on nights and weekends.
E. Seavers suggested that all faculty prior to submitting requests to deans should have a
meeting with the Center for Student Involvement (CSI) office. One of the things to discuss in
this meeting would be transportation as well as other details such as running trips on
appropriate days. Also, are faculty comfortable leading the trip? If they are not comfortable a
student staff member could also travel along with the trip.
Discussion on training and review for using Org Sync forms for faculty and deans, and
timelines and requests for funding.
Honor Societies – R. Brown would like a process with a committee or standards to decide
how to vet honor societies on campus.
Honor Societies all receive $750 in funding, and almost all have an academic advisor.
B. Barnett wants to know
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if criteria are necessary and
how accountable do we hold these organizations for what they do
R. Brown is trying to promote the idea of honor societies to students earlier on in their
academic career but there is still a need to define what it means to be a member of an honor
society.
He suggested Academic Affairs appoint a person who can help keep track of what is happening
with these honors organizations.
There is also a need for a web page that lists all the honor societies and their affiliates.
B. Barnett will approach Professor A. Lorentz to see if he would be willing to represent
academic affairs with the honor societies.
Procedures for 607 – Guidelines for Centers & Institutes –
The procedure states that centers must be self-sustaining, centers must have a director with
obligations to the dean or the provost. The procedure will be left for deans to review and will
be brought up at the 4/19 Provosts’ Council meeting as an information item. Comments can be
sent to B. Barnett.
Policy/Procedure 300-Z – Minimum and Maximum Course Enrollment. Discussion on
procedure and the minimum number of students needed for enrollment.
B. Barnett does not wish to make exceptions to the policy and would rather concentrate on
recruitment and raising enrollment. She also stressed:
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There is a need to do more marketing.
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Graduate programs have to stand on their own financially.
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Graduate programs should be marketed internally as well as externally.
Special consideration will be given to 400-level or capstone courses. At no time should the
maximum drop below 17.
Under Reason for Policy: S. Perry would change maximum to optimum learning experience.
There was more discussion on lack of classroom space.
Searches – There are two searches ongoing – assistant dean of Teacher Education and the
MBA director. Faculty have raised concerns about faculty rank and tenure in these positions.
B. Barnett stated that there is a BOT policy that allows Ramapo to grant tenure after two years
of service, and faculty rank on hire to academic administrators. This applies to deans and
assistant deans (including the assistant dean for teacher education). They will be hired with
faculty rank. The Director of the MBA program is not eligible for tenure and will not hold
faculty rank.
S. Perry – Update on Strategic Plan –
P. Mercer reviewed his principles from his perspective: keeping undergraduate enrollment
stable, and not increasing the size of the college.
Review of what subcommittees had come up with in terms of responding to the existing plan.
B. Goldstein had pulled together a set of definitions of terms that appeared in mission
statement and that are worthy of being defined someplace in the strategic planning document.
Language should be consistent throughout the definitions.
There is a need to align the pillars of the college with the whole academic enterprise –
reinforcing across the curriculum and delivering on the promise.
A subcommittee was formed to review the recommendations that the middle states team had
returned to Ramapo.
Within 2 or 3 weeks the committee will start to work on stating the goals and objectives.