School of Contemporary Arts
Unit Council Meeting
November 18, 2015
Attendance: Mary Ellen Allison, Marta Bautis, Bonnie Blake, Mack Brandon, Michael Bullock,
Rachel Budin, Peter Campbell, Danielle Catona, Regina Clark, Gilad Cohen, Meredith Davis,
Kelly Dolak, Marc Gidal, Andrew Hadel, Ann LePore, Rebecca Leung, Lisa Lutter, Ben Neill, Neel
Scott, Ruma Sen, Beba Shamash, Jackie Skrzynski, Sarah Stackhouse, Maria Vail, Terra Vandergaw,
Warner Wada, Joel Weissman.
Dean Perry called the meeting to order at 1:05 pm
Dean’s Announcements:
-Dean Perry requested that faculty submit their schedule of classes for Summer and Fall 2016 to the CA
office by Friday, December 11th .
-Dean Perry announced and congratulated Joel Weissman on his acceptance of the tenure track position as
Assistant Professor of Art/Sculpture effective September 1, 2016.
-Dean Perry announced Visual Arts’ faculty nomination of Jay Wholley for emeritus status was endorsed
by the unit; BOT to officially vote on the nomination at December 7th meeting.
-Dean Perry presented the FYS survey results to faculty and recommended that the school based model be
discontinued; faculty voted in favor of eliminating First Year Topics for CA, at least for the Fall 2016
semester.
Committee Reports:
-Jackie Skrzynski, CONNECT Faculty Advisory Board member for CA, shared a newsletter from the
Center for Student Success with updates on the progress and success of the system; encouraged faculty to
become familiarized with its options: set up faculty office hours, manage appointments, release
advisement holds, e-mail all students in their major etc.
-Neel Scott, International Education Committee representative, discussed Ramapo’s Strategic Initiatives
towards Internationalization of the Curriculum and requested for the proposed items to be discussed at
Convening Group meetings on December 9th; requested faculty feedback on the document by December
7th.
-Rebecca Leung, TLTR, the Spring deadline for grants is November 20th.
-Jackie Skrzynski, Gen Ed, gave update on survey and encouraged faculty to attend the next Faculty
Assembly meeting on Dec. 2nd.
Guests:
-Karen Kennedy, KPMG Mentoring Program, discussed the mission and process of the company’s
mentoring program and opportunities available to CA students; the program was established 9 years ago
and currently has over 65 students from various colleges/universities, it is a free program a recommended
for Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.
-Eileen Quaglino, Cahill Center, CA Co-op/Internship Advisor shared the FY 14-15 co-op annual report
and list of employers for CA co-ops, and briefly introduced the Employer in Residence program; those
interested in bringing a speaker on campus should contact her.
Meeting adjourned at 2:30 pm
Minutes Submitted by: Irene Grskovic, Unit Secretary