CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
CSBS CLIMATE COMMITTEE (CCC)
Minutes of Meeting: April 19, 2013;
Approved by Committee ___May 10, 2013_
Members Present: James Snead, Boris Ricks, Rasmita Dhruv, Kelly Winkleblack-Shea, Mario
Giraldo, Gabriela Chavira, , Leta Chow, Tiffany Newton, , AnnMarie Morlett, Michael Carter, ,
Anthony Ratcliff, Joy Bartley, Michael Gardner (new member), Sheila Grant (Chair)
Members Absent: Henrik Minassians (excused absence), Que-Lam Huynh (excused absence), Anita
Simon (excused absence), Miriam Neirick (excused absence), Moshoula Capous-Desyllas (excused
absence), Teresa Madden (new member, excused absence), Wendy Ashley, Christina Brown, Cynthia
Harris.
I.
Call to order 1:00 pm
II.
Roll Call - Quorum present
III.
Unanimous Approval of Minutes of March 15, 2012 Meeting, as amended.
IV.
Announcements (any member may bring pertinent happening to our attention)
1. Welcome new CCC members representing CSBS Lecturers:
Michael Gardner (Psychology) & Teresa Madden (Sociology)
2. Department Chairs: Managing Faculty Incivility & Bullying
(UCLA Department Chair Forums, April 24, 2013, 12-2:00 pm
3. Book: Bully in the Ivory Tower: How Aggression and Incivility Erode American Higher
Education by Leah P. Hollis, Ph.D.
V.
Status Report from Subcommittees:
(Including semester plans, e.g., regularity of meetings, review campus climate articles,
contact other campuses re: climate, proposed steps for assessment, etc.)
A. Staff-Faculty Comm: Kelly (chair), Anthony, Michael, Christina, Rasmita, Leta,
Reported that subcommittee did not meet but one of main goals of was successful with
the appointment of two PT faculty members to CCC;
B. Workload Issues: Tiffany (chair), Kelly, Miriam, Mario
Have not gotten much further but are still exploring issues
C. Privilege Issues: Gabriela (chair), Joy*, Tiffany*, Anthony, Wendy(?), Anita(?)
[*new members of subcommittee; ?non-responsive members]
Still working on planning Privilege Walk for Fall 2013
D. Assessment-Quantitative: Que-Lam ‘Q’, Henrik, Rasmita, Sheila –
ON HOLD pending results from Qualitative Subcommittee;
Election of chair once active
CCC Minutes, 4/19/13, p. 1 of 3
E. Mission Statement: Tiffany, Joy, AnnMarie; Mission completed.
F. Assessment-Qualitative: Moshoula (chair), James, Rasmita, Henrik, Boris
James Snead reported that 3 Faculty Focus Groups (FG)-full attendance but quite
different; Snead co-facilitated the faculty focus groups with Moshoula, who combined
the notes and is currently correlating them together into themes; FGs very productive;
appreciated food wrangling by psychology staff grist for thought; salary almost never
appeared; PT focus group pertained to the marginality (may be why most staff were
reticent to participate; Faculty felt a profound disjunction but often felt thwarted by
bureaucracy but seldom was directed at any person in particular, but ‘they’
Staff Focus Group: (Kelly and Rasmita) all very comfortable shared their thoughts;
same major issues, way people are treated to feel less than; staff feeling devalued; but
heard that some staff did not attend focus grps because they did not feel comfortable or
safe even if promised confidentiality
Staff Focus Group: (AnnMarie) salary, lack of communication from chairs and dept
coordinator & from dean’s office to staff; lack of respect
Staff Focus Group: (Joy and Leta) feeling disrespected or abandoned, not cared for,
isolated; hit home
James: The were certain degrees of emotions; people in general felt happy to have the
opportunity to talk; grateful to be there; learned things, a little better for that moment;
never had this opportunity before (this is an accomplishment)
Suggestion: (Michael Carter) maybe we should have a monthly venting scheduled and
available (twice a semester – open forum)
Boris Interested in created Diversity Index (lots of universities do this)
A Diversity Index includes the following:
Baseline & score-card see progress
4 indices (benchmark he used was the CSU system-wide):
Faculty demographics; Faculty retention
Student demographics; Student retention; Graduation rate
Staff demographics; Staff retention
G. CSBS Climate Committee Webpage Project: Joy (chair)
http://www.csun.edu/csbs/resources/CSBS_Climate_Committee/index.html
Tiffany Newton mentioned the possibility of getting a professional headshot of each
committee member by the campus photographer (especially for staff since CSBS
webmaster already has faculty photos)
The following suggestions were made for possible content of CCC webpage:
a. Book list relevant to climate issues in higher education
b. Link to UCLA’s Office of Ombuds Services
c. Link to things to do in order to be respectful (e.g., Rules of cubicle etiquette)
d. Community agreement, carried on syllabi, college ideals
e. Perhaps departments can come up with their community agreement among the
ten chairs and take to ACM with dean and combine to a college agreement
CCC Minutes, 4/19/13, p. 2 of 3
VI.
Continue Discussion Feasibility of College-level Ombuds Services
Website L.A. county ombudsman for all county employees
UC Riverside also has Ombuds services
VII.
Other Ideas for Improving CSBS College Climate (short-term and long-term)
To be discussed at next meeting
VIII. New Business
No new business.
IX.
Meeting adjourned: 3:04 pm
CCC Minutes, 4/19/13, p. 3 of 3