Baruch College Faculty Senate Plenary Meeting
Minutes of December 3, 2015
MINUTES
Senators Attending: E. Axelrod (Law), M. Carew (Eco/Fin), C. Christoforatou (ENG), A. Croker
(S/CIS), B. Ferns (S/CIS), W. Finke (ModLang), K. Frank (ENG), R. Freedman (ZSB), A. Grein
(Mkt/Int’lBus), K. Guest (Soc./Anth), C. Hessel (Eco/Fin), R. Jain (S/CIS), S. Johnson (PSY), D. Jones
(PolSci), G. Jurkevich (Acct) A. Levitus (CNSLNG/PSY), T. Martell (Eco/Fin), B W. McClellan (ENG),.
Murphy (HIS), J. O'Keefe Bazzoni (COMM), R. Ormsby (LIB), A. Pearlman (PSY), L. Rath (LIB), M.
Seltzer (SPA) M. Stark (SPA), A.Vora (Eco/Fin), S. Wine (S/CIS), R. Yue (S/CIS) .
Senators Absent: C. Bellamy (Soc./Anth), S. Dishart (COMM), C. Gengler (Mkt/Int’lBus ), M.
Goodman (COMM), D. Howard (Math), G. Jurkevich (ModLang), S. Korenman (SPA), C. Kulatilleke
(NatSci),
T. Main (SPA), M. Ozbilgin (ACC), G. Petersen (Soc./Anth), J. Peifer (Mgt.), R. Sawant (Mkt.), P. Sethi
(MGT), J. Weiser (Law), S. Wong (MTH), J. Ye (ACC) Yin (MGT).
Twenty-eight additional members of the faculty and staff noted their presence. Making a total attendance
of 61.
The meeting was convened at 12:45 p.m. in VC 14-250 by Professor Chris. Hessel, Chair of the Baruch
Faculty Senate.
I.
II.
Approval of Agenda: The agenda was approved by assent.
Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of Meeting of November 5, 2015 were approved by assent.
III.
Report from the Chair: Professor Petersen asked that the agenda be modified to include a report
from Professor Martell. Professor Frank requested a motion to add consider the “teacher
evaluation process” as that process is commencing this week. Both motions were seconded and
approved by assent.
IV.
Report of the Provost: Provost Christy reported –
WSAS SEARCH: We have welcomed one candidate and three more will arrive during the next two
weeks. We hope to conduct background checks in early January and move to a preliminary offer
in mid-January. Participation in the first visit was quite good, and I thank the faculty and staff for
their interest. I revised the timing of the release of candidate CVs in response to faculty concerns,
but at the same time seek to insure that the candidate vetting process is consistent with
employment regulations. The second candidate will visit Monday and Tuesday, the third
Wednesday and Thursday, and the final person on December 14&15.
COACHE UPDATE: Executive Vice Chancellor Vita Rabinowitz reviewed the system-wide
COACHE data with the University Faculty Senate. Recall that COACHE is a faculty job
satisfaction survey that was administered to all full time faculty without administrative
responsibilities and who were not on leave during the last academic year. The University Faculty
Senate has been a great partner in this process. At the request of our Baruch data analysis team,
we were able to get summary data from individual senior colleges, but not the unit response data
that we have for our campus. I look forward to our faculty report so that we can plan programs
that are indicated by the data.
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INFORMATION: Katrin Hansing rejoins the faculty next semester, returning to her position of
tenured Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STUDENT STATEMENT: I continue to raise the issue of requiring
Baruch students to write and sign a statement indicating that they neither gave nor received
inappropriate assistance on an exam, project, homework, or paper. I hope to revise the proposal
based upon issues raised in this vetting process so that if this comes to a faculty vote, issues have
been discussed and we have reached a consensus.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: VP Cobb organized a presentation for the President’s Cabinet a
week prior to the Paris terrorist attack. We are working with NYPD, Homeland Security, and our
campus offices to determine the best advice and procedures that we can put into place in case of an
active shooter or similar event.
Professor Petersen commented on the return of Professor Katrin Hansing to the Department of
Sociology-Anthropology. Professor Brinkman inquired that the Provost provide the candidate’s
materials prior to the interview process. Provost Christy indicated that he was trying to find a
balance between candidate confidentiality and timeliness of background material. Professor
Axelrod inquired as to the grade of WU. He indicated that current policy seems to be in conflict
with the requirement for attendance. Provost Christy responded that in fact there are contradictions
in the several policies governing the WU grade. Professor Petersen suggested that he dissented
from the present policy by insisting on class attendance. Professor Gordon noted that this set of
contradictions were derived from the installation of CUNY 1st. Professor Martell noted that the
CUNY Board of Trustees enacted a new policy for President searches, which would permit
“private” searches off campus. He stated that he was the author of that policy. Professor Petersen
moved that the Faculty Senate oppose any process that avoids open forum searches. Professor
Martell took strong dissent from Professor Petersen’s perspective. Professor Vora inquired of the
University Faculty Senate vote on this Trustee’s action. Professor McClinnon noted the passing of
Professor Lambert. Professor Frank noted that incentives are being provided for participation in
teacher evaluations. He stated that in his view this process of incentives was immoral. He then cast
his views in a motion condemning these incentives. Chairman Hessel indicated that a vote today
would be a violation of Faculty Senate practice. Professor Ferns noted that in fact the Faculty
Senate by-laws did permit a vote. Professor Slavin dissented from the motion. Professor Allen
spoke in favor of the motion the motion was approved.
V.
VI.
New Business: Chair Hessel spoke to the issue of faculty attendance at various meeting. He
requested that each of the sixteen tables conduct informal discussion of issue. The results of these
deliberations will subsequently be analyzed and posted to the Faculty Senate web-site. Professor
Seltzer indicated that all attendees provide their views of the issue
Announcements: None.
Meeting Adjourned at 2:30 pm
Respectfully Submitted
Michael G. Carew,
Baruch Faculty Senate Secretary
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Appended per Chair Hessel’s request:
Dear Chris, as discussed, here were the takeaways from the CUNY Faculty Governance Leaders
meeting that I attended in your stead:


Terry Martell.
o USS outreach. The UFS has been reaching out to the Undergraduate Student
Senate, which remains adamantly opposed to a tuition hike.
o Revised presidential search guidelines. These have gone to the Board of
Trustees. The Administration wanted a greater ability to keep candidate names
confidential through the whole process, since otherwise good candidates were
discouraged. In order to maintain (or improve) faculty participation, the
Administration will have the ability to avoid an open candidate forum. Instead,
campus faculty and student governance leaders will be named to participate in
confidential off-campus candidate interviews.
Chancellor JB Milliken.
o Contract and salary. The Chancellor focused on the need for a new contract after
six years without one, noting that retaining first-rate faculty is critical for
providing CUNY students with a first-rate education. This has been a difficult
task because the maintenance of effort bill, passed by the legislature around June,
has yet to make it to the Governor's desk, and the Governor's budget imposed a
$50 million budget cut on CUNY and has indicated that CUNY needs to fund its
own contract. The Chancellor requested budget savings from the colleges starting
last summer in the hope of meeting the cuts with enough left over to fund a salary
package. He has made what he considers an aggressive proposal that takes some
financial risk, but it still prudent for CUNY. He acknowledges that, in the
absence of a tuition raise or additional state support, faculty are likely to consider
the package to be small. (You might like my recent UFS Blog post, CUNY -Leader in Mobility (Both Ways).)
o 21st Century CUNY strategic planning initiatives. In our discussion, I
misremembered these items as being discussed by 21st Century CUNY consultant
Anthony Knerr, who was unable to make the meeting.
 Milliken priorities. Chancellor Millken focused on the strategic planning
process (with Terry Martell a member of the committee), and in
particular addressing student preparation (given the large percent of
students needing remediation) and plans for improved CUNY branding
and a capital campaign targeting major donors.
 21st Century CUNY seeks faculty suggestions on strategic planning. As
you and I discussed, since CUNY would like to expand the university's
Executive Masters programs and its global reach, your experience with the
Zicklin Executive MBA in China would be valuable. As discussed, the
euphoria accompanying the program launch was not matched by a valueadded strategy that would attract students who could attend less-expensive
domestic Chinese universities. In addition, we discussed both of our
experiences with niche executive programs where Zicklin had a clear
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value-added proposition -- and then failed to follow up by marketing these
niche programs elsewhere, or cross-selling additional niche
programs. The window for additional 21st Century comments is closing,
but it would be helpful if you could send yours to Anthony Knerr, with a
copy to UFS Blog editor Emily Tai and to me. We've been republishing
21st Century CUNY submissions as UFS Blog posts.

Vita Rabinowitz, University Provost. A major focus (and one new to her, given her
previous position as Hunter Provost) has been remediation and its impact on graduation
rates. At community colleges, 80% need some remediation, 70% need math and 66%
don't graduate. They are exploring the effects of Pathways on this, in addition to a
number of remediation initiatives such as ASAP. All this was discussed in detail at the
UFS Spring Conference, Supporting Academic Success through NYC's Education
System K-16.

Suri Duitch Experiential Learning followup.
o As part of the process required by the state legislation, the experiential learning
team has sent questionnaires out to all campuses seeking to inventory current
experiential learning efforts (courses, internships, etc.). These have often gone to
provosts' offices, and based on the comments of the FGLs, there has been little
consultation with faculty on many campuses. FGLs were urged to contact their
campus provosts to determine the status of the survey and provide faculty input.
o One of the difficulties is that there is no single definition of experiential learning,
and because of the possible variations, no one person on any campus necessarily
knows all the current initiatives. However, the questionnaire will build our
knowledge of what is currently there, and allow reporting back to the state. There
are no current plans to make experiential learning a graduation requirement.
o The reports are supposed to go to the CUNY Board of Trustees April meeting.

COACHE Survey: results have been distributed to faculty at all campuses. Faculty
governance bodies are reviewing.
Jay Weiser
Associate Professor of Law
Zicklin School of Business
Baruch College
1 Bernard Baruch Way Box B9-225
New York, NY 10010
(e-mail) jay.weiser@gmail.com
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