Monthly Archives: December 2013

Executive Committee Minutes, 12/13 meeting

by John McMahon

I. 5-year response to 10-year review

  • Progress Report on 21 recommendations from external reviewers in 2008 review of the program: in-progress, in draft form
  • Plan is to use this as clarification/emphasis on asking for resources (e.g,. central line American Politics hire after Prof. Piven retires; hire in IR (in IPE)
  • Issues of discussion in report
    • Course offerings and role of consortial faculty
      • Some concern expressed that GC attempting to move away from having faculty from the campuses teach at GC
      • Fewer consortial faculty teaching at GC was true for budget reasons 1-3 years ago, but not the case now
      • Program enrollment numbers can maintain similar number and distribution of courses
      • Acknowledgment that program needs to do better institutionalizing process for recruiting, bringing in campus faculty to teach, get to know GC faculty and students, and eventually become consortial doctoral faculty
        • Obstacles: budgets, varying interest and relationships with the chairs of POLSC programs across CUNY
        • Currently, Core Seminar in program every year taught by faculty from a CUNY Campus (Prof. Majic this year, Prof. Feldman last year) with eye to adding them to doctoral faculty down the line
    • Need expressed to increase efforts to recruit MA students
    • Discussion over whether the 700-level/800-level distinction actually works in practice
      • Is there really a difference between the two? Often have 700-level courses with seminar papers
      • Program could make courses be worth any number of credits
        • Any adjustments would have to take into account what Fellowships will cover for international students and first year of out-of-state students before they get residency status
      • Student Reps asked to conduct survey of student body to gather data regarding experience and perception of 700/800-level distinction
        • Will take place in the Spring

II. Interim EO

  • Appointment decisions for Interim EO position entirely run through office of GC President and Provost
    • Current EO and many faculty expressed frustration that this process has yet to be completed by GC administration
    • No formal process for GC administration
    • No formal mechanism for faculty or student advising
  • Hopefully will find out soon
  • Prof. Rollins leaves program for sabbatical mid-January

III. Spring events

  • Resources exist for to invite speakers in Spring for talks on income inequality and related issues
    • May partly function as highly informal pre-recruitment situation to engage with potential future applicants for American Politics line once Prof. Piven retires
      • Upshot: GO TO THESE – may be chance for input down the line

IV. Gittell Professorship

  • kind of a mess: 2 failed searches for Gittell Professorship
    • one problem: difficulty finding one person for different programs (POLSC, Sociology, Psychology) to agree on

V. Website

  • Committee okays plan for semesterly review of student section of website to be conducted by Executive Committee student reps
  • after argument/discussion, student research interests will not be added to student portion of website

 

Grad Council Minutes, 12/11 Meeting

by Kristofer Petersen-Overton and Sarah Kostecki

I.   Approval of the Minutes: October 16, 2013

 

II.  Opening Comments – Interim President Robinson  

Robinson discussed the upcoming submission of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education accreditation report, due by June 1, 2015. He mentioned that standards have risen as Middle States attempts to bolster its reputation, but he’s confident the GC will be fine.

Stressing a new emphasis on training PhDs for extra-academic careers, Robinson bragged about a tweet from @versatilePhD: “@CUNYGradCenter is truly a model for 21st century doctoral ed! Dean Olan was inspiring! #CGS53”

Apparently we’re blazing the way in this area.

Finally, Robinson heaped praise on an article in the Huffington Post (“Why State Universities Are Best”), penned by GC alum, Gina Barreca: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-barreca/why-state-universities-ar_b_4420067.html

 

III. Committee on Curriculum and Degree Requirements (all passed without serious debate)

A. Major Items

1. Ph.D. Program in Psychology – Clinical Forensic Psychology – changes in curriculum

2. Ph.D. Program in Psychology – New Courses

a.  Evidence-Based Treatment of Adults with Severe Mental Illness

b.  Empirically Supported Treatments for Substance Abuse

c.  Structural Equation Modeling

d.  Hierarchical Linear Modeling

3. Ph.D. Program in Economics – New Course

a.  Panel Econometrics

4. Proposal for Certificate in Critical Theory

 

IV. Committee on Structure

The committee is currently reviewing various governance documents and has developed a template for programs revising their constitutions, policies, etc.

A. Revised Computer Science Program Governance

B. Revised English Program Governance    

 

V. University Faculty Senate – Report

The UFS Committee on Academic Freedom is concerned over CUNY’s draft policy on “expressive conduct” (see here: https://psc-cuny.org/sites/default/files/Expressive%20Conduct.pdf). It’s widely viewed as overreach, fallout from CUNY’s shuttering of the Morales/Shakur Center at CCNY (See here and here) and the charges CUNY is proceeding with against students. For now, the UFS is waiting to see what will happen. They have two potential problems with such a policy:

 

1) It might be taken to suggest a more constrained view of expression. There is a wide diversity of opinion about this among provosts and presidents, not to mention faculty at all the satellite schools. 2) The document might tie our hands at the campuses in favor of a centralized CUNY-wide policy. Policies that accommodate the balance between freedom of expression and teaching, learning and working should be left to the individual colleges to decide. Interim President Robinson suggested the balance is just right at the Grad Center and would not necessarily want to see the balance upset by overbearing rulings from CUNY central. He intends to resist any infringement of Grad Center autonomy on these issues.

At this point, Colin Ashley (Co-Chair for Business at the Doctoral Students Council, attempted to raise the issue of the Grad Council condemning any effort to regulate “expressive conduct.” The motion was tabled after interim President Robinson pointed out that a final draft is not yet ready and that it would be premature to oppose it until then. The DSC countered that any resolution would oppose “any attempt” to regulate expressive conduct as the faculty has done at places like Hunter and Brooklyn College. Still, the body voted to table the motion.

 

VI. New Business

No new business introduced.