Tag Archives: curriculum

5/8 Graduate Council Meeting minutes

by Jessica Mahlbacher
I. Approval of the Minutes: March 5, 2014 – Interim President Robinson p.13
A. Minutes approved! Chase was very thankful.
II. Opening Comments – Interim President Robinson
A. State Budget Announcement:
1. Good News:
a. Major colleges received an additional 45 million in funds to primarily to cover fringe benefits.
b. They will also receive 65 million to cover the increased tuition revenue, much of that is to cover the difference between tap assistance and the rising tuition level.
TAP has been raised from 5154
c. Community colleges did well, and will now receive 75 dollars more per student from the state.
d. Good for capital funding
2. Okay news:
a. The state is not funding the costs of moving the faculty through contractual steps, this is now on the university.
b. There is some variance in terms of state bureaucratic commitment to assisting CUNY in closing the gap between TAP assistance and rising tuition levels.
c. There were also a number of smaller programs funded by the state.
d. Moderate decrease in what the state is going to allocate for maintenance, but an increase in strategic projects. Chase did not want to proclaim doom and gloom too soon, but the building is 40-50 years old. While the building has been well looked after, we are incurring costs all of the time, including a new set of chillers (which should in the long run save us money).
3. Chase Robinson: “The future is… obscure”: next year will be the end of the five year contract and the governor’s race is coming up. The current occupant of the gubernatorial seat likes to style himself as a “cost-conscious democrat.”
a. The biggest variable is the modified priority of an incoming chancellor. This will not cause problems in the upcoming fiscal year, but it will affect the long run.
B. Commencement!:
1. Dance card for the event
a. There will be the awarding of a Distinguished Alumni Medal: Carol J. Oja https://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/faculty/coja.html
b. Chase wants this to be continued and perhaps expanded, at the very least institutionalized.
c. Professor Uday Mehta will be giving the faculty address, Suzanne Tamang of Computer Science will be giving the student address.
d. The Chancellor will come!
C. Chase wanted to give a shout out to this event with Thomas Piketty. Even has had millions of youtube views.
D. Student Awards:
1. 2 graduate NSF research fellowships
2. The Society of Behavioral Medicine awarded a Distinguished Award for Student Research in 2014
3. One Guggenheim Fellowship to a recent alumni in Philosophy
E. Faculty Honors:
1. Two of the faculty were chosen to be on the National Academy of Science’s panel on the integration of immigrants into American society
2. Matt Gold and the Digital Humanities crew won an NEH start up grant
3. Michelle Fine 2014 Recipient of the Education Award from the Center for Fair and Open Testing
4. The EO of Physics won the Jefferson Science Fellowship Award from the State department
F. Recent Faculty Appointments (Props to the Provost and the English Department:
1. Eric Lott will join the English Department, from the UVA. Also American Studies
2. Feisal Mohamed will join the Department of English in 2015 from the University of Illinois.
3. Chase is delighted for them.
G. Offers are out Urban Education, Anthropology, Jewish Studies, Psychology. It may be awhile before closure.
H. Admission Season (Final numbers will not be ready until the fall).
1. Total number of applications is slightly higher than last year (by 9!), in spite of concerns that it would be down. Chase is heartened by this considering anecdotal evidence points to the national numbers being down.
2. The number of offers is the same as last year.
3. Chase thanked everyone for their hard work, particular props go to the Provost.
4. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it was an extremely strong season, filled with quality students.
I. The Doctoral Student Parental Policy is out, Chase thinks the product is sweet. Props to the members of the Provost and members of the DSC (including our own Sarah Kostecki)
1. Accommodations up through the age of six
2. This is a two year pilot program, this can be tweaked as needed.
3. Chase advises that under this policy, one can have a plethora of children, but they have to be sequential. No doubling up due to twins, triplets, sextuplets etc. “Live long and multiply, but not at the same time!”
III. Granting of Degrees and Certificates to May 2014 – Interim Provost Lennihan
A. Doctor of Philosophy Degree is given to 120 candidates, the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree is given to 1 candidate, Masters of Arts Degree is given to 48 candidates, Master of Philosophy Degree is given to 121 candidates, the Doctor of Cardiology is given to 9 candidates, Doctor of Physical Therapy is given to 47 candidates, and the Doctor of Public Health be given to 1 candidate.
B. Motioned, seconded. Nobody disapproved.
IV. Results of Election to College Association – Professor Thistlethwaite
A. Klara Marton from Speech, Language and Hearing Science
B. Herb Saltzstein from Psychology
C. Thom Thurston from Economics
V. Nominations for two faculty to serve on the Student Complaint Appeals Committee for 2014-2015 -Professor Thistlethwaite (only faculty can make nominations)
A. The biggest single issue that Polly wanted to highlight, and was highlighted repeatedly, was the issue of preferential voting. All candidates, no matter how many there are, have to be ranked under the system of preferential voting. Anyone who puts down their choices, without ranking all of the choices has their vote disqualified. Not for the whole ballot, for that particular slate.

VI. Nominations for Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary of Graduate Council for 2014-2016 – Professor Thistlethwaite
A. The chair and the vice chair have to be faculty members, the secretary can be faculty or a student.
B. Marty Burke as chair for 4 years. No one wanted to take this away from him.
C. Gerald Creed has been Vice-Chair. He was (quietly) begging for competition. Somebody nominated Jeremy Porter from Sociology. He decided to stand for the election. Polly said that all we were allowed to know was the department. No one started the revolution.
D. Polly announced that she, as the current Secretary, was the only one who had put her hat in the ring for this position. She hoped for competition. All she got was polite laughter.
VII. Committee on Committees Presentation of nominees for Standing Committees for 2014-2016 -Professor Thistlethwaite
A. There was confusion over whether students could only vote for students, and faculty could only vote for faculty. It was decided that nominations could be made by faculty for faculty, and students could only nominate students, but that everyone could vote for everyone.
B. It is not clear yet whether students’ votes actually count for the faculty, but they figured they could disaggregate the vote to ensure that policy is followed.
C. The Committee on Research is the most popular committee in town.
D. There was no excitement for the rest of the elections for the standing committees. No last minute nominations.
E. The nomination and elections process took a good 35 minutes. Chase warned that we had not heard the last of preferential voting. Clearly its minutes were numbered.
VIII. Committee on Curriculum and Degree Requirements – Ms. Anne Donlon p.17
A. Change to PhD in Computer Science, the new first exam is getting a 70% or higher on the algorithms test and a B+ average in the 4 core classes. New Classes added.
B. Change in Criminal Justice PhD, elimination of Forensic Science specialization. John Jay had provided the funding, and they elected to no longer spend the money. Current students shall be supported.
C. PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages Changes to Admission and Requirements. Two new core courses as well.
D. PhD program in Nursing- Changes First Examination: “State of the Science” paper.
E. New MALS track in Childhood and Youth Studies and two new courses, Introduction to Childhood and Youth Studies, Childhood and Youth Studies. Potential link with the Brooklyn BA program, no MA exists like this yet in CUNY.
F. 0 credit course on prospectus and dissertation seminar for Philosophy department
G. The department of Public Health is trying to make the tracks more distinct in accordance with their accrediting body. They are changing the credits and also adding new courses.
IX. Minor Items
A. Change to 2 HLBLL courses
B. Computer Science is changing credit hours for 3-4, and then the Seminar “Research at CUNY” is now the “Research Survey”
X. Committee on Structure:
A. Changes to the Bylaws and the governance of the Graduate School from the governance. Get rid of preferential voting, instead going with plurality voting. That was not voted on in the session, the “Committee on Committees” gets the final say in how the voting would take place.
1. Chase points out that the arcane elements of preferential voting are not fully appreciated. Many people will not know “how to compare a candidate that we do not know well with a candidate that we do not know at all.”
2. The Committee on Structure is most concerned about disenfranchisement. Proper filling out of paperwork
3. Polly is also worried about the distribution of candidates, and the large number of candidates for committees such as Research
4. In the end, preferential voting was eliminated from the bylaws and the governance.
C. New governance for the Masters in Middle Eastern Studies.
D. Revised governance for the Women’s Studies Program.
XI. Presentation of the Standing Committees
XII. Professor Burke gave a report from the university faculty senate.
A. Still short on alternates for the Faculty Senate
B. Project for a larger institutional repository program is still in process, it is hoped this will be tied to the CUNY commons. It should be voluntary, not mandatory.

 

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.

Grad Council Meeting – March 6th

by Sarah Kostecki and Kristofer Petersen-Overton

Overview:

I. Approval of minutes of December 12, 2012
II. Opening comments
III. Granting of Degrees and Certificates to February 2013 Phd, DMA, MA, M.Phil, DPT candidates (only faculty voted on this item)
IV. Nominations for two faculty to serve on the the Student Complaint Appeals Committee for 2013 – 2014
V. Committee on Curriculum and Degree requirements
VI. Structure Committee
VII. University Faculty Senate – Report
VIII. New Business

——-

I. President Bill Kelly and the Council approved the minutes from December 12, 2012

II. President Kelly then made his opening comments:

a) Budget – nothing to report. The current 5 yr. agreement will continue as planned for the next 3 years
b) Sequester – President Kelly and others are “maintaining consciousness” of the current sequester at the federal level. There is always the potential that cuts could make their way to the state and city level. No planned changes due to the sequester at present.
c) Update on 2012 – 2016 Strategic Plan – 3 Main Goals:
1) Enhance finance support – He gave a recap of the incremental rise in PhD financial support since 2006 and has noted that support has gradually become more generous (as we all know). In 2006 the university first began tuition remission. In 2009 – out of state/international ECF’s became available. NYSHIP was also extended to adjuncts and other ECF’s. 2011 – the opening of the first residential facility.
2013 –
New students:
-New ECF’s will go into effect, value of 25K and 1/1 teaching load.
-All incoming students without an ECF will receive 5 year full tuition fellowships and will be placed into teaching positions as they become available
-Goal is that in 5 years all PhD students will be fully funded
-In total 52 million was added to financial aid roles for Fall 2013
Continuing students:
-University has expanded en route support to current PhD students (no further details)
-Expansion of dissertation fellowships – in 2013 70 fellowships were awarded totaling 1.2 million. In 2014 the goal is to expand dissertation funding and award 85 fellowships totaling 1.5 million.
Fellowships will also include full tuition.
-ARC (Advanced Research Initiative), The Demography Program, and Digital Initiatives expansion will also provide more funding opportunities to students
-Harrison Fellowships (based on academic merit and need) – funding has increase almost 96% over the past few years
Teaching disparities between current and incoming GTFs
-President Kelly said this issue will be addressed in 2014. They are identifying resources and partnerships that will help decrease the work load of current GTFs (no further detail was given)

2) Expand professional development
-As already communicated, Jennifer Furlong of Penn, NYU and the Chronicle of Higher Ed began as the head of the new Office of Career Planning and Professional development earlier this year.
She will speak at a future Grad Council Meeting.
The office was put into place as a direct result of the Spring 2012 student survey. While 88 percent of students stated they were satisfied with Grad Center resources, lack of professional
development was a concern.
3) Deepen the culture of collaborative research
-The GC’s goal is to identify important topics of increased academic interest, ie. – globalization and inequality – and provide opportunities for faculty, students, and outside scholars to work together
on collaborative research initiatives that focus on these topics. The Provost will address this more during the next Grad Council meeting.

Other topics:
1) The rooftop project will get underway this summer. A glass pavilion will be installed on the roof of 34th and 5th that will hold GC events. New artwork and a stairway will be installed.
2) Glass canopies. The glass canopies over the doors to the GC are finally being fixed. Apparently it took a while to find someone to fabricate the lost and broken pieces to match what was already there.

II. Granting of Degrees – Provost Robinson then took the floor to announcing the granting of degrees (Approved by faculty only).

III. Polly Thistlewaite announced the 2 nominations to the Student Complaint Appeals Committee; Victoria Pitts Taylor (Sociology) and David Gordon (History) (both approved). No additional nominations were made.

IV.  Our own Joe Rollins announced curriculum and degree changes. 16 changes total. Kris and I voted for all of them.

a. Major items
1) DNS – Nursing Science – Change in Admissions requirements (Approved).
2) Doctor of Physical Therapy program – CSI – Change to degree program – PHT 80000 to summer program new course – PHT – 80000, Revised Course – PHT 80500 – Reduction in credits from 3 to 2
3) PhD Music – Change to Degree Program – Revisions to First examination and Course requirements (Approved).
4) Doctor of Public Health – Creating a New Concentration in Maternal, Child, Reproductive, and Sexual Health and New Courses – PUBH 870 – Maternal Child, Reproductive and Sexual Health in Context, and PUBH 871 – Maternal, Child, Reproductive and Sexual Health – A life course (Approved).
5) PhD program in Clinical Psychology at Queens college – Increase in credits from 81 to 90. ****Discrepancy here on the voting ballots. Ballots said a decrease in credits from 90 – 81 instead of an increase in credits from 81 to 90. This was noted and approved under the condition the ballot would be re-worded (Approved).
New Courses – Psych 85408 – Supervision and Consultation, Psych 82908 – systems of Psychotherapy. Changes in existing courses – Name Changes: Psych 71000 – Advanced Physiological Psychology is now Sensory and Motor Systems. Psych 82908 – Psychodiagnostics 1: Interviewing and Assessment of Intelligence and Personality is now Psychodiagnostics 1: Intelligence Testing. Psych 766 – Psychodiagnostics II: Applied Assessment, Consultation and Supervision is now Psychodiagnostics II: Personality Assessment (Approved).
6) PhD program in Behavior Analysis – Program reduction in credits from 72 to 60 (Approved).

VI. Governance Structures and Bylaws – Professor Barbara Weinstein then walked us through a few changes to governance structures and bylaws.

a. Africana Studies – New Governance structure (Approved)
b. Change to Graduate School Governance – Section 4.2 E – Change to certificate program language (Approved)
c. Change to Graduate Council Bylaws – Addition of “one elected representative from among the Library Faculty” to section 2.1F  – Members Ex Officio and Appointed Members of Graduate Council (Approved)

VII. University Faculty Senate (UFS) –  Professor Stefan Baumrin then gave us a report on the UFS
1) The Chancellor spoke yesterday regarding putting more resources behind interdisciplinary masters degree programs at CUNY Campuses. Many were closed in the 70/80’s and need to be recreated. Faculty are invited to share their suggestions.
2) John Jay/Brooklyn College/School of Professional Studies – the names of students and faculty were made public on a site called Inyourclass.com<https://inyourclass.com/>, with no way of requesting removal of your name. Prof. Baumrin said this invasion of privacy did not go through review boards and doesn’t anticipate something like this happening at the GC.
3) Kroll Report – A report by private security company Kroll on the protest that took place at Baruch College on November 21st, 2011 was published in January. For those of us who were there and witnessed the violence unleashed against protesters, the report is a white-wash. It’s available online here: https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/chancellor/Kroll-Report2013.pdf Check out Occupy CUNY’s response here: https://occupycunynews.org/2013/01/25/12-things-to-know-about-the-kroll-report/
4) CUNY Portal – 800 more Pathways Initiatives are now a part of university curriculum
5) Cuny 2020 – 50 million dollars worth of grant money has been set aside for grant competitions. CUNY colleges will be able to propose and compete for resources that foster economic development and employment opportunities. See a statement of this initiative here: https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/01/22/statement-by-chancellor-matthew-goldstein-on-governor-andrew-cuomo’s-2013-14-executive-budget-proposal/<https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/01/22/statement-by-chancellor-matthew-goldstein-on-governor-andrew-cuomo%E2%80%99s-2013-14-executive-budget-proposal/>
6) UFS will be moving to 42nd street from 80th street on the 15th of March

VIII. New Business – President Kelly then closed out the session with new business. A few things to note here:
1) Someone asked if CUNY would be able to take over the SIBL and OUP space once these partners leave the building.
President Kelly answer: NO. Capital funds would need to pay for this and it won’t happen.
2) Someone else asked if the main elevators now go up to the 10th floor pavilion.
President Kelly answer: NO. This can’t happen because CUNY would have to make all elevators handicap accessible. There will be separate (handicap accessible) elevator access to the roof.
3) A student asked if CUNY would be adding NYSHIP healthcare to the dissertation fellowships.
President Kelly answer: The GC can only offer NYSHIP to students if they are employed by one of the campuses. Pres. Kelly and others are working on an arrangement where dissertation fellowships will be attached with an appointment at the GC or another CUNY campus so that students can continue to receive healthcare while they are writing their dissertation. He didn’t offer any detail as to what these appointment might be, or how many hours a week students would be required to work.

 

December Grad Council Meeting

by Sarah Kostecki and Kristofer Petersen-Overton

Overview
I. President Kelly
II. Prof. Rollins on curriculum and degree changes
III. University Faculty Senate report
IV. New business

I. President Kelly on the state of the university:

a. No sign of budget cuts that would affect the GC and an attempt to open a new residence hall in Long Island City is in the works. The one in Harlem very popular (there’s a long waiting list) and in the green, much to everyone’s surprise.
b. The GC continues to push for better student funding packages, while simultaneously reducing incoming class size; the goal, according to Kelly is to “make sure each incoming class has better funding than the previous…” They’re also exploring ways to offer greater funding opportunities for current students and those in dissertation phase especially.
c. An emphasis on professional development is set take effect next semester. The GC just hired Jennifer Furlong of the Chronicle of Higher Education to lead the professional development initiative beginning this February (nothing more specific was offered). The idea is to offer greater placement opportunities for graduating students. Furlong recently helped NYU develope a similar focus on professional development.
Also, Kelly announced that new digital signs will replace the easels by the elevators on each floor. New spaces will be made available for posters and fliers.
II. The “dapper” Professor Rollins walked us through curriculum and degree changes. Nothing big here. Sarah and I voted in favor of each item.
Major items:
a. MALS – New track in Sustainability , Science, and Education (Approved)
b. MALS – New course MALS 75600 Sustainability and Human Ecodynamics (Approved)
c. MALS – New course MALS 75700 Field Course in Island Long Term Human Ecodynamics (Approved)
d. MALS – New track in individualized studies (Approved)
e. Ph.D. program in Psychology – LPBA name change (Approved)
f. Ph. D. program in Comparative Literature – Change in language requirement (Approved)
Minor items:
a. MALS 70500 – Repeatable course, change to existing course (Approved)
b. Ph.D. Program in Anthropology – Human anatomy change in course credits, change to existing course (Approved)

III. The University Faculty Senate (UFS) reported on its recent passage (63-3) of a non-binding board resolution to place a moratorium on the infamous Pathways initiative. Though non-binding, the resolution is the strongest rebuke yet to Chancellor Goldstein and his minions — ahem — administration. If you’re interested in the content of the resolution, you can find it here: https://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2012/12/10/pathways-resolution/ Moreover, the UFS is launching an investigation into the possible impact of Pathways. The investigation is slated to begin immediately, though doubts were expressed as to whether or not such an effort could begin so soon.

The UFS also reported that NY state has cut funding in a way that reduces CCNY’s budget for furniture and equipment by $120 million. Chancellor Goldstein has said there is funding set aside for this already, but the UFS rep speculated that there may still be a $90 million shortfall once the money made form the sale of 80th St. is accounted for (~$30 million).

IV. There was no new business to discuss.

October Grad Council Meeting

by Sarah Kostecki and Kristofer Petersen-Overton

I. President Kelly
II. Provost Robinson
III. Prof. Rollins on curriculum and degree changes
IV. University Faculty Senate report
V. New business

I. President Kelly on the state of the university:
a. The budget is stable for now, though they’re keeping on eye on any potential cuts in federal funds, which would inevitably impact NY state and CUNY by extension.
b. The GC expects to continue with the new fellowship packages.
c. The GC residency is very popular; they’ve been getting more requests than can be accommodated and plans are being developed to acquire another location.
d. “Targeted” faculty hires will be made this year; CUNY hired more new faculty than any other university in the country (not exactly a surprise given the size of the consortium).

II. Provost Robinson had faculty vote to approve the 292 degrees awarded by the GC last semester. (Approved unanimously)

III Our own Professor Rollins made his debut appearance as Chair of the Curriculum and Degree Committee. President Kelly verbally expressed his approval of Prof. Rollin’s snazzy vest…

Four major changes were approved as well as one minor change:

a. Art History added a new specialization which will include courses in Western Civilization, Islam, and Byzantium. (Appoved)
b. Criminal Justice added a new course in the history of firearms. (Approved)
c. The MA program in Liberal Studies (MALS) added a new “emerging topics” course which will encompass a wide variety of current issues. (Approved)
d. The MA program in Liberal Studies (MALS) added a new specialization in Migration and Global Cities. (Approved)

And one minor topic:

a. The English department renumbered one of its courses. (Approved, with much laughter)

IV. The University Faculty Senate reported on the (legitimate) outrage over the Pathways initiative. Two lawsuits have been jointly filed (by the UFS and PSC) challenging the plan. Apparently the library is hosting some kind of event this Friday (Oct. 26) on open access research. No further information was offered, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out for anyone interested. And the rules governing library employees are being changed to grant them greater representation in the UFS.

V. There was no new business to discuss to discuss.