October 3, 2023 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

In attendance: Curtis Bennett, Prashanth Jaikumar, Lijuan Li, Will Murray, Lora Stevens, Jim Kisiel, Jesse Dillon, Krzysztof Slowinski, Christine Whitcraft, Lindsay Aymar, Henry Wu, Barbara Taylor

  1. Approve agenda (10:00) - Approved
  2. Approve minutes from September 26 - Approved
  3. Announcements
    1. ASM
      1. Telecommunication is changing to Teams Voice by headcount
      2. Telephone charges to department CE fund will not continue
      3. General fund is staying the same
      4. New hire to faculty affairs, and payments are being processed faster
    2. Dean
      1. YouVisit Tour is live
      2. 80 site visits since Friday
    3. Evaluations
      1. For hiring and evaluations – discrimination based on accents is illegal
      2. Fall-only lecturers need to be evaluated
        1. We don't know they're Fall-only until the second Fall
        2. Evaluations need to be done before 3-year appointments
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Textbook prices
      2. New pilot program for Equitable Textbook Access to be implemented 2024/2025
      3. Expansion of the First-Day Access program
      4. Either part of or the entire textbook is automatically uploaded to canvas and their financial aid is directly billed
      5. Person responsible for the program is going to come in and explain further to answer any questions
    2. Questions on Mandatory Transfer Requirements & Major Specific Declaration requirements
      1. Any questions or changes to requirements should be in by November
        1. Public hearing required, so it's a 2-year process
    3. Research
      1. Research Updates
        1. URAC committee is meeting again
          1. Dr. Taylor can send PDF of ORED annual report now available on their website
        2. ORED piloting another grant repository called PIVOT (replacing SPIN)
          1. Everyone on URAC will assess – will need to identify 3 faculty in the college for the evaluation team
        3. QR Codes on lab doors can come down
        4. Student posters should NOT have University Seal on them
        5. Student University Achievement awards should be sent to Dr. Taylor EOD 10/3
    4. DocuSign for Travel
      1. Streamlining the process to be able to add all attachments without having to go back and forth between faculty and staff and coordinators
      2. Everything will be typed directly into Docusign by the faculty
      3. This only applies to travel request forms
      4. Process is not being rolled out yet, so Dr. Taylor can answer any further questions
    5. IT updates
      1. Cyber Security Task Force met for the first time Monday 10/2
        1. Going forward will have a 1-hour meeting once a month to ensure departments stay informed on audit preparation
      2. Audit covers EVERY computer in the department, not just teaching or computer labs
      3. Division of IT is going to implement hard reboots through the network for every computer on campus
        1. You will get a notification with 12 days to complete reboot before system does it itself
        2. Reboots ensure updates and patches get implemented
        3. Someone will need to be designated to perform updates and reboots on computers that are on all the time (acting as servers, etc.)
        4. This will be once/semester
  5. BSS Inventory Discussion
    1. Dated extended to October 11
    2. Dr. Whitcraft to attend CLA chairs meeting where this will be discussed - Send her any questions by 12pm 10/3
    3. We want to show that we have programs in place, but also add what we would like to see funded
  6. Budget Discussion
    1. Currently operating on an "all budgets" model
    2. To see 49er Foundation fund balances, check Data Warehouse
    3. B funds are now accompanied by a P fund, which you can spend
    4. B fund is an endowment, cannot spend
    5. Red numbers are in the positive, black numbers show deficit
    6. Henry can clarify any further questions on Data Warehouse and how to read it
  7. Open discussion - Outreach
    1. Tanya Piloyan goes to Community Colleges to recruit
    2. Showcase is our big outreach event
    3. Tanya Piloyan is collecting interest for lab tours
    4. Some student clubs currently go into middle schools for outreach
    5. Make sure Tanya Piloyan/Dr. Bennett/Dr. Slowinski are aware of any student club outreach
    6. Dr. Kisiel to possibly provide articles/research to direct middle-school outreach
    7. Plan on a brainstorming session with Tanya Piloyan/student club presidents for more targeted and regular outreach

Upcoming Dates

  • Friday 10/13/23 - End of open enrollment

Meeting minutes were APPROVED Tuesday October 10, 2023.

Note: The minutes above reflect discussion on the date of the CDC meeting about policies, not actual policy. Faculty and staff should wait for official communication on each subject before acting.