College Council Meeting Minutes: May 12, 2023

College Council Meeting: May 12, 2023, 12:30 PM

Student Union Multipurpose Room C

Present

  • Mili Makhijani, Chair
  • Melissa Archbold (via Zoom)
  • Phillip E. Elliott
  • Nicolette Fiore-Lopez
  • Martha Maffei (via Zoom)
  • Theresa A. Regnante

Call to Order/Welcome

  • Chair Mili Makhijani called the College Council meeting to order at 12:35 PM.
  • Acknowledging that everyone received a copy of the February 24, 2023, College Council meeting minutes, the Chair called for a motion to approve the minutes. Dr. Elliott motioned to accept, seconded by Dr. Fiore-Lopez. The Council approved the by unanimous vote the minutes.

President's Report

  • SUNY Old Westbury President Timothy Sams President welcomed the College Council members and then started his formal report on the following items:
    • Spring 2023 Experience
      • Inauguration: Thankful to everyone for making the Inauguration a successful event and welcoming him and his family.
      • Panther Care Center: The Panther Care Center, which houses the food pantry, has moved to a larger location in the Campus Center and is now open to the campus community. Additionally, the College received a $7,500 donation from Stop and Shop to support the pantry efforts.
      • Green to Gold: On May 20, 2023, the President will host Green to Gold at his house, celebrating the graduating seniors’ transition to alums. This event is open to the campus community and includes recognizing graduating seniors with a 4.0 GPA and alums celebrating their 50th and 25th anniversary.
      • Commencement: Commencement is on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, at Nassau Coliseum.
  • Compliance: Across the Cabinet, the President is pushing for the members to focus on compliance risk across the institution, especially around student experience matters. One item currently being examined is the placement of the common hour to ensure students have enough time for class. The President will provide updates on these efforts at future Council meetings.
  • University Status: On July 1, 2023, SUNY Old Westbury will move from a College to a University. The Council members should receive information regarding this change and updates on a celebration in the Summer.
  • Introductions of New Cabinet Members:
    • Interim Provost and Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Dorothy Escribano
    • Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Randall Edouard
    • Vice President for Enrollment Management & Marketing, Dr. Bryan Terry
    • Executive Director of Human Resources, Ms. Teseria Ezzell

Chair's Report

  • Chair Mili Makhijani started her formal report on the following items:
    • Inauguration: Congratulations to the College on a fantastic inauguration, and special thanks to Dr. Lisa Chin and Ms. Denee Jenkins, Inauguration Chairs, and Installation Chair, Dr. Diana Sukhram. She was delighted to have the SUNY Chancellor, Dr. John King, in attendance and serving as the keynote speaker for the event. Additionally, she was happy to see that SUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Meryl Tish was also in attendance. The Chair recognized the Council members attending the Inauguration, Dr. Phillip Elliott and the Hon. William Hohauser.
    • Commencement: She encouraged as many College Council members to attend the Commencement Ceremony on May 24, 2023.

Old Business

  • Chair Mili Makhijani moved to the Old Business portion of the meeting, which included a follow-up on action items from the September 2022 Council Meeting:
    • Job Placement For Students After Graduating from SUNY Old Westbury -- Dr. Edouard reported on this action item, which included the following updates/information:
      • SUNY Old Westbury is on the higher echelon regarding the national ranking, with 71.5% of students who have responded that they are working or continuing education (the national average is 65%).
      • About 92.7% of graduating students selected strongly agree with the statement, “Old Westbury has prepared me for a successful career.” 94.8 of graduating students selected strongly agree with the statement, “SUNY Old Westbury has made me feel prepared for graduate or professional school.” Roughly 91% of graduating students selected strongly agree with the statement, “I feel well prepared for a career I wanted.”
      • The goal for next year is to increase the sample size of this survey. In this year’s survey, the College received 300 responses out of ~1100 graduating students.
        • Ms. Regnante recommended that they look into providing incentives to get more students to respond (i.e., gift cards, free dining dollars, free rideshare rides). She also recommended creating an incentive to get one other person to respond.
        • Dr. Elliot suggested that the survey could have a more personal touch. For example, a question attached to a person they have a relationship with and the value of that relationship regarding their success.
        • The President shared that he has seen these surveys succeed when they are attached to a process that students must complete (applying for graduation).
  • Distance Learning Update -- Dr. Ed Bever reported on this action item, which included the following:
    • Part of the College’s strategic plan in 2010 was to increase our online presence, so the College started to offer stipends to faculty members in the spirit of distance learning. By the Spring of 2015, the College had 14 online asynchronous offerings and 48 hybrid offerings.
    • This term the College had 83 asynchronous offerings and 91 synchronous offerings. These numbers are up from 6% in Spring 2020 (before the pandemic). This Spring, 111 courses offered were hybrid, up slightly from Spring 2020, which constituted 12%.
    • The College offers one online program, MS in Accounting, and gained approval for a second online program, BPS in Professional Studies, which will be provided through a mix of synchronous and asynchronous online classes starting in the Fall of 2023.
    • State Ed has indicated that it will decide on possible permanent revisions to the distance education program requirements and definitions by the end of this academic year. Hopefully, this will move from needing approval on a program-by-program basis to getting approval on a campus basis for online programs.
      • General Education: Approximately 45% (77 of 174) of our online courses serve the liberal education curriculum.
      • Regular Degree Programs: Many courses fulfill Gen Ed requirements, and the remaining 55% of the online courses don’t meet the degree programs’ requirements.
    • In a study conducted last year, online courses fill quicker and to higher levels than on-campus classes.
      • In May of 2022, of the 70 asynchronous online classes scheduled for Fall, 27% were filled. Additionally, 65% were more than 2/3 full of the 53 Zoom Fall classes, and 40% were more than 2/3 full.
      • In contrast, of 41 American Studies classes, just 15% were more than 2/3 full. Of the 38 Biology sections, just 15% were filled, and 45% were more than 2/3 full. Of the 35 History and Philosophy classes, 0 were full, and only eight were more than 2/3 full.
    • Similarly, in December of last year, online classes were 59% full at a time when on-campus classes were only 49% full.
    • In a five-year assessment of the Distance Learning program last year, students consistently rated Distance classes slightly lower in terms of their overall satisfaction with the course, their rating of the instructor, and their rating of what they think they learned. It is important to note that the difference was slight (.03-.08 point difference). More importantly, paradoxically, that same assessment revealed no difference in Student attainment of Learning Outcomes in Distance as opposed to on-campus classes
    • In conclusion, it’s clear that students vote in favor of Distance classes, where they learn as much as they do in traditional courses but are consistently slightly less satisfied with them. One of the current goals is to bring students’ opinions about Distance classes into alignment with their actual use of them and the benefit they get from them.
      • Ms. Regnante stated that with the current state regents scores for high school students dropping, it is important for the College to strike a balance between its online and in-person offerings. The experiences that students get in the classroom (showing up on time, communication, mentoring, and relationship building) in person are invaluable, especially to the workforce. Dr. Bever shared that online classes are a supplement that provides flexibility and important training to students on how to operate online.
      • Dr. Elliot shared that many fully online people are adults with some life skills and need the flexibility to take care of family. He also asked two questions (1) if there was any vision of a doctoral program in the future?; (2) do online classes impact state aid? Dr. Bever answered that it does not impact aid and is not aware of any plans for a doctoral program. He added that the most important changes in higher education today are the decline of the traditional 18-22-year-old cohort and the increasing need for upskilling adults throughout their working lives.
      • Chair Makhijani shared that our online offering numbers seem lower in comparison, and she would like to see those numbers go up for students, not to replace what we have but to supplement it and support the groups of students who may need it.
      • Dr. Fiore-Lopez asked about the percentage of students who are taking online courses. Dr. Bever stated that he did not have the complete figures available.

New Business

  • Faculty Senate Chair Report: Dr. Jennie D’Ambroise shared that it was great to work with the administration these past few years and build bridges for the good of the College. She shared that she is proud of what was accomplished and is optimistic for the next Chair to come in and what they will do. The new Faculty Senate Chair will be announced next Friday.
  • Alumni Representative Report: Alumni Association President Lionel Chitty was not present to report.
  • Student Government Association Report: SGA President Kimberly Cox was not present to report.

Open Meeting

  • Vice President for Business and Finance & CFO Martha Santana shared optimistic news about the state budget, which included the following for all of SUNY:
    • First major infusion of operating dollars in over 20 years
    • $2.0 billion in new capital support (no guidelines yet)
    • Continuation of $53M for new full-time faculty hires
    • $163 million operational aid (no guidelines yet)
    • $75 million transformational initiatives directed by SUNY (no guidelines yet)
      • Ms. Regnante asked that when the state budget passes, is it usually by formula distribution? Ms. Santana responded affirmatively. Mr. Michael Kinane added that last year was the first year SUNY Old Westbury received more state aid since 2008. SUNY has a team of people, and their job is to deal with state relations. Every campus participates in advocacy, but most of the time, when SUNY gets something that a member drives, you don’t get to drive the program. Ms. Santana added that advocacy does help, but it is with SUNY already so the advocacy would be at the Chancellor. Ms. Regnante offered to support the College with any advocacy needs if necessary.
  • Seeing no other comments from the floor, Chair Mili Makhijani asked for a motion to adjourn. Ms. Theresa Regnante moved the motion to adjourn, and Dr. Nicolette Fiore-Lopez seconded the motion. All voted in favor. The meeting adjourned at 1:39 PM.