County Community College
Michael J. Grant Campus
Michael J. Grant Campus
It is the time to start nominations for the chair-elect of the Assembly. We will hold elections for this position at the May 8 meeting. The chair-elect will begin shadowing the chair starting in September 2018 and will assume the chairmanship in September 2019.
If your term is up at the end of this school year, please get ready to speak up at the May 8 meeting describing the work, the position, and your reasons to seek the reelection if you wish to serve in the same role for the next two years.
The College has received a grant from SUNY to take part in the SUNY Guided Pathways project. The grant will support six institutes for professional development and training. The project is developed by SUNY in collaboration with the American Association of Community Colleges. Our local SUNY Guided Pathway Project Lead is Deborah Wolfson, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, <wolfsod@sunysuffolk.edu>.
The College encourages faculty to get involved. A cross-campus and cross-discipline team is being assembled. Please see the Invitation for Faculty Involvement in Suffolk's Guided Pathways Project for further details.
The Faculty Resource Manual, developed in a collaborative effort of administration and governance, has been posted at the Faculty Resources page. (You will need to enter your college login credentials do download it.) Perhaps as important as the completion of this edition is the establishment of a new framework for stewardship of this document. The Manual will be regularly reviewed and updated in a joint effort of Faculty Governance and Academic Affairs, with the updates submitted to Legal Affairs and then to College President for the final approval.
The SUNY 2018-2019 Chancellor's Awards for Excellence are System-level honors conferred to acknowledge and provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence. Please use the SUNY Chancellor's Award Nomination Form to nominate your colleagues. Further information is available at Chancellor's Award Page on the Governance Web Site.
The SUNY Distinguished Faculty Ranks are created by the SUNY Board of Trustees as a prestigious system-level distinction. It is the highest system tribute conferred upon SUNY faculty. Please use the SUNY Distinguished Faculty Ranks Nomination Form to nominate your colleagues.
The Governance Awards for Academic Excellence and Service are given annually to one recipient from each campus. These awards recognize our colleagues whose contributions resulted in substantial positive effect on the College community and/or the institution. All nominees who wish to be considered for this award will be required to submit a vita to the selection committee by April 26, 2018. The winner will be announced at our May Assembly meeting, and honored at the Governance Awards Luncheon in the fall.
Please send your nominations to the Assembly chair no later than April 16, 2018.
The Governance Survey is ready! For the first time, one survey will be used to assess governance on all three campuses. Please submit the survey no later than March 14. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R35NCTJ
On behalf of the Assembly, I am pleased to congratulate our colleagues with their longevity awards and thank them for their contributions to our College.
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Peter N. Digregorio | 20 |
| Joseph J. Lagreca | 20 |
| Ralph Powell | 20 |
| Andrea Blum | 25 |
| Luckner John Jerome | 25 |
| Nancy A. Penncavage | 25 |
| Linda Smith | 25 |
| Vincent Devito | 30 |
| Glenn F. Korth | 30 |
| Thomas R. Tartaglia | 30 |
| Giselle A. Torres | 30 |
| Lionel H. Daniel | 40 |
| Joseph DeFilippe | 40 |
| Kevin Peterman | 40 |
| Mary Ann Borrello | 45 |
The Faculty-Authored Textbook Subcommittee of the College-Wide Academic Standards Committee is working on refining suggestions for revision of the policy. We will continue to gather feedback and to discuss this matter at subsequent meetings this term.
The following courses were voted and approved at the February 27, 2017 meeting of the Grant Curriculum Committee:
These four proposals, with minor revisions, will be put forward for Assembly vote.
The committee is awaiting information from Dean Matthew Okerblom regarding course number designations (changing from 1xx). All four courses will be offered in the Fall 2018 semester, if approved by the Assembly.
The Technology Committee met on February 27, 2018.
OmniUpdate is the content managegement system that will be used as the replacement of the www2 server. The OmniUpdate Pilot group #1 already started with 12 members learning how to use this new system. The OmniUpdate Pilot group #2 will be formed in April. If you want to be considered for selection, please e-mail Christina Johnston johnstc@sunysuffolk.edu
ReadSpeaker is a program integrated into BlackBoard that students may use to have material read aloud to them. The icon may drop off the screen in certain browsers or when in edit mode. If there are any problems with ReadSpeaker, please contact the College's Center for Innovative Technology (extension 4804).
There is an issue with retaining grade information in BlackBoard for students that withdraw from a course. This issue is being investigated.
An issue has been raised regarding the availability of the "Student" tab for faculty members when advising students for registration. This tab allows the faculty member to access the real-time registration availability for classes in one screen. Without the tab, the faculty member must navigate through the online class schedule and into each CRFN. Accessing to this feature is not uniformly available. The issue is being investigated.
The Community Relations Committee has been hard at work getting everything ready for our annual Volunteer Day on April 11th in the Sagtikos lobby from 11:00AM-1:00PM. It is a wonderful opportunity for our students to sign up to volunteer with organizations that can provide them the chance to serve their communities and enhance their college application and scholarship opportunities.
On Monday, March 12, FOCUS is organizing an Evening Common Hour Community Service Event. It will be held in HSEC Building, MD-105 from 7 to 8:10 p.m
The program includes:
There will be resources available to provide volunteering opportunities with local organizations.
We are asking students to donate a can of food to our campus food pantry if they plan on attending.
The FOCUS Committee will host another Evening Common Hour ahead of the April 13 Take Back the Night event.
The Common Hour is scheduled for Tuesday, March 20 from 7:00 to 8:10 p.m. and will take place in the HSEC Lobby. Students will be able to sign up for the April 13 event, decorate lantern bags to be used on that day and learn more about the Take Back the Night mission and program. Please encourage your students to attend!
To volunteer or march, sign up at http://signup.com/login/entry/6130686120127.
Below is the timetable for the stations during the march:
The following event has been originally scheduled for March 21, but was cancelled due to snow. We are happy that our presenter was able to reschedule!
The Pedagogy Committee did not hold a meeting in February. Its first meeting in spring 2018 took place on Monday, March 12. The committee discussed:
The committee met on March 1 to select recipients for those scholarships that went unawarded for the 2017-2018 academic year. A total of 13 individual scholarships were awarded with award amounts totaling to $11,000.
There are two upcoming scholarship workshops for students: Wednesday 4/11/18 from 1 to 2 p.m. in Caumsett 10 and Tuesday 5/15/18 from 11 a.m. until 12 noon in Captree 113.
The deadline to apply for Grant campus Fall 2018 scholarships is Tuesday, May 29. Please encourage students to apply. Scholarship information can be obtained from the SCCC home page > Apply/Enroll > Scholarships > Sign into AcademicWorks
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce the Workshop on Open Educational Resources (OER), held on two consecutive days on Ammerman and Grant campuses, and a mathematics conference with focus on OER that will follow the Grant Campus OER Workshop.
Open Educational Resources are educational resources that are shared with open (free) public access and open (free) license for all those willing to gain and share their knowledge for learning, teaching and research. That includes textbooks, open courses and lectures, online depositories of educational material, and other media resources.
These events will provide participants with introduction into availability of these resources, hands on experience in using OER, in the licensing issues and relevant legal aspects. We are inviting you to attend and share the information with your colleagues. Members of the college community may register for any combination of these events.
Dear colleagues:
We are releasing our draft Constitution and Bylaws for the re-formation of a shared governance body, which we are proposing to be called the Governance Coordinating Body (GCB). In addition, a recommendation on general studies is included as an addendum.
In seeking to balance diverse points of view, needs, and concerns, our processes were guided by our collectively agreed upon criteria for solutions that would:
At this point, we ask that governance leaders and faculty from across the college review our recommendations. We see them as a starting point for the conversation, collaboration, and (perhaps) compromise it will take to articulate, ratify, and enact a new governance model.
Our work was done in the spirit of gratitude and respect for the dedication and hard work of all current and past governance leaders as well as open-mindedness as to the eventual outcome.
We look forward to visiting with governance bodies to discuss any aspect of the process or product. Please access our documents and provide feedback as follows:
Sincerely,
College Governance Task Force
| Eastern | Ammerman | Grant |
|
Cynthia Eaton Richard Mack Justin Turner |
Courtney Brewer Vladimir Jurukovski Elizabeth McCormick |
Virginia Horan John Jerome Bruce Seger |
The next meeting will take place on Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 3:45 in the Alumni Room, Brookhaven Gymnasium on the Ammerman Campus. At that meeting, the committee will be considering the Proposal to Change the 30 Credit Minimum for Certificate Programs. Please contact the committee chair with any questions or concerns you may have prior to the meeting. You are, of course, welcome to attend, should you wish convey any thoughts to the committee as a whole.
Class Size committee is meeting this Thursday, March 1. The Committee will summarize questions, comments, and suggestions regarding the proposal of the Chemical Dependency Program for reduction of CDC255 class size from 26 to 16.
Future class size meeting dates are: April 12 and May 3, 2018.
The DSAC College wide Workshop took place on March 3. It was very well attended with about 65 participants. Some of them were adjuncts. Feedback from attendees was that interesting talks overlapped and they had trouble choosing which attests to the quality of the presentations.
Faculty from the different departments have been taking the new Accuplacer exam to inform themselves. The new cutoff scores will be determined before the fall.
The Committee discussed the presentations at the latest AtD meeting, namely the Early Academic Alert. Some expressed fear that giving a bad grade may cause the student to "disappear". Some stated that a better practice may be talking face to face to students when they are not doing well.
Members of the Committee attended the National Association for Developmental Education annual conference. They shared that different states use different models to place students when enrolling in Community Colleges: some use a test, some a more holistic approach.
The committe met on March 1st.
The committee has not met since the last Assembly meeting.
The deadline to apply for college-wide Fall 2018 scholarships is Tuesday, May 29. Please encourage students to apply. Scholarship information can be obtained from the SCCC home page > Apply/Enroll > Scholarships > Sign into AcademicWorks
The Council met on February 22.
Vice President Jeffrey Pedersen described the process for creating the next Strategic Plan. The process will take about 27 months and will start with a review of College's mission, vision and goals. These, in turn, will determine the objectives, performance indicators and action plans.
Executive Director Kaliah Greene described how the strategic planning process will involve the College community through meetings, focus groups and surveys. She provided the following timeline:
The Council is determining the groups within the College community that need to be represented in this process (e.g. Developmental Studies Faculty, Students with Disabilities, LGBT, Day Students). Please contact the Assembly representatives if you have any suggestions.
Immigration Forum on TPS and DACA will take place on Thursday, March 1st from 3pm to 6pm in Captree Commons 114. It will offer an opportunity to learn about your immigration rights under TPS (Temporary Protective Status) and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). Free legal consultations with attorneys in the area of immigration will be provided. The event is co-sponsored with Legislator Monica Martinez.
Students at our college, with the support of the Center for Social Justice and Human Understanding (CSJHU), are organizing campus events to commemorate the lives lost in Parkland and in gun violence nationwide. At Grant Campus, a commemoration will be held at the library lobby on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 between 10 and 10:45 a.m. There will be 17 minutes of silence (for the 17 Parkland victims); memorial candles; orange ribbons to show support to shooting victims; voter registration forms; and mental health helpline info. This is the Facebook page set up by the coordinating student: https://www.facebook.com/events/506442899757497/ All members of the College community are welcome. The color of this event is orange. If you can, please come in an orange shirt.
FCCC has produced a resolution in support of child care funding for this year. It is a resolution that is submitted each year, although amounts can change depending upon needs at specific times. I have voted in favor of it, but in addition to the delegate vote, the FCCC would like campus endorsements.
Please take a look at the resolution and let me know if you need any additional info from me prior to voting on it in our respective legislative bodies. I will be going to the Spring Plenary in April (5-7) so will send a report out once I've returned. If you have any items you'd like me to take forward, please let me know.
One of our librarians, Jeff Santorello, who is also a pharmacologist, is hosting an event entitled, A Down and Dirty Introduction to Pharmacology on March 20th during the evening common hour. The presentation will take place in HSEC, room A312 between 7 and 8:10 p.m. Please see the attached flyer for the details.
Students and faculty are invited to meet and hear from Amazon Best Selling author, Kenia Nunez, on Thursday, April 5th at 9:30 a.m. in the LRC Lecture Hall, Grant campus. Ms. Nunez will share her story of how she was able to get through tough times after losing her husband to cancer and talk about how to find balance in chaos, and purpose in pain.
Ms. Nunez is an author, speaker, a certified health coach and yoga teacher. Her greatest passion is teaching people of all ages the importance and power of self-care. Please encourage your students to attend, as she will offer techniques for self-development and personal power through the practice of self-care.
The COL 295 class is taking part in the Blue Campaign. (This nation-wide campaign is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and aims to combat human trafficking.)
On April 5, 2018, the students will be hosting a fundraiser for this campaign at the Outback Steakhouse, 216 Jericho Turnpike, Commack, NY 11725-3019; (631) 864-7400. All proceeds will go to the Long Island Against Trafficking. To sign up, please go to https://www.groupraise.com/events/57137-sccc-grant-campus-col-295-class-at-outback-steakhouse
The fundraiser will be held from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Present the event's flyer or identify yourself as a supporter and the establishment will proudly donate 15% of your total check to the Long Island Against Trafficking. Students from COL 295 will be hosting from 4 to 9 p.m., joined by the members of the FOCUS Committee from 7 to 9 p.m.
On April 18 from 11:00-12:15, the class is hosting a panel discussion Stuck in Traffic: What you don't know about human trafficking. Panelists include:
(We anticipate 1-2 more participants.) The panel will take place in Sagtikos, Room 259/260.