County Community College
Michael J. Grant Campus
Michael J. Grant Campus
I would like to thank all of you who helped us continue operations of faculty governance in these trying times. The commitment to shared governance demonstrated by Vice Presidents Beaudin and Adams, Executive Dean Rios, the Executive Committee, and all those individual members of the Assembly who already contributed to online Assembly forum and voted on the Blackboard site, is crucially needed to keep our institution strong. I would like to give special thanks to the Assembly Secretary Kerry Carlson for setting up our Virtual Assembly and for all her unwavering support and help in carrying the business of the Assembly. Thank you all for doing your best, both in public and when it cannot be seen, for upholding the values we hold dear and for serving those who depend on us!
The Governance Award Committee selected Joshua Wolfson, Assistant Professor of Physical Education, as the Grant Campus recipient of the 2019-2020 Governance Award for Academic Excellence and Service. Congratulations Joshua on receiving the Award!
The College is using the term "fully online" to describe courses conducted within our usual distance education format (entirely in Blackboard, without any synchronous component). The term "real-time live online" describes courses that are taught synchronously or have a synchronous component. These two teaching modalities fall under the broader term "remote instruction" which also encompasses other teaching methods, such as email. To conduct classes in remote modality, the College needs special authorization of SUNY and State Education Department. In the remote modality, faculty can offer (and require) synchronous teaching. Additionally, an instructor teaching a remote class can require that students use the College's online proctoring program which requires them to enable the camera of their computer. This provision, of course, must be included in the class syllabus.
Summer 1 session will be conducted in the fully online modality without any synchronous instruction expected or permitted.
Summer 2 session includes classes that were originally scheduled online and those that were originally scheduled as face-to-face. The originally online classes will be held in that modality. The classes that were scheduled as face-to-face will be converted to remote modality. The College received all necessary State approvals for running classes in the remote modality.
The fall teaching modality is has not been determined yet. This is the decision that the College will not be able to make on its own. We will need to follow the guidance of the Governor, State Education Department and SUNY. Administration is planning for various contingencies, and we are expecting to hear more details about the fall by the end of June.
Distance Education Committee came up with alternative certification for faculty without prior online teaching experience who would like (or have) to teach online. To get this provisional certification, faculty will take a 4-week training session. The College offer several such sessions: the first one will be in May and part of June, the second one in July, and another one in August. The training will be 2-5 hours per week conducted asynchronously. Provisional certification will allow faculty to teach in the fall 2020 semester in online modality. To get permanent certification, a person would need to complete part 2 of training. The follow-up part 2 will be conducted in spring 2021. The Committee is also working on the protocol for certifying people with prior online teaching experience (there are 14 people in that group at the College at this time). An invitation to training sessions with sign-up link will be sent by the end of the this week.
The College is facing a budget crisis for the upcoming academic year. FA is asking for your help by taking only a few minutes to email a pre-written letter to your state and federally elected officials. You can click on the links below, and follow the prompts. The more letters that are faxed to elected officials notifies their offices that these are important issues for their constituents.
This is from NYSUT's MAC (Mobile Action Center). It can be downloaded as an app on your phone. Whether you send letters online or through the app, it is quick and simple. The letter is already written and you can click the names of the elected official(s) where you want the letter sent.
Tell Congress to support New York State in the next stimulus package: https://mac.nysut.org/action/606
Email NYS Legislators to support Community College funding: https://mac.nysut.org/action/557
Please pass this along as we try to advocate for more funding for our students.
The enrollment for Summer 1 session is outstanding so far. Summer 2 has fewer sections than last year, but the total number of seats taken is higher. There is a 15% enrollment drop for the fall 2020 semester, but part of this drop is due to backlog in processing applications. It is not clear at the moment how the final head count will look.
As of now, students may only request a W on their transcript up until May 19. Professors will be able to give W on the grade roster via drop-down menu. This option should only be exercised if the student has asked for the W. This semester only, W will not affect negatively students' federal and state financial aid, but may still impact their eligibility for specific scholarships. So, there is still a good reason for students to consult with financial aid office before asking for a W.
The college policy is that INC reverts to an F the fourth week into the following semester--in this case September 30, 2020. (Summer does not count as a subsequent semester, as it is a session, not a semester.) From the SCCC Catalog, page 66:
INC INCOMPLETE Students who are ill or are unable for other valid reasons to complete the semester's work may at the discretion of the instructor receive an INC on their transcript. All work must be completed within the first four weeks of the subsequent semester; otherwise the INC will automatically become an F or will become a U for students in a remedial course.
The Academic Standards Committee developed an Incomplete Grade Contract that the professor can use to clarify expectations for the student and to maintain standards in the application of this unique grade. Dean Ciampa shared her version, which is a bit more detailed. Instructors cannot set a completion date after the 4th week of the fall semester, but can require an earlier date.
If a faculty member wants to submit a grade change, the process is as follows:
Grade grievances will happen. Please provide students with a breakdown of their grades so as to avoid the endless emails asking about "how my grade worked out." If it looks like something might turn into a complaint, please send an FYI to your department chair. That way, they will know what's going on before the student shows up. Please take a look at the grade grievance procedure, wherein the student needs to speak to the instructor first, and then the department, before going to the Dean. You can also use the grade grievance form to facilitate the process. Students who email Deans directly will be redirected back to the department, and students who try to talk to the department chair without having spoken to their instructor, will be redirected to speak to their instructor first.
There are some Fall 2020 Grant campus continuing student scholarships in which there are either no applicants or only one applicant but multiple awards available. Please encourage the students who plan to continue at SCCC in the Fall 2020 semester to check the scholarships in the following list of scholarships and apply if they meet the eligeability criteria. The attached document specifies all the necessary criteria. The deadline to apply is Friday, May 15, 2020. To apply, students should go to SCCC home page > Quick Links > Scholarships > AcademicWorks, and sign in using their MySCCC username and password. There are also many other scholarships the students may be eligible for, which can be found on the scholarship website as well. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Adrienne Chu or Theresa Donnell.
The following scholarships are for Grant campus students only (their major/home campus must be Grant campus to be eligible):
College-Wide Academic Standards met virtually on 5/7/20. Discussed the college-wide briefs about Withdrawals and Incompletes and had concerns about the lack of faculty input before these were sent to students (ex: College Brief # 115). And, the concern that in some cases students were sent these briefs before faculty were made aware, increasing confusion for faculty. During this meeting CASC considered sending a letter to administration for suggestions to particular language in addressing the use of a W and an INC and links to current policies (particularly the INC policy). Additional concerns about addressing the importance of soliciting faculty and the process of shared governance moving forward, especially when changes concern academic policy. CASC chair, Christine Davidson, worked on the initial draft and received input for corrections and edits from members. On 5/13/20, CASC sent the approved letter to VPAAs addressing these concerns as well as attached current INC procedures.
During the 5/7/20 meeting CASC also discussed a desire to review the upcoming revision of the language in the catalog (2020-2022) to make sure changes are correct before the final version is made public. VPAAs office is still working out logistics of the policy change for the W policy that was voted through (ex: date that the W form needs to be submitted to registrar; how to logistically handle grades that were submitted before the W form was processed by registrar; stopping retroactive W's).
Absences and Attendance Subcommittee has been reviewing the survey that was sent out before Spring Break. They received over 200 surveys back and CASC will be addressing particular policies related to online attendance and other issues that were addressed by the survey in Fall 2020.
Faculty Authored Textbook Subcommittee has no further updates; the Subcommittee sent their policy to legal for review.
Academic Integrity Subcommittee has not met since Spring Break and there are no further updates.
CASC discussed possible agenda items for next year: The above subcommittees will remain and continue their work. Dismissal and probation policies came up as one possible agenda item to take on. Another regarding syllabus templates and syllabus statements came up (and again, syllabus specific templates for online classes). Possible review of policy for technology use in the classroom for next year's agenda was discussed as well.
Given the current crisis, the Council decided to continue with the current Strategic Plan for one more year until August 2021. (The College's Board of Trustees just approved that decision.)
The Council is planning to restart the the Strategic Planning process in mid-year 2020-2021.
Instead of the June update and the August update on Operational Planning, we will assemble only one update in August due to the circumstances under which we are operating.
Now that the College's audit has been presented to the BOT, we will also be able to complete the Annual Report of Institutional Effectiveness for the 2018-2019 year. This is required by the College's Comprehensive Assessment Plan for Institutional Effectiveness and has been used as evidence in our accreditation efforts.
The newly created committee drafted a Resolution of Keeping Suffolk County Community College Campuses Closed to Students and the Public until September 1, 2020 which was passed by the FA Executive Council on May 14, 2020.
SCCC Libraries are helping you from a distance at https://sunysuffolk.edu/library
Although the library buildings are closed until further notice, the SCCC Libraries, as always, are available online to assist students, faculty, and staff as they work remotely.
Librarians are available during the following hours:
| Monday - Thursday | 7:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. |
| Friday | 8:00 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. |
| Saturday | 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
| Sunday | 11:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
Chat - For immediate assistance, use chat at Ask a Librarian (you can also get there from the library home page).
Email - During off-hours, peruse Research FAQs or ask your own question to receive a response within 24 hours.
Electronic Resources - Visit the library home page 24/7 to access:
Students should not attempt to visit campus to return library material while the campus is closed. Your safety is the College's top priority. No late fees will be incurred during this time.
Between May 11 and May 14, the Center will provide tutoring until 10 p.m. Please see the attached flyer for details.
Take Back the Night: Reimagined that took place on April 24 at 7:00 p.m. was the ultimate success! This is the first time we have ever done this virtually. This was live streaned on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. I am attaching a flyer which sums up our success as well as a thank you flyer from our committee for all that participated. Special thanks to Gina Ocello, Adjunct Professor of Reading who managed our YouTube page as well as student leader Leila Baugh who managed our Instagram page. The actual program is still on all our social media sites if anybody missed it.
We had
I am so proud to chair an amazing committee of talented and innovative individuals. If any faculty/students are interested in joining our incredible committee, we will be meeting on May 11 at 3:30 via Zoom. We will be planning for Take Back the Night 2021! Please have them contact me if they would like to participate.
