In its penultimate meeting of the semester Thursday, the Academic Senate continued to focus its attention on amendments to the retention, tenure and promotion policy.
Other topics discussed during the meeting included changes to the general education policy for transfer students and controversial psychology professor Kevin McDonald, whose published works have been heralded by white-supremacist groups nationwide.
The RTP policy was called a “big issue” on the Senate’s agenda. The policy is a “mission, vision and guiding principles” used to evaluate tenured and tenure-track faculty members. All clarifications made so far are to ensure that there is no confusion as to what the guidelines are and to continue to promote excellence throughout the campus.
Timothy Caron, the senator of the College of Liberal Arts, said, “This is a conversation long overdue,” adding that there is a need to make it a focal issue during the retreat in the fall.
Another main topic was the GE certification for transfer students. The current policy states that “transfer students who enter CSULB without full General Education certification from a California community college must complete the CSULB General Education requirements.” The amendment proposed was to add to the policy that it “does not preclude students from completing or requesting GE certification from California community colleges after matriculating to CSULB.”
“We can’t prevent students from going to community college,” said David Huckaby, associate professor of biological sciences.
There are three groups of students that can be affected by it: transfer students with certification, transfer students without certification, and all other students. Some Senate members said that students can either do their GEs at CSULB or elsewhere.
Senate members said they don’t want to change what the campus has been doing so far, with agreements with many community colleges outlining transferable courses.
“We need to reduce the barriers to transfer students, not increase them,” said David Dowell, vice provost for planning and budgets and director of strategic planning.
Further discussion as to how many students would be affected and the impact it would cause will be discussed at the Senate’s last meeting on May 15.
After looking at other issues on the agenda, the Senate briefly heard Alexandra Jaffe, a professor in the psychology department, who informed them about the discussions taking place in the College of Liberal Arts by faculty and students about the work MacDonald.
The topic will be on the agenda for the May 15 Senate meeting, after a brief discussion beginning Thursday. After Jaffe’s update to the Senate about MacDonald’s work and how departments and students are feeling about it, some Senate members said that they couldn’t limit him and only respond to his work.
