Montclair State University
PCAffirmative Action 2004-05

Minutes
January 26, 2005

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Present: E. Abreu, I. Barriera, M. Brown, I. Caprio, T. Carey, C. Chakraborty, M. Coleman-Carter, J. Ficke, A. Gutierrez, J. Hain, J. Harris, L. Jenkins, AJ Kelton, L. Lemley, S. Lewis, M. Maclang, C. Matteis, L. McInerney, C. Meneghin, B. Milton, D. Ragin, L. Rodriguez, L. Santiago, L. Smith, M. Sparks, Q. Vega & M. Zabourney.

Constituencies Not Represented: GLFSA, LASO, Local 1904, OSAU, Physical Plant, SGA, & SPECTRUMS.

At-Large Members Not Present: D. Lorenzo & O. Rodriguez-Srednicki.

Welcome: The meeting was called to order at 12:10 p.m.

Minutes of Dec. 15, 2004 Meeting:  Harris motioned to review the minutes, Coleman-Carter seconded.  Kelton said that the section of the report of the Recruitment and Retention Committee should be changed from:

The committee is working on having each member of the committee be a liaison to one or more of the constituent groups represented on the PCAA. 

Change to:

The Committee is working to have each constituent group that is represented on the PCAA have as a liaison at least one member of the Recruitment and Retention Committee.

Brown motioned for the minutes to be approved as amended.  Lemley seconded.  The minutes of the Nov. 17, 2004 meeting were approved as amended and they will be shared with the campus. 

Reading: Jenkins facilitated a discussion of "Did Martin Luther King, Jr. Oppose Affirmative Action? Read What Conservatives and Liberals Say" and "Harvard Chief Defends His Talk on Women." 

Meneghin reminded members to send suggestions for next month's reading.

Committee Reports: 

Education Committee
Harris reported that the committee is working on getting publicity out for the Affirmative Action Day programs.  Students on the committee are spreading the word about the program with their fellow students. They are also working with student groups on the fair that is part of Affirmative Action Day activities. 

Meneghin asked those PCAA members who can help out with the program to see her. 

Mentoring and Professional Development Committee
Coleman-Carter thanked those who thanked their mentors on "Thank Your Mentor Day" (January 25).  She also thanked Esmilda Abreu, Carol Lange, Cindy Meneghin for their work on this day and the weeklong series of activities to recognize the importance of mentors.   The sense was that these activities went well. 

One of the activities associated with "Thank Your Mentor Day" was the creation of a thank you message, in print and as MSU e-cards, designed to be sent to a mentor.  Meneghin will gather statistics on the number of print cards given out at the Student Center and the number of e-cards sent.

Recruitment and Retention Committee
The approved version of the report written by last year's Recruitment and Retention Committee will be sent to Dr. Cole, along with a cover letter from Meneghin. 

The committee's plan for the rest of the semester is to meet with the constituencies represented on the PCAA.  Each constituency represented on the PCAA has at least one Recruitment and Retention member as a liaison to the constituency group.  The goal is to have the liaison(s) meet with the group and ask the group to review the report and provided at least one actionable recommendation on suggestions made in the report.  The committee will report back to the PCAA in April on its findings.  Meneghin encouraged bringing to the PCAA any issues that require immediate attention.

Old Business:

Parking/Transportation Issues for Persons with Disabilities

The Committee discussed the recommendations of the PCAA Ad Hoc Committee on Issues Concerning Parking and Transportation for those with Disabilities.  In response to Meneghin's suggestion that PCAA members share the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendations with persons who deal with these issues, Carey met with Walter Watkins and Elaine Cooper to discuss the recommendations.  These were some of their reactions to the recommendations of the committee:

• In Section I of their report, the committee recommended that a separate document and a web site with State and University laws and policies on parking policies for persons with a permanent and temporary disability handicapped sticker be created.  Carey reported that this will be done.   The Information booths will have handouts about parking policies for persons with disabilities to give to visitors.  Carey will speak to Watkins and Cooper about having the Ad Hoc Committee give feedback on the document/web site.

• A suggestion was made to encourage parking information in general, and parking for persons with a disability in particular, to be included in external publicity.  The PCAA thought this a good idea.

• A suggestion was made to have all visitors stop at the Information booths to get parking information.  The consensus of the PCAA was that this would cause problems with lines at the booths. 

• Carey inquired about University Police practice in ticketing non-MSU cars with State handicapped licenses or hangtags.  Carey, joined by Santiago, reported that:

• University Police will not issue tickets to illegally parked cars (according to MSU policies and regulations) who have a State handicapped license or hangtag (whether MSU or non-MSU).  This applies to all surface lots and the Deck;
• University Police will ticket a car parked illegally in a handicapped spot that does not have a State issued handicapped license or hangtag. 
• If the University Police suspect abuse of handicapped hangtags or licenses, they will run the plates.  Smith said she calls University Police to run a license if she suspects abuse.  If a person with a handicapped license or hangtag asks University Police to do so, a car that is illegally parked in a handicapped spot will be towed. 
• Standard Parking will not ticket cars parked illegally in the Deck.  University Police are responsible for this;
• Standard Parking will ticket MSU and non-MSU cars parked in a surface lot handicapped parking space that do not have an MSU handicapped hangtag.  This does not carry the weight of the municipal parking tickets of the University Police, but Standard can take action against cars registered with it.  After three Standard tickets or $100 in fines, a non-MSU car with State handicapped plates or hangtag will be  towed.

• Carey reported that he will discuss the possibility of Standard Parking conducting occasional sweeps of the handicapped lots to gather data to see if the issue of ticketing practices needs be re-opened with the Chief of Police. 

A member suggested signage in these lots to warn violators of the consequences of their actions.

• Santiago reported that University Police are unable to routinely run checks of licenses but they can do concentrated sweeps of lots on an occasional basis.

• Santiago reported that students in the Village are challenging, in the Clifton Municipal Court, University Police issued tickets and are losing these challenges.  He thinks this has led to a decrease in illegal parking in handicapped spots.

• Smith reported that she thought the new policy of requiring faculty, staff and students who need to park in a handicapped spot on a surface lot (not in the Deck) to cars to register their car/s with the University has greatly decreased illegal parking.  While she thinks the registration procedure could be streamlined, she thinks this a good, sound policy.

• In response to a comment in the report (in Section V) about the "inconsistency" of the Shuttle system, Carey reported that more feedback was needed on this issue.  He thought some of this may have been based on historical experience because much progress has been made with the shuttle system.  He also reported that:
• All newly purchased shuttle buses have been equipped for wheelchair access;
• All future bus shelters will be wheelchair accessible;
• A more frequent shuttle run with Bond House and Valley Road locations is being considered (as per recommendation V-1 of the Ad Hoc Committee Report);
• University Police can be called if the regular shuttle service is not available; and
• The suggestion of a central core shuttle, he said it was against the newly adopted policy of keeping traffic out of the central core.

• Carey said that, to his knowledge, Parking and Transportation Services was not getting comments or complaints about having to wait an excessive time for the shuttle service to reach a building.  A PCAA member with a disability who depends on the shuttle stated that she has had experiences where she has made arrangements to have a shuttle bus meet her at her office building to take her to another building on campus and the shuttle bus did not show up.  She also said she has waited one hour for the shuttle service.  She thinks this may be due to calls not getting to shuttle bus drivers.  Several members stated that the radios used to communicate with the shuttle bus drivers do no work in certain parts of the campus.   

• Another PCAA member said she was not sure why a smaller vehicle cannot go on a scheduled route and stop at five designated places on campus.  Getting to the core of the campus is still a central problem.  Carey said he would discuss this again with Walter Watkins and Elaine Cooper.  A question was raised about how to prevent abuse of this service by someone who is not disabled.  An ID could be issued to prevent such abuse. 

• Smith said she helped a student with a temporary disability who did not have a doctor's note in hand deal with getting approval to have a shuttle bus pick up the student.  Smith spoke directly with Elaine Cooper, who is very willing to resolve such situations.  Carey said that this process should have been simpler and more focused on helping this particular student rather than preventing abuse.

• A discussion followed about the "disconnect" between vans with wheel chair lifts and their usability.  Some mentioned that some drivers do not know how to use the lifts, some lifts do not have any safety harnesses, and that some drivers will not stop to pick up a person in a wheelchair.

• A PCAA member stated that something needs to be done for visitors to campus, since more are expected with our growth and new facilities and for a 24 x 7 campus.  The member asked if perhaps an internal route in the core of the campus would help address these issues.

• On a discussion tangent to the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendations, a recommendation was made about creating a "sensitizing" document about what are definitions of a disability and that a disability need not be physical but could be due to chronic health issues like cardiac or respiratory conditions or psychiatric issues resulting from an assault and other post-traumatic incidents.

• A PCAA member suggested a pilot project to see if the shuttle service to reach the core of the campus is justified.

• There was discussion about the need to get information on problems of parking and transportation for persons with disabilities to Elaine Cooper and Melvin Little.  A member pointed out that with increased enrollment, there will be more need for such services.

• A question was raised if wheelchair access to Morehead Hall is an issue for the PCAA or for the University Senate Safety Committee.  Meneghin said that the PCAA is focusing on parking issues and that issues of wheelchair access should go to the Safety Committee.

• A suggestion was made to have information on how to file a complaint or make a suggestion about parking and transportation services for persons with disabilities at the shuttle stops.

• A comment was made that the University Police escort service is not always available and was not designed for transporting persons with a disability – one problem being that the back seats in which passengers are required to sit are not designed for comfort or to accommodate a wheelchair.

• There was more discussion of the problems caused by the radio system used to communicate with bus drivers.  The messages don't always get to the drivers.

• Meneghin asked Carey to bring back the PCAA's comments, concerns, and suggestions to Watkins and Cooper.  He agreed to do so.

Affirmative Action Day
Meneghin reported that we have gotten contributions to Affirmative Action Day and to Donna Brazile speaker's fee from a good number of groups and organizations.  More money is needed but she is confident that we will raise it.

Meneghin said that the details of the panel discussion will be finalized in a week.  The theme will be on the politics of affirmative action.  There was some discussion on  the technical issues involved in broadcasting the presentations to other campuses.

The tentative schedule for the day (March 3, 2005) is:

• 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Panel Discussion on "The Poltiics of Affirmative Action
• 12 noon to 1:30: Flag Raising, followed by Student organization fair (with food) in the Student Center Ballrooms
• 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.: Donna Brazile keynote in Kasser Theater
• 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Brazile book signing (with food) in Kasser Theater

Meneghin asked each PCAA member to help with such things as coordinating the event, advertising, and getting classes of students to come to the Brazile keynote.  Lewis asked for a flyer to pass out at her department meeting.  Jenkins will encourage her faculty to bring their students.  Barriera will reach out to New Student Experience classes and core courses.  Harris will reach out to student groups and Chakraborty will speak to APIC members.

Meneghin asked the constituency representatives to talk to their group about co-sponsoring the event and to encourage attendance.  Every group that donates to the event will be mentioned in the publicity for it.

New Item

Meneghin asked the PCAA to think about including in the email of the approved minutes we send to the campus a list of publications or other activities of note that our faculty and staff are doing that is related to the work of the PCAA.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Luis Rodriguez