Montclair State University
PCAffirmative Action 2004-05

Minutes
February 16 , 2005

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Present: E. Abreu, M. Brown, I. Caprio, T. Carey, C. Chakraborty, J. Ficke, A. Gutierrez, J. Harris, L. Jenkins, AJ Kelton, L. Lemley, D. Lorenzo, C. Meneghin, B. Milton, C. Onore, L. Rodriguez, J. Romaniello, R. Ross, L. Santiago, L. Smith, Q. Vega & M. Zabourney.

Constituencies Not Represented: Asian Student Group, Faculty, GLFSA, LASO, OSAU, Physical Plant, SPECTRUMS, & University Senate.

At-Large Members Not Present: I. Barriera, M. Coleman-Carter, & O. Rodriguez-Srednicki.

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

Affirmative Action Day Program
Meneghin went over items related to the upcoming Affirmative Action Day program.  She also mentioned that after the program, Alice Kessler-Harris will be speaking as part of the Women’s History Month programs.  A faculty member mentioned that the start time for the Brazile keynote does not coincide with the schedule of classes.  Next year, the committee planning the program will try to start the program at a time when classes begin. 

PCAA Advance
Meneghin said that the PCAA Advance will be on May 25.  At the Advance, PCAA members will be asked to pilot a training program that the Diversity Council is developing for faculty and staff on how to respond to bias incidents on campus.

Minutes of January 26, 2005 Meeting:  Zabourney motioned to review the minutes, Harris seconded.  Santiago and Guiterrez noted that the following line in the section on the Parking Task Force report needs to be changed.  The section of the draft minutes reads:

University Police will ticket a car parked illegally in a handicapped spot that has State issued handicapped license or hangtag. 

It should be changed to:

University Police will ticket a car parked illegally in a handicapped spot that does not have a State issued handicapped license or hangtag. 

The minutes, as amended, were approved.

Reading: Brown facilitated a discussion of “Lessons from The Good Black”

(http://www.mcca.com/site/data/magazine/coverstory/0803/lessons0803.htm).

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

Committee Reports: 

Recruitment and Retention Committee
Kelton reported that the approved version of the report of last year’s Recruitment and Retention Committee has been sent to this year‘s committee members.  Members are being asked to contact and meet the constituencies to which they have volunteered to be a liaison.  The constituency groups are being asked to review the report to see if any revisions are needed and to recommend at least one actionable item from the report. 

Education Committee
Harris reported that the committee is busy getting out the publicity for the Affirmative Action Day programs. 

Harris then said that his committee is planning to look at graduate assistantships at MSU.  The committee wants to gather information on the affirmative action profile of the graduate assistants to see if there is a need to find better ways to get a more diversified applicant pool to apply for GAs.   Ficke suggested that the committee contact Kim O’Halloran of the Graduate Studies Office.

Mentoring Committee
Abreu, reporting for Coleman-Carter, said that the Mentoring Committee debriefed and reviewed their activities of this year and last year.

They reviewed the Mentoring Day activities.  They discussed having the event be longer than one day.  The committee decided to keep it to Mentoring Day, but to publicize the event more widely.  The committee discussed having more variety of cards to thank a mentor.  Meneghin suggested a focus group to see which e-cards work better.  The committee also discussed if participants are comfortable with a mentor/mentee photo gallery. 

They also took a step back and thought about their activities.  They thought about what they were trying to achieve through their efforts to look at mentoring on campus and asked the fundamental question of whether or not mentoring is being seen as a solution to a problem not defined.  To help answer this question, they discussed developing a more comprehensive list of mentoring opportunities at MSU. This list will allow the committee to ask the following questions:

• What exists already?
• What are the issues?
• What pieces fit with that already exists?  And then let’s connect these.
  What’s left and is mentoring a solution?
• How do we address those that mentoring does not address? 

Abreu also mentioned that the group reviving the Women’s Caucus is currently writing a mission statement.  They hope to have the details of the Caucus worked out by March.

Old Business:

Parking/Transportation Issues for Persons with Disabilities

The PCAA discussed what the next steps are for the report of the PCAA Ad Hoc Committee on Issues Concerning Parking and Transportation for those with Disabilities:

• Meneghin suggested that a priority is making information on parking policies and transportation services for persons with a disability more accessible on the web and in other forms, as well.  She thought the PCAA needed to take the lead on this.  She thought a group consisting of the original members of the Task Force and two other volunteers could create a draft of a document that would have this information.
• Smith said that she met with Elaine Cooper and Melvin Little about parking and transportation issues.  Smith said that the situation is getting better.  There are fewer complaints.  Smith asked Cooper to update the Parking Services website so that a person could go straight to information on parking and transportation services for persons with a disability.
• There was discussion about how visitors to the campus would deal with the issue of providing medical documentation in order to use the shuttle services or calling for shuttle service when a visitor with a disability arrives on campus and waiting for some time for the shuttle to arrive.  There was a discussion about who would handle such issues – the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities or the Office of Transportation Services.  The consensus seemed to refer such calls to the Office of Transportation Services.  A question was raised about the whether visitors to the campus should be asked to provide medical documentation in order to use the transportation services for persons with a disability.
• There was discussion on requiring all external (to MSU) publicity on campus events to carry information on services visitors with a disability.  Questions were raised about what kinds of events should carry this announcement, what kinds of services should be included (parking and transportation only; access to buildings; interpreter services, etc.) and which unit would be the main contact for interfacing with visitors.  Smith volunteered to write up a draft statement on this for the PCAA to review.
• A long discussion followed on the role the PCAA should play in getting recommendations of the Task Force implemented.  In the end, the sense of the PCAA was that it was not the PCAA’s role to insure that its recommendations are implemented but that the PCAA should work with those who are charged with implementing recommendations that are accepted.
• Other issues that came up during the PCAA discussion on the Task Force Report::
• The advisability of encouraging students with a disability to use the regular shuttle routes:  Members thought that one issue that needs to be addressed for this to happen is that people in wheelchairs need to feel more comfortable in the shuttle drivers’ knowledge of how to safely operate the wheelchair lift.  A recommendation was made that all drivers be trained on operating the wheelchair lift.
• The issue of the responsibility of the PCAA to look into issues of access to campus facilities: The sense of the PCAA was that this was not the purview of the PCAA, although the PCAA knows that this is an issue that should be reviewed.
• There was continued discussion of the issue of getting to buildings in the campus core. 
•  There was a recommendation to heighten campus awareness of what is a disability (not just physically disability and not just permanent disability)

The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Luis Rodriguez