Montclair State University
PCAffirmative Action 2004-05

Minutes
November 16 , 2005

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Present : E. Abreu (Women's Caucus), M. Brown (African American Caucus), Saundra Collins (University Senate), S. Davage (CWA), D. Davis (AFT Local 1904), J. Ficke (At-Large), A. Gutierrez (Latino/a Caucus), J. Hain (Ex-Officio), J. Harris (ADA Representative), L. Jenkins (At-Large), AJ Kelton (At-Large), N. Kotadia (SGA), C. Lange (Women's Caucus), L Lemley (IFPTE Local 195), S. Lewis (Faculty), D. Lorenzo (At-Large), C. Meneghin (Professional Staff), B. Milton (Ex-Officio), D. Ragin (University Senate), L. Rodriguez (At-Large), S. Skalsky (Managerial), L.Smith (ADA Representative), N. Trivedi (APIC), & Q. Vega (At-Large).

Constituencies Not Represented: Asian Student Group, Gay & Lesbian Faculty/Staff Association, Latin American Student Organization, Organization for African Unity, Physical Plant, Secretarial/Clerical Staff, SPECTRUMS, and University Police.

The meeting was called to order at 12: 45 p.m.

Minutes of the October 19, 2005 Meeting

Lange motioned to approve the minutes; Abreu seconded.   No recommendations to change the minutes as submitted were made.   Guiterrez motioned to approve the minutes as submitted.   Lemley seconded.   The minutes were approved as submitted.  

Diversity Week Events

Members presented information on Diversity Week events:

•  Harris discussed the "Conversations on Affirmative Action" program, a program sponsored by the PCAA and organized by the Education Committee.

•  Abreu spoke about other programs at the first annual Diversity Week at MSU.   A list of events is available at http://www.montclair.edu/womenscenter/diversity.htm

•  Meneghin asked that Abreu submit a report on Diversity Week for the next PCAA meeting.

Reading

Lorenzo led a discussion of "Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy" by Robert Oscar Lopez (http://buffaloreport.com/2005/051101.lopez.parks.html) and "A Legend's Soul Is Rested" by Ellis Cose (http://msnbc.msn.com//id/9863786/site/newsweek/)

Committee Reports

Recruitment and Retention Committee : Brown reported that the committee will talk to each of the caucuses to see if they have identified any issues mentioned in the Recruitment and Retention Committee's report.   The committee is organizing meetings with the caucuses.

Mentoring Committee : Abreu reported that the committee had, in the past, tried to find a "perfect" definition of mentoring.   That is not realistic.   They are choosing a working definition to use in a "survey" of faculty and staff.   Those being surveyed would be asked what they are doing in terms of mentoring.   The goal behind this is to:

• Raise awareness of mentoring
• Find out what is "out" there in terms of what academic departments and administrative units are doing to mentor their faculty and staff to determine and what is working and what is not working
• Determine mentoring needs of the campus.

The committee thinks that creating a resource list and sharing information about the kinds of mentoring activities occurring on campus may be better than a survey.   The committee will also use "Thank Your Mentor Day" as an opportunity to collect information on mentoring activities on the campus.

Meneghin said that she thinks a correlation could be found between departments or units that have good formal and/or informal mentoring programs and higher rates of retention, particularly for faculty and staff of color.  

Hain said that the University tries to discourage surveys because they are not easy things to do well.   As the Mentoring Committee moves forward in its work, it needs to look at what is the best way to gather the information needed.

Education Committee : The committee's activities were discussed in Harris' report on Diversity Week activities.

Affirmative Action Day

Affirmative Action Day will be on February 15.   Lorenzo provided information on Ellis Cose, the keynote speaker.   The PCAA is working with the Arts and Cultural Programming staff to accommodate non-MSU attendees.

Hiram Perez

Meneghin said that the PCAA Executive Committee had written a letter of support for Hiram Perez, GLFSA representative to the PCAA for several years, noting his contributions to the PCAA.   The letter was sent to the Provost and to Dr. Perez.  

The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Luis Rodriguez

PCAA Recording Secretary