Montclair State University
PCAA 2004-05

Minutes
November 17, 2004

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Attendance:

Present: I. Barriera, M. Brown, I. Caprio, T. Carey, R. I. Cartagena, M. Coleman-Carter, M. Colon, J. Ficke, A. Gutierrez, J. Hain, J. Harris, L. Jenkins, AJ Kelton, L. Lemley, D. Lorenzo, C. Matteis, L. McInerney, C. Meneghin, , B. Milton, O. Morales, C. Onore, D. Ragin, L. Rodriguez, O. Rodriguez-Srednicki, R. Ross, L. Smith, M. Sparks, N. Trivedi, Q. Vega & M. Zabourney.

Guest: K. Pennington

Constituencies Not Represented: GLFSA, SPECTRUMS, Faculty, Local 195, OSAU, Physical Plant, University Police, SGA & Women’s Groups.


Welcome: The meeting was called to order at 12:08 p.m.

Change in Minutes Procedure: Meneghin told the PCAA of the Executive Committee decision to not mention in the meeting minutes the name of any PCAA member making a comment during discussions of sensitive or controversial issues. This is designed to insure that all members feel free to state their views at our meetings.

Meneghin then introduced Dr. Karen Pennington, Vice President for Student Development and Campus Life (SDCL), who was invited to the PCAA meeting to discuss two incidents that occurred on campus and University policy related to these incidents.

Vice President (VP) Pennington’s Report: VP Pennington began by describing the two incidents:

(1) On Oct. 15, three individuals were seen running through Bohn Hall with markers. After this, residents noticed that swastikas and other racist symbols had been painted on some doors. The symbols appeared to have been painted on the doors in a random manner. In response to this incident, the SDCL staff put together a flyer alerting residents of a $1000 reward for information on the individuals involved in the incident and they also held meetings with the residents to talk about the incident.

The University received a number of leads from students who had seen the individuals running through Bohn Hall. This led to the arrest of one person for damage to State property and the hate crime law. The police are working on getting warrants for the arrest of the other individuals.

(2) Several days later, an incident occurred with a minister who had been given permission to speak on campus. His speech caused some students to become angry and to eventually throw objects at him. SDCL staff were encouraging students to walk away from the minister who was speaking, but eventually the University became concerned about his safety and intervened to end his speech.

VP Pennington noted that any individual has a right to speak on campus, but the University can control the time, place and manner in which this is done. In this case, too much time may have been given to the speaker and it may have been in too prominent a place, but the manner in which the minister was allowed to speak was fine. A review of this incident will lead to a change in some of the procedures used to grant permission to speak on campus.
VP Pennington is meeting with representatives of the Anti-Defamation League to discuss how the University can develop better procedures to deal with these types of incidents. VP Pennington said that the University tries to have a zero tolerance policy for hate speech, but the University also understands the need to protect free speech.

When asked a question about the University policy, if any, for dealing with hateful speech from a member of the campus community. She said that the University looks at the context of the discussion in which a hateful statement was made to determine if any action is appropriate.

In the discussion that followed VP Pennington’s presentation, a PCAA member stated that she was concerned about creating a situation in which a group within the community feels this is an unsafe campus. She thought the University should set the tone to show that the campus is safe.

Margaree Coleman-Carter mentioned that Jhon Velasco, Program Coordinator for Violence Against Women, gives excellent presentations on the power of words to cause harm.
A member stated that the University needs to heighten awareness of these issues through many means, not just through one meeting. A member suggested using the resident assistants to help students who are negatively affected by these types of incidents.
The PCAA recommended that Dr. Cole let the campus know about University policy for speech on campus.

Change to Attendance Listing in Minutes: Meneghin explained the new practice in noting attendance or absence at meetings: if at least one representative of a constituency is present at a meeting, then the other representative absence will not be listed (since only one representative of a constituency is expected to attend). If both representatives are absent, then the minutes will note that the constituency was not represented at the meeting.

Minutes of Oct. 20, 2004 Meeting: Kelton motioned for the minutes to be approved. Lemley seconded. Minutes were approved as submitted and they will be shared with the campus.

Reading: The Executive Committee has changed the reading for this meeting. Rather than discussion the article on mentoring, we discussed “Hispanics Debate Census Plan to Change Racial Grouping,” an article that appeard in the Oct. 24, 2004 issue of the New York Times. We will discuss the article on mentoring at our December meeting.

Committee Reports:
Education Committee
Cartegena reported on behalf of Harris. She reported on the “Conversation on Affirmative Action” program held on Nov. 15th. There was a good turn-out with good discussions and questions on the topic. Everyone praised the work of the students who moderated the program – Cartegena. & Morales.

Mentoring and Professional Development Committee
Lemley reported on behalf of Coleman-Carter. The committee plans to pick one group for which to develop a mentoring program. They think that a program for women would be the best place to start. They plan to explore strategies and methods and to find ways to evaluate the mentoring needs of women. They also plan to familiarize themselves with on and off-campus formal and informal mentoring programs and will look at the what the SGA, the Brotherhood and the campus ACEnet group are doing in terms of mentoring. Morales mentioned that Lambda Sigma Upsilon has developed a mentoring program with local schools.

Lemley reported that the group working on reviving the Women's Caucus is moving right along.

Recruitment and Retention Committee
Kelton reported that the Committee met on Nov. 10. They had a short discussion on the question of maternity leave and decided to wait until the discussion with VP Hain at today’s general meeting before deciding if this is something the committee should handle. They spoke about issues of videoconferencing of Affirmative Action Day. They set their goals for this year:

• To review the report of last year’s Recruitment and Retention (R & R) Committee and report back to the PCAA as a whole on the report.
  
• Using the R & R report as a guide, to meet with groups represented on the PCAA to ask for specific “action” items.

Old Business:
Parking for Persons with Disability
The committee formed at the last PCAA meeting had its first meeting. From feedback from students and staff with disabilities, it began identifying issues on which to focus and it began to gather data to help the PCAA and the campus understand these issues better. One thing the committee did was to clarify the definitions of temporary and permanent disability and what that means in terms of parking and transportation services.

Carey encouraged the committee to share what it is finding with Elaine Cooper of Parking Services.

One member said that he noticed the difficulty of getting into Richardson Hall for a person in a wheelchair. One day, he observed a person in a wheelchair who had to ask a passerby to open the main entrance door to Richardson for her. Smith mentioned that the Senate Committee on Services for Persons with Disabilities is working with the University to look at the campus to make sure is at least one accessible door per building and that this entrance “works” as a good way to get into the building.

Maternity Leave and the Tenure Clock
Background: A faculty member had approached the PCAA with a concern that the policy on when a faculty member is reviewed for tenure (sometimes called, “the tenure clock”) may have a negative effect on women who take a maternity leave or leaves. This concern was referred to the PCAA Recruitment and Retention Committee. However, it was determined that the issue of the tenure clock is driven by New Jersey law and VP Hain was asked to talk to the PCAA about the law.

VP Hain shared the section of the NJ Statutes that cover the tenure clock (NJSA 18A:60-8. The text of this statute is reproduced below from the NJ Legislature web site (http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/Default.asp).

18A:60-8. Tenure in academic rank; conditions
Faculty members shall be under tenure in their academic rank, but not in any administrative position, during good behavior, efficiency and satisfactory professional performance, as evidenced by formal evaluation and shall not be dismissed or reduced in compensation except for inefficiency, unsatisfactory professional performance, incapacity or other just cause and then only in the manner prescribed by subarticle B of article 2 of chapter 6 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes, after employment in such college or by such board of trustees for
a. 5 consecutive calendar years; or
b. 5 consecutive academic years, together with employment at the beginning of the next academic year; or
c. the equivalent of more than 5 academic years within a period of any 6 consecutive academic years.
L.1973, c. 163, s. 3, eff. July 1, 1973.

There followed a discussion of the impact of this statute on women who take maternity leaves. Members mentioned that there was no way for a woman on a maternity leave to stop the clock if she is out for less than a year. This could lead to less research output. VP Hain said that this is something that is taken into consideration by the department and by the University.

The PCAA agreed that the response to the faculty member who raised the issue to the PCAA is that the issue of the tenure clock is driven by statutory law and cannot be modified. However, the reponse should also make clear that there are appeal processes at all level of tenure review that a faculty member can use if she thinks that her maternity leave was not taken into consideration.

Another member recommended that the University make the statute on tenure more publicly available.

In response to a member’s comment, VP Hain clarified that it is not up to the faculty member to choose when she or he is up for tenure review.

Affirmative Action Day
A committee was formed to assist Milton with the planning for Affirmative Action Day. The committee members are Cartagena, Lorenzo, Morales, Onore, & Zabourney. Kelton will serve as a technical consultant if the event is to be videoconferenced. Milton will coordinate the work of the committee. President Cole has offered to help identify possible speakers and has already sent some suggestions.

Meneghin asked that any group co-sponsoring this event or any other PCAA event confirm co-sponsorship via email.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:03 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Luis Rodriguez