Veronica Sexton
Provost Richard Ogle and President Britt Rios-Ellis listen intently to Senator Colnic's CFA report.
At today’s meeting, the Academic Senate came together to publicize the body’s support for the letter recently written by the Queer Faculty and Staff Association (QFSA) with a resolution that reads that the Trump Administration’s executive orders “significantly impact the safety and well-being of many of the most vulnerable individuals within our Stan State community” and that last week’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event gave them further reason to hasten their message of support.
The Senate also approved the creation of three new academic programs—an Ethnic Studies Professional Certification, an English Language Arts Teaching Concentration, and an Astronomy Minor. Also on the agenda was a report from Stan State’s President, Britt Rios-Ellis, and a report on the future of the Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (FCETL).
Sense of the Senate Resolution Asks University Administration “To Do More” to Protect Vulnerable Groups on Campus
FBAC Chair and CFA Chapter President Dave Colnic introduced a resolution to the floor today entitled the “Support of Queer and Transgender Warriors Statement.”
“This one I will read the whereases in addition to the resolved,” Colnic said, “I think they’re important.”
Colnic then proceeded to read the resolution verbatim—a rare occurrence on the Senate floor.
In its five short lines, the resolution reads that it condemns the Trump Administration’s “deluge of attacks” on vulnerable groups, especially queer and trans individuals.
It echoes the sentiment expressed by the QFSA in their recent open letter to the campus that these attacks are intersectional in scope and acknowledges “the multifaceted vulnerability of people within our Community.”
The resolution also references the April 7th event staged by Turning Point USA in the Quad which invited a speaker to “Expose the Trans Agenda.”
The resolution reads that the Senate’s sentiment is that the organization came with the “seeming intent to intimidate, degrade, and dehumanize” trans and LGBTQ+ members of the Stan State community.
The resolution then resolves with a request of the campus administration and wider community to “do more to ensure that all members of our campus community–particularly those coming under attack–feel secure, protected, and can find inclusion and belonging on this campus.”
The Senate voted to waive the rules by acclimation—proceeding in the case of no expression of dissent—to expedite this resolution to a second reading where it could go to an immediate vote.
The resolution passed with a vote of 40 in favor, one against, and none abstaining.
President Rios-Ellis and the CFA Share Concerns Over the CSU’s Budget, Promoting Advocacy to the State Legislature
Stan State President Britt Rios-Ellis and CFA Chapter President Dave Colnic both gave reports to the Senate today which felt similarly pessimistic about the future of Stan State’s budget, but outlined steps for faculty and staff to work together to better the university’s position.
President Rios-Ellis’ report talked about a recent budget forum held by the CSU administration, expressing doubts about the California state legislature’s willingness to directly cut $375 million from the CSU’s budget and that the amount and conditions for the system’s funding are still negotiable.
However, Rios-Ellis worried about the possibilities of what could happen to Stan State in such a crisis.
“We do not have the same economies of scale as other CSU campuses,” Rios-Ellis said.
She reported that while other CSU campuses have hundreds of thousands of dollars in reserves, Stan State is not in that position. Other campuses, she said, are capable of earning as much as $2.67 million in revenue through direct donations, and hopes that Stan State will one day be able to garner a number close to that amount.
Rios-Ellis appealed to faculty that the fight is not between faculty and Stan State’s administration, but rather a joint effort to advocate for the university and its value to the state and federal governments to ensure the future success of the system and of higher education.
CFA Chapter President concurred, appreciating Rios-Ellis’ comments about the need for faculty to be in Sacramento.
“Legislators don’t want to cut our budget,” he said, “They are unwilling to write the CSU a blank check, they’ve made that clear.”
Colnic also announced a rally with sibling unions to take place at Stan State this upcoming Thursday at the Mary Stuart Rogers Building that will begin close to 11:30 a.m..
“It will be fun,” Colnic said, stating that the rally will take on the aesthetics of a funeral procession. “Imagine what we are mourning.”
Three New Academic Programs in Ethnic Studies, English, and Astronomy Added to Upcoming Course Catalog
Three new academic programs were passed by the Senate today, each of which is aimed to take advantage of pre-existing expertise at Stan State or to meet the desires of prospective students without adding any additional courses to the schedule, and therefore no additional costs.
The English Language Arts Teaching Concentration within the English B.A. program is designed as a more “rigorous option” compared to the current Single Subject Matter Preparation (SSMP) pathway in English, which the resolution writes does not properly train future teachers in the fields of “literature, language, and pedagogy.”
This concentration will consist of 21 upper-division units in a highly structured pathway, which the resolution holds will prepare students to be credentialed as teachers of English.
The resolution proposing the Ethnic Studies Professional Certificate writes that the program’s goal is to, “[provide] an Ethnic Studies, social justice, and critical course of study that integrates theory with practice. This program prepares K-12 and university level educators and administrators to serve communities, clients, and students in equitable and sustainable ways.”
This will include twelve units of coursework which can be taken in addition to a Bachelor of Science. The four courses composing these twelve units are titled Decolonizing Education and Society, Healing for Collective Change, Transformative Schooling and Pedagogy, and Critical Praxis for Educators and Practitioners.
Also passed was a proposal for a new minor in Astronomy, a field which Stan State has pre-existing expertise in with scientists who are currently teaching at the university, such as Brian Morsoney.
“We are hoping this will be a tool to recruit students,” Senator Morsoney said. He stated that there is a great desire among physics, chemistry, geology, computer science and other STEM majors to have astronomy as their minor as a means to strengthen their application to a PhD program in astronomy.
The new program asks students taking programs such as Geology which only require students to be proficient in algebra and trigonometry, to also take Calculus 1 and 2 as part of their lower-division coursework.
At the upper-division level, students in the program will take courses such as Astrobiology, Stellar Astrophysics, Galaxies and Cosmology, and Planetary Science and Engineering.