Plenary Session: 9:30 am-11:30 am, Room A-310
Personnel and Budget: 10:30 am -11:30 am, Room A-201
Present: G. Barabino, D. Cintrón, M. Driscoll, G. Gebert, D. Jeruzalmi, F. Lam, T. Liss, J. Mercado, D.D. Mozeleski, V.P. Nair, T. Scala, R. Stark, C. Stewart, M. Strzeszewski, W. Thornton, M. Trevisan, L. Zinnanti
Guests: D. Anderson, E. Medina, R. Miller (for E. Koch), L. Tachauer
Excused: K. Witherspoon, K. Foster, E. Koch, S. Rings
Approval of November 7 Meeting Minutes
The meeting commenced at 9:33 am. The Minutes of the November 7, 2018 Minutes were approved as submitted.
Update on Middle States Monitoring Report
The report is coming along well. The President has added his edits. The most important part will be budget, showing the steps we are taking to reduce our deficit.
Update on CCNY Strategic Plan
Twenty sets of comments were received after initial circulation. A majority of them have been integrated. The revised plan will be submitted for a vote at the next Faculty Senate meeting.
Budget Update
Felix Lam recapped CCNY’s FY19 budget negotiations with CUNY since September. The initial projected budget had a deficit of $19M. CUNY required the College to reduce this deficit and the College presented a revised budget to CUNY in November with a deficit reduced to $15M. CUNY did not find these cuts sufficient and there was some concern that the proposed budget may also not satisfy Middle States’ concerns. The present proposed budget reduces the deficit to under $1M, achieved mainly by cuts to personnel spending through an extension of the hiring freeze. Additional measures to offset the deficit include delays to the start dates of some executive hires and further reductions to OTPS budgets. The deficit was also partially offset by some new savings including the use of Tech Fee funds to replace critical IT equipment; walking back plans to reduce use of RF funds for operating expenses by $300,000; some unanticipated energy savings; greater than projected revenue from ACE; a request to CUNY to provide an additional $2M as they did last year; and taking into account Medical School CUTRA funds. The new budget also builds in an anticipated increase in adjunct spending of $400,000+ as a result of hiring freeze; the increase to the NYS minimum wage going into effect 12/31/2018; and replacement of any new vacancies in Public Safety or Physical Plant services among staff assigned to cover a designated post.
Hiring Actions
The Provost gave an update on exceptions to the hiring freeze:
An HR expert in the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs to replace the position no longer funded by CUNY was hired with IDC funding.
One of two advising vacancies produced simultaneously in the Spitzer School of Architecture will be filled by Ms. Annemarie Daniel who will transfer from the Gateway Academic Center to Architecture.
A scientist will be hired in NOAA-CREST in order for the College to remain compliant with the terms of the Center’s grant. This hire has been postponed for several years.
Ms. Yahaira Colon will be promoted to the position of Administrative Executive Associate (HEA) on a substitute basis.
Two Lecturers have been hired in Computer Science: Dr. Erik Grimmelmann and Dr. Hesham Auda. These positions will be funded for two years by a grant awarded to CCNY through the CUNY 2x Tech Initiative.
Two vacant hourly positions in OIT previously funded by tax levy funds will be filled using Tech Fee funds.
The Office of Facilities Management will hire an additional Project Manager, which CUNY has made a pre-requisite to CCNY being allocated any further capital funding.
Space Survey and Room Booking
Ken Ihrer and David Robinson presented a new initiative to facilitate the reservation of general-purpose classroom space for ad hoc events. Faculty will be able to submit space requests on line, which will be vetted by David Covington, Anthony Achille and Leon Tachauer, who will be able to access consolidated room information. Eventually the database will contain other classroom attributes as well. A similar database will later be built for departmental/divisionally controlled spaces. This project is an example of promising synergies between OIT and Facilities Management facilitated by the recent reorganization of the two departments under the leadership of the VP and COO. Part of the challenge remains obtaining an inventory of all classroom space, which is also needed for the development of the next CCNY Master Plan. An anticipated update to the Archibus platform is expected to help with this. Dean Gebert noted that Spitzer School of Architecture faculty and staff contributed to the creation of the Archibus platform.
Implementing New Budget Process – Unit Self-Studies
Units will write self-studies that should be aspirational. Ideal budget should take into account the unit’s OKRs. The College has joined the Delaware Cost Study, which will provide benchmarks for academic budgets. Non-academic units will reference industry standards (though some standards may be too aspirational for City College). There will be a reality check later. A rough pass will be due in March. The Provost will convene a meeting of the Deans early in the spring semester to talk about this process for academic units.
The plenary portion of the meeting ended at 10:45 am, and the Personnel and Budget session began at 10:55 am.
Last Updated: 02/07/2019 15:23