Inside Latest Academic Senate Meeting

The Academic Senate meetings at CSUDH are bi-weekly recaps of the university’s business. Photo by Marcelo Maximillan

By Aliyah Brown Staff Reporter

On March 8, California State University, Dominguez Hills held an open senate meeting on Zoom. It is by law that the general faculty, the Board of Trustees of California State University, and the president of the university must formulate, evaluate, and recommend to the president of the university. This includes policies and procedures pertaining to the development, maintenance, and improvement of the university; and serves as a forum for faculty members to express their opinions on issues affecting the operations of the university.

The academic senators encouraged everyone to attend the women’s basketball game as they have been having an incredible season, where they recently won at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division Two West Regional Championship.

The discussion continued with the nominations for the academic senate chair and statewide senator election signatures, which are due on April 8. They need 60 faculty signatures in total and an electronic signature uploaded to the senate dropbox.

Senator and Co-President Dr. La Tanya discussed the new ten-year PTE policy and how it could affect course evaluations. She then informed the employees that the labor and management team would value their input at an upcoming meeting. Unfortunately, educators aren’t being able to make use of all the information they have access to as they’re missing out on both quantitative and qualitative information, according to officials.

Thomas Norman approached the board and discussed the Intersegmental Committee on Academics, which was enacted by the legislature and is a new single pathway known as the Cal Gets You Now. According to Norman, this is crucial for community college students as it would make the transition into a four-year university simpler even if they weren’t accepted into the institution they wanted but will still be able to go into another. He went on to express that he is thrilled that this was possible. He went on to state that he encourages advocacy to push legislation to allow facilities to do their jobs because numerous laws in place may greatly impede enrollment.

It was also revealed that retention rates from last year’s academic school year have increased from 79.6% to 83%.

The meeting ended with a recap on how amazing all our sports are doing from  CSUDH athletic director, Eric McCurdy. 

The next senate meeting is held bi-weekly, and it is highly recommended for those who like to stay involved and up to date with what is happening at CSUDH.