Academic Senate Meeting Minutes

Steering Committee Chairperson Dr. Scott Litroff called the  meeting of the Academic Senate to order at 3:15 PM.  The meeting was held in hybrid format, with attendees both in M136 and ZOOM.  Chairperson Litroff chaired the meeting from M-136. 

I.  Attendance 

50 votes were recorded at the time attendance was taken, 42 members were in person and 8 online of the 50 members of the Academic Senate that were present during the meeting.  

II. Approval of the Agenda 

Chairperson Litroff used unanimous consent to approve the agenda.  There were no objections. 

III: Consideration of the Minutes from October 21, 2025

Chairperson Litroff used unanimous consent to approve the minutes. There were no objections. 

IV: Communications 

1. President Christine Mangino 
   The Senate received President Mangino’s Report 
   • Events happening during this week:
     • Bites and Insights a lunch and learn
     • Workshop for students who are either below a 2.0 GPA or on the verge of having a 2.0 GPA which has had positive results
     • Tuesday November 18^th celebration for Native American Heritage with the Red Hawk Council which is a Native-led non-profit dedicated to preserving and sharing Native American performing arts.
   • President Mangino will be in Atlanta Tuesday November 18^th accepting an award for the college called the Movement Makers Award which is being given out by AQ for the work that the college has been doing and the results that they have seen.
   • QCC has reached the last two rounds in the top 150 colleges through Aspen an organization that selects the top community colleges in the country based on outcomes and equity data and job placement. Over the next couple of months, they will narrow that down to the top 25, and then to the top 10, and then the top college who will receive a million dollars.
   • Acue conducted a study that looked at faculty who participated in during the first year that they did the training, and then also the results for the year after for the students that were in that class, to see that it was the sustainable results. It found that there are higher completion rates for students with faculty who've taken the training. Also, it had the largest impacts for Black students, as well as female students. There were also higher pass rates and lower dropout, failure, and withdrawal rates.  
   • CUNY Tuesday officially launched today, QCC also has 30 teams competing on campus competing to win the tiger for the year. The money raised is going to three great causes, the Pride Center, QCC Food Pantry, and the Promise Scholarship.
   • Cuny just announced today that they are going to distribute $140,000 to all the CUNY schools to help support the food pantry during this time of the government shutdown. Different organizations are also contributing to the Food Pantry and there was a call for volunteers to keep it open.
   • Registration opened the other day and 57% of continuing students have registered for spring semester.
2. Steering Committee Monthly Report 
3. Liason for the USF

• • Emily Tai presented two resolutions that are informational only.
    • Resolution to Defend Higher Education
    • Resolution in opposition of the proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”
  • The USF welcomed Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and University Provost Alicia Alfaro who talked about being a first-generation college student and working her way to leadership. She also talked about how Academic Freedom is not an absolute which prompted a long and lively conversation on what that might have meant. Several faculty expressing concern about the issue of how to interpret Title VI. This has been enlarged since the meeting by the new advisory that should complete training in Title VI, some of the Title VI training dates back to the Lipman Report that followed concerns about antisemitism throughout CUNY but there are concerns from faculty because it is very difficult to avoid making students uncomfortable.
  • Discussion on what’s going on across campuses and nationally and the concerns about the compact that was offered to some universities nationally by the Trump administration, which, at this point, some universities have accepted, and others have rejected.
  • Discussion on vendor services and the involvement of faculty with the selection of computer vendors because there was a committee that represented cooperation between members of the administration and members of the library and information committee.

V: Monthly Reports

• Curriculum Committee (Information only)
  • Reminder that last day to submit materials to curriculum committee for consideration is November 18, 2025
  • In October an experimental course ET601 AI and Game Design was approved by President Mangino and will be offered in the spring.
• Committee on Committees
  • Alternate Senate seats:
    • Proposal to have Yusuf Danisman serve as Senator while David Pham is on leave for Fall 2025 semester unanimously vote yes.  
    • Proposal to replace Dr. Laura Sabani who is on leave for the entire academic year. Three faculty members who expressed that they would like to serve as the alternate senator: Nicole Lam, Matthew Lau, and George Proteasa. Nicole McClam voted in to serve as alternate senator by majority vote.
• Size of committees for the Academic Senate: COC is suggesting reducing the size of the committees. This would have to go the Bylaws committee before coming to the Academic Senate
• Proposal establishing meeting hours (Attachment A)  “Meeting Hours” be added to the Queensborough Community College weekly academic calendar on Tuesdays between the hours of 3PM and 5PM and that department Chairpersons be discouraged from assigning classroom or other activities to instructional staff during those hours so that Senators can attend Senate meetings on the second Tuesday of every month, so that Senate Committee meetings may be held on the third Tuesday of each month, and leaving the other Tuesdays available for Departmental and other meetings? Motion carries by majority vote.

VI: Unfinished Business No unfinished business

VIII: New Business 

• Faculty member brought up broken windows in the science building and other faculty and instructors leaving windows open when leaving the classrooms causing energy waste. Any issues with facilities can be shared with the Health and Safety Representatives: Adrian Bordoni, Sean Persaud, and SueAnn Solares-Loza.

Meeting Adjourned at 3:50 PM 

Minutes respectfully submitted by Barbara Rome