A minor program deletion, a microcredential deletion and removing voting rights for principal administrators were on the docket during the Keene State Senate’s 534th meeting.
Senator and Professor of History Nick Germana, chair of the Senate Curriculum Committee, moved for the deletion of the German Studies minor.
Germana, who initially spearheaded the creation of the program, said it was meant to be interdisciplinary, drawing from German History, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (HGS), film and language courses.
Germana said the loss of a faculty member in the program has inevitably made it impossible to offer now and there are no students enrolled in it.
“I wish that wasn’t true. As much as anything, it is a program that I really wanted to work for selfish reasons but unfortunately, it won’t,” Germana said.
Senator and junior Jacob Favolise spoke in opposition to the motion for deletion.
“I can’t vote yes on this motion. I continue to be concerned, as I know other senators are, about traditional liberal arts and liberal arts-adjacent programs being cut,” Favolise said.
Senator and Associate Professor of Nursing Kirk Sanger noted his opposition as well.
“For the same reason I voted against the Women’s and Gender Studies deletion, just on principle. I feel like it’s necessary for some of us to do that,” Sanger said.
Germana responded in defense of the motion.
“Symbolic victories are meaningless. It can’t run, right? And to continue to have it on the books and advertise it to parents and students, as if we could offer it when we can’t, it’s disingenuous,” Germana said.
The motion passed the senate, as well as another motion deleting all courses within the program except for the 101 and 102 courses to leave the door open in the future for a return.
Additionally, Germana moved for deletion of the Black Studies microcredential.
“Microcredentials were badly carried out in the beginning,” Germana said. “There were problems, one of those problems being that in order to enroll in one of these programs, one had to be a matriculated student, and yet the audience for most of our micro-credentials were professionals in the community who were not going to enroll.”
Germana said the Black Studies microcredential never got off the ground because the faculty member who headed it was a part of the 2021 buyouts.
Senator and Associate Professor of Secondary English Education Chris Parsons noted the circumstances that led to the deletion proposal.
“I feel like it’s important to say out loud that a number of these programs that we are eliminating, we are eliminating because we don’t have the resources, and the reason we don’t have the resources is because the people were fired,” Parsons said.
Senator and Provost James Beeby objected to Parsons’ use of the term ‘fired’ in his remarks.
“I wasn’t here when this happened, so I’m going to say that first. Second thing I’m going to say is I would ask us to think very seriously about putting that in the record,” Beeby said.
KSC Senate Chair and Assistant Professor of Mathematics Karen Stanish clarified the language.
“I think you could safely say that in the summer of 2021, several faculty members left this college, we cannot assume why and that’s important,” Stanish said.
After the debate fizzled out, the motion for deletion passed.
Additionally, the Senate Executive Committee moved to approve revisions to the 2024-2025 bylaws. Article III-A of the bylaw revisions stated the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Engagement, as well as the Provost, would be considered ex-officio members of the KSC Senate, meaning they would not have voting power.
Favolise proposed a motion separating Article III-A from the rest of the revisions because of concerns about a lack of representation for the constituency, which passed.
Senator and Associate Professor of Anthropology James Stemp explained the rationale behind the bylaw change.
“Members of the cabinet do have a privileged position that they can get the ear of the president in a way that other faculty members and members of the senate can not,” Stemp said, noting the two having a vote would allow them to have influence in both the cabinet, as well as the senate.
Favolise said there should be a distinction between the Provost and the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Engagement when it comes to having a vote.
In order to approve the bylaw, 2/3rds of the KSC Senate needed to approve the measure, in this case Article III-A.
The motion passed, as well as the rest of the bylaw revisions.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
