Thomas Hall is expected to go under renovations again in the next academic year.
MANHATTAN.EDU/COURTESY
By Brooke DellaRocco, News Editor
On April 9, Manhattan College’s senators gathered together to discuss next year’s plans for the college with President Milo Riverso, Ph.D., in attendance. Discussions on how to divide up positions on the Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) and senate, news of upcoming renovations and talk of some major priorities for Manhattan College were the focus of the last senate meeting of the 2023-2024 academic year.
One of the main topics of discussion was the composition of the EAC and how the members will be distributed among the three schools. The EAC had voted on a motion for one representative from the O’Malley School of Business, one representative from the School of Engineering, and three representatives from the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS). The vote showed 11 were in favor with zero abstaining and zero nays, needing only the senate’s approval to move forward. This will essentially leave the composition in terms of the number of faculty represented, the same as it is right now.
When discussing, it was clear that many senators felt that there was an overrepresentation of KSAS. Interim Provost Rani Roy voiced her concerns with this proposal.
“I will say that there will be additional representation from KSAS in this model,” Roy said. “The hardest part is that if an engineering faculty member or business faculty member isn’t present [at voting], then all of the faculty that will be voting will be from KSAS…I’m just saying that it weighs one school heavier than the other, but [KSAS] is larger in terms of numbers for representation.”
The discussion was eventually tabled, as the senate will resume this proposal after senators reach out to their constituents.
Soon after, the senators delved into how to divide up the faculty senators who will serve on the senate for the upcoming academic year. An ad hoc committee was previously organized to deal with this task and developed three proposals.
The first proposal included two representatives from the School of Engineering, two representatives from the School of Business, six representatives from KSAS and one representative from the library. The second proposal included adding an additional faculty senator, making the structure two reps from engineering, two reps from business, seven reps from KSAS and one rep from the library. This involved a total of 12 faculty senators, which would provoke a change to the current senate bylaws. The third proposal included two reps from engineering, two reps from business, eight reps from KSAS and one rep from the library for a total of 13 faculty senators.
After much deliberation, a decision was made to keep the compositions the same and raise the question to the Council of Faculty Affairs (CFA) as to how they would like to divide up the faculty senators. Kashifuddin Qazi, Ph.D., associate computer science professor and speaker for the senate, spoke about the next steps in the process of choosing new members.
“I will reach out to the CFA chair, and ask her what the CFA’s take is and how we want to proceed with this,” Qazi said. “Again, as soon as I get an answer for both the previous issue and for this issue, I would call an executive meeting session of the Senate.”
In terms of new business, Riverso was called up to reflect on this academic year and propose new focuses moving forward.
“I will tell you this year’s financial results are similar to last year’s financial results that I had predicted at the beginning of the year,” Riverso said. “We’re projecting some large losses that are similar to last year, plus additional severance due to the reductions in force that happen. So the college will lose 17 million this fiscal year.”
Riverso also confirmed that the financial outlook of Manhattan College next academic year will depend on the numbers for the new freshman class. It is expected that the incoming freshman class for 2024-2025 will include almost 730 students, meaning MC would lose approximately $2.5 million as compared to the $17 million lost.
Riverso aims to turn his focus toward the marketing of the college in hopes of appealing to new students and continuing the attraction around MC.
Another topic on Riverso’s agenda is continuing renovations of the campus’s buildings and facilities, including a continuation of Thomas Hall’s renovation that was left unfinished.
“We are challenged by campus infrastructure, addressing issues from deferred maintenance throughout the campus,” Riverso said. “You’ll see projects [like] Hayden [Hall] being taken care of. They’re not optional projects, [as] we need to get them done. We still have the other half of Thomas Hall to do; [even though] we did some last year.”
With the conclusion of the meeting, faculty members will wait to see how the distribution of senators will be broken up as well as how the college will adapt to its current financial status and situation.