The Meeting Convened At3:14P.M. Once Quorum Had Been Reached

GovernanceCouncil

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

3:00PM

UNH306

Cynthia Fox,Chair

Minutes

PRESENT:Chesin, Sorrell;Cruz, José;Fox, Cynthia; Janiszewski, Caitlin; Kearney, Ann;Kuznetsov, Igor; Malavasic, Jolene; Scheck, Helene

GUEST:Collins, James

The meeting convened at3:14p.m. once quorum had been reached.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes ofApril 13, 2015were approved, with a minor correction and 1 abstention.

The minutes ofApril 20, 2015were approved, with 1 abstention.

CHAIR’S REPORT

At the latest meeting of the SEC, a member raised concerns that the SUNY guidelines for the selection of Distinguished Professors and for the Honors and Privileges that they are supposed to be accorded are not being followed (see

Senate Bill 0708-05 outlines guidelines for the UAlbany selection committee for Distinguished Teaching Professors and Distinguished Service Professors, defined as 10 voting members including the Senate Chair or designee and 6 members appointed by GOV. Chair Fox looked back in GOV meeting minutes, and it looks like 2011 was the last time the committee was consulted; it is not clear why this is the case. Senators Fox and Collins, as next year’s Senate Chair and Vice Chair respectively, would meet with Bill Hedberg to discuss getting the procedures back on track.

The full Faculty meeting, as a supplement to the spring Faculty Address,will take place on Monday (May 11) after the Senate meeting.

UNFINISHEDBUSINESS

Recommendations from the councils and committees regarding composition and charges were reviewed, having been restructured by Chair Fox in the form of Charter Amendments. GOV will have to follow through on these in the coming academic year, as Charter Amendments must be presented and voted upon at separate Senate meetings per the prescribed timeline in section X of the Charter.

Amendment RE: Clarification of Responsibilities of CAA

This amendment was proposed in response to CAA’s concern that “ensuring compliance” was beyond their purview and that, consequently, the language of their charge should be modified.

In the subsequent discussion, concern was raised about reducing the Senate’s advisory role if there is in fact some language that grants faculty oversight. If the Council is ceding authority, who does that authority go to?

After further discussion, it was agreed that GOV would table voting on this amendment in order to get clarification on the issues and recommended that both Deborah Bernnard (Chair of CAA during the 204-15 year) and Bruce Szelest be invited to attend a meeting in the fall.

Amendment RE: Updates to Section X.4 (GAC)

GOV agreed that GAC’s recommendations as reflected in the proposed amendment removes language that confuses, clarifies the charges overall, and brings them into line with practice.

A motion was made that the amendment be sent to the Senate floor and was unanimously approved, with one abstention.

Amendment RE: Asymmetry in LISC Standing Committees

GOV agreed with LISC’s recommendation that the asymmetry in the treatment of the ex officio members on standing committees should be addressed.

A motion that the amendment go to the Senate floor and was unanimously approved, with one abstention.

UAC concerns

UAC had concerns regarding its workload, its structure, and populating subcommittees, including the AppellateSub-Committee, but members did not have specific language changesfor the Charter.

In the subsequent discussion, Chair Fox noted that many issues involving the populating of councils became apparent to her during the recent meeting of the Committee on Council Nominations. For example, volunteers generally asked to serve on the same three committees, and nobody asks for UAC.

Volunteers are also not always qualified to serve on councils that they request, e.g., members of CERS must be full professors. It is clear that some committees are seen as onerous while others are not. Volunteers are also more likely to be professional faculty than teaching faculty, a point that highlights the question of the role of contingent faculty and emeriti in the Senate and if these are constituencies we could draw on if there is more work than we can handle.

Following some discussion, it was recommended that GOV set up an ad hoc committee next year to look the issues raised by UAC and whether restructuring was in order. GOV could request that UAC consider how its issues could be solved,whether additional members serving would help, if the Appellate subcommittee should even be in GOV, or if some subcommittees areawkward legacies they recommend the Senate let go. GOV would begin by asking UAC, then would have a case to present in general of how the discussion had gone.

NEW BUSINESS

Presidential Initiatives Fund– CoR Chair Kajal Lahiri had noted at an SEC meeting a few weeks prior that the council had not been consulted regarding recommendations for the selection committee and was concerned regarding the role of governance in the process. The winners of these grants had just been announced, and some areas were misclassified. There were only 2 Arts and Humanities winners, and the categories were odd. The charges for CoR were reviewed in the Charter, X.5.3. It was discussed whether funds had been provided from the Foundation or the University-wide budget. This was just recently established as a Presidential initiatives fund for research and scholarship. Does that fall within the normal process, and were institutional guidelines followed?The Division for Research will oversee and administer the allocations, but it was thought there might be confusion about consultation processes. GOV Chair Fox would offer congratulations on the first round of allocations and would clarifythat going forward governance should be consulted regarding funding tied to the University. It was however noted that donors to the Foundation may award for specific purposes.

Contingent faculty issues

Two specific issues have been recently been raised:

1)Part-time faculty cannot vote for their ownAt-large Senator representation.

GOV agreed that this is a matter of concern is hopeful that pending contingent concerns committee report will provide some guidance in finding a solution.

2)Contingent faculty are not provided information sent to Senators and the related group contact list.

Senate Secretary Gulateewill look into this issue.

Concerns regarding the status of Emeriti.

The Bylaws state that Emeriti are considered part of the faculty. Mention of Emeriti in theCharter, X.9.2 under the charges of ULC (includes…and service and programs for PT and emeriti faculty) suggest maybe Emeriti should systematically be placed on that council. Emeriti are also included under many areas, though not identified.

Last year during the transition of the prior and new Senate Staff Support, Emeriti received information regarding volunteering council service. Since thenit was learned that it is not the usual practice to send this announcement to Emeriti, and so that group did not receive this year’s solicitation.It was not a mistake to send the announcement however because there is a category of faculty representation under which Emeriti can serve per the Charter, X.1.1.6 (no more than 2 voting members who are faculty but not voting members). Some Emeriti choose to maintain a UA e-mail when they retire, which may be a way to communicate and inquire as to interest in Senate councils service. HR also might have a mechanism to contact Emeriti. GOV also considered putting forth a proposal that there should be an Emeritus At-Large Senator. It was thought the position should possibly be as a non-voting member since Emeriti, similar to part-time and adjunct faculty here less than 3 semesters, do not have to live with the votes in the way that others.

GSA

GSA is requesting that GOV work with the President’s Office to look at standardizing the process of selecting GSA and SA students to serve on committees.There was concern that leaders are often not told who the representatives are that have been chosen to serve.

It was recommended that all of the above items be placed on the GOV agenda for next year.

Chair Fox thanked the members of GOV for their collegiality, their hard work, and all they had accomplished this year. She then wished everyone a great summer.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by

Elisa Lopez, Recorder