University Senate Executive Committee
Monday May 5, 2014
2:45 PM
UNH 306
Christine Wagner, Senate Chair
Minutes
Present: Present: Debrah Bernnard, Anthony DeBlasi, Susanna Fessler, Elizabeth Gaffney, Yenisel Gulatee,
Michael Jaromin, Danielle Leonard, Andi Lyons, John Monfasani, Susan Phillips, Sanjay Putrevu, John Schmidt, Joette Stefl-Mabry, Christine Wagner
The meeting convened at 2:54 p.m.
APPROVAL OF SEC MINUTES
The minutes of March 24th were unanimously approved with a minor change and 1 abstention.
The minutes of April 16th were unanimously approved with a minor change and 2 abstentions.
PROVOST’S REPORT – SUSAN PHILLIPS
Provost Phillips summarized what had transpired since the Academic Retreat of last May.
A Computer Engineering Program, funded by the SUNY High Needs Program, is in curriculum development to be reviewed by the Senate in the fall. Three other areas being considered are Biomedical Engineering, Health Information Systems Engineering, and Environmental Engineering.
Secondly, there is an interest in developing more Allied Health options. We have been looking at other ways for students to move into non-medicine health fields. About 100 of 400 to 500 students enrolled with an interest in medicine end up actually pursuing that. We want to offer pathways for the other 300 to 400 students in other varieties of health fields such as PT, OT, Veterinary Science, and Lab Technician areas. Work is being done to add options to the Human Biology major to create different tracks into i.e. pre-nursing, pre-physical therapy and pre-occupational therapy. Funding will be in consideration soon and will involve adding some resources to the Biology Program. We are exploring creating partnerships with Downstate and potentially other areas. We are also exploring an area of Behavioral Health. In the 2020 RFP proposal we had 3 different proposals for Behavioral Health which highlighted how much expertise we have on campus in this area. We might start with a Behavioral Health minor, which will be coming through this fall. That area has also been informed by a survey of the region’s health care employers.
We are looking, the Provost reminded, at ways to identify, develop and grow engaged learning areas to put in pathways students can more easily find. A group of faculty is also looking at ways to connect majors to professions. The Career Development Center has been working with department chairs, especially in CAS, in this area. We have also been looking at interesting new combinations of majors and minors, like Business and Theater, Spanish and Social Welfare, and Japanese and Informatics. Those might include undergraduate plus graduate combinations as well.
An International review and self-study was taken externally in the fall. We put together recommendations which included creating a scholarship program for international freshmen, providing a tenured faculty support member for the Vice-Provost who can deputize, hiring an international student recruiter, sponsoring faculty in international travel, having an international alumni database, and reducing the cost of study abroad.
Lastly, Provost Phillips reported, there was follow up on the Full Time Tenured Faculty Satisfaction Survey. This included a series of conversations followed by an invitation to meet with small groups from each of the Schools and Colleges to talk about creating a map, which is underway, for what needs to happen.
Provost Phillips, responding to a question regarding recruitment efforts, stated that she believes the intent will be to draw in different, highly qualified, well prepared students as well as out of state and international students. Regarding the question of different majors being developed, the Computer Engineering major is quite small at approximately 30. If we were to grow the other 3 Engineering parts mentioned, it is very expensive and how it would be funded is unsure. Allied Health would draw and also retain students, as mentioned earlier. There is also discussion regarding transferring exceptional community college students into a 4 year honors program. We have done much better at creating pathways for all community college students to UAlbany programs, especially for our best partners such as Hudson Valley.
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – CHRISTINE WAGNER
Senate Bill 1314-04: Proposal to establish a Graduate Certificate Program in International Health and Human Rights was approved by the Senate on 4/7/14 and approved by the President on 4/23/14.
Senate Bill 1314-06: Proposal to Establish a Faculty-Initiated Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Major in Bio-Instrumentation was approved by UAC and UPPC and will go to the Senate for a vote on 4/28/14. Approved by the Senate on 4/28/14.
A Charter Amendment (1314-02A) regarding the composition of CPCA, introduced by GOV, was approved in the Senate on 4/7/14.
The Faculty Athletics Representative, Teresa Harrison, requested to make a report to the University Senate about the intercollegiate athletics program at UAlbany. She will report to the Senate on 5/12/14.
Senate Bill 1314-05: Proposal to Establish a Graduate Certificate Program in Teaching Composition was approved by GAC and UPPC and will go to the Senate for a vote on 4/28/14. Approved by the Senate on 4/28/14.
A letter of intent from the Department of Geography and Planning to establish a Master of Science Program in Environmental Geographic Information Science (MSEGIS) has been approved by UPPC and GAC.
A Charter Amendment (1314-03A) regarding the charge of CAFFECoR, introduced by GOV, was distributed to the Senate on 3/31/14 and will come up for a vote at the 4/28/14 Senate meeting in accordance with Faculty Bylaws Article IV.3. Approved by the Senate on 4/28/14.
The Senate Chair has received a proposal from the College of Arts & Sciences for a reactivation of the Theatre Major. The proposal was forwarded to UAC and UPPC.
OTHER REPORTS
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) – Danielle Leonard, J. Philippe Abraham & John Schmidt, SUNY Senators
The UFS Senators are looking forward to the Spring Plenary May 1st-3rd hosted by Empire State College.
John Schmidt reported there were 4 resolutions on: 1) Textbook Costs – to help keep costs down. This was tabled back to committee; 2) Evaluation of Campus Presidents’ Commitments to the Principles of Shared Governance – passed without dissent. They sent advice, previously solicited by the Chancellor, on criteria for periodic evaluation in this area; 3) Extending SUNY Board of Trustees Guidelines for Presidential Searches and Searches for Campus Executive Officers -- it was requested that “Campus Executive Officers” be used in place of “Presidential”. That resolution pertains to the merger of Nano and SUNY IT and was passed without dissent. The idea is to ensure that BOT best practice policies about such searches on campuses are followed, i.e. that open searches take place as the faculty would expect. 4) edTPA – ratified the Executive Committee’s previous resolution asking for the removal of the requirement for teacher certification and the appointment of an advisory committee to study the flawed implementation of edTPA. That passed without dissent.
Regarding teacher education, the Interim Provost Elizabeth Springford is establishing an advisory committee on teacher education. The UFS is working with UUP and has passed its resolution, and the Faculty Council of Community Colleges as well as the Student Assembly have each passed similar resolutions.
LICH in SUNY Downstate news was that the first bid was accepted, and if there were problems it would go to the second bidder. They had until yesterday today, and the report in the news indicated it was going to a second bidder, and the first was suing. The bottom line is supposed to be that SUNY will be able to exit its commitments to run LICH after May 22nd which should end the drain of $12 million a month.
The Chancellor and Provost both talked about data driven policy making and metrics. The Chancellor highlighted a move by SUNY in the direction of developing its own metrics for measuring success in the SUNY system and trying to influence the federal government’s metrics.
The Seamless Transfer initiative – the online faculty review has concluded, and 94% of faculty recommendations were adopted as proposed. That seems to smooth pathways for some 30 different majors from mainly community colleges and also from 4 year to 4 year.
Open SUNY has called for proposals for a second wave of online degree programs. The courses were sent to the campus on April 11th and due May 16, a part of the effort to support the Chancellor’s ambitious goal of 100,000 new online SUNY students in the next 4 or so years.
Conference announcements: Sustainability in the Curriculum next month; Making Diversity Count in November; 2-day workshop on Applied Learning in the fall TBA.
GSA (Graduate Student Association) – Caitlin Janiszewski, GSA President
The GSA has been very busy. We are preparing to move our offices due to the initiation of the campus center expansion project. It is of course a very stressful endeavor. Much of what we need to do depends on campus center management and we are understandably a small blip on their radar for this massive project. Our election results are the following:
President - Caitlin Janiszewski
Vice President - Kat Slye
Treasurer - Justin Chase
MCAA Chair - Brittany Glenn
Lead Senator - Ryan Gregoire
Appointments of Senators and other chairpersons are in process. We have already received notice from Senate council members that they would like to continue their services on their respective councils. We also successfully put on the Spring Presidents Forum. We look forward to following up on the issues discussed and improving for the next President's Forum in the fall. We hope to encourage more faculty to attend in the fall. We continue to hammer out the details of our bylaws.
And finally, we are working on following up with the University Auxiliary Services regarding what seems to be a display of incompetence regarding tax law. The treasurer and I have scheduled a meeting with UAS Executive Director and some staff to work through the nuances of why it seems they have been instructing us to do things for 10 years which are out of compliance with tax law. We hope to discuss our relationship as a whole and hammer out what responsibilities UAS must fulfill to allow us to do our jobs professionally. We are dependent on UAS for critical information regarding our financial processes. We will review our contract with them and attempt to clarify as well as standardize our interactions so that they are fair, regular, and professional. I should note that some members of UAS are very helpful when it comes to human resources issues, etc. but it is in regards to our overall processes that we have experienced major issues with UAS neglecting to provide critical information or following up with questions. Small issues of miscommunication are of course inevitable but we will be addressing those which have resulted in many hours of graduate student officer's time compensating for something that could have and should have been communicated well in advance.
SA (Student Association) –Marc Cohen, Student Association Representative
Interviews for next year's directors are being scheduled and conducted.
Purchase Requests for the comptroller's office have a deadline of Tuesday, 29th.
The senate passed a budget for next year.
Community Engagement and Outreach
Pine Hills clean-up was a success!
Hackett Middle School program still going on
Academic Affairs
UA U Should Know videos out
Gender and Sexuality Concerns
Started planning for conference for next year
Multicultural Affairs
Planning Cultural Carnival
Student Group Affairs
Prepping for Purple and Gold Awards
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE CHAIRS’ REPORTS:
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Deborah Bernnard, Chair
The Council on Academic Assessment hosted the Associate Dean for General Education at our April 25 meeting.Dr. Halpern provided information on the progress of the Core Competencies in the Majors initiative. CAA will be it crafting assessment cycles for these competencies next year.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility) – Susanna Fessler, Chair
Nothing to report.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – Susanna Fessler, Chair
Nothing to report.
COR (Council on Research) – John Monfasani, Chair
COR voted to change the guidelines for support of conferences so as to allow support for conferences at the SUNY Global Center in New York City when UAlbany faculty are principles in organizing the conference. We also have under consideration the establishment of three new centers at Albany. Finally, we are still grappling with several issues concerning eligibility for FRAP awards.
There would be a meeting next week, on which they would report next semester.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Sanjay Putrevu, Chair
The next CPCA meeting is on April 30.
They had been meeting weekly as cases were coming in.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Ronald Toseland, Chair
GAC will be meeting on April 29th to consider a petition from a graduate student to be reinstated in the psychology graduate program. We may also have other reports to consider at the meeting from the two standing committees of the Council. Remaining business will be taken up during a meeting on May 9th if needed.
GOV (Governance Council) – Joette Stefl-Mabry, Chair
GOV met on April 14, 2014
Committee on Liaison and Elections
On April 8th, 2014 Senate Chair Wagner sent an email requesting that the Governance Council discuss whether an email vote would “count” in the recently conducted Senator-at-large elections. As MyUAlbany is the voting mechanism for current election and votes must be cast there and only there (as stipulated in the email sent out by the Secretary of the Senate announcing the elections), it was suggested that the Governance Council should update the language in the Charter to reflect current voting reality and consider suitable alternatives as technology continues to evolve. After discussion, the Governance Council decided it would be prudent to remove all descriptors related to technologies that are in use or that might be used in the future.
Current Charter:
X.1.4.3. Election function.
X.1.4.3.1.4. nominate a slate for the election of Senators-at-large according to Bylaws Article II, Sections 2.2 and 5.3 and conduct the election, to be decided by plurality vote, by mail or email ballot.
Proposed Revision:
The following change is proposed by the Governance Council: