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Chair: Dr. Susan Camp
Recorder: Kimberly Kenney
Members absent: J. Fiorini, W. Silky, W. Opello. T. Darvill, B.
Meyer,
The meeting was called to order at 3:11 pm
I. Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved unanimously.
II. Approval of October 1st, 2007 Minutes--Under the
“Unfinished Business” section, the sentence beginning with “The Biological
Sciences Department…” should be changed to “The Earth Sciences Department…” The
minutes were approved as amended.
III. FA Chair’s Report – S. Camp
Dr. Camp began her report by reminding all members of the assembly that are
chairs of councils, committees and task forces to submit a written report to
Kimberly. They may be emailed to kenney@oswego.edu. She also noted that the
speakers should project their voices, as it is a large space and not everyone
can hear.
Dr. Camp and Faculty Assembly Senator Margaret Ryniker have just returned
from a meeting of the Faculty Senate, so Senator Ryniker will give her report
at the next meeting on November 12th.
Dr. Camp distributed a FAQ sheet and showed the website that illustrates the
first page of the Interview Exchange Q & A. Dr. Camp worked with Marta
Santiago and Susan Coultrap-McQuin on changing the first page of the Interview
Exchange that prospective candidates will see. The website at which this can be
found is www.oswego.edu/administration/human_resources/vacancy.html.
The Chair then informed the assembly that the Retention Task Force Proposal
will be discussed and an action will be made on November 12th.
Vice President Lyons, Jerry DeSantis and Tom Simmonds were invited to
discuss how the construction wave over the last five years was handled and how
history will affect planning for the next wave of construction on campus. Dr.
Camp noted that she hopes to have them at one of the November meetings, so
members of the Assembly are asked to think of any questions for them.
Dr. Camp then mentioned the Emergency Management Plan; she said that
University Police Chief Adams would be sending an electronic version soon for
review and feedback.
Mike Ameigh has recently sent a memo regarding the recognition of faculty
excellence; Dr. Camp advised members of the Assembly to look at this memo.
IV. Academic Affairs Report – S. Coultrap-McQuin
The Provost began her presentation by congratulating the faculty on all
their successes from the previous academic year, found in the annual report,
“Creating the Future.” She noted such programs as College hour, the faculty
advisory board recommendations for internationalizing the campus, the
development of Graduation Learning Outcomes statements, and the creation of the
Civic Engagement Coalition by a partnership of people from Academic Affairs and
Student Affairs. There were also projects within departments across the
division. These and bibliographies of individual accomplishments can be found
at www.oswego.edu/acadreport07.
She then informed the Assembly that there is an outline of annual
goals for the 2007-2008 academic year that will be going online later in the
week. That can be accessed at www.oswego.edu/administration/provost.
It is under “Communication from the Provost’s office/ Planning and
Reports.” The Provost then told the Assembly about all the effort that
was put forth in creating this year’s goals, which built upon previous
directions and projects underway, as chosen by Academic Affairs Council to move
forward towards meeting the sesquicentennial plan goals. These goals address
recommendations from the OIEP Advisory Board, review of Graduation Learning
Outcomes, civic engagement, diversity, and the professional development
center.
The Provost invited the Assembly to visit the website that includes
information in addition to goals and reports, such as forms the members or
their assistants need, past memos from the Provost and members of her office,
found under the area of Communication, and minutes from all of the Provost
Council and Academic Affairs meetings. This can be found at www.oswego.edu/administration/provost/council_minutes.
In terms of long-range planning, the Provost asked the Assembly to help with
development of big projects by filling out the packet that was distributed or
emailing her at coultrap@oswego.edu.
She and others will be compiling a list of ideas and figuring out the big plans
for the end of the Sesquicentennial Plan.
V. Reports of Councils, Committees and Task Forces
Personnel Policies Council met last Friday, and distributed a
call for nominations to the Dean of Education review committee, setting a
deadline for nominations to be November 11th. The elections will be
made by voting faculty from the School of Education, and be conducted
electronically.
Personnel Policies Council is very concerned about the Interview Exchange
software and its implementation. Their concern is that this was purchased and
required without faculty consultation or involvement. The use of the software
was mandated and neither the department chairs nor search committee were
provided information about the requirement or use of the software. In a number
of cases the search committee heard of the software from potential applicants,
making SUNY Oswego look less organized and professional. Listed below are
several issues related to the software itself:
Use of the term “hiring managers” which bears no resemblance to the language
of academic searches
There does not appear to be provision for submission of confidential letters
of reference.
There does not appear to be provision for submission of unofficial
transcripts, which are often quite helpful in the preliminary review of
candidates.
There does not appear to be provision for submission of slides or other
types of visual or recorded media, which is an essential part of an applicant’s
portfolio in fine and performing arts.
Personnel Policies council then discussed the issue that departments receive
approval for a search after the discipline-specific deadline has passed and
thus the pool of applicants is diminished. The Council would like to advocate
for administrative approval of searches in a more timely fashion, bearing in
mind the calendars unique to the discipline under consideration. Should final
approval be impossible, the Council requests that consideration be given to
beginning such searches in sync with the discipline’s national conference,
“subject to budgetary approval.”
Academic Policies Council met on Friday, October
26th and voted to support the principle of the Recommendation for
Assessment Program, Director and Office dated April 11th, 2007 with
a list of concerns:
Remove item 3 “A faculty reward structure which provides incentives for
faculty to develop competence in assessing student learning.”
The parenthetical phrase within item 5: “(Because of the need to protect
faculty and programs from the potential for the invidious use of assessment to
evaluate teacher performance or allocate program resources, all raw assessment
data should be kept at the level at which it is collected and used, and only as
aggregated data should be sent up the administrative hierarchy.)” should become
a part of item 4: “A focus on formative (developmental) uses of assessment
data, in such a way that data belongs to appropriate individuals. (Add
parenthetical phrase here).”
There needs to be some assurance that this new office will not expand
assessment but rather than make it more effective.
Priorities and Planning Council reviewed and discussed
extensively the Professional Development Center Task Force proposal with Mark
Morey, Maria Nakamura and Jack Gelfand and reported the following:
Given the Institutional goals articulated by the Provost, particularly:
1. Globalizing the Curriculum and
2. Diversifying the faculty and student body:
We see intensified Professional Development to be an institutional priority
for which we need to plan. We therefore support the proposal of the task force
and recommend that it be fully funded.
General Education Council has met two times since the last
Faculty Assembly meeting, October 16th and 23rd, 2007.
They considered allowing HIS 202 or 203 to be double dipped in the categories
of “American History” and “Tolerance and Intolerance.” This would then be
consistent with several other courses that are double dippers. After much
debate, the motion failed. The Chemistry Department’s plan to assess computer
and information literacy was fine, except the council would like to see the
department assessment rubric. The plan was approved pending the submission of a
satisfactory rubric. The next meeting of the General Education Council is
October 30th at 8 am in 702 Culkin.
Graduate Council met and voted to change the course number of
HIS 541 America’s Vietnam War to HIS 557 America’s Vietnam War.
Academic Outreach Council The Academic Outreach Council met on
Monday, Oct. 22. They received reports from Continuing Education on
Summer Sessions, and Winter Session. They also received information about
the Metro Center in Syracuse. They have not elected a chair. Jim Nichols
will report to Faculty Assembly.
Campus Concept Committee was shown plans for the sciences
project, which includes 2 or 3 phases depending on funding. They also discussed
the sustainability issue and a possible name change, along with discussing
signage project and the use of zones to identify areas of the campus
Writing Across the Curriculum Steering Committee met on
October 17th and decided it needs to look at other university
writing centers. Their next meeting is November 14th.
VI. Elections
There are still open positions for Admissions and Student Services Council
(FA) as well as a Student Association at-large seat.
VII. Unfinished Business
Proposed revisions: Chemistry MS. The revisions include using electives for
the thesis, cleaning up the language and renewing knowledge of German language
and computer competency. It was made aware that the revisions needed to say
that the elective along with the thesis needed to total 20 credit hours, by
saying something to the effect of “Chosen under advisement to equal 20 credit
hours.” This proposal passed 35-0.
Proposed Electronic Mail Policy: The proposal states SUNY Oswego’s policies
on use of e-mail, the official Oswego e-mail accounts, expectations for use of
e-mail, redirecting of e-mail, privacy, educational and administrative uses of
e-mail, college announcements through e-mail, ownership and administration,
termination of accounts, as well as violations and abuses of the Oswego e-mail
system. Some members of the Assembly said that the policy needs to state that
emeritus and retired faculty are allowed to keep their Oswego e-mail accounts,
and there was a motion to re-write number 9, which is in regard to termination
of e-mail accounts to that effect, as well as the clarification that Oswego
e-mail accounts will be terminated (minus emeritus and retired faculty) after
one year. The motion then included re-writing number 2, dealing with official
college e-mail accounts, to be more clarified. The motion to send the proposal
back to ITC for clarification of numbers 2 and 9 in regards to e-mail policy
and usage passed 34-0.
Proposed clarification of GPA calculation for students pursuing second
undergraduate degrees: the proposal is to add language to the Undergraduate
College Catalog that reads, “Students admitted to pursue a second
undergraduate degree begin with a new (0.00) GPA” to pages 173 and 185. APC
approved of the proposal and sent it forward two weeks ago. It was clarified
that this is not including double-majors, but rather someone who graduated and
will be returning to fulfill a BS or BA degree. Discussion was raised about
degrees with overlapping cognates and it was made clear that the student would
get credits for the course but the grade for the course would not carry over.
Some from CTS argued against the proposal, saying that no other SUNY
institution has this policy. The promoters of the proposal state that this is
supposed to positively affect students; it is based on academia rather than
implementation. It was also noted that the amnesty policy is for undergraduates
(not having completed a degree) and not returning students. A question was then
raised about the time until a GPA was reset, and one of the presenters of the
proposal said that it would take place after a student has attained a degree
and wishes to return and pursue a second. The motion to approve the proposal as
written was passed 31-0.
Before any work was done on the proposed definition of terms for the
pre-requisite challenge policy, there was a motion to adjourn.
VIII. New Business
There was no new business.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:02 P.M.
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