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General Faculty Meeting
Minutes
February 6,
2006
Chair: Susan
Camp
Recorder: Jessica
Godkin
The meeting was called to order at 4:01
PM.
I. Approval
of Agenda
The agenda was approved unanimously.
II. Approval
of Minutes of General Faculty Meeting of September 12, 2005
The minutes were approved unanimously.
III. President's
Report - Deborah Stanley
President Stanley gave updates on enrollment, the executive budget,
legislative action, academic affaires initiatives, capital projects and the
Inspiring Horizons campaign and then answered questions from the
Assembly.
IV.
UUP Report - Chuck Spector
C. Spector reported that last fall UUP met with Administration on adjunct
and summer pay and performance programs for professionals. At the Winter
Delegate Assembly they passed the Constitutional Amendment on Retiree Chapter,
the motion in favor of the Senate version of the Patriot Act Reauthorization
Bill, and a resolution endorsing April 29, 2006 demonstration against the War
in Iraq by USLAW.
C. Spector is going to Albany to meet with the Legislators to discuss: the
proposed $3.6 million increase in state funding for State Operated Campuses for
next years' budget; UUP and SUNY are pushing for an additional $153.3 million
in additional funding, which would include $25.5 million for full-time faculty
and enrollment growth; UUP and SUNY want $50 million in capital funding for
technology and academic equipment; UUP supports a $646,000 increase in EOP
funding.
C. Spector encouraged members to become more active in political action
campaigns both locally and statewide.
V.
FA Senate- Luther
Peterson
- (See attached)
VI.
Chair Report- S.
Camp
S. Camp announced that the Oswego State Task Force on Academic
Administrative Officer Review convenes Friday, February 10. Chancellor
Ryan plans to talk with Presidents regarding 360 review of
administrators. Also, the Chair reported that she invited all committee
chairs (Committee on Committee) to report to the Assembly throughout this
semester, which will begin at the next Faculty Assembly meeting.
VII.
Unfinished
Business
There was no unfinished business.
VIII.
New Business
There was no
new business.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:18 PM.
Winter Plenary Meeting
January 27-28, 2006
Faculty
Senate’s Winter Plenary, its 142nd plenary, took place at Farmingdale State
University on Long Island Friday and Saturday a week ago. As its
president, Dr. Jonathan Gibralter, explained in his welcoming message to the
senators, the college, which dates back to 1912, today enjoys the largest
enrollment of SUNY’s technology colleges, with over 6000 students enrolled in
twenty bachelor and ten associate degree granting programs.
As is
ccustomary, the plenary business began with a lengthy report by Faculty Senate
President Carl Wiesalis. Typically the report describes university-wide
issues, FS activities since the previous plenary (in this case since late
October 2005), and the focus of this plenary. Most significant
undoubtedly was the choice of John Ryan as SUNY Chancellor, and Wiesalis
expressed pleasure not only for the result, but also for the process, in which
three faculty members of the system, Joseph Hildreth (past FS president),
Kimberley Reiser (president of the Faculty Council of Community Colleges), and
Wiesalis, served on the fourteen member search committee. Wiesalis–and
Hildreth to me in private conversation–sees in this a welcome sign that the
Board of Trustees (BOT) generally regards the faculty of the university more
positively than has been the case in the past, despite the continued presence
there of one trustee who continues without genuine foundation to berate us as
leftist radicals bent on destroying our country.
Turning
to university budget concerns, Wiesalis noted that Chancellor Ryan is active in
seeking to prevent the $500 tuition increase projected in the governor's budget
proposal to the state legislature, to restore the many millions in the annual
funding request of BOT a removed at the governor's office, and continues to
push for the Rational Fiscal Policy endorsed by his predecessor, Robert
King. SUNY Central has launched a lobbying effort in the legislature that
FS will augment with faculty input.
Academic Integrity and the so-called Academic Bill of Rights (ABoR): BOT’s
Academic Standards Committee (ASC) and Central Administration are very much
involved in issues of academic integrity and student plagiarism and
cheating. William Murabito of the SUNY Provost’s office is chair of a
Provost’s Committee on Academic Integrity, and three Faculty Senators serve on
it. Reflecting his experience at the Naval Academy, perhaps, the chancellor has
even talked about honor codes. Regarding the threat to our academic
freedom posed by ABoR, the ASC will focus on the issue at its March 16
meeting. Ominously, State Senator John De Francisco (SYRACUSE!) has
introduced the bill in the legislature. Murabito is preparing a
refutation to present to ASC, and Faculty Senator Ken O’Brien of Brockport
heads an FS ad hoc committee that has prepared materials and a statement
opposing ABoR. Additionally, UUP through its Academic Freedom Committee
and the NYS Public Higher Education Conference Board will present statements
against the bill. Wiesalis, by the way, encourages constituents of Sen.
De Francesco (and others as well) to work to enlighten him; Wiesalis noted that
half of the senators who had originally signed on to De Francesco’s bill have
removed their names.
Other
announcements of the president: (1) Central Administration continues to
represent the Ceramics faculty in their problems with Alfred University
administration; Wiesalis in encouraged by the outpouring of support by now
almost every SUNY campus governance entity for the Ceramics faculty. (As
an aside, Faculty Senator Peer Bode of Ceramics has personally sent thanks for
each and every campus’s resolution of support, and believes the support will
make a difference.) (2) There is a dispute across the street at Alfred
State College between faculty and administration that has led FS to send a
fact-finding Visitation Committee, whose final statement will be published
shortly. (3) Chancellor Ryan has appointed Dr. Kimberley Cline as CFO for
the system. (4) We are pushing a public relations initiative to showcase
student achievement on SUNY campuses in the arts. So far it has been
focussed on art exhibitions at the Central Administration building in
Albany. Now Janet Nepkie, a music faculty member from Cortland, is
co-chairing the committee and wants to bring in music and theater into the
picture. She is requesting that someone from each campus fine arts
faculty volunteer to help her work on this. (5) Wiesalis spoke
enthusiastically about meetings with UUP leadership and the prospect of greater
cooperation between the two organizations on issues of common interest, such as
ABoR, tenure, lobbying, SUNY budget, and K-12 education. (In the report
of the executive committee report that followed Wiesalis’ report, there was
mention of a joint UUP-FS advertising campaign to emphasize SUNY needs for more
full time faculty.)
Faculty
senators heard four presentations from guests in the course of the
plenary. The first, from Andrew Edwards and Marti Ellermann, SUNY legal
counsels, dealt with current practices vis a vis the Sunshine Laws in NY
State. My impression from their presentation was that, excepting
personnel kinds of decisions, most everything in public universities must take
place in the open, and we need to keep record of balloting–who voted what!–in
meetings such as those of our Faculty Assembly.
The next
presentation was from Assistant Provost Patty Francis, updating FS on the
status of Strengthened Campus-Based Assessment and discussing the work of an
Assessment Reporting Task Force. Regarding assessment of the three areas
involved, written communication, critical thinking, and mathematics, rubrics
have been developed by faculty panels and for the first two nationally-normed
tests approved, and campuses are now reporting their decisions as to which they
will use. For this GEAR has prepared “Tips” and these were distributed to
campuses the past week. GEAR will review all plans (57 in all)–”and
hopefully approve” all of them–by the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester. Her
presentation’s power point items are on the FS web, and I have a paper copy of
it if anyone wishes to see it.
Provost
Salin’s presentation began with his announcement to us of his resignation and
that he is looking forward to teaching at Stony Brook. (1) His first
topic was Mission Review II. He made his final campus visit in mid
December and is now developing MOUs in consultation with the campuses.
These new MOUs are broader in scope than for the previous MR I, dealing with
facilities and finance matters as well as educational aims of the campuses,
which is advantageous in advocating more aggressively for funding at state
government. His assessment of MR II progress is that it is going “very
well.” (2) Campuses are being pushed on retention and four-year
graduation rates, which he believes to be a good idea. (3) A SUNY
document on procedures for mentoring and evaluating untenured faculty, which he
has discussed in previous presentations to FS plenaries, is being
accomplished. (4) Again he brought up his concern for better integration
of SUNY with K-12 instruction in the state. He again said that he wants
to talk with school district leadership around the state, saying that we are
not entirely happy with the state of preparation of the students they send us,
and learning from them what improvements they feel we need to make in teacher
preparation. In line with this, he announced the program in NYC whereby
they would want to employ math and science graduates and at the same time start
them in graduate programs to get their teacher certification. (5) The
“new and improved” BAP will go into effect for the next fiscal year.
Unlike the previous, it starts with an existing (i.e., realistic) funding, and
for the first time includes funding for research initiatives.
Chancellor Ryan spoke with us twice, the first time along with the new CFO
late afternoon on Friday, and secondly after dinner. CFO Cline promised
that BAP II will “hold harmless”–that is, no campus will be worse off in
funding this year and money taken from comprehensive colleges (Oswego and its
sisters) a couple years ago is being restored. For the latter we need to
get ten million more dollars to add to restoration already accomplished or in
the works. She also spoke to the funding needs to effect Ryan’s call for
300 new faculty. She stated that increased library funding is a priority
of the chancellor’s.
Ryan
spoke to issues raised by the sector reports, and thus in random fashion.
He spoke in support of reviews of administrators, now being implemented on many
campuses, saying he does this and is pleased with the results. EOP for
once wasn’t reduced in the governor's budget this year, and he hopes to get it
increased. He congratulated the faculty for taking an active part in
assessment. We could have fought it, but that would have meant that the
BOT would have done it on its own, which he does not want to see happen.
He wants full time faculty involved in all parts of the curriculum, including
GenEd. He responded favorably to the comprehensive college sector’s
request for more support for our role in Graduate Education. He spoke of
a 5 year rolling plan for capital funding, which he believes will be instituted
this year. He expressed confidence that the dispute with Alfred
University will be resolved satisfactorily for both sides. He said that
he supports the idea of faculty representation on BOT, and will write a letter
in support of the motion before the legislature. Finally, both in the
afternoon and in his after dinner presentation Ryan spoke about the need for
more funding for more faculty, among other things. He stressed that the
much reported request for $85 million is not correct and not enough; we really
need $128.5 million in additional funding.
Committee
Reports and Resolutions:
1.
Awards Committee. Presented a motion to request an increase in funding
for Conversations in the Discipline programs to $50,000. This was passed
by FS without dissent.
2.
Governance Committee. Presented a resolution regarding selection of
interim presidents, endorsing a statement the committee prepared requesting
greater consultation with local governance in the process of selecting interim
presidents. If a circumstance arises where time does not permit
consultation, then an “officer in charge” be appointed initially, so that the
consultation can take place. Passed by FS without dissent.
3.
Graduate and Research Committee. Is exploring a SUNY web site to describe
all graduate and research programs throughout the SUNY system, with the thought
that this could help recruit students to these programs.
4.
Operations Committee. Perhaps the most discussed issue brought before FS
at this plenary was the motion of this committee regarding increased funding
for library acquisitions. This was the third time FS has dealt with a
motion from the committee on the matter, and again it was the consensus of the
floor that the motion still needed reworking. The motion this time
focussed on a SUNY-wide cooperative collection development plan, the notion
being that we should make decisions on new books, perhaps mainly in the
(expensive) area of monographs, cooperatively. However, the example given
by the committee showed the dark side of this idea: the document presented
noted that there are eight copies of Joe Ellis’s biography of George Washington
in the system, and none of them have been checked out. The committee
intended to show that we should limit purchases and use acquisition moneys
better. Well, I rose to comment that this book, a new book, is a major
biography of our first president, and that I am shocked that not every library
has purchased it. It belongs in every campus’s collection, and surely in
short time will be checked out everywhere. After I spoke a librarian in
FS spoke in opposition to the motion, arguing that where cooperative
expenditure should focus is in purchasing data bases used by all campuses,
something that by the way I presented on behalf of our library staff at the
previous plenary. The motion was sent back to the committee for further
work.
5. Student
Life Committee and Undergraduate Committee. Most import from these
committees was the announcement once again of the conference on March 23-24,
“Academic Integrity: A New Look at Law, Policy and Practice.” This will
be in Albany, and all campuses are being requested to send one or two people to
it. The program is set, by the way, and I have a copy of the program.
Respectfully submitted,
Luther D. Peterson
Professor of History and Oswego Faculty Senator
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