Chair: Dr. Susan Camp

Recorder: Sarah Lewis

The meeting was called to order at 4:04 P.M.

  I.              Approval of Agenda

The agenda was approved unanimously.

  II.           Approval of Minutes of General Faculty Meeting of January 26^th, 2009

The minutes were approved unanimously

  III.        President's Report – D. Stanley

The President began her report by expressing her thanks to the numerous faculty

and staff that attended the General Faculty meeting.  She was happy to begin her report that the school is not fighting with the state government about the budget as the school was at this point last year. 

                        She then started with the good news that applications to SUNY Oswego are on the rise, and this was the first time that the common application was used.  President Stanley stated that this is part of a 35% increase of applications over the last four years. 

                        President Stanley then continued her report that she wanted to close the loop with the budget.  The total state appropriation was 2.5 billion dollars.   Also, the reduction in State support for SUNY totals 120 million, which is on top of the budget cuts that SUNY faced last year.  She then reported that many other SUNY schools have had high internal budget cuts totaling 6-7 million dollars.  SUNY Oswego however, will be going forward with its current strategies. The President also reported that there was a 63.5 million dollar reduction to the SUNY system, which included a 40 million dollar reduction in campus fee and self generated revenues, a 10% tithe in research, and additional university-wide reductions. 

                        She then continued her report to state that the Federal Stimulus Package that was signed into effect earlier this year granted 2.5 billion dollars to New York State for K-12 and public higher education. About 83.4 million was awarded to SUNY, which then helped to restore community colleges fully across the state, and another portion of it was Medicade funding to SUNY hospitals.  Also, Pell Grants increased.

                        President Stanley then stated that the overall cumulative cuts for 2007-2009 totaled 3.5 million dollars.  She refreshed everyone that there was an initial 1.8 million dollar cut in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, and then another 1.7 million dollar cut the following year.  These cuts were taken before the tuition hike, and the total amount of sequestered tuition increase totaled 3.2 million dollars.  Also there was an aggregated resource reduction of 6.7 million dollars.  The sequestered tuition would have been new money for the campus, but this was not what was done this year.  She stated that usually the governor will propose a budget, and then a committee for SUNY will hike the tuition if there is a deficit.  However, this year it was done in reverse order, so the Governor took the tuition money in part of his proposed budget. 

                        The President then continued to report about the actions that are going to be taken at Oswego.  To begin, there have been 17 suspended tenure-track searches suspended, and only 11 moving forward.  If the school were facing normal budget circumstances, all 28 would have moved forward.  Searches have also been suspended in other departments, however some are going through, and are no longer under a “hard freeze”.  All sabbaticals have been cancelled for 2009-2010, and applications will be considered for the 2010-2011 academic year.  President Stanley stated that the main reason that sabbaticals have been cancelled for this year is so that all professors are available to teach classes for the upcoming year, but also for the public opinion, and feared that if sabbaticals were not cancelled, and there was pressure from the Legislator, that there might be a bill passed reducing or canceling sabbaticals altogether.  President Stanley stressed that the college did not want to give public the wrong impression.

                        She then continued to talk about the actions that have been refined, which included the 190,000 dollar cut to Academic Affairs, which equaled about 10% of the Spring 2009 tuition increase.  The college has also downloaded expenses to reserve funds, which included travel expenses to the research foundation, and relevant personal expenditures to DIFR.  Priorities and Planning suggested that travel should be decided at a department level, since some departments want to defer travel to save the college, others said that they need to keep travel available. 

                        President Stanley then moved away from the budget and talked about new programs that are in progress.  Some of these programs included the Professional Science Masters in Chemistry, the Risk Management and Insurance, and the Graduate Certificate in Gerontology.  She encouraged everyone to go forward with new ideas, even though the economy is rocky, because the college needs to look towards the future with an investor’s perspective. She then continued to report that the new Zip Cars would be unveiled on this Wednesday.  Also, at this upcoming Commencement, the speaker will be Robin Chase, who is the founder of Zip Cars.  There will also be an Honorary Doctorate awarded at Commencement to Ban-An Khaw ’69. 

She then talked about upcoming summer events.  She reported that there was an

increase in enrollment in summer classes.  She then noted that none of the tuition money that is gathered by Oswego will not be swept up by the State, the school will retain all the funds.  There have also been 143 applications for the Course-to-Connect program at the Metro Center.  Other programs that will be taking place this summer include the Energy Institute, Ready Set Begin, Summer Intensive English Program, the New York State School of the Arts, and programs at the Rice Creek Field Station.   She also reported that the new Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher will visit on July 16^th.  There will be a lot of press coverage, an interview with WRVO and a major announcement made.  There will be more information about this as July approaches. Also she discussed Alumni Weekend.  They are expecting 1000+ people to attend this summer, which will be a record setting weekend.  There will also be continuing work on the Village, along with many renovations in the resident halls. 

                        She then reported that in the fall, the Academic Planning Committee will form and will hopefully have a long-term visionary bond.  They will not be a body that deals with funding, and will deal more with scanning the horizon for future ideas.  She hopes that this group will stay together much like how Campus Concept Committee has done, and will hopefully add strength to the institution.  She also talked about how in the fall there will be a Scholarship Campaign for a need based initiative for student scholarships.  She is hoping that they will be able to connect students so they have a way into college.  There are no such need-based scholarships in place here in SUNY Oswego.  There will also be another Media Summit in the fall, along with the Welcome Breakfast for Faculty and Staff.  She lastly wished everyone a great summer.

  IV.        FA Senate - M. Ryniker

Senator Ryniker reported to the Assembly that she and Dr. Camp will be attending

Faculty Senate later this week at University of Buffalo, and that this would be her last Faculty Senate meeting.  She also stated that she was honored to be able to represent SUNY Oswego for the last three years.

V.           UUP Report- C. Spector

Chuck Spector began his report by beginning with the election results for UUP:

                        President:                    Steven Abraham

                        V.P. Professionals       Winfield Ihlow

                        V.P. Academics          Steven Rosow

                        He then started to discuss how the letters and faxes to the Assemblymen about the budget did actually count and were heard.  He then showed a letter that he received from John McHugh regarding the budget crunch.   He then also showed a Political Action Calendar that showed all the dates and places that members of UUP have been active in Albany. 

There were many positive accomplishments this semester regarding the budget. 

Some of these accomplishments included new higher taxes for high-income New York State taxpayers.  Albany also restored EOP and EOC funds.  There was also a $17.4 million in University wide programs restored, and there was also a fully funded negotiated salary increases plus fully funded energy and other mandated costs.  Mr. Spector also discussed how the Governor and Legislature expected SUNY to offset the $40 million state reduction by applying available reserves.  Instead SUNY distributed the cuts through BAP.  He then continued to state that UUP opposed that move.

                        He then talked about State University Workforce Issues.  He then noted that the Governor had a lower approval rate than that of Richard Nixon before he resigned from office, 16 vs. 24 respectively.  That the Governor proposes something and the legislature disposes his proposal.  He then listed the items that were rejected by the legislature that were proposed by the Governor, this included:

• Eliminate the 3% increase
• Require contribution to Medicare Part B
• Cut retiree future health care
• Establish a new retirement Tier V
• SUNY excluded from statewide layoff plan
• $75 million in appropriations available to protect full-time faculty and other campus positions

He also reported that there were many proposed legislations that were

successfully prevented by UUP that included:

• Selling or Leasing campus land or property
• Entering into Public/Private partnerships
• Implementing differential tuition
• Engaging  in potential anti-union activities.

Chuck Spector then continued his report to discuss current issues within the

Union. This included a workload issue that has been brought up to his office several times.  He then stressed that class sizes is nonnegotiable. However your terms and conditions of your employment are negotiable.  Also he reported that there is discussion about a DSI calendar for Professionals, Academics and part timers.  He also discussed the Voluntary Reduction in Work Schedule that the union is a year late in implementing, which can be found in Appendix A-46. 

                        He then continued to report about the IDAP and wanted to thank the committee for the work they have done.  He then discussed how he argued for and received supplemental funding for the next year to continue to do the following things with Human Resources:

• Benefits and Wellness Fair--October 13, 2009
• Pre-retirement seminar
• Performance Evaluation Training for Employees and Supervisors
• Department Chairs Training/Orientation
• Mentoring & Diversity Activities and Initiatives

He then said that UUP would fund the following events:

• Joint Labor/Management Retirement Reception, which is going to be held on May 11^th, and asked that anyone who would like to go please RSVP.
• Member Annual Picnic with the legislators, since there was an ugly problem with the ethics commission.
• Member End of the Fall Semester Event
• New Hire Reception

He then reported that he has been recently reading a book called Damn Old

Crank, a biography of Edward W. Scripps. He then read a passage to the Assembly from a chapter entitled “Some Outlandish Rules for Making Money”

                        “One of the greatest assets any man can secure is a reputation for eccentricity.  If you have a reputation of this kind you can do a lot of things.  You can even do the things you want to do without attaching to yourself the enmity of others. Many an act which, if performed by an ordinary person, would arouse indignation, animosity and antagonism, can be performed by a man with a reputation for eccentricity with no other result than that of exciting mirth and perhaps pity.  It is better to have the good will than the bad will, even of a dog.”

                        Chuck Spector then lastly reported that since this is his last meeting as UUP President, there were a few things that he would like to discuss.  He stated that we have a great campus and do wonderful things but he believed that the General Education Program needs changing.  He believes that the General Education Program is too complicated and restrictive.  He then told the story of a Chinese kid who wanted to take a course in Barcelona, and thought that the classes that he would be taking would cover his General Education requirements, but in reality would not.  He also stated that the university needs to stop sending people all over campus to get signatures.  He believes that we need a more customer oriented approach, and we should really have the faculty help and take students and really show them what they need to do.  He also believed that we need to stop focusing on student retention.  He believes that some of these students shouldn’t be retained.  He stated that this is what the economists used to call “disguised unemployment” He then talked about how his own son is not interested in studying for his classes.  He concluded that the campus can elevate our level.  He lastly reported that if you didn’t like what he just said he hoped he didn’t arouse anyone’s indignation, animosity or antagonism, he is just a little eccentric

  VI.        Chair Report - S. Camp     

The Chair began her report that Assembly members please need to be advised that

all Faculty Assembly agendas and minutes will now be sent only electronically, and that a link to the Faculty Assembly web page will come through our mailing list serves.

                        She then continued her report that faculty and professional staff will be sent the canvas for Faculty Assembly councils soon.  The canvas for college-wide (non-FA) committees has already gone out.  Dr. Camp urges everyone to nominate him or herself for at least one council and one committee. She added that Assembly members should encourage new faculty to gradually integrate themselves into campus-wide councils and committees.  She has heard of several incidents where untenured faculty are almost punished for working with colleagues outside of the department. She asked that Assembly members please counteract this practice by assisting new faculty in choosing appropriate outlets for their talents and expertise.

Dr. Camp then continued her report by discussing the Academic

Planning/Renewal Committee, which will be modeled after the Campus Concept Committee. She asked that all Assembly members please reply to this concept when it arrives on your desktop next fall.

She lastly asked the Assembly that you e-mail or snail mail me with items, issues,

etc. that you believe FA or one of its councils should address.  This year we have approved multiple programs, courses, calendars, procedures etc.

VII.     Unfinished Business

                          There was no unfinished business.

VIII.    New Business

1. Election of Faculty Assembly Chair and Faculty Senator-

--Susan Camp was elected Faculty Assembly Chair by acclamation,

--Gwen Kay of the History Department was elected University Faculty Senator, and the Alternate Senator was Laura Brown of the Psychology Department. 

1. Proposed Amendments to Faculty Bylaws
2. Article VII General Education Council:
   1. Section 2. Functions was passed unanimously.
   2. Section 1. Membership was passed unanimously
   3. Article XXII Priorities and Planning Council:
      1. Section 2. Functions was passed unanimously
      2. Section 1. Membership was passed unanimously
      3. Article XXII Undergraduate Curriculum Council
         1. Section 2. Functions was passed unanimously
         2. Section 1. Membership was passed unanimously
            1. Approval of Candidates for degrees

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: R. Mandel moved approval of 590 candidates for undergraduate degrees. The motion was passed unanimously

School of Business: R. Skolnik moved the approval of 338 undergraduate degrees. This motion was passed unanimously.

School of Communication, Media and the Arts: F. Messere moved approval of 288 undergraduate degree candidates. The motion was passed unanimously.

School of Education: L. Markert moved the approval of 423 candidates for undergraduate degrees. The motion was passed unanimously

Division of Continuing Education: Y. Petrella moved the approval of 21 candidates for evening and online degrees. The motion was passed unanimously.

Division of Graduate Studies: D. King moved the approval of 345 candidates for graduate degrees. This motion was passed unanimously.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:22 P.M.