Chair: S. Camp

Recorder: J. Godkin

The meeting was called to order at 4:08 PM.

I. Approval of Agenda

The agenda was approved unanimously.

II. Approval of Minutes of General Faculty Meeting of May 3, 2004

The minutes were approved unanimously.

III. President's Report - Deborah Stanley

President Stanley gave an update and answered questions on such topics as Mission Review, small class initiatives, budget request, campus center progress, fundraising and Alumni networking.

IV. FA Senate- Luther Peterson

                        (See attachment)

V. UUP Report - Greg Auleta   

G. Auleta reported the following:

1. $800 ratification bonus and across the board 2.5% increase and 1% DSI (3.5% total) have been distributed.  Next year, there will be a 2.75% increase and 1% DSI (distributed in the traditional manner

2. January 1, 2005 there will be changes in the co-pay amounts for office visits, emergency room and other medical costs; proportionate co-pay increase and a forced choice to mail order drugs for 90 day maintenance will also be implemented.

3. PDQWL ($30,100)- There will be two rounds for this first year of the contract:

         One- for 2003-2004- applications are due November 1

         Two- for 2004-2005- applications are due February 14, 2005

        Applications can be picked up from G. Auleta; applications should be forwarded to him

4. Faculty and staff will be contacted after the November election to convey their support for Senate and House overrides of the Governor's veto.  This includes pressuring the Governor to release the full $50 million dollars to SUNY.

5. The annual United Way/SEFA Campaign is underway.  Faculty and staff support will be sought.

6. Chapter elections will be held during the Spring of 2005.  Nominations, which includes self-nominations, will be sent by Albany to all UUP members during January.  Greg Auleta will not run for President because of term limits and because he believes he has served more than enough.

VI. Faculty Assembly Chair- S. Camp

The Chair reported FAEB's efforts to make a more efficient course approval process for both undergraduate and graduate courses. She then announced that the memo regarding the Chancellor's awards and deadlines is out.  Nominations are needed for the selection committee.  If you do not have a nomination form, contact Mike Ameigh at ameigh@oswego.edu.

VII. Unfinished Business

There was no unfinished business.

VIII. New Business

There was no new business.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:16 PM.

Attachment

            SUNY Maritime was the location of the Fall Plenary of Faculty Senate.  For those unfamiliar with the institution, it is a small campus on the edge of the Bronx, surrounded by water on three sides and the Throgs Neck Bridge literally overhead.  It has a former stone fort refitted as its administration, classroom and library facility, and a cargo ship and lots of small boats and sailboats, befitting a college that trains its students for maritime services.

            Friday began with a welcome from Maritime President, Rear Admiral John Ryan, dressed in his naval splendor.  Remarkably, he included in his brief remarks a charge to the State of New York, via SUNY FS, to fund public education better, saying the state rates an “F” respective to the cost of education for students today.

            The FS President Joe Hildreth gave an overview of the issues with which this plenary would be primarily concerned, on-going matters related to assessment, as one might guess, SUNY budget, and most importantly Mission Review II.  He also noted the “New Vision” focus on teacher education, calling for more content training and an articulation process involving beginning education preparation in community colleges.  He also called our attention and that of our colleagues to an improved FS web site where FS resolutions (most hit has been that on “Strengthened Campus-Based Assessment”) and FS committee reports can be easily accessed (www.SUNY.edu/facultysenate).

            Highlight of the morning was a report by Provost Peter Salins, speaking to a variety of issues in random order:

(1)  The major issue was Mission Review II.  To emphasize its importance, he called the mission statements “the framework around all we do,” and urged faculty involvement in the process of writing their campus mission statements.

(2)  Teacher education.  Observing that SUNY educates ca. a half of the teachers in the state, he praised a process begun previously to strength requirements in teacher education, and noted the need for more math, science and foreign  language teachers, and need for teachers in problem–i.e., inner city, reservation, etc.–schools.

(3)  Faculty Development and Student Preparedness.  Regarding the former, he encouraged campuses to share “best practices” of mentoring new faculty.  On the latter, he asked why universities and their faculties aren’t concerned more with how well–or how poorly–students are prepared in high schools to do college-level work.  According to Dr. Salins, the California system sets up requirements for its incoming first year students, and then insures compliance by publishing these and working with high schools.  He stated that Commissioner Mills and the State Ed. Dept. would like to have our help by demanding more stringent high school training, particularly since they are, in the Provost’s interpretation of events, getting resistance from some school boards.

            My comment here.  Dr. Salins made reference here to question 8 of the Mission Review process, dealing with high school preparation.  As I look at our Oswego preliminary draft, I would judge that he is looking for a response much less complacent of typical high school practices and standards than we have written.

(4)  A number of brief items:  Provost Salins praised development and use of technological enhancements for teaching, noting especially CourseSpace and CourseSpaceLite, and the work of SUNY libraries that will soon have a fully-integrated book and periodical system (SUNYconnect).

            He noted work of the task force examining honors programs–what an honors education should comprise and how programs may be strengthened and receive greater recognition.

            Graduate Education Enhancement Initiative.  A retreat focused productively on doctoral and first professional degree (e.g., medical and dental program) preparation.  Asked about masters’ level education, he said that “we will be tackling this as well.”

            We need to do more on articulation between community colleges and our four-year institutions, he asserted.  The agreement with community colleges regarding teacher education can be a template for this.  Asking whether there will be course work “redundancy or efficiency,” he noted a need to settle what is taught at the lower and upper divisions in other programs.

(5)  The (in?)famous BAP (Budget Allocation Process) took up the remainder of Dr. Salin’s talk.  The old (1998) BAP worked pretty well, in his estimation, as the means to distribute state monies to local campuses until the 2002 budget shortfall of $200 million.  It generally allowed monies raised by local campuses to remain on local campuses, who were also given greater freedom than before on how to spend that money.  The new BAP will begin with actual state revenues available to distribute, and establishes a ranking system for our actual functional categories.  (I must comment here that while he assured his audience that undergraduate education is critically important, by his emphasis he seemed to be signaling a tilt in new allocations to first professional degree education.  I hope I am just being paranoid here.)

            On undergraduate education, campuses will receive monies in proportion to the number of students going through the twenty cell matrix successfully.  Here he touched upon the “little p”–some 2% of funds to reward campuses meeting certain performance standards, notably here mentioning rewards for improvements in retention and graduation rates.  The new BAP will be operating in budget year 2006.

            Friday afternoon Dr. Patricia Francis addressed the senate.  It may be news to some that she has recently moved from SUNY Cortland to Central Administration with the title, Assistant Provost for Univ. Assessment and Academic Initiatives.  She reported first on the Faculty Development Initiative, involving a task force report.  Findings of the group are that each campus should establish a teaching and learning center to “support the enhancement of effective pedagogy.”  The greatest focus must be aimed towards new faculty.  They should be provided peer mentoring, given “a complete understanding of the reappointment, promotion and tenure process,” and provided timely and detailed feedback on their performance.  This issue, along with discussion of faculty recognition and rewards, have been subject to campus reaction and are now being put into a final report, to be ready in November.  In the Spring there will be follow-up presentations around the state.

            Dr. Francis then offered an update on GenEd assessment, remarking that faculty members who teach in the programs to be assessed should develop and begin to implement assessment plans, as approved by an institution’s curriculum review and faculty governance bodies and by the university-wide GEAR group.  Incorporating the June 2004 Board of Trustee (BOT) resolutions, GEAR will develop guidelines and directions to campuses and a timetable for submitting and implementing assessment plans.

            Late in the afternoon Chancellor Robert King appeared at the meeting, fielding questions then and addressing us after dinner.  His responses to our questions amounted primarily to reassuring us that those discretionary monies in the new BAP (the 2% or so to which Salins previously spoke) will be allotted with some consideration of local campus situations, not merely allotted according to such hard and fast statistics as retention and graduation records.

            Saturday morning we met the new chair of the BOT Academic Standards Committee, Father John Cremins.  In contrast to his predecessor, Trustee Candace de Russey, he comes off as an extremely humble person desiring to support our SUNY faculty, to whom he more than once referred as the “mortar” that holds our SUNY system together.  What a difference from her utterances!

            The final part of Saturday’s agenda, as normal, was given over to Executive Committee resolutions and committee reports and resolutions.  First came a resolution from EC regarding Mission Review II, stating that the chancellor inform local campus administrations that faculty governance and Faculty Senators must be involved “in every step” of the process.  Passed without dissent.  From among the other items:  Student Life Committee are continuing to investigate Greek life and the value of athletics on SUNY campuses, and along with the Undergraduate Committee is preparing a guidebook on student retention.  The latter committee reported work on a guide for internship standards and further study on the issue of plagiarism.  Awards Committee announced that is having designed a medallion for distinguished professors.  The Graduate and Research Committee noted that Plattsburg and Fredonia have changed their names to be comprehensive universities, and that there may be a need for comprehensive colleges to grant EdDs and PhDs in education to fill a void.  Governance Committee spoke critically to the Albany situation of the establishment of the School of Nanotechnology without faculty input, and stated that chairs of faculty governance bodies should be sure in the future to communicate established local processes of consultation to new academic administrators.  Regarding searches for campus presidents, this committee moved a resolution that visitation teams of faculty visit the current places of employment of finalists.  Passed without dissent.