Members Absent: S. Varhus, Y. Petrella, C. Karadjov, W. Silky, D. Vanouse,  R. O'Connor, D. Zhang, P. Cox, R. Card, C. Warkentin, S. Jones, H. Ward, and M. Nelson-Richards

                        The meeting was called to order at 3:12 PM.

I. Approval of Agenda

The agenda was approved unanimously.  

II. Chair Report- S. Camp

L. Peterson and S. Camp attended the spring plenary of University Faculty Senate at SUNY ESF on April 7-9, 2005.  Senator Peterson will report later in this meeting.  One of the topics at Faculty Senate was college administrator evaluation.  The Assembly's by-laws address this and have provision for regular (every 5 years) evaluation.  S. Camp will be discussing this with the President and Provost.

The Chair will meet with the College Council April 28th and report on Faculty work since our last meeting.

The Task Force on Academic Quality (TFAQ) has sent a report to President Stanley and the Chair.  President Stanley has asked Provost Coultrap-McQuin to institutionalize the task force by creating an advisory committee on academic quality.  The Assembly will be hearing more about this committee and membership will be solicited by the Committee on Committees this spring.

III. Reports of Councils, Committees and Task Forces

Personnel Policies Council announced that S. Camp has been nominated and accepted the position of Faculty Assembly Chair for the 2005-2006 academic year.  PPC reminded the Assembly that departments need to elect representatives for Faculty Assembly for the next academic year.

Graduate Council met and approved the following courses:

MAT 504         School Algebra from an Advanced Viewpoint   3

MAT 507         Geometry Through History                            3

MAT 573         Number Theory Through Problems                 3

The Graduate Council also distributed the program proposal for Psychology-HCI Five Year B.A. M.A. Program.

Admissions and Student Services Council continues to make progress on the student and faculty interaction handbook and plans to send out a rough draft by the end of the semester.

Campus Concept Committee met April 13th and heard a report from Walter Opello regarding a conceptual place for International Education at SUNY Oswego.   The next meeting is April 27th at 3 p.m.

IV. Senate Report- L. Peterson

(see attached)

V. Unfinished Business

1. The Bylaw amendment proposal for the Emeriti FA seat was voted

down 11-21.

2. Academic Policy Council's Internship credit hours recommendation was approved unanimously.

3.  The College Hour Proposal was postponed until the Fall of 2005.

4. The Hybrid Task Force Report was accepted unanimously.

5. The UCC ad hoc committee report was accepted unanimously.

VI. New Business

1. It was moved that Faculty Assembly create a task force to address questions regarding the conflict of interest and consensual policy.

2. Elections for vacancies on FA Councils and Committees

            Undergraduate Curriculum Council

                        No nominations

The meeting was adjourned at 4:55 PM.

Attachment

Senator’s Report:            University Faculty Senate,  Spring Plenary Meeting

April 7-9, 2005,   SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Luther D. Peterson,  Oswego Faculty Senator

        I’d heard about it since becoming a SUNY faculty member, and with this plenary I finally found the SUNY-ESF campus that is tucked (hidden?) behind the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University!

        After words of welcome from ESF senator and president, the Friday morning session began with outgoing President Joe Hildreth’s report:

        1) State Budget.  Since our plenary preceded the governor’s final decision (no later than April 12) on the legislature approved budget, certain parts of SUNY’s financial situation were still somewhat uncertain.  Nevertheless, the budget includes the 84 million central administration requested for salary increases and energy cost inflation, eliminates the threat to EOP and TAP, and expansion of capital expenditures.  The major issue outstanding at the time of our plenary was whether student tuition would be raised by $125; since the plenary the final agreement between the governor and legislature eliminated that.  All in all a good budget year for SUNY.

        2)  BAP.  The committee designing a revision of this budget allocation device has not met recently, and so the local campuses will receive allocations for next year as in the past year.  But BAP promises to be in place for the next budget round.

        3) Assessment.  Hildreth’s advice is, “Do what you can to save what we have.”  He is primarily concerned about the safeguards against invidious use of assessment data, comparing campuses against other campuses.  One problem is that most campuses are turning to nationally normed tests, and these are inherently more easily usable by those who want to make those comparisons.                                          

        Hildreth happily reported that the three GEAR disciplinary subcommittees to draw up criteria and rubrics for local assessment instruments in critical thinking, English composition, and math competency have been very busy since their organization only a couple months ago, will give (at least) progress reports at an assessment conference in Syracuse later this month (more on that below), and should have final reports by June 1.  The materials from these committees should make  local assessment instruments more feasible, which would make the data collected much more difficult to use for comparing campuses.

        4)  Teacher Education.  The “New Vision” standards are established, and the fifteen campuses with teacher education are mostly on board.

        5)   Levin Institute.  No faculty hired yet, but a building has been purchased in Manhattan.

        6)  Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR).  Email traffic prior to this plenary seemed to be dominated by this document that Trustee Candace deRussey has been pushing over the past few months.  Hildreth reported that the Board of Trustees (BOT) chair Egan directed it to their Academic Standards and Student Affairs committees.  Father Crimmins, chair of Academic Standards, has decided that their agenda is too full and has tabled the issue.

        Next item was a report from Vice-President Jim McElwaine about our Executive Committee activities.  Notable was the information that they are framing statements about our already existing SUNY concerns and provisions for academic freedom, with the intent of defusing the pressure of deRussey and her media champions for ABOR.

        One of the major items on the senate agenda was election of a new president.  Three candidates were nominated, and Carl Wiesalis of Upstate Medical University was elected.

        Last on the morning agenda were the meetings of the various SUNY “sectors.”   At our University College sector meeting, most useful perhaps were the comments of two senators from campuses already visited by the Mission Review II teams.  They agreed that during the visits Provost Salins seemed most interested in examining graduate programs, distance learning operations, and four-year graduation rates, and in promoting external peer reviews for each tenure and promotion decision.

        Chancellor Robert King began the afternoon with a report that differed little from that of FS President Hildreth.  In reference to the idea of a “rational tuition policy” that he along with SUNY Student Association developed, but not in the current budget, he said that various people around the capitol are still considering it for the future.  This idea is intended to raise new revenues for the university, which is necessary if we are to increase the number of full time faculty in relation to part time faculty and lectureships.

        Provost Salins followed the chancellor.  Regarding Mission Review II, five campuses have been visited for, with fifty-four to go.  Campuses were sent “guidance questions” for the visits, and Salins seems pleased with the visits so far.  Turning to assessment, he urged campus attendance at the conference in Syracuse, April 28-29.   Representatives of the major testing companies, such as College Board and ACT, will show their stuff, and as I have already reported, the three disciplinary panels will give presentations.  On faculty development, we can expect a document within a week or two, which means it is perhaps out by now.  Two answers in the Q and A part of Salins’ presentation are of interest:  (1) He does not think there will be misuse of assessment data, especially if we keep saying to the media that this is our data.  (I wonder whether his confidence is too optimistic.)  (2) Administration has not mandated external peer review for tenure and promotion, but he “strongly encourages” campuses to include this as a component for the research part of a person’s dossier.  After all, he explained, faculty will not have research area peers at their own campuses.

        Next was a panel session of four SUNY faculty members, sponsored by the FS Governance Committee and chaired by our own Ed O’Shea of English, on faculty review of high-level administrators.  They described on-going review procedures at New Paltz, Stony Brook and Binghamton, including descriptions of the instruments used to survey faculty evaluation of administrators, and urged all campuses to implement a regular review system for deans, vice-presidents and presidents.

        The afternoon ended with a report on the budget from Dan Sheppard, finance director at central administration.  I think that information already given above pretty well sums up his presentation.

        After the dinner, awards were given to senators who have completed their terms of duty, to Joe Hildreth, and a “Friend of the Senate” award to Chancellor King.

        Saturday morning is always given over to reports from our FS standing committees, from which I will note what appears most significant:

        Awards Committee.  There has never been a medallion for distinguished professors  (DPs), such as is given to recipients of Chancellor’s Awards.  This is now rectified to the tune of $60,000, and there will be a ceremony in Albany on the 29th of this month to hand out these medallions to the DPs.  The committee says campus presidents have been notified of the ceremony, and they are to invite local DPs to attend.

        Governance Committee presented a resolution of academic misconduct, defining issues of faculty misconduct in research and plagiarism, which passed with some dissent.  A second resolution supported regular faculty evaluation of senior administrators, which passed without dissent.

        Operations Committee presented a resolution on funding for library book and journal purchasing budgets.  After some discussion, it was decided to return this resolution to the committee for further analysis.  This committee also presented a statement on “The Growing Use of Associate Faculty in SUNY.”  This will surely be a topic for FS in the next academic year.

        The Public Information Committee wishes everyone in the university to be aware of the FS web site and the wealth of information to be found there.

        The Student Life Committee is working on a student success/retention handbook (with the Undergraduate Committee), and studying affects of athletics on students, and Greek life on the campuses.

        The Undergraduate Academic Programs and Policies Committee is working on an internship guide for campuses, and will sponsor a “Plagiarism/Academic Integrity Symposium” in March of 2006.

        That completes my report of the Spring Plenary.  In addition, I want to urge assembly member to survey their departments for faculty to apply for membership in any of the committees of the FS.  Those nominations must be in Albany by April 29.