College Council Minutes of June 6, 2014
Audio recording of the meeting available on iTunes U
PRESENT ABSENT
Mr. James McMahon, Chair Mr. Gary Sluzar, excused
Ms. Darlene Baker Mr. Anthony Smith, excused
Mr. Saleem Cheeks
Mr. Richard Farfaglia
Mr. Michael Goldych
Mr. Brian McGrath
Mr. Baye Muhammad
Mr. William Scriber
Ms. Deborah F. Stanley, President
Dr. Lorrie Clemo, Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dr. Jerald Woolfolk, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management
Ms. Kerry Dorsey, Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations
Mr. Nicholas Lyons, Vice President for Administration and Finance
Mr. Howard Gordon, Executive Assistant to the President
Ms. Kristi Eck, Chief of Staff
Ms. Ellen McCloskey, Assistant to the President
Ms. Joan Carroll, Faculty Assembly Chair
Mr. Tucker Sholtes, Student Association President
Mr. Rick Yacobush, Alumni representative
1. The chair called the meeting to order 10:23 a.m. in Room 114 of the Campus Center.
2. The minutes of April 10, 2014, were unanimously approved.
3. Demonstration of pilot version of the myDegree module in the SUNY Oswego Mobile app: President Stanley introduced Sean Moriarty, SUNY Oswego Chief Technology Officer, and Rick Buck, SUNY Oswego Web Technical Lead, who provided an update on the research and design of the myDegree module as well as a demo of the module. Since fall 2013, a team composed of Ms. Eck, Mr. Moriarty, Mr. Buck, the Associate Provost, the Registrar, the Office of Public Affairs, faculty, staff, and academic advisers as well as five focus groups of students have been working together to design this new module for the SUNY Oswego Mobile app. The module was created to provide students a tool to help them pay closer attention to their academic degree progress and, thus, to help increase the college's four-year graduation rates. Version 1.0 of myDegree will launch in July during freshman orientation sessions and it will be introduced to all enrolled students at the start of the fall semester. Prior to the college designing myDegree, the college first researched to see if any apps like the myDegree module were already on the market. The college found no apps with the same customized features and decided to move forward with designing the module on its own. Note: the college's Andy Michaelis wrote most of the code needed to link myDegree student data with DegreeWorks and Banner. The myDegree module is authenticated (requires log in and a password) and designed to provide a clear, easy-to-understand snapshot of each student's progress while encouraging the student to log into DegreeWorks for a more detailed view and interactive analysis of his/her degree progress. During the research and design phase of the myDegree development, the design team spoke with faculty, staff, advisers, and students to determine what barriers students have to understanding degree progress and then used that feedback to construct the app. Council discussion included features future versions of the app may include, bringing the app to market, tracking whether or not the app's use encourages students to reach out to advisers more often, and sharing the app with other partners/users.
4. Student Association Report: Mr. Sholtes announced that SUNY Oswego will host the Student Assembly regional meeting in November. He believes this will be a great platform to start rebranding Oswego's student government and help students understand what goes on in student government across SUNY. He reported that 191 organizations have registered for fall 2014, which is an all-time high for the college. He also shared that he is working with SAVAC to spread the word about all the services SAVAC offers and explain the Good Samaritan Law, encouraging students to call SAVAC to help another person in a health emergency. Discussion topics included availability of the heroin antidote Narcan on campus, what services/supports/programs the college provides students suffering from drug or alcohol abuse, and the support services provided to sexual assault victims.
5. Alumni Report: Mr. Yacobush reported that Reunion Weekend is June 5 to 8 and the theme is "Passport to Oswego." Since January, 28 alumni returned to campus during the spring semester to speak in classes and share career expertise with students; there were 90 Alumni Sharing Knowledge applications submitted and 30 class presentations; there were 24 regional alumni events and 28 Alumni in Residence visits. The Senior Class Gift Campaign kicked off with a Senior Class Battle of the Sexes Challenge and a goal of 214 senior participants. To date, the Senior Gift Campaign has raised $7,641.14 from 392 donors. This year's Commencement Eve Torchlight Celebration on May 16 featured alumni Mistress of Ceremonies Constance Schwartz '90, partner and co-founder of SMAC Entertainment. A total of 559 attended the dinner. The fourth annual GOLD March Matchness giving campaign kicked off March 1, featuring Louis A. Borrelli Jr. as the featured donor. We surpassed not only the initial goal of 200 GOLD donors, but also a super goal of 225 donors for the month of March. A total of 240 GOLD participated in the March Matchness challenge. The college re-launched the Future Alumni Network (FANSs) at the end of the fall 2013 semester with a new mission, new goals, and a new set of member guidelines. Seven alumni will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame on October 25. Since re-launching the new and improved OsweGoConnect online community in April 2013, we have acquired more than 4,494 registered alumni users. This is in comparison to the 9,200 registered users we had in the old version of OsweGoConnect over the course of eight years.
6. Faculty Report: Ms. Carroll reported that during the 2013-14 academic year, Faculty Assembly recommended to the president approval of 27 program proposals and revisions. The vast majority were revisions in response to accreditation and self-studies. One was new from the Theatre Department: Live Event Design minor proposal. The General Education Council approved 14 additional courses that will fulfill the new Gen Ed requirements. Students are completing about 70 percent of their General Education requirements in their first year. The procedures on grade appeals have been clarified to help students better understand the step-by-step process. This was done in response to SUNY asking for all campuses' language around the grade appeal process. We have also clarified the course repeat policy. The course withdrawal period was changed to include only weeks during which classes are in session and not include spring break. Independent studies requirements were clarified. Name changes were approved by Faculty Assembly: Earth Sciences is now the Department of Atmospheric and Geological Studies and Women's Studies is now Gender and Women's Studies. The Faculty Assembly has begun investigating best practices in utilizing undergraduate teaching assistants using a SUNY Faculty Senate guide. The Faculty Assembly Executive Board would like to hold a retreat to talk about what they want to accomplish during 2014-15. Ms. Carroll said she is glad she and Mr. Sholtes are "on the same page regarding student involvement" — there are four voting student seats on Faculty Assembly and a number of seats for students on councils that Faculty Assembly hopes to have filled for the 2014-15 year.
7. President's Remarks: New Student Orientations are underway already for the fall semester. During Orientation, incoming freshmen and transfer students register for fall courses. Almost every office on campus is involved in Orientation; our goal is to help students begin to feel acclimated to campus and give parents a comfort level as well. Offering three ceremonies for May Commencement 2014 was successful and allowed students to bring more guests to their ceremony. Some of the community's restaurant owners shared with President Stanley that they liked the three ceremonies because it smoothed the day out for them and allowed them to serve more customers. In May, the Oswego Common Council voted unanimously to bill SUNY Oswego for the costs associated with the Bridge Streeet Run but the mayor vetoed this. The college and the community will continue to work together to strengthen their relationship and to brainstorm alternatives to the Bridge Street Run. President Stanley noted that the college has a longstanding relationship with the town and we are committed partners. For example, the college has a bookstore downtown in what used to be a vacant building, provides mentoring and tutoring programs in the city schools, populates community committees, supplies active volunteers, helps offset the cost of Harborfest, etc. Faculty founded the Oswego Renaissance committee, a neighborhood revitalization program. She asked College Council members to review the college's draft strategic plan. This plan will "crosswalk" with the previous strategic plan and with the Power of SUNY Refresh Performance Management System Guidelines that are emerging.
8. Old Business: Mr. McMahon requested council members to submit highlights from 2013-14 to be included in a double-sided flyer that will be distributed at the SUNY College Council annual meeting this fall to show all that went on at SUNY Oswego in connection with College Council this year.
9. New Business
a. Resolution approving named physical facility: Mr. Muhammad read the draft Oswego College Council Resolution Approving Naming of a Physical Facility. Mr. McMahon made a motion to approve, Mr. Cheeks seconded, and, after discussion, the council unanimously approved the resolution below.
The meeting adjourned at 12:45 p.m. 
