Faculty Council
Minutes of the meeting of September 14, 1992
0. Meeting was called to order at 4:03 p.m. by Chairperson Stephen Warner. Warner distributed copies of President MacPhee's three-page memorandum to him on Academic Program Deactivation, dated 26 May, 1992.
1. Motion (M.L.Lunde/K.Lucey): to approve the published agenda. Motion passed.
2. Motion (M.Nelson/R.Weist): to approve the minutes of the Faculty Council meeting of May 4 and May 11, 1992. Motion passed.
3. President Donald A. MacPhee announced that he would hold an open meeting at noon on September 25 with vice presidents Crowley and Burdette to discuss budget and plans impacting on that budget. He said he and other SUNY officers are attempting to influence the governor in positive ways as he develops the coming year's budget proposal. He said the Minority (Republican) in the Assembly has formed a task force to visit all SUNY campuses. He said his administration was developing strategies to reach students, parents, and alumni, making the case for SUNY's budget and its impact on the College. The president urged participation in the coming Intercultural Communication Convocation with Drs. Milton and Janet Bennett. He said the plans for their visit grew from concerns regarding bias-related incidents last fall. He reported that the Ethnic Nomenclature Committee, the Committee on Interracial and Multi-cultural Communication, and the Committee on Bias-related Incidents had all been active in completing their charges. President MacPhee referred to his August 7 memo on dean structure; he said that continuing fiscal stringency, and widespread experiences elsewhere with single-dean structures, along with current vacancies in the permanent dean seats, are factors inviting us to explore this opportunity to reduce senior administration. He called for faculty's comments by Sept. 18. He noted that if we change number of deans, changes might be appropriate in responsibility of chairs; this might evolve sequentially over time. He said Vice President Hess was currently engaged in meetings with the chairs to discuss these issues. He said that assuming a one-dean structure is adopted, the process of defining chairs' role would continue with the input of the new dean. P.Sinden asked the president to restore chairs' stipends to levels of recent years. MacPhee answered that it would be appropriate to consider both compensation and release time for chairs in coming discussions. R.Weist expressed concern for the way the reorganization process was going. He said FC had not all seen the president's panel's report on the feasibility of the new model. He noted that the present proposal is really for a three-dean model: 80% of departments under one dean; one dean with responsibility for certain special programs; and another with responsibility for certain special programs plus the left-over departments. He asked why we are not following the suggestion of the panel. MacPhee responded that he was responding to the central elements of the panel's recommendations: to hold off on immediate changes, and to improve role of chairs. He said he could not support some of their recommendations, including the organization of Educational Studies. He said that while change might be appropriate in the future, interests of the college would not be best served by amalgamating some of these responsibilities to only two deans. He remarked that the question of imbalance of dean's loads has received too much concern; it is typical in the arts & sciences model to have some 20 departments reporting to one dean; characteristics of the person recruited for the position, and the role of department chairs, have a lot to do with whether this can work. P.Sinden commented, regarding the president's memo on deactivation, that when Ludwig retired last year the Sociology/Anthropology Dept. made the decision to fill the position with another anthropologist, making three. He said the department was not soliciting another position from elsewhere. MacPhee responded that tough decisions had to be made, and that was the time to decide on an adequate minimum number to maintain the major. He said that if there were any assurance that the budget constraints were a one-year phenomenon, we might have reached another conclusion. MacPhee called attention to the distinction between deactivation and discontinuation. He said that Academic Affairs Committee should consider the anthropology major a first priority over the next several years of consultation. He said he would like to return to an anthropology major, when we feel we can adequately provide resources for it.
4. Chairperson Warner announced that Executive Committee had received nominations of Kenneth Lucey and Theodore Steinberg for Vice Chairperson of the Faculty Council. He then called for nominations from the floor. There were none and nominations were closed. Following the election by paper ballot, Dr. Warner announced that Theodore Steinberg was elected Vice Chairperson of the Faculty Council with term to begin immediately. Warner announced that FC workshops were still under consideration for implementation in the future. He urged FC elected representatives to discuss the current issues with their constituencies.
5. Faculty Senator H. Joseph Straight announced that Faculty Senate would meet Oct. 16-17 at Geneseo, and that Alternate Faculty Senator Marvin Kohl would attend in his stead.
6. Chair of the Governance Committee Franklin Krohn reported on recent meetings of the committee: Krohn said that Bylaws do not preclude reorganization to the so-called one-dean model. He said the committee recommends that Bylaws not be altered as regards FC representation if such a reorganization is implemented. He said that Governance Committee feels Planning & Budget Committee's proposal to expand its membership to make it more representative would result in a committee too large, and cumbersome. He said Governance recommends against this proposal. Krohn said the Faculty Preference Poll would be circulated soon and urged FC members to complete and return the forms and to urge their constituencies to do the same. He said a call for nominations for FSA vacancies would also be circulated soon. He noted that the annual Faculty Census will be completed in about six weeks. Krohn said the Belliotti proposal on presidential ad hoc committees remains on Governance's agenda for early consideration.
7. College Scholarship Committee's report was presented by chair Laura Henning. She said the committee had met ten times and awarded $120,000 in tuition remission scholarships to 166 students. She stressed the importance of meaningful freshman scholarships in attracting the best students; minimum criteria for freshman scholarships include 92 high school average and 1150 SAT. Awards include $2000 renewable, $500 renewable, and $1000 one-time; 3.50 GPA required for renewals. Henning said approx $15,000 was awarded to new freshmen, and $2,500 to new transfers, the remainder going to renewals, Faculty/Staff Scholarships, etc. Fac/Staff Scholarships of $500 went to 14 returning students, sometimes determining whether they can return. Henning reported that this year 36 offers were made for 22 scholarships; 12 freshmen accepted them. She said Scholarship Committee will evaluate this year's offers in view of the in-creasingly competitive environment; committee may move away from renewables, to larger first-year scholarships. Henning concluded by thanking the committee members for their time spent reviewing applications, their effort, and dedication to an important cause: L. Michael Dimitri, VivianGarcia Conover, Donna Danielsen, Jean Malinoski, Dennis Bolton, Jacqueline Swansinger, Dick Gilman and Patricia Feraldi.
8. Commencement Committee's report was given by Karen West saying it would be her final report since David Casper is assuming the chair. She said the past commencement was virtually flawless because of fine team effort by the committee. She encouraged faculty to volunteer for the committee. She said among recent improvements were new guidelines developed for catastrophic emergencies, and personalized service in seating for differently abled. She said ushers' instructions are now written, and reviewed station by station. West said seating is still a problem: more want to attend than we can accommodate. This year requests for extra seating were accommodated in Ice Arena, sometimes the seating of first choice for families with small children. She said the present alcohol policy is working and should be continued; demeanor of graduates has improved greatly because of this. She said committee recommends that rehearsal time begin 15 minutes after last exam on Friday to avoid schedule conflicts. M.Kohl asked for clarification of the honorarium policy.Pres. MacPhee responded that we offer $1500 plus expenses, which seems to be successful in attracting good speakers. He added that it would be desirable to usually invite a scholar; but a speaker of broad appeal to parents, students, and faculty seems to be more appropriate, hence the tradition of using public figures rotated with educators.
9. William Muller, Director of the Office of Cooperative and Public Service Education and Internship Programme distributed a four-page written 1992 Report. He called attention to the following points: Public Service Colloquium was not offered this semester, but may be in the future, pending administrative decision by VPAA. Internships have shown minimal change in pattern of enrollment over past four years, but Spring 1992 was greatest enrollment to date. Business Ad, Communication, English and Accounting represent the bulk of the programs; Computer Science, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology probably could have far more. Social Work, Music Therapy and Medical Technology programs are generally outside of the Internship Office'ssupervision. Muller commended Dean Hurtgen on changes allowing payment to faculty for sponsoring some summer internships heretofore uncompensated. International Education has been added to responsibilities of Internship Office. P.Sinden asked whether there are provisions within Internship Office for individual programs to become exempt from IO's supervision. Muller responded that would be up to FC; no procedures exist in IO to do that. J.Hansen asked what was the level of compensation for internship sponsors. Muller said it was $50 per credit hour. J.Hurtgen clarified that to discourage 1-credit internships, there is a stipulated 3-credit minimum at $50 per credit. Muller added that the compensation should be expanded to include the regular academic year. He noted that there are 698 internships listed as being offered; the list needs purging since some of them may not be offered by the sponsors any longer. S.Warner commented that this list convinces one that all conceivable interests are addressed. Muller noted that the current list is available in Library, Internship Office, and most departmental offices.
10. There was no new business.
11. Motion (M.Nelson/M.L.Lunde): to adjourn. Motion passed.
Attendance:
Professional Staff, Management:
[x] P. Andrews (92)
[x] K. Bonds (92)
[x] S. Clarke (93)
[x] V. Conover (93)
[x] K. Harrington (94)
[1] D. Johnson (92)
[1] T. Kflu (93)
[x] T. Malinoski (93)
[1] S. Maloney (92)
[x] T. McNeil (94)
[x] M. Pabst (94)
[1] K. Porpiglia (92)
[1] B. Servatius (93)
Arts, Education, Humanities:
[E] J. Burke (94)
[E] M. Charbonnet (93)
[x] N. Deal (94)
[1] J. Gillette (93)
[x] H. Jacobson (93)
[E] R. Klassen (92)
[x] T. Loughlin (93)
[x] K. Lucey (93)
[x] M. L. Lunde (92)
[x] L. Maheady (94)
[x] M. Nelson (93)
[x] T. Schwalbe (92)
[1] G. Sebouhian (92)
Natural and Social Sciences:
[x] G. Baird (94)
[x] M. Grady (92)
[x] J. Hansen (94)
[x] T. Janik (93)
[x] F. Krohn (93)
[x] K. Mantai (93)
[1] G. Prechtl (92)
[1] C. Prevet (92)
[x] T. Rywick (94)
[1] J. Romal (93)
[x] P. Sinden (93)
[x] R. Weist (92)
Student Representatives:
[1] B. Wilkins (Pres.)
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Ex Officio:
[x] J. Berkley
[x] D. Burdette
[x] J. Crowley
[x] M. Dimitri
[x] D. Hess
[x] J. Hurtgen
[x] D. MacPhee
[x] M. Schagrin
[x] J. Straight
[x] S. Warner
[E] A. Wheeler
Guests:
Ted Steinberg
Marvin Kohl
Constance Willeford
Karen West
Laura Henning
Ron Ambrosetti
Bill Muller
Minda Rae Amiran
Janet Fairlawn
Thomas McNeil, College Senate Secretary