Faculty Council
Minutes of the meeting of May 10, 1993
0. The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Theodore Steinberg at 4:05 p.m.
1. Chairperson Steinberg asked for and received consensus to approve the published agenda.
2. Motion (F.Krohn/T.Malinoski): to approve the minutes of the April 12, 1993 meeting as published. Motion passed.
3. President Donald A. MacPhee reported that the Kasling Lecture Committee had made its report, and that the Kasling Lecturer for Spring '94 would be Prof. of Philosophy Randall Dipert. He announced that Chancellor's Awards would be made in the fall to Thomas Malinoski, Director of College Information Services for Excellence in Professional Service, and to Bruce Tomlinson,
Assistant Professor of Biology, and Julius Adams, Assistant Professor of Education, for Excellence in Teaching. The President reminded the faculty that there would be a General Faculty Meeting at 2:00 p.m. Friday, May 14 to approve the conferring of degrees at Saturday's Commencement Exercises. MacPhee commented that deposits for Fall '93 enrollment were showing new strength. He said that Fredonia's share of the SUNY budget cut would be known soon, but that planning was pro- ceeding on the premise of a $200,000 cut. He said that the enrollment projection includes a planned reduction from recent over-enroll-ments of approximately 200 FTE students, and a resulting 20+:1 student:faculty ratio. He said unplanned reduc- tion may result from reduced student applications, especially in transfers, resulting in some shortfall. He said there would be delays implemented in some hiring, and in some construction projects as administration monitors the enrollment situation. He concluded his remarks wishing everyone a summer of renewal. The President asked Vice President for Academic Affairs David Hess to report on classroom seating. Hess said that on April 12 the Registrar was informed that classroom capacities in use for the past 15 years may be in excess of design capacity. He said upon further study it was found that the capacities being used by the college were above those in SUNY's Physical Space Inventory. He said the Fall offerings will be reassigned to classrooms as necessary to accommodate the SUNY standards. He said this would affect primarily middle-sized classrooms and that 340 courses would be moved to other locations, often out of traditional departmental rooms. He said the '93 summer session classes will meet the PSI standards and that capacities will be posted in the classrooms. He concluded saying that Sylvia Clark would continue reviewing the room capacities to see if any may be adjusted. M.Nelson voiced thanks to David Hess, and to Nancy Bowser, and Ida Labarbera of the Registrar's Office for working to resolve this issue. Hess said all had been helpful, including faculty.
4. Chairperson Theodore Steinberg made no report.
5. Faculty Senator H. Joseph Straight reported that the Faculty Senate had met April 16th and 17th at Oswego. He noted that the FS visitation procedure had been implemented at Old Westbury; the procedure provides a five-member visitation committee appointed by the FS president to study situations of long standing disputes between a campus' governance and its president; a report was expected following conclusion of the visit in May. He said the Student Life Committee, was studying issues of including disciplinary statements in transcripts. He said the FS Awards Committee submitted a resolution instituting a new rank of Distinguished Librarian; this was approved by FS and sent to the Chancellor for action.
6. Governance Committee Chair Franklin Krohn, chair distributed a written annual report [included in Archive minutes], then noted that a future item of the committee's business might be to consider a name change for the Faculty Council to eliminate confusion with College Council. Krohn concluded by thanking the committee members, and liaisons, and especially Sandra Brown for her work with elections and databases. Chairperson added his thanks to Krohn, Brown and the committee.
7. Academic Affairs Committee, Minda Rae Amiran, chair submitted written recommendations on team teaching [included in Archive minutes]. Amiran said that while team teaching appears to have merits, the college does not seem able to afford it except as overload, or with sections of 60 or more students. She said the committee felt it was a valuable technique, especially for interdisciplinary courses. VP Hess said he was for team teaching, but was concerned to provide enough seats for all students especially in GCP's. He said we must be sure not to compromise our ability to provide seats by initiatives in this direction. Amiran suggested it might be desirable if we could afford a few adjunct slots to release some full-time faculty to pursue team teaching. She urged that team teaching be given some priority, and said the committee did not think overload was a good way to do this. Hess agreed in principle. Amiran hoped the new dean would help move on this. K.Mantai asked what was wrong with giving each of three teachers one contact hour. Amiran said this could lead to overloads, or underloads, because it doesn't fit the conventional three-credit pattern. Mantai. Amiran said team teaching should involve most team members most of the time, not merely a sequen- tial presentation. Besemer said she was surprised that most courses at Fredonia are 3-credit courses, and that there may well be other options. MacPhee said that if done as Amiran described, with faculty intensely involved, perhaps a department or departments could work the loads out over a period of two or more semesters. He encouraged this kind of experiment. Amiran said some institutions do this as a staple, and that faculty rewards are great with interdisciplinary team teaching.
Motion (M.R.Amiran/H.J.Straight): that the Faculty Council endorse the committee's recommendations on team teaching. Motion passed unanimously.
Motion (H.J.Straight/M.Charbonnet): to approve a mid-semester grade of "N" to denote no evidence of attendance.
Amiran commented that the committee had on this because just complaints had been registered concerning "E" grades at mid- semester. K.Mantai commented that "E" gets a student's attention better. T.Morrissey commented that after receiving an "E" grade, less than half will return to correct the deficiency. L.Broude commented that we presume students are adults; we should permit them to make these mistakes, and be aware of and face the consequences. G.McNeil commented that in a sense, the student has failed by not attending. T.Kflu commented that some students are not mature enough to realize the long-lasting effect of an "E". N.Bowser reminded that the mid-semester grade disappears when the final grade appears. L.M.Dimitri commented that such a mid-term grade has benefits in terms of the student's relationship with the advisor. M.Schagrin noted that it is a problem when faculty do not taking attendance, leads to confusion about what has been going on with the student. A.Altobellis urged defeat of the proposal, saying "E" will draw greater attention to the problem, perhaps teach the student a lesson. V.Conover commented that she makes a point during summer advising that the Catalog is the student's contract.
Motion [to approve a mid-semester grade of "N"] was defeated.
8. Faculty Council received written annual reports from the following standing committees, subcommittees and awards committees [copies included in Archive minutes]: Academic Affairs, Mind Rae Amiran, chair Governance Committee, Franklin B. Krohn, chair Planning & Budget Committee, Constance Willeford, chair Professional Service Committee, Gary Barber, chair Student Affairs Committee, Marjorie Maloney Plaister, chair Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service Calendar Subcommittee
9. Motion (G.McNeil/K.Mantai): to adopt the following resolution:
WHEREAS at the SUNY College at Fredonia business hours do not end before 5:00 p.m. on Friday, and
WHEREAS the academic community of the SUNY College at Fredonia continues its work through 5:00 p.m. on Friday, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED that Fredonia Fest shall not begin until at least 5:00 p.m. on Friday.
A.Altobellis asked for clarification of the meaning, would this be a recommendation to Spectrum? G.McNeil responded that this would be advisory to the administration to not begin the activities until after 5 on Friday. J.Hansen expressed sympathy for the sentiments of the resolution, but questioned whether FC has authority in such matters. College Senate Secretary clarified that such a resolution, as all actions of FC, would be advisory to the President. L.M.Dimitri said these matters are discussed by the planning committee, and that this could be taken into consideration for next year's planning. K.Mantai commented that we should not be encouraging students to miss class. A.Alto- bellis commented that other events occur during class hours, and that it is up to the students to exercise responsibility concern- ing their academic obligations. G.McNeil clarified that the intention was to reduce noise levels during academic hours. Hilary Zuckerburg, VP of Spectrum commented that this is the one time students get a chance to get outside before exams, and that they are only allowed to have music up to 7 p.m. because of the village noise ordinance. She suggested there may some compromise possible to resolve this. J.Hansen questioned when does Fredonia Fest start. Zuckerburg responded 3:00 p.m., with the bands playing at 3:30.
Motion (J.Hansen/A.Parai): to amend the resolution by inserting "FC recommends that..." before Fredonia Fest in the last paragraph.
D.MacPhee commented that the sense of concern over noise level is not in writing, and that if he received this, he would ask the dean to consider that there is concern over disruption and to convey that to Spectrum. Motion to amend the resolution passed.
T.Rywick commented that issues of student conduct, drinking, etc., come up in his journals frequently, but that by comparison this is not important, happening as it does only once a year. Hansen said he thought this really is a noise issue, and that those working in Thompson Hall, which is hermetically sealed and distant from the action, would probably be more sympathetic to the resolution if they were closer to the noise source. Motion to adopt the resolution was defeated.
10. There was no new business.
11. By general consent, the meeting was adjourned at 5:12 p.m.
Attendance:
Professional Staff, Management:
[E] K. Bonds (95)
[E] S. Clarke (93)
[x] V. Conover (93)
[x] D. Danielson (95)
[x] K. Harrington(94)
[x] T. Kflu (93)
[x] T. Malinoski (93)
[x] G. McNeil (95)
[E] C. Niles (94)
[E] M. Pabst (94)
[x] B. Servatius (93)[1]
[x] A. Wiedenbeck (95)
Arts, Education, Humanities:
[x] J. Burke (94)
[x] M. Charbonnet (93)
[x] N. Deal (94)
[E] J. Gillette (93)
[x] H. Jacobson (93)
[E] D. Kerzner (95)
[1] R. Klassen (95)
[E] T. Loughlin (93)
[x] K. Lucey (93)
[E] L. Maheady (94)[1]
[x] J. McVicker (95)
[x] M. Nelson (93)
[x] J. Parla (95)
Natural and Social Sciences:
[x] G. Baird (94)
[x] J. Hansen (94)
[E] T. Janik (93)
[E] J. Kraus (95)
[x] F. Krohn (93)
[x] K. Mantai (93)
[x] A. Parai (95)
[E] J. Romal (93)
[x] T. Rywick (94)
[x] A. Sarker (95)
[E] P. Sinden (93)
[x] B.J. Stephens (95)
[x] M. Vassallo (95)
Student Representatives:
[x] A. Altobellis [1]
[2] N. Crino
[2] S. Downey
[3] G. Schneider
[ ] (vacant)
[ ] (vacant)
Ex Officio:
[3] J. Berkley
[x] D. Burdette
[2] J. Crowley
[x] M. Dimitri [1]
[x] D. Hess [1]
[1] J. Hurtgen
[x] D. MacPhee
[x] T. McNeil
[x] M. Schagrin
[x] T. Steinberg
[x] J. Straight
[4] S. Warner
[x] A. Wheeler [1]
Guests:
Minda Rae Amiran
Nancy Bowser
Lee Broude
Susan Besemer
Tom Morrissey
Gary Barber
Thomas McNeil, College Senate Secretary