Faculty Council
Minutes of the meeting of December 13, 1993
0. Meeting called to order at 4:03 p.m. by Chairperson Ted Steinberg.
1. Motion (M.Nelson/K.Lucey): to amend the agenda, placing item 14 after item 4. Motion passed.
Motion (M.Nelson/K.Lucey): to adopt the agenda as amended. Motion passed.
2. Motion (M.Nelson/G.McNeil): to approve the minutes of the November 15, 1993 meeting. Motion passed.
3. Vice President Hess reported for President MacPhee. He asked Registrar Nancy Bowser to report on the recent Early Change Center. She said those who were present in McEwen may think ECC did not go as well as in the past, and she agreed. She said the numbers of students selecting was comparable to last spring (+49); students sectioned from courses was similar (+6). She said 51% of those who course-select are traditionally invited to CC. She said there were 829 more seats available than last year, so why the chaos? She said the following may have been factors: More students participated than previously (+90); There was not as much flexibility as in precious semesters, since we lost 209 seats per schedule hour, or about 1600 seats total, during the eight most popular periods; Students know they can no longer beg instructor to be added beyond classroom capacity, so are schedul- ing earlier; She now monitors the number of students permitted within the CC room at any one time, reducing chaos within the room, but making longer waiting lines; With less time to drop after the semester begins, students have to be more careful about what they add; Students seem to be asking more questions, wanting more answers; It seems there is less flexibility to students' personal schedules, more outside jobs, more co-curricular respon- sibility; and Students are consuming more courses, more with over 15 hours. Bowser said in response to FC's call for improvements in the CC process, she has met with V. Conover, D. Harris, and S. Luntz to discuss improvements needed and will be making recommendations to the Computing Services Advisory Board for changes in CC, Registration, and Course Selection. T.Steinberg asked if it would make a difference if we spread classes throughout the day, away from the most popular time slots. Bowser said that would help, but probably not without also increasing max enrollment for some classes.
4. Chairperson Theodore Steinberg reported that in response to complaints of not enough time to digest the published meeting agendas before FC meetings, the Executive Committee has adjusted its schedule. Agenda setting meetings will now be held approxi- mately two weeks ahead of FC meeting dates instead of one week ahead, providing more lead time for publishing the meeting announcements.
Election was held for College Senate Secretary for 1994. On behalf of the Executive Committee, Steinberg nominated Thomas McNeil.
Motion (M.Nelson/J.Hansen): that nominations be closed and a unanimous ballot be recorded for the nominee. Motion passed.
Election was held for Vice Chairperson of the Faculty Council for 1994, under the new Bylaws changes. P.Sinden nominat- ed Jane Romal.
Motion (M.Nelson/F.Krohn) that nominations be closed and a unanimous ballot be recorded for the nominee. Motion passed.
Election was held for Chairperson of the Faculty Council for 1994. M.Nelson nominated Theodore Steinberg.
Motion (M.Nelson/F.Krohn) that nominations be closed and a unanimous ballot be recorded for the nominee. Motion passed.
14. Discussion was continued of the resolution [introduced at November FC meeting] to delete statement on workload from Faculty Handbook:
WHEREAS the standard for teaching load at the College is traditionally the domain of each department, and
WHEREAS the legal definition of teaching load is based on past practice, and
WHEREAS most departments on campus have a 3-4 teaching load per year (3 courses one semester, 4 the other), and
WHEREAS p. II.23 of the newly revised Faculty Handbook states that "At Fredonia the standard for generating course loads in most departments is four three-hour course sections (i.e., 12 credit hours), or the equivalent, every semester," and
WHEREAS no such clause was in the previous Faculty Handbook, and
WHEREAS this change to the Faculty Handbook was made by the Vice President for Academic Affairs without due consultation of faculty, and
WHEREAS this change usurps the decision-making power of individual departments,
THEREFOR BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Council make a motion to delete this entry from the Faculty Handbook.
Motion (M.Nelson/J.Kraus): to amend the resolution by replacing it with language from the Chairs' Resolution of 12/8/93, copies of which were distributed to the FC members [and inserted in Archive minutes]. Motion to amend by substitution passed.
T. Steinberg read a letter of response from President MacPhee concerning the resolution, to the effect that it is inappropriate for the president to discuss workload, a subject of mandatory labor-management negotiation, with FC. [Letter is filed with Archive minutes.] Steinberg said he considered that the president's note does not apply, since FC was not attempting to negotiate working conditions, but rather stating faculty opinion on the Faculty Handbook. Fredonia UUP President Richard Reddy was recognized as a guest and invited to address the question. He distributed copies of a memo on University at Buffalo's Faculty Responsibility Policy [filed with Archive minutes]. He said UUP's Executive Board is supportive of the concerns already expressed by the Chairs, and would be pleased to see the added support of FC in passing the resolution. Steinberg said President MacPhee insists that the whole statement on Faculty Utilization must be considered together, not just the sentence about 12/12, since the rest of the statement qualifies the troublesome sentence. Steinberg said that he had argued, if that is the case, that sentence could just as easily be left out.
Motion to adopt the resolution passed.
5. Faculty Senator H. Joseph Straight made no report.
6. Governance Committee Chair Daniel Jelski distributed a written report on the ratification of the recent Bylaws changes [filed in Archive minutes]. Jelski reported further that, as part of FC elections, he had received only one response to over 400 copies mailed of the call for nominations for vacant FC positions; and that response was redundant in that the information had already been obtained through the Faculty Preference Survey. He concluded that the separate call for nominations could be published in the Campus Report, rather than separate mailings. He said such a procedure would save publishing this material uselessly, and may serve as incentive to respond to the Faculty Preference Survey. J.Kraus asked whether previous Governance Chairs have had similar experi- ence. Jelski said he did not know, but that the rest of the committee did not object to his suggestion. J.Straight said he agreed that if there is some other way to handle the nomination process it would be OK. Jelski said another way to seek nomina- tions would be to channel the call for nominations through the department chairs. J.Hansen said that as a chair, he supported the plan to utilize the Campus Report instead.
7. Academic Affairs Committee's report was given by MindaRae Amiran, chair.
Motion (Academic Affairs Committee): to adopt the revised lan- guage concerning the policy on undergraduate Teaching Assistants as published with the FC meeting announcement.
Amiran said any students acting as undergrad TA's should be trained and supervised, and that students doing this for credit should be actually learning something, not merely doing clerical support work. T.Rywick said he supported the motion. H.Jacobsen said the third point seemed to make unnecessary bureaucratic paper work. Amiran responded that it should be a matter of record how TA's are being trained and supervised, and that in most cases, if such a record is filed once for a course, explaining these points, it would suffice until substantial changes in the procedure for training and supervising are adopted. Jacobson said sometimes greater flexibility might be desired, as duties may arise for TA's that might not be covered in such a filed state- ment. J.McVicker said student TA's should have a written state- ment of expectations we have of them. Amiran reminded FC that this is concerning undergrad TA's. Jacobson recanted, saying his objections pertained more to graduate TA's. Motion passed.
Motion (Academic Affairs Committee): to adopt the recommendations on academic honors as published with the Agenda.
T.Rywick asked whether the method for calculating GPA's for academic honors would be different than the one used for gradua- tion. Amiran said this would not be an added problem for the Registrar's office since they do all these honors evaluations by hand anyway. Registrar Bowser concurred that it would not be difficult to do this kind of evaluation of transfer credits. Rywick asked whether there were data to support the notion that four-year Fredonia students were at a disadvantage compared to transfer students. Amiran said the conclusions were based on exhaustive examination of magna and summa for past three years, and on a random check of Fredonia-all-4-years students. She said 20% to 30% of Magnas and Summas awarded to transfers, would not have been awarded if their transfer credits were also considered. She said as students declare or transfer into their majors, they get more focused and do better; the earlier years' grades tend to be a little lower, whether transfer or not. Rywick asked whether leveling the playing field by considering only the last two years' grades had been considered. Amiran answered that such would be harder for the Registrar, and additionally, the commit- tee felt it would be better to look at the whole record. M.Nelson asked why then the provision for looking at 80 hours of graded credit. Amiran this was to accommodate large amounts of P/F or S/U credits transferred in, and that a minimum of 80 hours of graded (not P/F) credit would be evaluated for latin honors. Bowser said the change would only go into effect after it appears in the catalog, and would not affect current students. K.Lucey asked whether second majors could be recognized on diplomas. Amiran said this is a separate issue and that neither honors nor second majors are recognized on the diploma because of limitations imposed by Albany. Motion passed.
8. Planning & Budget Committee, Constance Willeford, chair, distributed a written report [filed with Archive minutes].
9. Student Affairs Committee's mid-year report was postponed.
10. Report of Computer Advisory Committee was postponed.
11. Affirmative Action Committee chair Ruth Antosh reported that she was pleased with enthusiasm and proactive approach the committee takes to its mission. She hoped that the campus commu- nity is aware that the committee is involved with real issues. She said committee had spent considerable time reviewing college guidelines on hiring and searches, and that recommendations may be forthcoming. She said the committee had polled a number of other institutions within and without SUNY for their guidelines. She said retention of minorities and women is a matter for work and something the committee values, and invited suggestions for these areas. She said Human Resources Director Daniel O'Rourke is developing statistics on our retention history, trying to deter- mine reasons for our retention failures. She said the committee hopes to develop a clearer picture concerning retention, and improved processes for future data accumulation. She said the committee is working to try to make Fredonia a friendlier, more attractive place to stay. She said that one problem is that all junior faculty, not only minorities, feel alienated, and that the committee has been working to overcome this. We hope the new faculty/staff lounge in Campus Center may be a gathering place, but it does not seem to be much of a magnet at this point. She said "Survive and Thrive at Fredonia" workshops may be undertaken in the future. She said the committee is considering polling minority faculty initiative hires to see how these people are perceiving their jobs. She said handicapped students and faculty is another area of concern; some buildings are still not accessi- ble; Campus Center and some other buildings are embarking on remedies. She concluded by noting that a community outreach subcommittee has been reactivated to get community merchants and leaders involved.
12. Director of Computing Services, Frederick Ullman reported concerning the weekly shutdowns of the mainframe computer. He said that the contract governing maintenance of the mainframe was negotiated by SUNY with Unisys in 1979; under that agreement, maintenance is provided at no charge between 8-5, Monday through Friday; outside those times, the service is billed at $175 per hour. He said that 80% of what goes on during the Tuesday morning shutdowns is software stuff, testing, backups, diagnostics,etc., which does not involve Unisys in any case; 10% is hardware stuff that would involve Unisys; and 10% is combined software/hardware. He said the College has not had a systems programmer since 1981, but instead this mainframe maintenance work has been absorbed by the Director of Computing Services personally. He said he does not think it is fair to have some one who does this as an extra duty, to have to come in the wee hours, or weekends. He said Tuesday morning was selected as optimum to avoid high student use hours, and near-weekend high-use hours, while staying within normal working hours. Ullman said an assistant programmer could be hired to do this, but that VP Hess had denied his requests repeatedly to do so. Ullman said PALS is shut down at the same time to do backups. He explained that the College is a union shop where CSEA operators, not library people, are supposed to do this work; otherwise is working out of title, and CSEA has threatened grievance procedures on this. M.Nelson inquired what could be done to help with bad telephone lines and broken connections to the mainframe. Ullman said this is apparently due to old, wet, phone lines in some areas off campus; the phone company says these are standard voice-grade lines. P.Sinden asked whether reasonable planning could provide for Saturday morning when other users are not using the system. Ullman replied that every other SUNY campus has a systems programmer, and the work is done at off hours. N.Crino said any time you do it, it will be inconvenient for students, including Saturday morning. J.McVicker commented that students often complain about the Tuesday morning shutdowns, and asked whether it was impossible to hire someone to do this on Saturday mornings. Ullman replied that it is completely possible to have CSEA employee to do this, but we have zero dollars to hire someone. Daniel O'Rourke said SUNY is moving to a completely computerized payroll, through mainframe connections with Albany; Mon-Wed is when Human Resources needs the mainframe every week for this; Thurs. would be a better time for shutdown. Ullman replied that before July, we should have capability to pass traffic through to Albany, even during the shutdown. M.L.Lunde, asked for clarification of the work's not being in the job description of the Director. Ullman said he was personally doing the 80%, the software maintenance; 10% is hardware stuff done by Unisys; 10% combined; and the Library work could be done at another time, since it does not involve the mainframe. Ullman said again, every other SUNY college has another person, a systems programmer, to do this.
13. Faculty/Staff Merit Scholarship Committee's written report [included in Archive minutes] was submitted by Daniel Tramuta, chair and copies distributed to the FC.
15. There was no new business.
16. Motion (M.Nelson/K.Bonds): to adjourn. At 5:10 p.m. motion passed.
Attendance:
Professional Staff, Management:
[x] K. Bonds (95)[1]
[E] S. Clarke (93)
[x] V. Conover (93)
[x] D. Danielson(95)[1]
[x] K. Harrington(94)[1]
[x] T. Kflu (93)[1]
[E] T. Malinoski (93)[1]
[x] G. McNeil (95)
[x] C. Niles (94)
[x] M. Pabst (94)[1]
[1] B. Servatius (93)
[4] A. Wiedenbeck (95)
Arts, Education, Humanities:
[3] J. Burke (94)
[x] M. Charbonnet(93)[1]
[3] J. Gillette (93)
[x] H. Jacobson (93)
[E] D. Kerzner (95)
[E] R. Klassen (95)
[1] T. Loughlin (93)
[x] K. Lucey (93)[1]
[x] L. Maheady (94)[1]
[x] J. McVicker (95)
[x] M. Nelson (93)
[x] J. Parla (95) [1]
[ ] (VACANT)
Natural and Social Sciences:
[4] G. Baird (94)
[x] J. Hansen (94)
[x] T. Janik (93)
[x] J. Kraus (95)[2]
[x] F. Krohn (93)
[1] K. Mantai (93)
[1] A. Parai (95)
[x] J. Romal (93)[1]
[x] T. Rywick (94)
[x] A. Sarker (95)
[x] P. Sinden (93)
[x] B.J.Stephens (95)[1]
[x] M. Vassallo (95)
Student Representatives:
[x] N. Crino
[x] S. Downey [1]
[1] M. Eglin
[x] R. Kerr
[x] N. Merkel
[x] G. Schneider [1]
Ex Officio:
[2] D. Burdette
[3] J. Crowley
[1] M. Dimitri
[x] D. Hess
[x] D. Jelski
[x] M. L. Lunde
[E] D. MacPhee
[x] T. McNeil
[x] T. Steinberg
[x] J. Straight
[4] S. Warner
[1] A. Wheeler
[x] S. Zablotney
Guests:
Ronald Ambrosetti
Minda Rae Amiran
Nancy Bowser
James Hurtgen
Chrisine Davis-Mantai
Richard Reddy
Daniel O'Rourke
Ted Schwalbe
Constance Willeford
Thomas McNeil, College Senate Secretary