Faculty Council
Minutes of the meeting of October 10, 1994
Meeting was called to order at 4:03 p.m. by Chairperson Ted Steinberg.
1. Motion (M.Nelson/J.Romal): to adopt the published agenda. Motion passed.
2. Motion (J.Romal/M.Nelson): to approve the published minutes of the September 12, 1994 meeting. Motion passed.
3. President Donald A. MacPhee reported that the recent Library Celebration had been a wonderful event in form and substance, and he commended the organizers of the celebration. He said the recent Homecoming weekend had been perhaps the best ever in terms of attendance. He said that the Homecoming Brunch marked the start of the formal public phase of the $5 million development campaign which he hoped would garner the widest participation possible. The president reported on his recent trip with Richard Goodman to Tokyo and Hong Kong to visit former students from Fredonia and businessmen connected with Fredonia. He said that some of the Hong Kong Chinese who had attended Fredonia in the 1970's are now in their 40's and hold impressive positions in higher education, banking and corporations. He said that they had met with Marvin Kohl and his wife, who send their greetings, and a colleague of theirs from Hong Kong Baptist College. MacPhee noted that Fredonia is among the best in SUNY and that is attested by the articles in U.S.News and Money magazine; he said these rankings are very important to impressing our prospective students and their families. The president announced that Thomas Bartlett had been confirmed as the new Chancellor of SUNY, and said that his first impression of him was favorable. He noted that the wire services had reported on his slashing programs in Oregon by some 30%; he noted that these cuts were mandated by severe state tax cuts. MacPhee said that the issue of access versus quality is a great concern among the SUNY campus presidents; centralization versus decentralization is another; relationships with the executive and legislative branches are also important. These and other criteria will determine the effectiveness of the new Chancellor. MacPhee said he had found Bartlett interesting, engaging, experienced and eager to take on the challenges of SUNY. K.Mantai, noting that the recent magazine reports ranked Fredonia high in efficiency, inquired whether that meant that Fredonia has inadequate resources. MacPhee responded that other factors are more important to prospective students. He noted that these rankings are not acreditations, but they are important to our public relations.
4. Chairperson Theodore Steinberg reported that the Graduate Council had recommended unanimously that, assuming there is no significant increase in cost, the Undergraduate Catalog and Graduate Catalog be combined into one document. Steinberg said the GC felt that this would add more visibility to the graduate programs while maintaining the substance of the undergraduate offerings as well. He said the GC recommended that the format of the new publication begin with the usual introductory materials concerning college services, tuition, admissions, etc., followed by the undergraduate programs and concluding with the graduate program offerings.
Motion (K.Lucey/M.Nelson): that the Faculty Council adopt the recommendations of the Graduate Council concerning merging the catalogs.
MacPhee asked whether previous FC discussion had indicated that such a change would bring no increased cost. College Senate Secretary McNeil read from the minutes of the previous meeting where T.Malinoski had indicated that the undergraduate catalog would increase in cost but that this would be offset by not having to publish a separate graduate catalog.
Motion passed, unanimously.
5. Vice Chairperson Jane Romal gave no report.
6. Faculty Senator H. Joseph Straight reported that FS had met with its standing committees and campus governance leaders Sept. 22-24 in Albany. Straight noted that Fredonia had been well represented at the committee meetings: Vivian Garcia Conover serves on Student Life Committee, Sandra Brown Lewis and Amin Sarkar on University Operations Committee, and Tom Regelski on the Program Awards Committee. He said Fred Solerno, chair of the Board of Trustees, had spoken focusing on educational technology and SUNY's budget initiative for $400 million over the next five years for educational technology. The campuses responded, urging for support staff and development support to go with the technology. FS also noted that the reward structure needs to recognize significant work in the area of educational technology. Straight said he would be chairing the nominating committee for FS president. He also noted that he would be completing his term this year and was not eligible for another term. Election for Faculty Senator will be held in the spring.
7a. Governance Committee chair Sandra Brown Lewis reported (through Chairperson Steinberg) that Faculty Preference Forms would be distributed soon, and urged FC members and all colleagues to respond.
7b. Academic Affairs Committee chair Thomas Rywick reported that the committee would meet the next day with a lengthy agenda.
Motion (M.Nelson/T.Rywick): that the calendar guidelines be changed to eliminate the requirement to provide an equal number of Mondays, Tuesdays, etc. [The effect would be to eliminate redefined days.] Motion passed.
7c. Planning & Budget Committee made no report.
7d. Professional Service Committee made no report.
7e. Student Affairs Committee made no report.
8. (The Commencement Committee's report was postponed to the November FC meeting.)
9. Internship Coordinator William Muller distributed copies of a seven-page report [included in the Archive minutes], replete with statistical data on internship placements by department for AY89-90 through the present. The report also showed credit hours earned by interns per semester for the same period, and compensated versus uncompensated student credit hours generated by departments for AY91-92 and AY92-93.
K.Mantai inquired what office is responsible for field experiences. Muller said that falls under International Education, under Dr. Mallette. Gail McNeil noted that Muller's report indicated that progress was being made in providing load credit for faculty supervising interns and asked whether there is similar load credit provided for professional staff who supervise interns. Muller said that some similar structure should be in place for professionals and that he would look into the question further. J.Romal noted that in Business, no compensation is provided for supervising, but someone is delegated to do it. Muller said there are some people who receive course load reductions for sponsoring interns. If they sponsor in the summer, they get extra money. S.Besemer added that librarians take on interns as uncompensated overload. K.Mantai asked for clarification of the "body bag insurance". Muller responded that SUNY has for some time required faculty and students traveling outside the country to have some kind of repatriation insurance so that they could be evacuated in case of medical emergency or death. The requirement exists, but it may not be easy to monitor or enforce, he added; without such insurance, the faculty supervisor and the university may be held responsible.
10. The Computer Services Planing and Advisory Board, Dean Sharon Zablotney co-chair, reported that the committee (Tracy Bennett, co-chair, Nancy Bowser, James Hurtgen, William Foeller, Karen Klose, Fred Ullman, Ruth Tomlinson, and Jean Malinoski) had published a draft Three-Year Plan in September. A series of forums were held on and comments were received from many quarters. There is general concurrence, but there have been four significant points of criticism. (1) We need to expand the recommendations to include UNIX platform as well as Mac and DOS. (2) We had not set any standards for statistical software packages, but left this to the departments. Probably this should be addressed. (3) We need to clarify which of the current facilities are designated "superlabs". (4) There have been many questions and concerns regarding staffing to support the plan; we have recommended increased staffing, but we need to be more specific concerning the staffing needs. J.Romal inquired whether academic computing and administrative computing would become completely separate. Zablotney replied that some campuses have that model, while others have all computing services under one umbrella; such decisions will be made by the vice presidents and the president. MacPhee said that under the plan, they would be separate; this is an organizational issue that he will have to address.. K.Bonds asked who would decide who gets what. Zablotney answered that FC and all its committees would make recommendations to the president by November 15. President MacPhee said that ultimately, these would be his decisions. Zablotney noted that the Sheldon Foundation Grant for $165,000 is already being delivered to the campus for the Communications Department. We hope more depart- ments will be getting more such grants. All the departments have been asked to proceed with their planning under the guidelines provided by the committee. MacPhee noted that there are SUNY plans for some faculty training. Zablotney noted that several of Fredonia's faculty have already participated in SUNY training opportunities. There will be 89 seats allocated for our faculty for training sessions to be held in January and July. K.Lucey asked how faculty will be assigned to the smart classrooms. Zablotney responded that those faculty who have already invested in this pedagogy will get priority. She noted that a user group of such faculty had been formed. J.Hansen volunteered to give a demonstration of the capabilities of the smart classroom to the Faculty Council next semester.
11. Discussion was held on Vice President Hess' policy statement on Procedures for Chairperson Searches. [VP Hess' memo to President MacPhee dated August 29, 1994 contained the proposed policy language and was circulated to the campus community in advance of the meeting.] K.Mantai inquired who would make the final decisions regarding the composition of a search committee, and whether it would be internal or external. Hess said he would look for available leadership and appropriate diversity within the department first, then add his recommendation if there was disagreement within the department. M.Nelson expressed displeasure with the statement in Item 2., that "The chair of the search committee may also be from within or outside the department." He recommended that searches always be controlled and run from within the department, in order to maintain a sense of integrity and unity within the departmental. Hess said he agreed in general, and that in a large percentage of cases an internal chair would be appointed. He said there had been few situations where an outside chair had been used, and that in such cases it should be following consultation with the department. M.Nelson objected to the language in Item 2., that "... no less than half of the members will be from the department." He said he could conceive of occasions where it might be appropriate to appoint one or two persons to a search committee from outside the department, but that certainly a great majority should be from the department. Hess said he agreed in general, and that under the proposed language, even 100% of the members could be from the department; if it were to be otherwise, it would be exceptional and should only be for very good reason. Nelson suggested that the language of the policy be revised to express the stance just expressed by Hess. J.Kraus noted that within the past year several search committees had been appointed which would seem to be the exceptions to which Hess referred; however, in those cases rationale had not been presented to the faculty. Hess said appointing members and chairs from outside the department (or even outside the campus) would rarely be needed, and when needed should be discussed with the department. In concluding the discussion, Steinberg asked whether there would be a revision. Hess replied that he would revise the paragraph on composition of search committees to address the concerns expressed by FC.
12. New Business:
Motion (K.Mantai/M.Nelson):
BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Council contact the various recent external departmental evaluators and request that they each make a candid appraisal of administration.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Faculty Council summarize these appraisals and publish the summary.
M.R.Amiran noted that the evaluators had been consulted to evaluate specific aspects of specific programs; they were not asked to evaluate administration, nor were they qualified to do so. MacPhee noted that the written reports of the evaluators will be submitted to administration, and administration will have the burden of those comments. J.Hansen commented that the Economics Department had not had "evaluators" but "consultants" whose work was not to evaluate but to offer advice concerning certain programs.
Motion (M.Nelson/K.Lucey): to postpone indefinitely consideration of the resolution before the Faculty Council. Motion passed.
13. Motion (M.Nelson/K.Bonds): to adjourn. Motion passed at 5:10 p.m.
Attendance:
Professional Staff, Management:
[x] K. Bonds (95)
[x] S. Clarke (96)
[x] V. Conover (96)
[x] D. Danielson (95)
[2] K. Harrington(94)
[2] R. Hart (96)
[2] A. Jackson (96)
[1] T. Malinoski (96)
[x] G. McNeil (95)
[1] T. Murphy (96)
[x] C. Niles (94)
[x] M. Pabst (94)
[ ] vacant
Arts, Education, Humanities:
[x] M.R. Amiran (96)
[x] C. Brown (95) [1]
[2] J. Burke (94)
[E] J. Gillette (96)
[2] D. Kerzner (95)
[x] R. Klassen (95)
[x] K. Lucey (94)
[x] R. Ma
[x] L. Maheady (94)
[E] J. McVicker (95)
[x] K. Mills-Courts (96)
[x] M. Nelson (96)
[x] J. Parla (95)
Natural and Social Sciences:
[1] S. El-Mofty (96)
[x] J. Hansen (94) [1]
[x] D. Jelski (94)
[x] J. Kraus (95)
[x] G. Lash (96) [1]
[x] K. Mantai (96)
[x] P. Mattocks (96)
[x] A. Parai (95)
[E] T. Pencek (96)
[x] T. Rywick (94)
[x] A. Sarker (95)
[x] B.J.Stephens (95)
[x] M. Vassallo (95)
Student Representatives:
[2] N. Crino
[2] S. Downey
[2] M. Eglin
[2] R. Kerr
[1] N. Merkel
[2] G. Schneider
Ex Officio:
[x] D. Burdette
[2] J. Crowley
[x] M. Dimitri
[x] D. Hess
[1] J. Hurtgen
[E] S. Lewis
[x] D. MacPhee
[x] T. McNeil
[x] J. Romal
[x] T. Steinberg
[x] J. Straight
[E] A. Wheeler
[x] S. Zablotney
Guests:
Sue Besemer
Nancy Bowser
Michael Conley Penny Deakin
Rich Goodman
William Muller
Thomas McNeil, College Senate Secretary