Faculty Council
Minutes of the meeting of November 13, 1995
Meeting called to order in Fenton 105 by Ted Steinberg at 4:04 P.M.
1. Steinberg asked that the agenda be approved as distributed. Passed.
2. Approval of minutes from October 18, 1995. Passed.
3. President's Report:
President MacPhee was attending a meeting with other SUNY presidents regarding the budget and was unable to attend today's meeting. V.P. Hess agreed to answer any questions. M. Amiran asked if the information requested from V.P. Burdette at last FC meeting regarding SUNY proposed models of budget reduction (across all aspects of the campus) was received? Steinberg commented that V.P. Burdette promptly forwarded the information to him and that it is on file in the library. Steinberg commented that, "...you will be very disappointed in it". M. Nelson asked V.P. Hess to comment on the visit of our three legislators last week to our campus and our College Council. V.P. Hess commented that he felt that there was "...a very good give and take..." between the Council and the legislators in that a number of very important questions were raised regarding the current budget process. M. Amiran asked what V.P. Hess's sense was regarding the support of our legislators for our campus. V.P. Hess commented that although the legislators are very supportive of our campus, "... we have to be realistic about the fact that it will be tough for us not take our fair share of the cuts..." and "... that the deficit is larger than previously anticipated".
J. McViker asked why there was so little discussion of the racial incident (specifically, the cross burning) last week and how does the administration plan to deal with and inform faculty and professionals in a more timely manner in the future? V.P. Hess asked V.P. Dimitri to comment. V.P. Dimitri responded that there was no attempt to hold back information and in his opinion everything possible was done to inform the campus community of the incident. Dimitri further commented that the administration responded through the Leader and a message from President MacPhee was sent today to faculty and staff. Dimitri further commented that everything possible is currently being done to investigate the cross burning incident i.e., a task force has been formed including the county sheriff department, the F.B.I., local police, as well as our own campus police. V.P. Dimitri commented that. "... we are very close to finding out who the individuals are that are responsible for doing this and our action will be very strong and very swift when we identify those individuals". J. Adams (faculty senator) noted that (although it might be out of order to discuss it at this point) a memo from him regarding the incident has been circulated to FC members today (a copy of which is attached to these minutes- November 13, 1995 RE: Faculty and Staff Concerns About Racial Incidents on Campus). Adams commented about several concerns that have been raised about the incident for example how very important it is to inform students of the incident. In addition, Adams asked if this was the second time a cross burning has occurred on campus? Adams noted that he and other "faculty and staff of color" are planning to meet with President MacPhee and discuss with him some possible campus and community responses to this incident which he referred to as "... a hate crime". Dimitri responded that he believes "... that our campus has responded remarkably well" and looks forward to meeting with J. Adams, his group, and President MacPhee and to respond to any specific recommendations. Specifically, J. Adams asked about the alleged cross burning incident last year and if the FBI was contacted (referring to his November 13, 1995 memo). Dimitri responded that he would need to talk to Ann McCarron Burns, Director of Public Safety before responding specifically to the question regarding the contacting of the F.B.I. In response to several faculty and staff, Dimitri indicated that there was a cross-burning incident last year on Halloween evening which was not at the same location as the recent cross-burning incident and that it was reported in the Leader. Dimitri further commented that he does not know if the F.B.I. was called in last year but he would find out. Dimitri also stated that he met with the student association leadership immediately after the incident (Thursday night SA meeting) where the matter was discussed. Dimitri stated that at this meeting "... you could hear a pin drop in the room that there was that much concern and anger over this incident". Dimitri further noted that SA unanimously voted to allocate one thousand dollars for information leading to arrest and conviction. Currently there is a two-thousand dollar award. J. Westwood asked for clarification regarding if the reward is for arrest and conviction". Dimitri responded yes. Westwood further asked what the charge would be for the crime? Dimitri responded that he didn't know for sure at this time but certainly arson, disorderly conduct, and possibly a hate crime (the latter of which has been discussed with the U.S. Attorney General's office). Steinberg asked that V.P. Dimitri report back to FC regarding the questions raised regarding the incident and addressed in the Adam's memo. Steinberg further asked if descriptions of the individuals responsible for the incident were being circulated? Dimitri responded that what the individuals were wearing was known but there is no facial descriptions. Dimitri asked that any individual that knows of anything concerning this incident please come forward "so we can deal with and put an end to the incident".
4. Chairperson's Report:
T. Steinberg asked J. Westwood to report on the Presidential search Committee. Westwood noted that two new members were added to the committee including Barbara Mallette (faculty) and Joe Johnson (college council). The advertisement for the position has been and will be in the Chronicle this week. Faculty and staff are asked to solicit possible candidates for the position. T. Rywick asked who determined the composition of the search committee? Westwood responded that under Board of Trustee guidelines the College Council decides on the composition of the committee. The recommendations of the Search Committee (2 to 4 names in rank order) goes to the College Council who in turn recommends to the Chancellor and in turn to the Board of Trustees. T. Rywick asked if the composition is similar to the last search of this type? Westwood responded that there is more College Council and college staff/management confidential representation on the search committee this time and the same number of faculty representation as last time.
5. Vice-Chairperson's Report: No report.
6. Faculty Senator's Report:
J. Adams indicated that his report was done earlier and he had nothing to add at this time.
7. Standing Committee's Reports:
a. Governance:
S. Rees indicated that the governance committee was concerned about the faculty representation on the Presidential Search Committee but a resolution to that effect would not be brought to the floor at this time because (as has been previously noted by J. Westwood) there has been an increase in faculty representation. Rees stated that Vince Courtney is working on the current faculty census. Rees indicated that Ted Steinberg has indicated that he does not intend to stand for Chair of Faculty and Jack Onufrak has indicated that he wishes to step down from his position as Secretary of the Faculty. Because of this there is a need for an election to fill these two positions. (At this point FC member discussed how to proceed in this matter.) M. Nelson moved that we postpone consideration for Chair of Faculty Council and Secretary of the Faculty until the December meeting. Passed. K. Mills-Court moved that nominations for the Chair of Faculty Council and Secretary of the Faculty be made be December 1, 1995. Passed. S. Rees noted that nominations should be sent to him in the Art Department.
b. Academic Affairs Committee:
T. Rywick introduced three motions from the academic affairs committee that were included with the October 16, 1995 minutes which were sent to FC members. After much discussion by T. Rywick, N. Bowser (registrar), and many FC members and guests the first motion to change WE, WX, and WP grades to just two: WP for withdraw passing OR withdraw due to cogent personal reasons; and WE for withdraw failing was sent back to the academic affairs committee for further review. The second motion to change catalog descriptions of A, B, and C grades from "superior, above average, and average" to superior, very good, fair". Passed after the following summary discussion: T. Rywick noted that the A grade is currently listed as superior so that the only change would be only change the descriptions of the B and C grades. T. Rywick noted that academic affairs committee members felt that this would be a more realistic method of grading descriptions. Steinberg noted he is in favor of the motion as it is more realistically indicates what we are doing. Similarly, L. Maheady noted that data collected by "the committee on grade inflation" a number of years ago indicated that C is not an average grade. T. Rywick noted that "C" should be noted as below average. Steinberg noted that "average" is something that he doesn't use in his courses because the goal in his courses is "to raise the average". The third motion to add "A+" to the list of course grades, carrying 4 quality points per semester hour (the same as an "A" grade). Defeated after the following clarification and discussion summary: Rywick clarified that this motion would apply to undergraduate not graduate grading. Rywick and some others supported the motion because there are some students that the "A+" grade applies to. M. Nelson noted that he knew of a student receiving a award from another SUNY school that had a 4.23 on a 4.0 system. N. Bowser noted that if the "A+" grade was adopted without an increase above a 4.0 some students would expect a corresponding numeric reward. K. Mills-Court and others noted that truly outstanding + students might be better handled with appropriate letters of recommendations.
c. Planning & Budget:
K. Mills-Courts noted that the committee is continuing to do a historical and comparative study of budget allocations over the last five years in order to be able to make realistic proper recommendations.
d. Professional Service: No report.
e. Student Affairs: No report.
8. New Business:
There was a question from the floor regarding the electrical outage today in Thompson Hall and how the resulting canceling of classes may have been handled differently. D. Burdette explained the situation and noted how he and others immediately responded. Based on all information available it was determined that the best course of action was to cancel 11:00-3:00 P.M. classes and at the same time keep everyone informed as best as possible about the progress in fixing the problem. Dimitri further explained the reason for the failure and how the problem is currently being worked on noting that today's outage was probably related to last Tuesday's outage which because it occurred during the dark was potentially more of a hazard. To further questions regarding how the situation was handled, both Burdette and Dimitri noted that there is a procedure in place that is followed in emergencies of this kind and in their view public safety and others responded very well to the electrical outage situation.
9. Motion to adjourn. Motion passed at 5:15 P.M.
Attendance:
Professional Staff/Management:
[x] K. Bonds
[E] S. Clarke
[x] V. Conover
[ ] D. Danielsen
[ ] A. Jackson
[x] T. Malinoski
[x] S. Maloney
[x] L. Marrano
[ ] J. Moss
[x] T. Murphy
[x] C. Niles
[ ] W. Ortega
[ ] T. Tzitzis
[ ] S. Mazumdar
Arts, Education and Humanities:
[x] M. Amiran
[ ] C. Brown
[x] R. Deming
[x] Gillette
[ ] R. Klassen
[x] R. Ma
[x] L. Maheady
[x] J. McVicker
[x] K. Mills-Court
[x] M. Nelson
[x] J. Onufrak
[E] J. Parla-Burdic
[x] G. Sebouhian
Natural and Social Sciences:
[ ] S. El-Mofty
[x] N. Gee
[ ] J. Kraus
[x] G. Lash
[ ] K. Mantai
[x] P. Mattocks
[ ] A. Parai
[x] T. Pencek
[ ] G. Prechtl
[ ] A. Sarkar
[ ] B. Stephens
[ ] M. Vassallo
[ ] D. Welch
Ex Officio:
[x] J. Adams
[x] D. Burdette
[ ] J. Crowley
[x] M. Dimitri
[ ] G. Harper
[x] D. Hess
[x] J. Hurtgen
[ ] S. Kraus
[ ] D. MacPhee
[x] S. Rees
[x] J. Romal
[x] T. Steinberg
[x] S. Zablotney
Guests:
Ron Ambrosetti
Nancy Bowser
Carolyn Briggs
Ken Lucey
Tom Rywick
Gloria Taylor-Neal
Jefferson Westwood
John A. Onufrak College Senate Secretary