Faculty Council
Minutes of the Meeting of October 14, 1996
Chairperson Robert Deming called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. in Room 105 of Fenton Hall. A quorum was present. The Agenda and Minutes of the September meeting were approved as distributed.
President's Report (Dr. Dallas K. Beal):
Good afternoon. First, I want you to know that we got a call for the annual average FTE projections for the fall of '97. And we made a decision: I think we should stay at 4500 FTE for next fall.
Basically for two reasons: one of them is not the fact that we are 4500 this year, and were going to miss that target a little bit. But I see no point in mounting this rather considerable effort to raise the number of applications by 1,000 (which I reported to you last month) and then back away from 4500 FTE down to 4400. That flies right in the face of those people who are working extremely hard, including many of you, to move our application pool up by another 1,000 students. Why give up be fore we ever start?
And secondly, by moving our FTE from 4500 annual average down to 4400, as best that can be calculated on an estimated basis, we'd sacrifice about $1 million. Now if anybody wants to give up that amount of money please raise your hand. I don't think you want to get into that right now. We ought to put every effort into expanding that pool of applicants and do nothing that would cause us to back away from our aggressive effort.
Now the breakdown of continuing and returning first time and so-forth I could go into that, but if you want, give me a call and I'll be happy to send it you. But the operative number upon which our state budget is based, is now 4500. And we'll try to keep it at that, and the expanding pool is an effort for us to maintain the kind of standards that have been characteristic and should continue to be characteristic of this institution. And I don't need to elaborate much on that; you know exactly what I'm talking about.
What you have in front of you sort of documents why we ought to be making this aggressive effort. You're perfectly capable of reading it for yourself. You can see [from the handout] that isn't a very happy story. And were joined my many others, wh o are probably equally unhappy about a drop in applications, but are working feverishly and daily to do something about it. So were going to run in to increasing competition for students and as far as I'm concerned we're going to be at the front of that competition.
The reduction in applications, from 14% or whatever it is, and the reduction that you see up and down the list, is partly a function of the reduction in multiple applications. In other words, they pool them all together. Or to put in another way, t he increase in single applications which took place last year, will automatically reduce the number of multiple applications.
Let me call on the Dean of the Faculty to give you some update on what the Recruitment Committee is doing and will be doing in the days and few weeks ahead.
Dean Zablotney: You will recall that in the summer the President, in consultation with the Long Range Planning Committee, recommended the establishment of a Student Recruitment Advisory Committee. And that committee met all summer, and was absolute ly willing to look at and create some innovative strategies for improving our recruitment programs here at Fredonia. The committee met all summer, and we forwarded a series of recommendations which were distributed last week, by the President to the campus.
Since that report was submitted, the president asked us to meet with the cabinet and further discuss the implementation of the plan. In other words, "All right, now that we have these recommendations, what are we going to do about them?" And so [th ese discussions] have been going on for the last couple of weeks.
One of the major tasks at hand was to bring in a consultant to do some marketing research -- a combination of surveying and interviewing prospective and current students as to what they perceive Fredonia is all about. As you know, we all talk about our image and what we think our image is, but what are our students really saying? So that was a piece of data that we did not have as we were trying to impact and improve our applicant pool. [The company we have engaged is Stamats] and Becky Morehouse from that firm will be here Tuesday, a week from tomorrow. And she will spend the day with us, as well as members of the staff, and student affairs to review our recruitment materials, and let us review the instruments that they will be using to survey and interview our students. [This way,] we can make sure that the questions were asking can be answered. They hope to have this total package completed by December, so that we can then have some information that we can perhaps use in our recruitment process.
We're also discussing each and every one of those recommendations [contained in the report.] The marketing consultant is just one of those. Others include the Faculty Ambassador program, the Student Ambassador program, and some coordinated initiat ives with Alumni Affairs. Those plans are all being put in place as we speak as well. A lot of offices across campus are working together on this plan.
President Beal: So were getting it together. And were going to keep it together. I know that we can count on your aggressive cooperation in this matter. Don't be surprised if you get a card and are asked to make a telephone call to a prospective applicant. Part of the answer to all this the personal attention that we give an applicant. First of all you've got to get the card, and when the card comes in you follow up on it. It doesn't lie on someone's desk forever. If that student is imme diately contacted, before we really know that much about whether the student is qualified. We'll find that out later and make that decision, but without the applicant, without the interest, we're nowhere.
I remind you, I sent out this [Recruitment Advisory Committee Report] the first of October, or thereabouts. I haven't had a single suggestion. It would be nice if I got at least one. Somebody read this and send me your response, you're rejection, some idea, or your suggestion about a better idea. So please do please read it carefully. We need your help.
The other piece of this that I want to say publicly, is that every day we individually can have an affect on next fall's enrollment. By the way we interact with maybe a single student that is already enrolled here. Now I'm not talking about pamperi ng, or anything like that. I'm talking about the human interaction we have, and we're noted for that. We've got a good reputation, and so we ought to build on that. It's amazing: I was over in the Williams Center today at noon, talking to parents a nd students. I saw some of you there. I had I don't know how many alum's come up to me and say "I brought my second child up here. Remember when I graduated in '63?" No, I didn't remember, but I was delighted to see them. I think those are the k inds of things that help a great deal.
Question from Dr. Deming: Will the faculty ambassadors be given scripts?
President Beal: Yes, they will. They'll be given training, as will the student ambassadors, as will the alumni who are spread across the state.
Dr. Kenneth Mantai: I think the best recruitment tool we have are first semester freshmen. They're going home on Thanksgiving and Christmas and the first question they'll be asked by High School seniors is "How do you like Fredonia?" If they answe r with "I couldn't get any classes," and "My teachers are terrible," [we're in trouble.] It's important to treat freshmen properly.
President Beal: I agree that our own students are some of our best recruiters. It's important to be responsive and helpful to prospective students.
The General Education Conference was held recently in Albany. Julius Adams will cover this in his Faculty Senator's report.
On another matter, we received the "budget call letter" the other day. You could read it while you hold your breath. You can boil it down to about one page. It says in effect, for 97-98, send us a budget that is no higher than the budget you have this year. And if you want additional funds for some particular effort or initiative on campus, then be prepared to cut the budget an equal amount in some other place. So needless to say were going to ask for the same amount that we have this year. I don't think we're going to ask for anything in addition, but keep what we have. They're continuing a hiring freeze. And also the call said there will be no requests for proposed lay-offs in the 97-98 budget, as of this letter.
I think what this [budget call letter] is saying is if your going to make a shift, an emphasis from one program to the other, you do not have the luxury of signaling that you're going to be laying people off to accomplish that. So it is pretty tightly constructed, and it's amazing what your high hopes sound like. Lets hope we can sustain the budget we have this year. I'll be in Albany, talking with the Presidents of other state-supported campuses about this. I'll probably have more to say la tter.
Next: the call has gone out for the recommendations regarding the Williams Chair. These recommendations will probably come forward before I leave. I intend to receive those recommendations. They will ultimately land on my desk, however many there are. And then rather than try to play Solomon on this, I will ask the Chair of the Faculty Council to appoint three people to consult with me before a decision is made. And I would expect that they would give me more than one recommendation, which I'm sure they will. So there will be participation through the governance process, before the decision is final.
The Information Technology search is going forward and I've asked Vice President Hess to bring you up to date on that. Vice President David Hess: Thank you. The position of the Chief Information Officer or Computer Information Officer is a position formed [to oversee] the functions of the offices of Administrative Technology, and Academic Technology. Dr. John Hans en is returning to the faculty of the Economics Department December 1st as a full professor, leaving the position open at Academic Information Technology. And it has been decided to combine these two under one leadership role to provide campus-wide management direction for the development of Information Technology over the next few years.
The reporting structure is the same as it is now. Both Academic Information Technology and Administration Information Technology report to my office. This position will report to my office with a close liaison to all the vice presidents and user gr oups, as appropriate.
The funds to support the position will come from a recent retirement of Susan Luntz, and the resignation of John Hansen to return to the department of Economics, as I said.
I consulted and am still in the process of consulting with the Computer Services and Planning Priorities Advisory Board, the Administrative Computers Users Group, the chair of Planning and Budget Committee. And it's my understanding that the Preside nt talked to the chair of Faculty Council about this. And the Dean talked to the chairs at a recent meeting of the chairpersons of the college, so consultation took place at that level as well.
The search committee will consist of myself, David Burdette, Tracy Bennett, Sharon Zablotney, and at the recommendation of the chair of Faculty Council, Khalid Siddiqui, from Computer Science, will be the faculty member representative on the search committee.
President Beal: Thank you David. In my view, considering our significant investment in technology on this campus, and what more there is to do, which is considerable, I think you all should understand that this is one of the most significant appoin tments we are going to make in some time, and I hope that when the individuals who are here for interviews you will participate aggressively in seeing to it that we get not only a person who is technologically superior, and outstanding, but who under stands the academic culture, and who has vision, and who understands the difference between, and can coordinate administrative computing, and the work we have yet to do on distance learning, and other aspects of applications to instruction. This is not an easy job for the search but I think we can do it.
I want to talk about alcohol next. I sent a request to the Alcohol Review Committee to ask them to review current policies to see if we could obtain some more flexibility. I frankly hope that we would not have to worry if the English department wan ts to have a little Christmas Party across the hall from me, providing they invite me over. Naturally, there need to be some safeguards for underage drinkers. But I hope the committee will come back with some recommendations that are a little bit m ore flexible than the ones we have right now. We'll see, and I'll share it with you when it happens.
The Presidential search is about to begin in earnest here on campus, a week from Thursday. I do not want to personally be drawn into this search aggressively. My job I think is to be the salesman, to all these candidates, so that every one of them leaves here [keenly interested in] the job. And that's what I'm going to try to do.
Now what we all have to do is participate aggressively once the candidates are here. And I might even go around and count noses.
Because you have no excuse if you don't participate in the interview and respond, then to complain once the job is done. And I understand we were a little wanting the last time around, and I don't want to see that happen again. This is the most important decision were going to make in the next five to ten years, and I urge you to meet these candidates, to question t hem, to form your opinion on them, and let the search committee know what you think. I sound like I'm preaching to you, and if it does I am. This is so terribly important, and I know your busy and you've got other things to do. But in that list of priorities this has got to be number one in the weeks ahead. Furthermore I want to get relieved [of this job]. I'm having a good time with all of you but it's got to end sometime.
Mike Dimitri is going to talk to you briefly about the Health Fee.
Mike Dimitri: Basically what has happened is we received correspondence from Judith Duken. She's a member of the board of trustees, and she is proposing a change in SUNY policy. What she would like to do is eliminate two resolutions. One was pass ed in 1976, which allowed for a pilot program for a mandatory health policy fee that pertained to every single student, within SUNY. It was applied against five colleges, those five colleges have been running a mandatory program but no other college has been allowed to do that since 1976. Well that has been rescinded. It takes SUNY little bit of time to get resolutions passed.
There was another resolution was passed in 1982 that gave the chancellor permission to develop University-wide guidelines for mandatory insurance policy. That was 14 years ago. It was virtually impossible because of the different types of Campuses and locations to ever come up with a universal set of guidelines that would apply to each campus. So they have rescinded those two resolutions. Now what that does, it authorizes the President in each unit, the option of approving a mandatory health insurance policy for all full-time students.
Now that's something we've been looking for a long time. We feel that a lot of students, especially with the economics of western New York, there are a lot of students attending Fredonia with no coverage, no coverage whatsoever. If any of you know anything about Cobra Plan, when my daughter was here as a student she was covered, as soon as she graduated it cost me $300 a month to put her on my plan, very expensive.
We now have a fairly comprehensive policy, and I have copies here if anybody is interested in taking a look at it. For $280 a year we can offer very good coverage. It even covers students when they are abroad. We can do it better, effectively and inexpensively, we think, with a mandatory policy. Incorporating a larger number of students we can even get a better price. There are some conditions that have to be met. We have to create a Student Health Advisory Committee, which we already have. They have to be consulted in terms of reviewing services in the area, the competitive bidding process, and be directly invo lved in the decision as to whether we have a mandatory or volunteer policy. Right now the policy is voluntary.
In addition of course there will be exemptions. If you have comparable insurance and can document that, you do not have to purchase this policy.
It also, and I'm a little puzzled by this, authorizes the President to eliminate the requirement that each students file in the heath center a record of a medical examination or health history. This is now an option that the institution can exercise . The insurance companies have suggested that if you don't have the information there's less liability, in terms of not being held accountable for the information, or a mistake based on information we did not have. Our physician says he would hate to treat a student without having some indication of what that medical history is for the last eighteen years. But it's still an option that we can decide on.
And the other thing, and this is very very important, we can not develop a set of principles to govern student health care at this institution as opposed to the ones that are universal, and passed out by SUNY Central to all units. There are some ser vices we should not be providing. And there are some other services that we think we should be getting into, because of the lack of services in western New York. This will result probably in some adjustment to the fee. But it gives us the authorit y to establish the program that we want, unique to Fedonia's needs, and also the fee that we think would drive those services.
We have an excellent plan in place, we are very pleased with our health center, but this gives us the flexibility that we've been looking for fourteen years. I'm very supportive of this. I hope the Board of Trustees sees the wisdom and passes the r esolution. Are there any questions? Would you like to see the insurance brochure that we make available to students?
Dr. Malcolm Nelson: If the resolution is passed by the Board of Trustees, you have a plan ready to go which would be elective for the students, but you are considering making it mandatory?
Mike Dimitri: We have a plan that already is drawn. There are a percentage of students that have purchased this plan; next year we will probably implement a mandatory policy.
Dr. Nelson: I would hope that we would consider whether or not that might simply eliminate some people who are already maxed out in terms of fees, and tuition, and books, and the like.
Mike Dimitri: We were talking about this today. It's kind of ironic: those students that don't have health care because of their financial situation, are the least able to pay the fee that would be required. But then again to have a student here with no health care is a problem. If something happens the first thing the doctors ask for, the first the emergency asks for is your card, what insurance company will represent you. So it is a problem.
Dr. Nelson: I agree with your argument but despite the fact that many of the things that have been added to the expenses of college in the last generation are very good things, they are still added to the expenses of college. And you're just making it difficult for a lot of people to attend.
Mike Dimitri: It is nothing more than an option that we will have that we currently don't have. I think we have to look at all of those. I have to tell you that although we only have two of the students that purchased this plan, I've never had a s tudent come to my office and say I have a medical problem that cannot be addressed, so it hasn't been a problem for us, but then again we may be able to negotiate a reduced rate, and a more comprehensive policy, if more students are involved. So that 's what the Student Health Advisory Committee would be all about. We're discussing that.
President Beal: In my other life [at the Connecticut State University System], we did this for 37,000 students and it seemed to work very well, and we got a very favorable rate. And when we investigated cases invariably if the student did not have insurance, [it was someone] who most needed it.
Dr. Jon Kraus: Isn't there already a mandatory health fee?
Mike Dimitri: The health fee is different than the insurance policy. The health fee drives the counseling services and the health services on campus. In this [geographic] area, a student would not be able to just dial up a physician, and say I nee d to come in and talk to you, I need to see you. They would go directly to the health center and have that kind of service dispensed immediately. So that drives something that is specifically for all students here at Fredonia. This [insurance poli cy] is for illnesses when you're away, for major medical, when you have to be hospitalized. The college fee does not cover any of that hospitalization, referral to outside physicians, X- rays, or things of that nature.
The policy will also cover 10 visits to a physiologist or psychiatrist, but only if the student goes through the health center and are referred.
Question: What is the current health fee?
Mr. Dimitri: The current health fee is $75 a semester, I think.
Dr. Kraus: And it does not currently cover any hospitalization while they're on campus?
Mr. Dimitri: No. It's just primary care on the college campus. That's all.
Mr. Dimitri: I should mention one other thing. There is a Student Assembly. It's a state wide organization that represents the students. And they have lobbied for the fee. They think a mandatory fee would be in the best interests of a large major ity of the students. There are a lot of things that need to discussed, but it's an option we haven't had in the last fourteen years.
Vice Chairperson Jane Romal: Who's on the Student Health Advisory Committee?
Mr. Dimitri: Who is on it specifically? I can't give the names, but it's five students, a faculty rep from the health services area, and it's chaired by Laura Stonefoot. But I can't tell you the students names.
Dr. Beal: Finally, I encourage you all to participate in the annual SEFA campaign by filling our your pledge forms and sending them in.
Question from Dr. Kenneth Lucey: You alluded to an ongoing hiring freeze, and then you moved directly from that to the search for the Chief Information Officer. Does the hiring freeze somehow only apply to faculty?
Vice President David Burdette: Only state agencies are under a constant hiring freeze. The State University of New York is generally exempt from a hiring freeze, and this campus is not under a specific hiring freeze.
Dr. Beal. I'm glad you cleared that up. We've been hiring people all along. Chairperson Deming: The executive committee would like to solicit from you nominations for this review committee of three [for the Williams Chair]. If you would send your recommendations for who you think should serve on this review committee for t he Williams position to any member of the executive committee by the first on November, we would appreciate it. Our understanding is that the President will then choose three and because the way the procedures are written no one whose department is submitting a proposal can also serve on the review committee. The President will need to have at least two alternates. The committee will be constituted from the recommendations that you send to us which we will pass on to the President.
I'd like to ask the College Senate Secretary to describe the position of College Senate Secretary and what is involved, since there is some confusion, and we are still looking for a candidate for the position [for 1997].
Jefferson Westwood: The duties are outlined in the by laws. They are to keep the minutes of the meetings and the records of the council. Keep the agendas, file them with the archives when you're done. The Secretary attends meetings of the Executi ve Committee, both alone by themselves, and once a month with the President to discuss things of mutual concern, and the upcoming agenda for that month's meeting.
There are some perks to the office which Dr. Deming did not ask me to tell you about but I will. One is you get this wonderful 486 Laptop computer, for your secretarial and any other use you might have for it during your term of office. You get two work study students, eight hours a week average each. My experience has been that they can do there Faculty Council work and have a little bit of time left over to do other errands or projects that you might need them for. And in addition you will get your very own transcription machine. So your work study students can listen to these tapes with headphones, with the automatic back space peddle, to type up the rough drafts of the minutes. So is not as hard as it might seem.
So, it is not a highly taxing job, but we solicit your nominations. And there's a $500 stipend.
Dr. Deming: The work study students do the basic transcription, but they often don't recognize the voices, so the secretary does help with that, and then compiles the agenda with the attachments. But is in fact a work study who in fact does the phy sical labor. So we really do need someone to volunteer. Please contact any member of the Executive Committee.
We are at the point of the election of the Faculty Council Chair for 1997, and the Executive Committee would like to place a nomination the name of Jane Romal. Are there any other nominations for Faculty Council Chair for 1997? [There were none.]
Dr. Malcolm Nelson: I move that the Secretary be directed to cast one ballot for Jane Romal. Motion was seconded and passed.
Vice Chairperson: No report.
Faculty Senator's report: (Julius Adams): There was a sub-group of us who went to the conference on General Education in Albany, sponsored by the University Faculty Senate and the Student Faculty Council of Community Colleges. [Ostensibly,] the con ference was articulation driven, in terms of the articulation agreements between community colleges and four year colleges. The stated goal of the conference was to facilitate discussion related to potentially developing a common core [curriculum] a nd therefore potentially developing superarticulation agreements between the community colleges and the four year institutions.
However, Change New York clearly had a presence in terms of the conference, in terms of the focus of the conference. Now you need to realize that the conference was planned prior to Change New York's report. However there was a great deal of discus sion about that: how we would implement such a core curriculum and the best way to do it. This conference was set up allegedly to encourage discourse. This conference the first day was thirteen hours long so anybody who knows anything about a confer ence knows that you do not develop discourse by setting up an endurance test, and basically that's what it was. We were lectured to in terms of what was going on. We were lectured to about Georgia, California, and their common core or general educa tion curriculum. The general ed curricula from UB and Genesseo were also presented.
There has yet to be a discussion in terms of what a general education curriculum is. So It's not even necessarily true that we were all starting at the same point, on this issue. So I realize that here at Fredonia we have some concerns because we a re searching for a President. We don't have a contract, there is a concern about distance learning. But you need to understand, you need to be very concerned about the issue of a common curriculum.
That we can all potentially agree on setting standards system wide [is one thing]. But when it moves to the next step which is what's going to construe these standards in terms of are there going to be specific courses, and whose courses are they go ing to be, and are they going to be system wide -- there should be some concern about that.
So the discussion seemed to be put forth prior to any discussion amongst the college campuses, in terms of what a general ed curriculum needs to be and what we are currently doing at our independent campuses, and how we can present that and discuss that.
So it was for some of us a really god-awful experience. But I think that we really need to keep in mind that there is a concern that this could get really far ahead of us. And if we don't pay attention to it, and if we don't respond to it either by writing the Faculty Senate, or by writing me and telling me what you want me to tell the Faculty Senate, or writing the trustees directly. We can potentially find ourselves being told what we are going to teach in terms of specific courses and spec ific books.
Dr. Minda Rae Amiran: Was there any sense of what the next step is in the eyes of whoever is running all this, were there plans to gather next year at this time [or the like]?
Dr. Adams: My fear is that they will tell all those people who we met this time that they'll be coming back in a few months. They all started off with "We have no preconceived agenda, we have no preconceived idea of what it is were going to do with this." Now I argue that that's not the case. I think to bring us to a conference where Candice de Russy had a real significantly high profile in terms of what it is she wanted done [indicated that] they had an agenda. Now I can't tell you that I was privy to that agenda, but they clearly had an agenda.
Dr. Amiran: Did you have a feeling about your fellow senators and other faculty attendees and what their approach was?
Dr. Adams: Well the President of the Faculty Senate introduced Candace as a wonderful person and a clear supporter of SUNY.
Other Discussion:
Vice President David Hess: I think, and this is just conjecture as to what's going to happen, but I believe that in SUNY there will be a committee appointed made up of perhaps trustees, University Senate people, four year college people, and communi ty college people to address this issue of articulation and transferability. I think something like that is going to be created, sooner rather than later. The message that I was getting, as Julius was saying was "Debate it if will, but you're going to do something, and if you don't do it, were going to do it for you." And I was amazed to find out very quickly that legally they can do it. They can legislate these kinds of things. It's also the case that some very good presentations were made by the University of Georgia and various levels of the California system, telling me that this can be done. So when I went down there I thought there would be a great hew and cry about how this can't possibly be done, this is the largest state unive rsity in the world, and everybody would just throw up their hands and leave. I came away with thinking that it could be done, and were going to have to do it, or it'll be done for us.
I got the impression that on the basis of transferability, common core and the value of the liberal arts, and academic standards (which kept coming up from the Board of Regents), we're going to hear again and again: "Do something about standards on y our campus or were going to do it for you, and a not a long time from now, a short time from now." The message I left with was: We better figure out how to get on board and get our voice heard, because these things are going to happen, and taken away from us that you can't do in large system. California has 500 participating at all levels. They've worked it out. I thought it couldn't be done, I saw that it can be done, but it's a lot of work, and I think it's coming.
Dr. Amiran: David, is there a transfer problem in SUNY?
Vice President Hess: Well that was raised in terms of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." People generally thought there was no major problem, but then they came back with "Well, there ought to be a common liberal arts core." So there are really tw o or three agendas hidden behind one thing. I think [that as] the issues that were debated, there was some discontent as there has been over the years with the community colleges saying they felt like they were poor relations. (Community colleges so metimes have a professor teaching the same course with the same book [year after year] and in senior colleges you always get those anecdotal tales about being refused transferability.)
Dr. Amiran: But that's usually a problem in the Major not in the GCP.
Vice President Hess: I understand, but they're still talking about it and the higher you go with the transfer course you, the more you will get those anecdotal stories. It was a Tower of Babble kind of meeting, but I got the impression that we're no t going to be able to just walk off from it. Very clearly the message was being given: "It will be done."
Dr. Amiran: In California, do they have the exact same course on every campus, or do they have the exact same requirement on every campus?
Vice President Hess: I think it's more or less the same requirement.... [end of side one of tape...] ... They have worked it out so that a student going to any of the two year colleges in the state, having been accepted to any four year colleges in the state for example, have automatic transferability. No questions asked. It's just a matter of getting into those institutions.
George Sebouhian: This question is almost answered, but I'm still not sure. There are always these abstruse, hidden, un-solvable questions of subtlety. We can package a core of courses as we do in the GCP but that doesn't guarantee that California , Potsdam, and Fredonia are going to be teaching something that's really worth teaching. It seams to me that an argument has to be made that has already been made through the experience of this State, that competition in teaching is necessary, and t hat competition comes about through people creatively developing courses and programs. Now I realize that this is perhaps more true of the humanities than it is for sciences but I wonder if there shouldn't be a hew and cry, and with having said that , I wonder if we could go back to Julius for maybe his view of what happened.
Dr. Julius Adams: I really tend to agree with David [Hess's] summary, in that I think that it's been made clear to us that SUNY is going to move forward in this. Now the biggest concern that I have is are they going to move forward with faculty inv olvement, and true faculty involvement as opposed to calling us in for a meeting with a pre- decided agenda, where I really don't have a realistic opportunity to discuss, debate, articulate or whatever the case may be.
The commissioner of education in New York State, who generally deals with the Elementary and Secondary schools, made it clear that his goal is to grade the SUNY politics. Just like he is grading all of the elementary and secondary schools in New Yor k State. Now obviously the issues of developing the committee that looks at how they're going to do that and what the outcome variables and so forth will be has not been resolved yet.
My concern is this very simple, I really believe it is going to move forward. We have been caught up with the term "standards" kicking around with a vengeance. But I think we need to look at the fact that the Community Colleges were complaining the most because this is going to potentially hit them the hardest. SUNY will literally be imposing on them some every serious requirements. They kept talking about this seamless transfer, where you could transfer automatically from the community coll ege to the four year institution. So my bigger concern in all of this is that faculty have some input.
I have no problem with standardizing expectations, but I do have a problem if we're not a part of that standardization process. And I have a problem if were trying to say as an example, and I'm not saying that this was stated, but as an example if s omeone were to state that critical thinking as a concept is important. I think every one would agree with that, but then which course is going to teach you critical thinking skills, or expose you to such a thing? And that's where the problem lies, in terms of whose going to make that determination. And as long as a task force is set up in the future, that includes faculty from the various campuses that are open to discuss it and make a decision on it I have no issue with that. But I can't te ll you that I got a sense that that was going to happen. I can only tell you that a task force is going to be set up as stated. I can't tell you that I got a sense that was going to be a task force that was going honestly look at this as opposed to putting in someone's agenda.
Vice President Hess: I think George [Sebouhian] that you're quite right to raise a hew and cry. We shouldn't capitulate to this, but if we sit on the sidelines and criticize this is not he right thing to do, I'm afraid as Julius said it will done fo r us, and we need to be participants in every way. Everything that was debated at the forum [in Albany] about curriculum we had heard it all before. There was no general information as to which way to go. But they're going to go some way, and if w e don't help determine that way, it will be determined for us.
Dr. Amiran: How can we help determine that direction?
Dr. Hess: Well, if a task force is called for, volunteer to serve on it. That's how I think we can do it.
Dr. Joyce Stephens: I assume we're talking about the GCP. Did they in mind the same GCP for all campuses, is that what they want, with the same courses?
Dr. Hess: Basically yes, not the same courses, it's based on a common core.
Dr. Stephens: What about the reports of required text books?
Dr. Hess: As I said a lot depended on who was presenting. Some people were saying it should be more traditional in terms of reading Darwin's Theory of Evolution and reading Shakespeare. [We need to remember] that we are dealing with a fairly conse rvative board of trustees who are intrusive. I use the word only to the extent that they are more actively involved in the education of the state than any board I've ever seen. Some people don't consider that intrusive, but if you've read the artic le by Candice de Russy in last week's Chronicle, if you haven't read it you should go back to read it. She makes the case that it is her right and her duty to get into the affairs of the state in regard to curriculum and teaching load, and all the r est of it. And it is not just Candice De Russy, there are a lot of other people on that board who feel the same way. I think what were coming back with is, if we don't become a part of the solution the solution will become part of us.
Dr. Beal: I think that, one suggestion that I would make to you is that, it's very important at the outset that the faculty are into this aggressively. Not oppressively necessarily, but it's very important that the right questions are asked in the very beginning. Because this can very easily move over into the hands of zealots who care very little about questions but have ends in mind that they will try to achieve in any way possible. It's up to this good faculty to step back and pose the ki nds of questions that deal with general education. And one of them is to demand rather specifically what is wrong with what we are doing at the moment. And step back and say "What are the traditions of American higher education that have been the e nvy of the world?" And there are a lot of them.
One of them is that we believe students ought to have some choices, and that's characteristic of the American higher education tradition, of at least the latter part of this century. And how has that worked? If you don't ask those kinds of question s, this movement will go down the road very rapidly to conclusions that are already I think prepared some place.
And choices made, as we do here at Fredonia -- not that were the end all -- but choices made under careful and studied advisement by competent faculty -- that's pretty much been the American higher education tradition. After we've thoughtfully put t ogether these programs that we have here and other places, they are based upon the fact that we believe that students are capable of making some choices.
And, with the mountain of information that's spilling over us, we'd better hope that we're preparing students to make intelligent choices. And why should higher education institutions not be trying to educate students on how to make these choices, w ith thoughtful faculty members at there side? And frankly I think you need to watch this very carefully. And the transfer issue you should watch carefully that that's not used as a piece of leverage to undo the whole program.
Now I've dealt with transferability till it's running out my ears. It can be worked out. Contracts with community colleges can be written in such a way that students are assured that their work will transfer. So I would not let that disguise the e ffort that's behind all this. I would say transferability is one thing, what we do in general education with students, to protect our traditions is something else again.
And then finally, there is a certain faculty responsibility that has become tradition, and you've got to protect that right that you have to build the curriculum. If you ever give that up you've lost the whole ball game.
Dr. Amiran: Dallas, you and I agreed that this committee that's being set up to determine how the collages will be evaluated and ranked, is working on too short a time line to be doing anything real. Have you heard anything further about it?
Dr. Beal: No, I'm going to bring it up tomorrow with at a special meeting of the presidents. And if it's not raised I plan to raise it.
But this issue is going to be with you and there's going to be an attempt to move it very rapidly. And we'll hear, as David said, "If you don't do it we'll do it to you."
Dr. Amiran: But the problem is that we can do it and they can still do it to us. The problem is how do we get ourselves positioned to be there. Because who is on this assessment committee? Do you know? Has our campus been asked to send anybody?
Dr. Beal: You can mount a response if you see the thing going [in the wrong direction] and I think your response should be heard. I have great faith in the interim chancellor. He is a person of great integrity, and I think he understands the highe r education culture very well.
Dr. Amiran: Well then should we be telling Julius Adams to report to the Senate, or should we be asking him on our behalf to speak directly to the interim chancellor? What's our method for input?
Dr. Beal: I think Julius should work through the Senate.
Dr. Adams: There are two ways things could happen. One is to do it directly by contacting the trustees [collectively] or contact a trustee yourself, or the Chancellor. Or send me a letter or a copy of a letter to a trustee or the Chancellor or the [Faculty] Senate, asking me to be there. But I think that there is a clear message that we need to let the Senate, and the trustees know, that, for example were doing things here. And that while we appreciated the fact that they went to California and Georgia to bring people in, that maybe one of the things they should have done is surveyed all of their campuses, and looked at what realistically was going on at each campus as opposed to pulling a in a couple of the campuses and having them present
Dr. Beal: I have a paper about two-thirds done on this. I can't decide whether to destroy it with humor, or to write it in a way they'll want to read it. You know what I'm talking about. I think that it could be misinterpreted either way, but I t hink we all need to put pen to paper and do some thoughtful preparation.
Dr. McVicker: Students have been hearing about these issues through some peoples classes and through various news reports. I wonder if there is a way you could make this discussion more public. I think students need more information on this, even though it be difficult to do. I would also like to have whatever you send out to Faculty Council distributed widely on campus.
Dr. Adams: I have no problem with that. I'm also looking into whether there is a list-serve for faculty, SUNY-wide. I know you're talking about students, but in terms of presenting this information and generating discussion, and I honestly don't k now. If there isn't such a vehicle, we need to somehow initiate one.
Dr. Beal: I forgot to mention that I am now in receipt of the study I asked for about last May's graduates, to see what they actually enrolled in our general college program. I have that information on my desk, it's all been analyzed. I think ther e are 339 transcripts that were evaluated on the basis of what exactly the students took in our General College Program. And that's what's forming the basis for this [essay] I'm working on. I will have a copy of the study sent to Dr. Adams.
Dr. Malcolm Nelson: Could I just add that the enormous difficulty we are experiencing with our [UUP] contract, are a very much of a piece with the same political agenda, and the same political movement that would like to deny tenure [to the faculty] , and general education to many of our students.
Report of the Presidential Search Committee (Jefferson Westwood): The committee as you may know last spring was working with a pool of 75 candidates. When Dr. Erlenbach, withdrew and the trustees elected not to act on either of the other two names, we went back to work. The position as you know was re-advertised this summer, in mid or late August. That resulted in 44 additional applications. We did interview three people this summer from the original pool. On the 3rd and 4th of October the committee met with eight semi-finalists from the pool of 44. Betw een the three people we interviewed this summer, on a preliminary basis, and the eight people we interviewed on the 3rd and 4th, we have extended invitations to four people to come to campus.
We are working with the following tentative dates, you might want to make a note of these because the time-line is short: Oct. 24-25, Oct. 28-29, Oct. 30-31 and Nov. 4-5. Some of the dates were set to accommodate the Chancellor's schedule to give hi m an opportunity to come either to Fredonia or to Buffalo, to interview candidates directly. We are aware that the fourth and fifth is the beginning of course selection week; however, we are hoping to have this wrapped up so that we can get a recomm endation from us to the College Council, and then from the College Council through the Chancellor to the Board of Trustees by the time for their November meeting.
We had a question last time on the number of female candidates, and judging on what we can tell from names, nine of the pool of 44 were female. Names will be released as soon as all of the candidates have accepted our invitations to come to campus. The committee will be making information on the candidates available widely. Vita will be available to you. Their [written] answers to four questions posed by the committee and used as part of the selection basis will be available to you. And h opefully all of this will all be out in the mail within a matter of days.
Dr. Karen Mills-Courts: Are any of the final four female candidates? Mr. Westwood: Yes, one.
Dr. Deming: Are any of the four sitting presidents?
Mr. Westwood: No. Thank You.
Governance Committee (Steve Rees): The Committee has completed elections for the board of the Faculty Student Association. That was for one seat. It was won by Joe Straight. Secondly, we completed that annual faculty census with the assistance of Vince Courtney and Sharon Zablotney.
[The annual faculty census and the resulting number of seats on faculty council for 1997 were reported by Mr. Rees as follows:]
| Division | Full Time | Part Time | Total FTE | Tot.Seats |
| A&H | 101 | 11.87 | 112.87 | 11 |
| NSS | 109 | 43.24 | 152.24 | 15 |
| PS/MC | n/a | n/a | 123.70 | 12 |
Elections for Faculty Council for next year and the "This is not a ballot ballot" kind of nomination solicitation, will be coming up shortly. Incumbents will be given the opportunity to run. The problem I've run into is with Arts Education and Huma nities, where essentially terms end and that takes us to the appropriate number, so essentially there won't be any elections.
Finally, the by law amendment ratification on the General College Program Committee results are as follows: there were 118 of 388 ballots returned. That's a 30% return. There were 92 approvals, 20 disapprovals, and 6 abstentions; therefore this ame ndment is ratified, with a 77.9% approval rate.
Therefore, the existing General College Program committee will continue to function until such time as we constitute elections to fill the positions mandated by the amendment. We will be running elections for this very soon.
You will see coming to you shortly a General College Program Committee "This is not a ballot" nomination solicitation. Since the committee is new, it does not appear on the preference list, and we don't have an existing list of people who want to se rve on it.
Kenneth Lucey: I don't understand the numbers you have giving us. Does this represent a shift from the Arts and Humanities to [something else]?
Mr. Rees: It represents, as best I can tell, a decrease in Arts and Humanities from 16 to 11, and I don't know where those lines went to I don't know were the FTE went to.
Dr. Jon Kraus: If I added up correctly, the new representation will have 38 members, and the old representation as of now is 42 members. I don't know why totals should have changed. I'm wondering why there was a diminished total number of seats.
Mr. Rees: It's based on one seat for each 10 FTE faculty/ staff, and as we reduce the FTE, the representation is reduced.
Dr. Kraus: So on this track in a certain number of years we should have no representation.
Dr. Deming: And virtually have no meetings. [Hearty laughter.]
Academic Affairs: No report.
Dr. Deming: You should have received in your mailboxes today the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Academic Affairs Committee. This included the committee's preliminary responses to the charge that the committee was given last year about th e GCP.
Planing and Budget: (Jon Kraus): Given the time constraints, Planning and Budget doesn't have anything particular to report since Faculty Council last met. I may give a written report on all of [the meetings] later. And the long range planning sub-committee (which involves all of the administration officers as well as planning and budget committee) had a meeting on the issue of retention. We discussed current problems and some data. We did not get to strategies we might develop, based on ex isting programs and future ones we might develop to maintain rates of retention.
An interesting thing happened during the course of the meeting. When we went over the data on Fredonia's retention rates, we developed a slight difference [of opinion] among members which was entertaining. One [opinion] was that we were doing so we ll that given the cost and benefits of increasing resources spent on retention, perhaps we were where we ought to be given what we could manage. And others thought maybe we could do a little better. [Even with these differences, we will still conti nue to be examine] the question of retention to see what existing strategies could be modified, or improved to increase retention rates.
For those of you who have not seen it, there is a regular 6 year study. The prior one starts with the classes in SUNY in 1988; the most recent one is a 6 year rates of retention to graduation by 4 year 5 year, to 6 year. The most recent one starts w ith those entering class in 1989. Fredonia's rates of retention in 4 years improved from something like 46 to 49.8 percent [during this time.] All of the SUNY schools increased there rates of retention and graduation in those four years. Fredonia increased its relative standing among SUNY collages over four years from 4th place to 3rd place, on a 4, 5 and 6- year basis, which is partly what led to the thought that possibly we are doing as well as we could. But will be meeting again on these q uestions and strategies.
Professional Service Committee (Joan Burke was reported to be ill.)
Student Affairs: (___________________)
Dr. Deming: Apparently the Student Affairs Committee has not elected a chair? Is there anyone here on the student affairs committee?
Comment from someone in audience: We have met once but did not elect a chair at that particular meeting. We will be meeting tomorrow.
Dr. Deming: Please elect a chair, so that we have someone to contact, Thank You. Is there any additional new business?
Dr. Vivian Conover: This is not new business. This is business that was addressed earlier, that I'd like to ask a question about if I may. It's regarding the Chief Information Officer. I was part of one of those groups that was consulted. I was p art of the computer users group. And of the nine or ten of us around that table from all of the divisions of the college, there was total agreement that the reporting relationship should be that the CIO report directly to the President. I was wonde ring if that was in strong contrast to the other people who were consulted on this issue? [Pause]
Chairperson Deming: Does any one in a position to respond care to respond?
President Beal: Well since no-one wants to say anything, [I will.] I think that that's a possibility as far as I'm concerned as your current President. I think it would probably be in the better interests of the institution to carry on discussion of that when the new President gets here. Why do I say this? I think as few major offices should report to the President as possible. It tends to create what we might fear in terms of governance, to have too many offices reporting unless you're go ing to make it a vice-president. But if the new President comes in and looks at the overall
administration of the campus, and decides that this is probably a good idea, I'm sure that would be seriously considered. I would not feel that while I'm he re, this is what we should start with. That's my opinion.
Vice President David Hess: I also want to say that [concerning] the report that came to me from that group, the information in that report was passed on to the Interim President for his consideration.
Dr. Deming: Is there any further new business, before we move to adjourn, I would ask that you to note that we do have a post meeting discussion on drops and adds which is attached to the minutes if you would care to stay.
It was moved and seconded to adjourned and a motion to this effect was passed at approximately 5:10 p.m.
[Registrar Nan Bowser and those remaining held a discussion on drops and adds.]
Attendance:
Professional Staff/Management Confidential:
[E] Sylvia Clarke
[ ] Fabrizio Daloisio
[x] Susan Maloney
[E] Kevin Michki
[ ] Timothy Murphy
[ ] William Ortega
[x] Martha Smith
[x] Charlene Wiles
[x] Vivian Garcia Conover
[E] Thomas Malinoski
[x] Lisa Marrano
[ ] Jerome Moss
[x] Patrick Rocheleau
[x] Terry Tzitzis
Arts, Education, and Humanities:
[x] Minda Rae Amiran
[x] Robert Deming
[ ] Carl Farraro
[E] Rose Klassen
[x] David Ludlam
[x] Lawrence Maheady
[x] Malcolm Nelson
[E] Robert Klassen
[x] Stephen E. Rees
[ ] Candice Brown
[x] Janet Fairbairn
[x] Harry Jacobson
[X] Kenneth Lucey
[x] Ringo Ma
[x] Karen Mills-Courts
[x] George Sebouhian
Natural and Social Sciences:
[x] Nancy Boynton
[x] Jon Kraus
[x] Kenneth Mantai
[E] Tom Pencek
[ ] Amin Sarkar
[E] Mario Vassallo
[x] Nancy Gee
[x] Gary Lash
[x] Peter Mattocks
[x] Greg Prechtl
[x] Brenda Joyce Stephens
[x] Deborah Welch
Ex Officio Members:
[x] Julius Adams (Faculty Senator)
[x] Jean Malinoski (Interim VP, Development)
[x] Greg Harper (Acting Dean, Educational Studies)
[ ] Peter Mooney (SA President)
[x] Jefferson Westwood (College Senate Secretary)
[x] Jane Romal (Vice-Chair, FC)
[x] David Burdette (VP, Administration)
[x] Michael Dimitri (VP, Student Affairs)
[x] David Hess (VP, Academic Affairs)
[x] Dr. Dallas K. Beal (InterimPresident)
[x] Stephen Rees (Chair, Governance Committee)
[x] Sharon Zablotney (Dean of the Faculty)
Guests:
Ron Ambrosetti
Jan McVicker
Nancy Bowser
Respectfully submitted,
Jefferson Westwood, Secretary