Faculty Council
Minutes of the meeting of March 10th 1997
1. Chairperson Jane Romal called the meeting to order at 4:05 PM. A quorum was present. The Agenda and Minutes of the February meeting were approved as distributed.
2. President's Report (Dr. Dennis Hefner):
I feel like I'm in front of a class, I've got all kinds of handouts I was going to pass around. Just a couple of quick things I wanted to mention. First I think the advocacy is going very well. I was delighted with the hearing that we had last Friday. Assemblyman Sullivan came to campus, we had the Higher Education Committee here. Yur Share was one of the presenters to that group. The students did an absolutely magnificent job in making their presentations. I brought copies of my remarks, and the tables that we can put together to give to the committee members. I just wanted to provide that to you. But I thought it was a very good day.
Earlier in the week I had been in Albany with ten students, and a few other individuals for SUNY day. We had a chance to go around and meet with a number of legislators. We met with some of the latter in the afternoon. There were a large number that came through a reception that SUNY was holding. We had presentations by Bruno, Silvers, and others. There is no doubt that there is currently a surplus in the state. You may have noticed in the New York Times that New York City has tried to put a claim on that surplus. They feel the state had opposed them some back money from 1989. The surplus, I guess, is becoming real. Everybody's looking at it. I think it has changed the climate of debt for higher education in the state. I am cautiously optimistic, not overly optimistic, but at least cautiously optimistic that it looks like things could come out in a reasonable fashion.
We did have two resolutions in support of higher education that I just wanted to mention so that they would get in the minutes. The first is from the Northern Chautauqua Chamber of Commerce, which was kind enough to express their support. It was also very much noticed by assemblywoman McGee. She's a Republican and she came up to me after the hearing and said, "How'd you get the Chamber of Commerce to support higher education?" I told her that the chamber is always firmly with higher education. She was duly impressed. And then the county legislature will be passing the resolution in support of higher education and restoration of the TAP funds, and restoration of the SUNY budget. That will be Wednesday evening they'll be taking their final vote on that. The resolution looks much stronger than the resolution we had three years ago, so I thought that was good news.
I did want to mention that March seventh has come and gone. That was the date I said we would have a plan on the budget. I have a one- page summary that I want to pass around on the budget that does include some figures that show where we were last year, and where we ended up at the end of the year, and then what would be the dollars this year. There are still some attachments to go along with this, this is kind of the cover sheet, and the rest are being worked on furiously as I'm talking now. They will be out probably by Friday of this week: a much thicker document that includes good detail. But I wanted to let you know that things are moving forward, and they're being reviewed as we speak. I've also brought a copy of the advertisement for the Vice President for Administration position that will be appearing in the Chronicle of Higher Education. We're running it in two different issues, and I just thought some people might like to see that.
I wanted to mention also, the students did a great job this week, and if you had a chance to go over to the Williams Center with Super- dance, they raised a tremendous amount of money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The last time I walked by it was about $8500 and they still had an hour and a half to go. I think they did exceedingly well.
I know in Jane's report she is going to talk about looking at how we will approach going forward with the interim vice president for Academic Affairs
[position]. I had a chance to meet with the executive committee this afternoon. We are looking at an interim appointment that would be for next year, and we would then be going out and conducting a national search next year. We just had a meeting to discuss that.
Last but not least, I do want to apologize in advance that I have to leave a little before the meeting is over. We are starting a series of receptions for all of the faculty and staff. The first reception begins at five o'clock so at about quarter of five I've got to get out of here and go over to my house to start greeting people at five o'clock.
Chair Romal: Any questions anyone wants to ask him?
Jon Kraus: I understood you were saying you would be appointing an interim vice president for Academic Affairs for next year and then hiring full-time after that.
Dr. Hefner: Yes, and what I had discussed with the Executive Committee, was that the interim position would in fact only be interim and whomever is in the interim position will not be permanent, and will not be eligible to apply.
Jon Kraus: Is this because it's too late in the year to hire?
Dr. Hefner: It would be too late to get the advertising out.
[With] the academic positions normally you want to hit the market fairly early and so we talked about getting a committee together so that we could have advertising going out in September, and October of next year. Hit the market very early so we would have a good market pool.
Chairperson's Report (Jane Romal):
First thing is the proposed search committee for Vice President of Administration. We did a lot of hard work on this. Are there any questions about anybody? You see who they are; we tried to get them from a wide variety of people all across campus. I'd like a motion then that we elect [the committee].
Bob Deming: So moved.
Vice Chair Jefferson Westwood: Second.
Chair Romal: Any discussion?
??: What kind of time frame is that committee working on, do you know?
Chair Romal: Well the add has gone out. We want him/her in place by the first of July. Any other questions?
Those in favor of the motion to elect the proposed search committee for vice president of administration. Aye (all) opposed (none). Thank you, that passes.
Patrick Callan: Is there a student on that?
Chair Romal: No I guess not. Somehow we did mention that and the one I asked couldn't do it.
Julie Henry: There was going to be a student.
Nancy Gee: How many of these people are faculty members? I don't recognize the names.
Chair Romal: Ken Plucinski, JoAnn Parla, and Mac Nelson are the faculty people, three.
Dr. Gee: Does that seem a little light?
Chair Romal: We had four areas, and we tried to pick three or four from each area, so we didn't think that was light but we already elected the committee.
Jon Kraus: What were these four areas?
Chair Romal: The four areas were faculty members and an administrator or non-teaching professional from each division: Academic Affairs, Administration, Student Affairs, and Development and College Relations. We got three people from faculty, three from Academic Affairs, two from Administration, one from Student Affairs, and one from Development and College Relations. That's how that went.
Jefferson now that we've passed this can we have any amendment?
Vice Chair Westwood: You could add a person to it if there was a person to be added.
Chair Romal: Do you want to move that we add a student?
Patrick Camel: I move to make an amendment to place a student on the committee.
Ken Mantai: Second.
Chair Romal: Any discussion of that?
Ken Mantai: Shouldn't you have SA choose the person?
Patrick Camel: I think they did it for the presidential search
[committee].
Chair Romal: Do you want to include that in your amendment?
Patrick Camel: Sure.
Chair Romal: Is that all right with the person who seconded it?
Ken Mantai: Yes.
Chair Romal: So the motion is that we add a student to be selected from SA.
[Is there] any other discussion? Those in favor say aye (all) opposed (none). All right the motion passed.
The next thing is the Administrative Review Committee.
We are all enjoying greatly enhanced computer capabilities and other things that have come from the current Academic Affairs administration. We have decided that, in light of recent events, to look back and review this area was probably unnecessary. So the Executive Committee of Faculty Council has directed the Administrative Review Committee not to go forward with the review of the five administrative offices it had planned to evaluate and to instead review only the office of Student Affairs as we had planned in the fall. In the meantime, during this semester, the committee will take on the specific charge of gathering information and holding hearings on the future organization and structure of the Academic Affairs Division. I would like a motion to that effect and then we can discuss it.
Richard Weist: I so move.
Bob Deming: Second.
Chair Romal: Is there any discussion, any questions?
Jon Kraus: Currently their charge would read what?
Chair Romal: Currently they are charged with reviewing all five administrative offices: the four Vice Presidents, and the Dean. In view of recent affairs we have decided that it would be wise to only review the Student Affairs Office in the fall, and look at the future organization and structure of the Academic Affairs division right now.
Jon Kraus: My understanding was this was going to be done in the spring.
Chair Romal: This is in the spring.
Jon Kraus: But what about the review of the Vice President of Academic Affairs and...
Chair Romal: But we're not going to do any of those.
Jon Kraus: It's all been dropped entirely?
Chair Romal: The only one that they are going to review is the Office of Student Affairs.
Jon Kraus: Can I ask why we changed?
Bob Deming: The procedure that we had worked up requires that the five offices have to provide us with statements of their goals and objectives. It didn't seem to us that it made much sense to go forward then when we would have an interim in two offices and two offices are going to be vacated by May 31st. Therefore we suggested and the President agreed, and the Executive Committee agreed that we would not do the review of those offices except for the one Vice Presidency; Student Affairs, and that we would do it in the fall as the President had decided he wanted to do.
Chair Romal: This semester they will hold hearings and gather information on the future organization and structure of Academic Affairs. Any other questions or comments? All right those in favor say aye (all) opposed (none). The motion passed. Thank you very much.
Now the President has already mentioned the business about the Interim Vice President. We are going to have a Screening Committee to work with Dr. Hefner on selecting someone. There are two possibilities: the person can either come from the current organization, or we could go outside and perhaps get someone who has retired recently, not just from here but from some other place to come in and do that, but we need a Screening Committee. So if you're called on to do that I hope you will. We don't need any kind of motion for that. We are going to discuss it at the next Executive Council meeting, which is on the 31st of March. If you have any ideas you can express them here, or you can personally give them to anybody on the Executive Committee, and we will be sure to consider your suggestions. Is there any discussion about this?
??: What is the nature of this screening? This Screening Committee is sort of a short-term search committee?
Chair Romal: Right, but we're not really going to advertise.
??: What is the structure of the committee?
Chair Romal: Well we haven't decided that yet, that's what we are going to decide on the 31st of March, so if you have any suggestions.
??: I suggest it be heavily loaded with faculty from the area.
Chair Romal: Well, I think that was a presumption. The Vice President for Administration has more people from administration, this would definitely have a predominance of people from Academic Affairs, and faculty. That will be taken into consideration. Any other comments from anybody? That's the end of my report, we'll go on to the Vice Chair, do you have any report?
Vice Chair Westwood: I have been attending meetings of the Planning and Budget Sub-Committee, working on a draft of the college vision statement. And I believe everything I would have to tell you will be covered by Jon Kraus' report, so I won't steal his stuff, but you should be looking for information on the vision statement soon. Chair Romal: Julius Adams is not here, but he didn't have a report anyway. He's meeting with students. We have Standing Committee reports, Governance?
7a. Stephen Rees: This month you will be seeing a ballet for Planning and Budget, which should be going out when most of you are going on spring holiday.
Jon Kraus: Has there been an Arts, Education & Humanities replacement for Anufrac?
Stephen Rees: That has not yet been accomplished.
Jon Kraus: Has the ballot gone out for the member of the Sciences for the Planning and Budget Committee.
Stephen Rees: The ballot itself? No not yet, you and I still need to communicate. You're a hard man to find.
Chair Romal: Academic Affairs, Joe Straight is here. The resolutions are on the back of your agenda. We had decided that new proposals would come before us one month and be voted on the next month. This is strictly an introduction to this material since most of it has not been seen before. We will officially vote on it next time.
7b. Joseph Straight: Academic Affairs has a number of recommendations to make to you at this time.
The first one is for the addition of an A+ grade. This would effect two sections of the current catalogue, one section of the catalog lists the grades and their connotations, and we would propose listing there the A+ grade with the designation that it be interpreted as outstanding. Another section of the catalog lists the grades and indicates how many quality points each grade is worth, and there we would add the A+ grade and specify that it caries 4.0 quality points per semester hour. This is a grade that's intended to recognize outstanding or exceptional performance by a student in a class but it doesn't carry any additional quality points above the A grade, it still carries 4.0 quality points. It was recommend that this would become effective with the new 1997-1999 catalog.
Chair Romal: Wasn't the deadline for this catalogue positively absolutely last Friday?
Ron Ambrosetti: Correct.
Chair Romal: So it cannot be in the next catalog. You can introduce them all and then we'll discuss.
Joseph Straight: The second recommendation concerns mid-semester grades. We are proposing that the X grade that we currently use at mid semester, be eliminated and replaced by the use of S and U. The S grade would indicate satisfactory progress in a course, and a U grade would indicate unsatisfactory progress but not necessarily failing. We recommend that this change become effective with the Fall 1997 semester. I don't believe mid-semester grades are mentioned in the catalog anyplace, so this doesn't effect the catalog.
Nancy Bowser: Are you suggesting that the X grade be blocked so that if a faculty member submits one, it not be accepted?
Joseph Straight: Just that it wouldn't even be on the form as an option.
Nan Bowser: We use the same form for mid-semester and final grades, sort of as an economy, and I'd prefer to keep it that way if we could. I'm asking if you're suggesting...
Joseph Straight: Well, perhaps the directions then, however you do it. There are other grades on the form, which we currently are not supposed to use I take it.
Nan Bowser: No
Chair Romal: Oh, sure, W P and all those things.
Nan Bowser: We removed them.
Harry James: Aren't there, indeed, some circumstances where the faculty cannot possibly make a judgment at that point?
Joseph Straight: Well we're hoping that with the S and the U since all that requires you to do is judge whether they've
[made] satisfactory progress, that you will have enough information to do that. X is you don't know.
Brenda Joyce Stephens: The rationale for this is that faculty were using the X grade too often, and this is a punitive measure?
Joseph Straight: You may remember that I brought this before the council last semester, and we discussed this some at that time. I cited some statistics that Jan had given me about how often the X grade was used, and how often no grade was submitted, which also happened quite a bit of the time. Yes part of this is that we would like to give the students and the advisors more valuable information than the X grade gives. The X grade basically doesn't tell you anything. When you look at an advisee, I have advisees coming in and three out of their five grades are X or missing, it's hard to advise that student.
Vice Chair Westwood: I'm in favor of the proposal. The thing I would just point out is that the registrar could use up the current supply of forms with the X grade, and the next time they need to be reprinted just drop it, because it's not used at the end of the semester.
Nan Bowser: It's used for final grades Jefferson.
Vice Chair Westwood: I'm sorry, I stand corrected. I didn't know that.
Joe Chilberg: I'm wondering, will this prevent people then from leaving blanks?
Joe Straight: No, it won't prevent people from leaving blanks.
Ken Mantai: People don't turn in grades at all? How is this going to effect that?
Joe Straight: We're not sure. I don't think it's going to effect it much. I think we need some word to go out from Academic Affairs, or whatever the appropriate place would be, saying that mid-semester grades are important and that the faculty should make an effort to turn them in. Then the other problem with the X grade, having a high number of X grades, that is more what this is speaking to. Nancy Bowser: I just had a point of information. If you missed the meeting last semester when this was initially discussed, and Joe presented the data, there are more no grades than there are X grades.
Dr. Chilberg: Since this X and empty grade spot seem to be related, has the committee considered pressing that issue as well? It seems that a one-two punch might be in order. What's the committee's wisdom on that point?
Joseph Straight: We need some stern letter to go out from the appropriate authority.
Dr. Chilberg: Would that be a recommendation from the committee at some point?
Joseph Straight: I think I made that last semester.
Mike Grady: If a student got an S or a U might they think that they accidentally signed up for SU grading as opposed to ABC grading, and have a fit about it.
Joseph Straight: It's possible, but I think that can be explained.
Chair Romal: You actually sign up for Pass, Fail you don't sign up for SU do you?
Nancy Bowser: I was just going to make a comment that determining S and U is a lot easier than determining all of the different distinctions. This may encourage some teachers to actually give some kind of a mid-term grade.
Chair Romal: That is true.
Mike Grady: It might backfire on you when people start giving out S grades to everybody and not bothering to...
Joseph Straight: Yes, we talked about that and decided we'd take the chance and see what happened.
Then there are a number of new programs that were brought before the committee. A new minor in Applied Mathematics, there currently is a minor in Mathematics and this would require 25 credit hours as follows: The three courses in Calculus. Then, really where this differs probably most substantially from the regular minor in Mathematics is, the choice of taking either Math 210 or Math 231. Those are both four-credit courses. Math 210 is no longer a prerequisite for some of the upper level courses, so it's possible for a student with a more applied bent to not take Math 210 and still go on and take some of these other courses. Then three courses chosen from, I won't list them all, but basically these are a lot of the applied courses in Mathematics; differential equations, numerical analysis, probability and statistics, operations research, and things like that. So it's intended for an engineering student or a physics major who maybe doesn't want to take a more abstract mathematics course like Math 210 but wants to follow the more applied courses. They can do that with this minor.
Nancy Bowser: Yes. The other difference is that this does allow some of the very mathematical physics and computer sciences classes also to be counted in a minor. There are some real differences.
Joseph Straight: The next recommendation is that we approve a new athletic coaching minor, put together by the physical education department. Currently in the catalog is listed a number of courses that a student may take to receive certification for coaching. I think this is just to give the students an additional option, and actually have them put together something, a minor, that would appear on their transcript. This mentions the New York State Mandate for Coaching, and says students may meet this by completing one of the following three options. This new athletic coaching minor which is 18 credit hours would be one option. There is also a state mandate for strenuous contact sports, 12 credit hours, and a state mandate for non- strenuous non-contact sports. So there is some certification that students have to go through to be able to coach in the high schools in New York State.
Ken Mantai: So students in Secondary Ed. Who wanted to become coaches would take this minor?
Joseph Straight: This would be one possible option, rather than just taking those four courses that would allow you to be certified.
The minor consists of 15 hours in the core. These are the courses required in the core.
Academic Affairs actually has one recommendation to make to be considered, and that is that we see this minor as being actually open to any student although primarily it would be students in secondary education that would be taking this minor. More and more you see where just people in the community who are not necessarily teachers in the school are being asked to do coaching because there is such a shortage of coaches and there are so many sports that need to be coached. So anyway there is a course listed here, educational psychology (ED349), which Dave Ludlam told us is practically impossible to get into unless you are an education major. We might want to list some alternatives there, at least make them aware that they may want to allow the students to substitute something in place of that course, maybe another psychology course might be an option. Those are the core courses, psychology and coaching, principals of athletic injury care, coaching techniques and so on. Then to complete the 18 hours, there is one course that is required from this list of electives. Again we had some questions about some of the course numbers and the prerequisites that are given here, those are just things to check out that don't really change the philosophy of the minor.
Deborah Welch: I see how that would help people in the community who would like to come back and get this certification, but I suggest to you that it is going to hurt our secondary school people. Simply because the distinction between the strenuous contact sports and the non-strenuous non-contact, which are not often taught in high school. At present the kids go in and achieve this mandate to make themselves more high level
[job applicants], but if you divide it like this then very few of the students will choose the strenuous contact sports option and, and I'm afraid it's going to end up hurting them.
Dean Sharon Zablotney: I believe the non-strenuous is a state mandate, and it is in place now, and it is something that we have been offering but we have not upgraded our curriculum so that we are legal. This is an attempt to upgrade us to the point that we are now filling the state mandate that is beyond us.
Dr. Welch: So the state mandates have changed, I was not aware of that.
Vice Chair Westwood: How many of these courses would be new courses that have not been taught in the past if any?
Joseph Straight: I don't think any of them are new courses.
Ken Mantai: How many more hours are required for this than the current for students to get?
Chair Romal: Six, it was twelve.
Ken Mantai: What was the motivation for education psychology?
Joseph Straight: I'm not really sure.
Chair Romal: Shouldn't we have the substitutions for that course in the proposal? If that's impossible to get into for people who aren't Secondary Ed. Majors you have to have the listing of alternates.
Joseph Straight: We can do that for next month. This is something that we actually just approved today because we carried it over from our meeting last Monday. We spent the whole meeting on Media Arts last Monday.
Minda Rae Amiran: Is it the case that students can still get certified in the 12 hours? Is this a required program or is it just adding an option?
Joseph Straight: Yes, adding an option. Any other questions on athletic coaching?
And the last recommendation, I believe John Bussel handed you something when you came in is a recommendation to approve a new major in Media Arts. This is a new proposed major with actually two degrees. A B.A. degree and a B.F.A. degree, and there are two tracts within the B.A. degree: General Program in Media Arts and Corporate Multimedia, and a number of tracts within the B.F.A. degree: Media Arts Theater, Music and Sound Production, Interactive Design, and Computer Art. It was felt that this seemed a natural for Fredonia given our strength in the arts, and also the technology that we have on campus. It just seemed like a natural program for us to begin.
Minda Rae Amiran: Is this time for us to express concerns about these programs, or is to be reserved for next meeting.
Chair Romal: Well we can take a couple minutes. We want to move the meeting along, but you can voice your concern.
Minda Rae Amiran: I have five concerns in regard to these programs. In no particular order, I will state them briefly.
All the tracts involved use a certain medium attached to a particular field to present or create projects in those fields. I have a concern that the general program is not attached to any field. I understand that it doesn't want to be because it wants to be general, but the courses that it adds to the thirty hours are introductory courses of a very general nature without much depth, of course, because they are introductory courses. I'm not sure that I see the intellectual basis for that general program. So that's one concern I have.
Chair Romal: Maybe Minda Rae will have to write these down, and they can answer them and we'll include them with the next minutes, so then you all know what her concerns are. If any of the rest of you have some concerns.
Jon Kraus: I'm wondering that if we can't articulate our concerns about this major in this meeting so people can think about it, the people who are developing it will be off next time. It ends up, it seems to me, to be the functional equivalent of indeed only offering it once. I grant you it's before us now and we have a month to think about it, but isn't this a more appropriate time for us to articulate our concerns.
Chair Romal: Go ahead Minda Rae that was one.
John Hughson: This first came up at the Deans and Chairs meeting, about a week, week and a half ago, and since that time we had given your concerns some thought. One idea that came up was to actually go with the 36 hours in the GCP, 27 hours in the college electives, 30 hours in the Media Arts core, and then maybe 27 that would bring the program up to 120. But that would actually be divided nine, nine and nine credit hours among three of the tracts that are in the program, so they would have a chance to spread themselves across the curriculum and at the same time delve into some more depth.
Minda Rae Amiran: The next concern has to do with the number of hours given. They are rather substantial. My concern is that there are courses listed among the required courses that have prerequisites, which would add to those 72 or 69 hours. For example, Corporate Multimedia, Art 361 (Typography) requires as a prerequisite Art 260 (Graphic Design II) which has as a prerequisite Art 259 (Graphic Design I). I could give you examples from most of the tracts of courses that have one or more prerequisites that are not being included in the list.
John Hughson: You've got to remember that their were six people on the committee: Paul Bowers, David Kerzner, Keith Peterson, Carl Ferraro, Tom Loughlin, and myself; and there are only five hidden courses in the program. The examples that you were giving where there are prerequisites. You've got to remember that the people who are teaching those courses were also on the committee. And they are the ones who have given the OK to waive the prerequisite within the context of this degree program.
Minda Rae Amiran: Then you're going to have people sitting in those classes some of whom have taken the prerequisites and some of whom have not. It seems to say that one person can complete the course without the prerequisites, maybe we should take the prerequisites out of the catalog for everybody.
John Hughson: Well I don't know if I'd jump to that conclusion.
Bob Deming: How are we going to clarify this to the student?
John Houghson: Well you've got to remember that there are two groups of students, one group that will be taking the degree programs that are extant, and the new group of students that would be advised by the people within the committee.
Minda Rae Amiran: Yes, certainly! For GA 432 (Advanced Scene Study) has as a prerequisite GA 330. MU 440 (Electronic Music Composition) has as a prerequisite MU 122, MU 124, that's the first year of theory and MU 160.
Dr. Carl Ferraro: I believe that the catalog states those pre- requisites or permission of the instructor. In terms of the department of theater and its prerequisites I've already gone to my department, and those people teaching those courses have said they would accept those students in terms of permission of instructor.
Dr. Amiran: If that were the case, I think we're sending a very very strange message. Namely that the prerequisites that we have heretofore had are not really applicable. In that case I think the students in all the majors should also be excused from them. You have for instance Art 264 (Printmaking II), requires Art 263 (Print- making I), or doesn't really require it?
Dr. Ferraro: If you have a student who has had two or three semesters in the Arts in places like Rhetoric, Vision and Sound, in places like Introduction to Graphic Design, these students are prepared for another avenue in regard to being successful in those courses. As opposed to a History major for example, or an Economics major who might want to take Graphic Design but with no kind of preparation to be successful, that is the kind of thinking that was in the committee. Now if there is a case or two where there might be an adjustment, we should take that under advisement. But generally speaking if you've got a student who is prepared in the Arts, Computer Design, Graphic Design, History of Design, Visual Communications, and the Theory and Conception who is moving into the course, it's a different type of student. They are prepared on another level to pursue in another way. There might be one or two cases where we might look at this again, but I think your argument is that this is pervasive throughout the program, and I would argue that it is not.
Minda Rae Amiran: I'm concerned about the total number of hours, I'm also concerned about the various messages that are being sent about existing prerequisites. In some cases the answer has been they've done away with those prerequisites.
Dr. Ferraro: The other answer that I propose that the students by that time have been prepared in other ways in other courses in the arts, in Performance, in Theory, and in Criticism such that they can be successful there. And then again, I would suggest that we take another close look at this if indeed there are one or two places where a correction could be made.
Minda Rae Amiran: Let me make a claim that I think that potentially that these are some programs, I have been concerned for what seems to be for exactly the purpose that you just said Carl, to see if corrections should be made. I have three more concerns, shall I go on with them?
This is really a question within the Media Arts Tract. Will it prepare students for the development of interactive games + stories, digital storytelling, interactive advertising multimedia shows, as well as cutting-edge technology within theatre itself? Given that description I was a little surprised that rather than including courses from theater that have to do design and lighting, that includes a number of courses that have to do with acting. Why all these acting courses? The description in the catalog for Advanced Scene Study, for instance, for which Intermediate Scene Study is a requirement, and Introduction to Scene Study (which is in the program) and Voice Movement. You can see that there those are all one or another acting courses, and I was just surprised at that emphasis, given the description of the major. Maybe there's something here that I'm missing, and I'm sure there is but it was a concern that I had when I looked at it.
The other concern that I had was in regard to the Sound Recording track. With Sound Recording, you've already answered my concern that Electronic Music requires Music Theory and History at a level, which is not currently provided for in the existing core. But the Sound Recording people are supposed to take a year of General Physics, and Basic Electronics, and Calculus, and presumably that is because those subjects are required for them before they take the other courses. Maybe that's not the case. But in any case the students in Sound Production will not have the physics and calculus exposure that other students in these classes would have to have. So that is a fourth concern, although I am so far from being an expert on that, I have no idea how strong a concern it should be.
My final concern has to do with staffing these courses. The handout says that, within the basic infrastructure, adjunct faculty will be hired to cover for those regular faculty who are teaching the new courses. It seems to me that that is going to be a very substantial commitment of funds, and it seems to me it would be nice if we had some idea what would be involved there. Maybe it's not a substantial commitment of funds, I just don't know.
Chair Romal: All right, let's let Tom speak, and then I think you know her concerns if anyone else has any.
Tom Loughlin: I won't speak to each particular point, I would just like to speak to all of the points perhaps on a general basis.
The people who have the degree program in front of them understand exactly, kind of, what they're looking at. I think, first of all, the most fundamental thing to understand is that as a new major trying to be done in an interdisciplinary model and staying within, as best as we possibly can, within the confines of what we have already established as degree programs, we've done what we can to try and make the program as interdisciplinary as possible with the tracks, but also adding at a level of what we call the core courses certain new courses which at this point in time are not fully developed, but generally speaking go along the first line of each particular track.
In the development of those core courses ultimately I think that some of the answers to some of the concerns that Minda Rae brings up, I believe, will be somewhat addressed. In terms of trying to pick and choose from what's already there, and make a mix between the traditional art form, as it stands, and the integration of that into the new technology, that becomes a very difficult thing to do, because the new technologist, the person who has that degree might not necessarily want to, or need to in fact, have the same kinds of structural prerequisites that exist within the traditional form of study in that discipline. So I think that within the core program, and at this point since it's such a new program we have ideas of what those courses are going to look like but...
We think that a lot of the questions about how we're going to apply those things, to give you a specific example Minda Rae. In terms of dealing with screening and lighting in Theater Arts, the reason we emphasize performance is because we think that the way they are going to learn to design this new kind of theater presentation is not necessarily going to be in a traditional way, but they'll get certain design emphases and design structures within the core of learning how to use a particular software program such as Macromedia Director or something along those lines. Which is going to push them in a different direction than an ordinary designer might take. We put in Introduction to Technical Theater as an overall foundation for the principles of design. That information is going to be transferred to a different technology, not necessarily this, and I think that that's true all the way across the board, it will be true in Art, it will be true in Music, it will be true in Computerized Design.
What your looking at when you see courses which have prerequisites to them but we are not necessarily following the prerequisites is. 1) if we did that we'd probably end up with a major that was in the neighborhood of 175 to 180 credit hours, which we can't do. And 2) we're going to try and take that information and channel it in a different way, ultimately through the core courses. So when we're creating this new kind of major, or this new student who is following the tracks of this information but is going to apply it in a completely different forum, I'm hoping that Faculty Council as a group will understand that we need to find ways to take it and evolve it using some of the basis of what we already have, in terms of Art Degrees and Fine Arts.
But in the core courses that are technology based, such as Desktop Applications, and Dealing with Interactive Media, Media Arts Practicum, that's going to be transferred into a new area. That is the difference in terms of trying to get it as a model to do something different rather than to just constantly following the traditional models of following these prerequisites all the way across the line.
Ken Mantai: Where is the advising load going to fall?
John ??: The advising will be the responsibility of the committee that presently exists. I'll be the director of the program. Any one single department won't administer it.
Bob Deming: Two questions. As John already knows there are a number of courses that don't exist listed in the current catalog. They may be in the catalogue, but they do not exist and are not likely to be taught. One of them is mine, and I know is a critique of the core of Aesthetics, and Electrical Engineering and Design, and I wonder where else the critique of the aesthetics of Message and Industry is going to take place. The second question is, since the crux of this program; the thing that makes it new is what happens in those courses that will be in the core. Without knowing what goes on in those, we have no idea what we're buying. You see what you're asking us to buy?
Tom Laughlin: Yes, I see what your asking Bob, and your comment is well taken. I think that what we have though, which if the Faculty Council directs us to do so, is that we do have proposed syllabi, we do have proposed course descriptions because the state requires us to do that in terms of submitting it to the state. So proposed syllabi and descriptions do exist, if the Council would like to have that information, I'm sure the committee can provide it to them.
Bob Deming: Is it my understanding that Academic Affairs approved this without knowing what these multimedia courses are?
Joseph Straight: We have the course descriptions, and in fact today I asked John to bring those with him on overhead, and if you asked about them to put them up. So we did anticipate those questions. But then I got here and found out that we weren't really going to vote on it today anyway, and that this was just an introduction of it.
Jon Kraus: My comments, I have essentially two. One I thought it was an exceptionally large number of hours involved not just in the Fine Arts, obviously, apparently up to this level, 72 hours, 36 GCP's, 12 hours of electives, so essentially you have made it as many as you possibly could. I was impressed by as I looked through in another committee, was that I thought it was a really interesting program. I think it was really creative in merit and goal. Arts and new technologies obviously are very important for us to do, so I say this as an ad on to that. It seemed to me that you have in Corporate Multimedia, which is an additional 33 hours for a total of 69 core and the Media Arts Theater and the other ones where they come to 72. It seemed that in the courses you consider irrelevant that you also consider that every single one of them has to be taken. That is to say they are all required, and which number one, doesn't leave you much leeway in letting say a teacher get sick, and take off. So students won't be able to graduate, so you seemingly haven't built in much flexibility.
Tom Loughlin: Well I do understand your concern, the B.F.A. in Theater Arts Acting which I have been teaching here since I came here, I mean the National Association of Schools in Theater won't even accredit your program if its not at 78 hours. I think that what you're looking at is in terms of the B.F.A. degree in Arts as itself, the level that your looking at here is fairly average. We do in fact in theater experience that problem every once in a while. It is problematical but at this particular point in time on a nation wide basis, that degree is at that level, and in fact when your looking at the Theater Track here 77 hours is one hour less than a B.F.A. in Acting.
Mike Grady: One question I have is that there are no Computer Science courses, which I was quite surprised at, since this is a computer- oriented curriculum. Do you propose to teach programming in other courses?
Tom Loughlin: Mike, I don't believe we are going to teach programming because we are not going to turn out programmers. There is one course we hope to put in the core called Systems, Languages and Protocols. This will introduce the student to certain kinds of programming languages such as CGI, HTML, Java and those kinds of basic programming concepts that they would use at the level of being able to program for the Internet and other kinds of things like that. They'll get basic concepts in programming I hope through that particular course. But giving them an underlying basis in programming at least in the point of view that we're talking about it + you may disagree with this and I would probably accept your disagreement, is the sense that the software technology is at such a point that the real need for understanding programming may not be absolutely flat necessary for these kinds of people.
Mike Grady: I would like to see one person who was more computer science oriented, but still had a multimedia...
Tom Loughlin: That may be possible in the evolution of the program.
Mike Grady: I also feel that this kind of splits the campus. Computer Science has nothing to do at all with this, so you're having almost two different computer departments, or programs on campus that aren't even going to talk to each other, because they don't share any courses.
Tom Loughlin: That may be what it appears at the surface, but I will probably be willing to say that over the course of two or three years you might find that evolution will change.
Harry James: Well does this Fine Art degree, minimum number of hours, come in all fields besides Theater?
Tom Loughlin: For a B.F.A.?
Harry James: Yes, because I'm also concerned about the lack of flexibility in this program.
Tom Loughlin: Well to specifically answer one of the criticisms, the importance to me of the general program, if we can get it right, is specifically to allow for the option of a not so incredibly constrictive degree program. If you have a general program which is more wide open and more flexible we hope that that will address the problem of looking at the high level of credit hours for the BFA.
Vice Chair Westwood: I share the concern about majors that are just so big that students have hardly any chance to take electives or to change their minds while they're here. Or to discover this major in the middle of their sophomore year and change and then they have to graduate with 140 hours. I just think that if you could relax the requirements a little bit you might find that 95 or 90 or 85% of the students are going to take all of this that they can get anyway. But you're going to make it easier for those students that came from somewhere else to graduate with this degree, and still get out in four years.
Secondly I do have a question, and that is, if we approve this or some revised version of it next month, how soon would these M.M. courses start to be offered?
John Hughson: We hope to offer the first four courses in the Fall 1997; that is our plan at this point.
Joe Chilberg: I just have a couple of concerns, I'm very supportive of the program because I'm somewhat interested in multimedia myself and it is certainly important to develop. Although I'd like to better understand what this program is serving in terms of the society, culture, what is the rational for the program? Where are these students going to go with this? I do understand there are these kinds of opportunities out there, but I'm not sure what data we have to suggest that these folks are going to find opportunities and jobs and stuff like that. I'd like to see a rationale.
I guess I'm dovetailing with Bob Deming; we don't know much about these courses, and I'd certainly like to see the copy of the new courses. I believe there are six new courses. There is one in communication that at least I haven't heard about it in our department yet, and it might be nice that before the college approves a program, that the departments approve the courses. So it might be a good idea to have that on the table. Or perhaps to change it to a M.M. course, and the committee can deal with that.
Chair Romal: Can you put those syllabi on reserve in the library?
John Hughson: Yes.
Joe Chillberg: I think it's a better idea to distribute that to everybody so that they can look at it.
The other concern is, and it resonated here a little bit, maybe a year plan, if we're starting in the Fall 1997, could we see actually who's teaching what courses, especially the new courses. If there is a new course in communication for example that's going to impact on our department in ways that we don't even know yet. We don't know if it's going to be taught in the fall. I think that kind of information, kind of a here's how it's going to go the first year, would be useful for this committee to better understand implications of their program, and certainly those of us who actively support it, work with it and live with it.
Joe Perry: I see that there is obviously some major discussion that needs to still take place on
[this] issue. It's going to come up next month, so I'd like to make a motion to limit this discussion five more minutes, no more, it needs to be seconded by a faculty member if...
Dick Weist: I second it
Tom Loughlin: Just in terms, to take Joe's concern, I'm obviously not going to take the councils time right now. I think actually setting straight what kinds of opportunities are there because I have a CD-ROM right in front of me, which can do that. If Faculty Council's willing to take a look at that next month when we debate the issue, I'd be more than willing to show them what the possibilities are in terms of that, and they can see what kinds of things are being done in the industry.
Chair Romal: How long does this thing take.
Tom Loughlin: It's a very short demonstration.
Dr. Ferraro: Anyone can actually get on your computer and go to the Internet. If that doesn't solve the problem you can find out what kind of job, opportunities there are in this, and what were trying to do in response to the marketplace, and changes in the electronic environment world-wide, then we don't have to continue. I think it's progressive and all students taking the strength that we have, and trying to massage them toward the way that the market place and industries are massaging themselves.
Chair Romal: There is a motion on the floor, any comments on the motion? The five minutes are up already. Those in favor aye (1) opposed (0). All right we have a couple of minutes, I guess.
Dick ??: You showed that these new degrees would not have any, or have a weak background in computer science?
Tom Loughlin: I think my response to that would be that they don't need as strong a background in computer science at the level at which the software operates. They're doing something completely different. I think it's for example, in theater we try to give our actors an overall view of what the technical theater is all about, and what's going on back stage. But in reality to be an actor, their job is to get on stage and act. It's not their job to design the sets, not their job to do all the technical building of the set. It's kind of a team kind of thing, in terms of understanding it in the area of specialization. Someone working in these areas does not need as extensive a computer science background anymore, as they maybe did five years ago. To get the components in there as Mike was talking about, I think it's an interesting proposal. It's not as necessary as it was. The software is just advancing by leaps and bounds in terms of people's ability to use it. The other thing I would say is that if the Faculty Council is interested I'll do my best to put up, as fast and as quick as down and dirty a web site on, this that they can have access to via the colleges system.
Chair Romal: If you have questions would you please email them or ask them in some way to get answers, to John Houghson or Carl or Tom. Any of them you can email and get answers.
Secretary Henry: If you want something included with the next agenda get it to me, Julie Henry, especially the course descriptions for those courses.
Chair Romal: Let's get those on reserve in the library.
Joseph Straight: The members of Academic Affairs raised many of the same concerns that you did and we chose to focus on the general picture, the big picture, and really felt that this was a degree that Fredonia should have, that we have the faculty for it and the facilities for it. Whenever we approve a new degree, it's never going to look like the degree we approved even three years down the road. All these degrees are going to evolve, I think some good comments were made and I think maybe the committee has learned that they need to expand their committee, and put some people on from other departments. I think that this is a program that we need to try and get experience from, and it will evolve over time.
Chair Romal: Jon Kraus do you have anything?
7c. Jon Kraus: The long range planning sub-committee has been meeting over the past month, massaging the vision statement which is required by SUNY Central both as a contribution to their own vision statement and as a vision statement to our selves. We have been unable to develop this from grass roots because of the time constraints, it has to be in less than a month from now. There will be an open meeting of it a week from today at this time (four o'clock) in this room. Faculty, staff, and administration have been invited. There have been copies of the vision statement sent out to everybody: faculty and staff, and we would like to elicit your views on it. That will be a week from today at four o'clock.
Chair Romal: Joan Burke isn't here, is there anybody from Professional Services?
Mike do we have a chair now for Student Affairs committee?
7e. Mike Dimitri: We don't have a chair as of yet but at our next meeting we are prepared to identify a chair. I would just like to announce our next meeting is tomorrow at four o'clock in the campus center. We will be caucusing about availability of classes, access to classes.
Chair Romal: Tom, do you have anything about the GCP committee?
7f. Tom Rywick: Not really a report but just to say that the new committee was called and we are working on GCP business.
Chair Romal: The next thing on the agenda is new business; the resolution on the common meeting time.
It was discovered that a quorum was not present, and thus the meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:40pm.
Attendance:
Professional Staff / Management Confidential:
[x] Sylvia Clarke
[x] Fabrizio Daloisio
[ ] Susan Maloney
[ ] William Ortega
[x] Martha Smith
[ ] Charlene Wiles
[x] James Jackson
[ ] Lisa Marrano
[ ] Kevin Michki
[ ] Patrick Rocheleau
[x] Terry Tzitzis
Arts, Education, and Humanities:
[ ] Candice Brown
[ ] Janet Fairbairn
[x] Harry Jacobson
[x] Rose Klassen
[x] David Ludlam
[x] Stephen Rees
[x] Robert Deming
[x] Carl Farraro
[x] Robert Klassen
[ ] Kenneth Lucey
[E] Lawrence Maheady
[x] George Sebouhian
Natural and Social Sciences:
[E] Seyed-Mahmoud Agazadeh
[x] George Browder
[x] Michael Grady
[x] Gary Lash
[ ] Greg Prechtl
[ ] Amin Sarkar
[ x] Richard Weist
[x] Nancy Boynton
[x] Nancy Gee
[x] Jon Kraus
[x] Kenneth Mantai
[x] Thomas Rywick
[x] Brenda Joyce Stephens
[x] Deborah Welch
Ex. Officio Member:
[ ] Julius Adams (Faculty Senator)
[x] Tracy Bennett (Interim VP, Admin.)
[ ] Michael Dimitri (VP, Student Affairs)
[x] Dennis Hefner (President)
[x] Pablo Gion-Fanjul (SA President)
[ ] Julie Dennis (Council Secretary)
[x] Jane Romal (Chair, Faculty Council)
[x] Ron Ambrosetti (Associate Dean of the Faculty)
[ ] Jean Malinoski (VP, Development)
[x] Greg Harper (Associate Dean, Faculty)
[ ] David Hess (VP, Academic Affairs)
[ ] Stephen E. Rees (Chair, Gov. Committee)
[x] Sharon Zablotney (Dean of the Faculty)
[ ] Jefferson Westwood (Vice Chair, FC)
Guests:
Kurt Peterson
Sharon Janosyeuski
Vivian Garcia Conover
Nancy Bowser
Jan Pehe
Maggie Bryan-Peterson
Minda Rae Amiran
Ron Ambrosetti
Thomas W. Loughlin
Joe Chillberg