The meeting was called to order by Chair Mary Carney at 4:02 PM in Fenton 105.
The Chair asked for a motion to approve the agenda, with the change of the date from Feb. 5 to Feb. 12, 2007. Senator Raymond Rushboldt moved, and Senator Richard Reddy seconded that the date on the agenda be changed to Feb. 12, 2007. There being no discussion, the motion passed by unanimous voice vote. Then Sen. Rushboldt moved that the agenda as amended by approved. Sen. Reddy seconded. There being no discussion, the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
The Chair then asked for a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of Dec. 4, 2006. Sen. Reddy moved, and Sen. Rushboldt seconded. There being no discussion, the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
President Dennis Hefner began his report by reviewing the factors that made him decide to cancel classes on Feb. 5, 2007. He then humorously added that since he had gotten so many emails complaining about losing a Monday that he would never make an early call again!
Pres. Hefner reported that there was good news in the Executive Budget
President Hefner also reported that SUNY Fredonia had been in the news during the past week because of the quick thinking of a Residence Hall director, Carrie Davenport. While doing a routine inspection in her dorm, Carrie discovered that one particular style of lamp was hazardous. This lamp, with five arms and plastic shades, is very popular with college students, and even with a bulb appropriate for the lamp, the plastic shades will melt and sometimes drip hot plastic. Now the FTC and colleges nationwide are looking for such lamps, and they have been banned from use at Fredonia. The dangerous knock-offs look just like the originals, down to the UL tag. We were the first campus to report this, and we got a lot of good publicity because of our actions.
President Hefner had one final item, relating to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between SUNY Fredonia and Central Administration. He told the body that the figures used in this MOU are about two and a half years old, because we have been negotiating about it for nearly that long. The broad issues that are most important include:
There were no questions for President Hefner.
VPAA Virginia Horvath reported:
Questions:
Senator Julia Wilson asked if the external reviewer would be from within the campus but not the department, or from outside of campus. VP Horvath indicated that it would be from outside of the campus. In some places that is standard practice.
Senator Amy Cuhel-Schuckers asked if the term "faculty" in the draft MOU was used the same as we use it on campus, including teaching faculty and non-teaching professionals. Pres. Hefner responded that the MOU does use that term differently, meaning teaching faculty and the librarians, but not the other non-teaching professionals.
Chair Carney
Bylaw Revision
Chair Carney then presented the first of a series of bylaw revisions that will be forthcoming from the Executive Committee. This first batch includes both changes that will require a vote of the full faculty and changes that are of a nature that only the Senate itself will have to ratify them. She then informed the body that she will bring them up in small groups, allowing discussion and questions on those presented, and then voting on that portion of today's moved bylaw changes. Today's proposed changes are all attached to the agenda of the meeting as "Proposed Changes to the SUNY Fredonia University Senate, Part II".
Article III: Stated Faculty Meetings
Dr. Roger Byrne asked what is meant by "faculty" here, our local use of that term including professional staff and part-time faculty. Chair Carney responded that yes that is what the term "faculty" refers to in these bylaws. Dr. Byrne then suggested that would make it very difficult to obtain a quorum. Sen. Reddy spoke to this, saying there is language in the proposed change stating that "If such a majority is not present, members may vote to suspend the quorum provisions by a two-thirds vote of those present."
There was no further discussion. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Article IV, Section 2Sen. David Ewing rose to point out that the name of his College no longer included "Professional Studies", and we need "University Advancement" rather than simply "Advancement."
Sen. Reddy rose to offer clarification that the type of changes that Sen. Ewing is making can be made as changes voted on only by the Senate, because they reflect on changes in the organizational structure of the University.
Sen. Jacky Swansinger asked if there was a reason that the Assoc. VP for Academic Affairs is not listed. Chair Carney responded that it had not been listed in the previous version, either.
There were no further comments or questions. Article IV, section 2 passed by unanimous voice vote.
Article IV, Section 5c
There were no questions or comments regarding these changes. Article IV, Section 5 c passed with a unanimous voice vote.
Article IV, Section 5d
Chair Carney indicated that the changes in this section were editorial in nature.
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked if we didn't need to make the language consistent above (in Article IV, Section 2). Chair Carney thanked the Senator for pointing that out, and said that change would also be made.
There being no further questions or comments, Article IV, Section 5d (and the ancillary change in Article IV, Section 2) passed by unanimous voice vote.
Article IV, Section e
Chair Carney informed the body that the strike-out was not clear on the web site, and that what was displayed on the screen at the front of the room. The copy in the agenda needs to have strike-outs added to the paragraph beginning with the "#" symbol.
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked if this was the only place in the bylaws where we use "faculty and professionals" (in the stricken portion). Chair Carney said that she wasn't certain, but the Executive Committee will look into it.
Dr. Byrne asked if there was a place on the web site where people could go to see what vacancies exist. Sen. Reddy said in clarification that several years ago the Executive Committee decided not to do the annual service preference list, principally because it was done in the fall semester, and elections were held in the spring. By the time the elections came around, the preferences of the various possible candidates may have in fact changed. For groups such as search committees there were people who didn't know if they'd be interested in serving until a specific search came along. We find it is better to circulate the vacancy, and ask for nominations and self-nominations.
Chair Carney added that the Faculty and Professional Affairs Committee is looking into the committees on campus, trying to streamline and identify committees that are no longer active.
With no further questions or comments, Article IV, Section e passed by unanimous voice vote.
Article IV, Section 7
Chair Carney informed the body that the Executive Committee had noticed that every other Senate officer had such a clause, but the Governance Officer did not
Dr. H. Joseph Straight commented that this was fine if the Governance Officer left with enough time to have a new officer prepare for the elections, but what if they should leave just before the elections were to be prepared and conducted. There is no language stating the Executive Committee could step in and run the elections.
Sen. Ziya Arnavut asked if there wasn't a backup, as we have for the SUNY Faculty Senator. Chair Carney responded that there is no such provision for the Governance Officer in the bylaws. Sen. Arnavut asked why we don't have that.
Sen. Reddy informed the body that he suspected the Executive Committee would take on the responsibility, since they are charged with conducting the affairs of the Senate between meetings. Possibly we could have language that empowered the Vice Chair to do this, since that position is fairly light in its duties.
Chair Carney indicated we will have more bylaws changes coming next month, perhaps we could take this one off the floor and look at it further. There was no motion from the floor to table.
Dr. Straight said that he was satisfied, as long as the Executive Committee is aware of the possibility.
There being no further questions or comments, Article IV, Section 7 passed by unanimous voice vote.
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Chair Carney informed the body that this was intended to be an open discussion on the MOU, and we would most likely take a vote on it next month. Pres. Hefner then stated that he hoped that if everything was acceptable that he hoped we could vote on it today.
Section 1 through 3
There were no questions or comments on these sections.
Section 4
Sen. Wilson indicated that some of her colleagues had expressed some anxiety over these targets. Will we need more classrooms (seats, sections, etc.), offices, faculty, etc.? Pres. Hefner responded, saying the reason we used 50 is that it does provide the campus with additional funding. Some of those years have already been added. Tuition from enrollment growth is one of the few means the campus has to augment its funding. If enrollment had been totally flat, we'd be in serious condition right now. He is hoping that we can cap enrollment once we get a rational tuition policy. The campus has not been able to keep tuition increases since 1983. This will generate for the campus next year (after inflation has been covered) about $505,000, which will help defray the costs of many of the points that Sen. Wilson has raised. He added that high school enrollment is expected to continue growing until 2011 in New York.
Sen. Wilson asked if this will be problematic. Pres. Hefner answered we will be crowded, but it will not impact us significantly.
Sen. Arnavut asked does the number 5500 include the Turkish program students. Pres. Hefner indicated that indeed, the Turkish students will be part of this increase. The first Turkish students are expected to be in residence at Fredonia next year (perhaps up to 10).
Section 5
Sen. Grady indicated he was wondering if we take money from the adjuncts to hire 30 additional faculty, won't that mean that a lot of sections taught by adjuncts won't be staffed? Pres. Hefner responded that that is why we are pushing to have a greater percentage of our courses taught by full time faculty. We will need some additional resources (yes, the $505,000 would help address that). Obviously, we can't do this out of nothing. We will need some funding to achieve it.
Sen. Arnavut asked if there weren't something like $10 million that SUNY was going to use for this (perhaps last year?) Pres. Hefner responded that it sounds like Sen. Arnavut was talking about the enrollment growth money. Yes, we did convert a number (VPAA Horvath said seven) of lines using that funding. We're growing by such small amounts that we get very little of that money.
Sen. Arnavut noted that in the MOU there is mention of a target of 1/3. When will we reach that? Pres. Hefner answered that we already are above that system-wide target, but we want to do even better. 2/3 of our FTE is full time. We are over that target already.
Sen. Thomas Loughlin suggested that in the next MOU, it would be nice to see an effort made to quantify the amount of plays, concerts, exhibitions, etc. in the arts area, similar to what was done for the natural sciences in this MOU.
Section 6
Sen. Wilson expressed concerns from her colleagues that we need more assistantships for our grad students. She didn't know if a change could be incorporated in the MOU, but it would be nice to emphasize that grad students need more assistantships (referring to the bottom of page 9.) Pres. Hefner said that yes that is an initiative that SUNY has asked for both to increase the dollar value and to expand the number of assistantships. We have gone on record supporting that. SUNY has yet to get it included in the budget.
Sen. Arnavut stated that four years ago a push began for accreditation for Business and Computer Science. When will these happen? VPAA Horvath informed the body that Business is about four years from a site visit from its accrediting body. We had a mentor for this process on campus this past fall. She doesn't know of a timetable for Computer Science, though.
Dr. Straight raised the issue that Fredonia is becoming more of a year-round operation. Some of the graduate programs require summer courses, yet we only fund summer teaching like an adjunct as far as pay scales are concerned. We may need to do something differently for the grad programs with summer program funding. VPAA Horvath responded that that is a particular concern of the College of Education. There has been no formal discussion, but informally the issue of faculty having summer courses being considered as part of their load has surfaced. Sen. Wilson and Sen. Jan McVicker indicated that they wanted to express support of Dr. Straight's concerns in this area.
Section 7
Sen. Arnavut asked what is going on in terms of assessment. Dr. Byrne answered, saying that there is a lot going on, but perhaps not in Sen. Arnavut's department. The issues last year and this year are similar. We are trying to bring assessment into a more "organic" phase. Chair Carney added that the Executive Committee is expecting some work in this area from the Planning & Budget Committee this semester, which will be brought to the Senate.
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked why the term "College" is used here. Pres. Hefner answered that this is the System's terminology for the "Arts and Science Colleges", and this is a System document.
Sen. Grady asked about library support. There is no money for the departments to use to purchase books this year. It seems that it is all about electronic offerings.
Mr. Randy Gadikian (Director of Reed Library) informed the body that indeed, the budget is not as robust as we would like, but we are experiencing inflationary pressures right now. We hope that our projections of increases in costs such as UPS charges, and Copyright Clearance Center fees are controllable, and that we can put together some sort of book budget for this year, but right now these are very flexible costs, and the increases can be brutal. We thought we had a handle on UPS costs, and then the cost of oil went up, and fuel surcharges went into effect. When will we know? Hopefully sometime very soon, but it is a matter of what is available above and beyond these types of costs. As for electronic versus print, we pay for what gets used. We have good statistics on use. We will have something soon on this issue.
Chair Carney added that at the recent SUNY Faculty Senate plenary, the Chancellor indicated that he has finally heard this enough. He said libraries are on his agenda, and he will talk to the presidents about it. It is a system wide problem. Sen. Grady continued that we need to address the chronically low book budget. Mr. Gadikian responded that some actions are being undertaken. We have some wonderful growth in endowments, but we are living in a very expensive time right now, just for maintaining services. We have spent a considerable amount on books for reserve materials this year. Other expenses and support of faculty scholarship are overpowering the budgets everywhere.
Chair Carney suggested that we could try to include this in the MOU, or we could reflect on it.
Mr. Gadikian then said the Library now has access to 29,000 full text online journals, plus we have incredible Interlibrary Loan services. We've gone from about 12,000 full text online access journals to 29,000 in the past three years.
Pres. Hefner informed the body that this past spring we sent forward nine priorities in addition to the graduate assistantship proposal. One of those was to increase funds for books and periodicals, and to expand funding to assist with electronic materials.
Sen. Arnavut added that in the last three years, the SUNY Senate Operations Committee has been pushing in support of funding for libraries. Last year we asked for $8 million in one-time additional funding for catch up, but it is going to take us all to get this issue to be at the top of Central Administrations priorities.
Sen. McKinney asked if we will address this issue at another time and go with what is here in the MOU. Chair Carney indicated that the Senate Executive Committee will look at the issue.
Section 8
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked whether student outcomes was discussed in relation to this portion of the MOU. On p. 13, the table concerning maintaining the four-year graduation rate, what does that mean? VPAA Horvath responded that when we talk about four-year retention rates, transfers are not included. Pres. Hefner added that the document you are looking at was an Oct. draft; the document we are talking about today is a Jan. draft. Chair Carney added that the document with the agenda was actually accompanying the minutes of the Dec. meeting; it was a handout at that meeting. An email was sent out with the Jan. draft, which is what she is projecting on the screen in the front of the room. Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked if the four years are determined from the point of entrance. Pres. Hefner answered that the note is the Federal norm. It is used because there are many campuses with lots of part-time students, and those campuses argue that four years is not long enough. Sen. David Herman (VP Student Affairs) added that the Federal government uses 4, 5, and 6 year rates when looking across the country. Many schools do not have such a high percentage of full-time students. Mr. Dan Tramuta (Assoc. VP Enrollment Services) informed the body that our first-time full-time freshman graduation rate is high.
Section 9
Sen. McKinney asked if there was any action on an overlay system for web pages. She didn't see anything in the MOU like that. VPAA Horvath asked if this was a recent system. Sen. McKinney indicated it had been demo'd last fall. The web person from each department had to attend. Chair Carney responded that nothing that recent would be in this document. This was first drafted two years ago.
Section 10
Chair Carney added as a sidebar to this section that energy costs were a major discussion point at the recent SUNY Faculty Senate plenary.
Sen. McVicker asked when the Fenton Hall and Houghton Hall infrastructure upgrades are being scheduled. Pres. Hefner indicated these projects will have to wait for the next five-year plan. The "Katrina Effect" had bids come in very much higher than what we had anticipated. If we get a five-year plan, we'll be able to get both of these into the flow. Houghton will be easier because it will be included in the Science building project; the real project is the Fenton one which will have to be pushed for.
Section 11
There were no comments or questions concerning this section.
Section 12 (or anything else)
Dr. Straight expressed the view that we can't do our MOU in isolation from other campuses. One major concern is that the University at Buffalo has plans to grow phenomenally, possibly 10,000 more undergrads. Any comments on that?
Pres. Hefner responded there has been a great deal of anxiety expressed by the WNY campuses. He has not heard a word from the system offices on this. It is not necessarily what I see in UBs MOU. VP Herman said that if UB were allowed to grow like that, we'd certainly let the system know that we'd have a very difficult time meeting our enrollment targets. Chair Carney added that at the plenary, the UB folks talked about this as a done deal. Mr. Tramuta then said that UB is our no. 1 application overlap school. That is a concern. VP Horvath added that is why we have to be good at telling our story. We have a lot of distinctiveness if they grow that large.
Sen. Arnavut stated that we may be different, but if they are targeting so many, it will definitely have an effect. Something should be done about it.
Sen. Reddy added that he had noted an article in the UB Reporter that was quoting the president at UB as being very concerned that the governor did not include any funding for UB expansion in the budget.
Chair Carney then thanked VP Horvath, Mr. Tramuta, and Pres. Hefner for being here to answer questions and concerns. She then asked if the body wished to vote or take what has been learned back to our constituencies for further discussion.
Sen. Reddy then moved to vote on the MOU, and Sen. McKinney seconded. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
There was no further discussion. The vote on the motion of the Executive Committee to support the MOU as written was passed by voice vote, with one abstention.
Dr. Straight indicated that Academic Affairs had some lengthy motions, and asked to wait until the other business of the Senate had been completed to determine if we had enough time to provide meaningful input. Chair Carney said without objection, we would do that.
Sen. Reneta Barneva as chair of the Committee informed the body that the Committee met and considered an upcoming event, the annual "Spring Forum", which will be on March 28, 2006, just after Spring break. She expressed hope that it will be convenient for all faculty and professional staff. They moved the time to 11:30AM until 1:30PM, around lunch. The Committee will base part of the programming for the Spring Forum on a survey that will be conducted electronically using ANGEL. The survey will still be anonymous, and if you aren't comfortable answering online, you may print the survey and submit it in print form. One task the Committee has undertaken is to try and streamline the committees on campus. She asked our help. If anyone knows of a committee that is still on the "books", but that no longer meets or has fulfilled its charge, please let the Committee know. Anyone can email her with such information (Reneta.Barneva@fredonia.edu).
Sen. Jacky Swansinger informed the body that as of his month, Eric Skowronsky is here in the capacity of Director for Lifelong Learning and Special Programs. She is very gleeful about that. Graduate Studies will make a very concerted effort to take a look at graduate studies, how it is organized, planning, etc., and explore its relationship with research grants administration. Please raise any issues you may have, and come talk to us about those. We have put together a report. If you wish to read it, we'll be happy to share it, or ask the members of the Graduate Council. This report will serve as a baseline, a beginning point from which we can build.
SUNY Senator Cheryl Drout indicated she had one carryover from the fall plenary: we were asked to investigate the role of emeritus status on the various campuses. She has found out that the emeritus status is automatically conferred when one retires in good standing. Here at Fredonia, there are designated emeritus offices and shared offices, and emeriti are tapped for a variety of purposes to assist the University. There are activities, including a monthly luncheon.
As for the winter plenary, alternate SUNY Senator Iyad Abu-Jeib has a written report which can be read at http://www.fredonia.edu/senate/reports.asp and is linked as "2007 / Winter Plenary Report". There was also made available a brief handout, titled: "SUNY-wide Faculty Senate Summary Report for February 12, 2007" (attached to these minutes).
Sen. Arnavut commented about the issue dealing with commercialization of research.
Chair Carney went over the process by which search committees that come to the Senate are formed, in response to a question made outside of the Senate by a faculty member. She informed the group that for both of the searches this year, the Executive Committee attempted to develop a framework that would be representative, then we looked at possible people (very subjective, we do realize that), and then we fill the slots. For these we consider diversity, experience in the field or fields with which the position being searched might have dealings, who "plays well together", etc., then we talk with the Administration, from whom we get input. Then we go back, determine who our list would be and prioritize that list (we usually have a primary and some backups for each position on the search committee), and then begin asking if our primaries would be willing to serve. Sometimes we have to go through the backups. And sometimes we have to go back to the drawing board because all for a particular slot say they are unable to serve at this time. The developing of the framework is the most interesting and intellectual part of the process.
There were no questions or comments.
At this point, Dr. Straight was asked if he felt there was enough time remaining to take up any of the issues that the Academic Affairs Committee had placed on the agenda. He indicated that considering the hour, it would be better to just wait until the next meeting. Chair Carney said that for the agenda of the next meeting we would try to bring up items requiring action before any non-action items.
Chair Carney called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Sens. Reddy/Arnavut moved and seconded. There was no discussion. The motion to adjourn passed by unanimous voice vote.
The meeting adjourned at 5:45 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Vincent Courtney
Faculty Secretary
Attendance Sheet
SUNY Highlights
Signing Draft 1-08-07