The meeting was called to order by Vice Chair Reneta Barneva at 4:05 PM in Fenton 105. Chair Mary Carney was present, but was allowing Vice Chair Barneva to gain some experience.
At the request of the Vice Chair, Sens. Richard Reddy and Raymond Rushboldt moved and seconded that the agenda be approved as distributed. There was no discussion. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
At the request of the Vice Chair, Sens. Reddy and Rushboldt moved and seconded that the minutes of the meeting of February 12, 2007, be approved as distributed. There was no discussion. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Pres. Hefner indicated that SUNY Day had been a busy one, and that things are "lining up" pretty nicely. His main goal was to secure funding for enrollment growth, which was not included in the Executive Budget. Several staff members of the legislature think that has a good chance of being added. The Senate Higher Education Committee is looking at taking money for higher education and putting it into TAP, most of which would go to the private universities. He also spent a fair amount of time lobbying for the remaining funds to construct the new Science-Technology building. He thinks it will come, and then we'll have to make sure the governor doesn't veto it. The Child Care Center looks like it is solid, and will most likely be funded. Pres. Hefner also reported that the legislature is expecting to get the higher education bill through the two committees at least in draft form by March 12! Both houses have reached agreement on the "availables", and there saying there is � billion available over and above the governor's proposed budget. The governor is making noises about a rainy day fund, but Pres. Hefner doesn't think that is going to happen.
Pres. Hefner continued, saying that the campus administration has made their "best guess" and assuming the funding for increasing enrollment passes the legislature, they are projecting that after the additional utilities costs and negotiated salary increases are covered, there should be $505,000 additional to spend next year. They have already committed to funding four additional faculty (which will take roughly $200,000) and there will not be a lot left over after paying for the minimum wage increases and postage increases. This is certainly better than what we've had at this time in many years. The VPs have gone ahead with recommendations to the Cabinet; the Cabinet is looking at it, and he will meet with the Long Range Planning & Budget Committee soon.
Pres. Hefner announced that the bids on two major segments of the boiler replacement project came in slightly under budget. The digging of gas lines came in roughly $100,000 under, and the phase 2 of the three-phase project (seven buildings involved) came in more than $500,000 under. These are the first time that two consecutive projects have come in under the bid estimate in the last two years. Perhaps the "Katrina effect" has worked its way through. The campus gets to keep the money if we get under budget bids, and that is good news.
With even more good news, Pres. Hefner announced that two of our divers qualified for the nationals, and in the track and field SUNYAC meet, Julia Hobson set a new SUNYAC record, and will probably qualify for the nationals, and the Fredonia hockey team won the SUNYAC tournament and will be going to the NCAA tournament. He said that was especially sweet, because we won at Plattsburgh, and last year Plattsburgh won the SUNYAC hockey tournament here at Fredonia, and he didn't really enjoy handing them the trophy then.
Questions
Sen. Julia Wilson asked if he had gotten to see the performance of Proof. Pres. Hefner said that he had, and it was phenomenal, perhaps the best drama or at least one of the best that we've ever had here.
Sen. Thomas Loughlin rose to point out that Senator Barbara Craig, the set designer for Proof, was here. Her fellow Senators applauded her achievement.
VP Horvath indicated that the ongoing searches are moving along so well that she can hardly catch her breath. The campus has been successful in many of these because of the professionalism and courtesy you show the candidates. Only one search thus far has not been able to continue forward. The rest are still open, and many of our top candidates have been recruited successfully. Thank you!
She reported that the search for the Dean of Arts and Humanities is moving along. A short list of candidates was given to the VPAA this week. We offered to have the Sen. Executive Committee meet as a separate group with each of the Dean and AVP for Graduate Studies and Research candidates, but that committee indicated that it would be just as good for them to go to the open sessions for the candidates. She indicated that taking more space to explain the position of the AVP helped bring forth more candidates.
There were no questions.
Vice Chair Barneva announced that there are handouts with the dates of the Senate meetings for the next academic year. If you see any problems with conflicts with civil or religious holidays, etc., please inform us. We hope to avoid some of the problems we've experienced in the past. Feel free to send us comments if you have them.
At this point in the meeting, Chair Mary Carney resumed her role as Senate Chair.
Chair Carney confirmed that there will be a special meeting of the Senate on March 26, 2007. The sole item of business will be the Foundations of Excellence draft report.
Chair Carney then informed the body that the agenda for this meeting divides the Committee reports into Action Items and Discussion Items. We felt that such a structure will bring committee motions to the body in a more efficient manner.
Dr. H. Joseph Straight, Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee presented:
A. Academic Forgiveness Policy (attached to the Agenda for this meeting)
Dr. Straight informed the body that there were a few changes to this draft policy, reflecting our last discussion of it. In section 1, the Committee increased the credits to 50. In the last part of section 1, the Committee added some language that Julia Wilson suggested. Beginning with "In the application for Freshman Forgiveness..." and continuing through the end of section 1, is all revised language. In section 3, it had been suggested that we exclude the semester for which bankruptcy is sought in the determination as to whether the student was in good academic standing. We incorporated that.
DISCUSSION:
Sen. Jason Mellen indicated that he brought this policy to the Student Association General Assembly to get a straw poll about it, and said that as a whole, the SA approved of it 20 to 3, but when asked about the Freshman Forgiveness portion only, the vote went 20 to 0 against the idea. He stated that he has expressed his concern to the Committee, and asked that the Senators please take this information into consideration.
Dr. Straight asked when the poll had been taken. Sen. Mellen answered about two weeks ago.
Sen. Rhea Simmons asked how many freshmen were included in those votes. Sen. Mellen responded approximately three.
Sen. Mellen continued, saying that the students thought that it brought academic integrity down.
Sen. Cody Meyers told the body that he had presented this idea to many groups, and students generally approve of academic forgiveness, but not freshman forgiveness. The students argue that the course repeat option allows students to improve their grades.
Sen. Nan Bowser, Registrar, asked by saying they approve of academic forgiveness, do you mean they approve of academic bankruptcy. Sen. Meyers responded yes, and the restart, but not the freshman forgiveness.
Dr. Straight then said that sometimes students look at the 18 credits and think that is a lower boundary instead of an upper boundary. This is not to be used in lieu of other options. He can't envision that many credits being forgiven. These are mostly for a change of major, and petitioning students will have to make a good case for this forgiveness. Appointees to the committee will be tough but fair faculty who will not allow just anything to pass through. There will be good controls on it.
Sen. David Herman, VP Student Affairs, reported that one of the original groups that discussed something like this was the Student Affairs Committee, who raised it because of music majors who can't get into music theory or aural theory and that is where it began. This was supposed to be a very narrow set of circumstances. Did you discuss this aspect with your committees and groups?
Sen. Mellen responded yes, we went through all the steps, and it still wasn't considered a good idea.
Dr. Straight informed the body that the Committee on Academic Standing is looking at this policy, and we're hoping to do something for these kinds of academic problems early on. Readmitted students are not very successful when they return to Fredonia. If we can get more students to think more seriously about the choices they are making early on, it will be to everyone's benefit.
Sen. Wilson said that while she respects students' opinions, probably under-represented in those groups are exactly the type of student who would support such a plan as this. Sen. Mellen responded by saying he has also talked with some of the freshman boys in Chautauqua Hall. They share the same opinions as the SA. Not everyone agreed, but most did. We thought of a different option, perhaps just allow for specific majors, or only music. One could make a list of the programs it is allowed for.
Sen. Meyers informed the body that it wasn't just the SA reps who were there, but also the group representatives. There was a wider range of students.
Sen. Bowser stated that two meetings ago, one of the Senators asked if academic bankruptcy could be changed to include first semester students. Did the Committee not want to do that? Dr. Straight answered, yes. Bankruptcy is for the exceptional semester, due to circumstances beyond the student's control other than academic issues.
Sen. Michael Grady asked what if a student's chair vetoes it, perhaps if they disagree with this entirely. Dr. Straight responded that a chair could indicate objection without stopping it.
Sen. Charles Telly then told the body that as you know, I'm against all of these. Let me just mention that Prof. Vink was telling me that on the entire campus, we have 40% A's. I'm not sure how we can water down this campus more. I'd be worried about being students being ashamed to come to a school that gives 40% A's. Now we have all these forgivenesses. Why not give all A's, and not come?! Where does this stop? Doesn't anybody have responsibility for his/her decisions? How can anyone mature if we don't allow them to mature? I don't understand the reason for all this. I don't understand why we want to water down the entire university.
Sen. Joni Milgram-Luterman spoke in favor of the freshman forgiveness option. Music therapy as a major is a fairly big choice for a 17-year old. It can be that because of lack of ability with theory that they are not going to make it. Then, when they change their major, they have a horrible GPA due to that grade. There are institutions that have only pass/fail grading for the first semester.
Sen. Herman asked how many cases in a typical year you expect. Dr. Straight answered with academic bankruptcy we see three or four a year, and only two of those are approved. My guess would be in the tens, rather than the hundreds. We will keep a close eye on it, and we will be reporting to the Senate.
Sen. Jan McVicker asked if we are going to be able to vote on these as separate items. Dr. Straight said he was thinking voting on the entire piece as one package.
Sen. Reddy rose to speak in favor of the policy as it has been amended over a period of time. This is basically an effort to be fair to students over time. We can't expect that all of our students can succeed the first time they take a course. We can't permit them to retake and retake and retake one course. Perhaps a student made a mistake when they chose their major; they don't have any idea if they can be successful in a major if they choose it in high school. They come and are sincere but don't have the talent to do what they wanted to do. The restart option makes sense, and academic bankruptcy is something we've had for some time. This is a noble effort on our part.
Sen. Marcus Vink then said that options two and three are fine. But option one is problematic. There is something about a learning experience: there are consequences to your actions. There is a significant amount of high grades in our courses. How do we compare to other institutions? How will we become known elsewhere? We like to pride ourselves on our stature.
Sen. Meyers asked what if you have a situation where two freshmen begin. One has difficulties in the chosen major, the other does not. By using the freshman forgiveness option, they both are on the same level playing field in the second year?
Sen. Wilson argued that the freshman forgiveness option is not the same problem as grade inflation. In University Calculus, you will get a student who does not have the aptitude. If there is no recourse, perhaps one could give that student a D so they can continue, but if one does not that student doesn't have much recourse.
Sen. Neil Feit stated two months ago a question came up asking if a liberal arts (undeclared) student going into a major counted. What was the answer? Dr. Straight responded we indicated that in our preliminary opinion such a change of major could be yes, but I would like to think that the Academic Forgiveness Committee will have prevue over this, and will come up with appropriate policy should it be needed.
Sen. Thomas Janik rose to say that he'd prefer to have these three considered separately. The Chemistry Department is not supportive of academic forgiveness. Are all these safety nets a dis-incentive to motivating a student? No matter how they mess up in their first year, there will be this safety net. Is that good? Dr. Straight responded that we are not allowing a student to wipe out a whole semester. The 18 credits is an upper boundary that will hardly ever be attained. The point was made last time that we already have this, but we just make the students flunk out before applying it.
Sen. Reddy, as Parliamentarian, indicated that the body can make an amendment to exclude freshman forgiveness. Another option would be to divide the question. Or we can deal with the question in the manner prescribed in the original motion.
Sen. Vink moved to amend the motion on the floor by excluding the freshman forgiveness option. Sen. McVicker seconded.
Discussion:
Sen. Wilson asked would we have two motions to vote on. Sen. Reddy answered that the effect would be to remove freshman forgiveness from the original motion. What remains would be what would be voted upon if the motion to amend passes.
Sen. Milgram-Luterman asked what is the status of it right now. Dr. Straight responded we could certainly do this in this manner. The Academic Affairs Committee did this as a single package, and would love to have it considered that way. Is there a policy right now for freshman forgiveness? No. This is a new policy.
Sen. Grady commented that as far as freshman forgiveness is concerned, you have to consider what it says and the image it presents. Some consider the image as being damaging. Students might misconstrue this, as well, and give up early. Dr. Straight responded that if there is concern about the image this presents, he would focus on the restart option, which allows up to 60 credits.
Sen. Kerrie Wilkes asked if we vote on the motion to amend and approve that, then there is no further discussion of freshman forgiveness at this time. The response from Sen. Reddy and Dr. Straight was yes.
Sen. Jamar Pickreign commented that as it is written the freshman forgiveness policy absolves a student from having flunked out from applying for readmission. He then asked if we eliminate this section, then the only available option is the restart option. Dr. Straight indicated that yes, that would be the case, but a freshman could also be granted a semester on probation, could improve his/her GPA by course repeats, etc. If we can catch the students earlier, it would be a win-win situation. This is intended particularly for students who come in with a major they then find is more rigorous than what they can handle. Readmits apply to the same major. Some students do get admitted to a new major only because their present major will not allow them to return. Sen. Bowser then reported that we have a new policy in the Registrar's Office allowing readmitted students to return to the same major, but on probation. [garbled notes re: grant leniency to the discipline if the students wish] There is a misconception that everyone in academic trouble leaves as a dismissal. Anyone with a 1.99 GPA and less has the option to come back under the readmit petition, even though they were not necessarily dismissed (but only a step away), which is why the restart policy is better.
Sen. McVicker stated that if the rationale was for a few students in one or two majors, it doesn't make sense to me to adopt a policy that affects everybody. Why don't those programs work with students to help them make a wiser decision in the first year? I was one of those freshmen, in a pre-med program, who had illness and bad choices. I turned out okay without one of these safety nets.
Sen. Milgram-Luterman commented that unfortunately these days there are fewer people who look at the individual than there used to be. Sen. McVicker added that we are part of the problem, if we don't. Dr. Straight responded that there is more to it than just looking at grade averages, etc.
Sen. Milgram-Luterman asked if there weren't a way to make it more specific. Dr. Straight indicated that the Academic Affairs Committee didn't want to tie the hands of the Academic Forgiveness Committee. Then Sen. Milgram-Luterman asked if another situation could be given as an example. Dr. Straight said that we can't envision all the possible situations.
Sen. Bowser informed the body that no first semester freshman is eligible for academic bankruptcy, irrespective of what happens in their lives.
There being no further discussion, a vote on the motion to amend was taken. By show of hands, 17 voted Aye, 18 voted No, and 1 abstained. The motion to amend did not pass.
Then the vote on the policy as moved by the Academic Affairs Committee was taken. By show of hands 21 voted Aye, 16 No, and no abstentions were recorded. The Academic Forgiveness Policy passed.
Sen. Bowser asked if this becomes effective in fall 2009, since that would be the first catalog it can be published in. Dr. Straight said the Academic Affairs Committee wasn't sure if the catalog would be the best place to promulgate this policy. It should eventually go in the catalog, but we felt it could go ahead and be promulgated in a brochure sent out to the students. We were thinking fall 2007. Sen. Bowser added that some students have already been readmitted for fall 2007. Dr. Straight said that students have to have 12 credits before they can do that, and they could still do that this summer, but the new policy expects students to have credits. Sen. Bowser continued saying that it is too late for fall 2007. Students have already applied and do not know about the changes. Pres. Hefner then interjected that this seems to be procedural. There will be something coming out. Dr. Straight said that if there is a delay in the implementation that is fine as well.
B. Advising Manifesto (attached to the agenda for the Feb. 12, 2007, meeting)
Dr. Straight in introducing the Advising Manifesto indicated that he would suggest a couple of changes that had been raised by Sen. Reddy. The first would be on page 1, in the section "Student Responsibilities in the Advising Process," in the first bullet. The parenthetical phrase "(of particular interest to undeclared/Liberal Arts students as they explore for a major)" may have been put in the wrong place. This is more appropriate as a note for the faculty than for the students. Therefore we would move this to the first bullet under "Faculty/Professional Staff Responsibilities in the Advising Process."
The second slight change is on pages 4 and 5. Under "Additional Sources of Information" we would like to add between the Academic Advising Center and the Financial Aid Office, the Director of the College Core Curriculum Program, and in the last paragraph (beginning with "As a general rule...") we would add the Director of the College Core Curriculum Program between items 4 and 5, as number 5, and renumber the items following the present number 5.
Discussion:
Sen. Mellen asked if you would include Dr. Reddy's name. Dr. Straight indicated that no, just the title of the position would be added, since the person holding that position can change with time.
Sen. Carmen Rivera asked where this would be published or otherwise be made accessible. Dr. Straight responded that the Academic Affairs Committee did not explicitly decide where this should go. We did talk about trying to give it to incoming freshman during the summer, and how we could try to get it into the hands of present students and advisors. Perhaps the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs would be kind enough to publish it as a brochure?
There being no further discussion, the vote was taken. The motion passed by voice vote.
C. Commencement Resolution (attached to the Agenda for this meeting)
In introducing the motion, Dr. Straight said that this had been a concern for some time, and the Committee didn't know there was already a policy. Acknowledging that we were limited in what we could legislate in this area, we did want to make a good strong statement in terms of the faculty and what we feel about attending commencement. The students appreciate having us there, parents enjoy meeting us, and particularly now that we have a split ceremony, we felt that to have such a policy made sense. And besides, non-binding resolutions seem to be all the rage right now.
Discussion:
There was no discussion of the motion.
The motion passed by voice vote.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
Planning and Budget Committee: Comprehensive Assessment Plan
Dr. Kathleen Gradel, Chair of the Committee, informed the body that Dr. Roger Byrne was going to present information regarding the Draft Comprehensive Plan for Assessment at SUNY Fredonia. The Assessment Committee brought this plan to Planning & Budget for our review. We have reviewed the document, and expect to review the document again, since slight changes have been made. We expect to bring the document forth to the Senate once we have endorsed it. Dr. Byrne is going to give a little infomercial about it.
Dr. Byrne then presented a brief summary, saying that in preparation for our Middle States review in 2010, two of the key standards are assessment standards. We need to have an organized and sustained assessment process, and a document that espouses such. The Assessment Committee has been discussing this for about eighteen months or so. The VPAA has brought it to Cabinet for their review several times, and we are in the last stages of putting together the wordage for P&B's final review. The final approved draft will be shown to P&B in the next week or so.
Vice Presidents Horvath and Herman lead this presentation.
We are bringing a "very drafty" draft of the Steering Committee's report. It is the work of about 100 people, all this year. We received far more suggestions than we could accomplish all at once. We know it is not done, but we really want to invite discussion and comments. VP Herman said that he is sure that we'll be making significant changes to this draft, but since we will be meeting about the end of March, we thought you'd need to see it as it is right now, even though we will be making changes. Most of this relates to "behind the scenes" information. There is a freshman year experience web site with data. If you'd like to send comments even before the meeting, please send them to us!
Questions:
Sen. McVicker asked is there a way to obtain this electronically. Chair Carney answered yes, it is on the ANGEL senate site. All of you should be registered for use of that now.
VP Horvath informed the body that they are getting feedback at the national policy center level, as well... human resources that are commenting.
Chair Carney added that the ANGEL web site also has a Senate discussion forum. All ex officio members are also included in that discussion forum. We will also put it out on the voting faculty Listserv list, but she is not sure that everyone actually receives that.
Dr. Cheryl Drout indicated that her report had been distributed in advance. She would be willing to answer questions. There were no questions. She did want to point out something about the course redesign initiative: SUNY is promoting our involvement with the National Center for Academic Transformation, which advocates using advanced technology in courses.
Release Time Policy
Chair Carney informed the body about the current policy on release time, and indicated that we had recently negotiated what appears with the agenda packet. Now the Chair, and the Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee will get two course releases per year (one each semester), the Chairs of the Faculty and Professional Affairs Committee and the Planning & Budget Committee will receive one course release per year, the Faculty Secretary and the Governance Officer will each receive a $1000 stipend for the year.
The Executive Committee would move that this renegotiated policy by approved.
There were no questions or discussion.
The vote was taken, and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Bylaw Revisions
The Bylaw revisions attached to the agenda will be voted on as a package. Every place in the Bylaws that refers to a policy, we would like to place a link in the online version. The rest tidies up trying to make the language reflect the reality of our practices, along with changing wording to reflect the current organizational structure of the campus.
Chair Carney then outlined each of the changes to the body.
There were no questions or concerns.
The vote was taken, and the proposed Bylaw revisions passed by unanimous voice vote. Chair Carney reminded the Senate that we would be submitting those changes that require a vote of the full faculty to the faculty.
Chair Carney reminded the body that the Executive Committee is working to put together a slate for officers' positions for 2007-2008. We would love to have more nominees! Self-nominations are acceptable. So please let those of us on the Executive Committee know if you or anyone else is interested in serving in an officer in the University Senate.
Sen. Reddy rose to say that we now have a package of Bylaw revisions that will need to be voted on by the full faculty. Please, please, please encourage your faculty in your departments to vote (even if it is just an abstention). We need to have a quorum voting, or else our efforts will be for naught.
A member of the body asked how the vote will be conducted. Sen. Reddy replied that it will be via a written ballot.
Chair Carney asked for a motion to adjourn. Sens. Telly/Reddy moved and seconded the motion.
There was no discussion.
The voice vote on the motion was unanimous in the affirmative.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:31 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Vincent Courtney, Faculty Secretary
ATTACHMENTS:
Attendance Sheet
Increasing Success for Underserved Students
Calendar Year 2007-2008
Dates for Senate Meetings AY 2007-08
Foundations of Excellence
Academic Forgiveness Policy - Final
Advising Manifesto - Final