Minutes of the University Senate Meeting

April 30, 2007

The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chair Reneta Barneva at 4:05 PM in Fenton 105.

Sen. Richard Reddy moved to adopt the agenda. Sen. Chuck Stoddard seconded. There being no discussion, the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

Sen. Reddy moved to accept the minutes (attached to the agenda) of the meeting of April 2, 2007, as distributed. Sen. Raymond Rushboldt seconded. There being no discussion, the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

Report of the President

President Hefner reported

• There is no news regarding an appointment of an interim Chancellor.

• SUNY Administration last week announced they are planning on opening an office in Washington DC, rather than continuing to use the consulting firm they have used for the past four years. This move should save SUNY money and give us an improved presence in DC.

• There is still talk about a supplemental construction budget bill that will include SUNY. Such a bill has passed the State Senate already, with our science and technology building included. The Assembly is now playing games with this... there is a little political movement here and there. The Legislature is due to adjourn on June 21, so it is his guess that if a bill gets out, it will be on June 21. He is still hopeful to get the remaining funding of our science and technology building this legislative session.

• Gov. Spitzer has issued a new guideline for campuses in purchasing and contracting from minority- and women-owned businesses. We are now expected to have 10 percent or more from such firms, which is an increase from previous guidelines.

• There has been lots of talk about various campus security issues, following the tragic events at Virginia Tech. New York seems to be taking a fairly rational approach, looking to see what needs to be improved and at economies of scale, etc.

• He extended kudos to the Department of Theater and Dance for a wonderful staging of Pippin.

• He asked Dr. Jack Croxton to speak a bit about next year's convocation. Dr. Croxton indicated that there had been a substantial lessening of proposals for the grants announced in relationship to next year's convocation. His Convocation Committee is wondering if there were some reasons for this. He indicated that the proposals that did come in were excellent, but there were far fewer this go-round than in the past. The Committee would like to have some feedback to make convocation a more meaningful kind of event. Next year's convocation speaker will be delayed due to renovations being done in King Concert Hall.

Sen. Jan McVicker commented that this particular spring semester has been unusually crazy, with the number of searches especially, and the faculty are pretty burned out. No one had time in English to figure out what might be possible. She suggested a rolling proposal schedule, saving some of the funding for spring semester with a later date for submitting ideas, rather than having all proposals be due in the spring of the prior year: one deadline for fall events, and a second for spring events. Dr. Croxton said that the Committee could certainly consider something like that. Sen. McVicker continued that perhaps the word needs to get out more to student groups, as well. Having a later deadline for proposals for the spring might enable student groups to utilize some of the funding. And perhaps we need to have paper announcements as well as email. Sen. Jason Mellen added that many students don't have an awareness of this program. Many don't even know what convocation is.

Sen. Reddy commented that it might be helpful to have someplace on the web where the kinds of activities that have been funded in recent years could be seen. Most people wouldn't have much of an idea about what had been funded, and being able to see a list might help spark some ideas. Dr. Croxton responded that a web site does exist, and funded proposals have been placed on it. He indicated that perhaps he could reinforce the idea of this web site's existence during the next funding application period

• On the "good news" front, our Speech Pathology and Audiology department sent several students to an event to compete against other institutions (public and private), and our students came away with the top prizes for undergraduate and graduate presentations. There was an honorable mention, and that award went to a Fredonia student as well. We had a clean sweep!

• He expressed thanks to Mary Carney as her term as Senate Chairperson comes to an end. Her leadership of the Senate over the last year and a half deserves praise. [The body applauded Dr. Carney.]

• He bade us all have a good and restful summer.

Questions:

Sen. Rhea Simmons asked what the old percentage was for minority- and women-owned businesses. Pres. Hefner said for the State it was something like 3%, but SUNY had its own internal goal of 8%.

Sen. Stoddard thanked Pres. Hefner for the meeting at the Clock Tower last week. He thought it a very appropriate way of expressing our sadness over the Virginia Tech events

Report of the Vice President for Academic Affairs

VPAA Virginia Horvath

• Thanked Dr. Croxton for his work with this year's student research and creativity exposition. It was bigger and better than ever. She thanked the faculty as well.
• Updated the Senate on the ongoing searches, saying that we have successfully concluded a couple more, and she is waiting for the paperwork to be signed on those. She also informed the body that thanks to the Dean of Arts and Humanities Search Committee's great job, an offer has been made, and she is waiting to hear back from the candidate. There might be an announcement next week.
• She wanted to mention in this portion of the meeting that the Foundations of Excellence document we will be voting on today has had significant changes, thanks to the excellent comments made in this body at the special meeting. When the Senate votes today, you will be endorsing the philosophical statement and the top tier of actions, especially the agenda for the First Year Success Committee.
• Mentioned that a product from Digital Measures is being reviewed by Academic Affairs. This product allows individual faculty to build a database of what they have accomplished. This software allows one to keep one's CV up to date. As an example she indicated that one could enter the date of submission of an article, the date of its acceptance, and the date of its publication, etc. This software also allows those in administrative roles (chairs, deans, VPs, etc.) to build reports based on the information in the system, so chairs and others will not have to reproduce lists of activities and accomplishments, but instead would just have to run a report. She indicated that for last year's annual report for Academic Affairs she is still waiting for pieces of information to be prepared. With a system such as Digital Measures, she could just run a report, and that information would be available. It is a tool that is paid for on a subscription basis, and is not very expensive. Should the campus decide to subscribe, she will see that an orientation session will be held. She envisions that this would be a great thing to have as we begin to deal with our Middle States review.
• Asked everyone to watch for an announcement concerning the Fredonia Plan kickoff event for next fall. She is thinking of having a one day event with faculty meeting together to discuss teaching and learning in an open and productive way.
• Added her thanks to the Senators for their work, and especially thanked the student members of the Senate.

Questions:

Sen. Amy Cuhel-Schuckers asked if the Digital Measures product was searchable. Dr. Horvath indicated that one would have to be authorized to use it for reports, but it might make sense for the Grants office to have such access. It is all about report generation, in a department or a college. Anything that can be sorted can be pulled out, but it does not have the capability of searching by topics.

Sen. Ziya Arnavut asked what would be different about using this software regarding the annual report. The Vice President responded that it will make it much easier to put together reports. We are still asking units to give us the data for last year's report! It could help with curricular approval reports for the State. Lots of time is spent re-doing things that machines can help us with pretty easily. This will cost about $15000 per year, and that is half a staff person. She is hoping it will help chairs especially.

Report of the Chair of the University Senate

[Chair Mary Carney took over the running of the meeting at this point.]

Chair Carney reported on two things from the Executive Committee:

Proposed Membership for the Task Forced on Personnel Policies Steering Committee, which is a motion from the Executive Committee (attached to the electronic version of these minutes as "task force personnel policies steering committee document.doc")

She prefaced presenting the list of proposed members by stating:

• The Steering Committee is not going to be the whole thing; we envision this being similar to the Foundations of Excellence group, with many serving on subcommittees.
• The volunteer list will be provided to the Steering Committee to assist with populating the subcommittees, but there will be room for persons not on the volunteer list as well.
• Some materials needed by the Steering Committee will be gathered over the summer.
• We hope that librarians and professionals will intermingle with teaching faculty on the subcommittees, so that we can all share in a dialog and become aware of the differences issues that various personnel face.
• We will consult with UUP. We don't intend for this to become a contractual problem.

She then listed the following proposed Steering Committee members:

Maggie Bryan-Peterson, Co-Chair (Chair of the Faculty and Professional

Affairs Committee in 2007-2008, and a professional in Academic Affairs)

Richard Reddy, Co-Chair (volunteer from the Senate Executive Committee,

and representing Social Sciences)

Kerrie Wilkes (Librarian)

Jodi Rzepka (Professional, Administration area)

Averl Otis (Professional, Student Services area)

Julia Wilson (Natural Sciences)

Tom Loughlin (Arts)

Nancy Hagedorn (Humanities)

Cynthia Smith (Education)

Discussion:

Sen. McVicker commented that this looked like a great Task Force, but she was concerned that none of the proposed members represented Interdisciplinary Studies where there have been personnel issues that really impact those faculty. She would like to have one added. Chair Carney replied that the Executive Committee did discuss the problems that have been impacting interdisciplinary faculty. The Committee felt that there would be plenty of room in the subcommittees for interdisciplinary members, and that their concerns would be raised and looked into.

Sen. Mike Grady asked what was the exact charge of this Task Force. Chair Carney offered that the exact charge is being worked out, and the general overall aim is to examine the campus-wide policies for appointment, reappointment, tenure and promotion for librarians, professionals, and faculty. No one is predicting the outcome. There are things that have to be looked at, such as external review (which the campus said it would look at in the recently approved MOU), professional appointment and reappointment issues; how can we make it a better process for each of us, and knowing what each unit does and how it operates in personnel matters, and so on. Sen. Grady asked if these matters included reviewing policies concerning adjuncts, as well. Chair Carney responded yes, it will include part-time, full-time, and adjunct issues. She would expect persons in those categories to be involved in some or all of the subcommittees. Right now we are thinking this will be very general. It might become more specific as the process unfolds, but the entire thing came out of the MOU.

Sen. Jamar Pickreign asked if perhaps there shouldn't be an adjunct on the Steering Committee. Chair Carney said in response that as the Executive Committee was thinking about the makeup and structure of the Steering Committee, we thought how we get all of the necessary viewpoints onto the Steering Committee without making it so large that very few members will be able to attend meetings. The subcommittees can work for the interdisciplinary needs, the adjunct faculty needs, etc. We don't know the issues for the subcommittees until we get a view of what we have to look at and work on.

Sen. Iclal Vanwesenbeeck asked about the Steering Committee [the Secretary didn't get the gist of her question]. Chair Carney replied that we certainly don't want any areas or types of personnel left out. We want a structure that will encourage discussing these issues as freely as possible, as widely as possible. We are very concerned about having everyone's needs and concerns represented.

Sen. McVicker asked what the Steering Committee was going to be responsible for. Chair Carney answered that the Steering Committee will meet with VP Horvath soon to hash out the charge, and provide input as to what information the Committee will need to begin its work. That information will be gathered over the summer. We're hoping for something similar to how the Foundations of Excellence worked, with subcommittees feeding into the Steering Committee and multiple, different kinds of input and discussions occurring. The Steering Committee will be the overseers, and information will flow back to the Steering Committee. [Missed question from Sen. McVicker.] Chair Carney responded yes.

There being no further discussion, the vote was taken. The motion was approved by unanimous voice vote.

Report on the Campus Governance Leaders portion of the recent SUNY University Senate Plenary (attached to the electronic version of these minutes as "Report of the CGLs Meeting held at the 146th Plenary of the University Faculty Senate.doc")

Vice-Chair Barneva commented on a handout she had prepared for this meeting. The handout is attached to the minutes.

She highlighted the portions concerning

• Student financial situation after leaving college
• The 60th anniversary of the SUNY System (next year)
• Internships
• Leadership program that was developed at SUNY Geneseo

Sen. Jeremy Corrente commented with regard to the student loan portion of the Plenary, Fredonia already does most of the educating that your report mentions. We do entrance and exit interviews, and students are required to sign an agreement indicating that they understand the issues involved with student loans. He indicated he was curious about why this was raised at the Plenary. Sen. Barneva responded that she had not known about Fredonia's activities in this area. She asked to be provided with information that she could pass on to the other CGLs.

ACTION ITEMS

Foundations of Excellence (on the ANGEL web site in Content area under title: FoE Steering Committee Draft for April 30th Meeting and on the Senate agenda web page under the link http://www.fredonia.edu/senate/HomePageLinks/Steering%20Committee%20Report%20Draft%20APRIL.doc )

VPAA Horvath rose to deal with questions about the revised "Foundations of Excellence" document, which is on the agenda for a vote brought forth by the Foundations of Excellence Steering Committee. [As VPAA Horvath had indicated earlier, we will be voting on the philosophy statement and the top tier of action items (those marked 1.x).]

Sen. Mary Sasso commented regarding the portion concerning ways that first year students could interact with sophomores through seniors, the International Education office has been doing this for quite a while. It works really well.

Sen. Nan Bowser asked how the First Year Success Committee will be appointed. VPAA Horvath suggested that she was thinking that could begin with volunteers. We need a structure first. She continued that she found valuable ideas came out of the 100 or more people who worked on the project during this academic year, plus the refining comments that came out of the hour and a half special meeting of the Senate. That helped us to get this very much in shape. If there are better numbers than what we have in this document, and a few have come to her today indicating that, then please get those to VPAA Horvath ASAP.

There being no further discussion, the vote on the philosophy statement was taken. That portion passed by unanimous voice vote.

Sen. Reddy asked to clarify which of the action items were being voted on as the "top priorities". VPAA Horvath indicated that those on pages 14-16 were the ones. The Committee will bring forth other if the approval of the Senate is needed when those need to be created, edited, bolstered, or otherwise dealt with.

The top action items were approved by unanimous voice vote.

Library Advisory Committee: Proposed Weeding Policy (attached to the electronic version as "Proposed Weeding Policy (final rev.).doc")

University Librarian Randy Gadikian presented the Library Weeding Policy, with changes made based on the comments made at the Senate meeting of April 2, for approval.

Sen. Grady asked what happens to those titles that will be discarded but won't be sent to the University at Buffalo. Mr. Gadikian said there are many possibilities: we can offer them to faculty for their offices or reading rooms; we can offer them to other libraries; we might be able to sell them; or, those that are in poor condition could be trashed. Sen. Grady then asked what about a book that is marked for withdrawal that is monetarily valuable. Mr. Gadikian said that books having high monetary value are most likely housed in Archives with the Rare Books. If we had a second copy, we might be able to sell it. Would we want to retain it if it didn't serve our needs? Probably not. But we would not put it in a dumpster; we would try to sell it.

Sen. Reddy asked for clarification of the 45 days, on p. 2 in stage 3. The faculty tend to interpret that as during the academic year, but that isn't explicitly stated. Mr. Gadikian responded that the Library Advisory Committee never entertained the idea of the 45 days being at a time when the faculty weren't generally on campus. We would not expect the 45 days to be during summer.

There being no further discussion, the vote was taken. The policy was approved as presented by unanimous voice vote

Report of the SUNY-wide University Senator (attached to the electronic version of these minutes as "Report on the 146th Meeting of the University-wide Faculty Senate.doc"

Sen. Cheryl Drout, our SUNY University Senator, reported on the recent Plenary. Her handout is attached to these minutes.

She commented:

. External review: some at the Plenary indicated that this didn't just rise out of SUNY Administration, but Middle States was now expecting external review. She thought the Task Force on Personnel Policies would want to look into that.

Questions:

Sen. Arnavut commented that he heard that the SUNY Provost was pushing the idea of external review. Sen. Drout indicated that did not come from Risa Palm at this meeting.

[Secretary's addition: Former Provost Peter Salins was a big advocate of external review.]

Sen. Reddy said that anyone can comment on the relationship between Middle States and the campuses, but when Middle States has changed policies, how do we find out. Sen. Drout offered that when Dr. Peter Sinden and she were in charge of a Middle States 5-year review, they went to meetings that gave information. She imagines that such meetings happen during decennial reviews as well. Pres. Hefner indicated that we will be sending two people to a Middle States meeting this fall. He hadn't heard anything about Middle States requiring external reviews, either, but that doesn't mean there isn't something beginning to work its way through at Middle States. Sen. Reddy asked could we ask. Pres. Hefner said that he would call the Executive Director and ask. Dr. Roger Byrne commented that there is no language in the current 2006 standards, but that doesn't mean that nothing is being brought forward in that regard.

Sen. Drout briefly went over the five areas that SUNY Provost Palm has in her draft for the Commission on Higher Education. (See the attached report.)

Sen. McVicker asked if Provost Palm seemed positive about the "Rethinking SUNY" document that had been passed by the Board of Trustees years ago. Sen. Drout responded that she played that down. She talked about it in a historical review.

Sen. Arnavut asked if there was concern about colleges "defining themselves" in their names and logos, what is the outcome. Are these going to be stopped? Sen. Drout said the resolution was passed, and it will be sent to the Chancellor, but the feeling is that this addresses the problem from this point on. It wasn't clear whether anything could be done about such things that have already been done. Pres. Hefner offered that the presidents have raised this issue with the Chancellor. There is a great deal of self-generated labels without anyone consulting with System Administration. If it is officially designated by the Board of Trustees, that is one thing, if not, that is a totally different thing.

Standing Committee Annual Reports

Chair Carney indicated we will go through these alphabetically. Joe Straight from Academic Affairs could not be here, but the Academic Affairs Committee report is here on the tables (and it is attached to the electronic version of these minutes as "Academic Affairs annual-report06-07.doc"). Student Affairs did not send any but it will be sent and posted on the ANGEL site.

CCC Committee (attached to the electronic version of these minutes as "CCC Committee Annual Report Spring 2007.doc")

Chair Dick Reddy indicated that this report not only provides an overview of what the Committee did during 2006-2007, but also gives an idea of what the Director's role is on campus.

There were no questions or comments.

Faculty and Professional Affairs Committee (attached to the electronic version of these minutes as "Faculty and Professional Affairs Year-end report 2007.doc")

Sen. Barneva thanked the members of her Committee and announced that next year's chair will be Maggie Bryan-Peterson. The chairmanship rotates annually between a professional and a faculty member.

Sen. Jodi Rzepka commented that the reason there is no web presence for the emergency preparedness plan is that some security advisors felt that to post it would be to let those who would do harm to our community know exactly where they could they could go to have the most impact. There are red portfolios distributed throughout campus. These are flip charts that have various categories of emergencies and "what to do" information.

There were no other questions or comments.

Planning & Budget Committee (attached to the electronic version of these minutes as "P-BAnnual06-7.doc")

Chair Kathleen Gradel thanked the members of her Committee for their service.

There were no questions or comments.

OTHER

Chair Carney asked if there were any new business items from the floor. Hearing none, she thanked Dr. Ana Maria Klein for volunteering to run for Vice-Chair next year. She also thanked all of the Senators for indulging her idiosyncrasies and for their service. She thanked the standing Committees because they do most of the work that comes before the body, and she made sure to thank Tracy Benkelman and Katie Blackman (Tracy's work-study student) for their hard work. She then thanked Dr. Hefner and Dr. Horvath, and the members of the Senate Executive Committee, and especially thanked the student representatives who have come and provided good input. She wanted the students to know that their voice and their ideas are valued by all of us.

Sen. Reddy moved to adjourn, and Sen. Arnavut seconded. The motion had no discussion, and passed by unanimous voice vote.

The meeting adjourned at 5:25 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Vincent Courtney, Faculty Secretary