The meeting was called to order by Chair Reneta Barneva at 4:05 PM in Fenton 105.
Chair Barneva announced an addition to the agenda as it was distributed: under New Business we will hear a report from Jason Mellen concerning sustainability education.
Sen. Richard Reddy (Governance Officer) moved that the agenda be accepted as amended. Sen. Amy Cuhel-Schuckers (At Large, Divisional) seconded. The motion passed without discussion in a unanimous voice vote.
Sen. Reddy moved that the minutes of the meeting of Nov. 5, 2007, be approved as circulated. Sen. Ted Schwalbe (At Large, Humanities) seconded. The motion passed without discussion in a unanimous voice vote.
President Hefner reported:
Dr. H. Joseph Straight asked if there had been communication between the Board of Trustees and the Division of Budget about the budget request. Pres. Hefner responded that information he has unofficially indicates that the mandatory costs look very likely to be in the Governor's administrative budget request. The Governor is going to be supportive of a tuition increase, as well as the capital construction request. Those three portions will likely be in the administrative budget in some fashion. Beyond those, it is probably not likely.
Sen. Schwalbe asked if there had been anything said about the "rational tuition policy". Pres Hefner indicated that the Governor is going to wait to see what the Commission on Higher Education recommends. They are being very closed mouthed about their report.
Sen. Ziya Arnavut (At Large, Natural Sciences) asked if Pres. Hefner had any idea how much the Board of Trustees is going to allocate for SUNY libraries. The president indicated that the funding mentioned is specifically for the SUNY Digital Library, and it is included as part of a larger initiative. It is just planning money at this time, the exact amount was mentioned, but he didn't write it down. Sen. Arnavut then said at least they are asking for some money.
Dr. Horvath indicated for the sake of time she would not be making a report, but asked Sen. Reddy to speak concerning the Professional Development Center.
Sen. Reddy reported that he and co-chair Melinda Karnes have been meeting with the Professional Development Center Director Search Committee. That committee has been working really hard to bring candidates onto campus this semester. Unfortunately, because of scheduling, the candidates will be on campus next week (not the best of weeks for participation). They will be relying on the faculty's generosity and enthusiasm and interest. Please make your schedule available with time for participating in this process. Four really outstanding candidates will be coming. Two are from Ohio, one from Minnesota, and the fourth is from California (with WV western PA experience, so the weather will not be a shock.) As soon as the schedules are finalized, we will be announcing throughout campus.
The Executive Committee was asked to keep track of what happens to Senate resolutions. We wish to report that the name change for the Dept. of Health, Wellness and Recreation, to the Dept. of Sports Management and Exercise Science has been accepted/approved by Pres. Hefner. [The responses from Pres. Hefner will be posted on the Senate's ANGEL site. - Faculty Secretary.]
The Executive Committee has received two resignations from the Faculty and Professional Affairs Committee. One member, who is also the chair, is resigning because she is very busy and on many committees, and another member is resigning because of a change in union status. There is also a third vacancy for a seat in the College of Education. We propose to hold elections for the three vacancies quickly, and then convene the Committee so it can elect a new chair.
Our SUNY-wide University Senator, Cheryl Drout, will be on sabbatical during the spring semester. Our alternate Senator, Iyad Abu-Jeid, is also on sabbatical and will not be able to function in the place of our senator until he returns from abroad after the spring semester. Because Dr. Drout can perform some of the responsibilities of the position even during her sabbatical, and the SUNY-wide University Senate's bylaws allow their members more leeway than we do our local senators, we have concluded that Dr. Drout will report on the winter plenary at our February meeting, and will remain in contact with us and the leadership of the SUNY-wide University Senate via email. The only obligation she will not be able to perform will be attending the spring plenary, so the Chair of our Senate (who attends these meetings in the role of a campus governance officer) will be our eyes and ears at the spring plenary, and will report on what happens at that plenary to the Fredonia Senate.
Degree Program in Journalism (Communication Department)
Dr. Straight was asked to come forward and conduct this portion of the meeting. He informed the body that this had been discussed at the Nov. 5 meeting of the Senate, and it was a motion from the Academic Affairs Committee. He reviewed the basic components of the recommended degree program.
Questions:
Sen. Stephen Kershnar (At Large, Humanities) asked how many additional hires might be needed. Sen. Schwalbe responded that we are searching currently for one of the proposed two positions, and we will search for the second position once there is need in the future.
Sen. Jan McVicker (English) indicated curiosity concerning the resignation in mid-year of the one faculty member identified with journalism in the department, who is actually going to coordinate the program. Sen. Schwalbe said that coordination would be done by himself and the new faculty member we are in the process of searching right now. Ultimately, most of the coordination would be with that new faculty member.
There being no further questions or discussion, the vote was taken. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Graduate Council: Dr. Kevin Kearns
Dr. Kearns went over the highlights of his report, which was made available in print form at the meeting. [A copy will be placed in the ANGEL Senate web site. The copy that will be put on the web site may differ slightly from the one that was handed out at the meeting. It was discovered after the meeting that what had been handed out was a draft, and not the official report. - Faculty Secretary]
Sen. Drout had two brief items:
She gave an update on the use of cameras here at SUNY Fredonia, informing the body that these are only placed in public places or where there is expensive equipment or art work. The cameras that she is aware of in research labs have been installed by the departments. (Education and psychology were given as examples.) The cams that are in the parking lots and inside Steele Hall and the Williams Center have governors that regulate them so they have a fixed range of movement, so no offices or dorm rooms can be zoomed in on.
She will be attending the winter plenary at SUNY Albany in late January and early February. That session will include reports from the campuses regarding camera use.
Middle States Steering Committee: Mrs. Kerrie Fergen Wilkes and Dr. Roger Byrne
Mrs. Wilkes began the presentation using a PowerPoint. [The PowerPoint is available on the ANGEL Senate site. - Faculty Secretary] Using the concept of an epic production, with a cast of thousands, she and Dr. Byrne presented the Steering Committee's view of our upcoming Decennial Accreditation process. There will be at least eight working groups with about ten faculty on each. They indicated that they would be coming back to the Senate often for consultation and reports. They brought three handouts (all available on the ANGEL Senate site): one briefly going over the standards of excellence put out by Middle States; another showing the timeline for our campus process; and a third that listed the members of the Steering Committee. Dr. Byrne informed the body that our compliance with the standards seems high. The self-study should be seen as a roadmap to our future. It will highlight areas where we can improve, areas where we are doing well, and areas into which we would like to move.
Questions:
Sen. Schwalbe asked what was the relationship between this self-study and accreditation process and the work that went into developing the Fredonia Plan. Dr. Byrne responded that Middle States does not want us to go out and throw the work of the past few years out the window. They expect us to use what we have done, and look at it critically so we can move forward.
Sen. Drout asked if there was a relationship between this accreditation process and our last decennial review. Would there be things in our last review that we have to have made progress on, for example? Dr. Byrne answered that the last review was a focused review, looking only at our efforts at assessment. Middle States has brought all of its institutions into the culture of assessment now, and so they have expectations of each institution. Those that are seeking accreditation for the first time will have different expectations of them than a school such as SUNY Fredonia. We've got to decide what standards we wish to emphasize, and we might also add areas outside of the standards that we may be particularly good at, or want to be good at. We have lots of latitude. We have to look at a lot of things with a new approach. This review is stressing things that we used to just talk about, but now have to show actual data.
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers noted that there were no students on the Steering Committee. Is that intentional? Dr. Byrne responded that there are two constituencies that the Committee is hoping to get representation from: one is the College Council, and the other is students. It was not a deliberate oversight. We intend to include both undergraduates and graduate students on the Steering Committee and also in the working groups.
Information Technology Advisory Board (ITAB): Ms. Janet Mayer and Ms. Lisa Melohusky
Ms. Mayer began the discussion by indicating that ITAB was looking at how we can support our online courses locally because the SUNY Learning Network (SLN) will be moving to the ANGEL software from Lotus Notes, and at the same time will be restructuring their relationship to the campuses.
They presented an idea for a pilot program for local technical support for our online courses, using the faculty who currently are teaching SLN courses here at Fredonia. Currently we are offering web-enhanced classes through our ANGEL implementation, but not full online courses. There is also a hybrid class. Here at Fredonia we have about 12 professors who offer 100% online classes through SLN. We thought this would be an opportunity to take those individuals and transition them to ANGEL (which they will have to do anyway, once SLN moves to ANGEL.) We can provide local support, train them to convert their course material, and see what it is like to actually run a few classes on the ANGEL platform. We need to look at the students, as well, determining what they like and don't like about these courses and their experience with ANGEL.
Questions:
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked if they knew what percentage the number of students in our online offerings that aren't Fredonia students. Ms. Mayer answered not exactly, but we believe it is very few. Most are Fredonia students. Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers continued asking aren't we limiting our online offerings to only Fredonia students by taking this in-house? The response was we are not sure, but we don't think so.
Sen. Bowser (Academic Affairs [and Registrar]) noted that registration currently is first come, first serve. Will we have any relationship with the SUNY Learning Network if we move to primarily a Fredonia platform? Ms. Mayer responded that SLN still offers us the opportunity to advertise our online courses, even with the most basic membership.
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers then asked I think that would be the limitation, if there is a desire to offer courses to the broader SUNY network. We wouldn't want to see the chance to expand to students from other campuses be lost. Ms. Mayer answered that this is our initial plan. Our initial plan is not to expand; it is to help those who are currently teaching online courses with technical support locally.
Sen. Arnavut asked what is the advantage to localizing our efforts, especially when we may have fewer students. Ms. Mayer answered that we are just moving the training and support aspects to our local staff, not the course offerings. If we have the basic SLN membership, we will be able to attract other students. SLN is changing quite a bit. We will not be able to buy what we buy from them now once they have changed. Sen. Arnavut followed up asking if this would save us some cost. Ms. Mayer responded that part of this would save funds.
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked if the ITAB folks get inquiries where faculty have expressed interest in developing an online course. Ms. Mayer said that they get inquiries all the time, and we refer them back to their departments. They have to have support from their department, and then go on to Lifelong Learning to get into the SLN curriculum. Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers then followed up saying she presumes that ITAB/Ed Tech are working with Lifelong Learning with regard to this proposal. The response was yes.
Sen. Reddy offered some clarification. Fredonia would not be alone in shifting greater levels of responsibility for support to the campus. New Paltz had had principal responsibility for at least a year. There is no difference in terms of what is listed as offerings. Ms. Mayer added that Empire State College has moved a lot of its support to local staff, as well.
Sen. Bowser asked if ITAB/Ed Tech is currently asked by faculty using SLN for any technical assistance. Ms. Mayer responded that we do get the occasional question, and it is difficult because we can't connect them to the right people.
Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked if this will impact workload. The response was, of course... that is why we are doing a pilot. We need to determine what kinds of workload impact such a change will bring. Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers asked if they had any projected ideas, such as 25% of your time, or what. Ms. Mayer replied that they don't have any sense in terms of time, but other distance education colleagues in SUNY suggest that this effort will bring us to a place which will make us all more efficient.
Sen. Mike Szocki asked [Faculty Secretary didn't get the question, due to confusion. Partial response was recorded: We will have this piece and have that piece... ???]
Sen. Bowser offered that one of the problems the Registrar's Office has had with SLN is the "leap of faith" when we turn a student over to SLN. We don't have any real control over their experience. We hope you will move beyond the technical support. It would be nice to have real people here that we could refer our students to. Ms. Mayer added that just moving our faculty in this pilot will help us to answer those questions even if we continue to use SLN's services more after this pilot.
Sen. Arnavut commented that since we have very few SLN students outside of Fredonia using Fredonia's offerings, what is it like for the other campuses. Ms. Mayer responded that it depends on the campus. There are lots of community colleges that have many whole programs online. Buff State is similar to us.
VP Horvath then pointed out that it is her understanding that we might have to hire persons on campus. Ms. Mayer answered that we need to SPECIFY an administrator of ANGEL to SLN and we'd need to add a media designer locally; that is new.
Sen. Jodi Rzepka asked if this would allow us to vary the data, obtain data locally, regarding demand or recurring use of online courses. Ms. Mayer answered that we already have the data locally.
Sen. Jason Mellen presented an overview of a vision for environmental/sustainability education on behalf of the Sustainability Committee. He was one of the attendees at the recent SUNY Sustainability Conference in Saratoga Springs. New policies on energy and sustainability were discussed at that conference. He brought a handout, which was distributed [and can be seen on the ANGEL Senate site].
The Sustainability Committee does not have a lot of members with educational expertise, so when students ask questions such as "What is the point of recycling?" we don't have all the answers ready. We hope that next semester we can gather a lot of information about what the campus does do now in the area of sustainability. We have a Fredonia Green web site, with a link to the academics that have some environmental/sustainability education included. We want to add to this, including more detail. Then perhaps we can develop a policy to encourage further sustainability education here at Fredonia.
Questions:
Sen. McVicker asked if the Chancellor's Office is going to make funding available through Gen Ed or any other pot of funds to assist with this effort. VP Horvath responded that she has heard nothing about such funding, but the topic is coming up in provosts' discussion groups.
Sen. Arnavut asked if energy sustainability on this campus is being looked at. Are we doing anything? Sen. Mellen answered that we are already looking at all kinds of ideas in terms of energy use, and the new boiler project is going to help a lot, plus we are looking at changing over to using the compact fluorescent lights. We also want to look at the broader spectrum and bring sustainability into the education process.
Sen. Reddy moved adjournment. Sen. Beier seconded. There being no further discussion of the motion, the vote was taken. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
The meeting adjourned at 5:14 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Vincent Courtney, Faculty Secretary
ATTACHMENTS:
Attendance Sheet
Characteristics of Excellence
Middle States Self Study Timeline
Online Learning Pilot
Jason Mellen Handout
Middles States Steering Committee