March 2, 2009 Meeting Minutes - DRAFT

SUNY Fredonia University Senate

Minutes

Meeting of March 2, 2009

The meeting was called to order at 4:06 PM in room S-104 of the Williams Center by Chair Ana Maria Klein.

The proposed agenda was approved by unanimous voice vote.

The draft minutes of the meeting of February 2, 2009, were approved by unanimous voice vote.

Report of the President: Dr. Dennis Hefner

President Hefner reported:

We have a Chancellor! Dr. Nancy L. Zimpher has been appointed Chancellor. She will officially begin her duties on June 1, but has already been working to help the lobbying effort for SUNY. She has committed to at least five years in the position, which is wonderful considering she will be the 6^th Chancellor (or Acting Chancellor) that he has reported to in his 13 years here. He contacted friends in the U of Wisconsin system where Dr. Zimpher had worked at the Milwaukee campus, and all gave her the highest reviews. They indicated she is a terrific advocate, knowledgeable, can be hard-nosed when she needs to be. Pres. Hefner is very excited that she is coming.
SUNY DAY was fairly successful. Fredonia had several students attending along with Pres. Hefner and VP Tiffany. Several of the students are sitting here in this meeting as well, and they would have made you proud. We still have a ways to go. This is such a tough budget year. The Governor did come to the luncheon, and basically said that if there could be substitute dollars identified, he would be glad to alter the budget, so Pres. Hefner was thinking that we could use the stimulus money. New York gets $2.5 billion for education from that plan, so why not take a couple hundred million for higher ed? Unfortunately, there is only $40 million designated for higher education, for both SUNY and CUNY, and that is over two years. So our campus will get about $200,000 per year. There are also discretionary stimulus dollars that have come in, and SUNY might be able to get some of that funding. His sources tell him there is a good chance that we will get more than 20% of our tuition increase this year. We'll undoubtedly not get down to the State taking 0% with the current budget problem, but if we get the State to accept 45% that would mean they wouldn't take any of next year's tuition. In about four weeks we will know, perhaps as early as two weeks. The bills should be out of both houses in two weeks, and then they will be going into conference committee.
He did want to mention that he met with the Planning and Budget Committee last week. We had a very good meeting talking about how we can close next year's budget shortfall, what the administration is thinking at this time - wanting to avoid layoffs and make sure that classes are available to our students so the graduation rate is not affected. Toward the end of this session, it was suggested that we have a campus-wide meeting to hear what is being planned, provide an opportunity for questions, and dispel some of the rumors. Pres. Hefner will try to get such a meeting in place within the next two weeks. Members of the P&B Committee also said there were some rumors: one was that of the 12 positions we are going to put on permanent freeze this year, 3 would come from EACH of the colleges (meaning nine of the twelve). That is NOT true. Only THREE faculty positions in TOTAL will be permanently frozen this year. Nine will be from other staff. A second rumor is that we are going to cut enrollment next year. We are NOT planning on cutting enrollment. Part of the plan for closing the gap and ensuring we don't get into a layoff situation is to have some over-enrollment tuition money. Having more students will also generate more from the residence halls and food plans. We are planning on tapping an extra $200,000 from the dormitories and $200,000 from FSA via the food service; over-enrollment will generate more than $500,000. Without that, it would be incredibly painful for the campus. We will certainly try not to bring in more than we can accommodate, but we will try to bring in more.
He announced that he has asked the VPAA and the Deans to look at all of our programs to look for undergraduate options and tracks that are undersubscribed, and also to look at all graduate programs that are undersubscribed. We did this about 7 or 8 years ago, and we got promises that enrollment would go up. He recently looked at the Fact Book (and he knows that the Fact Book doesn't catch double majors and we have to look more closely than that) and he saw programs with options that looked like they were undersubscribed, and there were some grad programs that also seemed to be undersubscribed. Given how tight our budget has become, we can no longer afford to continue such options/tracks or programs. If we can delete one or two courses per year, that will produce savings. We are not looking at cutting departments. If we could get rid of 8 or 9 undergraduate options or tracks, we could help ourselves. That report will come back to the Senate for discussion in April, and action in May.
He also announced that the VP Student Affairs and the Student Affairs Review Committee have begun meeting. A survey will be forthcoming. If their report is completed by the end of the semester, he will try to get the summary to the Senate by the May meeting. If not in time, we will see it at the September meeting.
One last thing: SUNY Fredonia had a great year in basketball. Our team made it to the finals of the SUNYAC tournament, and while we didn't win, it is the first time in 15 years that we've made it that far. And we got a bid to the ECAC post-season tournament.

Questions?

Sen. Jonathan Chausovsky (Political Science) asked what was seen as projected enrollment with this over-enrollment plan? Pres. Hefner responded that we are looking to keep total enrollment at roughly where it is at this point in time. We are looking at bringing in a freshman class that is about the same or slightly smaller than this year's. Last year we got ambushed because we had 60 more students accept and show up than was originally planned. The over-enrollment is over our TARGETED FTE, which is 5250. We are now running at 5350 or 5400 FTE.

Sen. Stephen Kershnar (Philosophy) asked if SAT scores have been dropping with these larger enrollments. Pres. Hefner answered no; they haven't been dropping at all. In fact they have tended to increase nationwide, with the new third test the overall scores tended to go down at first, but we've gone up ever since then. Currently our freshman applications are running 200 or so above what they were last year at this time, and last year we were 1000 ahead of the year prior. This year's incoming class had the highest SAT scores in our history, and we'll probably see that go up again this year.

Report of the VP for Academic Affairs: Dr. Virginia Horvath

Dr. Horvath stated that she would provide a few updates, and that a more detailed report had been provided to the Faculty Secretary for posting on the ANGEL site and on the web.

Tenure track searches: there are nine in progress. We've had one acceptance so far, two have verbal offers to the selected candidates, one has a verbal offer pending, two are interviewing, and three are preparing to interview.

New tool coming: As you may know, we hound the Chairs often for information. Sometimes that slows us down by a month. So we are going to add a new electronic service that will help speed things up. This tool will keep in one place all the activity of our faculty. For example, if one has an article pending, one can specify that information and then one can update it from pending, to under review, to being published, to having been published. And administrators can go in and gather that information for reports and individuals may be able to go in and create their resume using the information. In the next month representatives from the firm will be on campus talking with us about how we want to organize this. The Chairs are excited about this. They've been waiting for such a product.

The policies re: Personnel Reviews are nearly presentable. Please remember when you see them that these are DRAFTs. A copy will be sent to the Faculty Secretary for posting on the ANGEL site and the web page. UUP leadership and the UUP field person will also be included. There will be open forums as well as focus groups. (Please see my full report on the Senate ANGEL site or the web page for details.)

Dr. Horvath spent some time with the Student Association discussing the proposed changes in course evaluations. There is more on this topic in her full report on the Senate ANGEL site and web page.

Summer Orientation Advising: Last month a question was raised concerning the difficulty with which Summer Orientation advisors might have with incoming students finding seats and creating course schedules. At Academic Leadership Dr. Horvath floated the idea that perhaps we could just give students schedules. She indicated she had been resoundingly told no, that there was real value in that one-on-one meeting where the student actually built his/her own schedule. There seem to be more concerns about the Sunday before a semester begins. That remains a problem. She and others will be looking to improve that.

Community Engagement: Dr. Horvath said that the campus is looking at its relationship to the community. We have many active ties to the community, but these all tend to happen in a relatively uncoordinated manner. The stars are aligning, and in the next month we will be looking at this relationship, and it might make sense for us to establish a Center for Community Engagement. We have an opportunity to submit a "Learning and Service Grant" and we are thinking that such a Center can help us coordinate this effort and act as a means of bringing issues from the academic side into the discussion. Possibly we can even earn the Carnegie Classification designation as a campus of Civic Engagement in the long run. This Center will not be a building or a huge administrative structure. We are thinking along the lines of a virtual center with someone coordinating the effort. Two faculty members (Kate Levy and Christina Jarvis) and I will represent our campus along with six other universities in Minnesota at a meeting on this topic. SUNY Fredonia was invited to participate in this meeting. VP Horvath then thanked Amy Cuhel-Schuckers for her effort preparing the "Learn and Serve" grant. The VP added that the Academic Affairs Committee would be asked to review whatever we come up with in terms of the Center.

Dean David Ewing (Natural and Social Sciences and Professional Programs) then reported that the search for the Dean of the School of Business has brought in a very strong pool of applicants, and the Search Committee has been looking very closely at about half of them. About 7 of the 8 excellent candidates have been reviewed, and the 8^th will be done shortly. We should have all the information we need by Thursday to recommend to the VPAA the three or maybe four we'd like to interview. We might even be able to make an offer to the successful candidate by the end of March.

Chairperson's Report: Dr. Ana Maria Klein

Chair Klein asked the Governance Officer to speak to the body.

Governance Officer Charles Davis announced that elections will occur in April. He informed the Senate that he will be putting on the Listservs a list of vacancies for Senate offices (Vice-Chair, Faculty Secretary, University-wide Senator and Alternate Senator, at-large Senate seats, and Standing Committee vacancies) the will need nominees. He indicated these will be on a single list, but listed by division so it should be easy to determine if one is in the Social Sciences, for example, exactly what nominations are needed from that group. He urged the Senators to help find nominees, and encourages self-nomination for those who are interested in serving. He even said that he didn't mind a little arm twisting, and he offered a few gift cards so Senators could contact him and take a prospective nominee to lunch to get them motivated about running! Hopefully all elections will be ready for balloting by early April. He said there will be an early meeting of the new electees so we can begin more efficiently next fall.

Chair Klein announced that Vice-Chair Bruce Simon was not yet at the meeting, but he expects to come as soon as possible, so we'll put his part of the agenda off until he arrives.

The Chair then provided a summary of the actions of the Feb. 2 meeting, and asked Dr. Beez Schell to present more regarding the FredTime concept.

Dr. Schell (Director of the Professional Development Center) began by saying at the last meeting; there were lots of reasons provided not to go forth with FredTime. Positives included having a known free time when we might schedule speakers, have meetings, etc. Negatives included the likelihood that this time would be engulfed by all kinds of meetings other than the more important ones that we are trying to encourage. She announced that she, Nan Bowser (Registrar) and Lisa Melohusky (also in the PDC) sat down to try to see if there was a time during the week that could be used. That group found that there were fewer conflicts on Fridays between 3:00 and 4:30 PM. They know that some seminars meet then, but they could talk to those faculty to try to reschedule. As for the "Professional Development Day" idea, she suggests that perhaps we could try the option of holding this Teaching/Learning Conference in the week before classes begin for fall 2009. She concluded by asking each Senator to discuss these ideas with their colleagues, and at the April meeting we might have a well-informed discussion about these proposals.

Chair Klein then announced that in the packet of materials provided before this meeting, there were two versions of the Senate Bylaws. One is the current bylaws. The second was a paginated and line-enumerated version with certain editorial changes in bold font. Then she explained that editorial changes are those that only require a vote of the Senate to make them effective. These changes include punctuation, capitalization, changes as a result of changes in the structure of the University, and obvious needs such as changing the year of the Policies of the Board of Trustees from 1987 to 2006 (the latest version). Today the Senate Executive Committee asks that you approve our going over the Bylaws for editorial changes. We will come back to you with a version similar to the paginated/enumerated one but with more changes. Sen. Chuck Stoddard (At Large, Education) moved and Sen. Lisa Eikenburg (University Advancement) seconded.

At that time, Sen. Amy Cuhel-Schuckers rose to offer a friendly amendment (see handout: Further editorial changes...). She moved to amend the motion on the floor by adding a list of other potential editorial changes that the Senate Executive Board can look at for inclusion, but which will have been approved by this body and therefore would not require an additional vote of this body. She indicated she had provided this list as a handout. Sen. Kerrie Fergen Wilkes (Library) seconded. The friendly amendment was accepted.

Sen. Doug Jordan (Student Association) asked about the list that Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers had provided, noting that they were in the form of questions. Does this mean the Executive Committee will consider these and make them if they feel they are needed? Chair Klein responded, "Yes."

Dr. H. Joseph Straight (Parliamentarian) then stated that just to be clear, at some point the body will receive a complete set of bylaws and the "deeper syntactic" changes will be indicated. Chair Klein responded we will have posted the changes on the two Senate sites. Dr. Straight then stated that he would think that similar to other actions, this could be considered a first reading, the changes are out there. Possibly at the next meeting we can vote. Remember all changes will have to be voted on by the full faculty.

At this point Sen. Vincent Courtney (Ex Officio, Faculty Secretary) stated that no, editorial changes need only be voted on by the Senate to be approved. There is language in the current Bylaws that states that, but I can't tell you where that is off the top of my head.

Sen. Dani McKinney (At Large, Social Sciences) called the question.

The motion as amended passed by unanimous voice vote.

Committee Reports

Graduate Council

Sen. Kevin Kearns (Ex officio, Assoc. VP Graduate Studies & Research) provided an update on activities within the Graduate Council.

Curricular revisions:

Council has approved the suspension of the Social Studies Adolescent Education program. This will be coming to the Senate. Students in this program have been taken care of through the Curriculum and Instruction program in the College of Education. This had been brought forward by the department itself for philosophical and enrollment reasons.

Council has also approved the suspension the Master in Theory and Composition. This program is to be split into two separate degrees. No additional funding will be required; staffing is here, and demand is there for both sides of this program.

Approvals:

Council has approved a new independent Master's degrees in Music Composition. The new degree in Music Theory is still being debated.

Council has also approved a number of course proposals and changes.

An FSA grant proposal has been put forth to fund an interdisciplinary graduate symposium.

A planning grant has been funded by the Sloan Foundation for a business-science certificate program, a Professional Science Masters. This will look at developing business-science interrelationships as well as developing some new internship ideas.

Questions:

Sen. Adrienne McCormick (English) asked what was the title of the last planning grant? Sen. Kearns responded it was called a Professional Science Masters. PSM degrees are interdisciplinary, with three components. A candidate will have a core in the sciences (undergraduate degree usually), will have another core in business or a related area, and will have a practicum or internship that will help them for going out into the workforce. This is a terminal Master's degree, similar to the MBA. The Sloan Foundation is funding planning for such degrees as seed money across the State.

Academic Affairs Committee

Dr. H. Joseph Straight, Chair of the Committee, opened his portion of the meeting saying if the name change is not controversial, perhaps we could vote on it today. He then presented the arguments for changing the name of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology to the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences.

There being no further discussion of this proposal, the vote was taken. The motion of the Committee passed by unanimous voice vote.

Dr. Straight then presented a proposal to move from interdisciplinary studies to the School of Business one of the tracks that is now a part of the degree in Music Business. The "Music" track requires an audition because it is administered by the School of Music, and that will remain that way. Because the "Business" track has in it many business courses and we are undergoing accreditation review by the AACSB, the School of Business feels that portion of the degree program should be moved to the School of Business. This would make the degree similar to other programs in the Dept. of Business Administration. We would like to move forward with this as a program change so we can have quick approval at the SUNY level. This will be a separate degree, and the program will appear in the SUNY View Book, and will be searchable from the SUNY web site. The current program in Interdisciplinary Studies does not appear that way and cannot be searched on the SUNY web site using such terms as "music business program." The only program that comes up with such a search is the one at Potsdam. Specifics for this change are on the ANGEL site and on the Senate web page.

Question:

Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers commented that the form says there are no resource implications. At the same time, it says there will be two new courses or changes to existing courses (MU 420 and MU 425). Could you expand on that, please? Dr. Straight responded while those two are new courses, they were proposed even for the existing music business program. They have been in the works for quite a while. The timing must makes that in alignment.

Dr. Straight moved on to a proposed concentration in the School of Music in Community Music. This will be similar to other concentrations in that School, such as Jazz Studies, where this would be beyond the normal requirements for their students. It is kind of like a minor, but they call it a concentration. These are mostly for music students, but music minors could take them as well.

Registrar Bowser then commented the School of Music is the only department that has concentrations that aren't required as part of the major, which makes it a little confusing. Also there is a statement that says that business minors might be able to take this but only after completing the music minor? Dr. Straight replied, "Yes." Mrs. Bowser continued: Why isn't this a minor? You sort of asked that question, and I think it is a good one. Sen. Katherine Levy (School of Music) answered the music minor will provide the student with the skills for the music part. The concentration would build on the music skills to allow the student to take it to the community. Registrar Bowser repeated, "Why not a minor?" Sen. Levy indicated that would make it not possible for a music major to take. In the School of Music we hope to identify beyond the traditional use of music therapy, to have a different kind of interface for those who have their musical skills in order but who do not know how to use them in less traditional ways. This will help them. Dr. Straight added this is not really a minor in the sense that it isn't readily available to students all over campus. Sen. Levy indicated the existing market wants to see documentation of such skills. The Registrar then said if this is approved as a concentration, she would hope that it appears on the transcript. Sen. Levy said yes, that would be fine. Registrar Bowser added that many departments have concentrations that are required as part of the degree. This is different from those.

Sen. Nicholas Dhimitri (Student Association) asked about resource implications for this. Sen. Levy responded there are not any. All the courses are existing courses. The resource implications were strongly discussed in the School before our faculty passed it.

Sen. Chausovsky stated that the Political Science department does have majors with concentrations that are optional and not a degree requirement. This seems precisely what the School of Music is talking about. He doesn't see it as an inconsistency.

Dr. Straight then presented an informational item. The Academic Affairs Committee had a "certificate" item come through recently. The department asking us about this wanted to put together a small number of courses (3-5), and the students taking those would get a certificate signed by the department chair. The Committee thought that sounded all right, perhaps the department would want to advertize it, and they went through the correct Committee and offices to get it approved. We thought that since this is official, we ought to take it to the Senate, and the Deans were asked to think about this. He could see us having a lot of these "certificate" programs if we wanted to go in that direction.

Then Dr. Straight turned to the draft 3 of the "Learning Assistants' Guidelines." He informed the body that Dean Ewing was here and he had been on the larger committee that first originated these ideas. Academic Affairs took what the larger committee had created and ideas from others on campus, and this draft 3 is Academic Affairs Committee's take on it.

Sen. Leesa Rittelmann (At Large, Arts) asked if there was any definition of "large enrollment courses"? Dr. Straight replied "No." Sen. Rittelmann asked: there is no judgment about it being appropriate for a seminar? Dr. Straight repeated, no, we make no judgments based on course size. On the last page, we are more restrictive than what the VP and the first committee had first proposed. Take Psych 458 with the TA being in Psych 130. This makes it more controlled. This is where you can say this is the course I want to use a LA in, this is what the duties will be, here is how they will be supervised, etc.

Sen. Kershnar asked about the 2^nd paragraph concerning the "course in which they will be assisting." Dr. Straight said he agreed with Sen. Kershnar, and we will change that language to "have equivalent experience" or some such wording.

Sen. Kershnar asked these are appropriate but not the only appropriate methods? Dr. Straight agreed. You are going to be able to propose your course. It will go through the review process.

Registrar Bowser asked if the Academic Affairs Committee was open to the possibility of having credit-bearing courses for the LAs? Dr. Straight responded, 'Yes.' The Registrar continued saying that there are national standards that suggest that credit-bearing courses not for a degree would be better on a transcript than non-credit-bearing courses. Dr. Straight responded that even if 0 credits are offered, it could appear on the transcript. The Registrar then commented that that idea is moving away from national standards. This would be okay if these were counted in the 120 hours for the degree.

Sen. McCormick then asked how would a student be graded? Dr. Straight answered sometimes could be S/U, sometimes have a letter grade.

Sen. Markus Vink (History) commented that there is a qualitative difference between using graduate students and undergraduate students. He said he was leery about using undergraduates for grading and presenting. He would be a little uncomfortable with this. We should be very restrictive with appropriate uses. This draft is a little too wide or expansive. Dr. Straight responded proctoring of exams was not part of the VPAAs original guidelines. We put that back in a restrictive way.

Sen. Dhimitri then stated that he shares the concern expressed by Sen. Vink, especially with regard to the openness of the grading policy. Will students be made aware of the fact that their course could be taught or graded by a Learning Assistant? Students think it would be valuable to know a large portion of a course would be taught by a Learning Assistant? Dr. Straight countered that he was sure this was something that we could do; perhaps it would help if it is known that the use of students is appropriate and there is oversight, and would not be something that a student should be concerned about. These students would be going around in a class helping students with answers to their questions during a work period, perhaps.

Sen. Jordan then commented that in the draft, it says that it is a point of pride that courses at Fredonia are taught by faculty, and then you have students allowed to present in classes. Don't those two ideas conflict? Dr. Straight answered, no, do students never present in courses you are taking? Sen. Vink then argued that is something that is different. Students presenting in the usual way in classes are doing this as part of the instructional activities as part of the learning process. This is different.

Sen. Dhimitri then said we have no problem with this in principle, but this draft seems so open. We could have a Learning Assistant doing more than what we are comfortable with, but there is no way to step in and correct that before the student is in the class. Dr. Straight countered that is why we have proposed to go over this. Sen. Dhimitri continued that his concern is that this proposal will be as vague as it is. Dr. Straight answered we would be very stiff in the review process. We would want to see detail concerning the use of a Learning Assistant.

Sen. Cuhel-Schuckers commented that she felt it would be good for students to know going in whether being taught by a fellow student is a possibility. Could there be a way to include an option that indicates that student Learning Assistant(s) will be assigned to teach part of that class? Nick wants full disclosure. Certainly that is a very good concern. This may be one way to satisfy that need. Dr. Straight answered that he can see us getting carried away with that, too. We could be asked to disclose well in advance whether an instructor is an adjunct, or has a doctorate, or all kinds of things. Sometimes when I was department chair, I didn't know who would be teaching a course when it was put on the schedule. Grad assistants are used all over, in just about every university that has graduate programs. Many senators answered that is qualitatively different.

Sen. Kearns commented that is simply not the same-- a Teaching Assistant vs. a Learning Assistant. Dr. Straight then said that he was not saying it would be the same thing. He is saying that no university declares that a course will be assisted by a grad student. Sen. Kearns then said it is a good idea to have checks and balances. Dr. Straight responded that he is saying this designation business; we can't go overboard with that.

Faculty and Professional Affairs Committee

Sen. Christopher Taverna (At Large, Divisional), Chair of the Committee, informed the body that everyone should have received on ANGEL the forum summary from the professionals forum held in February. [It is also on the Senate web page. - Faculty Sectary] Several concerns were raised. These results, as well as those from last fall's faculty forum, will be used as part of an upcoming survey. This year we will put out four surveys, one for full-time tenure track faculty, one for adjuncts, one for professionals, and one for librarians. We will compile all of that data and will meet with the administration to go over those results. We will bring the results to the Senate as well. Please look for the surveys. They will be coming soon. He then extended an invitation to any of the VPs to arrange meetings with the Committee. They would be happy to meet with you.

Planning and Budget Advisory Committee

Dr. Carmen Rivera reported for Dr. Kathleen Gradel, who could not attend today's meeting.

Dr. Rivera informed the body:

The Committee has held meetings with Dr. Horvath, Dr. Hefner, and Mr. Bennett, to better understand the approaches to addressing budget shortfalls for both this year and for next year. All have been helpful in this process. We have recommended to Dr. Hefner that there be a more systematic effort to help faculty and staff understand the steps that are being taken or considered, as it appears that - at the grass roots level - information is unclear or incomplete.
The Committee will be continuing to meet frequently with Dr. Horvath (and, at times, with her Council), to discuss a range of concerns.
The Committee is in process of scheduling a meeting focused on enrollment.
The Committee is reviewing its bylaws, and should we identify changes that may be necessary, we will bring them forward to the Senate Executive Committee and the Senate.

Report of the University-wide Senator: Dr. Cheryl Drout

I have given the Faculty Secretary a written report of the highlights of the Plenary that was held at SUNY Morrisville in February. I will just mention some of that report here.

3 resolutions were passed, but we were not asked to get campus endorsements
In the sector session, we discussed responses to the budget cuts. These were quite wide-ranging. Some have reduced travel, others have no travel, one has changed to a 4-day schedule, and one has increased caps on seats in classes from 25 to 40.

Dr. Roger Byrne asked how the campus with the 4-day schedule accomplished that. Dr. Drout answered that she thought they had changed the scheduling of services and offices. Dr Byrne asked if there had been any change in pay associated with this? Dr. Drout responded that this wasn't described in that way, so she had no idea. Dr. Hefner said this was an ag and tech campus with declining enrollment, so they had a lot of spare building space on campus. So they scheduled classes M-W or T-TH. They had no reduction in the number of classes, and they were able to do this successfully because of the excess classroom space on their campus. Fredonia would not be able to do this successfully, given our current classroom space situation.

Sen. Kershnar asked if any of the campuses had indicated that their local Senates had voted on any of these changes. Sen. Drout answered no, it seemed like these were changes that were made more on an informal consultation basis.

There has been an appeals process put in place by SUNY with regard to transfer credit decisions. A campus has 15 days to respond, and if no response is received by the student, then they may appeal to the Provost, and his office has 5 days to respond. Our campus has developed a process because of this, and there will be further discussion on that.
Sen. Dhimitri was thanked for heading up the online petition against the Governor's policy with regard to SUNY tuition.
The Student Life Committee offered appreciation to Ana Maria Klein for her work in co-authoring the Service Learning Toolkit. This publication will be made more widely available soon.
An ethics survey has been distributed through our campus Listserv today. We ask that you please participate and encourage others to, as well.
And finally, two very able people have been nominated for the position of President of the University-wide Senate: Sandra Michael, from Binghamton, and Ken O'Brien, from Brockport. If you know anything about these two candidates, please share your impressions with me so that I might have more information when I cast my vote.

Other Reports

OSCAR: Dr. Jack Croxton

Dr. Croxton reminded the body of the upcoming Expo on April 30. Please attend and support our students. The deadline for proposals is March 16, and these can be work in progress, work done in a class, etc. We are very open to demonstrations, posters, reading of papers, poetry, art projects, musical performances, etc. The Expo will begin at Noon and continue through 7:00PM, with our keynote speaker being in late afternoon. He thanked VP Horvath for making funding available to support student travel. The Committee was able to fund most of the student applications this year, but not all.

Middle States Steering Committee: Dr. Roger Byrne and Mrs. Kerrie Wilkes

Sen. Wilkes informed us that work is progressing nicely on our reaccreditation effort. Today the final reports of the Working Groups were due, and we got some! And they're very good! Please look in your mail, because a short survey will soon be out for faculty and a separate one for staff focusing specifically on assessment and the culture of learning.

Dr. Byrne added that the Committee will be reviewing the reports from the Working Groups, and we expect the Working Groups to comment on the results of our reviews. Then the Steering Committee will approve the reports and then will begin the task of pulling all of that material together into the campus self study in earnest.

Vice Chair: Dr. Bruce Simon

Sen. Simon provided an update on the forum on uninvited speakers. There was a small turnout, possibly due to the meeting being on Wednesday evening at 7:00PM, and he thanked Sen. Doug Jordan for attending. Michael Barone, our campus PR point person attended, as well. The remainder of the attendees were students. Dr. Simon felt that all of the issues that we've heard about were covered. He said one of the real core issues that emerged in the discussion was how institutions of higher learning should respond to issues where there are deep divides of all kinds. He's contacted Chuck Cornell, who runs the American Democracy Project on campus, and conflicting rights and values of our community can certainly be a part of that. Chuck will be looking to see if the American Democracy Project is interested in bringing in an outside speaker to help Fredonia put our values about free speech, tolerance, respect, etc. in balance especially when there are voices that may be arguing on quite different sides of the "normal" academic viewpoint.

Sen. Chausovsky informed the body that one of our student entered a mock trial competition and finished first, for the second year in a row, and he congratulated our own Nick Dhimitri. Applause resounded.

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting, and was seconded. There was no discussion. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

Respectfully submitted,

Vincent Courtney

Faculty Secretary

ATTACHMENT

Attendance

Dr. Hefner's Approvals-Disapprovals

Current Senate Bylaws (for comparison purposes)

Senate Bylaws - Editorial Changes

Proposed Editorial Changes to Bylaws by Amy Cuhel-Schuckers

Senate Remarks from Vice President for Academic Affairs

Student Association Email - SUNY Advocacy