COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE SUMMARIES
Senate Executive Committee Meeting, March 3rd, 2010
As submitted to Dick Collier, Secretary, University Senate
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – R. Michael Range, Chair
Gen Ed Task Force. The Task Force has been constituted as stipulated in Senate Resolution 0910-01 approved on February 8, 2010.
Information about the membership has been sent to Senators in an earlier mailing. The work of the Task Force is ongoing, and the
SEC and UAC will be receiving initial recommendations by March 19, 2010.
SUNY UFS Senators. UFS President Ken O’Brien has officially confirmed to President Philip that UAlbany is eligible to be
represented by three senators rather than two. Consequently UAlbany will chose two new senators by university-wide election in
April. Dan White will continue with the second year of his first 3-year term. The Chair encourages senators to consider standing for
election and to encourage colleagues across the university to consider representing UAlbany on the SUNY senate. An invitation will
be sent out in due time to all faculty and staff.
Review and Evaluation of Administrators. The SEC discussed materials from the SUNY UFS regarding faculty evaluation of
administrators. These materials have been sent to Senators last week. There was a consensus that UAlbany should consider setting up
such an evaluation process, which is in place, for example, at Binghamton and Stony Brook. However, there also was consensus that
endorsement by the Senate would be needed before proceeding further. Discussion and vote of a resolution proposed by the SEC
concerning this matter is on today’s agenda. The text of the proposed resolution has been mailed out together with the agenda and
other materials.
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) – William Lanford & Daniel D. White, SUNY Senators
Nothing to report.
GSO (Graduate Student Organization) – Nicholas Fahrenkopf, GSO Representative
Nothing to report.
SA (Student Association) – Dustin Lanterman, Academic Affairs Director, SA
The spring 2010 edition of the World Within Reach Speaker Series will feature Howard Dean and Karl Rove, discussing the important
issues of today’s world.
MSCHE Steering Committee Report – Reed Hoyt, University Senate Representative
Nothing to report.
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Heidi Andrade, Chair
The Council on Academic Assessment met on February 11, 2010. The chairs of the Program Review and the General Education
Assessment Committee provided updates; the potential impact of the new SUNY General Education requirements for the work of each
committee was discussed. We also discussed the need for the Graduate Academic Council to review assessment reports from the CAA
pertaining to graduate programs. We revisited an earlier discussion of ways to create incentives to engage faculty in constructive
assessment and voted to allow programs with extraordinarily effective assessment plans to move to an alternate year reporting
schedule. Finally, we continued our review of the Graduate Student Support report and edited a draft response to the Provost.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility)
– Susanna Fessler, Chair
Two members of CAFFECoR conducted an “in service” training session for the Res Life professional staff on Wednesday, February
10th. The topic was free speech in the residence halls: what defines it, how to handle borderline situations, and ways to engage the
student body in meaningful dialogue that promotes both free speech and diversity. A follow-up session took place with the student
staff.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – John Monfasani, Chair
The Joint CERS-GOV committee of Carolyn MacDonald, Edward Cupoli, and me completed a draft of a revised CERS policy text in
December. There have since been conversations with John H. Reilly, the University's Counsel. CERS itself has started to meet concerning
the text. When it has finished its deliberations, the text will be sent to GOV and COR for their reaction. We hope to be able to bring the
revised CERS policy text to the Senate floor in April.
COR (Council on Research) – James Castracane, Chair
Nothing to report.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Carlos Rodriguez, Chair
CPCA has nothing to report.
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GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Laurence Kranich, Chair
At its meeting on March 2, 2010, GAC approved a proposal to deactivate the Russian MA and Certificate of Advanced Study
programs. This matter will now go to UPPC before advancing to the full Senate. In addition, the Council acted upon a grievance
before its Committee on Admissions and Academic Standing. The Council also discussed the Initial Allocations for 2010-11 Graduate
Student Support, distributed by Dean Pryse on February 26, and it continued its discussion of the 2009 GSS Review Final Report.
GOV (Governance Council) – Eric Lifshin, Chair
The Governance Council met on Friday, March 5th and discussed spring elections. A call letter will be sent to all voting faculty asking
for nominations for the positions of Senate Vice-Chair and Senate Secretary. GOV members began putting together a slate of
nominees for Senator-at-Large positions and those people will be contacted to identify their willingness to serve. In addition, GOV
members identified possible candidates for SUNY Senators to fill Senator Lanford’s vacancy and for a third SUNY Senator. Call
letters will be sent as soon as the volunteer web application is up and running. IT has been contacted to assist with coordination of this
effort. Senate Secretary Collier will be contacting the schools and colleges to inform them of pending vacancies in their various
departments. GOV’s next scheduled meeting is Thursday, March 18.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Gwen Moore, Chair
Report from Dean of Libraries, Mary Casserly: The Libraries are working with Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, an architectural firm chosen
last year, to develop a plan for renovating the University Library. A steering committee and working group have been appointed and
are meeting today. It will be important to work in close collaboration with those planning the Campus Center renovations in order to
assure that services and functions that are needed by the University Community are available in the appropriate places but are not
duplicated unnecessarily.
The Library Advisory Committee reported that this committee is looking at issues related to open access journals. OA
journals are freely available online. They do not charge subscription fees to libraries or individuals but they cover their publication
costs through author fees, endowments, institutional subsides, sponsorships, etc. The committee is particularly interested in those that
charge author fees. Some journals charge lower fees to institutions that have “memberships” to their parent organizations/associations.
Some of our faculty have had questions about these memberships and about whether there is funding to support OA journal author
fees.
Report from the CIO, Christine Haile: Chris presented the ITS Operating Plan for the July to June fiscal year. Chris distributed the
Office of the CIO Priority Areas 2009-2010 handout to the committee, which highlights ITS priorities for the fiscal year, explained
some of the priorities spearheaded for this year, and answered questions from the committee. She stated that most things are on
schedule and within budget.
She also reported on UDID (University Digital Database). The software package, known as LUNA, is up and running. Brian
Keogh was appointed project manager and is ready to unveil. So far, 2500 objects from the museum archives have been loaded into
the system. The next step is to identify areas around the University for departmental or personal content.
Report from IT Committee, Larry Raffalovich: The IT Committee plans to look at the ITS “Draft Strategic Plan.” As a result of the
meeting on November 23, it was concluded that the University does have the authority to monitor content and usage of one’s
University-owned machine if it is warranted.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – Joan Savitt, Chair
UAC passed a bill clarifying and changing the way excuses for student absences can be obtained and reviewed (for Senate vote 3/8).
UAC continues to collect and discuss data on the way students who begin their university studies at UA and those who transfer in
complete their minors at UA and the problems they encounter in doing so. For example, UAC has learned that about 300 seniors
whose degree programs require them to complete a minor are yet to declare one. Four UAC members have been appointed to the Task
Force on General Education.
ULC (University Life Council) – Daniel R. Smith, Chair
ULC met on February 8th. Smoking Policy: We are at a point where we can schedule campus fora later this term to gain feedback on
the proposed policy; we will also be contacting Institutional Research about a survey this coming fall of employees. This year was
heavy with surveys due to Middle States and other initiatives so it is impossible to get another survey done. We are also having a
yearly discussion with Dr. Lee McElroy, Director of Athletics, about the NCAA academic scores, annually published in spring. One of
our items is to discuss divisional, campus, system and NCAA controls for eliminating violations.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – John Delano, Chair
The two previously scheduled meetings on February 12 and February 26 were cancelled due to (a) key-individuals for agenda items
being unable to attend, and (b) scheduling conflict with Strategic Planning Retreat on Feb. 25-26, respectively. Six (6) UPPC members
are on the Strategic Planning Committee. Efforts to schedule a UPPC meeting on Friday, Feb.19, were again not successful due to key-
individuals for the agenda being unable to attend. The next UPPC meeting is scheduled for March 12 when the agenda will include
discussions of (i) a proposal to suspend admission to a M.A. program, (ii) the GSS report, and (iii) a question bearing on the university
budget.
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