COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE SUMMARIES
University Senate Meeting, December 14th, 2009
As submitted to Dick Collier, Secretary, University Senate
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – R. Michael Range, Chair
Graduate Study Survey Report: On November 10, 2009, the Chair received a question from GAC Chair Larry Kranich regarding
procedures for reviewing the GSS report. The Chair referred the matter to the Governance Council. GOV examined the question, and
on November 17 submitted a detailed report to the Chair, which was copied to Graduate Studies Dean Pryse and to the GAC Chair.
Unfortunately, some individuals misunderstood GOV’s report to the effect that GOV was calling for another review of all the GSS
data, thereby potentially questioning the validity of the GSS panel reports and furthermore delaying transmittal of the panel reports to
the individual departments. However, the question addressed by GOV involved GAC’s (and also UPPC’s) review of the GSS Final
Report and Recommendations (to be forthcoming), and whether the individual panel reports should be available to GAC at that time.
The matter was discussed extensively with Provost Phillips and Dean Pryse at the Nov. 30 SEC meeting. It was emphasized that there
was no intent to second-guess the GSS panels, but that in order to review any recommendations, especially in light of potential major
impact on doctoral programs, the relevant data and reports which form the basis for such recommendations must be available. GAC
and UPPC members involved in such review would have to maintain confidentiality. The Provost and the Dean made clear that no
recommendations regarding program terminations or restructuring are considered at this time.
Definition of Diversity: President Philip had asked the University Community to review the draft of a revised definition of diversity
and a new vision for diversity for UAlbany, and he had asked for feedback and suggestions. Both CAFFECoR and ULC have
discussed the draft document. Because Tamra Minor, Assistant VP and Director of Diversity and Affirmative Action, was not able to
join the SEC on Nov. 30, a discussion of this item has been rescheduled for the first SEC meeting in January. President Philip agreed
to extend the period for feedback to that time.
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) – William Lanford & Daniel D. White, SUNY Senators
Nothing to report.
GSO (Graduate Student Organization) – Melanie Breganza, GSO President
Nothing to report.
SA (Student Association) – Josh Sussman, SA President
Nothing to report.
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 November 16 to discuss incentives for high quality assessment and to share comments
on chapters five, nine and ten of the draft Middle States report. Questions about and comments on the Middle States report were
discussed. Council members agreed to post fine-grained, text-level suggestions for revision to the report on the website; broad stroke
comments were summarized in a memo and sent to the MSCHE Self-Study Co-Chairs on December 7. A brainstormed list of
incentives for assessment was generated and revisited at the meeting on December 8. The Council also reviewed a draft of a revised
form used in the General Education assessment process to be piloted by the GEAC in spring, and received updates on the work of the
General Education Assessment Committee and the Program Review Committee.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility)
– Susanna Fessler, Chair
CAFFECoR met on November 9th to discuss revision of the Community Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) document. At this point we
have a compiled version of the CRR with member suggestions and await final member approval before it is forwarded to Student
Success and Conflict Resolution for their review. Of note is that, in the course of inputting suggested changes, the chair of
CAFFECoR has noted sections which are pertinent to ULC and LISC also. For example, if the CAFFECoR changes take effect, one
part of the policy on computer usage (LISC’s purview) would also have to be changed. The electronic version of the revised CRR
draft has been circulated to SEC members, but the chair of CAFFECoR would like to emphasize that this draft has not yet been
finalized by CAFFECoR. Constructive criticism is welcome. CAFFECoR will meet one last time this semester on Monday, December
14th to finish reviewing changes to the CRR.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – John Monfasani, Chair
The Joint CERS-GOV committee has completed an initial draft of the CERS policy document and has begun scheduling meetings
with concerned faculty and the administration concerning it.
1
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.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Laurence Kranich, Chair
The GAC approved a proposal to establish an Advanced (Graduate) Certificate Program in Professional Science Management (PSM).
The proposal in on today’s Senate agenda.
GOV (Governance Council) – Eric Lifshin, Chair
Strategic Planning Committee: At its November 20th meeting, GOV identified individuals it felt would be important to include on the
SPC group, representing large academic areas or populations not represented thus far on the group. Chair Lifshin has transmitted this
list to the Provost.
Excellence Awards Committees: In accordance with SUNY and SUNY Senate Awards Committee requirements for campus
excellence awards committees in order for local recipients to be eligible for the Chancellor’s Excellence Awards, GOV approved and
transmitted to the President membership for this year’s committees, other than the student representatives, the one member to be
designated by the President, and the one member to be designated by the Senate Chair. GOV also suggested that the President’s
nominee convene the first meeting of each committee and preside over the election of their chair, noting that both the President’s and
the Senate Chair’s designees are voting members of the committee and could be elected chair of the given committee. The committees
are for the President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching, Excellence in Professional Service, Excellence in Librarianship, Excellence
in Support (“Classified”) Service, Excellence in Academic (“Faculty”) Service, and Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.
GOV noted that the last award has two distinct sets of criteria, one for “Scholarship” (formerly the “Chancellor’s Award for
Excellence in Research”) and “Creative Activities.” The UA Senate Charter designates the responsibility for the “Research” award to
the Council on Research, but does not address “Creative Activities.” [The criteria, requisite forms, and the allocation of awards to UA
can be found on the following SUNY sites: http://www.suny.edu/provost/facultyAwards.cfm?navLevel=5 and
http://www.suny.edu/provost/faculty_awards_files/CEA%202009-2011%20policies%20and%20procedures.pdf. Consequently, the
membership for “Scholarship and Creative Activities” expressly avoided the research component and included membership suggested
by Provost’s Office concerned with “creative activities.” Bill Hedberg responded that the membership was acceptable for all except
the “Scholarship and Creative Activities” committee, but he is passing on to COR the list of members. He also provided the names of
the President’s designee for each committee and, in most cases, the name of a support staff person. Senate Chair Range provided GOV
a tentative list of his designees (not all of whom as yet had agreed to serve on the committees.) GOV expressed concern that UA
faculty who seem to meet the “Creative Activities” criteria may not be (and may not have been) given appropriate consideration for
that award. There is no question about COR continuing its appropriate role in selecting a committee to nominate faculty it deems
worthy for the President’s Award for Research (and thereby the Chancellor’s Award for “Scholarship”) but it may be desirable in the
future to have a separate committee concerned with a President’s (and Chancellor’s) Award for Excellence in Creative Activities.
GAC inquiry regarding reports from the Graduate Student Support (GSS) panels: Senate Chair Range asked GOV to provide an
interpretation of the Senate Charter in response to a request from GAC Chair Kranich. Specifically, Kranich noted that in response to
the GAC request to Graduate Dean Pryse for information on the GSS deliberations, “The Dean told the Council that GAC will receive
a copy of the final report of the GSS review but not the individual program assessments. She assured the Council that the GSS report
will not include proposals for continuing or discontinuing programs nor will it contain any funding recommendations. Therefore, it
was her interpretation that since the GSS reports will not recommend the discontinuation of graduate programs, GAC does not need to
see the specific GSS recommendations.
At a special meeting of GOV on November 17th, the council strongly disagreed with that interpretation. However, recognizing the
critical importance that the GSS findings not be made public, it suggested GAC (and as necessary UPPC) members made privy to
those findings take a confidentiality oath. This response was sent to Chair Range with cc’s to Pryse, Kranich and UPPC Chair Delano
and has been distributed to SEC members. It was subsequently noted that this document was cited as a reason for not informing
program directors of the panels’ findings—nothing of that sort is stated in the document nor was this the intention of GOV. The
council was also informed that some GSS panel members felt they were being “second-guessed.”
At its December 11th meeting, GOV again discussed these issues and agreed that it did not intend that GAC should receive the “raw
data” that GSS panels had received and did not expect that GAC would “second guess” the GSS panels’ consensus about the ratings
assigned to the academic strength and quality of our doctoral programs. The reason for GAC’s receipt of assessment information about
graduate programs (and UAC’s for undergraduate programs) is to allow those councils to fulfill their charge of working with programs
when problems or weaknesses are identified. If such efforts fail, GAC (like UAC) might itself recommend that a program be
discontinued, suspended or restructured or may need to consider such a recommendation it received from the program's home
college/school. The GAC's deliberations and those of UPPC and the Senate must taken into holistic consideration other concerns than
the given program's current academic strengths and quality, the appropriately narrowed focus of the GSS panels.
2
Also at its December 11th meeting the Governance Council responded to problems it found in the draft of Chapter 4 "Leadership,
Governance and Administration" of the Self-Study document and provided data on progress in strengthening University governance
accomplished during the past decade that was not recorded in the draft. This information is being sent to the chairs of the Self-Study
Steering Committee with a copy to SEC members.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Gwen Moore, Chair
IT Committee chair Larry Raffalovich reported that the IT Committee met and discussed privacy and security concerns, as well as
how much is being monitored, and does the University have the authority to monitor content and usage. University Counsel John
Reilly was invited to attend the November 23 meeting of the IT Committee to discuss privacy policy.
Other issues raised were concern with the embedded links that accompany emails and the caution that should be taken when opening
these links. A discussion followed regarding the lack of subject lines in blast emails and some of the electronic classrooms being non-
conducive to teaching. A suggestion to revisit “email as an official means of communication” by the Committee was made.
LISC members are asked to review and comment on the Middle States Self-Study Report, especially Chapter 3.
At its December 7th meeting, LISC members discussed the draft Self-Study. Comments were submitted to the Self-Study committee.
At a meeting of the Libraries Committee, members decided to focus on two issues this year: open-access publishing and the
University’s development of a digital file repository with images from the art museum, Writers’ Institute events, and other university
items. This repository will be available to the university community soon. A wider institutional repository would be more expensive
and time consuming but possibilities for developing one will be investigated by the Libraries Committee. Members of the IT
Committee met with University Counsel John Reilly recently to discuss legal issues and University policies relating to IT privacy.
Apparently, some regulations are written but many are not.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – Joan Savitt, Chair
UAC approved a CAS course for training tutors under a grant.
UAC learned that the number of students electing S/U grading has greatly increased now that the last date to do so has been moved to
later in the semester (877 in Fall 09 with a later deadline compared to 396 in Fall 08 with Sept. 22nd deadline). It remains to be seen if
the number of appeals will go down! (Students who elect S/U grading must obtain a C or better to pass.)
UAC discussed the concept of granting blanket Gen Ed approval for topics courses. No vote was taken. The sense of the group was
that each course, or in this case, group of courses, should be reviewed on its own merits, and that a general topics course in an area
that fell under a particular gen ed could be approved if set up to clearly show those objectives would be met in all topics.
UAC began a discussion about determining whether a student who missed more than 2 weeks of classes due to illness or any
"allowable" reason should always be allowed back in class at the request of the Dean, as is the case for shorter absences of similar
nature.
The new date and time for UAC meetings in the spring 2010 semester has been set for Wednesdays from 9:30-10:30am.
The UAC reviewed Chapter 9 of the Middle State Self-Study draft report and submitted comments as requested.
The UAC proposes a revision in the General Education Foreign Language requirement. [bill is on the Senate agenda] The
proposal has been distributed to SEC members and is on today’s agenda.
The UAC approved the retention standards proposed by the Governing Board of the Honors College. The proposed “Grade Point
Requirements for Continuing in the Honors College” bill is on the Senate’s agenda.
After continuing discussion of the progress being made to reinvigorate the majors in Global Studies [on Senate agenda], UAC voted
to recommend that no student be permitted to declare either of the Global majors during the spring semester. In order to keep the
PeopleSoft records of students currently in the major functioning normally, this policy will be administered by the staff of the
Registrar's Office and the Advisement Services Center. All students who are known to be considering this major will receive
advisement from ASC about their options, which include waiting to declare or switching to another major instead. Of the current
students interested in this major but not yet declared, only one is a junior. The others are frosh or sophomores, so this issue should
resolve itself shortly. However, should a new structure not be defined during the spring, UAC will consider further action with regard
to the majors.
With regards to revisions to the Music minor [bill on the Senate agenda], we note that these are revisions to revisions made last year
and approved by the Senate. The Bulletin copy for 09-10 reflects changes that were approved last year. The new changes further
clarify the minor and would go into effect after approval by the Senate.
UAC approved some revisions to the applications for student-initiated majors and minors, so that the sponsoring faculty will now be
in academic departments from which coursework is drawn, and so that each proposal will include learning objectives and outcomes
for the proposed majors and minors. By previous legislation, faculty sponsors must be members of the tenure-track teaching faculty.
This has also been clarified on the forms.
3
UAC approved changing the deadlines for submission of UUNI390 (University-wide Internship) applications so that they are more
realistic for students. The deadline to apply for credit for an internship to be undertaken in the subsequent spring semester has been
changed from December 1st to December 15th. The deadline to apply for credit for an internship to be undertaken in the subsequent fall
semester has been changed from May 1st to August 1st.
A small working group formed of UAC members will work during the month of January to try to make some progress on UAC's work
this fall to identify what might be a satisfactory set of graduation requirements should minors themselves be made optional. UAC will
then continue on that project and see where it leads.
Also planned for the spring is a review of restricted majors. One concern is that there are students who have not been allowed to
declare a restricted major who have nevertheless been allowed to complete all the coursework for it. However, they still cannot
graduate, because they cannot declare. UAC will be deciding early in the spring semester what data we wish to gather.
ULC (University Life Council) – Daniel R. Smith, Chair
ULC met to discuss the Middle States Self-Study draft; its comments on chapters 10 and 7 follow:
Chapter 10 typos: Page 8, course prefix is ‘RSSW’. Page 8 is missing a link. Page 18 ‘Capitol’ should be spelled ‘Capital’. Page 12
number of veterans is now 221 as of fall 2009.
Chapter 10 comments: Page 3, reference to a “dip to 72.4% [retention] after eight semesters”, it is unclear whether this is correct.
Shouldn’t retention dip to zero given graduation after eight semesters for EOP students, especially in light of the fact that in the very
next sentence Institutional Research has calculated the graduation rate at 60%?
Chapter 7 typos: Page 9, third paragraph: acronym “LGBTQ” should be “LGBTQQA” (Questioning, Allied). And, last sentence, same
paragraph is a fragment “In and examine…faculty and staff.”
Chapter 7 comments:
1.
Student Services for Graduate Students needs to be explicated. Notation that 30% of the crime on campus is “theft”--what is
the other 70%? Is it more serious crime? Needs explanation and data.
2.
Perceptions of safety? Where are the stats that demonstrate that UA is more safe than the general Albany community? There
is one chart (Appendix 7.2) with ‘Students as Crime Victims OFF CAMPUS”, how about stats on students as crime victims on
campus?
3.
Appendices 7.1- 7.5, charts or appendices entitled “Cultural Leaders Avg. GPA “, “Prevention Program Attendance”, and
“Residence Hall Programming “ are not referred to in the body of the chapter.
ULC continues to ask for three undergraduate student members for the University Life Council, one of whom must be a Senator
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – John Delano, Chair
The UPPC met on November 19 and December 3 to review a 15-page Letter of Intent (LoI) from Rockefeller College for the creation
of a Masters in Global Affairs program. Provost Phillips and the Office of Graduate Studies had referred the LoI to the UPPC for its
perspectives, as per the review procedures (step 4) described at: http://www.albany.edu/gradstudies/gradprogdevguide.shtml. The
UPPC reviewed the LoI for its strategic and budgetary implications (according to Senate Charter X.2.4), and compliance of the LoI
with the informational requirements listed in 'Guidelines for the Submission of Graduate Academic Program Proposals' (November
2005 version) that is available by clicking on the 'SUNY Guidelines' link at the URL listed in the previous sentence.
On November 19, the UPPC met with Dean Jeffrey Straussman and Prof. Rey Koslowski. Following that 90-minute discussion,
comments and suggestions by the UPPC were forwarded Dean Straussman and Prof. Koslowski for revisions to the LoI. On December
3, the UPPC met again with Prof. Koslowski to review and discuss the revised LoI that contained more detailed budgetary and
resource information. The revised version of the LoI was accepted by a formal UPPC vote. If the LoI has continuing administrative
support (refer to URL above), the LoI is prepared for transmittal by either Provost Phillips or President Philip to the SUNY System
Provost for step 5 in the 18-step review process.
At its meeting on December 3, the UPPC also discussed two chapters in the current draft of the Middle States Self-Study (i.e., Mission
and Goals; and Institutional Resources). Comments and suggestions for revision of those chapters were sent to the Co-Chairs of the
Middle States Self-Study, Vice Provost Sue Faerman and Prof. Steven Messner.
4
