Senate Secretary Christian Poehlmann
Reports Submitted for November 7, 2016 SEC meeting:
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – James Collins
I.
Informational
1. On October 11, Senate Leadership (Chair Collins, Vice Chair
Reinhold, Immediate Past Chair Fox), met for a ‘stakeholders’
meeting with University Council Chair Michael Castellana to discuss
preferred characteristics of presidential applicants and likely
challenges facing a new President.
2. On October 19, Chair Collins attended the UUP Executive
Committee to explain and encourage participation in the
presidential search process, encourage volunteers on Senate
Councils and subcommittees, and discuss perceived problems with
Compact Planning, in light of a UUP report on the Compact Plan
process.
3. On October 19, Chair Collins attended the UPPC meeting.
4. On October 20-22, Chair Collins attended the SUNY Fall 2016
Senate Plenary. He attended the Campus Governance Leaders
Constituency meeting and learned of shared concerns and motions
to improve:
a. The need for ongoing education about shared governance
when there are new campus leaders (e.g. Presidents,
Provosts, Deans);
b. The need for ongoing education among Senate constituent
units when there is a Senate, like UA, that is a University
Senate, representing, faculty, professionals, students,
management confidential and others;
c. That the SUNY Senate encourages local legislative advocacy
by Senate officers and members, with a current legislative
agenda.
5. Chair Collins and other Senate leaders continue to pursue a
schedule of meetings with the new Provost and Chief of Staff.
6. On October 25, Chair Collins met with Assistant to the President
Alice Oldfather to discuss the Agenda and President’s Report for the
Fall Faculty Assembly, 2-3PM, Wednesday, November 9, in the main
auditorium of the Performing Arts Center.
7. On October 27, Chair Collins and Chair Fox of UPPC met with
members of UAC to discuss planning and scheduling for the multiple
changes to records made necessary by apparently small changes,
such as re-naming, merging, or splitting departments. We also
discussed how to best educate Academic Deans about these
matters.
II.
Actions taken
None
III.
Recommendations for actions
None
OTHER REPORTS
UFS (University Faculty Senate) – Diane Hamilton, Walter Little &
Latonia Spencer, SUNY Senators
1. The University Faculty Senators submitted the official documents
(Q&A with the Chancellor, Resolutions, Committee Reports)
produced from the fall plenary meeting at Cortland University and
report on how to obtain information about SUNY committees and
other SUNY senate business.
GSA (Graduate Student Association) – Dylan Carr GSA President
1. Nothing to report
SA (Student Association) – Felix Abreu, Student Association
President
1. Nothing to report
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE CHAIRS’ REPORTS:
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – James Mower, Chair
1. The General Education Assessment Committee and Academic
Program Review Committee have selected chairs and are now
working on the preparation of assessment reports.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of
Expression, and Community Responsibility) –Carol Jewell, Chair
1. Informational
a. CAFFECoR met on Thursday, October 27, 2016, and began to
discuss the many complex issues surrounding writing a
procedure for the undergraduate student bulletin in cases
where undergraduate students have grievances which are not
of a grade or evaluative nature, i.e., the Student feels their
academic freedom or freedom of expression has been
curtailed, either by the professor or other students.
2. Reports of actions
a. Ng sent Jewell an example of accessible syllabi, which Jewell
then distributed to members. Jewell reported on her email
discussions with Kathie Winchester, regarding policy and
procedure.
3. Jewell will do four things:
a. Write a draft procedure that parallels the procedure for grade
grievances/appeals;
b. Reach out to appropriate parties to determine what exactly is
involved in the orientation of faculty, as well as who
facilitates those orientations;
c. Reach out to the Director of ITLAL, for any information they
could give us regarding these issues; and
d. Share with members of CAFFECoR this information (as well as
further emails from Kathie Winchester), and continue the
discussion via email.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) –
Michael Jerison, Chair
1. Nothing reported
COR (Council on Research) – Daniele Fabris, Chair
1. Nothing reported
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) –
Louise-Anne McNutt, Chair
1. Nothing to report
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – James Fossett, Chair
1. Nothing reported
GOV (Governance Council) – Karin Reinhold, Chair
1. Nothing reported
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) –
David Mamorella, Chair
1. Updates from the Library - Faculty searches
a. Web Developer/Designer. We have interviewed three
candidates, and are scheduling a fourth for later this month.
b. Serials Coordinator. We have made an offer and will make an
announcement pending verification of employment history
and educational credentials.
c. Dewey Administrative Support Assistant. We’ve interviewed
four candidates; I expect a memo from the search committee
this week.
d. Subject Librarian for Anthropology, Geography and Planning,
and Communication. Search Committee: The deadline for
applications has been extended to October 5. I expect a
memo from the search committee this week regarding whom
to interview.
e. Dewey Visiting Assistant Librarian. We’ve interviewed four
candidates; I expect a recommendation this week.
f.
Director of Technical Services and Library Systems. We will
seek permission to hire in the next week or two; the job will
hopefully be posted by the end of October.
g. Reference Librarian. We plan to conduct an internal search
for this position.
h. Subject Librarian for Dewey. We are developing the job
description.
2. Student Advisory Board.
a. We have had an overwhelming response to our call for
members of the Libraries’ Student Advisory Board, with
approximately 100 volunteers. Rather than turn anyone
away, we decided to split the group in two and have half
meet during the fall and half meet during the spring
semester. Our first meeting is on October 25.
3. Library Hours Task Force.
a. At the request of the Libraries’ Student Advisory Board, I have
appointed a Task Force to make recommendations regarding
the hours of operation for all three university libraries. The
Task Force is conducting a survey of the student body during
the week of October 24 about their use of the libraries and
their preferences regarding library hours.
4. Campus Conversations in Standish.
a. We will be hosting Carl Bon Tempo at an event on October
19, 12:35-1:25: “Election 2016: An Historical Perspective”
(October 19). Please attend these conversations and
encourage your students to attend.
Open Access Week. The Libraries are hosting an event in recognition of
Open Access Week on October 25. For more information, check out our
press release.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) –Karen Kiorpes and
Christy Smith, Co-Chairs
1. UAC met on October 18. In its September meeting, UAC reviewed a
proposal from the School of Social Welfare to revise their policies on
termination from their major. In response to questions at that
meeting, the School clarified the language of the policy and the
circumstances under which a student would not receive a passing
grade in Field Placements. The proposal was approved
unanimously.
2. UAC reviewed two revised General Education plans, from Political
Science and from Social Welfare. The former was approved. UAC
has asked Social Welfare for a point of clarification regarding the
Dewey Library role in the Plan.
3. Four new Competencies Plans have been submitted. After the
meeting, Chair Kiorpes divided UAC voting members into
subcommittees to review the new Competencies Plans. The
subcommittees will report on the reviews at the next UAC meeting.
Kiorpes assigned plans to subcommittees based on representation
of a UAC faculty member in a discipline relevant to the department
submitting the plan.
4. On October 27, Kiorpes and Kathie Winchester met with Cynthia Fox
and Jim Collins to discuss their request to SEC to create
documentation of procedures to follow when a department or
college proposes certain organizational changes. Recent proposed
changes in the School of Business and in the College of Computer
Engineering and Applied Sciences have brought such issues to the
forefront, and there has been clarification regarding the role the
SEC and UPPC should play in such proposals. Kiorpes and
Winchester want to capture the jurisdiction for approvals, the steps
needed, and the order of those steps, based on the types of
administrative changes being proposed. They provided Fox and
Collins a draft of a list of possible types of changes and a list of the
groups that may be involved in approval and implementation.
ULC (University Life Council) – Ekow King, Chair
1. Informational
a. The Next meeting of the ULC will be held on 10/31/2016. We
will review the revisions to the ULC Charter. We will also
discuss updates regarding the Tobacco Free Campus
Initiative.
2. Reports of Actions – Nothing to report.
3. Recommendations for Actions – None
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – Cynthia Fox, Chair
1. Informational
a. We are trying to bring the UPPC pages of the Senate
website up to date. Minutes from the 2015-16 meetings of
UPPC have been located and posted, and agendas and
minutes for this year are being posted more regularly.
b. We are trying to arrange for Sandra Starke, our recently
hired Associate VP for Enrollment Management, to attend
either our Nov 16 or our December 7 meeting.
c. At our meeting of 10/19, UPPC’s recently reconstituted sub-
committees, the Resource Analysis and Planning
Committee (RAPC), chaired by Mitch Leventhal, and the
University Facilities Committee, chaired by Sridar Chittur,
presented their first reports.
d. On 10/27, UPPC Chair Fox attended a meeting requested
by UAC Co-Chair Karen Kiorpes to discuss the need for
guidelines regarding the process of campus activities such
as name changes to departments, the formation of new
colleges, combining or merging and splitting schools, etc.
2. Actions Taken
a. Following receipt of a revised LOI modified to address the
concerns raised by UPPC on 10/19, UPPC Chair Fox signed
the Campus Impact Form and forwarded the proposal for
an MS in Digital Forensics (SOB) to Jon Bartow, Vice Dean
for Graduate Education on 10/27.
b. Following receipt of a revised LOI modified to address the
concerns raised by UPPC on 10/19, UPPC Chair Fox signed
the Campus Impact Form and forwarded the proposal for a
Ph. D. Electrical and Computer Engineering (CEAS) to Jon
Bartow, Vice Dean for Graduate Education on 10/27.
