UNIVERSITY POLICY AND PLANNING COUNCIL
2017-18 CHAIR –JAMES COLLINS
SEPTEMBER 20, 2017
MEETING MINUTES
Present: J. Boyle, S.Chittur, J.Collins, S. Goel, K. Lahiri, M.Leventhal, L. McNutt, C. Parker,
K.Reinhold, K. Rethemeyer, J. Stefl-Mabry, J. Stellar, J. Van Voorst, D. Wharram
Guests: Jon Bartow, Graduate Education
Harvey Charles, International Education
Karen Chico-Hurst, Registrar
Anne Marie-Murray, Provost Office
Annette Richie, International Education
Approval of the Minutes from August 30, 2017
Correction of Karin Reinhold name on May 11th 2017 minutes. No changes to September minutes.
Minutes of the August 30th meeting approved, 2 abstentions, 10 approval.
Provost’s Report
Provost Stellar has returned to his position of Provost and President Havidan Rodriguez is now officially
here. We have momentum as a University and Provost Stellar believes we will go thru this transition
seamlessly. We have many exciting projects on the horizon, such as building two new colleges, the
dynamics between the new colleges and the existing ones to build new partnerships. The Excelsior
Program we believe has contributed to our transfer surge, we do not believe that the excelsior program
helped the freshman enrollments as their decisions had been made prior to the program development.
Overall our enrollments are up which is great as we will be having additional costs with the new
investments in faculty. Provost Stellar then opens up the table to questions. The questions begin with,
have the increase in anticipated enrollments in engineering helped our overall budget to fund the
campus initiatives? We expand by size, we cannot raise tuition so we need to cover the new faculty
salaries with the increased enrollments. There are timing issues with all of this for example we have a
department chair with no enrollments yet as we are staging the program to begin. Balancing all of these
is crucial to the success of everyone. The Provost’s Office will be conducting a study to examine
departments and ensure they have the resources they need to be successful, and possible reallocations
will be determined at that point. There are many opportunities for synergies between the faculty here
on campus as well as with other institutions, such as Hudson Valley and Albany Med. Next question is
what is the vision for the Health Sciences Campus? For 30 years we have had a partnership with the
Department of Health. These faculty are paid for by the state and tenured by the state, but they work
with us, they even serve as our department chairs. They are important to the School of Public Health,
and were one of the reasons for changing the name from the East Campus, another is the desire to use
this rented land and space to companies that can interact with us. We want to draw the Health Sciences
Campus in and strengthen our research. The third question is what is the status of the Information
Science department? The possibility is currently between Rockefeller College and College of Homeland
Security, the recommendations are now being presented to the President to get his input/ decision and
we hope to have a decision soon. The lack of resolution is becoming an issue and we do not want that to
impact the program itself, it was a victim of the transition and the Provost hopes to have an answer by
next meeting.
Vice President for Finance and Administration Report
Not much has changed since last month’s meeting on the budget front, we are coming to the end of the
third week of classes which is the end of the add/ drop period so we will have the final numbers soon
and will be doing the snapshot soon on our final enrollments. It is not final yet but the expectation is
that we will be short of our targets with master’s students, we are right about where we thought we
would be with Undergrad, perhaps a little over. We have had an increase in out of state students in both
graduate and undergraduate students from a money perspective helps offset the shortfall. Accounting
and Institutional Research are working on the numbers now and should be ready for next month. The
SUNY wide ask of the governor is starting to gel and is evolving and we hope to have a more interactive
role with SUNY in the process. The maintenance of effort part of the budget bill is going up to the
governor and the hope is that the state will cover some of the increases that we will be facing soon, this
has been signed off by the legislature and the senate and is now with the governor. We anticipate that
the governor will turn this down and have the expectation that we as a Campus will need to cover the
expenses.
Global Distinction Milestone
Three documents have been shared with the members of the council the documents include a course
action form, a list of milestones and criteria, and a PowerPoint listing the various aspects of the
program. Now that we have a campus impact form do we want to hold off on this milestone until a later
date or listen to the program details today? Harvey Charles would like to present with us a presentation
today as to not hold anything up. Last semester when we met we learned that a student could not work
on two degree’s at the same time, to offer students the ability to immerse themselves in an enriched
program we now propose a 4 semester or equivalent language requirement, 3 courses or 9 credit in
three distinct themes, the themes are international relations, international development and
economics, and lastly cultural and intercultural competencies. Lastly, the students would engage in a 26
week study abroad experience where they would have a semester of education and then an internship
proponent. Students that engage in these experiences which all currently exist, but in this we are
bundling all the existing services to create a strategic and structured set of experiences for students to
discover. There will be impact but the impact should be in all the ways one would hope, more students
would be enrolling in language and we would hope to increase the languages that can be offered. This
program is the kind of stuff we want to do as an institution. The hope would be to launch this program
this semester and begin offering this experience to students. This program is meant to be completed in
a student’s normal degree plan. There are many courses on campus across the departments that
students can enroll in and the students should not run into a problem of being locked out of classes due
to not being in the major since this is a milestone. Annette Richie would be the main advisor for this
program from International Education and it will be a mixture of information sessions and face-to-face
meetings with the students in the milestone. There is a milestone markers checklist that has been
developed that will help guide the students on what they will need to take/ do to complete the
requirement. This is a series of experiences that can be integrated into any program on campus. There
is currently a milestone in the graduate level that mirrors this proposal at the undergrad level. It is
believed that the job opportunities will be increased by students having this experience and that
retention with students on campus will also increase as the students are more engaged. No student will
not have an abroad experience because they cannot afford it there will be a needs assessment. Last
spring all departments were sent notice and invited to engage in conversation about the program and
where we see it going, there were three separate workshops offered. In the fall we are hoping to consult
more with the individual departments. A motion was made and seconded to accept the proposal, with
the stipulation that we receive documentation from the Dean of College of Arts & Sciences confirming
that the College has been consulted about impact on academic departments and supports the Milestone
proposal. The motion was unanimously approved.
Academic Calendar
Karen Chico Hurst presents the academic calendar for Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. The calendar is
established off a set of guidelines that were established by UPPC and the Fall 2018 semester will begin
on the last Monday in August. This year we are unable to offer travel days before and after Yom Kippur
and Rosh Hashanah, the calendar guidelines allow for this. The main reason we cannot accommodate
the travel days this year is because we would not have been able to allow for a winter session. Guidance
will be provided and given to students and faculty that will be observing the holidays. Some of the
tightness in the calendar is also due to the Excelsior scholarship due to the grading and packaging of the
aid needed. Winter session minimum must also be met, the minimum is twenty days. In the Spring
semester now we have a three day commencement that we need to factor in. Another factor in the
schedule is the cleaning and improvements that need to be made to classrooms so we ensure we factor
time in for these as well. The question of how many years of calendars we have prepared is brought up
and Karen is happy to address this concern and have a three or five year calendar plan. Overall the
committee is in support of seeing calendars for multiple years. The Registrar noted that all the calendars
also include the stipulation that they are subject to change as necessary. The motion is made and
seconded to approve the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 calendar, and subsequently prepare a 5-year
calendar plan. The motion was unanimously approved.
Sub Committee Reports
Due to timing constraints today it is proposed that we have Chair and Committee reports next month
and will ask to have the appropriate contacts attend the meeting to offer us more information.
Motion to adjourn, seconded. Meeting ends at 2:20pm
