UNIVERSITY
FACULTY
SENATE REPORT
SUNY at Buffalo
April 30 – May 2, 2009
UBuffalo Senator William
Baumer greeted the senators
and guests, gave a brief
overview of the Buffalo
campus, and introduced UB
President John Simpson. In
his welcoming remarks
President Simpson praised the
role of the UFS and faculty,
stating in particular that
“Faculty are the University”.
REPORT BY CARL
WIEZALIS,
SENATE
PRESIDENT
Carl Wiezalis is finishing his
second and last 2 year term as
president. He had submitted a
written report prior to the
meeting Among the items he
expanded on at the meeting:.
He expressed great
satisfaction with the
selection of the new
Chancellor Nancy
Zimpher.
His
participation on the
search committee
lfited the visibility of
the faculty in the
process..
Officer in Charge
John O’Connor has
been working very
hard towards a
smooth transition.
Chancellor
elect
Zimpher has made
several visits to the
state, and has sent
individuals
and
advance teams to
evaluate many of the
aspects
and
operations of SUNY.
He has been the first
UFS
President
serving on the SUNY
Board of Trustees
following legislation
passed in 2007. His
service there has
been of great value,
as it allows for a
faculty voice to be
directly heard by the
BOT. Lack of a vote
has not been a
problem.
He thanked the
Senate for allowing
him to serve as
President for four
years. This office
has been the high
point of his life and
career.
(The president’s written report
is available upon request.)
ELECTION OF NEW
SENATE PRESIDENT.
The election was preceded
by a discussion on whether
the actual numbers of the
vote would be communicated
to the Senate. The precedent
over many years had been to
only announce the winner
and to withhold any further
details. At the meeting of
the
Senate
Executive
Committee on the previous
day the issue had been raised
that since the UFS bylaws do
not address this point, by
default Robert’s Rules of
Order would apply, which, in
particular, require the actual
vote to be communicated to
the assembly and recorded in
the minutes. A motion was
made to suspend the Rules of
Order and continue the past
practice for this election
only. The Governance
Committee would consider
the matter and make
recommendations to the
Senate before the next
election. The motion to
suspend the Rules of Order
passed 26 to 13, the exact 2/3
minimum required.
Distinguished
Service
Professor Sandra D. Michael,
Biology, SUNY Binghamton,
and Associate Professor
Kenneth P. O’Brien, History,
SUNY Brockport, had been
nominated and agreed to
stand for election. The
Senate elected Ken O’Brien
to a two-year term as UFS
President beginning on July
1, 2009.
JOE HILDRETH, JOINT
COMMITTEE
ON
ARTICULATION
AND
TRANSFER
The work of the committee is
close to completion, with
acceptance of the plan
expected by the BOT. Joe
Hildreth will send out a
summary of the plan to be
shared with campuses. Key
features include:
All courses in the
major will transfer.
Other courses not
accepted for transfer
can be submitted for
appeal at the local
level; and there is
discussion of an
additional appellate
route above campus
level.
All course appeals
are to be handled at
campus
level
quickly, the chair
indicated within a
week.
A Transfer website
will be available.
CAREY HATCH, ASST.
PROV.
LIBRARY &
INFORM.
Hatch discussed the process
of Open Access Publication
and a recent document
agreed upon by four leading
associations serving research
universities: the Association
of Research Libraries, the
Association of American
Universities, the Coalition of
Networked Information, and
the National Association of
State Universities and Land
Grant
Colleges.
Recommendations are made
for Universities to take the
lead in modifying current
dissemination practices and
intellectual property rights
policies. (The document will
be submitted to the UA
Provost’s Office and to LISC;
it is available upon request.)
PANEL
DISCUSSION:DOES
“SHARED
GOVERNANCE” EXIST
IN SUNY? YES!
Four SUNY Presidents
(DeFleur, Binghamton, Dahl,
Geneseo, Yeigh, IT, Heath,
Optometry) known for
successfully
practicing
“Shared Governance” on
their
campuses
were
moderated by former Interim
Chancellor John Clark in a
discussion of questions that
had been prepared by the
UFS Governance Committee.
Significant themes that may
be helpful to other presidents
and to faculty, in particular
during times of difficult
budgets:
Know the “culture”
of the campus.
A strong Senate and
mechanisms
for
consultation lead to
better morale and
ability to address
challenges.
Information needs
to be shared with
faculty leaders.
Transperancy,
communication, and
trust are essential.
It’s not “us versus
them”, but all of us.
President
and
Provost are full
members of the
Senate Executive
Committee.
Shared governance
is a continuing
process.
Use a campus wide
budget
advisory
committee.
Establish a process
of annual budget
presentations.
Clark added that budget
transparency is absolutely
critical and formulated three
key rules: 1) President
attends Senate meetings, 2)
Chair of the Senate and the
SEC have access to the
President,
and
3)
Transparency.
JOHN O’CONNOR,
OFFICER IN CHARGE
He apologized for missing
the last plenary meeting
because of his being tied up
in the final negotiations with
Chancellor Elect Zimpher.
In responding to the U
Center concerns he stated
that officials in the Division
of Budget are very good at
identifying items to target for
cuts. He will provide details
to officials about grants and
projects affected by the RF
tithe. The legislature does
not understand graduate
tuition and SUNY needs to
work on explaining better.
We need to rethink how we
fund libraries.
He invited senators to visit
the RF website. It has been
updated and contains detailed
funding information campus
by campus showing all
relevant numbers.
REPORT BY AWARDS
COMMITTEE
Clarification that
Chancellor’s
Excellence Awards
continue to be
limited to full time
tenured and tenure
track instructional
faculty. Campuses
are encouraged to
create local awards
open to other
groups.
Discussions about
creating Advisory
Councils for review
of
Distinguished
Teaching
and
Service Professor
nominations that
will vote on cases,
as it now occurs for
nominations
for
Distinguished
Professor rank.
There continues to
be much
misunderstanding
about the eligibility
criteria for
promotions to
Distinguished
Service Professor.
The Committee will
review the
guidelines to
include more details
to make it
absolutely clear that
individuals
receiving
compensation for
administrative work
are not eligible.
REPORT BY AD HOC
COMMITTEE ON
PROFESSIONAL
BEHAVIOR AND
ETHICAL CONDUCT
Completed the
qualitative survey
on existing ethics
concerns and
policies. Received
2.1% responses
from faculty.
Discussed results
and problems with
survey.
Plans to identify
existing ethics
policies and work
on establishing a
SUNY Ethics
Institute.
Proposed a
resolution to be
granted standing
committee status.
RESOLUTION TO
ESTABLISH STANDING
COMMITTEE
The Senate approved a
resolution to establish a new
Standing Committee on
Ethics and Institutional
Integrity. The committee
will not serve as a
disciplinary body nor will it
take part in judicial
proceedings.
RISA PALM, PROVOST
Provost Palm reported that
Chancellor Elect Zimpher
sent teams to learn about
operations at SUNY. Among
the questions investigated by
the teams:
What does the
Provost’s Office
do?
What mechanisms
are in place for
strategic planning?
What indicators are
used
for
performance
evaluation?
How is the impact
of closing programs
measured?
How
are
enrollments
managed?
Teacher mobility
throughout K-20
International issues
More teams are expected to
come. The Provost will form
a faculty committee to
recommend changes in
assessment. SUNY also
needs to plan ahead for
Rapid growth of
knowledge
International
competition
Changed
demographics and
economy
Do we want to
compete with the
“greatest”
universities, not just
the largest?.
JIM VAN VOORST,
INTERIM
VICE
CHANCELLOR
AND
CHIEF
FINANCIAL
OFFICER.
CFO Van Voorst presented a
summary of the latest SUNY
Financial Plans. In 2008-09
total state support and
campus revenue, after
including tuition increases,
budgeted mandatory cost
increases and negotiated
salary increases, decreased
by $142m, representing a
5.9% decrease over 2007-08.
Based on the latest enacted
budget the corresponding
change (including negotiated
salary increases) amounts to
an increase of $59m,
representing 2.5% over
2008-09. Without mandated
increases there is a net 1.3%
decrease over 08-09. SUNY
will try to avoid midyear
reductions and present a very
strong case to state officials
that funds in IFR accounts
are one time only funds that
campuses use as seed money
to improve and expand
programs and cannot be used
to fill other budget holes.
He shared information on the
broad range of potential
reductions and actions
contemplated by campuses to
respond to the budget cuts.
SECTOR CONCERNS-
University Centers
Concern
about
shifting funds from
their
designated
purposes
(e.g.
tuition, IDC, IFR) to
fill budget gaps
created by other
cuts.
Increase in graduate
tuition not matched
by
increased
funding for tuition
scholarships. This
places additional
burdens on U
Centers
and
decreases
competitiveness.
Restated
recommendation for
line
item
for
libraries in campus
budgets.
There
needs to be better
balance
between
expenditures
for
electronic resources
and
traditional
media critical for
many disciplines.
Concern
about
possible elimination
of student fees
designated
for
special
purposes
without replacing
the resources lost.
Support for
recommendations of
the 2008 CHE
report concerning
increased flexibility
for SUNY.
REPORT
BY
THE
OPERATIONS
COMMITTEE
Committee
continues to work
on a rational fiscal
policy plan, which
includes
rational
tuition increases
Continues to work
on addressing the
inadequate funding
for libraries.
REPORT
BY
THE
GRADUATE
AND
RESEARCH
COMMITTEES
Following on the
concern about the
inadequate funding
of graduate teaching
and
research
assistantships,
particularly
the
tuition waiver which
has not changed in
15 years even
though tuition has
gone up.
Looking at best
practices
for
training
new
graduate teaching
assistants.
REPORT
BY
THE
STUDENT
LIFE
COMMITTEE
Health
Services,
wanted to narrow
the focus to veterans
health needs
SUNY CAMPUS
TRADITIONS—
will be surveying
campuses
on
traditons (such as
Roth Regatta (Stony
Brook), Fountain
Day (Albany).
Student Leadership
Development:
committee intends
to
develop
a
compendium
of
structured student
leadership programs
in SUNY and;
survey campuses
and college unions
as to whether they
have developed a
co-curricular
document process.
REPORT BY COLLEGES
Re-surveying
responses on budget
reduction
Budget
situation
noted as severe by
many schools, up to
7 digit figures,
signaling difficult
times ahead.
REPORT BY
STATUTORY AND
TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGES
Search for new unit
head, SUNY-funded
Allocation
agreement
with
Alfred
Maritime:
enrollment up
Cornell: budget cuts
and layoffs
Less money for
faculty activities
Hiring
freezes
across the sector
SUNY
IT—new
field house, dorms,
campus ctr
REPORT
BY
DIVERSITY
COMMITTEE
Committee
continues to address
issues of cultural
competence in the
curriculum,
and
trying to advocate
for the SUNY
mandate of access
in the budget
climate.
(Information on other
Committee Reports will
become available on the
UFS
web
page
at
http://www.suny.edu/facultyS
enate/. )
Respectfull
y submitted,
R. Michael
Range,
SUNY
Senator
range@alb
any.math.edu
Daniel R.
Smith,
Alternate
SUNY Senator
DanSmith
@uamail.albany.edu
