Council and Committee Reports for Senate Meeting Oct 16, 2017
Christian Poehlmann, Senate Secretary
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – Karin Reinhold
I. Informational
On Sept 19, Chair Reinhold met with Immediate Past Chair Collins & Vice Chair Mower to
plan upcoming amendments and fora. We agreed to reach out to all chairs of departments,
all deans, Senate departmental representatives and UUP departmental representatives to
solicit from them their support contacting all faculty and staff in their units. Date for vote on
the amendments was set for 2 weeks after the October Senate meeting. Details on this year’s
fora will come later.
On Sept 19
th Chair Reinhold received a request for a visit to the Senate of the Director of the
State University of New York’s Center for International Development (CID), Gina Volynsky.
The CID is a university-wide institution that designs and implements international technical
assistance and training projects, conducts policy-oriented research, and contributes to both
the theory and the practice of international development. The purpose of the visit is to raise
awareness among the faculty about the work the CID does and the opportunities that exist
for collaboration between CID and the faculty.
On Sept 20
th Chair Reinhold received a request of clarification of the role of co-chairs of
councils. Last year the Senate started a model of shared chair responsibilities in order to
support the people that stepped up to serve as chairs. When this was decided, it was greed
that only one person would officiate as chair of the council during SEC and Senate meetings
and one person would be listed as the official chair on the council roster. When attending
SEC and Senate meetings, both co-chairs could attend but only one would be vested with
the vote corresponding to the chair of the council. The co-chairs need to schedule who will
attend the SEC and who the Senate meetings officiating as Chair of the council. In either
case, the other person is always welcome to attend as guest.
On Sept 20
th Chair Reinhold received a request of clarification on voting rights of council
members. The basic principle is that members of a council have the right to vote in that
council. It can be confusing that we have a University Senate with councils composed of
tenured/tenured track faculty, contingent faculty, professionals, graduate and
undergraduate students, and emerita. Some senators are departmental representatives;
some are senators at-large, SUNY wide senators or senate officials (immediate past chair,
chair, vice chair, secretary). The composition of councils is dictated by the Bylaws & Charter,
which also describe the process of approval of membership. The council's roster is first
approved by the council on nominations, then by the SEC and then voted by the Senate.
Whichever category a member may belong to, the member has the right to vote in that
council.
Chair Reinhold inquired about video or audiotaping the President’s report at Senate
meetings. Approval by the SEC was requested. The SEC approved it on Oct 2
nd.
On Sept 21
st Chair Reinhold received a report on SUNY-wide task force on Micro
Credentials for review. The deadline for campus response is Oct 11
th. Provost Stellar, who is
a member of the SUNY task force on Micro Credentials, explained the Micro Credential
proposal to SEC on Oct 2
nd. He stated that the office of Applied Learning is working on the
UAlbany’s response. There were several concerns about the oversight of digital badges and
micro credentials. Some badges such as being in the Dean’s list or the new Global
Distinction are easy to implement. The bylaws assigns faculty charge over curriculum
therefore badges that pertain to curriculum should have Senate oversight. Provost Stellar
explained that badges are tools for enrolment and helping students searching for job after
graduation.
On Sept 28
th, Chair Reinhold received documents for the MS & PhD in Electrical and
Computer Science Engineering for final Senate Review. The bill for approval of these
programs will most likely come to the Senate floor on the November 13
th meeting.
On Oct 6
th, Chair Reinhold attended the Campus Governance Leaders Leadership Institute
at the Desmond in Albany.
II. Actions taken
MS & PhD in Electrical and Computer Science Engineering was sent to UAC &
UPPC for Approval.
III. Recommendations for actions
Bylaws amendments 1718BA01 & 1718BA02 vote starting date is planned around
Nov 6
th.
Videotaping of President and/or Provost report on Senate meetings and upload
them to the Senate webpage.
IV. Announcements
Vote for amendment to bylaws 1718BA01 & 1718BA02 planned for on Nov 6
th.
Vacancies in Councils and subcommittees:
o
COR is looking for faculty for its subcommittees:
Committee on Center, Institutes and Specialized Research
Laboratories
Researchers’ Liaison Committee
Ad Hoc Committees
o
UPPC has vacancies in
Resource Analysis and Planning Committee
University Facilities Committee
Information about relief efforts for hurricanes Maria, Irma and Harvey and Mexico
Earthquakes http://www.albany.edu/relief/
Congratulations to Joachim Frank, one of three scientists who were awarded the
2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing cryo-electron microscopy, which
simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules, allowing the image generation
of everything from proteins that cause antibiotic resistance, to the surface of the Zika
virus. “This method has moved biochemistry into a new era,” the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences
2017 SUNY Diversity Conference: Engaging Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity in the
Classroom, Campus and Community, 29 Nov - 1 Dec.
SUNY Undergraduate Research Symposium 2018: Friday, April 20 at Oneonta, and
Saturday, April 21 at Monroe County Community College. UFS supports this
opportunity for students across the SUNY system to come together and display, talk
about, demonstrate and/or perform their research and scholarly activity.
SUNY Senators’ Report – Diane Hamilton, Walter Little, Latonia Spencer
The SUNY University Faculty Senate will convene it'
s 177th Fall Plenary Meeting at
SUNY Delhi from October 19-21, 2017.
Graduate Student Organization Report – Dawn Wharram, Lead Senator
Nothing to report.
Student Association Report –Jerlisa Fontaine, President
Nothing reported
Council/Committee Chair Reports:
CAA – Istvan Kecskes, Chair, Mary Ellen Mallia Co-Chair
Nothing reported
CAFFECoR – Carol Jewell, Chair
Nothing to report
CERS – Michael Jerison, past Chair
Nothing reported
COR –Robert Rosenswig, Chair
At CoR’s first meeting of the academic year held on Monday, September 18, 2017, we:
Populated all of the subcommittees. However, we noted that each CoR member sits on
two separate subcommittee and each subcommittee has a significant work load.
Therefore, we plan to request that the number of CoR members be increase in the future
and in particular that more teaching/research faculty be assigned to us. A formal
request and proposal for an amendment to the Charter will follow.
Reviewed the updated proposal submitted by Dr. Theresa Pardo, the Director of the
Center for Technology in Government (CTG) and approved the proposal which
requests the formation of a new research institute which will not only consist of the
Center for Technology and Government, but will also have the ability to add additional
centers.
Received a request from the Center for Global Health (CGH) Status for full center status.
They have been operating since 2009 with provisional approval but final authorization
was never granted. At the Sept 18 meeting, John Justino, Center Director, presented an
outline of the activities of the Center and requested that the Center be granted official
status as an administrative unit designation within the Dean’s office on the
organizational chart. The Center for Global Health is looking for official status for
financial sustainability reasons and the Dean of the School of Public Health supports the
approval of CGH’s status as a center. CoR has requested more information and expects
to vote at our next meeting on Oct. 23, 2017.
Following a request from the College of Arts and Science (CAS) for the VPR’s office to
share the criteria and method of reviewing FRAP-A applications, CoR members
discussed the need for us to make the formal, numeric method of evaluation available
to FRAP A applicants. CoR also intends to formalize the use of Dean’s evaluations and
rankings in the decision process. Our plan is to make all of these formal evaluation and
ranking procedures available to applicants for the 2017-2018 competition. They will also
be posted on the Senate webside.
CPCA – Louise-Anne McNutt, past Chair
Nothing to report
GAC – Sean Rafferty, Chair
Nothing reported
GOV – Jim Mower, Chair
GOV voted to:
Appoint Julie Cuccio Slichko to the Campus Recreation Advisory Board and
Appoint Karen Chico-Hurst to fill the UAS board member term vacated by Gary Kleppel
on his retirement.
Unfortunately, replacement procedures for vacancies on the UAS board are not described in
the Faculty Bylaws. Senate Chair Karin Reinhold and I have since talked about a way to
make filling UAS vacancies more regular without amending the Bylaws, specifically by
applying its rules for replacing vacated Senate positions (II.8.3.a,b) to the UAS board
position. In subsequent elections that we conduct for the voting faculty, we would be sure to
keep a permanent record of votes for all candidates. By doing so, we could fill vacancies by
asking each of the runner ups, in order of vote count for the elected position, if they would
be willing to serve out the term in question. If not, we would use past practice and conduct
a GOV vote of nominees presented by the UAS board President, just as we did for the
Kleppel vacancy.
Anticipating GOV’s approval of the Faculty Bylaws amendments BA 1617:01 and BA
1617:02: voting rights for part time faculty to elect their own representative and clarification
of voting senators, Senate Chair Reinhold, Past Chair Collins, and I have discussed various
methods for achieving quorum (following positive reviews of the amendments by the
Senate Executive Committee (SEC) and the University Senate) when the voting faculty
participates in the online election. We agreed to contact deans and department chairs to
encourage them to spread the word on the vote. We are also trying to make voting easier;
ballotbin, an online voting technology recently used by the College of Arts and Sciences, is
one such possibility. Jim Mower and Ilka Kressner spoke with CAS Associate Dean Susanna
Fessler about her experience with the tool for administering the recent CAS at-large election.
On hearing good news about ballotbin, GOV will further explore its use in future Senate
voting tasks.
GOV will eventually take on new legislation to, in the words of Senate Resolution 1718-01R,
“explore amending the Faculty Bylaws to grant voting faculty status to part-time faculty
and staff. “ A positive vote will have implications for achieving quorum in future votes;
GOV will likely take a role in defining how part-time faculty will be counted in quorum
decisions.
GOV passed 1617BA01 and 1617BA02 (voting rights for part time faculty to elect their own
representative and clarification of voting senators) with edits and forwarded both to SEC for
consideration. SEC approved both amendments and has forwarded them to the Senate.
LISC – Sheila Bernard, Billie Franchini, Co-Chairs
The Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing (LISC) will meet on
October 12, 2017, and tour the new Educational Technology Center.
UAC – Karen Kiorpes, Christy Smith, Co-Chairs
The UAC held its first meeting of the year on Tuesday September 19th, 2017.
UAC Chairs have been working to assemble subcommittees. There are still two more
members to the council that need to be appointed
Associate Dean for General Education Richard Fogarty reported on the current status of
General Education Competency Plans. To date there are 42 approved programs; 11 more
are undergoing revision, and 6 more are not yet submitted. The General Education
Committee of UAC will review plans as they become ready and will send them back to
the Department as necessary or bring them to UAC for a final vote.
The General Education Advisory Board was provided for in the General Education
Program legislation effective Fall 2013. The Board will become more active as work
progresses on assessment of the General Education Program in anticipation of the
Middle States Accreditation Process. Institutional Research and the Counsel on
Academic Assessment will spearhead assessment of General Education.
Celine LaValley (Undergraduate Education) summarized the procedures for new
program proposals that go outside of SUNY Albany for review, and those that may
come to UAC for review in 2017/2018.
The Committee on Academic Standing met September 14
th and is currently meeting
biweekly.
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 31
st, 2017.
ULC – Ekow King, Chair
Nothing reported
UPPC – Jim Collins, Chair
Information:
The Council met on September 20.
It heard a report from Provost James Stellar that the new academic units CEAS and
CEHC were both doing well in terms of enrollments and the University undergraduate
enrollments were higher than expected, as were international student enrollments,
while graduate student enrollments were below the targets for this year. Council
members asked about resources for the Health Sciences Campus, in particular space
allocations of research, bus scheduling, and access to library resources for graduate
students working or taking courses on the Health Sciences Campus. The Provost
discussed the issue of space, given the mix of UA and private business claims on space.
Chair Collins and a Council member asked about the status of the Information Studies
Department (IS) given the proposal by the Dean of CEAS to remove Information Studies
from the College. The Provost acknowledged that it was still undetermined where the
department would be administratively located, a decision depending on input from
President Rodriguez, but said that a decision should be made “within weeks.”
The Council heard a report from VP for Finance and Administration James Van Voorst,
about a robust capital projects budget, an adequate operational budget, and evolving
issues like the Excelsior Program. He mentioned ongoing legislative effort, supported by
a upcoming Student Assembly rally, to expand the Maintenance of Effort Agreement
with New York State. The expansion would increase state support for labor costs,
utilities, and other recurrent, increasing expenses. A council member asked about the
likelihood of it becoming law, and VP Van Voorst replied that the legislation for the
expanded MOE had passed the NYS Assembly and Senate annually since 2015, but the
Governor had refused to sign it to date.
The council heard a presentation from Dean Harvey Charles and Dr. Annette Richie of
the Center for International Education and Global Strategy of a proposal for an
undergraduate Global Distinction Milestone. It was the second presentation on the
proposal, which would draw on courses from a wide range of academic programs at the
University. Council members asked about different components of the program,
including language requirements, study abroad, and accessibility of the Milestone to
students of limited financial means). A frank and open discussion addressed one of the
chief criteria of UPPC’s assessment of the ‘Campus Impact” of new proposals: Whether
adequate consultation had taken place with affected academic units. A compromise was
devised, given the wide interdisciplinarity of the Milestone proposal. The council voted
to support the Milestone proposal, with the proviso that the sponsors obtain a letter
confirming consultation from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
The council heard a presentation from Registrar Karen Chico-Hurst about the proposed
Academic Calendar for 2018-19. Questions and discussion followed, focusing on the
value of having a 3- or 5-year cycle of calendar planning. Council members argued that a
longer view would help those trying to host large academic events, such as professional
research conferences, at the University. The Registrar agreed.
UPPC next meets on October 18
Actions:
1.The Council voted to approve the Center for International Education and Global
Strategy proposal for a Global Distinction Milestone, with stipulations pending.
2.The Council voted to approve the proposed University Calendars for 2018-19.
Recommendations:
None at this time.
The Council next meets on October 18.
