UNIVERSITY FACULTY
SENATE REPORT
Albany
January 31-February 2, 2008
SENATE PRESIDENT
The President of the University Faculty Senate is Carl Wiezalis (Professor
of Respiratory Therapy Education, Upstate Medical, Syracuse).
President Wiezalis reported an extensive list of activities since our last
meeting. It is worth noting that (finally) President Wiezalis is a member
of the SUNY BOT and he reports that being a member allows him to
represent our interest much more effectively than in the past. Carl
reports that he continues to have an excellent relationship with both
Chancellor Clark and Provost Palm. They are accessible, collegial, and
supportive of the role of faculty governance. Chancellor Clark, who has
been interim president on several campuses that experienced troubles,
reported that he feels shared governance is a no-brainer. In his
experience, it is campus presidents who do not fully involve faculty
that get into trouble.
Governor's Commission
Carl Wiezalis, along with Norm Goodman and Joe Hildreth were
members of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee for the Higher
Education Commission. In this role, they advised both members of
SUNY Administration and members of the Governor's Commission on
how best to improve the future of SUNY.
Chancellor Search
Carl is also a member of search committee to find a new Chancellor.
This process is in its initial stages with the last members of the
committee just appointed. Because of confidentiality, he is restricted in
what he can say and refers those interested to the SUNY webpage.
SUNY is 60
SUNY will be 60 years old this year and is attempting to recover,
organize, preserve, and study the historical documents relating to
SUNY. A History Symposium is planned (within next 18 months) and
a written history will be undertaken.
Articulation
There is pressure from the Legislature to make student transfer within
SUNY "easier." Partly out of the concern that if we don't do something
the Legislature may do something we won't like (e.g. have universal
course numbers throughout SUNY!), a Special Joint Committee on
Articulation and Transfer has been formed (Joe Hildreth, Chair) and is
working. This is a very thorny issue pitting faculty authority over
curriculum against administrative need for efficiency. The (tentative)
initial task of this committee will be to try to identify (and list) those
100 level courses that are taught on all campuses. Note, there is some
question about how extensive this problem is but it is clearly a serious
political issue and cannot be ignored.
RISA PALM, PROVOST AND VICE CHANCELLOR FOR
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Provost Palm is pleased with recommendations for Governors
Commission:
2000 new faculty lines
250 star (senior) faculty with distinguished research.
Proposed SUNY Endowment
Need for Faculty Lines
Provost Palm has been studying both the decline in the number of
faculty lines and the graying of our faculty. She sees the decline in
numbers and the increase in the proportion of "older' faculty a double
problem that needs to be addressed. (Tables were distributed showing
how many faculty were needed to reach the same student/faculty ratios
as our aspirational peers and showing the percent of faculty in their 50,
60 and 70 in 2006 vs 2001.)
Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA)
Provost Palm distributed copies of the webpage for the one fully
participating VSA college (Buffalo State). She stated clearly that she
was NEUTRAL in participation and the VOLUNTARY means
VOLUNTARY. She has doubts about using just numbers for such
comparisons. It was reported that the faculty at Buffalo State did not
support their participation. It was also reported that the President of
Buffalo State had some involvement in the development of the VSA
system.
VSA generated considerable discussion, as at the previous meeting. A
key point was made that campuses do assessment to improve their own
product. If such an assessment metric is made public, it may no longer
be used as an effective tool for self improvement but instead would
become a marketing tool.
KIM CLINE, SUNY CFO
In his introduction, President Wiezalis announced that Kim Cline will
step down from her position as of April 2008 to assume the presidency
of Mercy College.
Cline reported on the budget. It is a long term process. The Governor’s
budget proposal resolves the $4.4 Billion budget gap mainly through $
2.3 B in savings, $1.1 B in revenue initiatives, and $1.1 B in non-
recurring activities. The budget gap for 2011-2012 is estimated to grow
to $9.5 B, which can be reduced to $ 6.8 B by continuing actions
proposed for this year.
The budget includes funding of mandates for SUNY, including
negotiated salary increases, adjustments for inflation, and increased
energy costs. There are some cuts in the latter, funds are available to
restore. The overall economy is weak, which necessitates cuts for
SUNY totaling $ 34.2 million (about 2.5% of the base for 08-09). It is
expected that these cuts are absorbed through efficiency savings in
OTPS (other than personal service). There is hope that the legislature
will restore these funds.
There is no tuition increase, and there is no funding for enrollment
growth. Kim suggested that SUNY should lobby to address the latter.
The Governor proposes to create an endowment to finance new faculty
positions for SUNY by monetizing part of the lottery. It was
emphasized that this would not affect the lottery revenue stream for K-
12 education.
NICHOLAS ROSTOW, UNIVERSITY COUNSEL AND VICE
CHANCELLOR FOR LEGAL AFFAIRS.
Rostow was appointed to this position in March 2006. He has a faculty
background, having taught at University of Tulsa College of Law and
at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. He
has worked in several positions for the federal government, most
recently as General Counsel and Senior Policy Adviser to the U.S.
Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
He talked about the following “hot” legal topics.
i) The Attorney General is investigating practices involving credit
cards issued to students through colleges. There is the potential for
exploitation of students.
ii) Work on a bill to encourage more competition for textbooks. There
also is an issue with professors assigning their own work for class
room use.
iii) Authors writing about controversial subjects (e.g. terrorism) are at
risk to be sued under British libel laws. If Great Britain ends up
having jurisdiction, the costs for defense are huge. Academics
should join and lobby parliament to change the laws.
iv) The Higher Education Commission Report recommends to liberate
SUNY from micromanagement. Senator Lavalle is supportive of
such steps.
SECTOR CONCERNS
Articulation -Clark: It is a faculty issue, not for Legislature.
Graduate TA stipends too low- Clark: He knows this.
VSA-Clark: It is voluntary. If your President does not
consult, let him know and he will "speak" to your President.
Student Fees getting too high- Clark: What we really need is
more money.
Too few full time faculty- Clark: This is our highest priority.
Differential tuition- Clark: What we really need is more money.
MICHAEL TRUNZO, SENIOR ASSOCIATE VICE
CHANCELLOR FOR UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
Briefly discussed budget priorities, SUNY public relations and
lobbying efforts, status of a SUNY Endowment.
PHILLIP WOOD, MANAGER OF CONSTRUCTION FUND
SUNY has 95 million square feet of space, most of which is 40 years
old.. The new budget has funds to begin to repair and get our campuses
back into acceptable condition over a projected time span of 15 years.
Greening of campuses is supported with the State providing capital and
SUNY paying back out of energy savings. There is $75 million pilot
project funded.
LLOYD CONSTANTINE, SENIOR ADVISOR TO GOVERNOR
SPITZER.
Constantine is close to Spitzer (together they started their law firm) and
is impressive. His message was that Spitzer is committed to education
and to SUNY. While some could not be funded this year, Spitzer "is
committed to the top ten recommendations of the Commission."
$3 billion research fund
low cost student loan fund
NYS compact for higher ed (state funds ongoing, but state,
students, and SUNY share expansions)
rebuild the faculty
more flexibility "Let my people go"
partnerships with high need schools
transfer within SUNY
campus maintenance
We found Constantine convincing. This was supported by comments of
Clark that Constantine was a great help in pushing SUNY's needs in the
budget process.
DON BOYCE, PRESIDENT OF STUDENT ASSEMBLY (a
University at Albany student).
articulation
total cost of education is not $4300 but more like $18,000
text books expensive
Compact, while we do not like any tuition increases,...maybe
MILTON JOHNSON, PRESIDENT OF FACULTY COUNCIL
OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Access, especially for under represented minorities a concern
Myth of low quality of CC
Articulation
VSA for CC (Miami-Dade CC working on one)
NORM GOODMAN, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT
concern about treatment of adjuncts
VSA, same discussions again
Articulation
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS AVAILABLE:
For any interested, reports are available from the Graduate,
Governance, Awards, Undergraduate, Student Life, Operations, and
Campus Governance Leaders committees.
NOTE: The Awards Committee declined to remove the
restrictions on Chancellor's Awards and promotions to
Distinguished ranks for those holding administrative
positions or those already holding (any) Distinguished
rank.
SENATE LEGISLATIVE BUSINESS
Governance committee proposed resolution on President and effective
campus governance. Briefly "that campus presidents (and Interim, etc
Presidents) be encouraged by the Chancellor to establish a budget to
ensure effective campus governance...." Passed.
REMINDER OF THE FACULTY SENATE PAGE
Although material is slow to appear on the site, eventually the full text
of motions should appear on this site:
http://www.suny.edu/facultySenate/.
Respectfully submitted,
William Lanford, Senator
(lanford@albany.edu)
R. Michael Range, Senator
(range@Math.albany.edu)
Dan Smith, Alternate Senator
(Dansmith@uamail.albany.edu)
