COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE SUMMARIES
Meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee, October 4th, 2010
As submitted to Tom Bessette, Secretary, University Senate
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – Eric Lifshin, Chair
N/A
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) –Daniel D. White, J. Philippe Abraham & Shadi
Shahedipour-Sandvik, SUNY Senators
Dan Smith of CNSE, a member of the SUNY senate Undergraduate Policy and Programs Committee, and ad
hoc Committee on Grading attended the Senate Planning meeting on Thursday and Friday Sept. 22nd and 23rd,
2010. Attached is a bulleted list of each committee’s agenda for the coming year as prepared by Dan. As
reported by Dan, UAlbany is well represented with Cathy Parker and Yenisel Gulati are on the Student Life
Committee, Malcolm Sherman on the Operations Committee, Kevin Williams on Graduate and Research
Committee, Philippe Abraham on Diversity Committee, and Tom Hoey also a member of Student Life
committee.
Please reach out to Dan Smith and other Committee members with questions regarding their respective
Committees.
GSO (Graduate Student Organization) – Nicholas Fahrenkopf, GSO Representative
Nothing to report
SA (Student Association) – Justin Wax Jacobs, President Student Association
Nothing to Report
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Richard Matyi, Chair
The Council on Academic Assessment had its regular meeting on Wednesday, September 29. The following
subcommittee chairs were chosen: Academic Program Review Committee – Henryk Baran (LLC); General
Education Assessment Committee – Richard Matyi (CNSE). Plans for Council activities for 2010-2011
academic year were discussed.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility)
– Pradeep Haldar, Chair
The first meeting of CAFFECoR is scheduled to occur the week of October 11th. No other new items to report.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – John Monfasani, Chair
University Counsel John Reilly will be meeting with CERS on October 5 to hammer out agreement on the
remaining issues in the CERS revised document in anticipation of the Senate's October meeting, when, as
mandated in the May 2010 Senate meeting, CERS will propose for acceptance the revised CERS text.
COR (Council on Research) – James Castracane, Chair
Nothing to Report
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Vincent LaBella, Chair
CPCA met again this week and reviewed a case. The council roster is now full. Sandra Vergari has been added
from the school of education.
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GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Laurence Kranich, Chair
There have been some changes in the membership of the Council. Lawrence Raffalovich (Sociology) has
resigned and Fernando Leiva (LACS) has moved from UAC to GAC. In addition, there will be at least one
substitution among the (3) graduate student members in order to comply with the Charter stipulation that one
student must be a Senator. The Council was forced to postpone its October 1 meeting to consider CAA
assessment reports due to a problem allowing new Council members to access the Wiki site containing the
reports. Bruce Szelest, the Director of Institutional Research, indicated that they are aware of the problem and
they will notify us when it is fixed. Next, at its meeting on September 24, the Council tabled a proposal from the
School of Business for a Graduate Certificate in Information Security. A list of items/concerns will be
transmitted to the sponsors of the proposal for inclusion in a revised draft. Finally, the Chair met with Dean
Williams on September 29 for a preliminary discussion on the recently released 2010 NRC rankings of
research-doctoral programs.
GOV (Governance Council) – Susanna Fessler, Chair
N/A
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Shadi Shahedipour-Sandvik, Chair
LISC will hold its first meeting on Oct. 18th; LISC members will be placed in the two LISC committees,
Library Committee and IT committee, and will elect a chair for each of the two committees.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – JoAnn Malatesta, Chair
The UAC met yesterday (Wednesday 9/29/10) and covered a variety of topics. Attached are 2 items of business
from the UAC meeting for the Senate Executive Council meeting.
The first is a Bill titled: Amendment of Existing Chemistry Honors B.S. Program and Creation of a
Comprehensive Forensics Emphasis within Chemistry Honors B.S. program. Two previous versions of this Bill
have been passed by UAC however, neither had been brought to SEC. First, the bill introduces a number of
small changes to the Honors program which accurately reflect changes at the departmental level (i.e. course
number changes). Secondly, the proposal details the creation of a Comprehensive Forensic Chemistry Honors
Emphasis within the Honors program and the department has supplied the appropriate supporting rationale. The
UAC voted yesterday and approved this Bill.
Also attached to this email is the Bill regarding: Grade Point Requirements for Continuing in The Honors
College.
A former version of this Bill was approved by UAC in April and approved by the Senate at the April
12th, 2010 meeting. However, after review by University Council concerns were expressed about the wording
of the bill and the President declined signing the Bill until such time as the wording was improved. The Bill has
been re-written and the current document is agreeable to both University Council and the Director of the Honors
College. UAC reviewed the Bill to verify that it retained the spirit of the original submission and voted
affirmatively that yes, it does. Bill approved at UAC and is now being sent back to President Philip for review.
Other News: We are still in need of one additional member of the teaching faculty to serve on each the
Committee on Curriculum and Honors and The Committee on General Education. If there are any volunteers or
recommendations, please let me know.
ULC (University Life Council) – Danielle Leonard, Chair
Our first meeting will be on Monday, October 11th. Among our first orders of business in the fall term will be
considering mandatory health insurance for all UA students.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – R. Michael Range, Chair
Nothing to Report
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