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/facultySenate/. )
Respectfully submitted,
R. Michael Range, SUNY Senator
range@albany.math.edu
Daniel R. Smith, Alternate SUNY Senator
DanSmith@uamail.albany.edu
