STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY
UNIVERSITY SENATE
Marjorie Pryse, Chair
September 22, 2003 Minutes
Present: Deborah Bernnard, Eloise Brière, Hara Charalambous, Richard Collier, Florencia
Cornet, James Doellefeld, Sue Faerman, Robert Geer, Robert Gibson, Karen
Hitchcock, Reed Hoyt, Suzanne Irving, Michael Jerison, Sung Bok Kim, Anton
Konev, William Lanford, Catherine Lawson, Raef Lawson, Sophia Lubensky, Andi
Lyons, Susan Maloney, Carolyn MacDonald, Terrence Maxwell, David McCaffrey,
Louise-Anne McNutt, Gwendolyn Moore, Jeryl Mumpower, John Pipkin, Marjorie
Pryse, Karl Retheymeyer, Carlos Santiago, Joan Savitt, Helene Scheck, Lawrence
Schell, David Shub, Lawrence Snyder, Glenna Spitze, Lynn Videka, David Wagner,
Edelgard Wufert
Guests: Robert McFarland, William Hedberg, Sheila Mahan, John Wolff
Approval of Minutes:
A motion was made to approve the May 5, 2003 minutes, it was
seconded, and the minutes passed unanimously.
A motion was made to approve the May 12, 2003 minutes, it was
seconded, and the minutes passed unanimously.
President’s Report:
Enrollment:
This year’s freshmen enrollment target of 2,100 has been exceeded, with an enrollment of
2,166 new students. These are divided into three academic groups: Group I represents 36%
of the enrollment, and the enrollment in Group III is down to only 5.7%. Average SAT
scores (1168) are 13 points higher than last year, with the University’s goal being ultimately
to reach 1200. The mean GPA is up also, and 22% of new freshmen are now coming from
the top 10% of their high school classes.
International student enrollment has increased; but transfer student enrollments are down
slightly, as are the number of Master’s program enrollees. However, on an overall basis, the
University is doing an excellent job at meeting its enrollment goals.
New Faculty: We have 35 new faculty this year. However, given the unusually large
number of retirements and resignations over the summer, the University started this academic
year with a net loss of six faculty.
Construction: Congratulations to Vice President Kathryn Lowery on classroom
construction and lecture hall renovations being completed on target. Both students and
faculty seem very pleased with the new rooms. The University is planning a four-year cycle
of renovations; one million dollars each summer will go toward renovations. Eventually, all
classrooms in the entire University (downtown campus as well) will be renovated. Facilities
Management is beginning to plan renovations for the next cycle, and you are asked to
forward any specific needs you see to the Provost’s Office.
Writers Institute: The Writers Institute will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year. As
part of the kick-off to the celebration, we will be dedicating William Kennedy’s papers on
October 29th. His papers will then become part of the University collection. Also, there was
a wonderful turnout of 3,000 people at the Garrison Keillor event on September 9th.
Budget: It remains the same as this year; there is no news yet on any mid-year cut.
Campaign: I am pleased to announce that an anonymous donor has given one million
dollars to the Life Sciences program.
University Faculty Senate Report: (Mr. Collier)
The SUNY-Wide Senate planning meeting was held September 11-13, 2003. The main item on
the agenda was University-wide assessment and the Senate anticipates this will also be the
primary agenda topic at the upcoming meeting in October in Oswego. The trustees approved the
University Wide Assessment Plan, despite objections from the Faculty Senate.
Chair’s Report: (Professor Pryse)
Chair Pryse welcomed new members, reviewed the mission of the University Senate, introduced
the Senate Website, and the Senate Faculty Government list-serve. Professor McCaffrey
explained that the purpose of the list-serve is to enhance faculty governance and that it is
intended for all faculty on campus, not just Senators.
Council Reports:
Chair Pryse asked the Council Chairs to state the Council mission, along with their reports.
CPCA: Professor Glenna Spitze, Chair. CPCA has already met this year. Its mission is to
consider cases for promotion and continuing appointment, and to recommend individuals to the
President for promotions and continuing appointment. The minutes of CPCA are confidential;
they will not be posted on the Senate website.
EPC: Professor Elga Wulfert, Chair. EPC has met twice this year. Currently, it is working on
creating a website on budgetary information in order to disseminate that information to faculty.
At the moment, EPC is involved in academic planning issues.
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GAC: Professor Hara Charalambous, Chair. GAC has met once this year. It formed three
committees. This Council deals with graduate affairs issues; changes in graduate programs,
grievances from graduate students, and other graduate academic issues.
UAC: Professor Joan Savitt, Chair. UAC is the undergraduate version of GAC; it looks at
curriculum, missions, and academic issues at the undergraduate level. Business to report: at its
first meeting, UAC studied the rule about seniors being restricted from enrolling in 100 level
courses. There are approximately 500 requests for exceptions each semester. UAC recommends
that, at the option of the Dean, the rule should be suspended for one semester.
RES: Professor Lynn Videka, Chair. The charge from the Research Council is to review
research activities and the allocation of research funds within the University, along with other
issues involving research on the campus. RES has met once this year. There has been a call to
reintroduce the FRAP program, and the Council will thus evaluate this program. RES also
discussed reactivating the Research Liaison Program, which is a subcommittee that will be
evaluating research infrastructure needs, and updates needs for students for benevolent awards.
It is also looking for the implementation of new centers and institutes policies.
LISC: Professor David Wagner, Chair. The charge of LISC is to deal with the development and
evaluation of policies and problems with library facilities and to formulate policies guiding
computer usage on campus. Issues this year are the U.S. Patriot Act and the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act. LISC will try to maintain a free and open academic arena in the area of
downloading/computer usage, while complying with acts of Congress. LISC had their first
meeting last week. They developed two subcommittees; one is the Committee on Library
Acquisitions and the second is the Computer Usage Committee. Dean Meredith Butler of
University Libraries and Christine Haile, the Chief Information Officer for the University, both
serve on the Council and give direct feedback. Over the summer, the Council developed the
Policies Link on the UAlbany home page. This link can be found on the Quick Links tab under
“Policies.” It includes all the University policies that the Council could locate. The Council is
working to try to organize it better and see what has been missed. Professor Wagner asked
whether people know of more policies that should be included.
CAFE: Professor Donna Armstrong, Chair. She was not able to attend; Chair Pryse read the
report from Professor Armstrong as follows: Professor Armstrong spoke to Legal Counsel, John
Reilly and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Carl Martin regarding
guidelines/policies on freedom of expression on campus. This was in response to an email from
Mr. Martin to Professor Pipkin during the summer, asking that governance review current
guidelines and consider the need for new policy development. One issue involved the
distribution of newspapers on campus; the other issue involved guidelines for holding expressive
events on campus. We agreed to convene CAFE to discuss these issues. Counselor Reilly
agreed to attend and Carl Martin, who is on (medical) leave, would like to be copied on materials
and kept current on our discussions. CAFE will have its first meeting on October 2, 2003.
ULC: Professor Gwendolyn Moore, Chair. ULC deals with the quality of life issues other than
academic issues on campus. Last year the Fountain Day Bill was introduced and passed. This
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year the Council has met and is gathering information and materials on the issue of freedom of
expression (CAFE is working on the same issue also).
CERS: Professor Bruce Dudek, Chair. CERS has not yet met. CERS’ primary work for this
year was designated at the committee’s creation last Spring. This task is the full merger of the
old campus policy on Misconduct in Research with the new Policy Framework adopted in the
spring, including revised federal regulations. A preliminary version of this merged document has
been drafted by the University Compliance Office and will be ready for CERS’ consideration
shortly. All new cases of misconduct in Research and Scholarship are now being handled under
the new Policy Framework, as adopted last Spring.
Bylaws Group: Professor Carolyn MacDonald, Chair. The Bylaws Group is meeting weekly;
its intent is to increase the effectiveness of the Senate and to increase the number of faculty
Senators’ participation in the Senate. The Bylaws Group is looking for feedback on several
issues; there will be a Faculty Forum on October 20th dedicated to the revised Senate Bylaws.
Old Business: Chair Pryse announced that she and Past Chair Pipkin will co-sponsor the Fall
Faculty Forum on Wednesday, October 15, 2003. The Forum is on the Role of Part Time Faculty
on campus; speakers will be Bill Hedberg, Jil Hanifan, English, Candace Merbler, UUP, and Jim
Collins, Anthropology.
New Business:
Senate Councils: Discussion on the ratification of the Senate Councils for 2003-2004 took
place. Professor Lubensky had concern that the Councils were not as diverse as she thought
they could be. Chair Pryse said that there was such an outpouring of volunteers this year,
they tried to give people their first choice on Councils while keeping in mind the diversity on
each Council. Student Senator Konev voiced concern with the balance of student senate
representatives. Chair Pryse asked for a motion to ratify the Senate Councils for 2003-2004,
a motion was made and seconded, the motion passed with one abstention.
Chair Pryse announced that she would like to place Chief Advancement Officer John Wolff
on the next Senate meeting agenda to speak about the Capital Campaign.
The meeting was adjourned 4:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jayne VanDenburgh, Recorder
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