2015-2016 University Senate
Monday, February 8, 2016
2:45 pm, Assembly Hall
Cynthia Fox, Chair
MINUTES
Present:
Adams, Marcus; Alaei, Kamiar; Alford, Julia; Almahamid, Ilham; Berg, Kimberly; Brandon, Peter;
Burke, Jerry; Chittur, Sridar; Collins, James; Curtis, Henry W; Dai, Aiguo; DiDonato, Alex; Earle, Keith;
Fabris, Daniel; Fessler, Susanna; Fox, Cynthia A; Gulatee, Yenisel; Isralowitz, Joshua; Jahanbani, Nakissa;
Janiszewski, Caitlyn; Jerison, Michael; Kiorpes, Karen; Kressner, Ilka; Lawrence, Zina; Little, Walter;
Malavasic, Jolene; Mamorella, David; Manjak, Martin; Martinez, Maritza; McDowall, David;
McKenna, Holly; Moore, Chris; Mower, James; Parker, Catherine; Pastore, Christopher; Petry, Greta;
Prelow, Hazel; Pyles, Loretta; Roberts, Nancy; Scheck, Helene; Schmidt, John; Slade Jr, Leonard;
Slye, Katherine; Smith, Christy; Toseland, Ronald; Vergari, Sandra; Vuille, Mathias; Yuan, Xiaojun
Ex Officio Administrators
Jones, Robert; Stellar, James; Chen, Fan Pen; Wulfert, Edelgard
Guests:
Wirkkula, Leanne; Schweitzer, Laura; Bartow, Jon; Jewell, Carol; Brennan, Joe; Hedberg, William;
Winchester, Kathie; Forsythe, Celine; Ananou, Simeon; Zhang, Jianwei; Murray, Ann Marie; Malatesta, Joanne
The meeting convened at 2:45 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of December 7, 2015 were approved with a minor change and the following voting
results: Approved 38; Opposed 0; Abstained 6
Report on Health Sciences and Biological Initiatives—Vice President Laura Schweitzer
Vice President Schweitzer introduced herself and summarized her background in administration and
in academic medicine, including having founded the Bassett Medical School Campus in rural NY and
her most recent role as President of Union Graduate College where she grew programs in Healthcare
Management. On the announcement of her retirement, President Jones had asked Dr. Schweitzer to
join here to look at Health Sciences at UAlbany. Since she began here in September she has been
working with Vice President for Communications Joe Brennan to push the news out about the
importance and value of all that we are doing here in Health Sciences for the community. The Vice
President lauded the fantastic faculty doing tremendous scholarship here and added it is great to be at a
Research I institution with a public mission. Dr. Schweitzer stressed that she does not think she has
ever been part of a better leadership team with a real focus on students and effectiveness. The Vice
President outlined her 3 areas of focus as follows: 1) leveraging and highlighting the Health Science
assets and strengths in the East Campus 2) working with Vice President Jim Dias to grow Health
Science related research; 3) strengthening the academic offerings in Health Sciences in collaboration
with Provost Stellar. Her overarching goal and number 1 focus is to increase enrollment, and Vice
President Schweitzer solicited the faculty's help to do a better job recruiting the many high-level high
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school students who want to be doctors (but then often change their minds and go into many other
majors). We are externally perceived as having very little Health Sciences though our offerings include
a dozen degree programs in Health Sciences not identified as such; 10 joint dual or early assurance
Health Science professional graduate programs; approximately 75 scientists and 22 centers and
institutes here that work on health or disease related issues. We need to start talking about that and will
soon be launching a new website on which faculty are asked to provide feedback:
www.albany.edu/healthsciences
We also need a physical space and would like to rename the East
Campus as the Health Science campus, keeping in mind that, like other universities with Health
Science campuses, not all related Health Science programs are going on there, but there is a dense
cluster of them on that campus. The goal is to raise the profile of our Health Science offerings at the
entire University, and ideas would be appreciated across all 3 campuses on how we might do that.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT – ROBERT J. JONES
The President took the opportunity to provide a brief update on the January 30th CDTA bus incident.
He described the involvement of leadership to address this issue. Once the issue of jurisdiction was
resolved, our University Police Department was responsible for conducting the investigation. President
Jones outlined the small response team he charged to manage the institutional response to this incident,
which meets daily. Provost Stellar and the deans continue to drive the institutional agenda within
Academic Affairs while he attends to this issue.
President Jones noted there have been questions of safety and assured the Senate that while no specific
threat has been identified, campus safety remains among our highest priorities. The President reiterated
the District Attorney's latest statement, stressing that this is still an ongoing investigation. He thanked
our University Police Department and the District Attorney for conducting a very thorough and
expeditious investigation and emphasized that we must be patient and allow the investigation to run its
course. The President encouraged the campus community to keep talking, though he noted that some of
the social media comments and e-mails regarding the report and handling of this crisis have been very
disappointing to him and to all who value diversity and inclusion, underlining that we still have work
to do on this front as a University community and in our broader society.
President Jones concluded by stressing that that we must move forward together and continue the great
work we are doing to reach the next level of excellence.
PROVOST’S REPORT – JAMES R. STELLAR
Provost Stellar and President Jones welcomed Simeon Ananou our new Vice President for Information
Technology Services and Chief Information Officer (CIO), who introduced himself and shared his
background. Vice President Ananou added that he was excited and happy to be here as part of the team
that is trying to advance the mission of this University as we attract and educate students for the future.
Over the summer, Dr. Harvey Charles was appointed as the University at Albany Dean for
International Education and Vice Provost for Global Strategy of the Center for International Education
and Global Strategy. The Provost and Dean would be visiting China to consummate a relationship with
Chung Chang University of Technology and Posts. They will send us about 80 students in their senior
year of engineering education as part of our expansion efforts and also as a continuation of diversity
efforts that the President outlined in his “4 stakes” when he came here. Provost Stellar and Chief of
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Staff Wirkkula are working on the Strategic Plan and had hoped to share the 1st few steps but were
delayed by the recent crisis referred to by President Jones. There will be a long, thorough consultative
process with the campus community to develop and refine the plans through a steering committee and
working groups. The University is making an effort to increase diversity by cluster hiring through the
dean and department chairs. Provost Stellar thanked the Senate again for considering the Emergency
Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity College current and upcoming proposals and
helping them move forward with the goal of accepting registrations for the major by the fall. The
Provost then addressed questions on topics including the potential relocation of Information Studies,
the need for additional departmental and college support for international students, and forthcoming
requests for membership on the Strategic Plan steering committee and working groups.
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – Cynthia Fox, Chair
I. Informational
A.
Chair Fox, Vice Chair Collins, and UAC Co-Chair Kiorpes met with Debra Gelinas, Special Assistant to the
Provost, about the UAlbany Applied Learning Plan on December 9.
B.
The SEC held a special meeting on December 9 in order to hear an updated report on the CEAS from Dean Boyer.
C.
Senate Bill 1516-02 PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A B.A. ENGLISH / M.A. LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM was approved
by President Jones on December 11.
D.
Chair Fox received an update from Dean David Rousseau on December 15 on the planning for the major in
Emergency Preparedness; we have been working with UAC and UPPC to be sure that the proposal moves through
governance in a timely fashion.
E.
On December 23, Chair Fox received word from Bruce Szelest that Middle States reaffirmed UA’s accreditation at
their November Commission meeting. They took this action based on the Periodic Review Report submitted this
past summer and the reviewer summaries. UA was commended for the quality of our process. Documents related
to the PRR can be found on our campus Middle States wiki: https://wiki.albany.edu/display/middlestates/Home.
F.
On December 24, Chair Fox received word from Bruce Szelest that the SUNY Excels Performance Improvement
Plan that was submitted to SUNY has been approved.
G.
Chair Fox and Vice Chair Collins met with President Jones, Provost Stellar and Chief of Staff Wirkkula on January
25 to discuss the Governance proposal to create a Council on Administrative Review and Evaluation (CARE). At
the President’s request, the proposal was removed from the SEC agenda with the understanding that further
conversation would take place over the course of the spring semester to allow consensus on the nature of faculty
involvement in administrative assessment to occur.
H.
Vice Provost Ann Marie Murray provided an update on the Albany Law affiliation at the January 25 meeting of the
SEC.
I.
On January 27, Chair Fox received the amended UAlbany Start UP NY campus plan.
J.
The Spring Faculty Meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April 26 at 3pm.
II. Actions Taken
A.
Darrell Wheeler, Linda Krzykowski and Debra Gelinas have been invited to the March 7 Senate meeting. Dean
Wheeler will give a brief overview and answer questions about various Public Engagement initiatives that are
going on under his leadership; Vice Provost Krzykowski will talk about the work of the Applied Learning Steering
Committee.
B.
Chair Fox has asked CAFFECoR to propose new language for the Undergraduate Bulletin that describes the
process that should be followed by members of the University community who feel their freedom of expression
has been unfairly suppressed.
III. Recommendations for actions
N/A
The spring Faculty Meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April 26th at 3:00 p.m. and will be in
a conversational format with Vice President for Research Jim Dias, the President and the Provost.
Chair Fox, Vice Chair Collins, and Immediate Past Chair Stefl-Mabry would be meeting with Chief of
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Staff Wirkkula to discuss proposed faculty input in the administrative review process. Kajal Lahiri is
the faculty representative to the University at Albany's Start-Up NY Academic Advisory Committee.
OTHER REPORTS
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) – J. Philippe Abraham, Walter Little & John
Schmidt, SUNY Senators
Report from the 172 UFS (SUNY-wide Senate) Plenary at Stony Brook, Jan 21-23, 2016
Governors’s Budget to Legislature. The overall state budget was limited to an overall increase of 2%, as the Governor has
consistently advocated. However, SUNY’s base budget was decreased by $-67M (-3.5%; $1.870B, down from $1.935B last
year. For the State Operated campuses (our category) the decrease was $-4.7M, down from $712M last year. The Governor
generally strips out the increases that the Legislature put in the previous year, but in this case he left in the $18M
investment fund for the PIP program and the extra funding for the EOP, and added $10M for the green “Green Campus
Program”. Still the overall amount is less than last year, and also does not cover incremental cost such as the increased
utility costs or the negotiated salary increases for UUP and other unions on campus. Therefore it constitutes a significant
cut, contrary to the wishes of the legislature that “maintenance of effort” (MOE) by the state include these costs (separate
bill passed last year but vetoed by the governor in December). The budget proposes to extend the SUNY 2020 Plan which
allows increases in tuition of $300 per year, but it has inserted the language that SUNY must find administrative savings
(shared services, administrative cuts) to cover cost increases without faculty/staff cuts, so that the increased tuition funds go
exclusively to hire more faculty and cover the TAP gap (difference between tuition and maximum TAP $ per student).
However, the tuition increase is not guaranteed. In an election year, the legislature may be resistant to raising tuition costs.
In addition, the governor’s decision to raise the minimum wage at SUNY (which affects 30,000 work-study students) may
cost SUNY up to $26M per year. This may not occur, however, if the decision is made to cut the number of student hours to
keep the costs constant. There was a minimal capital budget that barely covers urgent repairs in the many old buildings
across all SUNY campuses.
The Chancellor was pessimistic about getting more money added to SUNY’s base allocation, saying instead it was
more likely we would get more money for specific attractive initiatives. She noted that there were already big payoffs for
their “systemness” initiatives on Seamless Transfer, Degree Works, Open SUNY, early college in high school, decreased
student debt and default rates on student debt, collaboration between campuses and shared resources, etc. (Note: in spite of
all these improvements, she has not succeeded in getting more funding for SUNY). She met with Assembly Speaker
Heastie, Senate Leader Flanagan, and Senate Higher Ed Chair LaValle (who was given a “Friend of SUNY Senate Award”
at the plenary), and she has organized many regional meetings with NY legislators during her campaign “Stand with
SUNY.” She said that she was trying as hard as she could, and added “I’m frustrated too.”
Thus, it is up to us to advocate with our legislators for greater (or lesser if you are so inclined) SUNY funding to
cover incremental cost increases, more money for the Performance Improvement Programs and capital expenses, and to
cover the costs of SUNY initiatives such as Applied Learning. We are somewhat apprehensive that legislative attention to
addressing SUNY’s needs will be lost in the backwash of the effort to restore CUNY funding. The Governor has proposed
cutting more than $450M from CUNY, to force NY City to shoulder more of the burden. In contacting your Assemblyman
or Senator, remember to state that you are not an official SUNY representative and to use your personal email account (not
your albany.edu account).
Applied Learning (coops, internships, service learning, etc.). As you recall, the previous budget required SUNY to
examine whether it should require an applied learning (AL) course for all degrees, but left the final decision up to each
campus. The timeline requires reporting first by Feb 15 on all existing AL courses. The next installment (due April 15)
covers further data collection, and campus initiatives for faculty engagement, and student engagement, and requires campus
governance sign off on the document. These campus reports will then be put together by the Applied Learning Steering
Committee (ALSC) for the overall SUNY plan that goes to the SUNY Board of Trustees at their meeting in June. The
ALSC consists of the SUNY Provost, Presidents of the UFS (SUNY Senate) and FCCC (Comm. College Council), selected
Distinguished Professors and several others from SUNY Central. They will also formulate the guidelines for the final
campus decisions and reports (which are due May 1, 2017). There will also be a SUNY-wide conference on applied
learning in October of this year.
We had reports from Stony Brook detailing their efforts to group AL into 4 categories:
EXP+ Experiential learning—service learning, now being implemented, and three others in planning HFA+
Humanities and Fine Arts, SBS+ Social and Behavioral Science, and STEM+. Oneonta reported on its efforts to shape the
AL courses with the preparation of students, contracts outlining expectations and rubrics beforehand and reflections-type of
essays required after completion. They feel that AL will enhance learning, encourage academic excellence and diversity,
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and could be used to attract better students. In addition, SUNY Central is developing software called “Internshop” that
would seek to match employers with interns.
The UFS has been very strongly involved in shaping AL because it involves a change in curriculum which is the
primary responsibility of the faculty as stated in the official policies of the SUNY Board of Trustees, and thus an AL
mandate should not just be imposed from above. As a result of UFS and FCCC Presidents’ lobbying last year, the AL
initiative was changed from a legislative mandate to a local choice of each campus. AL courses furnish great opportunities
for students, but require considerable work and faculty support. Because of this, last April the UFS passed a resolution
setting five guiding principles for AL courses.
1.
AL courses should be the responsibility of qualified faculty members of the departments within the relevant
disciplines.
2.
Specific learning outcomes should be defined by faculty, who would also determine the role that such courses play
in the curriculum for each major.
3.
AL courses should be delivered with academic rigor and educational effectiveness.
4.
Faculty compensation and scheduling should be commensurate with that of other credit-bearing courses.
5.
Implementation requires teamwork between faculty and student services personnel (Career Services Office on our
campus).
The final campus plans require approval of Campus Governance Leaders, and we hope that faculty will be fully
engaged in this process and decision.
Materials relating to AL can be found at the following places:
The SUNY Policy statement may be viewed at
<http://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=168>. “When life or work experience is to be credited as a
concurrent portion of an academic program design, as in an internship, one semester credit hour will be awarded for each
40-45 clock-hour week of supervised academic activity that provides the learning considered necessary to program study.”
MSCHE provides specific guidance regarding internships in its advisory on “Degrees and Credits [Effective June
26, 2009] (http://www.msche.org/documents/Degree-and-Credit-Guidelines-062209-FINAL[1].pdf).” The Middle States
Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) expects its institutions to demonstrate the same consistencies. Recognizing
the wide variety of instructional methods, activities, and modes of delivery, it is important for courses to have “sufficient
academic rigor, content, and depth” for transferability. (Credit Hour Policy, Effective August 23, 2012, Rev. October 30,
2012,
http://www.msche.org/documents/CreditHourPolicyRev112012.pdf).
The UFS report on Service Learning and the UFS report on the SUNY Applied Learning Initiative can be found at:
www.system.suny.edu/facultysenate/plenary-meetings/#d.en.26351.
PIP Awards. In recent SUNY announcements, UAlbany was awarded $1.5M for a data collection, intervention and
retention program and $0.25M ($1M shared with other University Centers) for a joint data collection initiative. In the next
month or so, announcements will be made for the EOP proposals and the capital funds proposals.
The Provost (Alex Cartwright) also addressed the UFS. He mentioned that the PIP programs of last fall would likely be
continued next year, since most of the sources of funding would likely be in the new budget. The metrics of SUNY Excels
will continue to gather data on our campuses’ effectiveness. He elaborated on the new PATH program (Predictive Analytics
to Transform Higher Ed). This initiative will analyze the data gathered by the four University Centers with the recent $1M
shared resource award for this purpose. The goal of 150,000 degrees and certificates is still being proposed, but with a new
timeline of 2025/26. It is impossible to do it by 2020, since those students in four year programs would already have to be
admitted to SUNY to finish in 2020.
Participation of Faculty Governance in Searches and Presidential Reviews. We asked that the chancellor require that
the Campus Governance be allowed to choose the Faculty representatives on search committees for Presidential, provost
and dean searches, instead of having administration select the faculty members. She said she would have the Provost look
into this. In addition, SUNY Central conducts 360o Reviews of campus presidents (about 6-7 per year) with inputs from all
stakeholders. UFS would like Campus Governance and Student Associations to be allowed to write up their independent
assessments, rather than having hand-picked faculty and students produce these documents.
Coming Events. There will be two opportunities for Undergraduates to present posters of their research this year. These
occur at the Legislative Office Building in downtown Albany on Feb 24th (for legislators), and on April 15 in Cobleskill at
the Undergraduate Research Conference. There was some talk of combining these two in the future.
There were two resolution passed at the UFS Plenary on the topic of Diversity and Gender Inclusiveness.
The first asks that Campus Administrators ensure that at least one rest room per building be gender neutral: that is-- not
labeled Men’s Restroom or Women’s Restroom, but just Restroom. Likewise for locker room facilities.
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The second asks that students be allowed to use a “preferred name” separate from their legal name for non-legally binding
purposes, such as campus ID or class lists, and to be allowed to list a different “preferred” gender.
Senator Little highlighted items from the report and offered to assist in finding related information
available on SUNY websites.
GSA (Graduate Student Association) – Katherine Slye, GSA President
New Senator, Council Representatives for Spring 2016
We needed to replace a senator and make some changes with council reps. We did interviews in January and below is the
complete council list for the GSA. For personal reasons, Senator Pageau had to resign; I am searching for a new senator.
The new appointments are in purple.
Senator: Caitlin Janiszewski, Latin American, Caribbean, and US Latino Studies
Senator: Kimberly Berg, Anthropology
CAA: Henry Curtis, Senator, Philosophy
COR:
o
Hanna Pageau, Senator, Anthropology
o
Thomas Robertson, Educational Psychology and Methodology
GAC:
o
Cristina Herrera, Bio/Med Sciences
o
Rebecca Prince, Criminal Justice
o
Kimberly Berg, Senator, Anthropology
GOV: Caitlin Janiszewski, Senator, Latin American, Caribbean, and US Latino Studies
LISC: Cathleen Green, Biology
UAC: Megan Scott, Educational Psychology and Methodology
ULC: Anyeline (Angie) Mejia, Latin American, Caribbean, and US Latino Studies
UPPC: Nakissa Jahanbani, Senator, Political Science
Advocacy
In December, the GSA had students write postcards to send to Chancellor Zimpher urging her to support removing the box
from the SUNY common application. Upcoming advocacy issues for this semester include: a ban the box resolution,
sustainability resolution, and a library services resolution and proposal.
We are continuing to work on our State Legislative Action Day, which is scheduled March 8. We have put out calls for
volunteers to meet with legislators and are preparing a training for said volunteers. We will have training on not only the
issues we are advocating for but also how to have the meetings—a how to lobby training. So far we are collaborating with
the University’s Office of Government Relations, SUNY Central, and possibly GSEU and their partners.
Our PR Director, Ben Mielenz, attended a SUNY wide Ban the Box meeting in December. The discussions right now are
confidential, but he did say that the meeting went well and the conversation was productive.
NAGPS Report
OUR PRESENTATIONS: (1) Presented on non-academic job market and institutional transformation to promote alternative
professional development opportunities. (2) Gave a presentation with CMU to on how to put on an NAGPS event. (3)
Presented on how to hold an NAGPS event. (4) The importance of seeking international student experiences. (5) Re-
structuring the advocacy board.
Additionally, we interviewed for national member of the year. We won regional member of the year. Our team recruited the
new Employment Concerns Chair, Alex Howe, who came to the Leadership Summit UAlbany hosted over the Summer
2015.
Our attendees also attended many concurrent sessions on topics such as International Student Concerns, Engaging Graduate
Students, Graduate and Professional Student Health, Strategic Planning, and Equity and Inclusion
The GSA Senate body met and passed a Ban the Box resolution which will be forwarded to bodies
including the SUNY Student Assembly and the Chancellor hopefully in the coming week.
SA (Student Association) – Alex DiDonato, Student Association Representative
Nothing to report
SA has undergone some internal restructuring. Elections are about to begin for next year. Faculty and
staff interested in helping rank SA scholarship applications may contact sapresident@albany.edu. This
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is Sexuality Month for Middle Earth, with diverse and inclusive programming happening. Leadership
is working hard to unite students and promote a community of peace after the incident last weekend.
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE CHAIRS’ REPORTS:
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – James Mower, Chair
Nothing to report except that CAA will be meeting on Tuesday, Feb 2 to hear and vote on committee reports from the
General Education Assessment Committee and the Academic Program Review Committee.
The Council met on February 2nd to consider 4 reports, including program review for East Asian
Studies, assessment of Math Education category for the University in the High School program, and
Challenges in the 21st century in the Gen Ed category. The Council voted to approve all items.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community
Responsibility) –Carol Jewell, Chair
I. Informational
CAFFECoR met last on December 10, 2015. We had a discussion about the joint CAFFECoR/UUP presentation on
academic freedom, to wit:
Forum on Academic Freedom is scheduled for March 25, 2016, 1:30-3:30 PM, Campus Center Assembly Hall;
joint forum between CAFFECoR and UUP; what results from this forum CAFFECoR will bring back to our
consideration to present to SEC.
Board of Trustees of SUNY has statement in Part 335, Appointment of Employees, Title I, regarding academic
freedom.
Question: what is the purpose of this requested review of the SUNY Board of Trustees’ statement? Answer: in
general, the statement is invisible to most members of the campus community and it also leaves much
unexplained.
Contrast, for example, the much more extensive SUNY Buffalo statement on academic freedom. Also note that
there is no indication of a procedure to be followed if a person feels their academic freedom has been infringed.
(John Schmidt indicated that a person is supposed to take their complaint to UUP.)
Where should the UAlbany Statement on Academic Freedom appear? General agreement that it should have
university wide, administrative visibility, perhaps under Academics/Faculty-Staff information link.
Another question: does this apply to students as well? Perhaps this would be a job for next year’s CAFFECoR to
take on.
Definition of “Faculty”: 1.) academic (teaching and librarians) and 2.) professional (non-teaching)
What about CSEA staff? The wording implies that academic freedom focuses upon research and teaching and thus
does not apply to the CSEA staff.
What about activism incorporated into departmental or course missions? For example, the Dept. of Women’s,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies interweaves community activism with academic study. And such courses as
Racism, Classism, Sexism are intended to call attention to issues regarding social injustice. The Dept. of
Sociology also encounters potential challenges to socially controversial subject matter, as when a student
submitted a paper that that criticized gay marriage on religious grounds. Some faculty now incorporate into their
syllabi classroom policies prohibiting student expressions of bias toward others based upon race, ethnicity, gender,
sexuality, physical ability, etc.
The National Coalition Building Institute, of which Carol is a member/trainer, sponsors a useful training program
which includes discussion of how to address controversial/offensive expression in the classroom when students
might not even be aware of the impact of their statements.
There have been cases in which students have complained that professors discriminated against them in classroom
discussions.
Should a newly expanded statement on academic freedom be incorporated into new faculty orientation
documents? General agreement that it should be, since it appears nowhere in the documents or websites that each
new faculty member receives from Human Resources. CAFFECoR members indicated that they did not receive
anything at the department level, when they were new employees, regarding academic freedom.
We reviewed the Statement on Freedom of Expression that appears in the Undergraduate Bulletin—a statement
whose language suggests that it applies to whole UAlbany community. Similarly, we read the Statement as it
appears in the Graduate Bulletin.
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II. Reports of Actions
After the meeting, Chair Jewell sent email to the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and to the Dean of Graduate
Studies to inform them that CAFFECoR no longer serves as “a hearing body available to those members of the
University community who feel their freedom of expression has been unfairly suppressed.” (This was removed
from our charge in April 2014.) While CAFFECoR is still interested in these issues, since the responsibility of
being the “hearing body” was removed, this should, therefore, be removed from the undergraduate bulletin and
graduate bulletin, respectively. Dean Williams replied and thanked her for pointing out the misinformation.
Sometime later, Chair Jewell also got a similar response from Dean Altarriba.
Also after the meeting, Chair Jewell asked Human Resources if there is anything in their orientation packets
regarding academic freedom and concluded that the answer is “no.”
III. Recommendations for Actions
Consider whom we would like to invite to sit on the academic freedom forum panel.
CAFFECoR met today to begin Chair Fox’s charge to propose new language for the Undergraduate
Bulletin per section II. B. of her report. The Council is preparing for the joint forum with UUP on
academic freedom to be held in the Campus Center Assembly Hall, March 25th from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – Michael Jerison, Chair
CERS has had no ethics violations to consider and has nothing to report.
COR (Council on Research) – Daniele Fabris, Chair
The COR subcommittees in charge of various funding programs have completed their work. Their recommendations were
unanimously approved by COR at the Jan 22 meeting. The following is a brief summary.
The subcommittee on Excellence in Research & Creative Activities Review has met, but has not produced a report, yet.
Benevolent Award
Subcommittee consisting of 4 members, all COR members.
Total Number of Applicants: 18
Total Number of Applicants Awarded: 12
Total Number of Applicants Not Awarded: 6
Total Amount Available: $3,500
Total Amount Requested: $8,922
Total Amount Awarded: $3,500
Total Amount Remaining in available funding: $0
Conference/Journal Support Award
Subcommittee consisting of 5 members, all COR members.
Total Number of Applicants: 3
2 Conference Award
1 Journal Award
Total Number of Applicants Awarded: 3
Total Number of Applicants Not Awarded: 0
Total Amount Available: $25,000 ($12,500 for Fall / $12,500 for Spring)
Total Amount Requested: $5,500
Total Amount Awarded: $5,200
Total Amount Remaining in available funding: $7,300
FRAP-A Award
Subcommittee consisting of 10 members, 3 were COR members.
Total Number of Applicants: 34
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Total Number of Applicants Awarded: 13
Total Number of Applicants Not Awarded: 21
Total Amount Available: $120,000
Total Amount Requested: $333,739.98
Total Amount Awarded: $120,000
Total Amount Remaining in available funding: $0
COR subcommittees met to make recommendations to the Vice President for Research in terms of the
different awards, per the document distributed. The recommendations were forwarded to the VPR
whose office will notify awardees directly.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Lynn Warner, Chair
On Dec 8, 1 promotion case was reviewed.
On February 1, two tenure and continuing appointment cases will be reviewed.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Ronald Toseland, Chair
Nothing to report
GOV (Governance Council) – James Collins, Chair
Old business
Since the last Senate meeting, the Governance Council has met twice. Its two primary committees are working on several
projects:
Committee on Assessment of Governance and Consultation
: It has prepared a working draft of the biennial survey
of Shared Governance and is now revising the draft while consulting with the Office of the President (the survey
goes out with joint support).
Committee on Liaison & Election
: It is developing specialized listserves for particular Senate constituents, e.g.
contingents and emeritus faculty. It is also assisting with several Senate forums being planned for the spring
semester, on sustainability across the university, academic freedom, and contingent concerns.
The Council has also solicited, considered and submitted nominees for the following University committees and working
groups:
Provost’s Applied Learning Steering Committee sub-committees
Public Engagement Council
It is currently preparing nomination lists for the following Senate and University committees under its purview:
Committee on Resources and Planning (UPPC)
Facilities Committee (UPPC)
In consultation with CPCA, the Council continues to study of the Ombudsperson proposal from UUP. We are currently
investigating options for pairing this proposal with already existing Ombudsperson roles previously established by the
Senate.
In preparation for decision to act on an amendment to establish a Council on Administrative Review and Evaluation, the
Council Chair conducted an informal poll of Senators and Senate constituents on the question of whether to work to
enhance a faculty governance role in review and evaluation of administrators. Dissemination of information about the poll
was assisted by the help of other Council Chairs in notifying their members and requesting that they, in turn, disseminate
the information. This help is gratefully acknowledged. Over 300 Senate members and constituents took part in the poll and
were strongly supportive of efforts to establish a governance role in administrative evaluation. The Council has approved an
amendment to establish a Council on Administrative Review and Evaluation.
New business:
At its meeting on February 1, the Council will take up a nominations request from President’s Advisory Committee on
Campus Security.
GOV Chair Collins highlighted the importance of the Senate and broader groups being involved as
nominees invited to join leadership teams, and also thanked those who participated in the surveys
regarding the Senate having an enhanced role in the administrative review process.
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LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – David Mamorella, Chair
Nothing to report. We will have our first LISC Meeting on Feb. 15.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) –Karen Kiorpes and Christy Smith, Co-Chairs
UAC met on 01/22/2016. Co-chair Kiorpes reported on a meeting with Senate Chair Fox, Senate Vice Chair Collins, and
Special Assistant to the Provost Gelinas with regards to faculty governance needs and the Applied Learning initiative. It
was recommended that a faculty member from UAC sit on the Steering Committee.
UAC reviewed a proposal to create a zero credit course submitted by Linda Krzykowski from the Office of the Vice Provost
for Undergraduate Education, Student Engagement. The course will serve as a schedule “placeholder” and is meant to
connect students with UA resources/communities. The course will be scheduled during a regular class time slot and on the
student’s schedule but will not appear on their transcript. Generally it will have no impact on classroom space. Consistent
with non-credit courses it will have a number less than 100. The course rubric will be UUNI which means it will be used
and scheduled in conjunction with Student Engagement endeavors. UAC voted to approve the proposal.
UAC had a preliminary discussion about UAlbany’s standards for Liberal Arts and Sciences course designations in
comparison to those of the NY State Education Department. Some of our courses do not align. Discrepancies are surfacing
as proposals for new programs move through governance on their way to State Ed for final approval. UAC will revisit the
issue in the future after administrative input.
Co-Chair Kiorpes reported that UAC had met on February 2nd. The Council approved a small change
in the language to clarify policy with respect to undergraduate withdrawals. The EOP course proposal
for “Sophomore Year Experience” was discussed and approved, pending minor changes. General
Education competency plans submitted by the Informatics Department were reviewed and returned to
them for changes.
ULC (University Life Council) – Michael Jaromin, Chair
ULC will meet on February 5th. Deputy Chief of Police Aran Mull will be presenting on Active Shooter preparations.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – Joette Stefl-Mabry, Chair
I. Informational
UPPC met on January 21st , 2016
UPPC completed revisions to the Campus Impact Form and has shared them with the SEC for review
II. Reports of Actions
UPPC voted to conditionally approve a proposal, pending minor revisions a proposal to establish a new Master of
Science program in Data Science, presented by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
III. Recommended Actions
N/A
Chair Fox called for a count and established that quorum had been lost.
ADJOURNMENT
The Senate adjourned at 4:22 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Elisa Lopez, Recorder
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