University Senate Governance Council
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
UNH 306
Zina Lawrence, Senate Vice-Chair
MINUTES
Attendees: Christian Poehlmann; David Wagner; Virginia Yonkers; Yuchi Young; Tim Sergay;
Oleg Lunin; Mitch Abolafia; Sammy Axley; Carolyn Malloch; Carol Jewell; Wyatt Erchak;
Gabriel Hetland
Meeting commenced at 3:02pm
A. Approval of GOV Minutes of November 26, 2019 and January 30, 2019
November 26th meetings: 8 in favor, 0 opposed, 2 abstentions
January 30th minutes: 9 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstention
B. New Business
Combined Program Approval Process
Chair Lawrence introduced the charge to review the by-laws and charter to determine how
combined bachelor’s/master’s degrees can be approved in an abbreviated timeline. She shared
the feedback from Jon Bartow and Kathie Winchester indicating that NYSED relaxed their
requirements allowing us to consider them “existing” programs and approval is only required on
campus. The question is whether these approvals can be limited to GAC and UAC rather than
going through the full senate. The committees would report out their approvals. Concerns were
raised that there is not a committee that communicates between GAC and UAC and this should
be addressed. Need language for combined programs because what is currently written still
considers them new programs? A senator suggested that SUNY/NYSED are not considering
these new programs we can simply reinterpret the current language and there is no need to
change. Chair Lawrence indicated that we have to consider whether we want a greater level of
review to consider resources, management, etc. A senator also shared that departments make the
decision about their resource use and if they approve the combined program then they are
agreeing to take on the responsibility while also benefitting from the pipeline. It was suggested
that a resolution should be passed that confirms that combined programs are to be considered
program revision rather than a new program. Chair Lawrence will write this up in a draft
resolution to share with the Council by email for later approval by SEC and Senate.
Update on Committee for Contingent Faculty Concerns: Virginia Yonkers shared that a
standing committee will be housed in Governance Council, including communication with
stakeholder groups. It will be important to have correct lists for contingent faculty, check to
ensure that policies that will affect those individuals that they will be aware and give feedback.
Starting as a committee allows for the possibility of vetting its viability and working out details,
and may also set up strong historical evidence for creating a council.
Make the working group for contingent concerns a committee that is part of the Governance
Council.
VOTE:13 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions
1. Senate Email Use Policy
Membership Recommendation Request – Campus Security Committee
Currently two nominations: Christy Smith from Education; Jayson Kratoville from
CEHC/NCSP. Chair Lawrence shared that we need one more member for the committee,
specifically faculty.
Elections – Chris Poehlmann shared that about half the seats are open. Qualtrics account is
ready to go. Departments choose their own representatives, ideally according to certain
distributions, and they are approved by the Senate. At-Large senators are elected.
Faculty Survey – Carolyn Malloch shared that the faculty survey is moving forward. The hope
is to get the existing data to the group on Friday for review. The student survey did not get
statistically significant responses and so cannot be used. IRPE no longer creates reports and so
the working group is responsible for the report itself. The greatest takeaway is that the Senate
needs to better advertise because a great number indicated no awareness of the Senate.
Use of Senate Email – Chair Lawrence shared that the SEC has charged the Council with
drafting a policy/guidelines of the use of Senate email. This includes communication with the
Senate at-large, as well as to the broader University population. There was a lot of discussion
about what exactly this is referring to – personal emails on behalf of the Senate, Senate listserv,
OneDrive groups, etc. It was suggested that it be considered more generally about Senate
communications across all platforms. Chair Lawrence will look at the University’s policy, will
look at other organizations and best practices, compile a list of suggestions and send to the
Council to review. There was also discussion about sharing with constituencies, given that
Senators are expected to represent their departments, etc. It was considered that the level of
confidentiality should be made explicit, but that Council work should be considered confidential
unless otherwise noted.
Meeting adjourned: 4:39
