University at Albany, State University of New York
Governance Council
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Eric Lifshin, Chair
Minutes
Present:
Ray Bromley, Nan Carroll, Richard Collier, Sung Bok Kim, Candace Merbler,
John Schmidt, Lawrence Snyder, Daniel White
The meeting convened at 1:35 pm.
The meeting was chaired by Senate Secretary Richard Collier in Chair Lifshin’s absence.
APPROVAL OF
MINUTES:
The minutes of April 15, 2010 were approved.
NEW BUSINESS:
Recommendation for Gen Ed Task Force--Replacement for Rachel Dressler:
Secretary Collier asked GOV members to provide names to serve as a replacement for
Professor Dressler who is unable to continue to serve. The recommendations should be from
CAS with the preference being for someone from one of the arts categories. Dean Peter
Bloniarz has made a request to have a representative from CCI serve on the task force.
Recommendations were made and approved by a vote.
Procedures for Assessment of Administrators and Administrative Services:
Secretary Collier informed GOV members of the resolution that was passed at the last Senate
meeting. The Executive Committee was charged with developing a process but has made a
request to GOV to give consideration to the membership for an ad hoc committee and the
frequency of doing evaluations. He also discussed the conversation at the last meeting of the
Senate Executive Committee attended by Professor Janet Marler from the School of Business.
Members of the SEC expressed concerns about how the results would be handled and she
recommended that only the individual above the person being evaluated should be informed.
Secretary Collier was in agreement based on the practices of other campuses.
SEC members had also discussed the level of administration to be evaluated. They identified
deans, the provost, associate provosts, vice presidents and head of administrative units such as
the CIO, registrar and major services to campus. Department chairs would not be part of the
process. Secretary Collier provided background regarding campuses such as Binghamton and
Stony Brook who have been doing this successfully for many years but have had problems with
identifying who should have access to the information.
SUNY Senator Daniel White said the Chancellor discussed this at the SUNY Faculty Senate
Spring Plenary and she and her staff reiterated that there were no objections to having SUNY
faculty evaluate administrators. Secretary Collier said that SUNY has specific policies in place
on how to evaluate presidents but no such policies for other offices. The suggestion was made
to seek best practices that could be used as a model and Senator White said that Binghamton
and Stony Brook are eager to share their documentation with other colleagues.
GOV members discussed a possible need to amend the Charter but this would only be
necessary if a separate council or standing committee is created. It might be possible to do as a
subcommittee of CAA and that could be accomplished without amending the Charter.
The idea of doing assessments is to identify if any problems exist in an area and to address
them before a situation deteriorates. Assessments need to be constructive without judging
personalities. The process will need the support of the SEC and the Senate. Identifying
expertise across campus could assist the process. The discussion then turned to the frequency
of doing the assessments. Some institutions do them yearly but this may not be realistic. It
could depend on the initial findings in a particular department and if problem areas are
identified, close follow up may be required. Staggering reviews is an option, starting with the
president and vice presidents one year, and doing deans the next year. GOV members
suggested that assessment should begin at the top and work down through the ranks.
GOV members agreed that having this process in place would assist with the next Middle
States review and with the five year mid-term review.
Recommendation for BAG:
The request for a replacement on BAG came from UPPC Chair Delano. GOV members
discussed potential replacements and a recommendation was made. The recommendation was
approved by a vote with two abstentions.
Recommendations by GOV:
GOV members continued to develop a matrix that will provide the incoming chair some notion
of what can be expected concerning requests for recommendations from the Council. GOV
members reviewed the requests of the past two years and identified what had been successful,
those requests that are recurring, and input that had not been successful and the reasons for that.
Nan Carroll reiterated the need to work on the faculty handbook which could be beneficial to
all new council members.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 2:48 pm.
Respectfully submitted by
Gail Cameron, Recorder
