University at Albany - State University of New York
2004-05 University Senate
Minutes of May 2, 2005
Present:
J.P. Abraham, J. Acker, J. Bartow, J. Berkowitz, T. Bessette, R. Bromley,
S. Chaiken, R. Collier, R. Craig, D. Dai, D. Dewar, S. Faerman, S. Friedman,
R. Gibson, J. Hanifan, F. Hauser, A. Hildreth, R. Hoyt, V. Idone, M. Jerison,
G. Kamberelis, S.B. Kim, W. Lanford, A. Lyons, C. Mac Donald, D. McCaffrey,
L. McNutt, C. Merbler, S. Messner, G. Moore, J. Mumpower, O. Pelosi,
M. Pryse, L. Raffalovich, R. M. Range, H. Scheck, M. Sherman, D. Shub,
L. Snyder, B. Spanier, J. Stromer-Galley, S. Turner, J. Uppal, L. Videka,
D. Wagner, J. Wessman, J. Wick-Pelletier, O. Williams, E. Wulfert, A. Zonder
Guests:
W. Hedberg, S. Mahan, J. Neely, V. Delio
Minutes:
The corrections to the minutes of March 14, 2005 were approved.
The minutes of April 22, 2005 were approved with amendments.
Provost’s Report - Presented by Jeryl Mumpower, Interim Provost:
Status of Admissions: The campus has received approximately 2,500 freshmen deposits, which
is over the target goal of 2,350. There has been an increase in Group 2 and 3 students and a
decline in Group 1 students. Transfer deposits are currently at almost 500; 1400 is the goal.
Applications are up almost 700 over last year. In Graduate admissions, the Masters applications
are up; doctoral applications are level with last year. The campus needs to enroll about 200 more
graduate masters students and the prospects look good. International applications are about even
with last year.
Chair’s Report – presented by Professor Carolyn MacDonald:
Search Committee for the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
-the Search Committee has scheduled four candidate interview meetings – the schedule of
meetings is available at the door.
Voice of the Student
- Christine Bouchard of the Office of the Vice President for Student
Affairs has asked for faculty volunteers for the May 10, 2005, Voice of the Student
meeting in Long Island.
2005-06 Council Slates
– The Council Slates are not ready to be voted on at this meeting.
The Senate Officers would like to hold off on the first council meetings for next year
until next September; meaning that there will have to be a Senate meeting early in
September to vote on the Council slates. After some discussion, the Senate members
present agreed that sending the proposed Council slates by email will be possible over the
summer.
Election of 2005-06 SenateVice-Chair
: Current nominees are Professor Diane Dewar
and Professor R. Michael Range. There were none nominated from the floor. The ballots
were distributed and Professor Diane Dewar was elected.
Council Reports:
Council on Academic Assessment (CAA), Professor Malcolm Sherman, Chair: The Council
on Academic Assessment, in its first year of existence, organized itself to receive and review the
assessments that were completed as part of the externally mandated seven-year cycle of
departmental. The Council discussed issues of access to and confidentiality of departmental and
external reviews. A consensus developed that even though assessments might include material
that could embarrass the university, these reports should be available to those who seek them.
Among the considerations that support a policy of openness is that, as a matter of law, all tables
and graphs compiled by public institutions are public documents. In the vast majority of cases
the supporting text clarifies and explains the data. At its April meeting the Council unanimously
adopted the following motion: Departmental self study reports, reports of outside evaluators
and departmental annual assessment reviews shall be permanently stored at the offices of CETL.
However, the Director of Assessment may elect to keep the most recent documents in her or his
office. All University at Albany faculty and administrators shall have on-site access to these
documents. Other persons may secure access by filing a request that specifies the documents to
be examined with the Director of Assessment, who shall inform the Assistant Vice President for
Strategic Planning and Assessment, the Chair of the Council on Academic Assessment, and the
appropriate department chair. Requests to make photocopies of these documents shall be made
to the Director of Assessment. Departments whose assessments were reviewed by the CAA
during the 2004-05 academic year were: Economics, Political Science, Italian, Theatre,
Anthropology, and Chemistry. Scheduled for review during 05-06 are: Biology, Geography and
Planning, Mathematics and Statistics, Business and Accounting, Criminal Justice,
Communication, Psychology, Sociology, and Spanish. In addition, the following programs are
scheduled for accreditation: Educational Psychology, Counseling Psychology, School
Psychology, School of Business, Teacher Education, and Clinical Psychology.
University Planning and Policy Council (UPC), Professor David McCaffrey:
Advisement Policy
- The Council has deferred its decision on Advisement until a more
specific proposal is submitted.
Proposed new School of Business Building
- The Council decided to support the efforts in
planning and fundraising for the proposed new School of Business Building.
Proposed CAS Honors College
-The Council voted on two motions today regarding the
proposed CAS Honors College: that a working group be constituted over the summer to
prepare a comprehensive evaluation of existing and potential honors initiatives on campus
and to design an integrated honors program for this campus, which passed. The second
Motion regarding the Honors College which did not pass: that UPC supports the current
proposal in its present form (did not pass).
Center for Cancer Genomics
– The Council unanimously approved recommendation on the
Center and a bill will come to Senate next week.
06/07 Academic Calendar
– The Council approved the 06/07 Academic Calendar, which
shows the Muslim holiday falls in the fall of 2006. At this point, UPC is unanimously
recommending that the holiday recognition continue through 06/07 and that changes
resulting from the ongoing discussion of holiday observance be effective 07/08 because the
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Academic Calendar is planned two years in advance to allow scheduling and posting. A
motion was made that the Senate Approve the proposed 06/07 calendar now and discussions
on the holidays will occur and a decision will be made before the 07/08 calendar is drawn
up. There was some discussion on the urgency of approving the calendar, the rational for
scheduling far in advance, and that leaving the holidays on the calendar for the next two
years will make it harder to take them away. Robert Gibson explained that approving the
06/07 Academic Calendar is fairly urgent, as it has to be posted soon. The motion passed; the
06/07 Academic Calendar was approved by the Senate.
New Business:
Senate Bill 0405-20: Charter Change for Council Support – Professor MacDonald introduced
the bill on behalf of the Senate Executive Committee. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 0405-21: IRB Approval for Dissertations - Professor Louise-Anne McNutt
introduced the bill on behalf of the GAC. The bill was discussed. An amendment was proposed
to replace in the first additional paragraph in the policy the words “or written acknowledgment
by the student and advisor that human subjects research must be approved in advance by the
IRB” with “or written acknowledgment by the student and advisor that human subjects research
will have to be approved in advance by the IRB” to make it clearer that this option refers to the
case that the topic approval is occurring in advance of any actual human research. This was
accepted as a friendly amendment. A question was raised about requirements for approval for
animal as well as human research. It was agreed that language including animal as well as
human research would be added to the bill by GAC if it passes.
A discussion of language about copyright issues and separate copyright fees ensued. It was
agreed that GAC will consider changes addressing copyright issues next year. The bill passed.
Senate Bill 0405-22: (GAC) Electronic Dissertations - Professor Louise-Anne McNutt
introduced the bill on behalf of the GAC. Professor McNutt explained that this has been worked
on with GAC and the Libraries for about two years and it is expected that electronic dissertations
will be available as a student selected option for May 2006. A suggested amendment was
proposed to replace “full time faculty member as chair” with “faculty member holding
unqualified academic rank(i.e., tenure track or equivalent) as chair” to avoid any ambiguity so
that Department of Health employee faculty in the School of Public Health were recognized as
eligible to be chair. The suggestion was accepted as a friendly amendment. There was
discussion on the format and accessibility of the dissertations. Professor McNutt assured the
Senate that the dissertations will be accessible and that this is a nation-wide effort. Professor
Kim suggested replacing doctoral student with doctoral candidate in two places to indicate that
theses were normally presented by students who had advanced to candidacy. Professor McNutt
explained that in some departments students would obtain approval of their thesis topic before
advancing to candidacy, so the language should not be changed. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 0405-23: Charter Change for Mediation – The bill was introduced by Steven
Messner on behalf of the Governance Council. It was explained that the two bills, 23 and 24,
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arose together from negotiations with the new College of Nanoscience and Engineering about the
articulation of their governance structure with that of the University. The bill passed.
Senate Bill 0405-24: Charter Change for GAC - The bill was introduced by Steven Messner
on behalf of the Governance Council. There was some discussion to the effect that the change in
language was rather minor. The bill passed.
Senate Bill 0405-25: Academic Misconduct Policy Modifications - The bill was introduced
by R. Michael Range on behalf of CERS. The bill passed.
Senate Bill
0405-26: Proposed New School of Business Building
- The bill was introduced by
Professor Wulfert on behalf of UPC. Professor Chaiken suggested adding the word “use” in
front of “maintenance and operation.” The suggestion was accepted as a friendly amendment.
The bill passed.
Respectfully submitted,
Jayne VanDenburgh, Recorder
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