COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE SUMMARIES
Meeting of the University Senate, December 12, 2011
As submitted to Danielle Leonard, Senate Secretary, University Senate
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – Susanna, Chair
The initial stages of a Presidential Search are underway to replace President Philip, who has announced his
retirement. Per UFS guidelines, the Senate Chair has been in contact with the University Council about the
process. The Senate Chair has asked the University Council for a general timeline of the search in anticipation
of needing to provide 6 teaching faculty members to the search committee, per SUNY Board of Trustees'
"Presidential Search, Guidelines for Conducting" (http://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=573).
As with recent past presidential searches, the SEC will solicit nominations for the search committee from the
voting faculty. The next steps are described in the BOT guidelines: "Taking care to assure that faculty
representation on the search committee speaks for a broad spectrum of faculty opinion, the faculty shall elect its
representatives to the search committee by secret ballot at an open session of the faculty governance group, at
which a quorum of the teaching faculty are present." Whether this vote will happen at our 2/6/12 meeting or at a
special session depends on the University Council's timeline. The responsibility for making sure that the ballot
is representative of the broad spectrum of faculty lies with the SEC, which will compose the ballot from all
nominations.
The composition of a presidential search committee is delineated by the BOT as follows: "Unless otherwise
agreed upon in advance by the chancellor and the council chair, the search committee shall consist of four
members of the council (including the chair), six members of the full-time teaching faculty of the campus, one
student, one alumni representative, one campus-related foundation representative, one academic dean, and one
professional or support staff member." The Senate Chair is currently in discussions with the University Council
about the process whereby the one Professional or support staff member will be chosen. In the last presidential
search, that member was elected by the University Senate, not the University Council.
The University Council will be setting up a webpage with Presidential Search updates in the near future.
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) –Daniel D. White, J. Philippe Abraham & Shadi
Shahedipour-Sandvik, SUNY Senators
The SUNY Senators have proposed a resolution to endorse the two resolutions regarding shared services that
the University Faculty Senate passed at the October Plenary. The SEC has moved the resolution to the senate
for consideration.
GSO (Graduate Student Organization) – Heidi Nicholls, GSO Representative
The GSO held their final assembly meeting of the semester and the issue of the constitution and bylaws is an
increasing concern. Currently there is a call to make a committee to specifically address the wording agreement
between our two governing documents. Sarah Taylor, our current MCAA chair made an announcement at the
last Assembly Meeting that she will be stepping down at the completion of this semester. We confirmed our
Judicial Board with Genevieve Moore, Steve SIn, and Elizabeth Redkey, each representing a different Campus.
We are currently discussing options to meet the concerns of graduate students who do not primarily work on the
Uptown campus, such as voucher submissions and event sign ups. In addition we are looking to get the ball
rolling on establishing a downtown campus GSO office in addition to our uptown and east campus offices.
SA (Student Association) – Bryant Barksdale, Student Association President Designee
On November 12th the Student Association held the annual FallFest concert featuring LMFAO and The Far
East Movement. There were around 3,300 students in attendance making this event the highest attended concert
in recent years.
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We are looking to keep our community involvement going by hosting a midnight mission in December. We
are working with local businesses to get donations to give out. We will have student volunteers on hand to give
out what has been donated to the homeless to help lessen the burden and hardships that the winter may cause
them. The date and location are still being worked out.
A local ninth grader whose brother is a junior here at the university, has requested help in getting gifts for
local children living in southern Albany. We are reaching out to our student groups to try and have them sponsor
some of the children on the list and we are organizing a dinner event where the gifts will be given to children by
Santa.
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Adrian Masters, Chair
The CAA has completed its program review report on Women’s Studies.
The PRC and the GEAC are progressing with reports on reviews conducted in the 2010-11 academic year.
I am working with the PRC from last year to produce reports on reviews conducted in the 2009-10 academic
year.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility)
– Aran Mull, Chair
The committee met last on November 14th. A bill to remove the “Principles for a Just Community” statement
from all University documentation was completed and forwarded for the consideration of the SEC. The
University Counsel has offered the opinion that they may not act in an advisory capacity and we are reviewing
our options regarding the current complaint as well as enacting complaint management guidelines for the
committee going forward.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – Carolyn MacDonald, Chair
CERS is awaiting response from the University Council's office for a meeting to discuss continuing issues with
the policy.
COR (Council on Research) – James Castracane, Chair
The Council on Research met on November 30th and considered multiple agenda items:
Associate VPR Bob Webster and Associate VPF&B Kevin Wilcox discussed the recent DHHS audit and
outlined new guidelines for administrative expenses on grants and contracts and exception policies on direct
charging to federal projects for non-personnel expenses pursuant to OMB A-21.
Assistant VPR Theresa Walker presented university guidelines for faculty start-up companies. This included the
Federal, State SUNY, RF and UAlbany layers of laws and policies to manage, reduce or eliminate conflicts of
interest.
The FRAP-A sub-committee received the 15 applications (down from ~40 two years ago) for review. The
Excellence in Research and Creative Activities is reviewing the 8 nominations it received. In addition, the
Conference/Journal Review and Benevolent Award Review sub-committees are processing their applications.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Christine Wagner, Chair
CPCA has completed the review of twelve cases to date. Review of three additional cases will occur at the
meeting on December 12th. Provost Phillips will attend the December 12th meeting of CPCA to hear from
members about issues that arise in the process of case evaluation.
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GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Tim Groves, Chair
GAC met on November 16.
The Committee on Curriculum and Instruction has reviewed three proposals as follows: (1) Biomedical
Sciences Ph.D. credit reduction (from present 66 credits to 60 credits), (2) Masters in Public Health EHS
Concentration changes, (3) Special Education and Literacy II track changes. CC&I recommended GAC support
for all three proposals. GAC discussed and voted to approve all three proposals. Since these only involved
changes to a small number of course offerings, and no major program changes, Senate approval will not be
needed. Senate members can obtain any or all of these three reports from Chair Tim Groves on request. A fourth
proposal for a Nonprofit Management Certificate remains in discussion.
The Committee on Admissions and Academic Standing has resolved and communicated findings for all four
pending appeals cases. CAAS/GAC currently has no pending appeals cases.
Graduate Dean Kevin Williams solicited input from the graduate schools and departments on topics needing
attention by the Dean’s office. Chair Tim Groves agreed to work with Dean Williams to prepare the GAC
discussion as appropriate.
GAC presently has no bills pending Senate approval.
GOV (Governance Council) – Andi Lyons, Chair
The Governance Council met on Tuesday, December 6, to continue development of a charter amendment, which
the Governance Council intends to introduce at the SEC meeting on January 23. The charter amendment
developed out of consideration of how best to address the Senate’s 2010 charge to advance a process for
systematic assessment of administrators and administrative units. The Senate’s charge followed the Middle
States Review, which pointed to a need for a more systematic Administrative review. It quickly became clear to
GOV that the magnitude of this task, combined with the need to develop an institutional memory as the process
is refined and implemented on a 5-year rotation, meant that the work would best be organized and accomplished
by a separate Council of the University Senate. The GOV Council plans to vote on final wording of the
proposed charter amendment by December 20.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Nancy Newman, Chair
Most of LISC’s November 21 meeting was devoted to a presentation by Chris Moore of IT Client Support
Service regarding the new version of Blackboard. The percentage of faculty already using Bb9, which was
launched last summer, is very high. Bb8 will no longer be available as of Spring 2012. However, an archive of
courses that had used Bb8 will be accessible for at least two years for administrative and other purposes. As
requested by the SEC, Steve Worona’s Ppt “Privacy Policies” (which was presented at UFS) has been
distributed in anticipation of future discussion regarding revision of UAlbany’s “Responsible Use of IT” Policy.
The Library Committee reported that it had reviewed the results of the survey completed last spring. A summary
will be presented by Dean Casserly at LISC’s next meeting, Dec. 12.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – JoAnne Malatesta, Chair
UAC approved changes to the University Wide Internship requirements and will draft a bill to bring to the
Senate. Additionally, UAC approved changes to the requirements for cross-counting courses between double
majors and minors. We are drafting a bill which reflects these changes and should be presenting to SEC soon.
The General Education Committee continues to meet and is expected to present a proposal to UAC in the very
near future.
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ULC (University Life Council) – Yenisel Gulatee, Chair
ULC met on November 15th. We continued our discussion on the Smoking Policy. Ms. Christine Bouchard met
with the Student Senate to inform them about our discussions on the Smoking Policy. We decided to start
organizing open forums for students, staff and faculty in order to openly and thoughtfully discuss smoking on
campus and a tobacco free policy. We’re planning on hosting the forums on November 29th and 30th
On November 29th and 30th the Forums on a Tobacco-Free campus were held. Students, faculty and staff were
invited to attend. The forum was a platform where the university community could voice opinions and concerns
about smoking on campus. The forum was facilitated by Michael Seserman from the American Cancer Society
and Dr. Peter Vellis, Director of Student Health Services. Also Philip Nasca and Mary Applegate from the
School of Public Health and Brian Freidenberg from the Counseling Center contributed their expertise.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – Eric Lifshin, Chair
UPPC met Friday Dec 2. GOV has approved the council’s request to be considered as a ‘committee of the
whole’. An electronic vote taken between meetings re: Biology Revision of Lab Courses (CAS Proposal 11-
078) has been approved and sent to the Senate. Tony Alfieri and Sarah Freidel, architects with Perkins + Will,
attended the meeting to provide an update on the Facilities Master Plan. The guiding principle of the process is
that the FMP will guide campus development in alignment with our Strategic Plan and UAlbany Impact. The
plan deliverable is a matrix of near, intermediate and long term strategies between 2013-2023, accompanied by
a recommendation to the State University Construction Fund on how much capital and operational funding
UAlbany needs and where to spend it. Projected program growth through this period calls for very aggressive
renovation and construction programs. Mr. Alfieri and Ms. Freidel went through a number of planning
scenarios to show how UA can achieve our goals. Proposed plans include the following possibilities: a
renovation plan running three concurrent renovation projects in order to completely renovate the academic
podium by 2043, and an aggressive development plan on the Downtown campus that will decompress the
Uptown Campus and revitalize Downtown as a destination for our changing student demographic. After
discussion, questions and answers, Chair Lifshin thanked Mr. Alfieri and Ms. Freidel for their very informative
presentation. A discussion of a campus impact statement to accompany bills was tabled until January.
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