CAFFEECoRproceduresresponse
The Senate Charter has the following (highlighting mine):
VII.7.3. Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community
Responsibility
VII.7.3.1. Composition
VII.7.3.1.1. CAFFECoR shall consist of six Teaching Faculty, at least two of whom shall be
Senators and at least three at the level of Full Professor, who shall serve two-year terms and up
to four Professional Faculty.
VII.7.3.1.2. The members of CAFFECoR shall be nominated for Senate approval by the
Committee on Council Nominations of the Governance Council.
VII.7.3.1.3. The chair of CAFFECoR shall be selected by CAFFECoR from the continuing
members. This selection shall occur in the spring for a one-year term to begin the following
academic year. The chair shall serve on the Executive Committee of the Senate.
VII.7.3.2. Responsibilities. The Senate affirms its commitment to the principle that the widest
possible scope for freedom of expression is the foundation of an institution dedicated to vigorous
inquiry, robust debate, and the continuous search for a proper balance between freedom and
community responsibility. Therefore the Senate charges the Committee with the following:
[amended 4/28/14]
VII.7.3.2.1. The Committee has the responsibility to consider issues impinging academic
freedom, freedom of expression and community responsibility.[amended 4/28/14]
VII.7.3.2.2. The Committee shall recommend policies and review implementation of policy and
procedures pertaining to matters of academic freedom, freedom of expression community
responsibility by both students and faculty.[amended 4/28/14]
I have only been Chair of CAFFECoR since 2014. I have incomplete minutes
going back to that time, because CAFFECoR meets infrequently. At one point
in time, I forwarded the minutes to either Elisa Lopez or Yenisel Gulatee
(then Senate Secretary), but I don’t see them anywhere on the Senate
website, so I don’t know what happened to them. I still have them on my PC.
The Chair and/or Members of CAFFECoR bring issues to the entire
Committee. Additionally, CAFFECoR has been charged with certain tasks by
the Senate Chair. Usually these issues don’t start with the Senate Chair, but
are routed to him/her through other pathways. As well, I, as Chair, have
received emails from faculty members asking me if CAFFECoR can do
anything about their issue. This relates to VII.7.3.2.1, above.
CAFFECoR can, in its discussions, choose to bring resolutions first to the SEC,
and then to the Senate as a whole. This relates to VII.7.3.2.2.
Because we meet infrequently—due to both not always having a Member
bringing up an issue, as well as the Committee not being assigned tasks by
the Senate Chair, or other members of the faculty—the minutes are irregular.
We don’t always even take minutes, because our discussions have tended to
be informal. I tried to change this beginning fall 2016, but it didn’t “take.”
Moreover, we rarely have enough members to fulfill Quorum, so we don’t
take votes on resolutions, etc. I usually ask someone to take minutes as I
Chair the meetings. The minutes are then compiled and sent to me via email.
I review them, then send them out to the whole Committee. So, if a member
can’t make it to a meeting (our schedules are highly divergent), they can still
read the minutes to see what we talked about. By the way, we don’t vote to
approve minutes.
I keep current, as best as I can, to UAlbany news, and if I see something that
I think should go to CAFFECoR, I send an email to everyone. We may discuss
via email, but if the discussion gets too big, I usually call a meeting.
I also have email folders containing Senate/CAFFECoR concerns; currently
there are 1,997 email messages in my CAFFECoR folder and 93 in my Senate
folder. The CAFFECoR messages date back to April 2014.
PLEASE NOTE: I didn’t get any procedures from anyone as to how to proceed
as Chair. I’ve basically made it up as I’ve gone along.
It is my understanding that previous CAFFECoR chairs did not keep
minutes. Indeed, on our part of the Senate website, there is one set of
minutes dated November 16, 2007.
Is there anything else you need? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Carol
--
Carol H. Jewell, MSEd, MLS, MFA
Chair, CAFFECoR
LI-B35i, University Libraries
442-3628
She/her/hers
