COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE SUMMARIES
Meeting of the University Senate, December 9th, 2013
As submitted to Yenisel Gulatee, Senate Secretary, University Senate
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT –Christine Wagner, Chair
The Senate would like to congratulate Gail Cameron on her retirement from UAlbany. We are grateful for her
many talents, her endless patience, and her dedicated service to the Senate and to the University. She will
certainly be missed.
Regarding Seamless Transfer Implementation, at the request of the SUNY Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor,
Elizabeth L. Bringsjord, the Provost, Susan Phillips, together with the University Senate Chair, Christine
Wagner and the Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Sue Freed, have identified a faculty
representative for each transfer path applicable to our campus to participate in the path review.
The Senate Executive Committee, at the 12/2/13 meeting, reviewed a proposal to change the name of the
Department of Reading (School of Education) to the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning. The SEC
determined this to be a simple name change with no resource, curricular or other implications beyond the
department, thereby requiring no further Senate action.
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) –Danielle Leonard, J. Philippe Abraham & John Schmidt,
SUNY Senators
165th Plenary Fall Meeting
October 24-26, 2013
SUNY Maritime
Attended by UAlbany’s Philippe Abraham, Danielle Leonard, and John Schmidt
Outlined below are a few of the issues that were discussed at the Plenary that most impact UAlbany. Many of
these initiatives are rapidly evolving and require careful consideration at the campus level.
Teacher Educator Preparation Programs:
The Board of Trustees passed a resolution aligning SUNY policies in our schools of education with
recommendations as yet unfinalized from the Governor’s New NY Education Reform Commission. This
includes a minimum 3.0 or top 30% of high school class entrance requirement; use of GRE and SAT scores
required for admission; comparative report card of student results; and 35% of professional course credits in
clinical practice. Deans of Education schools were given a few days’ notice to provide feedback, but no such
opportunity was presented to the UFS or the Faculty Council of Community Colleges.
The UFS passed two resolutions on this issue. The first decries the passage of the BoT Resolution without
consultation. The second calls for a Task Force on Predictive Indicators of Teacher Candidate Quality to gather
new data and to analyze the new and existing data to determine effective indicators of teacher candidate success
by June 30th 2014. It also calls for a delay in the implementation until this data can be examined further.
Start Up New York:
The legislation was passed by the Legislature in June 2013 with only a few days’ advanced notice. Campus
Presidents have been told to deliver some “wins” for the Governor by January, and several are prepared to do
so. Suggested talking points for Campus Governance with Presidents and/ or other senior leaders include:
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How does the plan align with the academic mission of the campus?
What is in it for the campus? Will there be economic benefits from the arrangement that can enhance
the academic mission? Will there be internship or co-op opportunities for students that will enhance
their experiential education? Will there be opportunities for faculty to enhance their research through
interactions with the companies?
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It’s implied that any offering of jobs to students would meet the “academic mission” provision,
but it was noted that this hardly seems to actually support the academic mission of an institution.
Insist that the faculty need to be consulted on the nature of this alignment before the plan is finalized,
not simply informed of the result, if it is to be meaningful and gain faculty support.
Insist that consultation needs to be done with elected faculty leadership. i.e. The University Senate.
There is an aggressive timeline for implementation with a January 2014 start date. We were told that campuses
have submitted their core academic competencies and that this information could be found on the start-up NY
website but no such information was found. Campus Governance bodies were encouraged by the architect of
this law, James Malatras, to be assertive in understanding and questioning the plans of our respective campuses.
Campus plans can be amended.
SUNY Shared Services:
The shared services initiative moves forward rapidly this year with focus on six “back-room” areas designed to
save money across the system (including purchasing, IT, and others). This initiative likely will continue to
produce some tensions between campus autonomy and “systemness”, although the emphasis has shifted to
sharing of items for which savings can be made at scale.
Open SUNY:
Several pieces of the broad Open SUNY initiative will roll out in January. The UFS is establishing an Ad Hoc
Committee on Open SUNY. This group will report to the Senate on emerging issues related to Open SUNY, and
thus will complement the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Open SUNY. The significance of the Open SUNY
initiative, its potential for both good and bad outcomes, and the aggressive timetable all converged to demand a
separate UFS committee.
SUNY signed a contract with Coursera over the summer to use their platform for MOOCs, should campuses
and faculty wish, and this has given Stony Brook the opportunity to offer a MOOC this fall, with credit
restricted to matriculated SB students. SUNY has yet to work out a mechanism for approval, oversight, credit,
transfer, use of other institutions’ MOOC offerings, campus versus System control, etc. But MOOCs are only
one part of the initiative. Prior Learning Assessment, expansion of online courses and online degrees, cross-
registration of courses to allow students from one campus to seamlessly take an online course from another—
these are just a few of the other elements.
Seamless Transfer/ Student Mobility:
Seamless Transfer is now in the implementation stage and is essentially a campus governance issue.
The development of the initiative was essentially completed by the formal delivery of the Memorandum to
Presidents early in the summer. This year, campuses are expected to review their programs (majors, transfer
information) to align with the seamless transfer requirements, with preliminary reports due by the end of
January. This clearly should involve considerable faculty input, all the way down to the department level. Yet
there remain differences in interpretation, with the Interim Provost insisting that areas in the MTP that say
campuses “should” adjust programs to include Transfer Path courses really means a requirement (i.e. a required
or core curriculum); that’s not how the UFS and Student Mobility Steering Committee read the wording of the
MTP. This means that the transfer pathway courses are the same as those demanded of native students in any
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program and the process of determining what should be in the path is unfolding quickly. Under the current
timeline, programs must be compliant by Fall 2014 and must be pushed through campus governance this year,
probably an unrealistic expectation.
UA-CNSE Separation:
The UA-CNSE Separation came up in two reports, although there was no substantive discussion of either report
at the Plenary.
From the President’s Report: The Chancellor has set up a number of administrative workgroups to sort
out various issues in the separation. These groups lack faculty membership, and I have met with the
CGL at UAlbany and the equivalent faculty member at CNSE to ensure that they are aware of the
process and can be certain to provide appropriate input.
From the Governance Council Report: A conference call has been scheduled between 2 members of the
UFS Governance Committee and 2 representatives from CNSE. They are asking for a review of their
governance related documents, if more help is needed, the Governance Committee will be happy to
provide it.
Announcements:
BOT Forums: There are 4 upcoming BoT Forums on different topics:
1. November 13th:
Student Success
2. November 25th:
The Changing Student Experience in the 21st Century
3. December 3rd:
The Future of Research and Innovation
4. December 4th:
What it Means to be a Public University in NYS
Times and Locations to be announced.
SUNY’s First Conference on Shared Governance: April 23-24, 2014 at the Albany Holiday Inn on Wolf Road.
Proposals will be accepted through January 15, 2014.
GSA (Graduate Student Association) – Caitlin Janiszewski, GSA President
The GSA is currently continuing with several projects including the opening of a new office at the Downtown
campus, moving our financial process online, re-writing our bylaws, and of course our programming agenda.
As President I recently attended the SUNY SA conference where I presented our resolution to support raising of
adjunct pay. But the resolution was at the end of the agenda and other business left us with little time to discuss
the issue. As a result, the resolution was tabled until the spring conference. Also, the SUNY SA requested a
report from the GSA Wages and Benefits Committee regarding the topic so that the discussion could be more
informed. The W&B is going to begin work on this soon.
SA (Student Association) – Marc Cohen, Student Association Representative
Marketing -- Steven Valentine
Nothing to report as far as initiatives.
Will be interviewing interns and assistant directors for next semester
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Student Group Affairs -- Katie Thomas
Holding an event for all student groups in a budgeting workshop
December 3rd
Academic Affairs -- Derek Ellis
Nothing new to report.
Representing the Student Association at the Transfer Orientation in January
Community Outreach -- Rose Avellino
Working on holding a holiday breakfast for kids.
Planning the Student to Student Initiative
Programming -- Ajon Crump
Nothing to report
Gender and Sexuality -- Emma Suarez
Nothing to report
Multicultural Affairs -- Rachel Arnaud
Nothing to report
Legislative Affairs -- Justyn Turner
Met with Cliff Kim to discuss UAlbany Day
Working on plans for that to be successful
Dippikill Outreach -- Alexis Klein
Nothing to report
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Deborah Bernnard, Chair
The Council on Academic Assessment reviewed and, pending revisions, accepted a report from the Academic
Program Review Committee on the Spanish Program Assessment Review. Both Council subcommittees
provided an overview of the work that they will be undertaking during the remainder of the academic year.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility)
– Susanna Fessler, Chair
Nothing to report.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – Carolyn MacDonald, Chair
Nothing to report.
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COR (Council on Research) – John Monfasani, Chair
COR discussed at length in its November 22nd meeting significant changes to the FRAP A guidelines and plans
to vote on the final wording of these changes in its December meeting. The changes will take effect in the 2014-
15 academic year. The next meeting is on December 12th.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Sanjay Putrevu, Chair
The CPCA met on Nov. 1. The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 6.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Ronald Toseland, Chair
The GAC met on Friday, November 15th and worked on three items.
At the meeting the GAC Committee on Admissions & Academic Standing (CA&AS) reported about its meeting
on 10/30/13 to consider a student petition for an exception to a University graduate policy. CA & AS
recommended that the student petition be granted after contacting the advisor at the School of Business. The
GAC approved the CA&AS’s recommendation.
The Committee on Curriculum & Instruction reported on their deliberations regarding a minor change to the
Doctor of Public Health course of study. The Committee recommended that that the program changes be
granted and the GAC approved.
The GAC reviewed a proposal to establish a Certificate Program in Health & Human Rights. The GAC
approved the proposal contingent upon minor modifications.
GOV (Governance Council) – Joette Stefl-Mabry, Chair
Nothing to report.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Elizabeth Gaffney, Chair
LISC committees are set up. The Library Committee has held its first meeting and had a briefing on the
Institutional Digital Repository which is being developed by the Library. Further information will be presented
at a December 18 committee meeting. The IT committee is working on selecting a chair.
LISC held a meeting on November 25. Chris Haile provided information about the history of wireless
connectivity in the Academic areas and plans for steps to improve the current service.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – Richard Fogarty, Chair
The council has approved and is introducing two pieces of legislation to the Senate: a proposal to discontinue
the current Faculty-Initiated Interdisciplinary Major (BA) in Informatics and in its place implement a new,
fully-registered major in Informatics (BS); and a proposal to create a major in Digital Forensics (BS). In other
business, the council also approved a revision of the Faculty-Initiated Interdisciplinary Major (BS) in Financial
Market Regulation. Additionally, UAC has approved a change to the academic regulation pertaining to
undergraduate declaration of major. Students are now advised to declare a major by the time they have earned
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56 credits (junior status), rather than required to declare a major by the time they have earned 42 credits, a
requirement previously stipulated in the Undergraduate Bulletin.
ULC (University Life Council) –Michael Jaromin, Chair
At the November 25th ULC meeting we hosted Charlie Voelker from Athletics and Stephen Pearse from UAS
who informed the committee on recent developments in their areas respectively.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) –Andi Lyons, Chair
UPPC met on Friday, November 22. The Provost presented UPPC with some draft documents for review and
input, as the START-UP NY Program Plan nears initial completion. We reviewed and approved proposals for
two new degree programs, Informatics (BS) and Digital Forensics (BS), from the resource allocation/campus
impact perspective. Additionally, Karen Chico-Hurst presented the current draft versions of the proposed 2015-
16 academic calendar for UPPC’s review and discussion. The Council’s next meeting is scheduled for Friday,
December 13, at 1pm.
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