Senate Executive Committee
February 11th, 2:45pm
UNH 306
MINUTES
Attendance: Karin Reinhold; Debra Gelinas; Elga Wulfert; Jim Hargett; Rob Rosenswig; Kaylynn
Enright; Christy Smith; Latonya Spencer; Billie Franchini; Ann Marie Murray; Malcolm Sherman;
Zina Lawrence; Kathie Winchester; Elizabeth Gray
Meeting convened at 2:48pm
Meeting was presided over by Immediate Past Chair Karin Reinhold in Chair Jim Mower’s
absence.
Approval of Minutes
VOTE: 8 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstention
Provost’s Report
The Provost shared that the President gave a thorough report at the Senate meeting and she
summarized the main points, including: the celebration of our 175th Anniversary; the progress
on the fundraising campaign; the Provost’s search proceeding on time; and the SUNY
Chancellor’s speech – including the PRODI-G program which sets goals and incentives for
increasing the diversity of the faculty. She shared about the StAR program – the Strategic
Allocation of Resources – through which individuals, departments, and schools can apply for up
to $50,000 grants that increase the graduation and/or retention rates for undergraduates or
increase the diversity of graduate students, as indicated in the goals of the Strategic Plan.
There is up to $500,000 total available. The review committee will include the co-chairs of the
5 focus areas of the strategic plan; the immediate past, present, and vice chair of the Senate; an
undergraduate student and a graduate student. She shared information about the Women in
Higher Education initiative, under which the Provost has created a steering committee to
further the goals that were identified in the initial meeting. She provided general information
about an initiative in artificial intelligence (AI) for which IBM is investing $2B in our region
(SUNY Poly, RPI, and others). The SUNY Chancellor emphasized the importance of developing
instruction in AI related courses across the system. Course work and research in AI is also
happening on our campus (CEAS, Dept. of Mathematics) and we are working to advance those
initiatives.
Chairs Report
Karin Reinhold encouraged all chairs to attend Senate meetings since at the last meeting they
did not meet quorum. She indicated that a member can appoint a designee and that person
can count toward quorum and vote in the member’s absence.
Proposed changes to the Senate Charter regarding CPCA quorum rules
Jim Hargett, Chair of CPCA
Chair Hargett indicated that CPCA is considering an increasing number of tenure cases and this
trend is expected to continue. The average member handles 8 cases each semester, including
sitting on committees, reviewing documents, preparing, etc. The 21 members of the committee
have been broken up into 3 groups, and each member typically attends a meeting every two
weeks – it is an enormous workload. This makes it challenging to recruit. Reducing quorum
allows fewer people to attend each meeting. He asked that people work to help recruit full
professors, women, and individuals in the sciences.
VOTE: 9 in favor; 0 opposed; 0 abstentions
Micro-Credentialing at UAlbany
Debra Gelinas
Presentation attached.
Q: would badges be centralized in the Center for Experiential Education?
A: Individual departments will manage their own micro-credentials, but the institution will have
a single Credly Acclaim membership, approve new micro-credentials, support departments in
development, and host a catalogue of all micro-credentials.
Q: What is the cost of the Credly Acclaim membership?
A: $5,000 per year
Q: How difficult is it to create a micro-credential?
A: It depends on the specifics of the micro-credential, whether there is new course
development, etc.
Q: How would they get approved?
A: There would be a committee in the Center for Experiential Learning to approve
Q: If the company goes bankrupt what happens to the micro-credentials?
A: This is unlikely to happen, but the company is engaging in strategies to protect the content.
Additionally, there are other platforms for micro-credentialing, and a platform is not even
necessary.
Q: Why doesn’t SUNY have its own platform? Why pay a private company?
A: The reason most institutions are not handling them internally is the meta-data, and SUNY
indicates that it would be very challenging to replicate what the platform offers.
Q: What is the benefit of a micro-credential?
A: Transcripts and resumes do not tell the whole story, and in particular do not always highlight
skills and competencies. This helps to tell a fuller picture, and helps graduates to market and
articulate their skills and competencies. It also specifically assesses these skills and
competencies, and so is not just self-reported.
Q: How can we spell out what makes a good micro-credential?
A: One important piece will be tying it to the employers. If we have a clear idea of what
employers are looking for and it is clearly articulated, the specifics are less important than
matching the skills and competencies.
Q: How closely are you working with Career Services?
A: Working closely with Career Services, as well as specific career development directors, IR,
Start Up NY, and more.
Q: Who will certify the accomplishment? How will we determine minimum criteria?
A: The ones run out of the academic departments will be responsible for creating and assessing
those. If it is co-curricular the department is expected to outline how the learning will be
assessed. It is up to each department how they lay out the criteria, and the Center will review
to ensure that quality is maintained.
Q: Will it be reported to/reviewed and approved by GAC and UAC?
A: There will be a member of UAC and a member of GAC on the approval committee.
The SEC recommends the following amendments to the policy: a committee in CEE will review
each badge, with a representative from UAC and GAC, and the badges will not go before the full
councils, with reports going back to UAC, GAC and SEC.
VOTE: 7 in favor, 0 abstentions, 1 opposed
Forensic Science Minor
Don Orokos
Don Orokos shared that the minor is composed of 9 courses. This includes a lecture course that
is required that currently has about 200 students from various departments. The second
required course is a lab course. They will also be required to take genetics and additional labs.
There is a restriction of 20 students per academic year. It will be determined depending on
interest whether an additional section of any courses will be necessary.
A concern was expressed about uncontrolled growth of the minor. It was indicated that there
is a cap on the minor, and that the University is in the process of rebuilding the major so this
would help with recruitment for that.
VOTE: 7 in favor; abstentions 1; 0 opposed
Council and Committee Reports:
UFS: Nothing to add
GSO: Nothing to add
SA: Not present
CAA: Not present
CAFFECOR: Asked to look into a case in which the office of a faculty member at another
university had been targeted with anti-Semitic graffiti.
COR: Nothing to add
CPCA: Not present
GAC: Report was read by UPPC chair
LISC: Nothing to add
UAC: Nothing to add
UPPC: Looking into the issue of quorum, encouraging the SA representative and student
senators to attend. There was some discussion about redefining quorum to help to achieve
quorum during the meetings.
Meeting adjourned at 4:42pm
