UNIVERSITY
FACULTY
SENATE REPORT
SUNY Morrisville
February 5-7, 2009
SENATE PRESIDENT
The President of the University Faculty Senate is Carl Wiezalis
(Professor of Respiratory Therapy Education, Upstate Medical,
Syracuse).
As a member of the BOT, Carl continues to work on the
search for Chancellor. He has an important role on a
candidate screening sub-committee. He cannot say much
about progress of the search.
John J. O'Connor replaced John Clark who resigned as
Chancellor in December. John Clark continues to lead
the 60th Anniversary program leading to a scholarly
conference to be held April 3-5, 2009 here on the Albany
campus.
Carl continues to push sustainability working with
Maureen Dolan (UFS) and Phil Wood (Vice Chancellor
for Capital Facilities) Phil Wood has the formal
responsibility for all thing sustainable within SUNY and
has been receptive to help from Carl. They are in process
of re-constituting the Chancellor's Task force on
Sustainability, to be chaired by Presidents Ray Cross
(Morrisville) and Neil Murphy (Environmental Science
and Forestry). Carl Wiezalis and Maureen Dolan are also
developing a UFS Sustainability Committee. They hope
to have a "committee without boundaries" working
largely over the internet. Carl meets regularly with Liz
Clark and Beth Kempter of SUNY's Governmental
Affairs Offices in Albany and in Washington D.C.,
looking for help on green projects.
Budget will be discussed in detail by Jim VanVorst.
Ram Chugh continues to develop the SUNY Retiree
Service Corps and recently met with Phil Smith, President of
UUP. President Smith invited Ram to speak at the Spring
Delegate Assembly.
Written report available.
HAROLD SILVERMAN, SENIOR VICE PROVOST
Transfer and articulation are still very important
Transfer website up.
Waiting for final report from Comptroller on audit of
SUNY's assessments..
By law, we need a master plan every four years. Will
have something but it will be brief.
Course Re-Design Initiative is now underway as pilots.
Current re-negotiating Elsevier contract.
JOE HILDRETH, JOINT COMMITTEE ON
ARTICULATION AND TRANSFER
Committee continues to work with strong interest from the
BOT. There are four elements to program:
Transfer website
Student Appeal process (Provost's Office)
Transfer Review Committee (TRC) for appeals on courses
Faculty development conferences.
Current emphasis is on getting TRC up and going and it is with
William Lanford (Albany) and Johanna Halsey (Dutchess
County) as Co-Chairs.
JANET NEPKIE, ETHICS COMMITTEE REPORT
Janet briefly reviewed the situation. There are lots of policies to
deal with issues related to student conduct, much less for faculty
and administrators. At present, committee is collecting policies
from all campuses. She pointed out that SUNY is way behind
most large universities and proposes that we might develop an
Ethics Institute for SUNY. More to come.
RAY KRISCIUNAS, SEAVICE LEARING TOOLKIT
New booklet "Service-Learning, A Toolkit" is finished and is
available.
JIM VAN VOORST, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER.
Reviewed all three budget cuts this year (2008-09).
Governor sticking to his plan to keep cutting base.
Ten percent of tuition increase was supposed to go to
campuses, but actually did not (because of the way it was
estimated).
Note that budget cuts are "permanent" but many of the
techniques found to meet shortfall for the current year
are one-time opportunities. Cuts for 2008-09 will have to
be addressed again in 2009-10, in addition to new cuts.
In summary, the State is on track to reduce general
revenue funding for SUNY by about $530M out of a
$1600M, i.e. a reduction of over 30%. Because of tuition
increases, campus budgets have a smaller cut.
Question/comment: How are campuses with large graduate
enrollment going to pay graduate student tuition for its TAs
after the tuition increase? Response: the budget allocation
for such tuition has not increased since circa 1998, i.e. is
way underfunded now. The current tuition increase will
make this more difficult.
Note: A letter from the Board of Trustees to the Legislature
concerning the 2009-10 budget and a brief summary of the
Executive Budget Recommendation were given out and are
available.
NORM GOODMAN FOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The Executive Committee met Feb. 5 The major points of
discussion were:
No Chancellor yet.
History of SUNY Conference April 3-5 at Albany
Kavita Pandit, Provost's Office reported on Transfer
and Articulation progress, international education in
SUNY, Economic Development, Audit by Comptroller
about assessment in the major, new Mission Review
Resolutions on assessment and on the budget were
passed.
JAKE CRAWFORD, PRES. STUDENT ASSOCIATION
Reported on how student feel about tuition "theft" and
urged senators and their colleagues to sign petition at
www.studentassembly.org
REPORT OF AWARDS COMMITTEE
New award for Excellence in Classified Service
announced.
REPORT OF OPERATIONS COMMITTEE
.Supports a resolution changing Farmingdale from
Specialized and Statutory Colleges to Colleges of
Technology/Agriculture.
REPORT OF GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE
Resources for Governance Leaders and Future Leaders
will be available on UFS website. These include:
"Orientation Guide for New University Faculty
Senators", "Orientation Guide for New Campus
Governance Leaders", a powerpoint presentation aimed
at newly tenured faculty members.
REPORT OF GRADUATE AND RESEARCH
COMMITTEE
Research road show very popular
Offered a resolution supporting more budget for SUNY
research
REPORT OF STUDENT LIFE
SUNY Campus Traditions Book available
New booket on Service Learning: A Tool Kit is now
available.
Continue to be concerned about Student Health
Services.
REPORT OF UNDERGRADUATE COMMITTEE
Will revise policy on contact/credit hours
Will update Guide for the Evaluation of Undergraduate
Programs
Planning an annual undergraduate research symposium
to be held at Capital with representative from all
campuses.
SECTOR CONCERNS- University Centers
Concern about the number of administrative
appointments at University at Albany made without
benefit of formal searches.
Concern about the budget's impact on the number of
new students joining graduate programs. For some
programs the number of new students may be reduced
to zero.
Support for new contract with Elsevier
Worry about effect of budget cuts on the number of
minority students.
Support a reduction in redundant campus assessments
Concern and support for aspects of the UB 20/20
proposal.
RESOLUTIONS
Resolution on Consultation and Collaboration- Passed
"...calls for transparency and appropriate consultation between
local administrations and faculty governance prior to major
decisions on ...resources..."
Resolution on Assessment Streamlining-Passed
"...reduce multiple layers that now exist..."
REMINDER OF THE FACULTY SENATE PAGE
Although material is slow to appear on the site, eventually the
full text of motions passed should appear:
http://www.suny.edu/facultySenate/.
Respectfully submitted,
William Lanford, SUNY Senator
lanford@albany.edu
