Governance Council
Monday, September 7, 2016
2:45 PM
UNH 300
Karin Reinhold, Chair
Minutes
PRESENT: Earle, Keith; Kressner, Ilka; Moore, Chris; Nowell, Greg; Reinhold, Karin;
Schmidt, John
The meeting convened at 2:45 p.m. with introductions.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of May 12th and June 15th were to be voted upon at the next meeting as quorum had
not been met.
CHAIR’S REPORT
GOV had an additional meeting in June to discuss the restructuring of the School of Engineering
and Applied Science proposal by the new Dean Kim Boyer, and if governance had a role in
Senate oversight. GOV decided the proposal needed to go through the normal channels of the
council review process.
As President Jones had resigned, per the bylaws Senate leadership (2016-17 Vice Chair Karin
Reinhold as proxy, with 2015-16 Past Senate Chair Joette Stefl-Mabry and 2015-16 Vice Chair
Jim Collins via telephone), administrative leadership and deans of the schools met with SUNY
Provost Cartwright regarding a presidential search. Cartwright requested nominations for the
Interim President, who would be presented at the SUNY meeting in September, and reviewed
procedures for forming the presidential search committee.
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
Assessment
The survey on shared governance report is almost done and will be presented at the Senate
October meeting. Chair Reinhold shared resulting themes from survey responses. Members
discussed potential solutions to issues raised.
NEW BUSINESS
a.
GOV reviewed its charges and the charges of its subcommittees on Assessment and on
Elections and Liaisons. Members began populating those subcommittees. Chair Reinhold
noted she would be charging the subcommittees to form working groups on contingent
faculty and graduate students as well as to run forums on related issues.
b. Jim Collins had met with Chief of Staff Wirkkula and University Council Chair Michael
Castellana and would be further discussing the process for GOV to nominate 6 faculty
members, and potentially 1 more faculty member and 1 student for the Presidential Search
Committee.
c.
GOV reviewed a list, provided by Bill Hedberg of Institutional Research, of some
committees which will require nominees. Chair Reinhold would ask about the number and
composition of the committees and if there is an existing master list of committee
memberships to help GOV members determine a list of potential candidates for various
groups in the 2016-17 academic year. Senate leaders have asked, at regular monthly meetings
with the administration, to be notified early regarding requests for nominations, and for
review and feedback. It was noted that SUNY Senators should be reporting to the
administration about such anticipated solicitations for representation and feedback on
committees, etc. outside of governance. Chair Reinhold stressed to please be attentive to e-
mails, as requests for nominations often require a quick turnaround.
d. Strategies to improve Senate communication, meeting attendance and sharing of Senate
reports, information and procedures were considered. Chair Reinhold would ask former
subcommittee Elections and Liaisons Chair/Senate Secretary Yenisel Gulatee regarding the
status of information in review to be posted to the Senate website. It was noted to support
implementation we should work with ITS.
Per last year’s recommendation, current GOV members would be granted access by the GOV
Staff Support to a OneDrive folder to house shared documents for review. Procedures for
accessing the folder were reviewed.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:32 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Elisa Lopez, Recorder
