Council and Committee Reports for March 19, 2018 Senate Meeting
Christian Poehlmann, Senate Secretary
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – Karin Reinhold
On Feb 14th, Chair Reinhold received a request for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
plan for UAlbany, mandated by SUNY in 2015. The ODI office created a UAlbany plan
in 2016 and it is now being addressed and updated by the current group on Diversity
and Inclusion of the Strategic Plan.
On the Feb 21st UPPC meeting it was decided to create a Task force to study of the
academic preparation of entering freshmen and transfer students and prepare a report
by the end of term. The group members are Professors Jim Collins, Kajal Lahiri and
Louis-Anne McNutt together with Jack Mahoney from Institutional Research. They are
tasked with investigating whether students’ academic preparation had declined over
the last decade, and providing recommendations for implementing solutions that
would help students succeed at UAlbany.
UPPC also discussed draft proposals about career paths for contingent and part-time
faculty, and new teaching focused faculty positions. These proposals are ways to
implement part of the recommendations made by the implementation team (9/15/2016)
(https://www.albany.edu/academics/files/Contingent_progress_report_final.pdf ).
See also the recommendations from the report within the 2016 Provost’s Panel on
Contingent Concerns:
https://www.albany.edu/academics/files/Contingent_Faculty_Committee_Report_10
-1-2015.pdf
It was decided to bring these items to the next SEC meeting to discuss the proposals
about job security and career paths for contingent and part-time faculty, which are part
of the recommendations from the documents above. Additionally, we may also want to
address the report on Graduate Students Stipends:
https://www.albany.edu/academics/files/Report_of_the_Graduate_Stipend_Committ
ee_final_draft_070615.pdf
Under instructions from President Rodriguez Estella Rivero and Dolores Cimini are to
implement a task force for implementing a Tobacco –Free Policy at UAlbany, and
invited the Senate to send a representative. As background on this measure, the Senate
had passed a resolution in 2009 on Smoke free campus, an initial task force was created
in 2014, chaired by Phil Nasca, which returned a report with a commitment to bring
about a tobacco-free campus. The current task force is charged with the creation of a
tobacco free policy for UAlbany with an action plan for its implementation.
Chair Reinhold received an announcement about a Proposal to link Digital Forensic
Major and Legal Studies Minor, and a request to include Discontinuance of Deactivated
Programs at the next SEC meeting.
The new shared governance webpage will be released at the end of February after
deans and administrators’ approval. All support persons of Senate Council have been
given authority to change the website on order to be able to update the webpage of the
councils they serve. Most council’s pages are up-to-date. However, the listing of Senate
legislations is incomplete as of Feb 22, including only bills but missing amendments to
the Senate’s Charter and Bylaws, and Senate Resolutions.
Openings in the Senate: At-Large open category 2, At-Large Professional 2, SUNY wide
Senator 1, UAS Board 2. Also UPPC committees, Resource Analysis & Planning
Committee and University Facilities Committee, for next year.
On Mar 5
th, Asc VP and Sr Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Bill Hedberg reported to
the SEC on the implementation of Blue Ribbon panels by, together with data on ratios of
contingent hires in the past 5 years. Virginia Yonkers reported on the need to establish a
council or committee, within the governance structure of the Senate, to address the on-
going concerns of contingent faculty that now constitute 50% of the teaching faculty.
SEC also reviewed proposed career paths for contingent faculty and a draft of teaching
intensive positions.
Recommendations
LISC was requested to submit recommendations on open access policy directly to the
Chancellor.
A working group on Contingent Concerns be formed to study the feasibility of
establishing a mechanism within the Senate to address on-going concerns of contingent
faculty.
Actions Taken
Bill 1718-05 PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH (3) BS/MS PROGRAMS: Proposals to combine
BA in Human Development with MS programs in Counseling Psychology, Educational
Psychology, was approved by SEC on Mar 5
th to be sent to the Senate for approval.
SEC approved a report on the implementation of Blue Ribbon panels to be presented to
the Senate on Mar 19
th by Asc VP and Sr Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Bill
Hedberg.
Requested a report of the Assessment of Administrative units Advisory Board to be
presented by the Senate representatives during April’s SEC meeting.
Requested a report on the work of the Task force on Graduate enrollment by Dean of
Graduate Education Kevin Williams.
Scheduled a special meeting of the SEC on Mar 28
th for a presentation of the Branding
Project by Paul Miller, Interim Director, Marketing and Content Strategy.
SAVE THE DATE:
Senate Forum on The State of Arts and Humanities: March 21st, 3:30-5:30pm, CC 375
Spring Faculty Address, April 3rd at 1:00 pm in the CC Ballroom
Senate Forum on The State of IT on Campus: April 10th.
April 13th: President’s Inauguration
Other Announcements:
April 14th: 4th Annual Mindful Mile and Fight Hunger 5k, UAlbany Campus.
April 20th: SUNY Undergraduate Research Symposium 2018, Oneonta, and Saturday,
April 21st at Monroe County Community College
SUNY Senators’ Report – Diane Hamilton, Walter Little, Latonia Spencer
Nothing to report
Graduate Student Organization Report – Dawn Wharram, Lead Senator
Nothing to report
Student Association Report –Jerlisa Fontaine, President
Nothing to report
Council/Committee Chair Reports:
CAA – Istvan Kecskes, Chair, Mary Ellen Mallia Co-Chair
Nothing reported
CAFFECoR – Carol Jewell, Chair
Nothing reported
CERS – David G. Wagner, Chair
Nothing to report
COR – Robert Rosenswig, Chair
Nothing reported
CPCA – Jim Hargett, Chair
Nothing to report
GAC – Sean Rafferty, Chair
Nothing reported
GOV – Jim Mower, Chair
1.The GOV Committee on Liaison and Elections (CLE) is working on the creation
of a preliminary slate for the Spring 2018 election for open positions in the
following categories:
University Senate, At-Large Senator, Open (2 open positions),
University Senate, At-Large Senator, Professional (2 open positions),
University Faculty Senate (SUNY-wide Senate) (1 open position), and
University Auxiliary Services (UAS) Board of Directors positions, faculty (2
open positions).
2.CLE expects that the preliminary slate will be published during the week of
March 5.
3.CLE is currently testing the Qualtrics software package as an election platform
for Senate elections. Since the University is already a licensee of this package, no
additional software costs are incurred for its use.
4.The GOV Committee on Assessment of Governance and Consultation (CAGC),
co-chaired by Virginia Yonkers and Carolyn Malloch, is preparing the biennial
assessment of campus governance as specified by the Charter, section X.1.3.3.
They will issue a survey during the Spring 2018 semester.
LISC – Billie Franchini, Chair
LISC Report for the University Senate Meeting, March 19, 2018
Submitted by Billie Franchini, Chair, March 6, 2018
The Council on Libraries, Information Services, and Computing (LISC) will meet on
March 21, 2018.
UAC – Karen Kiorpes, Christy Smith, Co-Chairs
UAC Report to the Senate
March 19, 2018
UAC met on January 25, 2018
Committee Reports:
General Education Committee – The Committee approved a course proposal in the
International Perspectives category. Two competency plans still need to be
reviewed in Physics and Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Interdisciplinary Studies Committee – One U UNI 390 internship was approved
over break. Two U UNI 290 and 11 U UNI 390 internships were approved in
December. In December three Student Initiated Interdisciplinary Studies Majors
were approved, a combined major/minor in social justice, a BA in social services,
and a second major in French Studies. The Committee will meet soon to discuss
the structure of U UUNI 390 with attention to how consistent it is with other
university internship opportunities, particularly as it relates to the academic
components.
Committee on Academic Standing – The committee met for two days in January to
review academic dismissal appeals and that ultimately approximately 167
undergraduate students were dismissed.
Curriculum and Honors Committee – The UAC liaison has been working with
departments on the two new proposals for revisions of majors, and a new minor
in legal studies is close to being submitted by Political Science in Rockefeller
College. There are four new undergraduate programs in various stages: Public
Health, which is working on responding to the program reviewers’ comments
after their site visit; Business Economics, for which the SUNY comment period
recently ended (there were none); Electrical and Computer Engineering, which
has a site visit 2/15 - 2/16; and Environmental and Sustainable Engineering,
which has a site visit 2/20 - 2/21.
Old Business- Sanjay Goel from the School of Business attended the 1/25 meeting
to explain the proposed changes to the Digital Forensics program which were
distributed to UAC in the December meeting. The program is four years old.
Recent reviewers of the program indicated that certain changes should be
pursued with the goal of cyber defense accreditation from the National Security
Agency. There are some redundancies currently, and the field has developed
since the program’s inception. Some courses in the program will be dropped,
new courses will be added, and other courses will be restructured. Criminal
Justice courses will be replaced with courses on programming, database and
computer security. Committee member from CEHC expressed concern that there
may be an overlap of cybersecurity courses in different departments and that
there needs to be discussion of a campus “vision on cybersecurity.” She would
like coordination involving her Dean and other involved Schools or Colleges.
Sanjay will follow up directly with CEHC.
New Business – Dayna Newton from the School of Education spoke about three
program proposals for combined programs with the BA in Human Development
and the MS in Mental Health Counseling, in Educational Psychology, and in
Special Education and Literacy. There is large need for special education teachers
and mental health counselors in New York State and the combined programs are
financially beneficial to students. The program proposals were voted on and
approved. Once approved through GAC, a bill will go to the Senate.
UAC met again on February 20, 2018
Sanjay Goel attended at the start of our meeting to further discuss the Program
Proposal in Digital Forensics. He reiterated why changes are being made to
reflect NIST and NSA cybersecurity curriculum standards and because he will be
seeking NSA accreditation for cybersecurity research. Programming courses on
campus could be cross-listed to minimize overlap. The proposal was approved.
Two General Education Competency plans are still being reviewed.
Two UNI 390 internship proposals were reviewed and approved.
The Curriculum and Honors Committee of UAC reported that last week,
reviewers made their site visit for the proposed major Electrical and Computer
Engineering. This week reviewers are making their site visit for the proposed
major in Environmental and Sustainable Engineering. The program proposal for
a BA in Business Economics is being reviewed in Arts and Sciences and an
external review in Fall 2018 is anticipated.
Under New Business, UAC discussed a proposal for a new Higher Education
concentration for the BS in Human Development. We will revisit this at our next
meeting (March 20).
Dr. Matthew Ingram met with UAC to consider a proposed new minor in Legal
Studies, Department of Political Science. Six courses are required and up to two
courses can come from other departments/disciplines. This would not be a
restricted minor. Council members noted that there is a need to serve students
with interests in legal issues. Attendance at this Council meeting was low; as
such, we will revisit the proposal at our next meeting (March 20) to have
additional discussion. The History department will be providing some
information about some concerns.
ULC – Ekow King, Chair
Nothing reported
UPPC – Jim Collins, Chair
UPPC Report for Senate Meeting on 031918
Information:
The Council met on February 21.
Provost Stellar reported that the Strategic Plan’s ‘road shows’ were nearing the end of
the process, after which there would be period of studying alignment plans from
Univerisity academic and administrative units, followed by review and revision of the
Strategic Plan, with implementation processes to be designed over the summer and the
new Strategic Plan officially underway during the Fall of 2018. He then reported on
several ongoing Deans’ searches, stating that the intent with the Rockefeller College
was to have Interim Dean Rethemeyer appointed as Dean, pending feedback and
(unspecified mechanisms for) faculty approval. Chair Collins asked whether this
consultation process was used in the appointment of the Interim Deans of the
University Library and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to Deans of their
respective units. The Provost said no. Senate Chair Karin Reinhold asked about the
availability of the ODI Plan for Diversity and Inclusion. The Provost replied that it
would be made available soon.
Associate Vice President for Financial Management and Budget, Kim Bessette, made a
brief report on the NYS Governor’s Executive Budget and the uncertain implications for
the University. She took questions from Council Members and the Chair on the budget,
and clarified that the Compact Planning process was underway for budgeting
‘efficiencies’ in academic and non-academic units in line with the announced budget
plan for the anticipated 2018-2020 ‘structural deficits’. Chair Collins and Senate Chair
Reinhold expressed surprise and concern that the Compact Planning process was
underway, and near completion, without the Senate being informed or provided an
opportunity for review and comment, given that Senate representation in the Compact
Planning process had been agreed to by the Administrative leadership in 2016.
UPPC Chair’s Report to Council on 02/21/18
Information:
Council and Committee Changes: Professor Sanjay Goel of SB has resigned from UPPC,
because of scheduling conflicts. We thank him for the years of service. Professor James
Hargett of CAS has been removed from the UPPC listserve, where he was erroneously
place last semester. Professor Sridar Chittur, has stepped down as Chair of the Facilities
Committee, but will remain on the Committee as a Member. Ray Bromley has been
elected Chair of the Facilities Committee.
Website. Council Agendas and Minutes have now been uploaded to the Senate Website
for last semester and will henceforth be done after each meeting. There has been
considerable delay in support staff gaining access to the website.
There is something odd occurring with the website as an opportunistic portal for
volunteers. I have received two email requests, one to join the council, and one to be
granted access to the Council Shared Drive. Each requested seemed to come from the
Shared Drive portal. I continue to investigate this.
The Senate and UUP Forum on Gender Equity and Inclusion was held on Tuesday the
13
th. There was a small audience, slightly more than twenty, staff and faculty except for
one student reporter. After two sets of two presenters, there was a lively discussion
about the incidence and University response to sexual harassment and violence and
about pay equity and family leave policy. (Subsequently, there has been a request from
the Women’s Concerns Committee of UUP to study form a joint working group with on
pay equity at the University. Chair Collins has recruited two volunteers from the
Senate, one of whom is Senate Chair Reinhold, and asks that those interested in
volunteering contact him (jcollins@albany.edu) or Professor Kristen Hessler of
Philosophy (khessler@albany.edu ).
The next Senate Forum is on the role of the Humanities and Social Sciences in our
changing university, it will be held on March 21, 3:30 till 5:30.
On February 7, I wrote to Dean Williams of the Office of Graduate Education about the
RAPC recommendation regarding the recruitment of International graduate students.
No response. I will inquire again. Should I ask Dean Williams or his designee to come
and discuss the recommendation with the Council?
On February 5, I reported the Councils work on incoming freshmen and transfer
students, including our focus on EOP, LLC and Honor’s cohort, and on Academic
Dismissals. A Senator who had taken part in earlier working groups on retention
questions suggested that we separate gender on Academic Dismissals. As you will see
from the data we have obtained on academic dismissals, there are significant
female/male differences.
Two items of substance.
First, Strategic Planning: As a member of Senate leadership, I was a co-signer, along
with leadership from United University Professions, of an open letter criticizing
Strategic Planning and raising concerns about its implications. The letter was
distributed to various constituencies on February 5-7, and on February 8, myself, Chair
Reinhold, Vice Chair Mower, and UUP Vice Presidents for Academics and Professions,
Professor Paul Stasi and IT specialist Tom Hoey, met with President Rodriquez, Chief of
Staff Bruce Szelest, and Vice President Michael Christakis met to discuss the letter and
the Strategic Planning process going forward. After some clearing of the air and
establishing context, we had a productive discussion in which President Rodriguez
agreed that there should be a place for the Senate and UUP as organizations in
designing the process for implementation and taking part in budgeting discussions.
That being the case, it is important that the Senate, and especially this Council, take
seriously their responsibility, articulated in the Senate Charter, to be actively involved
in policy and planning, and in budgeting groups at the University. We will discuss that
more fully below under new business item A.
Second, Contingent Faculty: a long-standing Senate, Union, and Administration
commitment has been to improving the conditions of contingent and part-time faculty.
There appears to have been a long hiatus in the work of implementation groups for
contingent concerns, but there are clearly presented ‘draft’ reports concerning pathways
to continuing appoints for contingents and step systems for part-time lecturers. This
Council and the Senate need to begin a wide discussion and debate of these proposals.
We will discuss that more fully below under old business item B.
(End of Chair’s report to Council)
Reports from Committees:
There was no report from the Facilities Committee, since as new Chair – Professor Ray
Bromley – had just been chosen from the Committee and will be setting up a schedule
for spring meetings.
The Resource Analysis and Planning Committee presented an Agenda and Minutes,
but had nothing to add to Associate VP Bessette’s report. The Committee will need to
recruit new members for 2018-2020.
Old business:
The Council then discussed its ongoing study of the academic preparation of entering
freshmen and transfer students, focusing on retention data the general undergraduate
population and for selected cohorts – EOP and the Living Learning Communities – as
well as data on academic dismissals by gender. Chair Collins proposed a smaller
working group, to deepen the study and prepare a report by the end of term, roughly
on the question of whether academic preparation had declined in the last decade, if so,
what units were affected, and what solutions and resources would best help students
do well at the University. Professors Kajal Lahiri and Louis-Anne McNutt have
volunteered to join Professor Collins in the effort.
The Council also discussed how to promote discussion in the Senate of efforts to
improve the status of Contingent and Part-time Faculty at the University. The Council
agreed that it was time to distribute to the SEC and Senate the draft reports from the
Implementation Teams working since 2016 to implement some of the recommendations
from the 2016 Provost’s Panel on Contingent Concerns
(https://www.albany.edu/academics/files/Contingent_Faculty_Committee_Report_1
0-1-2015.pdf)
In order that the SEC and Senate might begin to discuss the proposals about job security
and career paths for contingent and part-time faculty, which are part of the
recommendations and implementation tasks originally announced on September 15,
2016:
(https://www.albany.edu/academics/files/Contingent_progress_report_final.pdf )
New business:
The Council discussed its role and that of the wider Senate in the budgeting and
implementation processes that will follow upon the adoption of a new Strategic Plan.
It reviewed a proposal from the School of Education to link three BS/MS degree
proposals, building upon existing BS programs in Human Development, and MS
programs in Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education. The Council
approved the proposals and referred them to the SEC, for review and subsequent
referral to the Senate.
Actions taken:
The Council approved a working group on undergraduate academic preparation and
success in the past decade, and steps the University is taking or might take to improve
the education of undergraduates going forward.
Approved a proposal integrate the BS programs in Human Development and MS
programs in Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education, and referred
the proposal to the SEC.
The Council tabled requests to modify the Campus Impact Form until its next meeting.
The Council tabled proposals for a Digital Forensics Major and a Legal Studies Minor,
pending the submission of appropriate documentation.
Recommendations:
That the Senate begin to study and discuss the recommendations and implementation
proposal’s originating in the 2016 Provost’s Panel Report on Contingent Concerns.
