University Senate Executive Committee
Monday, March 20, 2017
2:45 PM
UNH 306
Jim Collins, Senate Chair
Minutes
Present:
Collins, James; Durio, Saben; Fabris, Daniele; Fossett, James; Fox, Cynthia; Hamilton, Diane; Jerison, Michael;
Jewell, Carol; Little, Walter; Mamorella, David; McNutt, Louise-Anne; Murray, Ann Marie (Delegate for Interim
Provost); Reinhold, Karin; Skebe, Alifair; Smith, Christy;
Guests:
Szelest, Bruce
The meeting convened at 2:45 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of February 22 were unanimously approved.
INTERIM PROVOST’S REPORT – Darrell Wheeler
Ann Marie Murray, Associate Provost for Program Development and Service Professor, reported on behalf of
Interim Provost Wheeler, providing the following updates:
Strategic planning – She noted that several expedition groups were moving forward. She conveyed thanks for those who
had provided input and reminded that individuals could still view the documents online and participate. She added that
during the first week in April the consultants would return.
Dean searches – The School of Business short list of candidates, the Associate Provost announced, would be
interviewed that month and early in April. The School of Public Health, she added, was looking for a search firm.
Enrollment – Associate Provost Murray stated that the Interim Provost, Vice President for Finance and
Administration Jim Van Voorst, and others would be discussing setting enrollment goals with deans.
Presidential search – Lastly, the Associate Provost said that it was anticipated the Chancellor would make a decision
prior to leaving in the end of June. She underscored that the search committee was developing questions for the
candidates, about which concerns and suggestions could be communicated via the search website.
SEC CHAIR’S REPORT – James Collins
I.
Informational
1.
On February 28, Campus Governance Leaders (Chair Collins, Vice Chair Reinhold, Immediate Past Chair Fox) discussed the
following with the Provost and Chief of Staff:
a.
updates on administrative evaluation;
b.
improvements to the Senate Website;
c.
potential changes in relations between Wadsworth Lab, CNSE and UA;
d.
Senate efforts to encourage diversity and inclusion;
e.
annual budget planning for Senate events.
The next CGL meeting is on March 22.
2.
In response to emails from Dean Wulfert on February 17 and 18 about difficulties locating Council information on the Senate
web page, Chair Collins reviewed the Senate web page on March 3 and 7, and found considerable variation in Council and
Committee records.
3.
On March 2 and 10, GAC Chair Fossett communicated with Chair Collins about GAC’s proposal to gather information from
various administrative units for information on the size, origin, and financial, economic and intellectual contributions of
international students, faculty, and staff to UAlbany.
4.
On March 4 and 6, Chair Collins received communications from CPCA Chair Louise-Anne McNutt, Immediate Past Chair
Cynthia Fox, and Parliamentarian Ron Vero about issues involved in redesigning CPCA’s workload.
5.
On March 7, Chair Collins had a conference call with University Council Chair Michael Castellana about insuring Senate input
to the Presidential Search process.
II.
Actions taken
a.
None
III.
Recommendations for actions
In order to provide an accessible record of Senate Council and Committee activities, the SEC should develop feasible
expectations and guidelines for Chair’s to submit monthly reports and maintain up-to-date contact information, membership
rosters, agendas and minutes on the Senate web page.
Senate Chair Collins noted that the next two meetings would take place on Wednesdays, with two meetings in April on the
12th and 26th. He reminded that there would be a March 21st forum on contingent concerns from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. in the
Assembly Hall. Chair Collins, UPPC Chair Fox and Associate Provost Murray addressed a question regarding CNSE and
outlined work being done to ensure our students are being served and can complete their degrees.
OTHER REPORTS
UFS (University Faculty Senate) – Diane Hamilton, Walter Little & Latonia Spencer, SUNY Senators
The next SUNY University Faculty Senate Plenary will take place from April 20 to 22 at the SUNY Canton Campus. Members
of the University at Albany community who would like to communicate with the UFS are invited to contact one of their state
representatives. They are also encouraged to contact the UFS Standing Committee chairs and visit websites
(http://system.suny.edu/facultysenate/committees/), which address and formulate various policies that impact our campuses.
GSA (Graduate Student Association) – Seban Durio, GSA President
Nothing reported.
SA (Student Association) – Felix Abreu, Student Association President
Nothing reported.
Chair Collins added that he would be meeting with the SA and GSA representatives and recommended that the
incoming Senate Chairs, going forward, meet with those representatives at the beginning and end of each semester to
coordinate the Senate relationship in an ongoing way.
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE CHAIRS’ REPORTS:
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Alifair Skebe, Chair
Nothing reported
Chair Skebe added that CAA had met on 3/7 and
approved 2 reports by APRC
was on track for Gen Ed fall assessments
re-reviewed a UUP report on SIRFs in teaching evaluations and the 2016 Survey on Shared Governance,
noting discussion of the significant difference between assessment and evaluation
o
voted to approve forming an ad hoc committee regarding the processes, but had no one to staff that
committee.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility) –Carol
Jewell, Chair
Nothing reported
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – Michael Jerison, Chair
Nothing to report
COR (Council on Research) – Daniele Fabris, Chair
Nothing reported
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Louise-Anne McNutt, Chair
Nothing to report
CPCA Chair McNutt added that there would be an open meeting to discuss adjusting the CPCA process for reviewing
cases on April 6 at 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. Chair McNutt would draft announcement and submit it to Senate Chair for
circulation to senators and teaching faculty.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – James Fossett, Chair
At its regularly scheduled meeting on March 10, GAC approved the establishment of joint BA/Masters of International Affairs"
degrees for the departments of political science and public administration and policy. These joint programs allow outstanding
undergraduates to double count graduate courses towards both BA and Masters degrees and thus complete their education in a
reduced period of time. GAC also took action on two student petitions.
GOV (Governance Council) – Karin Reinhold, Chair
Mar 6th: I met with Joe Brennan, Jen Carron and Jessica McWade from a research consulting company to talk about the Identity Forum.
There will be 2 Identity Fora on April 18: uptown campus at 11am and down town campus at 3pm to talk about the discoveries from the
surveys and to start the process of designing who do we want to be.
On Mar 6th, the preliminary list of nominees for Senators-At-large was announced with a request and instructions for additional
nominations. Also the request to participate in University Governance was sent to the university community and emeriti. Both requests
were to be sent to part-time faculty as well. The part-time listserv was used for the first time. It was found that it was not working but IT
was able to fix the problem on Mar 9th and now part time faculty are able to participate in this process.
March 7th: I met with Bruce and JD and their support team to talk about the website.
They’ll be working with the archivist Gregory Wiedeman who’s implementing a searchable archive system.
New structure emphasizing Shared Governance and its different components. Initial description of rights and responsibilities
from the website but Gov can inform more content on the Shared Governance website.
Deans are encouraged to put the College or School bylaws on their website.
Dept. chairs are encouraged to put their department’s bylaws on their website.
Council staff members will put agendas and minutes on the council’s website.
Proposal to stream Senate meetings. Gov is charged with looking into quorum issues. Maybe implementing 2-way
videoconferencing can be consider for quorum and vote.
Timeline: by May – have basic structure of new design. Work on document repository during summer. By Sept. have a finished product.
Mar 8th Gov meeting
Governance approved an amendment to the bylaws granting voting rights to part time faculty to vote on their own representative. Also it
considered whether to designate 2 of the open at-large seats for contingent faculty (full-time). It was decided that, at this moment, this is
not necessary but that a recommendation to encourage full-time contingent faculty to run for these seats should be added to the
Governance procedures in the Senate handbook. This conversation lead to the consideration of what constitutes quorum for Senate
meetings. Since we use i-clickers to count quorum, in practice we only count voting members of the Senate. It was therefore approved
that quorum should be the majority not of membership but of voting senators.
A discussion of the Senate website followed. Chair Reinhold was charged with requesting technical support for Senate meetings to have
meeting flow more smoothly and reduce the glitches with voting procedures. Video recordings of Senate meetings was approved provided
that there is AV support to handle the recordings at the meetings. Language to add to charter or bylaws regarding video recording of
Senate meetings would be sent by e-mail for a vote.
Actions:
Approved amendment to bylaws giving voting rights to part-time faculty to vote part-time representative.
Approved amendment to bylaws on quorum.
Approved this year’s apportionment of senators by college or school.
Approved video recording of Senate meetings provided that there is AV support for them.
Recommendations:
Request technical support for Senate meetings to handle voting during meetings.
Request support for videotaping Senate meetings and posting them on the Senate website within one week of the meeting.
When the new website is implemented and the Senate bylaws become online-pages, each instance of the word Faculty should be
hyperlinked to its definition. Same with Voting Faculty, Teaching Faculty, Professional Faculty. Qualified academic rank.
Items to add to the Governance Procedures:
o
In January, request a list of part time faculty. Sort it by department or units, and request department chairs or unit chairs
to nominate part time for the part time at large. Similarly, request list of faculty and professionals by department or unit.
o
Encourage full-time contingent faculty to run for open at-large senate seats.
Mar 13th Maritza Martinez was added to the list of nominees for Open At-Large Senators after a successful petition to add her name with
29 signatures.
GOV Chair Reinhold stressed that faculty need to be encouraged to vote on Bylaws amendments. She reviewed the
electoral cycle and procedures.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – David Mamorella, Chair
Nothing to report
Chair Mamorella added that LISC would meet next week.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) –Karen Kiorpes and Christy Smith, Co-Chairs
Nothing reported
ULC (University Life Council) – Ekow King, Chair
Nothing reported
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – Cynthia Fox, Chair
I.Informational
a.
The Council heard reports from the Interim Provost, the Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Facilities
Committee, and the Resource Analysis and Planning Committee and considered program proposals from Rockefeller
College and from the Center for International Education and Global Strategy.
b.
Vice President for Communications and Marketing has requested a special meeting with UPPC to discuss results of the
recent Branding Survey. UPPC may also need an additional meeting with the Registrar to discuss and approve the 2018-
2019 academic calendar.
c.
The recent Presidential Conversation on the role of the Arts and Humanities in a public research university was discussed as
part of the Chair’s report.
II.
Actions Taken
a.
The Council voted unanimously to approve proposals for two BA/MA programs :
i.
BA in political Science/ MA in International Affairs
ii.
BA in Public Policy/MA in International Affairs
b.
The Council voted unanimously to endorse a proposal for the Global Science and Engineering Program that would create a
dual degree in STEM/LANGUAGE. Completed over five years, the program would include a mandatory one semester
study/one semester internship abroad.
c.
Chair Fox has circulated the recently released final report of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission on
Language Learning : America’s Languages: Investing in Language Learning for the 21st Century.
III.Recommendations
a.
None at this time
Chair Fox added that UUP would hold a special meeting on 3/30 regarding University branding. She reported that
UPPC had endorsed a plan from Harvey Charles’ Office for a dual degree program combining language and
STEM, though it was not a formal proposal. Chair Fox added further comments on the Presidential Conversation
on the role of the Arts and Humanities. After discussion, SEC members resolved that Chair Fox would reach out to
the Chair of Language, Literature and Cultures to encourage discussion with deans about the inclusion of
languages in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cyber Security programs.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
The SEC continued discussion of the use of templates as guidelines for maintaining council procedures and
unanimously endorsed the idea.
NEW BUSINESS
A motion was made and unanimously approved to endorse GAC’s request from various administrative units for
information on demographics and comments on the economic and intellectual contributions of international
students, faculty, and staff to UAlbany. It was suggested that the information be used in part for marketing
purposes. GAC was encouraged to consider drafting a formal proposal with a rationale.
SEC members also endorsed the practice of council and committee reporting and record maintenance on the Senate
webpage. Chair Collins would be consulting with the administration regarding allowance for the posting of
agendas, minutes and schedules by a staff support or member from each individual council and committee.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 4:41 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Elisa Lopez, Recorder
