2013-2014 University Senate
Monday, December 9, 2013
2:45 pm, Assembly Hall
Christine Wagner, Chair
AGENDA
Present:
Bushra Alam, Bryant Barksdale, Sridar Chittur, Leona Christie, Marc Cohen, Evgeny
Dikarev, Edward Fitzgerald, Richard Fogarty, Michael Ford, Cynthia Fox, Elizabeth
Gaffney, Jennifer Goodall, Yenisel Gulatee, Caitlin Janiszewski, Michael Jaromin, Michael
Jerison, Jane Kadish, Genevieve Kane, Ann Kearney, Andrei Lapenas, Andi Lyons, David
Mamorella, Daniel Markisello, David McCaffrey, David McDowall, Antun Milas, John
Monfasani, Saggi Nevo, Gregory Nowell, James Pasquill, Greta Petry, John Pipkin, Nathan
Powers, Christine Preble, Loretta Pyles, Eliot Rich, Lawrence Schell, John Schmidt, Emma
Schwab, Kabel Nathan Stanwicks, Caro-Beth Stewart, Christine Wagner, Kevin Williams,
Oscar Williams, Elga Wulfert, Yuchi Young, Alan Zemel, James Zetka
Guests:
Fabio Auffant II, Brett Benjamin, Caroline Buinicky, Guy Cortesi, Susanna Fessler, Ginny
Goatley, Sanjay Goel, Darlene Poirier, Karin Reinhold, Kathie Winchester
The meeting convened at 2:47 pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of November 18, 2013 were approved with the following voting results: Approved: 40;
Opposed: 1; Abstained: 4
PRESIDENT’S REPORT –ROBERT JONES
President Jones remarked that the semester had been very rewarding and today he wanted to give an
overview and provide a few updates.
Yesterday’s commencement exercises went very well and we had one of the strongest showings in
attendance with over 5,000 attendees. Over 1,000 students received degrees for undergraduate, graduate
and doctorate students. The president said he was pleased to see many family members, friends and
enthusiastic supporters. He thanked the faculty, staff and students who provided their support to the
event.
President Jones referred to the inauguration of the Confucius Institute which he said will poise UAlbany
to have a significant impact in the community. The president indicated that he played a major role in
bringing the Confucius Institute to the University of Minnesota and is familiar with its benefits on K-12
programs in the schools. He said he was very pleased about the partnerships that he believes will help the
University leverage its relationship with the Southwest University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE).
President Jones said he believes it will bring economic vitality to our region by connecting it with
community businesses.
President Jones reported the campus has been aggressively engaged in pulling together the campus plan
for Start-Up New York. Part of that activity has included holding conversations with the schools and
colleges, and the Senate Executive Committee. The president said we have been clear about our guiding
principles that businesses coming to our campus must align with our academic mission and provide
collaborative opportunities for faculty and staff to do research, as well as providing opportunities for our
students. President Jones said we will also use this opportunity as way of connecting with our initiative to
become an engaged university and to bring business to underserved communities. A strategy will be
implemented for attracting businesses to underserved communities and creating jobs in those areas. He
said preliminary conversations have been positive and we will submit our plan on December 16.
President Jones stressed that importance of transparency about the process and what is being done on
behalf of the University at Albany.
President Jones referred to the four stakes in the ground that he spoke of in his inaugural address to the
university. The process of creating structures around those stakes has begun with the creation of councils
and work teams around each stake which will expand our portfolio of degree programs, increase out of
state and international student enrollment, focus on community engagement and increase resources to
accomplish these initiatives. The four stakes will serve as benchmarks of our progress in moving the
University at Albany to its next level of excellence.
President Jones noted some recent highlights:
The new School of Business Building has been named one of the most beautiful business schools.
The era of Coach Bob Ford’s leadership comes to an end as the Athletics Department announces its new
football coach on December 10. President Jones is pleased that Coach Ford will remain on a part-time
basis during the transition and will assist with fund raising.
President Jones provided an update on the transition of CNSE. He will be meeting with Chancellor
Zimpher and the implementation team to discuss and be updated on the effort to transition CNSE to a
separate college of the SUNY system. The president indicated that he hoped to obtain additional insight
from this discussion with the Chancellor. He said the guiding principles he is operating under are
minimum impact on students and faculty and for the process to be as seamless as possible.
President Jones wished everyone a good winter session and said he looked forward to seeing everyone
next semester.
A senator referred to engineering programs and other programs the president mentioned at a previous
meeting and asked what programs were being considered. President Jones responded that he sees a
commitment to continue to invest in our signature programs and keep them strong, and that he would like
to leverage the opportunities for engineering programs. Discussions on the matter have led to the
development of programs in computer engineering and Provost Phillips is working with a project team to
begin the development process. Other areas for engineering or program development are also being
considered. An individual has been retained to assist with the process. The new programs will provide
an opportunity to make offerings to an expanded group of students.
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT –Christine Wagner, Chair
The Senate would like to congratulate Gail Cameron on her retirement from UAlbany. We are grateful for
her many talents, her endless patience, and her dedicated service to the Senate and to the University. She
will certainly be missed.
Regarding Seamless Transfer Implementation, at the request of the SUNY Interim Provost and Vice
Chancellor, Elizabeth L. Bringsjord, the Provost, Susan Phillips, together with the University Senate
Chair, Christine Wagner and the Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Sue Freed, have
identified a faculty representative for each transfer path applicable to our campus to participate in the path
review.
The Senate Executive Committee, at the 12/2/13 meeting, reviewed a proposal to change the name of the
Department of Reading (School of Education) to the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning. The
SEC determined this to be a simple name change with no resource, curricular or other implications
beyond the department, thereby requiring no further Senate action.
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) –Danielle Leonard, J. Philippe Abraham & John
Schmidt, SUNY Senators
165th Plenary Fall Meeting
October 24-26, 2013
SUNY Maritime
Attended by UAlbany’s Philippe Abraham, Danielle Leonard, and John Schmidt
Outlined below are a few of the issues that were discussed at the Plenary that most impact UAlbany.
Many of these initiatives are rapidly evolving and require careful consideration at the campus level.
Teacher Educator Preparation Programs:
The Board of Trustees passed a resolution aligning SUNY policies in our schools of education with
recommendations as yet unfinalized from the Governor’s New NY Education Reform Commission. This
includes a minimum 3.0 or top 30% of high school class entrance requirement; use of GRE and SAT
scores required for admission; comparative report card of student results; and 35% of professional course
credits in clinical practice. Deans of Education schools were given a few days’ notice to provide feedback,
but no such opportunity was presented to the UFS or the Faculty Council of Community Colleges.
The UFS passed two resolutions on this issue. The first decries the passage of the BoT Resolution
without consultation. The second calls for a Task Force on Predictive Indicators of Teacher Candidate
Quality to gather new data and to analyze the new and existing data to determine effective indicators of
teacher candidate success by June 30th 2014. It also calls for a delay in the implementation until this data
can be examined further.
Start Up New York:
The legislation was passed by the Legislature in June 2013 with only a few days’ advanced notice.
Campus Presidents have been told to deliver some “wins” for the Governor by January, and several are
prepared to do so. Suggested talking points for Campus Governance with Presidents and/ or other senior
leaders include:
How does the plan align with the academic mission of the campus?
What is in it for the campus? Will there be economic benefits from the arrangement that can
enhance the academic mission? Will there be internship or co-op opportunities for students that
will enhance their experiential education? Will there be opportunities for faculty to enhance their
research through interactions with the companies?
o
It’s implied that any offering of jobs to students would meet the “academic mission”
provision, but it was noted that this hardly seems to actually support the academic mission
of an institution.
Insist that the faculty need to be consulted on the nature of this alignment before the plan is
finalized, not simply informed of the result, if it is to be meaningful and gain faculty support.
Insist that consultation needs to be done with elected faculty leadership. i.e. The University
Senate.
There is an aggressive timeline for implementation with a January 2014 start date. We were told that
campuses have submitted their core academic competencies and that this information could be found on
the start-up NY website but no such information was found. Campus Governance bodies were
encouraged by the architect of this law, James Malatras, to be assertive in understanding and questioning
the plans of our respective campuses. Campus plans can be amended.
SUNY Shared Services:
The shared services initiative moves forward rapidly this year with focus on six “back-room” areas
designed to save money across the system (including purchasing, IT, and others). This initiative likely will
continue to produce some tensions between campus autonomy and “systemness”, although the emphasis
has shifted to sharing of items for which savings can be made at scale.
Open SUNY:
Several pieces of the broad Open SUNY initiative will roll out in January. The UFS is establishing an Ad
Hoc Committee on Open SUNY. This group will report to the Senate on emerging issues related to Open
SUNY, and thus will complement the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Open SUNY. The significance of
the Open SUNY initiative, its potential for both good and bad outcomes, and the aggressive timetable all
converged to demand a separate UFS committee.
SUNY signed a contract with Coursera over the summer to use their platform for MOOCs, should
campuses and faculty wish, and this has given Stony Brook the opportunity to offer a MOOC this fall,
with credit restricted to matriculated SB students. SUNY has yet to work out a mechanism for approval,
oversight, credit, transfer, use of other institutions’ MOOC offerings, campus versus System control, etc.
But MOOCs are only one part of the initiative. Prior Learning Assessment, expansion of online courses
and online degrees, cross-registration of courses to allow students from one campus to seamlessly take an
online course from another—these are just a few of the other elements.
Seamless Transfer/ Student Mobility:
Seamless Transfer is now in the implementation stage and is essentially a campus governance issue.
The development of the initiative was essentially completed by the formal delivery of the Memorandum
to Presidents early in the summer. This year, campuses are expected to review their programs (majors,
transfer information) to align with the seamless transfer requirements, with preliminary reports due by the
end of January. This clearly should involve considerable faculty input, all the way down to the department
level. Yet there remain differences in interpretation, with the Interim Provost insisting that areas in the
MTP that say campuses “should” adjust programs to include Transfer Path courses really means a
requirement (i.e. a required or core curriculum); that’s not how the UFS and Student Mobility Steering
Committee read the wording of the MTP. This means that the transfer pathway courses are the same as
those demanded of native students in any program and the process of determining what should be in the
path is unfolding quickly. Under the current timeline, programs must be compliant by Fall 2014 and must
be pushed through campus governance this year, probably an unrealistic expectation.
UA-CNSE Separation:
The UA-CNSE Separation came up in two reports, although there was no substantive discussion of either
report at the Plenary.
From the President’s Report: The Chancellor has set up a number of administrative workgroups to
sort out various issues in the separation. These groups lack faculty membership, and I have met
with the CGL at UAlbany and the equivalent faculty member at CNSE to ensure that they are
aware of the process and can be certain to provide appropriate input.
From the Governance Council Report: A conference call has been scheduled between 2 members
of the UFS Governance Committee and 2 representatives from CNSE. They are asking for a
review of their governance related documents, if more help is needed, the Governance Committee
will be happy to provide it.
Announcements:
BOT Forums: There are 4 upcoming BoT Forums on different topics:
1. November 13th:
Student Success
2. November 25th:
The Changing Student Experience in the 21st Century
3. December 3rd:
The Future of Research and Innovation
4. December 4th:
What it Means to be a Public University in NYS
Times and Locations to be announced.
SUNY’s First Conference on Shared Governance: April 23-24, 2014 at the Albany Holiday Inn on Wolf
Road. Proposals will be accepted through January 15, 2014.
GSA (Graduate Student Association) – Caitlin Janiszewski, GSA President
The GSA is currently continuing with several projects including the opening of a new office at the
Downtown campus, moving our financial process online, re-writing our bylaws, and of course our
programming agenda.
As President I recently attended the SUNY SA conference where I presented our resolution to support
raising of adjunct pay. But the resolution was at the end of the agenda and other business left us with little
time to discuss the issue. As a result, the resolution was tabled until the spring conference. Also, the
SUNY SA requested a report from the GSA Wages and Benefits Committee regarding the topic so that the
discussion could be more informed. The W&B is going to begin work on this soon.
SA (Student Association) – Marc Cohen, Student Association Representative
Marketing -- Steven Valentine
Nothing to report as far as initiatives.
Will be interviewing interns and assistant directors for next semester
Student Group Affairs – Katie Thomas
Holding an event for all student groups in a budgeting workshop
December 3rd
Academic Affairs – Derek Ellis
Nothing new to report.
Representing the Student Association at the Transfer Orientation in January
Community Outreach – Rose Avellino
Working on holding a holiday breakfast for kids.
Planning the Student to Student Initiative
Programming – Ajon Crump
Nothing to report
Gender and Sexuality – Emma Suarez
Nothing to report
Multicultural Affairs – Rachel Arnaud
Nothing to report
Legislative Affairs – Justyn Turner
Met with Cliff Kim to discuss UAlbany Day
Working on plans for that to be successful
Dippikill Outreach – Alexis Klein
Nothing to report
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Deborah Bernnard, Chair
The Council on Academic Assessment reviewed and, pending revisions, accepted a report from the
Academic Program Review Committee on the Spanish Program Assessment Review. Both Council
subcommittees provided an overview of the work that they will be undertaking during the remainder of
the academic year.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community
Responsibility) – Susanna Fessler, Chair
Nothing to report.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – Carolyn MacDonald, Chair
Nothing to report.
COR (Council on Research) – John Monfasani, Chair
COR discussed at length in its November 22nd meeting significant changes to the FRAP A guidelines and
plans to vote on the final wording of these changes in its December meeting. The changes will take effect
in the 2014-15 academic year. The next meeting is on December 12th.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Sanjay Putrevu, Chair
The CPCA met on Nov. 1. The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 6.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Ronald Toseland, Chair
The GAC met on Friday, November 15th and worked on three items.
At the meeting the GAC Committee on Admissions & Academic Standing (CA&AS) reported about its
meeting on 10/30/13 to consider a student petition for an exception to a University graduate policy. CA &
AS recommended that the student petition be granted after contacting the advisor at the School of
Business. The GAC approved the CA&AS’s recommendation.
The Committee on Curriculum & Instruction reported on their deliberations regarding a minor change to
the Doctor of Public Health course of study. The Committee recommended that that the program changes
be granted and the GAC approved.
The GAC reviewed a proposal to establish a Certificate Program in Health & Human Rights. The GAC
approved the proposal contingent upon minor modifications.
GOV (Governance Council) – Joette Stefl-Mabry, Chair
Nothing to report.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Elizabeth Gaffney, Chair
LISC committees are set up. The Library Committee has held its first meeting and had a briefing on the
Institutional Digital Repository which is being developed by the Library. Further information will be
presented at a December 18 committee meeting. The IT committee is working on selecting a chair.
LISC held a meeting on November 25. Chris Haile provided information about the history of wireless
connectivity in the Academic areas and plans for steps to improve the current service.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – Richard Fogarty, Chair
The council has approved and is introducing two pieces of legislation to the Senate: a proposal to
discontinue the current Faculty-Initiated Interdisciplinary Major (BA) in Informatics and in its place
implement a new, fully-registered major in Informatics (BS); and a proposal to create a major in Digital
Forensics (BS). In other business, the council also approved a revision of the Faculty-Initiated
Interdisciplinary Major (BS) in Financial Market Regulation. Additionally, UAC has approved a change
to the academic regulation pertaining to undergraduate declaration of major. Students are now advised to
declare a major by the time they have earned 56 credits (junior status), rather than required to declare a
major by the time they have earned 42 credits, a requirement previously stipulated in the Undergraduate
Bulletin.
ULC (University Life Council) –Michael Jaromin, Chair
At the November 25th ULC meeting we hosted Charlie Voelker from Athletics and Stephen Pearse from
UAS who informed the committee on recent developments in their areas respectively.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) –Andi Lyons, Chair
UPPC met on Friday, November 22. The Provost presented UPPC with some draft documents for review
and input, as the START-UP NY Program Plan nears initial completion. We reviewed and approved
proposals for two new degree programs, Informatics (BS) and Digital Forensics (BS), from the resource
allocation/campus impact perspective. Additionally, Karen Chico-Hurst presented the current draft
versions of the proposed 2015-16 academic calendar for UPPC’s review and discussion. The Council’s
next meeting is scheduled for Friday, December 13, at 1pm.
NEW BUSINESS
Bill 1314-01: Proposal to Create a Bachelor of Science Degree in Informatics (UAC)
UAC Chair Fogarty introduced the bill which the faculty initiated interdisciplinary and transforms it
become a registered major from a BA to a BS. Chair Fogarty was not sure if INF 451 was cross based
with Physics but the Physics Department chair supports the proposal.
Chair Fogarty responded to a question about other science courses that are part of the major. He said
there are probably some computer science courses as well as Physics 451. One computer science course
is required for all students with the possibility of 6-7 science courses or credits.
A senator asked how many of the six new faculty positions were tenure track. Chair Fogarty responded
that that four of the seven positions are tenure track.
A motion to approve the bill was made and seconded. The bill was approved with the following voting
results: Approved: 37; Opposed: 4; Abstained: 3
Bill 1314-02: Proposal for Undergraduate Academic Programs Leading to the B.S. in Digital
Forensics (UAC)
UAC Chair Fogarty said the bill would create a new major for digital forensics in the School of Business.
The new program would offer the opportunity to grant degrees in high needs areas of a burgeoning field.
A motion to approve the bill was made and seconded. The bill was approved with the following voting
results: Approved: 29; Opposed: 8; Abstained: 7
Chair Wagner reviewed the dates of Senate meetings for the spring semester.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 3:25 pm.
Respectfully submitted by
Gail Cameron, Recorder
