College of Arts and Sciences Council of Chairs February 1, 2012 2:30 p.m., AS 122 Meeting Minutes Present: J. Altarriba, A. Broadwell, A. Byon, E. Gaffney, S. Galime, K. Gersowitz (recorder), A. Golden, D. Goodwin, R. Hamm, C. Henck, M. Hill, R. Hoyt, T. Kinal, R. Lachmann, M. Lifchitz, A. Lyons, C. MacDonald, J. Mandle, M. Messitt, V. Ng, L. Niu, J. Pipkin, R. Rosellini, L. Sayahi, M. Schiro, C. Smith, G. Stevens, M. Sutherland, C. Thorncroft, E. Wulfert, K. Zhu, R. Zitomer. Guests: Sue Freed, Director of Advisement Services, Barbara Brown, Academic Advisor, Coordinator of Advising PLUS Introductory Remarks: Dean Wulfert called the meeting to order at 2:35 p.m. Minutes of December 7, 2011: A motion to approve the minutes was made by R. Zitomer, seconded by R. Rosellini. The meeting minutes for December 7, 2011 were unanimously approved. Announcements: Fall 2012 scheduling in PeopleSoft was to be completed by departments by 1/30/12. Teaching Templates were also due by 1/30/12. (Dean’s office review is February 1-10.) Conference Support Award application materials due to Department Chair by 2/3/12 for the spring round of competition. (For more details: www.albany.edu/research/Forms/Conference.pdf) Journal Support Award application materials due to Department Chair by 2/3/12 for the spring round of competition. (For more details: www.albany.edu/research/Forms/Journal.doc) UAlbany Advocacy Day is 2/6/12 on the North Concourse of the Empire State Plaza. The Dean encouraged the Chairs to attend, particularly the rally that will be held at the end of the day. CAS Conference Travel Fund Program applications due 2/27/12 (AS-217, original plus 3 copies) (http://www.albany.edu/cas/nav_cas_information_for_faculty_and_staff.shtml) Nominations for President's Award for Undergraduate Research are due 3/1/12 (Cindy Endres, AS 217) The date by which candidates must notify Chair and Dean of Request for consideration for promotion or early tenure decision for fall 12 review is 3/1/12 FRAP B Applications due 3/9/12 (AS-217, original plus 10 copies) (http://www.albany.edu/research/Forms/FRAP.pdf) Sabbatical reports for Fall 2011 are due 3/15/12 (faculty should send via email to Steve Galime at sgalime@albany.edu with copy to Department Chair) Spring Tenure-track faculty renewals due to Dean's office 3/9/12 (to Steve Galime, AS-217) 2012-13 Council of Chairs Retreat is Wednesday, 8/22/12, 8:30-4:30 p.m., Alumni House Faculty Participation Requested: Thank you to all who made December commencement a success! Academic/Student Services Fair and Scholars Luncheons for admitted Presidential and Frederick Douglass Scholars are 3/1/12 and 3/8/12 from 10-10:45 a.m. (Academic Fair-UNH Atrium) and 11:45 a.m. (Luncheon-CC Ballroom). Please provide name of department representative at Academic Fair to Cindy Endres by 2/15/12. Current Departments needed: ANT, ATM, BIO, CHM, COM, ECO, ENG, HIS, LLC, MAT, MUS, PHY, PSY, SOC). Luncheon RSVPs to Jaclyn Napoleon, Undergraduate Admissions (jnapoleon@albany.edu or 2-5435) Closer Look Admitted Diversity Student Open House is 3/31/12 (change from previously announced date of 3/24/12), 10:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. in the LC Concourse/Campus Center—contact Hank Shuford, Undergraduate Admissions (Hshuford@albany.edu or 6-8204) Open Houses for Accepted Students are 4/14/12 and 4/15/12 (send name of department representative to Cindy Endres at cendres@albany.edu by 3/28/12) Faculty Phone Call Program to Admitted Students – Dean Wulfert was recently contacted by Robert Andrea, Director of Admissions, about the faculty phone call program to admitted students. This program is an important part of recruitment efforts to attract the best students to our programs, which will be particularly important as we admit more undergraduate students as part of the UAlbany 2020 Impact Initiative. This year students will “vet” 2 the applicants and faculty will only be asked to call those students who have indicated that they could like to speak with a faculty member. The Dean asked the Chairs to encourage faculty participation in this program. Old Business: Dean Wulfert provided an update on the faculty diversity program. Although SUNY will provide at most two lines, the Provost has authorized six offers. As of this date, three applicants (AAS, ATM, LACS) have accepted. As a member of the University’s Diversity Committee, she reported that plans are underway to bring a consultant to campus to advise us on recruitment strategies to attract a diverse pool of excellent candidates. New Business: Advising PLUS S. Freed, Director of Advisement Services and B. Brown, Academic Advisor and Coordinator of the new Advising PLUS Program, joined the Council of Chairs meeting. Advising PLUS was launched this semester to help meet the needs of anyone, including faculty, who are advising undergraduate students. Advising PLUS will provide a central location to access information on the many services available to students on campus. A key component of Advising PLUS is that faculty will now be able to call B. Brown directly with any questions that might come up. For example, a faculty advisor might wish to recommend that a student take advantage of a particular service the University offers (e.g., counseling, tutoring, skills building) but does not know how to facilitate the connection for the student. Through Advising PLUS, faculty can call B. Brown directly and she will either provide the appropriate contact information or the faculty member can give the name of the student to B. Brown. Either way, B. Brown will follow up to be sure the student has received the information he/she needs. S. Freed noted that the University’s Strategic Plan highlights the importance of advising. The Advising PLUS concept is also in-line with the Provost’s concept of a virtual “Main Street” where information is made easily accessible to students. In addition, five Advising PLUS groups have been established to assist students with general academic needs as well as provide support for students enrolled in specific classes. Transfer advising can prove to be very challenging for faculty noted A. Broadwell, and having a dedicated person to call when questions arise will be helpful to faculty. The question of B. Brown’s availability during busy times came up and it was noted that she currently is the only person assigned to Advising PLUS, but that there will be others providing backup for her. T. Kinal noted that a FAQ page on the program’s website would be helpful for faculty as well. K. Zhu suggested that if there was one page where forms could be downloaded that too would be helpful. J. Mandle noted the difficulty in advising double majors. R. Lachmann commented that this is particularly difficult when advising for a major outside of CAS. Questions often arise about restricted majors. R. Zitomer noted a similar problem with transfer students who often arrive on this campus without the necessary prerequisites to begin the major. Transfer students admitted in the spring are also out of sequence. It is important that students be informed of these issues before entering the University. G. Stevens noted that efforts should be made to retain students so that it is not necessary to bring in such large transfer classes each Spring. UAlbany 2020 Impact Initiative Dean Wulfert noted that she has heard that the University-wide Chairs’ Group, coordinated by R. Hamm, has plans to craft a letter to the Provost requesting that hires that support the need for repairs in certain areas be considered as part of the 2020 Impact Initiative; Chairs argue that by not supporting repair lines we are leaving holes in our foundation that impact the core mission of the University. Dean Wulfert noted that she thought it was unlikely that the 2020 ground rules, with the focus on enrollment growth and increasing the University’s research portfolio, would change. However, she agreed that repairs were necessary. They would likely come from the Deans’ faculty hiring plans financed through turnovers as well as from the pool of Centrally Allocated Resources (CAR) that the Provost keeps from every line and one might make the argument for these resources. The Dean reported that the College will also put in a request for 2020 lines based on increasing enrollments and the significant impact this will have because CAS provides approximately 76% of the instruction for all undergraduate students plus 90% of the Gen Ed instruction. The CAS Dean’s office will develop a proposal based on where we project the largest increases in enrollment will fall. The proposal will request a mix of tenure-track faculty positions, lecturers 3 and VAPs, post-doc positions in the Humanities, and adjunct instructor resources. It was noted that projecting where the increases will be most pronounced is complicated by the proposed change to the General Education requirements. We will ask IRPE to provide the data that will assist us in looking at these trends in the broad categories of the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and arts. R. Lachmann raised the question that in addition to trends we need to understand where the lowest performing students might want to major. R. Hamm noted that faculty losses also have an impact on enrollments. Dean Wulfert will send out benchmarking data to the Chairs to be used in developing the 2020 proposals. Job offers S. Galime thanked those Chairs involved in searches this semester for their assistance in seeing that the searches ran as smoothly as possible. He emphasized the importance of Chairs not making any statements to job candidates that go beyond what a Chair is authorized to do. For example, Chairs should not make promises they do not have the power to enforce or promise that prior service would count towards the tenure timeline. Instead, in the latter case the existing official mechanism should be engaged that allows up to three years of prior service to be counted if a Candidate wishes to do this. It is best to refer Candidates to the relevant policies. S. Galime noted that all new appointment letters include a clause noting that any previous communications are superseded by the appointment letter. From a legal perspective, it is best to avoid operating outside of one’s role because in such circumstances the University might not be bound to represent the individual. The meeting was adjourned at 4:10 pm. Handouts: Agenda Minutes of December 7, 2011 meeting Advising PLUS Group Schedule