College of Arts & Sciences
Council of Chairs
September 7, 2005
Campus Center – Terrace Lounge
2:45-4:00 p.m.
Present: E. Acosta-Belen, M. Alam, J. Altarriba, R. Barney (for S. North), I. Berger, C. Bose, E. Briere, J. Carson, J.
Collins, A. DeBlasi, K. Doolen, E. Gaffney, S. Galime, T. Harrison, V. Idone, M. Jerison, T. Lance, J. Mandle, M. Messitt,
A. Millis, J. Neely, C. Olsen, D. Parker, J. Pipkin, L. Schell, L. Slade, G. Stevens, H. Strother, R. Ward, J. Welch, J. WickPelletier, E. Wulfert
Welcome: Dean Wick-Pelletier welcomed new chairs: James Collins, Anthropology, Anthony DeBlasi, East Asian Studies,
Michael Jerison, Economics, and Stephen North, Interim, English (Richard Barney is filling in this afternoon, Mike Hill will
resume as Chair in 2006). Welcome also to continuing chairs whose terms have been renewed: JoAnne Carson, Art, Albert
Millis, Biology, Vincent Idone, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Elga Wulfert, Psychology. Welcome to Helen Strother,
CAS Computing and Christian Olsen, CAS Tech Services, professional representatives to council, and James Neely, Chair
Faculty Council. Attendees then introduced themselves.
Minutes: Christine Bose made a motion to accept the minutes of April 20, 2005, seconded by Leonard Slade and passed
unanimously.
Announcements:
Dean Wick-Pelletier thanked all Chairs for their good wishes while she was out on sick leave this summer and thanked the
College office staff for filling in, particularly Jeanette Altarriba and Larry Schell. The Dean also thanked acting chairs who
filled in while some of you were absent. Please pass along our gratitude for their work, especially at the end of August.
Compact Planning: The September 8th workshop begins sharply at 9 am and you should arrive early to register and for
refreshments. Every unit will be completing a compact plan, which will have to mesh with the College plan. We will come
up with a process to follow, and the Dean’s office will keep you informed. The Dean expects that much of the College’s
recent strategic plan will be applicable to this compact planning, and that the MOU’s could form part of the plan.
New Faculty Reception: October 11, 2005
Open House: Saturday, September 24 Thank you in advance for your participation in the Academic Fair. The open houses
are important recruiting activities.
College Dinner (Third Annual): October 26, 2005, Italian American Community Center. Phyllis Galembo, Department of
Art, has been invited to speak.
September 28: Susan Herbst will attend the September 28th Council of Chairs meeting. In addition, the Provost and
Executive Vice President (and Dean Wick-Pelletier) plan to attend department meetings with each CAS unit during academic
05-06. Please send Ruth (rg253@cas.albany.edu) dates, times, and locations of your department meetings, and she will work
with the Provost’s office to set up and confirm.
Discretionary: The discretionary process is underway. Teaching evaluations should be available (in department offices) for
reference. Faculty Activity Reports must be on file in the Dean’s office in order to be recommended for discretionary. Be
sure to consider interdisciplinary faculty members.
UAS Award: Applications due September 23, 2005.
CAS Fall Newsletter: Send news items and article ideas to Dona Parker as soon as possible. October 7 is the deadline.
CAS Departments: We now have 23 departments. Computer Science has moved to the College of Computing and
Information. Grants and enrollments reporting should note this (e.g., Computer Science and Applied Mathematics – should
now be counted to CAS.)
Display Case: Contact Ruth to get on the roster to display.
Request for Legislative Appropriations: The President’s Office will be submitting applications to lobby for government
funds. The applications are due on September 21, and they will be prioritized and sent on to the President’s office. Projects
that appeal to various legislators and their constituencies are the projects that usually receive funding. For example – Autism
has been awarded in the past, because many are served throughout the state. The University will pick from the list of
submissions to put forward to the legislature. Everything is eligible.
Research items: Notice of CAS Research Development Program – applications due October 10 to Dean’s office. Please
confirm your department research liaison, whether new or returning. If a faculty member receives grants that do not come
through Research Foundation, notify Lawrence Schell. There will be travel funds available for both fall and spring – check
the CAS website soon. If you have any questions regarding the Campus Impact Statements and if any part of it does not
make sense to you, please call or email Larry.
Jim Neely, Chair, Faculty Council: If any one has agenda items to include for the September 14 Faculty Council meeting,
let either Jim or the Dean know.
Enrollment:
Undergraduate: New data indicates that undergraduate enrollment has surpassed the goal in total and in each category,
except non-matriculated. As of September 7, there were 12,017 students enrolled, 260 students more than planned. With
cooperation of Departments and support from the Provost, new courses were added for transfers and freshmen, and stop
points were raised. The call for 8w2 (quarter) courses will go out soon. We will need more funding in order to serve the
growing the student population. Thank you for assisting in placing those displaced by hurricane Katrina.
Graduate: Total graduate enrollment for Arts and Sciences is down from 04-05, but we have 96.4% of our target (1422).
This is without Computer Science (down 36 students.) The Campus total is 99.4%.
One of the President’s messages is to put more focus on enrollment and targets, and he has hired a Vice President for
Enrollment, Wayne Locust.
Budget & Hiring:
There will be no permanent base cut to academic units in 05-06. We have to take a one time cut of $850,000 this year (about
2%). There will be another one time cut again next year, but no base budget cut this year or next. This has allowed us to go
forward with a hiring plan from existing resources. All recommendations were approved by Provost. Get your ads out as
soon as possible in order to recruit the best candidates. A call has not yet gone out for an IT search inquiry, but Dean WickPelletier will meet soon with Dean Bloniarz and discuss the IT Commons hires.
Budget News: The Judaic and East Asian departments now have full time secretary lines. An Assistant Dean (new position)
will be hired in the College to take care of the Dean’s overflow of work in addition to compact planning, which will be an
annual process.
Curricular Initiatives:
Honors: The CAS proposal moved on to governance committees in spring 2005 where a motion was passed, and it was
decided to hold off and look at how this plan would mesh with other University programs. A working group met through the
summer to discuss honors at the University and is in the process of developing recommendations at the University level.
Their goal is to develop recommendations at the University level. Committee members will be meeting with Provost Herbst
to discuss their findings. Dean Wick-Pelletier is optimistic that an honors college of some type will begin fall 2006. Part of
the committee’s discussion revolved around the role of department honors programs. Chairs should check in with honors
directors and see how they are doing. A call was made in spring 2005 for core courses. Some proposals are in, but
submissions are still welcome. Please send in courses for consideration, particularly interdisciplinary and general education.
Journalism: The Journalism proposal went through CAS and was approved last spring. UAC looked at it last week, and it
will be looked at by University Senate on September 12h or at the following meeting.
Film Studies: This proposal is in the final stages of revision.
Documentary Studies: Documentary Studies (and Film Studies) will begin as faculty initiated interdisciplinary majors.
Globalization Studies: The proposal will be sent to governance in mid-October. Consultations with departments last year
have been incorporated into program revisions.
Other Business:
Professor Briere inquired as to whether anyone has been affected by the closing of International House. Several departments
were effected in addition to LLC (Anthropology, English, Communication, Biology, and Physics) and are concerned there is
no housing to count on for academic exchanges.
Len Slade handed out posters of the Department of Africana Studies academic events.
Adjourned: 4:10 p.m.