College of Arts and Sciences
Council of Chairs
March 1, 2006
2:30 – 4:00 pm
AS 122
Present: S. Alam, J. Altarriba, I. Berger, C. Bose, J. Carson, J. Collins, J. K. Doolen, E. Gaffney, S. Galime, G.
Griffith (for E. Acosta-Belen), V. Idone, M. Jerison, T. Lance, J. Mandle, M. Messitt, A. Millis, J. Neely, S. North,
C. Olsen, D. Parker, L. Schell, L. Slade, G. Stevens, H. Strother, R. Ward, J. Welch, M. Winn, E. Wulfert, A. Zak,
Recorder: K. Gersowitz
Guest: Professor Marjorie Pryse, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
Associate Dean Jeanette Altaribba presided in Dean Wick-Pelletier’s absence due to illness.
Minutes: Professor Doolen made a motion to accept the minutes of February 8, 2006, seconded by Professor Slade,
and passed unanimously.
Announcements: Associate Dean Altaribba reminded everyone that it was the time of the year when there are
many ceremony and award deadlines fast approaching. She thanked all the individuals who participated in events
such as the Presidential Scholars program held earlier that day. She stressed that it was important for Departments
and for CAS to have a presence at these events. Although most departments have identified individuals to
participate in upcoming programs, a few have not, and she urged those departments to contact Cindy Endres with
names as soon as possible.
Dates for upcoming events:
March 9 – Freshman Focus
March 15 – Presidential Scholars Luncheon
April 1 – Open House for accepted students
April 22 – Open House for accepted students
Associate Dean Altaribba reminded everyone that April 1 was the deadline for all departments who were giving
graduate named scholarships to get their information into the commencement program. We should try very hard
not to have the name of an award without the name of a recipient. It was noted that this is impossible in some cases,
for example, when an event such as an undergraduate symposium has yet to take place. Assistant Dean Dona Parker
suggested that we share this information about timing issues with the folks working on commencement.
A reminder was made about the Professor of the Year award. This is a good opportunity for our faculty to gain
national recognition. We would like to have any nominations from CAS in the Dean’s office by April 10. If you
have any questions, please contact Assistant Dean Kathy Gersowitz.
The deadline for nominations for the Dean’s Award for Teaching is this Friday, March 3. Please forward any
nominations to Associate Dean Altaribba.
The Third Annual University Honors Conference hosted by the Undergraduate Studies Office will be held April
27 and 28. March 1 is the deadline for any research proposal. (Chairs just received call for nominations so we
assume that the deadline is flexible). Contact is mt4980@albany.edu.
March 17 is the deadline for nominations for the Presidential Award for Undergraduate Research. Please send
nominations to Assistant Dean Parker. The Dean’s office will review and the nominations will then be sent to the
VP for Research.
Survey administration in classrooms will be taking place the week of March 27th. Two surveys will be
administered. The first is the SUNY Student Opinion Survey; the second is the National College Health Assessment
Survey. They will take approximately 15-20 minutes to administer. If you have any questions, please contact Bruce
Szelest.
Faculty are encouraged to add themselves to the list of University faculty experts. There is an online form at
www.albany.edu/news.
The Alumni Association is looking for nominations to serve on their Board of Directors. If you have any
suggestions, please forward to Assistant Dean Gersowitz.
Assistant Dean Steve Galime spoke about the 06-07 budget process which has begun. On April 12th the Dean will
be meeting with the Provost and VP for Finance Lowery to discuss the budget. Assistant Dean Galime will be
sending out a template to departments and will work with department budget managers. He feels that this year’s
discussions will likely focus on how the College is using all of its assets, including IFR reserves. Assistant Dean
Elizabeth Gaffney noted that space issues are also on the agenda, and departments will be contacted if necessary.
The 3-2-2 Term Renewal Policy is now on the CAS website and chairs were encouraged to share it with their
faculty. It was clarified that this is a CAS Policy.
Business Arising:
Assistant Dean Greg Stevens shared with the group that an emergency meeting had been called for 3/2 because 30
fall classes do not have rooms. All the Tuesday /Thursdays slots are full. Some courses will have to be rearranged.
If there were any ideas for criteria for how to determine which classes should be rescheduled, chairs were asked to
contact Assistant Dean Stevens prior to his meeting. Assistant Dean Gaffney added that if you have a departmental
classroom holding more than 30, it might be looked at as part of the solution to this problem.
CAS Computing: - Helen Strother, Director of CAS Computing, provided an overview of CAS Computing and the
services they provide. She displayed the new website (http://cascomp.albany.edu) and navigated through it. She
noted:

CAS Computing should be our first line of computer support. Contact CAS Computing first, unless it is an
after hours emergency, then call ITS.

E-mail is the best way to contact them; it provides a record of the request.
cascomp@albany.edu.

Chairs should have their new faculty contact CAS Computing directly to get them set-up. The earlier the
better, toward the beginning of the semester they are very busy.

ITS provides wireless Internet access outside, in the Campus Center, and in the libraries. Rogue wireless
points set-up by some departments are a security risk. If you want to purchase one for your department,
please refer to the CAS Computing website.

Keyserver License Agreements are available on some software. This will allow you to install software on
many computers, but purchase a smaller number of licenses. For more information contact CAS
Computing.

The FAQ section of the website is a good resource.
Academic Analytics/Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index: - Professor Marjorie Pryce, Interim Dean of Graduate
Studies was welcomed. To begin the discussion of the recent Academic Analytics (AA) Faculty Scholarly
Productivity Index, Associate Dean Altaribba noted that the chairs have received information specific to their
departments. Dean Wick-Pelletier has expressed that these reports are not meant to embarrass any one department,
but they are important because the administration will be looking at them closely, and in all likelihood may impact
future decisions, including compact planning. For many areas the number of faculty considered appears not to have
been completely accurate, and how the data were collected has been also questioned. However, with that said, it is
still valuable overall information. If Academic Analytics (AA) is used again, accuracy of data will be addressed.
Dean Pryse noted that the data used came from faculty lists the departments reviewed in the fall. She worked with
doctoral program directors and from her perspective, faculty lists are accurate. It was noted that Chairs should be
sure to refer to the second faculty listing that was sent by the Dean’s office. She explained that AA is a new service
combining three units:
1.
Lawrence Martin, Stony Brook, NRC Methodology Committee, normed the data
2.
Scopus – tracks national citations
3.
GradsSchools.com – this is where the original lists came from
Concerns raised by faculty:
 Faculty lists were incorrect - when departments were asked to review lists this past fall, they did not know
what they would be used for. Many departments were concerned that emeritus faculty and post docs were
incorrectly included.

Department may have other funding sources (e.g., NOAA) or published in journals (e.g., international
journals) that were not used by AA in their analysis.

AA findings disagreed with sources that were known and trusted within the department and discipline.

Questions arose about how this report will influence compact planning and future campus decisions,
particularly for departments that do not have doctoral programs or have not fared well in this report.
Points made by Dean Pryse:
 It is important to note that she is working with AA to make this a better tool. Please forward to her any
suggestions you might have (e.g., additional funding sources that should be considered.)

We may receive faculty lists for next year’s study to review as early as the end of this semester. We will
now have the opportunity to review these lists with a much better understanding of how they will be used.

NRC rankings may take quite some time to appear, and it was felt that AA provided a quicker way to gauge
the relative impact of the departments. The AA study cost the University $10,000, NRC costs $20,000.
Dean Pryse noted that if we had not participated, our numbers would still be collected and used by other
institutions.

Please note, the data from other institutions should not be circulated or publicized. It is for internal use
only.

Difficulties experienced by our departments are being faced by comparable departments across the country.

This first study is meant to be used by the Deans as a baseline.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 pm.