CAS COUNCIL OF CHAIRS
OCTOBER 22, 2003
2:30-3:30 P.M.
AS 122
Present: J. Altarriba, I. Berger, J. Carson, S. Chaiken, B. Daniel, K. Doolen, P. Ferlo, S.
Fessler, E. Gaffney, T. Gage, S. Galime, G. Griffiths, T. Harrison, R. Hoyt, V. Idone, T. Lance,
F. Leiva (for B. Nepaulsingh), M. Messitt, A. Millis, C. Murray, N. Murray, D. Parker, M. Pryse,
L. Slade, G. Stevens, R. Stump, A. Ungar (for B. Steinbock), R. Ward, J. Welch, J. WickPelletier, D. Wills, E. Wulfert
Recorder: R. Greenhouse
Minutes: The Dean asked for comments regarding the October 1, 2003 minutes. Leonard Slade
made a motion to accept, Kevin Doolen seconded the motion and the minutes were unanimously
accepted.
Business Arising: The Draft Strategic Plan moved on to Faculty Council at their meeting of
October 15, 2003. The discussion was interesting and productive. The Dean is still receiving
comments and suggestions from many people. The next steps are to incorporate any necessary
adjustments, send back to the Strategic Planning Committee for final wording, and forward on to
the Vice President.
Announcements: Thank you for your participation in Open House on Saturday, October 18th.
The CAS Dinner will be held on November 4 in the Patroon Room, and the rsvps are arriving.
The deadline to send in or drop off your payment is October 28. The main object of the CAS
Dinner is to gather so that colleagues can meet, mingle and enjoy the speaker. Guests are
welcome.
Associate Dean Larry Schell will be communicating again to remind those who have not let him
know the name of their department research coordinator.
All should have received notices regarding nominations of various University awards. A few
chairs mentioned that they have not received information regarding excellence awards. The
Dean would like to see more Excellence Awards go to CAS faculty and staff. Please nominate
colleagues in your units so that more CAS people will be in line for distinguished awards.
Excellence Award Nomination deadline is November 3. Distinguished Award nominations can
be made at any time--in confidentiality--beginning with a letter of nomination to the Dean. A
diagram would be useful to clarify the names, prerequisites and nomination requirements of the
various University awards.
All instructors should have information regarding teaching evaluation forms, so that they
understand the criteria by which they will be evaluated.
Peoplesoft Reminder that from now on all faculty will be posting grades via the Internet–no
more bubble sheets. Greg and Steve are planning to hold demonstrations to assist faculty in
learning to use this mode. Many Chairs expressed that grade posting for large sections is very
time consuming. It was pointed out that teaching assistants can post grades if they are included
as instructors of record. There are some short cuts available and these will be demonstrated, so
please encourage your faculty to become informed and trained. One chair pointed out that SKNs
are available on IAS only. Departments must generate their own SKNs. Please email Peoplesoft
issues to Steve or Greg so that problems can be brought up at IAS meetings.
Summer Sessions materials were handed out to departments who participate. The Summer 2004
allocations are not yet available. Gregory Stevens told Chairs to assume a funding level similar
to last year’s. Summer money supports summer sessions and general studies with the balance
going into Academic Affairs’ general operating budget.
Undergraduate Research The Dean received a conference announcement—18th National
Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR 2004), Indianapolis, April 15-17, 2004. The
deadline for proposals is November 28, 2003. If you wish additional information, please check
with Associate Dean Jeanette Altarriba.
Outlook Dean Wick-Pelletier is concerned about the fact that about half of the Chairs do not
use Outlook for calendaring purposes. She is pleading and encouraging all Chairs to use
Outlook. CAS Computing will support setting up all those Chairs who are not yet on it.
Outlook can be run from home computer (the screen looks the same) and you can access all
folders. Archiving helps with storing emails if you run out of room.
Some present suggested that CAS Computing come up with a solution so that Chairs could use
Outlook for calendaring and another system for email.
IT Commons:
Peter Bloniarz was unable to attend today’s meeting. The IT Commons document was passed
out to Chairs to look at, and the Dean encouraged all to read it. Dr. Bloniarz will explain and
discuss this subject at another Chairs meeting.
Other Business: There have been a number of requests from faculty members for extensions to
the tenure clock. As a new Dean, she was not familiar with the practice here at the University at
Albany. Dean Wick-Pelletier has been supporting requests because the Chairs have been
supportive. However, the Dean would prefer to establish some criteria that can be used as a
guide in responding to these requests. Some claim a need for more time due to administrative
commitments. This leads to the question of whether untenured people are being asked to provide
too much service. It was pointed out that Chairs should protect their assistant professors from
administrative commitments whenever possible in order to prevent overload. Assistant
Professors should generally be encouraged to research and teach. One chair pointed out that for
women, the biological clock and tenure clock are occurring at the same time. In summary, at
least two specific items should be considered in the guidelines for extension to the tenure clock:
extraordinary administrative duties and pregnancy. Understaffing may be the source of need for
using junior faculty for administrative positions. The College should lobby for more faculty
replacements. Guidelines must be made to deal fairly with junior faculty and the issue of
stopping of the clock. Concern was expressed that although we have the same criteria as a Tier 1
University, the teaching course load is higher than many other institutions--expectations are
higher without less time commitment required. The Drescher Award is a competitive program
(no guarantee) sponsored by UUP for women and minorities and was set up to address specific
problems, but since there is currently no contract, there is no Drescher Award program at this
time. Some new hires negotiate for lower caseloads to ensure being able to focus more on
research and publishing.
Dean Wick-Pelletier will formulate guidelines and share with the Promotion and Tenure
Committee and CPCA. She will continue to emphasize to the Vice President how important
hires are. There is a very diverse group of departments in the College with unique situations.
Even with guidelines, case-by-case consideration may still be required.
Adjourned at: 3:35 PM