CAS Council of Chairs
December 17, 2003
2:30-4:00 p.m.
AS 122
Present: S. Alam, J. Altarriba, I. Berger, S. Chaiken, B. Daniel, K. Doolen, P. Ferlo, S. Fessler,
E. Gaffney, T. Gage, S. Galime, T. Harrison, R. Hoyt, V. Idone, J. Mainwaring (for T. Lance),
M. Messitt, A. Millis, C. Murray, N. Murray, C. Nepaulsingh, M. Pryse, M. Raider, L. Schell, L. Slade,
B.Steinbock, G. Stevens, R. Stump, R. Ward, J. Welch, J. Wick-Pelletier, D. Wills, E. Wulfert
Guests: C. Haile, C. Herman
Recorder: R. Greenhouse
Minutes: Dean Wick-Pelletier called for comments or corrections to the minutes of November 19, 2003. A
motion to accept was made by Leonard Slade, seconded by Neil Murray, and passed unanimously.
Business Arising:
The Dean brought Chairs’ concern regarding TOP spousal hiring to Provost Santiago, and he agreed that the
number of TOP candidates would not be affected.
Christine Haile, Chief Information Officer
Chris Haile spoke about her three diverse roles with respect to PeopleSoft: 1) member of the steering committee, 2)
CIO with responsibility for implementation, and 3) co-chair with Sheila Mahan on the Academic Transition Team.
The six-month anniversary of the PeopleSoft implementation has just passed, and she reminded everyone that it has
taken a great deal of effort to learn this new system. (SI RS was used for 20 years). Questions and feedback are
welcome on grading and usage of the new system. Her office will assist to arrange training, even one-on-one, in
order to deal with specific problem areas. Contact Marybeth Salmon at 74530 or Msalmon@uamail.albany.edu.
Beginning in January, the user group meetings will be run by the Registrar’s Office. Grading sessions on
PeopleSoft are scheduled to offer support for instructors. Susanna Fessler was thanked for the “cheat sheet” she
provided the user groups. The Financial Aid function will go into effect for the 2004-2005 year, and Student
Accounts will follow. Several Chairs inquired about the status of a manual and were told that the transition team
has worked with the Registrar to provide a calendar format tagging things that need to be done month-by-month. A
question was raised, in relation to response time issues, about whether there will be a server upgrade. Fixes and
patches have been applied that have solved most, if not all, of the response time issues reported a month ago, and
the capacity of server seems to be adequate. There is concern that there may not be enough feedback about what
the system does not do or what it should be able to do (high end users) to answer faculty questions. It was suggested
that a faculty committee be formed to bring these types of issues to the transition committee. Other chair concerns
are at department level – a lot of tasks and responsibilities now fall to the department that used to be done by other
offices, in particular the Registrar. Several tasks do not seem doable with PeopleSoft: saving advance registration
seats for majors; instructors’ names and call #s not listed, seniors not restricted from registering for 100-level
courses. Some issues may be covered by PeopleSoft functions that have not yet been activated, and many issues
may have to be dealt with in a customized manner. PeopleSoft actually gives the department more opportunity to
have direct access to information and formats. Two issues were brought up: 1) response time--College-wide faculty
and staff are spending a lot of time waiting for a response; and 2) off-line vs. on-line data entry. The goal is to
provide a more speedy way to record grades. This is being worked on and faculty concerns are being
acknowledged. The initial response time for grading modifications has already been made – grades can now be
entered all at once instead of waiting for verification after each entry. Dean Wick-Pelletier thanked Christine Haile
for coming to discuss PeopleSoft.
Announcements:
Dean Wick-Pelletier thanked Chairs in advance for providing department contact persons for possible missing
and/or late grades.
Alumni Association Awards: Deadline is December 31, 2003; letter by nominator; 2-3 supporting letters; c.v. or
summary of accomplishments.
Training sessions for PeopleSoft: January 7 at 10 a.m. (location to be determined) and January 14 time and place to
be announced.
Catherine Herman – Maximizing College-Based Communication
Associate Vice President Herman came to meet chairs and find out first hand what is going on in the College. The
Office of Media and Marketing publishes The Update, which is sent to faculty, staff and a very few “friends of the
University”. Today at UA provides internal announcements on a day-to-day basis. The University website has
many audiences and is a strong recruitment tool and is used to communicate information to students, faculty, and
staff. Her office welcomes story ideas. Recently there were articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the
New York Times about the Technology Plays. Grants aren’t so newsworthy, but the work that the grant will do is
notable. Cathy stated that the best stories come from personal experience, and her office welcomes direct
communications from faculty. The Arts in general are not promoted fully--Media and Marketing is willing to plan
events that would involve students, faculty, staff and community. Please contact Carol Flax
(cflax@uamail.albany.edu) to let her know of events, speakers, etc.
Prospective donors and donors that have been close to the President may be affected by her departure. The advice
to those who deal with donors is to state that it’s the University campaign. A one-page reference statement to
assist with communicating to donors regarding the President’s leaving will be provided.
Cathy would like to have more routine communication with Chairs and faculty. The Dean thanked Catherine
Herman for attending and sharing valuable information.
Announcements Continued:
January
During January each chair will meet with Dona, Greg, and Steve regarding teaching assistantships, scheduling, and
budget. The College still has a $1 million problem. Spend time thinking about the best way to schedule courses to
allow the maximum number of students to enroll.
Display Case
The display case outside the College Office is available for departments’ use to “show off”.
Compliance: Larry Schell
Thank you to all who have been diligent about reviewing your Campus Impact Statements--the return of indirect
costs has increased by 20%. There is a revised form on the web that should be used. Sometimes CAS receives
Campus Impact Statements that are not complete and this wastes time. Please ensure that all are complete before
forwarding to Dean’s office.
Stepping Down
Roger Stump is stepping down a Chair of GOG/PLN. The Dean thanked him for his work.
Strategic Plan
The Strategic Plan suggested a faculty initiated major in Globalization Studies. This came through a committee
that was formed long ago regarding sweatshop labor and seems to be timely idea. There are many existing
programs that would be connected to the creation of such a major, and most of the courses are probably in existence
in other programs. One chair protested, stating that it is a major that may only skim the surface and further
suggested that traditional majors be studied with a concentration or minor in Globalization Studies.
Other Business:
Dean’s Council Meeting 12/17/03 –
1. Affirmative Action. Student recruitment (graduate rules are decentralized). A draft has been created and
brought to UAC to review and then on to Senate for endorsement. The Dean will show all Chairs the draft
policy for review and discussion. (The Dean would like to know the process by which departments review
and accept students. There should be some CAS guidelines.)
2. Meredith Butler – SUNY will not renew its system-wide contract with Elsevier. She assured the deans that
needed journals would still be available. More details will be provided.
3. New Student Opinion Survey – 98% return on survey. The results will be shared prior to next Chairs
meeting (for discussion in order to find ways to improve our ratings.)
The Dean will request, from Institutional Research, comparative information of all university centers, in order to
see where the differences lie. One Chair stated that a composition requirement in the first year has been correlated
with student satisfaction with undergraduate education. Would the Dean and Undergraduate Dean work together to
create a writing requirement taught within disciplines other than English? Do other SUNY Centers have
composition requirements?
Dutchess County Community College (information is from S. Phillips, Dean, School of Education) DCCC wants to
diversity its faculty. They would be interested in hiring Ph.D. students or MA graduates.
Sue Faerman
The Undergraduate Studies office is working on development of a community and public service program where
students would get involved with community service and service learning projects. The Undergraduate Dean wants
to form a steering committee with members of CAS and other areas. If you know of anyone who would like to
serve on this committee, please let Dean Wick-Pelletier know, and be aware that Dean Faerman or Dean Katherine
Briar-Lawson may be in touch.
Strategic Plan actions will be discussed in January at first meeting of 2004--January 28.
Adjourned 4:15 pm