College of Arts and Sciences
Council of Chairs
February 18, 2004
2:30 – 4:00 P.M. AS 217
PRESENT : E. Acosta-Belen, S. Alam, J. Altarriba, I. Berger, J. Carson, S. Chaiken, L. Daley (for J. Welch), B.
Daniel, K. Doolen, P. Ferlo, S. Fessler, E. Gaffney, T.Gage, S. Galime, G. Griffiths, T. Harrison, R. Hoyt, V.
Idone, T. Lance, M. Messitt, A. Millis, C. Murray, N. Murray, D. Parker, M. Pryse, M. Raider, L. Schell, L.
Slade, C. Smith (for J. Pipkin), B. Steinbock, G. Stevens, R. Ward, J. Wick-Pelletier, D. Wills, E. Wulfert
Guests: J. Fetterley, B. Szelest Recorder: R. Greenhouse
MINUTES: Dean Wick-Pelletier called for comments or corrections to the minutes of January 28, 2004. A motion to accept was made by Leonard Slade, seconded by Russell Ward and passed unanimously.
BUSINESS ARISING: none
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Academic Fair sponsored by the Student Association is rescheduled to Tuesday, March 16, 2004. Please encourage your students to participate.
Job and Internship Expo is scheduled on Tuesday, March 2, 10 a.m.- 3 pm. in the Campus Center Ballroom.
All majors are welcome.
Presidential Scholars Visiting Days will take place on February 25 and March 10. The Dean encourages as much participation as possible.
JUDITH FETTERLEY (GENERAL EDUCATION):
Dr. Fetterley gave background information on the general education requirements as a follow up to the letter she and Dean Faerman recently sent to Chairs. The University at Albany Senate passed legislation in 2002 encompassing 1) how courses are proposed, reviewed, and accepted, 2) how courses are reviewed for continuing inclusion, and 3) assessment. The internal process has begun to assess general education courses that are currently on the books and to make sure they fulfill the new standards. Syllabi for all general education courses have been collected and reviewed in order to classify into the appropriate gen ed category. The letter also described the process, including a list of courses offered in the department, asking whether or not these courses are still active. The next part of the letter discussed certification of courses on the list. All courses in question are temporarily certified until assessments are complete. They are asking departments to assess their gen ed courses and bring all of them up to the new standards. Professor Fetterley expressed enthusiastic admiration for faculty who teach high quality undergraduate courses and then thanked Chairs for providing information to assist with this redefining of general education. She handed out a sample syllabi template to all present. Though a course does not necessarily have to be deactivated from the curriculum, if it is not being taught, it should be deleted from the gen ed list. It is better to have an accurate list available to undergraduate students in order to eliminate possible confusion and frustration. Learning objectives have been put together by
80 faculty and are available at the general education website. Feel free to contact Judith with any questions you may have.
BRUCE SZELEST (SOS):
Bruce began with a power point presentation showing various conclusions of the Student Opinion Survey. This survey was handed out randomly to a variety of undergraduate classes during spring 2003, making every effort to keep classroom intrusion to a minimum. The results of the survey are being shared to raise awareness.
There were 110 questions on the survey and the results are used to gauge student outcomes and satisfaction.
The respondents represent our undergraduate population with a 98% response rate on the surveys. The overall rating of the University experience showed that the academic segment met or exceeded expectations for 80% of the respondents. The satisfaction with the social experience indicated a 70% rating. The value of the assessment process was questioned. Are surveys broken out by race and gender? These factors can influence

the accuracy of survey answers. In response to this it was pointed out that when data is analyzed answers are broken down in various ways. Another questioned whether the survey took into account transfers and students who start as freshmen. The survey did not distinguish between these two undergraduate groups. Later in
Spring 2004 another survey will be conducted on-line with questions to look at students on entrance and exit.
Program assessment is an opportunity to add questions to the survey that may help gather information for review, which relates directly to learning outcomes. Feel free to contact Bruce with any questions.
ANNOUNCEMENTS (CONTINUED):
Sabbatical Reports: Please remind faculty in your departments to submit their sabbatical reports at the appropriate time, and tell those returning when their report is due. Chairs asked to be notified of due dates and
Steven Galime will check with Rod Mason to see if this is possible.
Promotions: The Dean asks that Chairs review the curriculum vitae of their faculty to see who would be eligible for full professorships and encourage those who qualify to apply for promotion.
Secretarial Workshop: The College will sponsor a Secretarial Workshop for all CAS support staff on April 6 th from 10:00 a.m-12:00 p.m., followed by lunch.
Conversations in the Disciplines: This is a competition to fund intercampus scholarly conferences. The deadline is April 1 st
. Details are available on SUNY Website.
Graduate Allocations: Dona will be sending out allocations for graduate support. Thank you for your time and cooperation in the meetings you have had with Dona, Greg, and Steve.
The graduate tuition increase has greatly increased the cost of funding our students on tuition scholarships.
Our allocation remains the same as in the past, since any extra revenue generated from tuition-paying students was used by the University to defray the 15% cut implemented by the government last summer. Thus, with the tuition increase, it has caused a shortfall of about $1M. The Dean has written to Provost Santiago to ask for special consideration of an increase in money for graduate support since the College of Arts and Sciences supports the majority of general education and requires a large number of TAs, but he responded by saying that there is no extra money. Departments will have to decide how to disperse their allocations – fewer students/higher stipends or more students/lower stipends.
ENROLLMENT:
Dean Wick-Pelletier began by stating that with some of the new masters programs and early advertising, if programs can attract 10 or more new self-pay students, we can probably balance our numbers, keep the numbers stable, and cope with the cuts in stipends.
Taking a look at campus-wide enrollment figures as of February 4, there are 243 fewer undergraduates registered in Spring 2004 than in Spring 2003 and 257 fewer graduate students for the same period with a campus total of 500 fewer. The enrollment numbers will increase in the next report, because many applications have not been processed due to a backlog in Graduate Admissions. Many programs are losing International students. Applications are down by about 1/3 across the country due to added restrictions. Grade point averages are going up on students being admitted.
DRAFT POLICY:
The draft policy on Joint Appointments will be covered at the next meeting on March 3, 2004.
OTHER BUSINESS:
Russ Ward would like to put forth the idea of reasonable accommodation for disabilities relative to office equipment. He has a faculty member who is no longer able to use the keyboard and needs a voice recognition system. The University should address this issue as a whole, and IT should be able to assist.
An unusual number of graduate students have been denied New York State residency. Dona Parker has called a meeting with department assistants and Barbara Bodner, Student Accounts, to have the process of residency explained and clarified.
Adjourned: 4:10 p.m.