UNIVERSITY POLICY AND PLANNING COUNCIL
2005-2006 Chair: Carolyn MacDonald
November 1, 2005
Meeting Minutes
Present:
J. Bartow, R. Bisbing, P. Bloniarz, T. Hoff, C. MacDonald, D. McCaffrey,
F. Henderson, W. Locust (for S. Herbst) S. Messner, M. Raider, B.
Weaver, E. Wulfert; J. Hanifin
Guest:
D. Dewar, R. Fortune, S. Mahan
Old Business:
MSW/MPH – A discussion was held regarding the School of Social Welfare proposal
addressing the fact that all courses in question are currently being taught and there are
two advisors very closely monitoring this program.
A motion was made by Tim Hoff to approve the MSW Program. The motion was
seconded and passed unanimously.
Judaic Studies BA/MBA – Discussion was held regarding Judaic Studies accelerated
program leading to MBA. Mark Raider explained that there are a number of students
whose home is Judaic studies but they are business majors. This proposal will allow
Judaic studies to be competitive and is also cost neutral since the courses and instructors
are already in place. There are some advisement issues but the Advisory Board for
Judaic Studies has raised funds and set up endowment fund to provide scholarship funds
and help offset these costs. BA leading directly to MBA, 31 credits of overlap just
between Judaic Studies and School of Business will attract high achieving students.
Mark Raider thanked John Levato for moving this along. A question was raised about
course descriptions. This program has gone through GAC and UAC and has been
approved.
How does this fit within overall University Mission – students interested in Judaic studies
as well as BA. Mark Raider responded that there is a pressing need in Judaic studies for
people with serious training in business to step into management positions and prepare
people to be responsible members of the business community when they leave UA.
David McCaffrey made a motion to approve the Judaic Studies/MBA program. The
motion was seconded by Timothy Hoff and passed unanimously.
The minutes of the last meeting were discussed briefly and there were some changes
noted. Minutes were accepted with recommended changes to be made.
Committee Reports:
University Facilities Committee: Jon Bartow – Facilities Comm. Has not met since last
UPC meeting. Should solicit items from council members to be attended to by
Committee. Information should be obtained from Administration re Space Master Plan
for University. Have someone from Administration come to Facilities Committee to
explain plan for major space changes – New Entry building and what ramifications of this
building going live might be. What units are moving and will this space become swing
space?
The University Space Committee exists – how is it constituted and how does it fit in with
governance facilities committee? A motion was made that this should be checked into.
The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Also any concerns of UPC that Facilities committee should look at should be e-mailed to
Carolyn and/or Jon Bartow.
RAPC – Tim Hoff indicated that Kim Murray reported budget items that had been
brought to Senate Executive locking in context with all funds budget.
Bring up to UPC – It would be helpful to have input from UPC on what you would like
RAPC to focus on – some sense of how money flows in University – State Budget and
where it is as far as money coming in.
Another question is what should the committee be looking at as far as problems/issues for
discussion. Discussion – look at part-time service, temporary budget where all adjuncts
and temps are paid from.
If honor college is being mounted on temporary budget, when moves to improve increase
for faculty lines is made, it this noted into temporary budget?
A question was raised as to what is the mission of RAPC? Do they oversee the
availability of money to finance programs? Tim Hoff feels sub-committee best served to
focus on individual issue that can look at priorities 2-3- or 4 things that relate to resources
used or areas where resources may not be adequate – are there more programs being
monitored from funds like this? Is this bad or good?
Carolyn – Previously there was a long range planning committee replaced by URPAC –
advisory committee is playing a large role. This funding is handled differently from
school to school.
Investment Committee -- Can we enhance awareness of these committees and the role
they play at the University?
Carolyn – Having a focused plan on what these committees are going to do to as a byproduce and provide useful information to administration.
S. Messner – Senior Administration is currently learning about governance structure at
the University. Be proactive and bring it to their attention. RAPC members before next
UPC should e-mail Tim Hoff issues to bring to UPC.
A meeting should be scheduled with Administration and let them know who we are.
Jill Hanifin – Task force with Albany High School work is on going.
Student Satisfaction Survey – Elga Wulfert
It is surprising to see that 98% of task force recognized that there are problems and it
appears that many (50%) have been implemented and others are still on the table. Some
are to do with faculty/student interaction – how faculty deal with student teaching. A
discussion was held regarding some of these issues and one of the issues is academic
freedom and a definition of academic freedom and rights of responsibility. The question
is what can be done about this. An item needs to be put on the agenda. Elga feels that a
sub-committee should be created and the Senate should charge them to look into this and
get reactions from the President, Provost and members of UPC. Whatever we do we
need the support of Administration.
Tim Hoff – this is very fine piece of work and was certainly impressive. Feels
information is consistent and reliable. Results are not surprising – do students get enough
feedback? Are they satisfied? Do we give them what they want? As you deal with
student complaints and interact with faculty you need to hold others responsible.
After further discussion Elga referred membership to page 2 of the report. A suggestion
was then made that this be a major item for discussion at the next meeting.
Honor College Proposal:
A discussion was held re questions in the minutes from the last meeting. Wayne Locust,
Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, gave general observation to think and
deliberate about. Honors attract best and brightest students. At Albany the best and
brightest are the Presidential Scholars. Our problem is we do not have enough top tier
students and we have to work on programs to attract this type of student. The mean for
our freshman students has slipped by 20 points in one year.
We want UA to be first option for best and brightest students and we need to put
programs together that students will look at more seriously. We need to be out there with
scholarships, etc. We do not want to bring up the rear in SUNY Centers .
Sue Faerman – There are two issues
1. What we have and why it is not getting us what we need
2. What we don’t have – lack of ability to put forth to students what we do have. We do
have elements of what is attractive but because it is not in the language they don’t
hear it.
Discussion needs to center around how to implement this and do it correctly. Need to
list things that we want for Honors College.
Budget inadequate – needs commitment of resources to give everyone sense of security
that this is going to work
Need to work with Vice President Read to bring in funding. We have to offer the honors
programs before we can seek funding and find a way to make it a possibility for
departments to do this.
Carolyn – Am I hearing a recommendation from UPC that the budget be doubled?
Response: Look at the budget as funds come in then University Budget can decrease.
What is budget number? How can we make this happed? How can we adequately fund?
After a lengthy discussion regarding funding, scholarships, etc. a motion was made to
approve the honors college proposal. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
This will include a section re working with VP for Development for raising funding and
coordinating issues with the School of Business.
Meeting adjourned at 9:50 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Normajean Bennett