Monday, November 29, 2010
3:30 PM
UNH 306
Present : J. Philippe Abraham, Tom Bessette, James Castracane, Susanna Fessler, Pradeep Haldar,
Laurence Kranich, Danielle Leonard, Eric Lifshin, JoAnne Malatesta, Richard Matyi, John
Monfasani, Heidi Nicholls, Susan Phillips, Michael Range, Daniel White
Guests : Robert Bangert-Drowns, Sue Faerman, Kathleen Gersowitz, Stephen North, Miriam Trementozzi
The meeting convened at 3:33 pm.
APPROVAL OF SEC MINUTES
The minutes of November 1 were approved.
Provost’s Report
(Susan Phillips)
SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT by ERIC LIFSHIN
Chair Lifshin reported that Secretary Bessette has received some replies in response to the e-mail sent to the campus community to recruit volunteers to serve on an ad hoc committee and for suggestions to address the budget crisis. The Chair proposed adding the suggestions to the Senate web page. SUNY Senator White referred to the UFS report and the meeting Chair Lifshin and SUNY Senators recently had with UFS President
Ken O’Brien. At that time, Mr. O’Brien informed them that SUNY Brockport has solicited comments for their campus and received a tremendous response. Chair Lifshin would like to tap in to a larger repository of suggestions and best practices.
OTHER REPORTS
SUNY SENATORS’ REPORT (J. PHILIPPE ABRAHAM, SHADI SHAHEDIPOUR-SANDVIK,
DANIEL WHITE)
The SUNY Senators and UAlbany Senate Chair, Eric Lifshin, met with University Faculty Senate (UFS) President Ken O’Brien on
Friday November 19 to speak about the role of the Senate as we face further budget and curricular challenges. The dialogue was fruitful. Dr. O’Brien indicated the approach taken by UAlbany’s administration in response to the budget cuts may be on the horizon for other SUNY institutions. In fact, we spoke about SUNY Geneseo’s President deactivating 3 academic programs as a cost saving measure. UFS President O’Brien (SUNY Brockport) has accepted an invitation from Eric Lifshin to come to one of our future
UAlbany Senate meetings to present his views of shared governance and answer questions about the SUNY system, the UFS, and the links between campuses. Dr. O’Brien is an historian who has co-edited the volume “SUNY at Sixty” which is a history and analysis of the SUNY system.

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Senator White distributed a draft of the minutes of the SUNY Faculty Senate Undergraduate Programs Committee meeting of November 20. The minutes were forwarded by Daniel Smith who is a member of the Committee. Senator
White pointed out two items in the report. The first item he referred to dealt with the cross-registration policy which
UAlbany has agreed to participate in. The second item dealt with a new form for academic program deactivations. The form has a sign-off that certifies faculty governance was appropriately consulted but lacks the BOT review and approval of the proposed action. Once all necessary approvals have been obtained, the Chancellor initiates removal of the program(s) from the SUNY IRPE Database and the SUNY Application Processing Center “Program Search”. The programs proposed for deactivation at UAlbany have already been removed without being subjected to all of the necessary approvals. He provided a screen shot showing “no curriculum information was found” for UAlbany’s Russian
Bachelor’s Program. This has been brought to the attention of the SUNY Provost and it appears the information may have been removed preemptively.
GSO (Graduate Student Organization) – Heidi Nicholls, GSO Representative
Nothing to report.
SA (Student Association) – Justin Wax Jacobs, President Student Association
Nothing to report.
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Richard Matyi, Chair
1. The CAA had its regular meeting on Wednesday, 11/17/2010. Significant agenda items included the following: a. Report by the Chair on the ongoing CAA/GAC/GOV interactions b. Discussion of upcoming Academic Program Review Committee actions, including a discussion of the wiki-based program review procedure to be implemented during this academic year. c. Discussion of aspects of the CAA charter modifications that were initiated during the 2009-10 academic year
2. A meeting was held with the Interim Chair of the General Education Assessment Committee and the Associate Dean for General
Education on Monday, 11/20/2010 to coordinate GEAC activities with developments in the UAlbany Gen Ed program.
3. The next meeting of the CAA is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, 12/8/2010.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility)
– Pradeep Haldar, Chair
Committee has reviewed updated CRR document. It now meets requirements and will be prepared to forward to Senate and President for approval.
Residential Hall workshops are scheduled for January to provide information to student staff about dealing with freedom of expression issues.
Committee is reviewing information to complete the SUNY Faculty Senate survey on ethics at the suggestion of Provost and Senate
Chair.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – John Monfasani, Chair
N/A
The Committee and Counsel’s Office have agreed on a document to move forward. Much of the document was written by
University Counsel John Reilly. Chair Monfasani identified a couple of areas that are problematic. The present policy states that allegations concerning misconduct do not get moved forwarded unless agreed upon by both the Vice President for Research (VPR) and the CERS Chair. Mr. Reilly has indicated that it should state that the VPR would consult with the
CERS Chairs. The Committee finds the language problematic that the VPR would make the decision. Mr. Reilly says it would infringe on the powers of the VPR to have the CERS Chair involved. Members of CERS believe it would be healthy to have additional inputs. UPPC Chair Range, also a member of CERS, said that the previous policy was vague on whether allegations would lead to an inquiry. When the current policy was created, both the CERS Chair and VPR had to be involved.
The second issue concerns confidentiality. In the present policy, the complainant cannot speak publicly once an investigation is in process and both Counsel and CERS agree that confidentiality should be maintained at that point.
However, members of CERS believe that the complainant should be able to speak after a decision has been made. Chair

Monfasani would like to have the document sent to the Senate at its next meeting December 13. SEC members approved of moving it to the Senate floor.
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COR (Council on Research) – James Castracane, Chair
Nothing to Report
Chair Castracane reported on the number of applications for faculty research awards. Only 18 applications were received for the FRAP A and only 13 were received for the Benevolent Awards. There has been a significant drop in applications over the past two years. The funding for each award has remained the same.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Vincent LaBella, Chair
CPCA has been having ongoing discussions regarding the tenure file preparation process. The discussions have centered on the letters from external reviewers. The council would like to emphasize that departments must strive to solicit letters from individuals who have no prior contact to the candidate no matter how casual this contact may seem. In addition departments should strive to solicit letters from full professors or equivalent rank. CPCA is planning to address these issues with all departments and academic units in the near future.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Laurence Kranich, Chair
At its meeting on November 19, GAC approved a revised proposal from the School of Business for a Graduate Certificate in
Information Security. The proposal had been approved previously by UPPC. The Council also approved a proposal from the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Economics for a combined BS-MA degree in Economics. This has yet to be considered by UAC.
Other actions of the Council include approval of a request by the School of Education Department of Educational & Counseling
Psychology to discontinue the professional teaching certification track within the Educational Psychology and Methodology MS program, approval of a request by the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Geography and Planning to revise the Master of
Regional Planning program, and consideration of a grievance before its Committee on Admissions and Academic Standing.
Chair Kranich reported that the combined BS-MA in Economics has not been reviewed by UPPC. The proposal does not involve new courses but still needs to be affirmed. UAC Chair Malatesta believes her council could review the proposal by next Wednesday. Chair Kranich would like it to be effective by fall 2011 and be able to start advising student in spring
2011. The approval to send the bill to the Senate will be discussed via e-mail.
GOV (Governance Council) – Susanna Fessler, Chair
GOV met on Friday, November 19th to begin discussion of the Evaluation of Administrators and Administrative Services and
Functions, pursuant to Senate Resolution 0910-02. In the spirit of the Middle States recommendation, it was agreed that the process was better characterized as an assessment, not an evaluation. GOV will invite assessment experts from campus to its next meeting to get advice on the scope and methodology of the assessment. Once these are decided, GOV plans to form an ad hoc committee which will write the actual assessment.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Shadi Shahedipour-Sandvik, Chair
LISC met on Monday Nov. 25th and that a report will be submitted next week
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – JoAnne Malatesta, Chair
The UAC continues to meet each Wednesday. There has been continued discussion about the use and retention of the Violation of
Academic Integrity Reports. The Council has agreed that it would be most productive to establish an ad hoc committee to review this policy and will be inviting the GAC to join this committee as it directly impacts both graduate and undergraduate students.
ULC (University Life Council) – Danielle Leonard, Chair
On Tuesday, November 9 th 2010 ULC invited members of the newly formed Veteran Education Team to discuss Veteran Services on campus. While there are many services in place now and more that we can expect to emerge in the near future, we heard concerns about the coordination of services and about a lack of awareness of veteran’s issues on the part of the campus community. In the coming weeks, ULC will consider how services might be better coordinated and awareness of veteran’s issues raised campus-wide.
ULC’s November 22 nd meeting was cancelled due to the fact that our scheduled guest, Professor of Health Policy Tim Hoff, was unable to attend. We will meet with Professor Hoff on December 8 th to continue our discussion of a mandatory health insurance policy for all UA students.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – R. Michael Range, Chair
The Council finalized its comments regarding the proposed program deactivations via e-mail. The next meeting is scheduled for
Friday, Dec. 3, 2010. One proposed agenda item will be a discussion of the UAlbany all-funds budget. The Chair has asked
President Philip that UPPC be provided with the relevant historical data.

NEW BUSINESS
Overview on Campus Committee on University-Community Engagement – Robert Bangert-Drowns and
Miriam Trementozzi, Co-Chairs (and working group chairs), along with Sue Faerman and Kathleen Gersowitz
(working group chairs).
Robert Bangert-Drowns, Dean of the School of Education made introduced Miriam Trementozzi, co-chair for
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University-Community Engagement (UCE) and the chairs of the working groups, Sue Faerman and Kathleen
Gersowitz. He said that UAlbany is very involved in UCE but there is a lack of coordination and a need for better communication. Co-Chair Trementozzi provided a history of UCE. The past three years have been very active system wide, with a growing awareness concerning UCE across the university and with our partnerships.
There has also been a growing awareness of UCE in higher education at both the state and the national levels.
The Steering Committee on Community Engagement was convened by President Philip and Provost Phillips in
May of 2008. The charge of the steering committee was to develop an action plan as well as a vision and mission statement. The committee adopted the Carnegies definition of UCE. Part of the action plan was to create a campus committee on UCE. Community Engagement became a strategic theme in the strategic planning process.
Dean Bangert-Drowns said their purpose for speaking to the Executive Committee was to provide information and invite Senate participation on the subcommittees. He identified the five subcommittees and briefly described what they do:

Community-Engaged Learning and Working Group, Sue Faerman, Chair: The group is focused on clarifying the definitions of what constitutes community-engaged learning; objective it to identify relevant courses at UAlbany.

Community-Engaged Scholarship Working Group, Philip Nasca, Chair: The group is exploring what constitutes high quality community-engaged scholarship. They are close to having a definition and are obtaining examples from the schools and colleges.

Cultural Events and Quality of Life, Kathleen Gersowitz, Chair: The group is focused on the Capital
Region community and is involved in documenting cultural event that UAlbany provides to the Capital
Region.

Assessment of UAlbany Community Engagement Working Group, Robert Bangert-Drowns, Chair: The group is identifying activities and determining the impact of those events on the community
 Education Pipeline (“Themed Project”) Working Group, Miriam Trementozzi, Chair: The idea behind this group is that the University can bring all parties together and be more connected. The group is currently focused on the educational pipeline. Chancellor Zimpher has taken a personal role in the effort.
Dean Bangert-Drowns said there are a number of senators on the committee. As the working groups have proceeded in their work, some of the conversations indicated there could be issues involving governance. The
Community-Engaged Learning Working Group could benefit from input from UAC and, Cultural Events and
Quality of Life Working Group could benefit from ULC’s input. The Community-Engaged Scholarship
Working Group might involve issues related to COR and the Assessment of UAlbany Community Engagement could benefit from CAA inputs. Chair Lifshin asked for an example of research relating to COR. Ms.
Trementozzi cited work to identify barriers to eliminating minority health disparities as one example. She said the School of Public Health is engaged in a lot of community based research.
Vice Provost Faerman said her Learning Working group is attempting to identify courses that could be classified as community engaged learning. She said both UAC and GAC could discuss strategies and suggest ways to increase capacity in certain areas, as well as create ways in which students would have links to

community engaged research. ULC Chair Leonard asked how links are created with campus activities and those outside of the campus. Dean Banger-Drowns said that documenting activities is an important part of the
5 process. Chair Lifshin thanked the guests for attending today’s meeting.
Report on General Education Task Force--Stephen North, Task Force Chair:
Chair Lifshin thanked Task Force Chair North for taking the time to provide a report to the Executive
Committee before it goes to the Senate.
Chair North provided the background of the formation of the task force, resulting from a Senate resolution passed last spring in response to changes in the general education requirements by the SUNY Board of Trustees.
The task force met in March and April to address the short term recommendations for incoming students for the fall 2010 term. Meetings continued after spring commencement to meet its greater charge of reviewing
UAlbany’s General Education Requirements. The task force agreed early in the process that this was an opportunity to provide something the entire campus community could embrace. Members of the task force strived to develop a general education (GE) program would be exemplary and to give it a UAlbany signature.
Among the goals of the task force were to streamline the program and remove bureaucratic stressors. They also worked to integrate the program more fully in undergraduate majors and to give it a developmental trajectory with both entry-level courses for first-year students which would include a guarantee for at least one small class in the first year. They worked to develop upper-division courses for juniors and seniors that would provide them access to the outstanding faculty across campus.
Chair North gave an overview of the program which has mandated courses in Mathematics and Statistics, as well as Writing in either Introduction to Writing or the First-Year Seminar. This makes the program totally consistent with the SUNY recommendations. He provided an overview of the flexible categories which meets the SUNY requirement for completion of 5 of an additional 8 categories in Art and Humanities, Social
Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Historical, Cultural and Regional Perspectives. The flexible categories would give students the guidance to explore these disciplines. There is not much change in the foreign language requirement. The perspective of the task force was that public higher education needs to preserve the opportunity to study foreign language. None of the courses in the proposal need to be recertified as general education.
UPPC Chair Range commended Chair North and the task force for their work and the results of that work. He inquired as to whether approval had come from SUNY Administration. Chair North replied that it wasn’t the position of the task force to obtain approval but they were fairly confident that the program reflects the spirit of the changes recommended by the SUNY BOT. The one potential wrinkle is the World Within Reach requirements which are upper division courses but the task force felt that upper division GE courses would be valuable. GAC Chair Kranich also commended the work of the task force. He said he believed that the program goes beyond the SUNY recommendations.
Chair North discussed the procedure for implementing the new program which would be the creation of an
Advisory Board. Such a board would complement current University Governance structures and institutionalize the campus to embrace the program. He hoped the proposal would go to the Senate with full consultation.
The Executive Committee took up the discussion on how to proceed from this point. Chair Lifshin said the report would need to be converted to some form of legislation for the Senate to vote on. Vice Provost Sue
Faerman informed SEC members that language for the bulletin will need updating. The language would need to be included in the document that goes to the Senate floor. Chair Lifshin charged both UAC and UPPC in reviewing. It was also agreed by SEC members that the report should be disseminated as widely as possible and added to the Senate web page.

Charter Amendment re: CPCA Chair Being Full Professor (GOV):
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GOV Chair Fessler said she believed the rationale explained why this particular amendment has come forth and offered to answer any questions. UPPC Chair Range moved that the amendment be put forward to the Senate.
The motion was seconded by GAC Chair Kranich and the proposal was then open for discussion. Senate
Secretary White said it would be appropriate for members of CPCA to have input concerning their council.
Chair Range indicated that the bill would be subjected to the usual 30 day waiting period before being voted on after it’s introduced and discussed by the Senate. Chair Fessler has not been contacted by anyone from CPCA.
CERS Chair Monfasani said the amendment is undoing what he viewed as an accidental mistake of not making the CPCA chair a full professor (FP). Chair Lifshin inquired as to whether there was any evidence to support the argument that the current arrangement is not working and if there has been any negative effect of having an associate professor (AP) serving as the CPCA Chair. GOV Chair Fessler said the Charter does not designate the demographic of the chair but it does describe the other members, any of which could be chair. For a number of reasons, GOV found this to be problematic. She said it was not a slight against APs but it could leave junior faculty susceptible to the retaliation of senior faculty. Chair Lifshin did not believe that the rank of the chair influenced the outcome of a case. Everyone on CPCA has an opportunity to vote and present their arguments for or against a case according to the guidelines. The problem is getting people to serve including chairing the council. Provost Phillips said she believed that only FPs should serve on CPCA as they are no longer subject to review. UPPC Chair Range agreed with the Provost’s statement. At issue is how it looks externally and it would be a good practice to have people on CPCA who have obtained the highest rank. He added that having the chair meet such criteria is a step in the right direction. CAA Chair Matyi said the unanimous vote for the current AP to chair the council spoke to the confidence the council members had in his ability. There are APs who exhibit great wisdom and FPs who may not do as well. He expressed his trust in the members of CPCA.
Chair Fessler said it was not a question of capability but more about putting junior faculty in a vulnerable position of reviewing a case that did not get approved. If a person who had been denied promotion were to assume authority over the junior faculty member who chaired his/her review, there could be issues of malfeasance. CAFFECoR Chair Haldar agreed that a better amendment would be to have the majority of members be FP. Chair Fessler said that is in the pipeline. UPPC Chair Range moved to close the debate and the motion was seconded. The vote to advance the amendment to the Senate was in favor of doing so.
Due to time constraints, the discussion on the amendment regarding Senate approval of council chairs was tabled. UAC Chair Malatesta asked if the two amendments needed to go to the Senate together. Chair Fessler said in conversations she had with William Hedberg, she believed this part could go forward to the Senate.
Chair Lifshin inquired about what was in the pipeline. She responded that GOV has been discussing refiguring the council since we are not in sync with our peer institutions. GOV is waiting for additional information from the CLUE group.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 5:32 pm.
Respectfully submitted by
Gail Cameron, Recorder