Governance Council
Friday, February 6, 2015
9:00 AM
UNH 300
Cynthia Fox, Chair
Minutes
PRESENT:
Chesin, Sorrell; Cruz, José; Fox, Cynthia; Gulatee, Yenisel; Janiszewski, Caitlin;
Kearney, Ann; Malavasic, Jolene; Moore, Chris; Scheck, Helene; Zemel, Alan
Due to inclement weather, the meeting was rescheduled from February 2nd to February 6th and convened at 9:05
p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of December 15, 2014 were unanimously approved.
CHAIR’S REPORT
Chair Fox and Senate Chair Joette Stefl-Mabry are scheduled to meet with Provost Jim Stellar later in the day. Any
questions for the new Provost are welcomed. At the last meeting of the SEC the following items of interest to GOV
had been discussed: 1) Interim Provost Mulcahy spoke about recommendations he has forwarded to the President
about the composition of the academic committees that review Start-Up NY proposals. The new Provost will be
asked about the status of those recommendations with the goal of ensuring that GOV is consulted going forward.
Items such as the Blue Ribbon Panel on Contingent Faculty begun by the Interim Provost are expected to continue
per comments by President Jones; 2) Interim Provost Mulcahy clarified that the Spring 2014 Governance Survey
was not the catalyst for the President’s request that the Senate consider removing voting privileges from
administrators; the announcement of the survey results simply provided an opportune moment for the
administration to voice its own concerns about the administrators voting in Senate matters.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bylaw Amendment to remove Ex-Officio Voting Privileges
When the Bylaw s amendment as voted on at the last GOV meeting was presented to SEC on January 26, it was
suggested that additional changes could be made to reflect changes to administrative titles, units, departments, etc.
In addition, it was asked that GOV consider incorporating a Bylaws amendment from the recent past that had not
received quorum be into the current Bylaws amendment. Chair Fox researched the earlier amendment and felt that
it could not simply be incorporated into the current amendment, but would require a separate rationale. After some
discussion, it was decided not to take up the earlier amendment at this time.
A motion was made and unanimously approved that the revised Bylaw amendment, with the name change updates
made as requested, be included in the GOV report for discussion at the next Senate meeting.
It was also suggested that GOV should consider proposing a separate amendment at a later date that would permit
things like changes to administrative titles to be automatically updated in the Bylaws without having to go through
a formal amendment process each time this happened.
GOV members also considered how the Bylaw amendment would affect upcoming elections in March. It was
suggested the following questions be raised and discussed at the upcoming Senate meeting: 1) Would Management
Confidential individuals be allowed to vote; 2) Are Emeriti an appropriate constituency for participation in the
Senate?
The timing issue of the proposed Bylaw and corresponding Charter amendment was then considered. It was
preferred that the Bylaw vote not be scheduled until after February 11th when SUNY and HR PeopleSoft update
issues still need to be resolved. After some discussion, it was decided that it might make the most sense to include
the amendment as an item during the regular on-line Senate elections that will take place March 30-April 3.
The discussion then turned to the question of getting out the vote. Chair Fox will draft the memo that will go out to
the Voting Faculty when the amendment is circulated that GOV can then comment on. It is anticipated that there
could be an endorsement of the amendment from the administration. GSA will also be including a statement in an
upcoming letter to faculty encouraging members to vote.
NEW BUSINESS
Charter Amendment to remove Ex-Officio Voting Privileges
A chart was shared with GOV members outlining potential committee and council quorum issues that would result
if the proposed Charter amendment passed. Thanks were extended to Senator Janiszewski for her extensive
research on these issues. The intent of the amendments would be not to affect the construction of the committees
but to remove voting privileges to prevent a potential conflict of interest.
Discussion included consideration of the following:
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How the interpretation of the language of the Charter leads to different ways of counting members of
Councils and therefor the effect of the proposed changes on quorum;
Whether input needs to be solicited from the different councils regarding what they see as the consequences
of the amendment;
Recognizing that some individuals, including those with MC titles, would potentially serve on subcommittees but not serve on the Council that will ultimately decide to accept or reject its recommendation;
Noting that changes in quorum would not affect institutional policy.
Further consideration and discussion of these matters will take place at the next GOV meeting.
The next meeting would be rescheduled so as not to occur on an administrative holiday.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 10:55 a.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Elisa Lopez, Recorder