Governance Council
Monday, September 17, 2012
2:00PM
UNH 306
Christine Wagner, Chair
Minutes
Present: Liang Chu, Anthony DeBlasi, Yenisel Gulatee, Reed Hoyt, Anne Kearney, John Schmidt,
Christine Wagner, Benjamin Weaver, Daniel White
The meeting convened at 2:03 pm.
CHAIR’S REPORT
Chair Wagner introduced herself and welcomed GOV members. The next meeting will be on October 1 and will be chaired by past Senate Chair Susanna Fessler in Chair Wagner’s absence. Chair Wagner noted that after the October 1 meeting, the council is not scheduled to meet again until November 26. She proposed scheduling an additional meeting for October 29 in the event there is urgent business that needs to be addressed. GOV members will hold this date on their calendars.
Chair Wagner briefly discussed agenda items that would be presented at the first Senate meeting on September
24. Two new resolutions will be introduced addressing the task force report in response to Resolution 1112-
03R passed by the Senate last February. Chair Wagner suggested GOV members may want to be prepared to respond at the Senate meeting.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of May 7, 2012 were approved without objection.
NEW BUSINESS
UPPC Subcommittees
The item comes to the agenda at the request of UPPC Chair Fessler. The regular subcommittees of UPPC are the Research Analysis and Planning Committee (RAPC), and the University Facilities Committee (UFC). Both are in the Charter explaining their missions but neither committee has been formed in recent years. Two ad hoc committees have been formed recently: the Strategic Plan Implementation Committee and the Facilities Master
Plan Advisory Committee. UPPC believes these two ad hoc committees are already doing what RAPC and
UFC are charged with doing. To avoid redundancy, UPPC suggests that the UPPC subcommittees can be formed with an appropriate subset of the members of the RAPC and UFC. UPPC has approved populating the ad hoc committees in this manner and Provost Phillips is on board with it also. UPPC has asked for GOV’s approval to form the subcommittees in this manner. GOV was in favor of the move.

Charter Amendment: Procedure for the election of Council Chairs
GOV members were provided a draft of the amendment which would allow for the election of council chairs by electronic ballot. Chair Wagner explained the difficulties of convening a quorum given the time of year council chairs are elected. Elections occur at the end of the spring semester or during the summer. Daniel White asked if there would be any downside of conducting the elections electronically. Chair Wagner said often the chair is elected by acclimation. John Schmidt suggested adding wording that would be comparable to an electronic quorum such as “with a quorum responding. Chair Wagner saw this as a positive addition. She asked for a motion to approve the amendment with the new wording. A motion was made and seconded. GOV members approved forwarding the amendment to the SEC for its meeting in October.
Part-time Senator and LISC membership
Chair Wagner informed GOV of a change that occurred in the membership of LISC. Last year’s part time representative from CNSE moved to a full time position. The council now has four full time professional faculty representatives and is in violation of the Charter which states the council’s membership shall consist of the following: X.8.1.5. At least 1 but not more than 3 Professional Faculty. Chair Wagner has been informed by the CAA Chair that they would like to populate their remaining seat for a professional faculty member. She proposed having the CNSE member from LISC move to CAA if that member were to agree. Since the chair of
LISC is one of the professional faculty members, Mr. White suggested offering the option to move to CAA to the three remaining members. GOV members were in agreement with Mr. White’s suggestion and Chair
Wagner will make that proposal to the LISC members in question.
CAS Senator-at-Large
Chair Wagner discussed the representation of the CAS membership on the Senate. There are currently 21
Senators from CAS including an at-large Senator. CAS has two at-large seats and one has been vacant this semester while Senator Wills is on leave. Chair Wagner proposed that the CAS Faculty Council determine the procedure by which Senator Wills will be replaced. She also proposed that, the length of the new Senator’s term be determined by the CAS Faculty Council. GOV members were in agreement with her proposal.
Guests of Senate
Chair Wagner addressed instances at recent Senate meetings where guest participation was sometimes disruptive or other occasions when guests may have felt disenfranchised. Part of the problem is the seating arrangement which makes it difficult to determine which attendees are senators and which are guests. There needs to be clarification to guests what their role is. Chair Wagner asked GOV to begin the discussion and determine whether or not this is GOV business, how to improve the situation and then formalize the discussion at a later date to provide some recommendations.
Senator Hoyt said he believed that it was the business of GOV and could be addressed through a Charter amendment. He recalled Eric Lifshin’s term as chair when he allowed time for guests to address the deactivations in 2010 by signing up in advance to speak with a time limit and it worked quite well. John
Schmidt added that less or more time could be allotted depending on the number of people who sign up. This could be at the discretion of the chair.
Chair Wagner discussed the idea of having guests go through their representatives where they could submit a statement and have their senator present it at a meeting. Daniel White agreed that seemed like a normal path and is part of the education process we haven’t been able to achieve. He added that we don’t utilize the process

of a forum which would allow everyone to have their say in an open gathering. Senator DeBlasi wasn’t sure a forum would address the problem. There have been open forums to address the deactivations but it keeps coming back to the Senate floor and it tends to give the subject higher importance. Mr. White suggested that part of the problem lies with students not communicating with their representation. Senator DeBlasi supported the idea to funnel the process through representation, but warned that it could be seen as a way to impede freedom of speech. He added that we would need to be prepared for criticism if employing that process.
Senator Hoyt said people should be urged to contact their senators. Chair Wagner said she appreciated the feedback and asked GOV members if they felt it warranted further discussion. Senator DeBlasi said it would not be a simple fix. It’s not just about guests but the process of how a senate meeting is regulated and could get complicated. Chair Wagner said any guidelines would need to be transparent and clearly articulated so no one would feel singled-out, but said it was important to begin the discussion. Some issues have been identified and she asked everyone to think about what ideas might work so that a formalized discussion can begin on how to approach this issue.
Special Election for Part-time at-Large Senate Seat:
Secretary Gulatee discussed the process and timeline to begin preparations of the election for the vacant seat.
She provided the following timeline:

September 21-- Deadline to submit names for slate of candidates

September 24—Publish preliminary slate of candidates

October 5—Deadline for Nominations for At-Large Candidates

October 8—Publish slate for At-Large seat

October 15-17—Hold election

October 18-19—Elections results announced

October 22—PT Senator in place for 2 nd
Senate meeting and approval of council placement
GOV discussed the situation of part-time faculty being able to serve but not being able to vote for their representation. Chair Wagner would like the discussion of part-time faculty’s ability to participate in the process to be on future GOV agendas, but acknowledged that is a complex problem.
Council on Administrative Review and Evaluation:
John Schmidt said the committee members who worked on the amendment met with Bruce Szelest for further discussion. The SUNY-wide Faculty Senate and Chancellor Zimpher support doing the reviews. President
Philip’s objections came from a legal perspective. Daniel White referred to issues regarding timing—when the report would go to the Senate and when it would go to the administration. The new president may decide his input should be given before it goes to the Senate. Chair Wagner asked for verification that Senator Stefl-
Mabry is still the chair of this committee and requested that the committee convene within the next month.
Chair Wagner said she would contact Senator Stefl-Mabry.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Committee to address Resolution 1112-05R “Resolution to determine offerings in European languages & classical studies in accordance with UAlbany’s mission and strategic plan:
Chair Wagner provided a history of the resolution introduced by Senator Wills and passed by the Senate this past February. The resolution called for the formation of a committee to address the issues. A committee was

formed last year and met once but was unable to elect a chair. The committee decided to work as a group but has not met since the initial meeting. There are two vacancies on the committee: Greg Stevens has retired and
John Monfasani has agreed to fill his seat on the committee. David Wills’ seat is vacant since he is on leave this semester. UPPC Chair Fessler has agreed to take Senator Wills’ seat on the committee and expressed her willingness to be nominated for chair the committee. Chair Wagner said GOV is charged with approving the replacements of the two vacancies.
Mr. White raised the question as to whether the replacement of an LLC member with a member of EAS would be suitable since the resolution addresses European languages. Chair Wagner pointed out that the resolution requires representation from UPPC, which David Wills filled, as well as members with “relevant expertise”.
GOV members felt Chair Fessler would be the appropriate member from UPPC but agreed that an additional member to represent European languages would be more appropriate. They also suggested that John Monfasani would also be a reasonable nomination for committee chair. Chair Wagner agreed to have a discussion with him about doing so. She will also make a suggestion to GOV of an individual to represent expertise in European languages.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 3:09 pm.
Respectfully submitted by
Gail Cameron, Recorder