Governance Council
Thursday, April 14, 2011
10:30 PM
UNH 105
Susanna Fessler, Chair
Minutes
Present:
Liang Chu, Nicholas Fahrenkopf, Susanna Fessler, Reed Hoyt, Danielle Leonard, Candace
Merbler, John Pipkin, Donna Scanlon, John Schmidt, Laura Schultz, Joette Stefl-Mabry
The meeting convened at 10:33 am.
CHAIR’S REPORT BY SUSANNA FESSLER
Chair Fessler reported that the Committee on Council Nomination (CCN) met Friday, April 8 and
compiled a roster of council memberships for 2011-12. The roster was sent to the Senate on Monday
April 11 (the penultimate Senate meeting of the year) and approved 38-5. The next step will be the
election of council chairs. The councils will be convened two weeks after the completion of the at-large
elections (which this year is April 15), and they will elect their chairs at that time. This will be discussed
further under New Business.
Chair Fessler announced that Professor Andi Lyons (CAS/Theatre) was elected Senate Vice-chair for
2011-12 at the April 11 Senate meeting and will chair GOV next year ex officio.
Chair Fessler discussed an item that she will take to the SEC concerning the issue of having a Senate
parliamentarian in place. With the retirement of Robert Gibson last year, the Senate lost its regular
parliamentarian. In 2010-11 there had been a last-minute rush to appoint a parliamentarian. Chair Fessler,
in an effort to avoid a similar rush in 2011-12 has been exploring different possibilities. She approached
Rockefeller College to solicit a parliamentarian from that area without success. Chair Fessler decided to
look to Albany Law School for a possible solution. After speaking with the asst. dean there, a possible
approach which would dovetail with our community outreach efforts was discovered. The school has a
rubric where students can do pro bono work and according to the school’s asst. dean, there is reason to
believe that ALS students are interested. The downside is there would be turnover but it would eliminate
the concern about where to obtain a parliamentarian as well as eliminating concerns about conflicts of
interest. There does not appear to be anything in the Bylaws or the Charter that would prohibit this.
Chair Fessler reiterated that this is really SEC business but wanted to bring it to GOV so members would
be aware. The parliamentarian would only attend Senate meetings and be available by email for
occasional consultation.
Chair Fessler read the following section of the Bylaws, Article II, Section 2.3.4 concerning distribution of
Senators from schools and colleges:
For schools or colleges with more than two Senators, the remainder of its Senators shall be
distributed to represent departments, academic units, or collections of units within the school or
college so that each unit has a specified Senator.
Chair Fessler said that although CAS follows this rule regularly, the same cannot be said of all the other
schools. Most schools do not follow this regularly, with the possible exception of the School of
Education. The issue arose after the roster of councils was distributed to the Senate members. Provost
Phillips inquired about a “fourth Senator” for the SOE who had represented a specific unit. But the
number of SOE senators was reduced in recent years from four to three, making it impossible for the SOE
to spread its representation. On the roster and Senate website, units are listed for CAS but not for the
other schools. Chair Fessler asked if this is something GOV needed to address since the language in the
Charter states that apportioning Senate seats in accordance with proportional representation is one of the
functions of the Committee on Liaison and Elections (CLE).
GOV members discussed the matter and cited two relevant problems that need to be addressed—
clarification of what constitutes a unit or department, and the problem with schools not conducting
elections in a timely manner. Chair Fessler said the Charter language states the CLE is to apportion the
Senate seats in the fall each year in accordance with proportionate representation, i.e., total number of
teaching faculty.
Another problem related to council formation has been that the SSW does not hold its elections until
September, thus effectively blocking the SSW Senator from running for Council chair. GOV members
discussed addressing this problem by working with schools so that their elections are conducted to
coincide with the Senate calendar.
GOV members felt the matter could easily be addressed and it was suggested it be taken up with the SEC.
Chair Fessler agreed that should be done in addition to reaching out to schools and stressing the
importance of having bylaws in place. She will bring up the issue with the SEC. She said she also hoped
to have a task list and timeline in place for the incoming vice-chair.
SECRETARY’S REPORT by DANIELLE LEONARD
Secretary Leonard discussed the challenges of assuming Secretary duties in the midst of the election
process. She was unable to verify candidates’ eligibility since she did not yet have the required training
from Human Resources and was unable to obtain the training until after the elections began. As a result,
some issues have arisen concerning the part time slate. Given the sensitivity of the issue, GOV agreed
that the record will be adjusted at the appropriate time.
A separate issue with the part-time slate is that part time faculty have representation on the ballot but they
are not eligible to vote. Secretary Leonard said she found it troubling that this constituency cannot have a
say in who represents them. Chair Fessler asked if it would be possible for part time faculty to have a
separate election or if it might create opposition where professionals might want a separate election as
well. Secretary Leonard said that part time faculty should be able to vote on all slates. Chair Fessler said
the Bylaws defines who the voting faculty is and would require a change at that level. She suggested the
conversation be carried over to next year. Senator Pipkin believed there would be strong opposition from
full-time faculty where a part-time faculty member teaching in their first semester would not know who
they are voting for. Senator Stefl-Mabry suggested finding out what the procedure is at other universities.
GOV members were in agreement with her suggestion.
Secretary Leonard informed GOV that the number of people who have voted has already exceeded that of
last year and indicates that people are engaged and getting the message to be involved. She anticipated
that the voting results would be available next Monday. They will be forwarded to Senate Chair Lifshin
and then sent to the voting faculty. Secretary Leonard mentioned there had been no message to the voting
faculty concerning the vice-chair election. Chair Fessler said it’s not required by the Charter but probably
should be added to the timeline for the Secretary. GOV members spoke in favor of adding it to the
Charter.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of March 17 were approved.
NEW BUSINESS:
GOV Business for 2011-12:
Chair Fessler discussed the issue that came up at GOV’s last meeting concerning the Bylaws wording as it
refers to the number of Senators for the School of Public Health, and believes this will be a carryover item
for the next year. Laura Schultz suggested we rethink what identifies an academic unit for purposes of
treating all colleges the same. Chair Fessler agreed and said she had spoken with Bill Hedberg in the
Provost’s Office but he was not able to provide a definition for a college or unit. GOV agreed that having
a clear definition of an academic unit would be helpful. Other issues to address next year include a
possible change to the Bylaws that would allow voting for part-time faculty and having bylaws in place
for all the schools and colleges.
Professor Stefl-Mabry said there should be a move forward to form a council on administrative
assessment. She has received information on what is being done at other SUNY campuses and it appears
separate Senate councils oversee the process. Some of the universities have been doing this for 10 years
and we are one of the few who have not. From the information she has gathered, she believes something
is being done at the level of dean, and a top-down procedure should be considered here. She also
informed GOV that some campuses do not report back to the faculty and they become disengaged. In
principle the information should be shared but there is no obligation to do so. Professor Stefl-Mabry
believes that a council should be considered over an ad hoc committee to get the process jump-started.
She added there are instruments that can be used to we don’t have to start from ground zero.
Coordination of Elections for Council Chairs
According to Charter Section VIII.3.2, an organizational meeting of councils to elect their chairs cannot
occur until two weeks after the completion of the at-Large election of Senators. Chair Fessler realizes
there will be a small window of opportunity to complete this task but would like to have it done before the
end of the school year. There are 9 councils and standing committees which need to elect chairs, and
Chair Fessler said she would be looking for volunteers to help officiate organizational meetings should
they conflict with her teaching schedule. She noted that some schools have not yet provided the names of
their senators and she explained how those senators might be placed.
Chair Fessler referred to an e-mail distributed by Senator White to GOV in which he requested that she
make the omnibus list of those who volunteered for council service available to GOV. She explained that,
with at-large elections in process, the file is not complete. She said her preference was not to have
multiple versions of the document in circulation, and so she had decided not to distribute the list to GOV
yet. Moreover, she noted, the process of council nominations is delegated by the Charter to the
Committee on Council Nominations, and is not the purview of GOV. That said, Chair Fessler reviewed
the document with GOV and explained the various variables involved in council placement. Those who
did not get assigned to a committee will be offered an opportunity to serve on a subcommittee. Chair
Fessler said she believed that today’s discussion had provided answers to Senator White’s questions and
she will respond in an email, copying GOV.
Senator Schmidt asked about replacing Professor Lyons on CERS now that she has been elected vicechair and thus must serve as chair of GOV next year. Chair Fessler informed him that even though the
CCN tried to avoid placing people on more than one council, CERS is not a council but rather a standing
committee, thus allowing for Prof. Lyons to serve on both. Chair Fessler also noted that the CCN avoided
having more than one person from the same academic unit serve on any one council or committee. The
definition used for “academic unit” was based on past precedent, i.e., each school is considered a unit
with the exception of the College of Arts and Sciences, in which each department is considered a unit.
Chair Fessler noted this was the first time the web based application for Senate service was not used. In
the past the web-based page caused some confusion, and so this year it was not used. Nonetheless, the
response rate was relatively good.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 11:49
Respectfully submitted by
Gail Cameron, Recorder