University Life Council
Minutes of Meeting
August 28, 2006
(1)
Schedules
I have obtained the Senate meeting dates for the year and the Senate Exec. Committee
dates for the fall. Since we are meeting in a time slot that overlaps the Senate’s meetings,
ULC will not meet on the days that Senate is meeting. I am proposing one meeting per
month for us, unless we find that we must meet more often as a whole to bring our work
to fruition.
Our meeting time is 3 p.m. on the following Mondays in Dean Faermann’s conference
room, which is in the LCs, next to the Proj. Rennaissance office:
September 18, October 16, November 20, December 11.
For your reference, here are the other dates we are working around, and the potential
meeting dates for us if we need them:
Senate: 9/25, 10/23, 11/27, 12/18
Exec: 9/11, 10/9, 11/13, 12/4. These dates matter because the Exec Comm. reviews
legislation before it comes before the Senate.
“Available” Mondays: 10/30, 11/6.
AGENDA FOR September 18: determination of which topics we should begin to tackle
and who/how to work on them.
(2) Composition of the sub-committees / inclusion of non-member volunteers
At our organizational meeting, Dan Smith was named to chair the Athletics Subcommittee. If you would be interested in serving on that committee, please let me know.
We have decided for now not to appoint chairs and members of our other standing
committees because it seems that the topics that might be assigned to them are so farreaching that it will be better for ULC as a whole to consider them. We can always
revise that thinking!
We do also have about a half-dozen volunteers who would like to be on our committees
and I hope we will be able to include them in some way.
(3) Summary of 05-06 as presented on Aug. 28 with additional comments added from
my notes:
Over the 2005-2006 academic year, the ULC studied a number of topics, although only a
few resulted in actual legislation.
The primary carryover from the 04-05 council was the bill to change Albany's academic
calendar to no longer reschedule classes around certain major religious holidays. After
much discussion at the council level and on the part of the Senate's leadership, the Senate
Executive Committee decided to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate, where, with an
extremely close vote, it narrowly passed, but then was not signed by President Hall, who
shared his reasons with the entire UAlbany community. It is not expected that this topic
will be on UAC's agenda again in the near future.
Note: students had also raised the issue of observance of Veterans’ Day. We may need to
address this, even though the religious holidays have been resolved for now.
The agendas of several meetings included study of some of the particular needs of
Albany's international students who now number about 1,200, most specifically in terms
of the unavailability of housing before the start of the semester, and certain health and
food issues. Because members of ULC were themselves staff in many of the relevant
offices where actions might be taken, these discussions brought the information forward
to the wider university community.
Note: there is a committee working on campus preparedness for flu or other infectious
diseases. The Office of Student Success is involved with this, as well as the Director of
International Student Services, so people on ULC are aware of its work, but the council
as a whole might wish to have aninterim report.
Note: the housing needs of international visitors, both students and others, remains as a
challenge for Albany, along with the housing needs of our domestic students.
Other general concerns that also were discussed by ULC dealt with transportation needs,
especially to the "other" campuses. These matters were resolved by improvements to
scheduling and reliability.
Concerns about a lack of vegetarian food options and inconsistency (and sometimes
invisibility) of pricing were noted. Chartwells took this input into consideration.
Note: Julia Fillipone will remain on ULC as Kathyrn Lowery’s representative. Thus,
ULC will continue to have a direct link to Chartwells and other campus services.
The members of the Committee on Athletics met regularly and reported their
discussions. The primary issue that they brought to the council and which the council
then brought to the Senate dealt with the need for an additional permanent staff member
whose job would center around intramurals. Whether this position should ultimately
reside in the division of Student Success or in Athletics proved to be a thorny issue,
although there was full recognition at the Senate level of the importance of endorsing the
concept.
Note: even though this position was endorsed by the Senate and was in the compact plan
of the Athletics division, when the first round of funding was published just recently, this
position had not been funded. Therefore, it still remains an area of concern for us as an
unresolved need.
ULC also discussed and endorsed mandatory health insurance for all students, with
students being able to obtain waivers if they had their own coverage. This subject also
proved to be a stormy topic when it reached the floor of the Senate. Although making
insurance mandatory makes it part of the "cost of attendance" and therefore eligible for
financial aid, it also increases the mandatory costs for all students, and the added cost
might drive some students away. This matter does require further study if it is to be
brought forward again. In the meantime, SUNY itself may act to establish a system-wide
policy on this matter.
Note: John Murphy suggested that Dr. Peter Vellis be invited to a meeting soon to bring
us up to date on the health insurance coverage issues. We need to know what is
happening on other SUNY campuses with regard to part-time students and other issues in
order to design something for Albany.
Not content with introducing these controversial and difficult topics to the Senate, ULC
boldly brought forth a resolution endorsing a Family Leave Policy, which was passed by
the Senate with enthusiasm.
Note: This resolution, as well as our resolution for athletics, may not have been signed by
President Hall, and therefore, their status remains unclear at this writing.
Members of the 2006-07 ULC should not fear that all controversial or interesting topics
have been exhausted. The 2005-06 ULC leaves as a serious agenda item the price of
textbooks!
Note: Dan Smith will be able to report to ULC about what has been studied to date.
JNS 7/29/06
Additional matters discussed at our organizational meeting (present were: Diane Dewar,
Fac. Senate 06-07 Chair, Joan Savitt, Jean-Francois Briere, Timothy Hoff, Kehu Zhu,
Michael Christakis, Julia Fillipone, John Murphy, Daniel Smith, Candace Merbler – I
think that’s everyone!)
(a)
Michael Christakis stressed the need for student participation on this council.
We remarked that last year’s graduate representative was excellent but that we
never had undergrads show up. They were named very late in the year, and we
hope that this year’s student organization will be better able to staff the councils.
FYI, Sumedha Tagare, our graduate representative, happened to stop by my office
yesterday to say goodbye as she is returning to India, and so I got the chance to
tell her what we had all said, and she was pleased that we had been so pleased.
She plans a future in university service, too. She also said she had attended
several meetings where she didn’t sign in on the attendance roster, so I asked her
to send a correction to Nancy Lauricella, our recorder. Back to the topic here: we
are hoping that we will have names soon and that the students will attend ULC
meetings regularly.
(b)
Tim Hoff suggested that we add the topic of faculty/student relations to our
agenda: Why are we on the bottom in student experiences? How can we get
faculty to engage more with students? (After the meeting, I was told that Elga
Wulfert’s group was working on a survey and so it would be good if we could
work together.)
(c)
Julia Fillipone said that campus-wide defibrillator installation was coming
(there are already many of them, first installed in the areas judged to have the
highest risk individuals), and that many people will need to be trained in using
these, so there first needs to be a core group of trainers. People would also be
certified in CPR also as a part of this training. Our council might take a
leadership role here.
(d)
Julia also told us that the issue of collegiate licensing/sweatshop production
issues might come up. There is already a task force dealing with this, chaired by
K. Briar-Lawson, and there are policies here now but they may need revision. We
belong to the two consortia which monitor production. Students brought this
issue to Pres. Hall last year, and he signed a temporary support for the university
to follow, but ULC has not reviewed this or brought it through governance.