Faculty Council
January 20, 2015 – 7-9 PM
VIP Room, A&E
Present: D. Duke, M. Geiszler, J. Harrington, P. Winters, B. Rappa, P.
Constantinou, H. Dichter, D. Long, C. McNamara, T. Swensen, J. Winslow, P.
Cole Murray, S. Condeescu, V. Bruce Conger, J. Freitag, T. Galanthay, C.
Henderson, T. Patrone, J. Rosenthal, S. Seltzer, Anne Theobald, D. Tindall,
Rachel Wagner, C. Barboza, D. Birr, C. Dimaras, D. Rifkin, P. Rothbart
Absent: J. Pfrehm, K. Logsdon
Approval of Minutes:
Open Session: None
Announcements
 The Faculty Council Executive Committee will begin meeting on a semiannual basis with the Educational Affairs of the Board of Trustees. This is the
first time regular contact between Faculty and Trustees that has happened in
the history of Ithaca College. There will be two meetings, tentatively in the
May and October.
 The President has invited the Faculty Council Executive Committee to attend
the Administrative Assembly regularly.
 Peter attended the last Administrative Assembly. The assembly included
information regarding updates for managerial staff and strategic sourcing
(contractual companies such as Staples).
 If you’d like further information regarding updates contact Peter Rothbart.
 There was also information about the Workforce Classification Survey. This
survey serves as an articulation of job roles, responsibilities and titles.
 The Staff/Faculty Benefits Committee members include: John Rosenthal,
Chris McNamara, Ivy Walz, and Karen Edwards. The committee of 10 staff
and 4 faculty will be meeting with Mark Holdren and his delegates.
 A part-time faculty member is needed for the council and a one-semester
replacement for the Facilities Planning Committee.
 A general Town Hall meeting will be held in addition to two other meetings
revolving around the topic of Shared Governance. The Shared Governance
meetings will be at 12:05 on Feb. 17 and 19.
 As per Faculty Council’s recent motion concerning support for the Counseling
Center. Peter wrote a strong letter and delivered it to the President. He
forwarded it to the IEBC, and he will be bringing it up at the President’s
Council. The council will continue to follow up with that message.
 The Grading Deadline. The registrar is working up a report regarding the
extended grade deadline. 650 grades out of 55-60,000 grades were not
submitted. There is no discernable difference in the rate of submission over
the years.
Interim Provost’s Comments, Linda Petrosino
 Update about activities occurring in the fall semester. At the end of last
semester students protested around the issue of the Michael Brown shooting.
Areas were cleared for the protests, administrators acted as support. There
was open dialogue about how to demonstrate peacefully and actively around
exam time. An administrative team from different offices met four times before
break with student leaders to discuss mutual areas of concern and how they
could partner with students on these issues, and get the student voice heard.
After the break, administrators and students resumed the conversation
around student issues. Linda emphasizes the importance of listening to and
participating with students. The student questions revolved around students
who are not involved with the student government but need to get their voices
heard. There has been conversation around the campus climate survey done
in 2012 and issues around diversity. The school administrators have a couple
plans worked out, but want to present them to the students, and get feedback.
There may be a continuation of peaceful protestation and activities on
campus from our students.
 The Deans were approached by students regarding issues of micro
aggressions on campus.
 The second point is Educational Affairs has been very active with the zero
based budgeting process. Linda wants to thank those who have been actively
involved with this process.
 The college is currently searching for a Dean for the School of Business.
Faculty Handbook Amendment Committee Proposals
Steve Skopik, Chair, Faculty Handbook Amendment Committee
 Current Policy Manual 4.51 Sabbatical Leaves:
 The committee was asked to add a minor clarifying sentence to the policy
on sabbatical leave. The current handbook states that a faculty member
needs to return for a full academic year. If, however, one is taking a
semester long sabbatical during the fall semester what does returning for
a year mean? The change in language clarifies that two academic
semesters, rather than one academic year must be completed after the
sabbatical semester or year. The issue was discussed. The motion to
amend the policy was passed with a majority in favor, no opposition and
one abstention.
All College Conflict of Interest Policy, Nepotism Policy, Whistleblower
Policy Nancy Pringle, Vice-President/General Counsel
 The Ethics and Integrity Policy was passed in the November meeting.
 Nepotism: The Employment of Friends and Family Members
o Several faculty felt that the word, “suggest,” in the final paragraph on
the first page should be replaced for clarity. Nancy Pringle was
approached about the language she has taken into account the
suggested changes and has done them.

o In part 3.6.1.1: The word, “Friends” should be omitted from the
document title, as the document makes no further reference to such.
o The document was tabled and referred back to Counsel’s Office to
make the above revision. All were in favor of tabling the document with
no opposition and no abstentions.
Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment Policy
o This document has been corrected according to previous suggestion.
o Motion to endorse was seconded. All were in favor no opposition, 2
abstentions. The endorsement was carried.
New Business
 The agenda format has been changed slightly. Tentative topics were for the
next meeting were added to the current agenda. This will allow for
conversation between colleagues regarding agenda items before the Council
begins its discussions.
 Concern was expressed as to whether or not the campus activities
surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Day are being effective. Students
are not necessarily aware of the events and functions on campus regarding
MLK.
Zero-Based Budget Discussion
Gerald Hector, Vice-President, Finance and Administration
 Gerald Hector’s updates
o Budgets were submitted from over 280 cost centers for the institution.
We were somewhere north of 6.5 million dollars to balance the budget,
which implies we need to dial it back. Currently the IEBC and PC are
wrestling with getting the numbers back in line. Primarily, they did not
want to do an across the board cut, because it is not strategically
sound. In addition to the operating budget we are confronted with the
issue of deferred maintenance. A deferred maintenance and a master
plan study came in at 188 million dollars, not including Butterfield
Stadium and the underground infrastructure that spreads all across the
campus. That number has been taken by itself excluding the master
plan. The number has been broken down into time periods 1-3 years 47 years 8-10 years. The 1-3 year time was 111 million dollars, 35-40%
of that pertaining to residential halls. The quads are being lifted out of
time frame (A) 111 million, this timeframe has been taken down to 60
million. Either the money is going to have to be borrowed or a P3
Public Private Partnership will have to be worked through. The quads
were built at a certain time and they are dated. Moving them into the
American’s with Disabilities Act will take the price up 30 million more
dollars. With the ADA requirements, we are looking at a 90 million
dollar proposition. To just replace the quads with brand new ones is
110 million dollars. These are some of the capital pressures on IC.
Additionally, more institutional aid has to be offered to students in order
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for them to afford IC. Everything has to be finalized and taken to the
board of Trustees for Review Discussion and Approval.
The Moody rating for the college is a healthy A2.
Ithaca College is financially healthy
None of the money for any new building or renovation of the quad is
going to effect current operations, unless we do it by debt.
We are highly tuition dependent at 96%. We are dependent on
students to get us our operating dollars on an annual basis. We also
budget in a way that we not only meet the operating budget, but we
also have excess that will allow us to generate cash to deal with our
deferred maintenance.
Adjournment: Motion to Adjourn at 9:05 PM