Faculty Council
March 4, 2014 - 7-9 pm
VIP Room, A&E Center
Present: C. Barboza, D. Birr, J. Bonnetta, K. Breuer, M. Cozzolino, D. Duke, J. Freitag, J.
Harrington, C. Henderson, A. Kissiloff, S. Lahr, D. Lifton, S. Mauk, A. Moon, J. Pfrehm, P.
Rothbart, J. Rosenthal, S. Seltzer, T. Swensen, D. Tindall, D. Turkon, J. Winslow
Excused: N. DiEugenio, M. Hall, R. Lesses, C. McNamara, T. Patrone, R. Wagner, P. Winters
Absent: N. Ali, P. Constantinou, S. Grigoriev
Guests: C. Henderson, D. Johnson, C. Scheibe, S. Knight (The Ithacan)
Open Session:
C. Scheibe addressed Council regarding the due date for final grades at the end of the fall
semester. She distributed a handout and requested that she be on the agenda for next month
for further discussion on this matter. Her proposal is to shift the deadline to December 30th at 2
pm. C. Scheibe has had conversations with all the assistant deans. If this proposed change
can meet the needs of the administration, the registrar and the students, her opinion is that
there seems no good reason to continue with the current deadline, which is burdensome to
those who celebrate the holidays. C. Scheibe discussed some of the issues with Faculty
Council, and indicated that she would continue to research this matter further and bring further
data back to Council for consideration.
P. Rothbart stated the issue would be placed on a future agenda for further in-depth discussion
and vote.
Approval of Meeting Minutes for February 4, 2014:
Minutes accepted.
Vote: 2 Abstentions
Chair’s Report:
 Advising Center is pursuing the formal establishment of a committee on academic advising.
Currently, efforts are focused on establishing the membership, committee charge and bylaws and will report to the Provost. At some point, Faculty Council may be requested to
provide feedback, but will not have oversight of this committee. At this time, the
membership would include the director of academic advising and representatives of the
Registrar’s Office and an associate/assistant dean from each school. There is a question
mark for faculty representatives and student representatives. The basic function for
membership would be to work on developing training for advisors, including training for
faculty advisors. Council members encourage the inclusion of faculty representation on this
committee.
 Elections: P. Rothbart reminded Council members that most schools will begin the elections
within the schools in the next couple of weeks, and this includes Faculty Council positions.
All campus committees need to have memberships solidified by May 1.
 Shared Governance Open Session will be held April 17, 2014 from 12-1 pm in Klingenstein
Lounge. This is an open meeting for everybody on campus to talk about what works, and
what does not work in shared governance, along with what we would like to see in a new
governance structure. Task force members will then use this information from this open
session to further their discussions. The administration will be having a similar sort of thing
gathering. Sometime after graduation, the Shared Governance Task Force will have a twoday retreat, and they will review the information and identify three or four basic governing
structures that will become the basis for discussion the following year. P. Rothbart will
publicize the open session after spring break.





Email Account for the Faculty Council Chair has been established:
facultycouncilchair@ithaca.edu. This will be the official email account going forward and
was established to provide an ongoing record and continuity of communications.
Town Hall Meeting: While sparsely attended, P. Rothbart does not see this as bad thing,
just a statement that faculty are not crisis mode. Good constructive discussion took place,
and those things are being acted upon.
Budget Priorities: P. Rothbart would like to have a discussion at the next meeting about
what Faculty Council members consider priorities for budget. Typically, these discussions
do not take place until the September meeting, and the budget cycle has already started.
P. Rothbart acknowledged J. Rosenthal for his creative idea of how to provide people on the
lower end of the pay spectrum with a way to offset healthcare costs. Combined with a
previous motion unanimously approved by Faculty Council regarding the preservation of
“real” income for lower salaried employees, this idea was put forward, modified and
subsequently approved for the FY 14/15 budget. P. Rothbart believes this is a good
statement about the President’s willingness to listen to faculty input and suggestions, calling
it “a seismic shift in attitude.”
Supporting Foreign Students: P. Rothbart has received some inquiry about whether or not
there is sufficient support for foreign students, not just in terms of academics, but also social
activity, housing, etc. He will make some inquiries about this because if IC is moving
forward to increase its foreign student populations, a proactive effort to provide support
services need to be in place for them.
Meeting with Gerald Hector & Robert Cree: To support the strategic sourcing effort
designed to save several million dollars for the College, four committees are being formed:
Strategic Sourcing, Information Technology; Change Management; and Purchasing and
Travel Cards. P Rothbart has been asked to recommend a few faculty representatives who
might be willing to serve on these committees and inquired of Faculty Council if anyone was
willing to serve; hearing no volunteers, he will put out a call to faculty.
Degree Conferral Wording for Faculty Council (Annual Request)
The following wording was put forward by the Office of the Registrar for Faculty Council’s
consideration for the 2014 graduates:
Faculty Council recommends to the Board of Trustees that all those students who have
completed the requirements of their respective degree, as certified by the records of the Office
of the Registrar, be awarded the appropriate degree at Commencement, Sunday, May 18,
2014, and on each of the additional approved graduation dates during the coming year.
Motion: D. Lifton motioned to approve
Second: C. Henderson
Vote: 1 Abstention; Motion passed.
Faculty Benefits Committee Election:
Three people have been elected to the committee: Chris McNamara, John Rosenthal and
Karen Edwards. P. Rothbart will work on getting the committee organized after spring break.
The committee consists of five positions, and he has received two additional names of
individuals who are interested: Ivy Buterbaugh Walz, Assistant Professor, Music Performance;
and Mike Titlebaum, Assistant Professor, Music Performance.
Motion: Motion to elect both candidates was made.
Vote: Unanimous
APC Proposals Regarding Grade Changes:
Associate Provost Carol Henderson brought forth proposed changes to the Grade Changes,
Policy on Grade Disputes, Students’ Right to Petition, Academic Records, and Graduation and
Program Regulations policies as recommended by APC. Carol Henderson explained the
impetus behind these changes were:
1. the College had been experiencing larger and larger numbers of students coming back to us
years after they graduated and wanting their transcripts modified,
2. there is a grade change policy which requires all students to resolve any grade change no
later than the end of the second week of classes for the semester following the grade they were
requesting to be changed.
With the second issue, it was found that due to many different circumstances, such as a
faculty member being on sabbatical, it was not possible for students to resolve issues within the
given timeframe, and the granting of multiple extensions had to be made. The new proposal
sets up a deadline by which a student must write (electronic communication is acceptable) to
the faculty questioning the grade, as well as notifying the Office of the Registrar in writing. APC
members wanted to retain a faculty member’s authority to determine the grade that a student
receives in the course, while setting up a mechanism that allows someone to track deadlines to
make sure student(s) actually provided notice to meet the deadline, without making faculty
members responsible for tracking.
Carol Henderson provided explanations and discussed the proposed changes with Faculty
Council members. There was a recommendation that the document include the wording
“Provost or designee” and “Dean or designee” to accurately reflect the possible review and
determination by someone other than the Provost or a dean.
Motion: J. Rosenthal moved to accept this proposal with the understanding that, where
appropriate, when it says “Provost” it will read “Provost or Designee” and likewise with the
“Dean;” and let APC worry about where appropriate is.
Discussion: There was further discussion about written notification. Carol Henderson also
confirmed that in a scenario where perhaps the faculty member approves the change, but the
Dean does not, the student will still have the right to petition that to the Office of the Provost.
She also confirmed that “written notification” does include email correspondence.
Called to Question: S. Mauk
Vote: 0 opposed; 1 abstention; motion passed.
Assessment of ICC Faculty Experiences
Assistant Provost and Director of the Core Curriculum, D. Johnson provided an overview on
assessment processes to date regarding faculty perceptions and experiences of the ICC.
Assessment efforts to date have been relatively informal and include such things as focus
groups, the identification of needs and pressure points; and discussions with three of the
schools.
 Inquiries were made about retention goals and measures of whether or not the program is
effective. Each course has specific student learning outcomes (SLOs), but this information
is most likely contained in the IC 20/20 documents. D. Johnson offered to look through
information at her disposal to determine what, if any, specific items were determined through
that process. Additional items discussed included getting feedback from faculty who are not
directly involved in the ICC about how it has affected their programming and their ability to
deliver certain courses, including preparation time; the ability to reasonably assure students



are able to access their selected themes and seminars; assessing the value added for
students who pay $200,000 plus they spend to attend college at IC; and program review as
it related to accounting for the change in approach to general education that has resulted in
the ICC implementation.
A survey process was recommended to D. Johnson as the best way to receive feedback
about the impact of the ICC from faculty members who are not directly involved in teaching
ICC curriculum.
D. Johnson shared that the data from summer orientation (students’ perceptions) is now
available on the ICC website in “resources for faculty.” Faculty can log in with their Netpass
credentials.
Council members thanked D. Johnson for her effective leadership in launching this major
initiative for Ithaca College.
New Business: J. Rosenthal presented an overview of the 14/15 budget, offering several
observations regarding the budget, and circulated a document to Council members. He
reminded Council members that traditionally there is a motion made after the presentation and
discussion that this report is sent on to all faculty. The report is available at the link provided in
his document and he encouraged members to review the Executive Summary. J. Rosenthal
addressed questions and comments from Council members regarding several items including
the merit increase process and budget priorities
Motion: D. Lifton moved that the report from delegates be accepted and distributed to
constituents.
Seconded: S. Seltzer seconded with a noted thanks to members for serving.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
Executive Session:
Motion: Move to go into Executive Session by S. Seltzer
Meeting Adjourned: 9:18 PM