University Faculty Senate
166th Plenary
January 23-25, 2014
University at Albany
President’s Report, Winter Plenary
2014-Peter Knuepfer
Announcements:
• Shared Governance Conference Albany, NY April 23-24;
Call For Papers February 28 (www.fccc.suny.edu)
• June 8 Orientation for Campus Governance Leaders
• Need liaison from Oneonta for Innovative Exploration
Forum: Undergraduate Research in New York
• April 1 in Albany
SUNY Initiatives
• The Chancellor identified 8 programs from 6 campuses as
“Open SUNY +” degrees that will pilot centralized 24/7
student (and instructor) support, tutoring, and advising.
• She announced two virtual groups that will be of
particular importance to faculty: Center for Online
Teaching Excellence (http://commons.suny.edu/facultycenter/)
and Open SUNY Scale-Up Lab.
• UFA Undergraduate Committee report for some
additional points and the Open SUNY website
(http://open.suny.edu/) for further information and
participate in discussion.
Seamless Transfer Initiative
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•
Fall 2013 Plenary, Sense of the Senate resolution
asking the Executive Committee to produce a
resolution regarding curricular implications of the
seamless transfer paths.
These faculty, chosen by appropriate departments
across the System (both State-Ops and Community
Colleges), are using the SUNY Learning Commons
as a communication mechanism to determine what
(if any) changes are needed to the existing paths.
START UP NY
• Concern about the lack of consideration of SUNY
and academic mission in the public discourse.
• Pushing for faculty governance groups to be
involved in the development of campus plans.
• Jason Lane, Vice Provost, is co-chair of the System
working group that evaluates the acceptability of
campus plans.
Teacher Education
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•
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The Board of Trustees resolution on admissions
standards for teacher education programs is not
acceptable to the Faculty Senate.
The Interim Provost says that a data-driven
examination of the relationship between grades and
teacher effectiveness will be on the agenda of a
Provost’s Advisory Committee on Teacher
Education.
Still a May 2014 edTPA implementation deadline.
LICH (Long Island City Hospital) and
SUNY Downstate
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•
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At present, even if SUNY were to exit the operation of
the Long Island College Hospital within 60 days, the
potential liabilities exceed $600 million.
Around half of this can be offset by a sale of the LICH
properties, but SUNY would still be left with potential
liabilities of at least $300 million.
Governor considering possible “tax” on campus
budgets, on available IFR funds, or even through a
student fee.
What does this mean for us?
• Unclear yet, it will depend on what happens with a
SUNY appeal to the court case initiated by de Blasio
(Mayor of NYC) that prohibits SUNY from laying off
employees from LICH, which currently has 1400
employees.
Governor’s Initiatives
• Most prominent is the call to establish a SUNY
College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland
Security, and Cybersecurity.
• He also announced the intention to offer full
scholarships to SUNY to students who have
graduated in the top 10% of their class, major in a
STEM field, and agree to work in New York for at
least 5 years after graduation.
Resolutions
• Resolution on Seamless Transfer Paths
• Request for broader review of “core courses”
• Passed unanimously
• Proposed Resolution on the Status of the New York State
College of Ceramics
• Passed unanimously
• Resolution requesting participation of Alfred University
and Cornell University in the process of recognizing
SUNY faculty for distinguished achievement
• Passed unanimously
• Resolutions link
Sector Sessions: University Colleges
• Issues that were mentioned by various campuses included:
• Teacher Education standards-unclear about requirements and
assessment process, how do you balance diversity (racial,
socioeconomic) with standards.
• Most commonly: Seamless Transfer.
• Some campuses have completed Gen Ed changes, some have done surveys
on their campuses to see how seamless transfer will effect their majors.
• So, many still working on gen ed and seamless transfer, but most campuses
have a general education committee in place and we are starting from
scratch.
• Concern about Open SUNY and how it will affect residential
campuses.
SUNY Board of Trustees Chair:
Carl McCall
• Mission to provide high quality education services:
oversight, policy, advocacy. Principles of transparency and
accountability (meetings are web cast).
• Nine board committees (for example):
• Academic Affairs (Seamless Transfer, General Education, Stem
initiative, Open SUNY),
• Academic Medical Centers and Hospitals (Long Island City
Hospital purchased under Patterson)
• Union and NYC Mayor court action that prohibits lay offs, but
argues that SUNY needs to convince Mayor to find a solution-i.e.
sell hospital and it would offer some services but bulk of
buildings would be sold and made into condos.
Diversity Matters – Noelle Chaddock Paley, SUNY
Cortland and Phillip Ortiz, Empire State College
• Report sent out Spring 2013
• Making Diversity Count
• Suggestions for campuses:
• Establish a Standing Diversity Committee in your Governance
Body
• Establishing an Office of Diversity that reports to the campus
President and Executive Governing Body
• Develop a campus diversity plan central to the Strategic Plan
• Mapping and assessing diversity outcomes (course and
degree programs, student life, etc).
• Conference in fall to work with faculty on increasing
diversity in classrooms.
• Grant of Excellence in Diversity and Academic
Excellence (SUNY Diversity Office)
SUNY Networks of Excellence– Timothy Killeen,
President SUNY Research Foundation
• Networks of Excellence- one year old, adopted by Governor
to network faculty across campuses for research and
development.
• Five Networks: 4E-Energy, Economics, Education,
Environment ($1M in seed funding for this area), Health
(accelerate drug design), Brain (revolutionize approaches to
brain activity), Materials and Advance Manufacturing
(medical health, military, transportation), Arts and
Humanities (bridge the gap between research in Arts and
Sciences).
• Social Scientists will be involved in all five of the networksnot as a sixth network, but as a co-designers.
SUNY Budget Report – Robert Haelen,
Interim CFO
• Asked for $98m state support for contractual costs, fringe
benefits; $12m to cover initiatives ($6m for OPEN SUNY,
$2m for SUNY Innovators, $2m for university-life
programs).
• In addition, $95m in tuition revenue; $15m for
stabilization – 11% increase in state support and $9.4m
for statutory college costs.
• In executive budget: didn't receive additional $$ for
contractual costs; did get $95m for tuition and $15m for
stabilization appropriation.
Budget, con’d
• Put in robust capital plan, and tried to get funding for
multi-year basis. For state op campuses, $500m in
critical maintenance (bonded, subject to cash
disbursement);
• Last year, in budget process, expected $1.7 gap for 201415.
• Closed gap through debt-savings, unexpected cash
revenues
• Governor has identified where to spend this: universal pre-K,
property tax exemption; STEM scholarships.
• Will ask for $$ for additional capital funding.
Provost Report - Elizabeth Bringsjord,
Interim Provost
• Seamless Transfer collaborative-MTP, waivers, policy FAQ,
Transfer Paths (added 1153 faculty for further vetting of
paths-SUNY Learning Commons-opened Friday),
deadlines for full implementation for fall 2014.
• Degree Planning and audit-100% offering customized
track through Degree Works.
• Teacher and Leader Education Network (S-Ten), funding
campus pilots of clinically-rich practices, also serve
educators already in the field, ed-tpa exams,
• Provost’s advisory council on teacher preparation-model
guidelines for teacher preparation programs.
Interim Provost Report, con’d
• Graduate Education-Data Brief (on website-January
2014)
• Graduation Data 40% health professions
• Stem 25%
• Growth in minority 11%
• Collaborative programs-modest, but growing
• 10% in top 50 of U.S. News and World Reports
• Student Achievement Measure (SAM)
• Online tool for student retention and completion,
outcomes of students who attend multiple institutions.
• Power of SUNY Refresh
• Setting goals for next 5 years
• Initial, Trustee-led conversations have begun
Faculty Council of Community
Colleges - Tina Good, President
• Voluntary Framework Accountability (SAM)-looking into it for
community colleges.
• Issue of childcare-working with Student Assembly, lobbying for
childcare at community colleges, which was cut in recent
budget (educating two generations at one time).
• Academic freedom statement-some faculty and administrators
are unclear of what is academic freedom and what is not.
• Lots of turn over of Presidents at Community Colleges. Working
on evaluation of presidents.
• Concern about credit limit on AAS degrees, shouldn’t have
limits in seamless transfer.
Jamie Dangler, Vice President for Academic
Affairs
• Funding for basic operating held flat, about 2m in cuts
such as EOP, Advanced Technology Training labs, etc.
• Hospital situation is bad, not just in Brooklyn, pilot
program to privatize hospitals.
• State not funding our raises, so it has to come out of
campus operating budgets.
• edTPA-certification requirement for student teachers,
performance assessment, May 2014 implementation date.
• Developed a UUP task force for teacher education. It is estimated
that 40% of students will fail the exam. Not enough time or clear
criteria given in time to prepare students for the exam. One
campus had students take it in the fall and 50% failed.
Committee Reports
• Diversity Committee – Noelle Chaddock Paley
• Ethics Committee – Carlie Phipps
• Governance Committee – Shelly Mozlin
• Graduate and Research Committee – Rebecca Marinoff
• Operations Committee – Ed Warzala
• Programs and Awards Committee – Dennis Showers
• Student Life Committee – Kelley Donaghy
• Undergraduate Committee – Barbara Brabetz
• Link to Reports