University Senate Executive Committee
Monday December 2, 2013
2:45 PM
UNH 306
Christine Wagner, Senate Chair
Minutes
Present:
Deborah Bernnard, Susanna Fessler, Richard Fogarty, Elizabeth Gaffney, Yenisel Gulatee, Caitlin
Janiszewski, Danielle Leonard, Andi Lyons, John Monfasani, Susan Phillips, John Schmidt, Joette
Stefl-Mabry, Christine Wagner, Carolyn MacDonald
The meeting convened at 2:47
APPROVAL OF SEC MINUTES
The minutes of November 4 were approved with three abstentions.
PROVOST’S REPORT – SUSAN PHILLIPS
Provost Phillips reported that Meredith McQuaid, Associate Vice President and Dean of International Programs at
the University of Minnesota, visited our campus as part of an external review of the campus internationalization
agenda. She will submit her report as part of a self-study. Recommendations are expected to be submitted to the
president by the end of January. The Confucius Institute will be fully inaugurated on our campus on Wednesday,
December 4 and we will host a delegation from Southwest University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) of
Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The University at Albany is the last of the university centers in the SUNY
system to bring the Confucius Institute to its campus.
The seamless transfer policy passed by the Board of Trustees has encountered some implementation concerns. The
SUNY provost is making attempts to resolve by assembling teams of discipline faculty from across the SUNY
system to address issues about what should be in the transfer process in individual disciplines (such as history or
physics for example). UAlbany has been invited to participate and is in the process of working with Senate
leadership about who will participate. Provost Phillips said UAlbany will volunteer to take the lead on
coordinating discussions on biology, business and criminal justice. The process will continue over the next two
months.
Provost Phillips provided a handout related to President Jones’ vision for the campus, including the four stakes in
the ground mentioned in his inaugural address. The handout provides a snapshot of actions and steps to
implementation of the initiatives.
Regulations for Start-Up NY were made available about two weeks ago. Our campus has a group working on our
plan, including an academic component. Provost Phillips provided a draft of our plan that has been submitted the
NYS Empire State Development Corporation. The plan addresses issues such how business will be aligned with
our academic mission and how the mission will be furthered; how businesses will create a positive impact on our
initiatives regarding community engagement and economically distressed regions; identifying space and land for
businesses and the selection process of businesses. She has been working with the UPPC in the development of
the academic component of the plan, and invited the SEC to provide feedback within two weeks. The initiative is
scheduled to begin on January 1 but Provost Phillips said she did not expect that we would be able to receive
applications until at least the end of January.
Provost Phillips addressed a number of questions from SEC members about the Start-Up NY plan.
Q: Is there a list of potential organizations or businesses that are interested or that we may pursue?
A: The governor has invited businesses who are interested. For our campus, Michael H. Shimazu, Associate Vice
President for Business Partnerships and Economic Development, will be the first stop on our campus for consider
which businesses will be compatible for our needs.
Q: What does total confidentiality refer to under the section on Confidentiality?
A: This has to do with confidentiality of the review process. Companies may not want competitors to know to
know about their plans or operations, nor about a prospective relationship with the University at Albany.
Q: Will campus plans be reviewed individually?
A: The approval process encourages campuses to submit their plans early and also allows for altering plans in the
future.
Q: Is there a plan to deal with overlapping campuses?
A: Vincent Delio from the President’s Office responded. He said there are thousands of campuses being afforded
the opportunity to operate tax free and did not believe there will be competition between campuses.
Q: Is there a strategy to keep our proposal diversified and not concentrated in one discipline?
A: There has been discussion about how we might be able to have designated slots for varied activity that would
include enterprises such as nonprofits.
Q: Does the law contain any provision that would prevent businesses from moving jobs or recruiting faculty?
A: Mr. Delio responded that there are protections in place.
Q: A reference was made to the accelerated decision-making process which has the potential to expedite an
agreement between the university and a business. Is it the president or a business that gets to decide to expedite
the decision making process?
A: Provost Phillips said she believed it would be the president’s prerogative.
UNIVERSITY SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – CHRISTINE WAGNER
The Fall Faculty Meeting was held Thursday, November 7 th. President Jones presented a report to the faculty and bestowed the
Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence.
Regarding Seamless Transfer Implementation, at the request of the SUNY Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor, Elizabeth L. Bringsjord,
the Provost, Susan Phillips, together with the University Senate Chair, Christine Wagner and the Assistant Vice Provost for
Undergraduate Education, have identified a faculty representative for each transfer path applicable to our campus to participate in the path
review.
President Jones has officially formed the Campus Advisory Committee (CAC) following formal consultation with the Senate. The CAC
consists of 15 members, 8 of whom were recommended by the Senate, according to procedures of formal consultation. The CAC will
advise the President as he works with the SUNY Implementation Team to develop the new relationship between UAlbany and CNSE. The
members of the CAC are:
 Jim Acker, Criminal Justice
 Bob Andrea, Academic Affairs
 Steve Beditz, Finance & Business












Brett Benjamin, English
Christine Bouchard, Student Success
Nick Butler, Student Association
John Giarrusso, Finance & Business
Terry Harrison, Communication
Caitlin Janiszewski, Graduate Student Association
Carolyn MacDonald, Physics
David McCaffrey, Public Administration and Policy
Lee McElroy, Athletics
John Pipkin, Geography & Planning
Christine Wagner, Psychology and Senate Chair
Richard Zitomer, Biology
OTHER REPORTS
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) –Danielle Leonard, J. Philippe Abraham & John Schmidt,
SUNY Senators
165th Plenary Fall Meeting
October 24-26, 2013
SUNY Maritime
Attended by UAlbany’s Philippe Abraham, Danielle Leonard, and John Schmidt
Outlined below are a few of the issues that were discussed at the Plenary that most impact UAlbany. Many of these initiatives are rapidly
evolving and require careful consideration at the campus level.
Teacher Educator Preparation Programs:
The Board of Trustees passed a resolution aligning SUNY policies in our schools of education with recommendations as yet unfinalized
from the Governor’s New NY Education Reform Commission. This includes a minimum 3.0 or top 30% of high school class entrance
requirement; use of GRE and SAT scores required for admission; comparative report card of student results; and 35% of professional
course credits in clinical practice. Deans of Education schools were given a few days’ notice to provide feedback, but no such opportunity
was presented to the UFS or the Faculty Council of Community Colleges.
The UFS passed two resolutions on this issue. The first decries the passage of the BoT Resolution without consultation. The second calls
for a Task Force on Predictive Indicators of Teacher Candidate Quality to gather new data and to analyze the new and existing data to
determine effective indicators of teacher candidate success by June 30 th 2014. It also calls for a delay in the implementation until this data
can be examined further.
Start Up New York:
The legislation was passed by the Legislature in June 2013 with only a few days’ advanced notice. Campus Presidents have been told to
deliver some “wins” for the Governor by January, and several are prepared to do so. Suggested talking points for Campus Governance
with Presidents and/ or other senior leaders include:




How does the plan align with the academic mission of the campus?
What is in it for the campus? Will there be economic benefits from the arrangement that can enhance the academic mission?
Will there be internship or co-op opportunities for students that will enhance their experiential education? Will there be
opportunities for faculty to enhance their research through interactions with the companies?
o It’s implied that any offering of jobs to students would meet the “academic mission” provision, but it was noted that this
hardly seems to actually support the academic mission of an institution.
Insist that the faculty need to be consulted on the nature of this alignment before the plan is finalized, not simply informed of the
result, if it is to be meaningful and gain faculty support.
Insist that consultation needs to be done with elected faculty leadership. i.e. The University Senate.
There is an aggressive timeline for implementation with a January 2014 start date. We were told that campuses have submitted their core
academic competencies and that this information could be found on the start-up NY website but no such information was found. Campus
Governance bodies were encouraged by the architect of this law, James Malatras, to be assertive in understanding and questioning the
plans of our respective campuses. Campus plans can be amended.
SUNY Shared Services:
The shared services initiative moves forward rapidly this year with focus on six “back-room” areas designed to save money across the
system (including purchasing, IT, and others). This initiative likely will continue to produce some tensions between campus autonomy
and “systemness”, although the emphasis has shifted to sharing of items for which savings can be made at scale.
Open SUNY:
Several pieces of the broad Open SUNY initiative will roll out in January. The UFS is establishing an Ad Hoc Committee on Open
SUNY. This group will report to the Senate on emerging issues related to Open SUNY, and thus will complement the Provost’s Advisory
Committee on Open SUNY. The significance of the Open SUNY initiative, its potential for both good and bad outcomes, and the
aggressive timetable all converged to demand a separate UFS committee.
SUNY signed a contract with Coursera over the summer to use their platform for MOOCs, should campuses and faculty wish, and this has
given Stony Brook the opportunity to offer a MOOC this fall, with credit restricted to matriculated SB students. SUNY has yet to work
out a mechanism for approval, oversight, credit, transfer, use of other institutions’ MOOC offerings, campus versus System control, etc.
But MOOCs are only one part of the initiative. Prior Learning Assessment, expansion of online courses and online degrees, crossregistration of courses to allow students from one campus to seamlessly take an online course from another—these are just a few of the
other elements.
Seamless Transfer/ Student Mobility:
Seamless Transfer is now in the implementation stage and is essentially a campus governance issue.
The development of the initiative was essentially completed by the formal delivery of the Memorandum to Presidents early in the
summer. This year, campuses are expected to review their programs (majors, transfer information) to align with the seamless transfer
requirements, with preliminary reports due by the end of January. This clearly should involve considerable faculty input, all the way down
to the department level. Yet there remain differences in interpretation, with the Interim Provost insisting that areas in the MTP that say
campuses “should” adjust programs to include Transfer Path courses really means a requirement (i.e. a required or core curriculum);
that’s not how the UFS and Student Mobility Steering Committee read the wording of the MTP. This means that the transfer pathway
courses are the same as those demanded of native students in any program and the process of determining what should be in the path is
unfolding quickly. Under the current timeline, programs must be compliant by Fall 2014 and must be pushed through campus governance
this year, probably an unrealistic expectation.
UA-CNSE Separation:
The UA-CNSE Separation came up in two reports, although there was no substantive discussion of either report at the Plenary.
From the President’s Report: The Chancellor has set up a number of administrative workgroups to sort out various issues in the
separation. These groups lack faculty membership, and I have met with the CGL at UAlbany and the equivalent faculty member
at CNSE to ensure that they are aware of the process and can be certain to provide appropriate input.
From the Governance Council Report: A conference call has been scheduled between 2 members of the UFS Governance
Committee and 2 representatives from CNSE. They are asking for a review of their governance related documents, if more help
is needed, the Governance Committee will be happy to provide it.
Announcements:
BOT Forums: There are 4 upcoming BoT Forums on different topics:
1. November 13th: Student Success
2. November 25th: The Changing Student Experience in the 21st Century
3. December 3rd:
The Future of Research and Innovation
4. December 4th:
What it Means to be a Public University in NYS
Times and Locations to be announced.
SUNY’s First Conference on Shared Governance: April 23-24, 2014 at the Albany Holiday Inn on Wolf Road. Proposals will be
accepted through January 15, 2014.
Graduate Student Organization Report – Caitlin Janiszewski, President
The GSA is currently continuing with several projects including the opening of a new office at the Downtown campus, moving our
financial process online, re-writing our bylaws, and of course our programming agenda.
As President I recently attended the SUNY SA conference where I presented our resolution to support raising of adjunct pay. But the
resolution was at the end of the agenda and other business left us with little time to discuss the issue. As a result, the resolution was tabled
until the spring conference. Also, the SUNY SA requested a report from the GSA Wages and Benefits Committee regarding the topic so
that the discussion could be more informed. The W&B is going to begin work on this soon.
Our MCAA chair has also announced his resignation and we are facilitating the election of a new chair at the next assembly meeting.
Several people have expressed serious interest so we anticipate a relatively smooth transition.
At its next meeting on December 6, the GSA will propose to the Assembly that its executive board be expanded to include a
communications director and a sustainability director. This will be a pilot program for the spring semester. The downtown
office located in the basement of Draper Hall is not yet opened for business pending installation of computer and phone
hookups.
SA (Student Association) –Nick Butler, Student Association Representative
Nothing to report
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE CHAIRS’ REPORTS
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Deborah Bernnard, Chair
The Council on Academic Assessment met today and reviewed a report from the Academic Program Review Committee on the Spanish
Program Assessment Review. Both Council subcommittees provided an overview of the work that they will be undertaking during the
remainder of the academic year.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility) –
Susanna Fessler, Chair
Nothing to report
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – Carolyn MacDonald, Chair
Chair Wagner reported that Chair MacDonald would like to step down as chair by the end of the semester. Susanna Fessler
has been nominated as chair but she is not a continuing members. Other nominations have been solicited but none have been
received. Professor Fessler is willing to run and serve as chair if the SEC agrees to approve her chairing the committee even
though she is not a continuing member. There were no objections from the SEC. Chair Wagner said her name would be put
forth as the nominee for chair.
COR (Council on Research) – John Monfasani, Chair
COR discussed at length in its November 22nd meeting significant changes to the FRAP A guidelines and plans to vote on the final
wording of these changes in its December meeting. The changes will take effect in the 2014-15 academic year.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Sanjay Putrevu, Chair
The next CPCA meeting is on Nov. 22.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Ronald Toseland, Chair
The GAC met on Friday, November 15th and worked on three items.
At the meeting the GAC Committee on Admissions & Academic Standing (CA&AS) reported about its meeting on 10/30/13 to consider a
student petition for an exception to a University graduate policy. CA&AS recommended that the student petition be granted after
contacting the advisor at the School of Business. The GAC approved the CA&AS’s recommendation.
The Committee on Curriculum & Instruction reported on their deliberations regarding a minor change to the Doctor of Public Health
course of study. The Committee recommended that that the program changes be granted and the GAC approved.
The GAC reviewed a proposal to establish a Certificate Program in Health & Human Rights. The GAC approved the proposal contingent
upon minor modifications.
GOV (Governance Council) – Joette Stefl-Mabry, Chair
Chair Stefl-Mabry reported that GOV met today and approved the following resolution concerning the Senate seats vacated
by CNSE Senate members:
In accordance with Article II, Section 2.3.2 of the Bylaws and SUNY Board of Trustees policies;
Whereas the Board of Trustees has voted to separate CNSE from the University at Albany and all CNSE senators have
resigned from the University Senate, therefore be it resolved that the CNSE Senate seats remain vacant through spring 2014
and return to the pool of senators for reapportionment as per the Bylaws.
CERS Chair MacDonald asked if the resolution needs Senate approval. Chair Wagner said it would go to the Senate but
reapportionment will be based on the number of faculty in the schools and colleges.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Elizabeth Gaffney, Chair
The LISC committees have had their first meetings and selected chairs. There is a LISC meeting scheduled for November 25th, 2013.
Chair Gaffney reported that LISC met on November 25. Chief Information Officer Christine Haile gave a presentation on
existing problems with wireless service on campus. One of the problems concerns peak usage at different times during the
day. A plan is in place to makes upgrades where lapses exist and resources are available to address those areas.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – Richard Fogarty, Chair
The council has approved and will be introducing two pieces of legislation to the Senate at its 9 December meeting: a proposal to
discontinue the current Faculty-Initiated Interdisciplinary Major (BA) in Informatics and in its place implement a new, fully-registered
major in Informatics (BS); and a proposal to create a major in Digital Forensics (BS). The council also approved a revision to the
Faculty-Initiated Interdisciplinary Major (BS) in Financial Market Regulation. Since this is a revision of an existing program, a power
delegated to UAC by the Senate Charter, senate approval is not necessary. The council is, however, carrying out its duty, stipulated in the
Charter, to report such actions to the Executive Committee and Senate. Additionally, UAC has approved a change to the academic
regulation pertaining to undergraduate declaration of major. Students will now be required to declare a major by the time they have
earned 56 credits (junior status), rather than the 42-credit threshold previously stipulated in the Undergraduate Bulletin. The approved
proposal to revise the major in Financial Market Regulation and the new declaration of major policy are appended to this report.
ULC (University Life Council) – Michael Jaromin, Chair
At the November 25th ULC meeting we hosted Charlie Voelker from Athletics and Stephen Pearse from UAS who informed the
committee on recent developments in their areas respectively.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – Andi Lyons, Chair
UPPC met on Friday, November 22. The Provost presented UPPC with some draft documents for review and input, as the START-UP
NY Program Plan nears initial completion. We reviewed and approved proposals for two new degree programs, Informatics (BS) and
Digital Forensics (BS), from the resource allocation/campus impact perspective. Additionally, Karen Chico-Hurst presented the current
draft versions of the proposed 2015-16 academic calendar for UPPC’s review and discussion. The Council’s next meeting is scheduled
for Friday, December 13, at 1pm.
Chair Lyons reported that UPPC reviewed the proposals from UAC and did not see any resource implications. In its review
of the 2014-2015 academic calendar, it appears there will be a break in mid-March although not likely in February.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Support Staff Transition
Chair Wagner reviewed the discussion that took place at the last meeting. The matter concerns a request from
incoming support staff Elisa Lopez to utilize a recorder at meetings during her training. Chair Wagner said the
recording would be destroyed after minutes have been completed and would be used on a temporary basis. She
asked for feedback from SEC members. Senator Janiszewski gave full support of the idea. She said it is done
successfully at Student Association meetings. She suggested that in order to achieve a clear recording at the
Senate meetings, people should speak into a microphone. A discussion ensued about portions of meetings that
should not be recorded and whether the matter should be put before the Senate. Senate meetings are open
meetings and have been attended by members of the media in the past. GOV Chair Stefl-Mabry referred to the
Open Meetings Law which allows for public meetings to be recorded and permission to do so is not required.
Since Senate meeting are open to the public, the SEC agreed to the recording of meetings and did not feel the
matter needed further review.
NEW BUSINESS
Bill 1314-01: Proposal to Create a Bachelor of Science Degree in Informatics (UAC)
UAC Chair Fogarty led the discussion on the proposal. The proposal is an overall of the faculty initiated
interdisciplinary major in Information Science. The current degree program is not registered with SUNY and
exists only as far as this campus is concerned. The new program will be registered and changed from a BA to a BS
degree.
CERS Chair MacDonald said one of the elective courses was cross listed with a Physics course. Chair Fogarty
said he would need to know which course it was. Chair Wagner suggested the matter could be resolved outside of
the meeting. CAA Chair Bernnard inquired about other resource issues. UPPC Chair Lyons said the Provost and
CCI have committed their support and resources. Chair Bernnard wanted to know if any library resources have
been committed. Chair Fogarty said since the proposal involves and existing major with revisions to the
curriculum, there were no new requests and did not believe there would be additional resource implications. He
asked for a motion to forward the proposal to the Senate. Chair Wagner asked if there were any additional
concerning for forwarding the proposal to the Senate, assuming a letter from the Physics Department is sent
concerning the cross listed course. UPPC Chair Lyons asked if the proposal will be forwarded to SUNY for
approval. Chair Fogarty said once all of the approvals were made on this campus it would be forwarded to SUNY.
There was no further debate and the motion to forward the proposal to the Senate was approved a unanimous vote.
Bill 1314-02: Proposal for Undergraduate Academic Programs Leading to the B.S. in Digital Forensics
UAC Chair Fogarty led the discussion on the proposal. He said there have been some updates since the proposal
was sent to SEC members including corrections of clerical errors and additional course action forms. He said
those would accompany the version that gets sent with the Senate agenda. COR Chair Monfasani inquired about
the program being housed in the School of Business. Chair Fogarty responded that most cybercrime occurs in
business. He said the program is also interdisciplinary with the School of Criminal Justice. Chair Fogarty added
that much of the faculty expertise on the topic comes from the School of Business. There was no further
discussion. A motion was made and seconded to forward the proposal to the Senate. The motion was approved
unanimously by a vote.
Bill 1314-03: Department of Reading Name Change
Chair Wagner received the request from the Reading Department to change the name to the Department of
Literacy, Teaching and Learning. According to the Bylaws, department name changes do not require Senate
approval but the Senate should be consulted. Based on that, Chair Wagner submitted the request in the form of a
bill to the SEC. She has also forwarded the bill to the University Registrar Karen Chico Hurst for review by the
academic structure committee (Chris—not sure I heard the name of this committee correctly). Chair Wagner
indicated she would need a response from the Registrar and the committee before the bill gets forwarded to the
Senate.
SEC members debated whether or not the request rose to the level of an actionable item to be forwarded to the
Senate in the form of a bill, if it should go to another council or if it could be reported in the Chair’s report to the
Senate. If the issue of the department name change is presented as a bill, Chair Wagner asked SEC if it should go
to GAC. CAFFECoR Chair Fessler said if that were the case, GAC would most likely add it to their report and
indicate that they consulted with the SEC. If the item is not submitted in the form of a bill, Chair Wagner asked
what form of consultation should take place since actionable items should be brought to the floor. She said the
other option would be to add it to her report. Chair Fessler felt it would be sufficient for this particular name
change to have it reported in the Senate Chair’s report that it was discussed by the SEC and it would meet the
criteria of formal consultation. She added that in the future the Senate Chair would send similar items to UAC or
GAC and they would serve as the formal consulting body. After further discussion, Chair Wagner said it appeared
that the item did not have to be presented as a bill but she would include it in her report that the Department of
Reading is changing its name as communicated by Dean Bangert-Drowns. The SEC approved her stated course of
action.
Charter Amendment 1314-02A: Composition of the Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments
Chair Wagner reviewed the history of the issue of CPCA being in violation of the UUP contract. Chair Wagner
has asked GOV to look at the issue, and, having done so, has drafted a Charter amendment that would limit
CPCA’s membership to teaching faculty. The draft has been forwarded to the Provost’s Office and to University
Legal Counsel. The Provost’s Office has indicated that Counsel’s Office is in the process of revising the rationale.
Since changes are likely to be made to the amendment, Chair Wagner said there would be no vote today but
proposed the draft would go back to GOV for revisions and then back to the SEC. A request was made for GOV
to review and communicate any changes to the SEC by email. GOV Chair Stefl-Mabry informed SEC that the
council is scheduled to meet again on December 16 and hope to complete the amendment at that time. Upon doing
so, the revised amendment would be forwarded to the SEC. Chair Wagner stressed the importance of disclosing
that UUP is requesting the removal of professional staff and students from the council. CAFFECoR Chair Fessler
said according to the Bylaws each council should have a student member and that changing the Charter would put
it in conflict with the Bylaws. Chair Wagner said the important issue at this point is to keep CPCA functioning.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 5:08 pm
Respectfully submitted by
Gail Cameron, Recorder