FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of January 25, 2012

Present:

•  FSEC approved the minutes of December 7, 2011.

 

•  Chair’s Report (Ezra Zubrow)

• Zubrow attended the Governor’s speech at the Convention Center where Cuomo spoke about the $1 billion grant to Buffalo.  Jobs, public education, and fiscal discipline are among the Governor’s priorities.
• Zubrow is still setting up Faculty Senate committees.
• He worked on the Middle State accreditation process, and on the change of Graduate School rules.
  
• Interim Provost’s Report (Bruce McCombe)

 

• The transition from Harvey Stenger to McCombe was smooth.  McCombe worked closely with Stenger throughout December 2011.  McCombe will not change priorities as an Interim Provost, but will work towards streamlining and improving procedures and processes.
• The Governor’s Budget is the best the University has seen in a number of years providing stable funding for SUNY.  Promises made in the NYSUNY 2020 legislation are kept.  It includes 3.1 million for collective bargaining obligations, maintains TAP funding, and allocates $215 million for construction of the downtown medical school.

 

The Budget also has negative factors.

• It calls for the disbandment of MCER.  The University will develop a plan to deal with this.
• It reduces RIA funding.

 

• Expectations are that UB deliver on enrollment goals, improve the undergraduate experience, and hire additional faculty.
• The new SUNY budget model is unfavorable towards UB and Stony Brook.  It re-distributes research moneys throughout the system making it difficult for UB to meet the above expectations.  McCombe and Sean Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Academic Planning and Budget, will discuss this with SUNY officials, as will President Tripathi and Samuel Stanley, Stony Brook’s President.
• 3E Proposals:  The University will announce a new round of 3E proposals in March.  It will include more precise evaluation measures.  UB allocated $3 million to fund 16 proposals from the previous cycle.   Enrollment must meet expectations to fund adequately future 3E proposals.  It is currently below expectations.  McCombe was not more specific.
• Shared Services:  Shared services will be a major topic of discussion at the forthcoming SUNY Faculty Senate Plenary meeting. The consensus among FSEC is that the Chancellor’s Office has not considered carefully its implications to SUNY University Centers. A six person committee that has three representatives each from UB and Buffalo State College discuss shared services at the local level.  Neither Faculty Senate has representation on this committee.

• UB Foundation (UBF) (Edward Schneider, Executive Director)

 

• Like most public universities, UB has two units for public and private funding.  The UB Foundation deals with private funding.  It has approximately $900 million in resources, $500 million in endowments and $400 in other assets.  Income last year was $240 million.  The UB Foundation is the largest among SUNY schools, but it is relatively small compared with peer institutions. 
• Replenishing funds for future projects is a priority.  Selected recent activities include:

• Financing construction of campus apartments and Griener Hall. 
• Financing purchase of the downtown Gateway Building.  (Public funds support construction of the new EOC facility adjacent to the Gateway building.)
• Acquiring the right of first refusal if the owners of McCarley Gardens decide to sell their property.

 

• Responding to Zubrow’s question, Schneider said the Foundation will help the University complete the downtown Medical School project in the event of a funding shortfall.  Schneider expects the new Medical School to be open within 5 years.
• Martha McCluskey questioned Schneider about UBF’s transparency in light of Art Voice’s law suit to force the Foundation to release documents under the Freedom of Information Law.  The court ruled UBF is exempt from FOIL requirements.  Meetings are not open to the public and minutes are unavailable publicly.  Schneider stated that public availability of annual IRS 990 filings and information on the Web site satisfies responsibilities for transparency.  Moreover, he emphasized that the new conflict of interest policy promulgated by the Chancellor for foundations associated with SUNY schools is based upon that developed by UBF.

• Schneider justified several recent UBF activities discussed on a listserv.

 

• A SUNY audit found that UBF followed fair and consistent practices when supplementing Presidential salary.
• Schneider said that a recent construction project awarded to the Ciminalli company is appropriate because it went through a public bidding process. 

• Zubrow invited UBF to participate in the Faculty Senate’s project to create a privacy policy.
• Schneider will attend a subsequent FSEC meeting to continue the conversation.

 

• Report of the Faculty Senate Academic Planning Committee (Diane Christian-- Chair, accompanied by Scott Weber, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education)

• Christian spoke about the Honors College.  There is a good pool of candidates for the position of College Director.  This individual should be a leader who maximizes opportunities for the College to interact with other parts of the University.   After asking if other parts of the University will have input into the selection process, Christian said no to avoid embarrassing unsuccessful internal candidates.  Scott Weber emphasized that all schools/colleges have representation on the search committee.  The position will be filled by the summer.
• Weber stated that the University will create an enrollment management office.  Progress undergraduates achieve towards meeting general education requirements at different stages of their education is a concern of his office.

 

Prepared by
Edward Herman,
Secretary to the Faculty Senate

 

 

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