FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of February 9, 2005
(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 9, 2005, in 567 Capen Hall to consider the following agenda:

1. Approval of the minutes of January 26, 2005
2. Report of the Chair
3. Report of the President/Provost
4. Issues related to graduate education – B. McCombe, M. Thompson
5. Report on the Personal Safety Committee – J. Grela, M. Kramer
6. Old/New business
7. Executive session (if needed)
8. Adjournment

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of January 26, 2005

The minutes were approved as distributed.

Item 2: Report of the Chair

Chair Nickerson reported:

• The UB2020 Interim Report is now available on the Provost’s Web page at http://www.buffalo.edu/ub2020/progress/interimreport.pdf
• Faculty Senate committees are still working on issues assigned to them, so none are ready to report. Suggestions for FSEC agenda items will be appreciated.

Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

None

Item 4: Issues related to graduate education – B. McCombe, M. Thompson

Vice Provost & Dean of the Graduate School Bruce McCombe has been in his new position since January 1st. He said he had applied for the position largely because of his interest in increasing the stipend paid to graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Thanks to financial support from Provost Tripathi, TA stipends will be increased by $2,000.00 beginning this coming fall semester. Additional increases will be needed for UB to become competitive with a group of comparable institutions, however. Higher stipends not only serve to attract better qualified TAs to UB, but they also influence our ability to recruit faculty and produce better research and creative activity.

Another of Dean McCombe’s priorities will be reimplementing program reviews. Most graduate programs have not undergone a comprehensive review in many years, so it’s time to evaluate them and take a look at how they compare with programs at other institutions. He’ll coordinate with Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Ryan to include undergraduate programs in the review process. It will be a lot of work, but self-study provides much useful qualitative information. We’ll use three external reviewers for each program, and plan to do eight programs each year beginning in the fall.

The Graduate School will also be assessing UB’s postdoctoral programs. There hasn’t been any attempt to coordinate them, so no one knows how many there are or how much they’re all being paid. We’ll be identifying them, and perhaps creating an office to coordinate postdoctoral faculty. They make important contributions, and we want to enhance the postdoctoral experience.

Questions & comments:

• External reviewers should be paid a reasonable stipend. This has not always been the practice, but we shouldn’t embarrass UB by offering a shamefully low sum. (Schack)
• Will reviews of professional schools be tied to accreditation requirements? (Danford)
• Yes, professional school reviews will be coordinated with accreditation information. We’ll try to minimize the amount of extra work involved. (McCombe)

Item 5: Report on the Personal Safety Committee – J. Grela, M. Kramer

John Grela, Director of UB’s Department of Public Safety, chairs the Personal Safety Committee. Professor Kramer is the faculty representative on the committee. Their mandate, which began at the state level and is now federal per the Crime Awareness & Campus Security Act of 1990, is to look at safety issues affecting the university.

During the past year, the Department of Public Safety has been instrumental in improving and upgrading lighting in and around buildings, parking lots, and walkways. Putnam Way lights were recently upgraded, and plans are underway to increase lighting around crosswalks from all student residence areas.

A system for posting police alerts warning of serious crimes in an area has been implemented.

Additional blue light phones have been installed bringing the total between the two campuses to 54. They are expensive, but research has shown that they significantly enhance a sense of personal security when they are situated in the line of sight.

The Department of Public Safety works closely with Environmental Health & Safety, local fire officials, and the City of Buffalo police to protect people and property, solve crimes, and make UB a safe place to work and study. Their “Annual Security Report” is available on the Web at http://www.public-safety.buffalo.edu/report.shtml.

Item 6: Old/New business

None

Item 7: Executive session (if needed)

None.

Item 8: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Will Hepfer
Secretary of the Faculty Senate

Attendance (P = present; E = excused; A = absent)

Chair: P. Nickerson (P)
Secretary: W. Hepfer (P)
Architecture & Planning: GS. Danford (P)
Arts & Sciences: S. Bruckenstein (A), M. Churchill (E), J. Faran (P), S. Schack (P), K. Takeuchi (P)
Dental Medicine: M. Donley (P)
Education: X. Liu (A)
Engineering & Applied Sciences: C. Basaran (P), J. Jensen (P)
Informatics: J. Ellison (P)
Institutional/General: O. Mixon (A)
Law: L. Swartz (A)
Management: C. Pegels (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: J. Evans (A), L. Harris (A), J. Hassett (A)
Nursing: P. Wooldridge (A)
Pharmacy: G. Brazeau (A)
Public Health & Health Professions: C. Crespo (A)
Social Work: Barbara Rittner (A)
SUNY Senators: W. Baumer (P), W. Coles (P), M. Kramer (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries: C. Tysick (P)
University officers: S. Tripathi


Guests: P. Balzano (SA), B. Burke (EDAAA), M. Cochrane (Reporter), J. Grela (Public Safety), L. Labinski (Prof. Staff Senate), B. McCombe (Grad. School), M. Thompson (Grad. School)

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