UB Faculty Senate

FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of February 20, 2008

(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, February 13, 2008, in the Jeannette Martin Room of Capen Hall (567) to discuss the following agenda:

Approval of the meetings of November 14 and 28, 2008.
Report of the Chair
Report of the President/Provost
Update on General Education Assessment Review (Mike Ryan, Dean of Undergraduate Studies & Carol Tutzauer, Director of Assessment)

Last update was at FSEC on September 6, 2006

UB developed and planned to pilot own assessment plan – What is its current plant? Any results?

Have the discipline-based review panels been formed?

Update on Search for Director of the Teaching and Learning Center
Old/New Business

Resolution: UB Recycled Paper

Executive Session (if needed)
Adjournment

Item 1: Approval of the minutes for the meetings of November 14 and 28, 2007, and January 23, 2008.

The minutes of all 3 meetings were unanimously approved.

Item 2. Report of the Chair

Toured WBFO finally on Monday 2/11; Carole Smith Petro will attend our 3/19 meeting. In the meantime, I'd like you to begin thinking about re-activating yet another of our committees, Public Service & Urban Affairs, which I would like to re-name “Community Outreach”.

Already have one faculty member eager to serve (but not as Chair);
I'm only beginning to find out just how many programs and activities we have at UB that interact with the WNY community;
This will become increasingly important in the realization of UB 2020

• i. Community support is vital

• ii. UB is expected to have a more than significant impact on the general economy and future growth of WNY

UB Council met on Tuesday, 2/12:

Officially honored Randall L. Clark for his outstanding service to UB and the community;
President Simpson spoke on the CHE report and its positive implications for UB, as well as on its flagship status;
Also delivered a presentation on “Advancing UB 2020: Strategies, Successes, Next Steps”;
Chairman Jeremy Jacobs presented a resolution supporting our flagship designation and, more importantly legislative advocacy for UB.

Prof. Baumer and I met with Vice Provost Ryan, Mick Thompson and John Ho of the Graduate School , et al, last Wednesday, 2/13, to discuss changing the wording in the Academic Grievance policies; problem centers on the messy business of bringing in outside attorneys. The wording will stipulate that we will not recognize them functioning in a legal capacity.
Governor Spitzer began a state-wide tour of the SUNY system last Wednesday in downtown Buffalo at the M. Wile building; I was asked to deliver a two-minute speech (with less than 24 hours' notice), hence the cancellation of last week's meeting.
Our Information & Library Resources Committee met on Friday; it was quite well attended, with new members (Laura Taddeo, Ed Fine, and Nathan Grant) and guests.

Chairman Steve Dyson would still like a few more representatives from the Humanities.
Discussion centered around strained resources, and the challenge of providing adequate infrastructure (books, journals, STAFF, etc) for all the faculty we plan to hire under UB 2020.
I suggested that a member of the University Libraries be added to the Budget Priorities Committee for more immediate input concerning the Libraries' plight.; it was suggested we ask Austin Booth, Director of Collections at Lockwood. She agreed, as did the Provost (yesterday) and the Chair, Howard Doueck.

As you may know, the Provost and President have officially approved and promulgated the Distance Education and Grade Change policies that the Senate discussed and forwarded last semester.
In line with our topic under Old/New Business today, the Provost's office has requested that the Senate (and by extension the FSEC) distribute all agendas and Minutes electronically instead of printing out tons of paper copies. Beth DelGenio is the new Environmental Stewardship representative for the Provost's office, and the request is in line with the Greener Shade of Blue initiative. This only makes sense, and it's something I've wanted to do for some time now. Many people don't attend Senate meetings, and reams of paper are wasted.
The new Chair of the Facilities Planning Committee, Bob Wetherhold, will be attending next week; he would like more specific charges before convening the first meeting.
I have invited SUNY Senate Chair Carl Wiezalis to speak to the Faculty Senate.

John Wilson, Chair of Exercise & Nutrition Science in PHHP, had asked Dean Lynn Koslowski to invite CW to speak to PHHP about the SUNY system, the University Faculty Senate, AND “also to fire up faculty to do more public service” --- those magic words again….
Both Lynn and Lucinda Finley suggested that such an event should be hosted by the Faculty Senate instead of PHHP alone --- I agree;
I contacted Carol Donato, we will await further news.
And speaking of the SUNY Senate à

UB will be hosting the 2009 Spring Plenary meeting of the University Faculty Senate; planned dates are April 2-4, 2009. We have placed this matter in the most capable minds and hands of the President's Office, who no doubt will make it a splendid event. And speaking of April à
Mark your calendars: APRIL 9 --- UB Wellness Awareness Day. 10-2 in Alumni Arena. “This year's event will be bigger than ever with more than 90 presentations designed to improve both your physical and mental health.” And speaking of April 9 à
April 9, I cannot be here to conduct a meeting. I will ask Carine to Chair the FSEC on 4/9;
We will need nominations for Secretary of the Faculty Senate for the 2008-2010 term.
One of our colleagues at the Assistant level has expressed concern about Teaching Evaluations --- these could prove to be particularly important for junior faculty. If they are all optional, and if response is dwindling/low, this could be detrimental. Is it time for the Senate and VPUE to re-visit this issue?

Item 3. Update on General Education Assessment Review (Mike Ryan, Dean of Undergraduate Stduies& Carol Tutzauer, Director of Assessment)

• Last update was at FSEC on September 6, 2006

• UB developed and planned to pilot own assessment plan – What is its current plant? Any results?

• Have the discipline-based review panels been formed?

Carol Tutzauer discussed the 3-year Assessment Cycles that have been completed

2005-2006 ***DONE***

Western Civilization

Other World Civilizations

Natural Sciences

Social Sciences

Information Management

2006-2007***Done***

Humanities

Arts

American History

Foreign Language

2007-2008

Basic Communication – Oral

Basic Communication – Written (SCBA –Strengthened Campus Based Assessment)

Mathematics (SCBA)

Critical Thinking (SCBA)

NSSE – National Survey of Student Engagement (SCBA--Not much time to market it so the response rates were very low)

Notes on compliance with the Strengthened Campus Based Assessment initiative:

• Some difficulty with implementation particularly for those campuses that have elected to use standardized testing and/or to develop their own assessment measures

• Still no tests have been developed for assessing mathematics, and therefore nothing against which to validate campus-developed alternatives. Also nothing for several Basic Communication outcomes (written communication – revisiting text, and the oral communication outcomes)

• Still no budget provided by SUNY campuses to cover the costs of the assessments for those campuses that are not using standard measures or the system-wide rubrics

• Departure of Patricia Francis: Dr. Francis has left SUNY Sys Admin to become Asst Provost of Assessment& Academic Initiatives at Oneonta. No replacement has been hired at this point, though Dr. Francis is doing what she can to provide continuity in the interim.

SUNY Campuses are supposed to submit their Closing-the-loop Report

UB's report is due March 1, 2010 – task force will be put into place next year

Need to review General Education program as part of the closing the loop. Plan to convene a task force during the 2008-2009 academic year for this purpose.

Status of UB's effort to pilot its own SCBA assessment plan

With no budget for the assessment initiative, have had to rethink the plan. Currently we are planning to administer the practice GRE as part of a special workshop offering covering post-graduate study and the process of graduate admissions. With no staffing for this purpose, we have been discussing the matter with existing training staff and hope to enlist the assistance of interested faculty.

Discipline-Based Review Panels

These have been forced on an ad-hoc basis according to need. Much depends on the courses sampled for assessment and the need for persons who possess expertise within the particular discipline of one closely related. Faculty have been cooperative and helpful in this regard. So far, no problems here.

Next steps:

• Assessment needs to move from reactive (SUNY-required) to proactive

• No longer sufficient to trust that we are achieving educational outcomes; we are increasingly being called on to prove it.

• With our next Middle States accreditation review in the not-too-distant future and increasing pressures at the national level for accountability in higher education, the need for assessment

• It is time for a thorough review of our general education program and for UB to identify what UB wishes its students to achieve, not simply respond to SUNY mandates. Presents and opportunity to be fore-thinking and creative, with the hope of re-envisioning general education in light of UB's role as educator, research center, and catalyst for regional revitalization.

Peter Nickerson asked that Carol review what SUNY mandates and how the process began. She explained that the Board of Trustees initially wanted a rising junior test for the Regents exam at the high school level. This was rejected by the University Faculty Senate. Negotiations ensued between the FS, the Chancellor, the Board of Trustees to try and find some way to have some kinds of assessment and accountability for the public. The University FS rejected value added things with standardized tests, so this led to more campus-based things. Common general education outcomes were negotiated systemwide to facilitate the movement of students between campuses. There was also some effort to have some of the most important outcomes such as critical thinking, maths, writing to be targeted for some special assessment and evaluation so that students could be compared nationally.

In response to a question about the general education program, Carol emphasized that one of the major things that is on the agenda is the idea of globalization and internationalization.The chair asked why the assessment review was mandated by SUNY yet no budget had been made available. Carol emphasized that she was waiting for SUNY to commit to some funding. The chair then asked about where UB stands in relation to other campuses. Carol explained that UB is a bit behind. This is our first full cycle and others have finished their second. We are the only campus that has elected to come up with our own plan though. The others have been using SUNY wide rubrics at least for some of their outcomes.

Item 4. Update on Search for Director of the Teaching and Learning Center

The chair reported that Jan 28 was thefinal day for internal posting of the job ad after which the job was advertised widely. Names were solicited. As of Feb 10, 24 active applications were in. The pool is very diverse in all aspects, the chair added, and there should be someone in place in the Fall.

Item 5. Old/New Business

Resolution: UB Recycled Paper (hand out)

The resolution drafted by Walter Simpson strongly encourages President John Simpson and the UB Administration:

• to enact a policy mandating that all 8.5 x 11 inch white copy paper must be 100% PCW processed chlorine free recycled paper.

• to ask all campus departments, units, and offices to explore opportunities within their own operations to reduce paper use in order to further reduce environmental impacts and to produce costs savings which will offset the very modest increase in paper costs which may be associated with this policy

• to ask faculty/professional staff to support this policy initiative and only purchase 100% PCW process chlorine free recycled paper and to actively explore opportunities within their own operations to reduce paper use.

Prof. Baumerargued that this newer version of the policy was more appropriate than the previous distributed copy. A question was raised about other items like toilet paper etc. that could also be mandated to be from recycled product. The chair commented that this was a start.Peter Bradford commented that the campus should work toward the eradication of polystyrene. Peter Nickerson stated that this was in the works but would be a very expensive switch since paper is much more costly.

The motion to approve the Proposed UB Recycled Paper Purchasing Policy was unanimously approved. It was proposed that this be taken to the Faculty Senate.

Item 6. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:57 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carine Mardorossian, Secretary of the Faculty Senate

Attendance

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

Chair:
Robert Hoeing (P)

Secretary:
Carine Mardorossian (P)

Arts & Sciences:
Joseph Woelfel (P)
Melvyn Churchill (P)
Sharmistah Bagchi-Sen (A)
Stanley Bruckenstein (P)
Debra Street (A)

Architecture & Planning:
Scott Danford (E)

Dental Medicine:
Peter Bradford (P)

Educational Opportunity Center:
TBA

Engineering & Applied Sciences:
Stella Batalama (P)
Rohini Srihari (E)

Graduate School of Education:
Thomas Schroeder (A)

School of Law:
TBA

Management:
Hodan Isse (P)

Medicine & Biomedical Sciences:
David Ellis (A)
James Hassett (A)
Charles Hershey (A)
Peter Ostrow (A)

Nursing:
Cynthia Curran (P)

Pharmacy:
Gayle Brazeau (A)

School of Public Health and Health Professions:
Peter Horvath (A)

Social Work:
Barbara Rittner (A)

SUNY Senators:
William H. Baumer (P)
Peter Bradford (P)
Henry Durand (P)
Marilyn McMann Kramer (P)

Parliamentarian:
William H. Baumer (P)

Ex-officio:
Peter Nickerson (P)

University Libraries:
Dorothy Tao (P)

Guests:
Staish Tripathi (Provost)
Janiece Kiedrowski (Professional Staff Senate)
Kevin Fryling (The Reporter)
Gay Lynne Samsonoff (Graduate Student Association)
Jonathan Clayton (The Spectrum)

Tel: 716-645-2003
Fax: 716-645-2717
Email: faculty-senate@buffalo.edu
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