FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of February 22, 2006
(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 22, 2006, in 567 Capen Hall to consider the following agenda:

1. Approval of the minutes of February 1, 2006
2. Report of the Chair
3. Report of the President/Provost
4. FS Governance Committee update - M. Kramer
5. Personal Safety Committee report - M. Kramer
6. Public Safety at UB - J. Grela
7. Old/New business
8. Executive session (if needed)
9. Adjournment

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of February 1, 2006

The minutes were approved as distributed.

Item 2: Report of the Chair

Chair Nickerson reported:

• He attended a meeting of the SUNY Faculty Senate Executive Committee and senior leadership of United University Professions (UUP) in Albany yesterday. Topics included faculty mentoring and promotion, how the Senate and UUP can help with SUNY's K-12 and K-16 initiatives, and how much time campuses spend doing assessment.
• He recently met with President Simpson and Provost Tripathi to discuss issues of common interest. This once-a-semester meeting between the FS chair and UB's top administrators is an opportunity for useful communication.
• He was unable to attend a recent meeting of the Graduate School Executive Committee, so Professor Marilyn Kramer went and took notes that included:
• UB will undergo National Research Council assessment this spring. It's important that UB's response be coordinated because , for example, the taxonomy of the NRC assessment does not mesh well with our life sciences structure. UB will develop a "translation" to aid faculty in categorizing their work.
• The schedule for dropping/adding courses will probably be changed. Although the current regulations work well for undergraduates, they are not a good fit for graduate students. This matter will probably be referred to the FS Grading Committee.
• Three additional positions (an Associate Dean, a professional staff member and a secretary) have been approved for the Graduate School.
• UB currently has approximately 300 post-docs; their salaries and the scope of their duties vary widely. The Graduate School will work to establish appropriate programs and support for post-doc positions.
• Graduate School applications are up 22% from this time last year, and student quality is at least as good as last year. Acceptances will be sent out in a timely manner so UB can stay competitive in an aggressive recruiting environment.
• Until 2010, graduate enrollment is likely to stay level, but thereafter UB will strive for a higher percentage of doctoral students to Masters students.

FS Elections Committee Chair Will Hepfer announced that Dr. Peter Bradford won the recent election to be UB's SUNY senator from the health sciences. Professor Bradford's term will commence July 1st. Professor William Baumer was unopposed for the SUNY senator seat from the core campus. His re-election will become official (if approved) when Professor Hepfer casts one vote for him at the March FS meeting.


Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

None


Item 4: Faculty Senate Governance Committee update - M. Kramer

Professor Marilyn McMann Kramer, chair of the FS Governance Committee, and Professor Claude Welch reported on the group's review of decanal review at UB. Decanal review was introduced by former provost Thomas Headrick but hasn't been done formally since the first review.

The Governance Committee's survey of other public research universities found that Indiana University and the University of California have system-wide procedures, while the SUNY university centers' procedures vary widely or don't exist.

The committee met with Provost Tripathi for an hour yesterday to discuss how decanal review is currently being handled at UB. Reviews are now underway for the Graduate School of Education, the School of Informatics, and the Law School. The Provost plans to review three deans per year on a five-year cycle. These will be comprehensive reviews done by appointed 8- or 9-member committees. There will also be smaller, confidential, annual reviews done by the Provost's Office.

The four main criteria for the full reviews will be: academic leadership; external relations; diversity of faculty, staff, and students; and institutional citizenship.

The review committees will solicit faculty participation via interviews or surveys. Staff, student, and alumni input will also be collected.

The FSEC's questions and comments dealt mostly with what/whether/how non-confidential review documents should be shared:

• At yesterday's meeting, Provost Tripathi indicated that deans' self-studies would be shared, but participants' comments would be kept confidential. (Kramer)
• An executive summary that's widely shared seems like a realistic approach, because people will talk and the results are likely to get out anyway. The summary could simply indicate the general outcome, what's going well, what's just satisfactory, and what needs improvement. A negative outcome will become evident when a dean returns to teaching or research. (Baumer)
• The Governance Committee should consider having a small faculty committee get the confidential outcome document and report to the provost about progress on points raised in the review. There's a difference between reviewing a dean and reviewing a school, so a public document should address organizational strengths and weaknesses. That reflects a dean's leadership without getting personal on a job performance level. (Schack)
• Available resources should be factored into any assessment review. People should be evaluated based on realistic expectations. (Rittner)

Item 5: Personal Safety Committee report - M. Kramer

Professor Marilyn McMann Kramer is the FS representative on UB's Personal Safety Committee. It's a group that meets monthly during the academic year and discusses issues relating to infrastructure, e.g., lighting and emergency phones, and student safety, e.g. alcohol abuse and crime.

Professor Kramer introduced the chair of the Personal Safety Committee, Chief of University Police John Grela, who confirmed that student alcohol abuse remains the biggest problem on today's college campuses. He said that UB has been working hard with local and state law enforcement groups to prevent underage drinking and other liquor law infractions. Sexual assaults and general mischief are usually related to alcohol consumption.


Item 6: Public Safety at UB - J. Grela

Chief Grela distributed copies of the October 7, 2005, "Compliance Statement for the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990" and UB's "Annual Security Report," which includes:

• Statistics on the number of crimes (based on FBI categories) and arrests.
• Policies regarding security, access to campus residences/facilities, and campus law enforcement.
• Procedures for reporting crimes and other emergencies.
• Information on campus sexual assault prevention programs and sex offense reporting procedures.
• Information on alcohol and drug education programs and campus security practices.
• Sex offender registry information.

The Compliance Statement and Security Report are available online at http://www.student-affairs.buffalo.edu/public-safety/annual.shtml.


Item 7: Old/New business

None


Item 8: Executive session

There was a brief executive session.


Item 9: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Will Hepfer
Secretary of the Faculty Senate


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

Chair: Nickerson (P)
Secretary: W. Hepfer (P)
Architecture & Planning: GS Danford (P)
Arts & Sciences: J. Faran (P), R. Hoeing (E), SD Schack (P), D. Street (P), K. Takeuchi (P)
Dental Medicine: M. Donley (P)
Education: L. Malavé (P)
Engineering & Applied Sciences: C. Basaran (A), P. Alexandridis (E)
Informatics: J. Ellison (P)
Law: T. Miller (A)
Management: W. Lin (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: D. Amsterdam (P), M. Dayton (E), L. Harris (A), J. Hassett (P)
Nursing: P. Wooldridge (A)
Pharmacy: G. Brazeau (A)
Public Health & Health Professions: vacant
Social Work: Barbara Rittner (P)
SUNY Senators: W. Baumer (P), W. Coles (E), H. Durand (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries: HA Booth (P)

Guests: B. Burke (EDAAA), M. Cochrane (Reporter), J. Grela (Univ. Police), L. Labinski (Prof. Staff Senate), M. Kramer (Governance Cmte.), C. Welch (Governance Cmte.), J. Xu (Grad. SA)

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