UB Faculty Senate

FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of February 27, 2008

(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, February 27, 2008, in the Jeannette Martin Room of Capen Hall (567) to discuss the following agenda:

Report of the Chair
Report of the President/Provost
UB Personal Safety Committee: Update

Jerry Schoenle, Director of Public Safety, Chair

Interaction with Ilia Nossov—UB Council Student Representative
Old/New Business

a. Faculty Senate Facilities Planning Committee: Specifying the Charges –Professor Robert Wetherhold, Chair b. Changes to the Modular Calendar for the Medical School Dr. Charles Hershey, Social and Preventive Medicine

Executive Session
Adjournment

Item 1: Report of the Chair

1. The chair said that he would like to conduct Item 5.under Executive Session today.

2. The Secretary --- who is also Chair of the Elections Committee --- has an

announcement.

3. Committee activity:

A. Student Life Committee met yesterday --- ask Peter Nickerson (Chair) to

comment

B. Athletics & Recreation Committee --- Russ Crispell (Chair) is in process

of scheduling two more meetings this semester

C. Grading Committee will meet after Senate meeting this Tuesday, also

tentatively on March 18

D. Facilities Planning Committee --- Robert Wetherhold (Chair) was

contacted by Bob Shibley and Brad Hovey to a briefing on the planning

process in advance of the first meeting of the FPC

4. Presidents Simpson (UB) and Shirley Strum Kenny (Stony Brook) had an article

published online --- timesunion.com --- supporting and explaining the importance

of our new ‘flagship' status.

5. Following up --- somewhat belatedly! --- on a memo sent by Mel Churchill

on DEC 18, concerning inconveniences in scheduling final exams, especially for

huge classes, AND on Saturdays at 8 AM --- should I invite Shelley Frederick for

3/26 to field complaints?

6. Course Evaluations Revisited --- memo from Kara Saunders --- in particular,

the comment that “standard policy for teacher evaluations (numerical and text

responses) for tenure and promotion dossiers is critical”

• Should we form an ad hoc committee to address this issue? Explore various means of encouraging active evaluation? Should we recommend, as per Baumer, that no grade is assigned until an electronic evaluation is submitted?

• If we do want an ad hoc committee, I would like to solicit names either in Exec Session or via the listserve.

Item 2. Report of the Provost

Provost Tripathi reported that he attended a meeting in Albany on Monday and that the response to UB2020 among the delegations and assemblymen was tremendous. Everyone knew what a quality institution UB is. The Provost commented that institutions within SUNY do not necessarily want the different institutions to be distinguished from each other, so the question of what it means for UB to be one of the two flagship institutions is at the forefront of discussions.

Item 3. UB Personal Safety Committee: Update

Jerry Schoenle, Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety, Chair

Mary Clare Fahey, Off Campus Student Services

Jerry Schoenle reported that over the last decade, there has been a significant decline in criminal incidents at UB in almost every category. He distributed handouts offering crime statistics to illustrate this trend and proceeded to discuss specific crimes. For instance,

• North Campus =one rape and one robbery in 2007; false alarms have been continually dropping thanks to new technology and education; the number of stolen cars has been dropping; criminal mischief is down from 123 to 99 in one year

• South Campus: no rapes, one robbery (involving cookies!); arson none etc.

Chief Schoenle stated that one crime that did experience a spike, however, was vehicle break-ins (mostly to steal GPSs). In response to these thefts, Schoenle explained that steps were taken to educate students, faculty and staff about the danger of vehicle break-ins. As part of the University Police Vehicle Burglary Initiative 2008, university police officers posted notifications in buildings across the South Campus asking the university community no to leave valuables in cars for instance. Faculty, staff and students who had left valuables (laptops, purses) in plain sight in their cars received a personal phone call from a police officer. Chief Schoenle added that because of these special education efforts, there had not been a single incident so far this year. One arrest was also made.Jerry Schoenle also mentioned the bookmarks “How to Steal from College Students” that were left with students who had fallen asleep at the library, leaving their belongings unattended and at risk. He emphasized the importance of educating the community as an important part of the way crime can be averted.

Despite the overall decline in nearly all categories of criminal activity at the university over the past ten years, Chief Schoenle said several serious crimes took place on North Campus in 2007. One was a robbery in which a female student was accosted after leaving her vehicle near South Lake Village and had her purse stolen. The offender was subsequently apprehended by the Buffalo Police and remains incarcerated. The second incident Chief Schoenle reported concerned a woman who was allegedly kidnapped while walking behind the Center for the Arts one late afternoon in December, taken to a secluded spot on Frontier Road near Newman Chapel, and raped. He said that the victim in the incident has not been cooperating with law enforcement officers however and that, consequently and unfortunately, no progress could be made in the investigation of the case.

Jerry Schoenle further commented that in conjunction with Facilities, a security assessment of South Campus had been done: as a result, all existing lighting is being replaced and 69 security cameras are going to be put in. A consultant is also going to be hired to look at placement of cameras inside buildings, alarms, replacing key with card access, etc.

Professor David Ellis, School of Medicine , asked whether public intoxication and abnormal drinking patterns were also being taken into account in light of UB having changed its policy and lowered its threshold of tolerance towards such behaviors. Jerry Schoenle explained that when the police come across intoxicated students whose health may be at risk, the officers tend to be proactive and take them to the hospital. There were 70 such referrals to ECMC last year, he added, and that number is going up.

Mary Clare Fahey from the Off Campus Student Services at University Heights was then invited to explain her role as liaison between Student Affairs and UB students living in the community. She reported that there had been fewer crimes so far this year and that both robbery and personal assaults were down. Actives steps are being taken to help students keep themselves safe including, for instance, providing them with refrigerator magnets with important phone numbers. A Safety Fair was organized as another way of alerting students to safety issues (fire safety, health related issues, smoke detectors, prevention measures).

Peter Nickerson mentioned that international students had reported being scared around University Heights . He asked how the message of increased safety could be relayed to the international student body. Mary Clare stated that she works with the International Office during their Orientation session to relay information about safety to international students (e.g. escorting services for both students and faculty).Dorothy Tao thanked the University Police for helping take care of a problem with teenagers causing disruption at the libraries. She suggested that publishing an article in the Reporter about escorting services provided by the police on campus may be useful.

Jerry Schoenle concluded by saying that UB is the first University Police to have been awarded state accreditation. This is a great honor, he said, one that testifies to the high standards that the UB University Police has achieved. Next up, Schoenle will be tackling the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies' accreditation process. CALEA has more than double the accreditation standards as the State of New York. The State accreditation is good for 5 years.

Janiece Kiedrowski from the Professional Staff Senate asked about Lost and Found. Chief Schoenle commented that people don't always know the difference between garbage and lost and found. The Police Department tries to locate the owners and after a reasonable amount of time, donates the found properties to shelters and thrift stores. Money is turned over into the state account after a certain time.

Barbara Rittner asked about the female to male officer ratio. Chief Schoenle responded that there were about 8 female officers out of 62. He said that UB is more diverse than any other police department around but that it was nonetheless not diverse enough. 5 officers were just hired, 3 white males, 1 Native American, 1 female; out of the 8 most recent hires, two were women.

In response to a question by Bob Hoeing about the future, Chief Schoenle mentioned that he would ideally like to see the UB PD grow by 20 to 50 %. He would also like a highly visible sub-station for the Police Department on campus.

Item 4. Interaction with Ilia Nossov—UB Council Student Representative

Student Representative Ilia Nossov raised the list of issues that were important to students on campus:

• Health Center: there is one on South campus but there is no health facility on North Campus where there is close to 7000 students in the residence halls vs. 1000 on South Campus. It can take one hour or 1.5 hour to get to the health facility by bus. Due to lack of funding and stamina, the initiative to have a satellite Health Center on North Campus was not pushed through, but because this remains a very important issue to students,Ilia asked how the FSEC members could help.Peter Nickerson, director of the pathology program in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, objected that a second health center on the North Campus could cause a shortage of staff members and equipment at the South Campus center. Possible solutions suggested by other senators included creating a small satellite health center on the North Campus that would work in conjunction with the facilities in Michael Hall, or contracting with an outside taxi service or existing on-campus student group to provide faster and more convenient transportation for sick students traveling from the North Campus to the South Campus for health services.

• Entrepeneurship was identified as another issue that preoccupies students. This is an issue, Nossov said, that is important to all kinds of disciplines where students are looking for mentorship and internships.

• The Police Department could indeed, Ilia Nossov concluded, use a new building. The emergency center is a problem to students.

Item 5. Executive Session:

a. Faculty Senate Facilities Planning Committee:

Specifying the Charges –Professor Robert Wetherhold, Chair

b. Changes to the Modular Calendar for the Medical School

Dr. Charles Hershey, Social and Preventive Medicine

Item 6. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 4:07 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 (P)
Stanley Bruckenstein (A)
Debra Street (P)

Architecture & Planning:
Scott Danford (A)

Dental Medicine:
Peter Bradford (E)

Educational Opportunity Center:
TBA

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

Graduate School of Education:
Thomas Schroeder (A)

School of Law:
TBA

Management:
Hodan Isse (P)

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

Nursing:
Cynthia Curran (P)

Pharmacy:
Gayle Brazeau (A)

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

Social Work:
Barbara Rittner (P)

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

Parliamentarian:
William H. Baumer (P)

Ex-officio:
Peter Nickerson (P)

University Libraries:
Dorothy Tao (P)

Guests:
Barbara Burke (EDAAA)
David Bray (EDAAA)
Staish Tripathi (Provost)
Janiece Kiedrowski (Professional Staff Senate)
Kevin Fryling (The Reporter)
Gay Lynne Samsonoff (Graduate Student Association)
Jonathan Clayton (The Spectrum)
Jerry Schoenle (Chair, Police Department)
Mary Clare Fahey (Off-Campus Student Services)
Ilia Nossov (UB Council Student Representative)

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