FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of March 30, 2005
(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30, 2005, in 567 Capen Hall to consider the following agenda:

1. Report of the Chair
2. Report of the President/Provost
3. Report of the Director of Counseling Services – S. Mitchell
4. Report on syllabi published in advance of a course – M. Ryan
5. Report on a printing policy change – V. Innus
6. Old/New business
7. Adjournment

Item 1: Report of the Chair

Chair Nickerson reported:

• Last week’s FSEC Resolution thanking Dr. Margaret Paroski for her years of excellent service as Interim Vice President for Health Affairs and Interim Dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has been sent to her. She will soon leave UB to become Medical Director at Kaleida Health.
• Faculty are encouraged to participate in the open interview sessions with candidates for vice president for health affairs.
• Professor Jorge José from Northeastern University has been chosen to be the new vice president for research, effective August 1st.
• Anyone interested in serving on a SUNY Senate committee should contact one of UB’s SUNY senators. They have forms for volunteering and can deliver them when the SUNY Senate meets in Syracuse next weekend.
• The Affirmative Action Committee met with Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Lucinda Finley recently. They talked about inviting Mr. Eulis Boyd to interact with senior leadership. Mr. Boyd is at RIT, which has had outstanding success in recruitment and retention of under-represented faculty.

Item 2: Report of the President/Provost

Provost Tripathi thanked faculty for their participation in the UB2020 planning process. Ten divisional retreats will be conducted. One on nanomaterials has already been held; it was very productive in reaching agreement on how to proceed. A white paper will be published as a result of that session.

Another retreat, on computing & information technology, is scheduled for tomorrow. The others will take place before the end of this semester.

Item 3: Report of the Director of Counseling Services – Sharon Mitchell

Director of Counseling Services Sharon Mitchell said that Counseling Services is now located at 120 Richmond, in the Ellicott Complex. There’s also an office in Michael Hall on the South Campus.

During 2003/04, 1,139 students were seen for counseling; this resulted in 6,862 student/client visits. There was a 14% increase in the number of students seen in fall 2004 compared to fall 2003; some of this may have been because Counseling Services was temporarily based in the Student Union during last fall, and there were greater numbers of passers by.

The number of UB students hospitalized for psychiatric reasons during 2003/04 was much higher than the national norm – 40 at UB vs. 8 at similar institutions nationally. A higher number (46) has had a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital thus far in 2004/05.

The Counseling Center employs 11 psychologists and social workers. Two consulting psychiatrists and one psychiatric resident are part-time employees. There are also three doctoral-level psychology interns and nine masters-level trainees from social work and counseling programs.

The national staff-to-student ratio is one counselor to 1,564 students; UB’s ratio is 1:2,250. The Counseling Center is part of UB’s Wellness Team and is funded by a student health fee, which is lower than at the other SUNY university centers.

Office hours and after-hours contact information are posted on the Counseling Center’s Web page at http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/index.shtml.

Item 4: Report on syllabi published in advance of a course – Michael Ryan

Vice Provost Michael Ryan said his Office supports a proposal that would make many course syllabi available online prior to the start of classes. Whenever feasible, instructors should link their Web pages to a course registry that’s accessible to students who want to shop for cheaper textbooks. The plan recognizes that late changes of courses and instructors are sometimes unavoidable, so there’s no legal or contractual obligation on faculty members who participate. Faculty who want to have their syllabi linked should contact the Office of the Vice Provost & Dean for Undergraduate Education. Even those who don’t use the Web can get their syllabi included.

Professor Faran said he won’t prepare syllabi very far in advance, because it takes a lot of time that might be wasted if a course is changed close to the start of a semester.

Professor Baumer said he won’t post reading assignments in advance, because he wants students to have to attend class to get them.

Senator Coles favored posting readings in advance, because many students have full-time jobs, and it gives them a chance to do some reading ahead of time.

Chair Nickerson recalled that there used to be a Senate textbook committee. Perhaps it should be reactivated to address issues such as this.

Item 5: Report on a printing policy change – Voldemar Innus

Chief Information Officer Voldemar Innus distributed a draft of a new public printing policy that will go into effect in August. Unlimited, free printing will no longer be available, because it has become extremely expensive and wasteful in recent years. Technology hasn’t made us a paperless society – quite the opposite, in fact. Nearly 52 million pages were printed at a cost approaching $570,000 for paper and toner in 2003/04.

Textbooks and course-packs used to be the norm, but readings and course materials are increasingly being made available on the Web. Almost 4,000 courses now utilize UBLearns, and most students tend to print out all class materials.

This has resulted in long waits for print jobs in the Libraries and other public computing sites. It has also resulted in extensive abuse of privileges, because many print jobs are never retrieved, and large piles of leftover paper are thrown out (to be recycled) daily.

Students have expressed great dissatisfaction with the current situation and have requested that a system be instituted to control printing abuse and improve service. Other universities and colleges have had similar experiences, and many have implemented printing control systems that track a set quota of free printing and then charge for overages.

UB will have a new system called iprint@ub. It will provide an allocation of 650 single-sided pages for both the fall and spring semesters to all students, faculty, and staff; a 200-page limit will be available for summer sessions. Balances will carry over to the next semester in an academic year, but they won’t roll over to the following year.

Users who exceed their allocations will be able to pay for additional printing with the same vendor card used for library photocopiers. Visitors, who can now print in the libraries for free, will henceforth need to purchase the vendor cards and pay for their print jobs. Page costs have been set at 5¢ each for single-sided pages and 8¢ each for double-sided printing.

The Office of the CIO will monitor allocation balances and consider adjusting the page allowances based on data that will be collected.

Item 6: Old/New business

None

Item 7: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:53 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 (P), J. Faran (P), S. Schack (P), K. Takeuchi (E)
Dental Medicine: M. Donley (P)
Education: X. Liu (A)
Engineering & Applied Sciences: C. Basaran (A), J. Jensen (P)
Informatics: J. Ellison (P)
Institutional/General: O. Mixon (A)
Law: L. Swartz (A)
Management: J. Boot (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: J. Evans (A), L. Harris (E), J. Hassett (E)
Nursing: P. Wooldridge (A)
Pharmacy: G. Brazeau (A)
Public Health & Health Professions: C. Crespo (P)
Social Work: Barbara Rittner (A)
SUNY Senators: W. Baumer (P), W. Coles (P), M. Kramer (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries: C. Tysick (A)

Guests: P. Balzano (SA), C. Chan (Spectrum), S. Chung (Spectrum), M. Cochrane (Reporter), L. Meister (SA), M. Ryan (Undergrad. Ed.), S. Yiu (SA)

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