FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The Minutes of May 1, 2002 - (approved)
E-MAIL: ZBFACSEN@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

Faculty Senate Executive Committee met at 2 PM on May 1, 2002 in Capen 567 to consider the following agenda:

1. Approval of the minutes of April 17 and April 24, 2002
   
2. Report of the Chair
   
3. Report of the President/Provost
   
4. Faculty Senate Committee Reports: Information and Library Resources - Professor Helju Bennett, Chair; Teaching and Learning Committee - Professor Ron Gentile, Chair; Facilities Planning - Professor Joseph Zambon, incoming Chair
   
5. Old/new business
   

Item 1: Report of the Chair

The Chair reported that:

• the agenda of the May 7, 2002 Faculty Senate meeting includes: a presentation on Lee Road development plans by Kevin Thompson, Director of Facilities Planning and Design; a report by Professor Troy Wood, Chair of the Admissions and Retention Committee, on data on student success; and a discussion by the full Senate of possible committee charges for next academic year
  
• later in the meeting, he thanked Professor Kramer, whose term as Secretary has come to an end, and presented her with several tokens of appreciation from the Executive Committee
  
• am deeply indebted to Professors Nickerson and Professor Cohen, both of whom have enriched my experience as Secretary, and to Anna Kedzierski who provided me with excellent and much appreciated support (Professor Kramer)
  

Item 2: Approval of the minutes of April 17 and April 24, 2002

The minutes of April 24 were approved. The Chair reported to the Executive Committee that a member of the Governance Committee had expressed concern that, as summarized in the minutes of April 17, the report of the Chair of the Governance Committee indicated agreement by the members of the Governance Committee that the University President could delegate his authority to remove department chairs. The complaining member of the Governance Committee felt that since there had been no vote on the matter, the Chair of the Governance Committee was inaccurate in characterizing the Committee as being in agreement. In the absence of the Chair of the Governance Committee, the motion to approve the minutes of April 17 was tabled. Later in the meeting the motion was removed from the table, and the minutes were approved with the proviso that Professor Cohen and Professor Kramer clarify this matter with the Chair of the Governance Committee.

Item 3: Faculty Senate Committee Reports

Professor Bennett, Chair of the Information and Library Resources Committee, reported that:

• the Committee meets following the monthly Faculty Senate meeting; the Committee met three times during Spring semester
  
• the Committee has been informally recruiting additional members
  
• Associate Vice President for University Libraries Von Wahlde and Assistant Vice President Roberts meet with the Committee regularly
  
• lack of shelving space is the Libraries' most pressing problem; the University is negotiating with Wegmans to lease part of its old store on Alberta Drive as a book storage facility for lesser used material; books would be retrieved on request for delivery on the two campuses, and there may possibly be a small reading room on site
  
• SUNY is discussing creating a SUNY-wide storage facility to which SUNY libraries could contribute and from which they could borrow; having a single SUNY copy of lesser used material would reduce space pressures for many libraries
  
• the Libraries have undertaken an online survey of randomly selected faculty members on issues of library quality; the Libraries as part of its planning program also informally interviewed faculty focus groups; issues that have surfaced have been cleanliness, noise and student use of library computers for purposes other than research
  
• the Committee discussed what facilities an ideal library should have: a quiet study room, a chat room, food/drink facilities and a place to get office supplies; the Committee recommends that these facilities be created in space freed up when there is a storage facility; the Committee will be meeting with Dr. Charles Kaars, Assistant Vice President for Sponsored Programs, to discuss funding sources for such amenities
  
• the Committee is constructing a history of the Committee, gathering papers/recollections of past chairs and materials from the Archives
  
• did your Committee address proposed non-library uses of space in the Undergraduate Library? (Professor Cohen)
  
• will add to agenda of the next meeting (Professor Bennett)
  
• there are no present plans that involve using library space, but don't know the long term status of the proposals (Professor Adams-Volpe)
  
• will the Libraries receive inflation increases to its acquisitions budget? (Professor Nickerson)
  
• information not yet available (Professor Bennett)
  

Professor Gentile, Chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee, reported that the Committee has had a productive year:

• following the Senate's adoption of six resolutions on Assessment of Instructional Effectiveness, the Committee and the Council of Deans successfully negotiated acceptable wording; the President promulgated the resolution on 11/14/01
  
• the Committee served as advisory board for the newly inaugurated Center for Teaching and Learning Resources; the Center hired Jeanette Molina as the Associate Director but has not filled the position of Director; currently the Center is being funded by the Provost; the Committee is working with the Development Office to develop funding for a sponsored annual colloquium on teaching
  
• the Committee was instrumental in initiating a discussion of on-line course evaluation; Professor Eisner demonstrated CourseEval to the Faculty Senate; the Committee is now working jointly with the Computer Services Committee; Computer Services will focus on mechanics and Teaching and Learning on assessment issues
  
• the Committee added new members but was unsuccessful in getting student members; Professor Gentile is stepping down as Chair though he will remain on the Committee and be active in the work of the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources; the Committee recommends Professor Patricia McCartney as Chair
  
• the Student Life Committee proposes working jointly with the Teaching and Learning Committee to present a conference characterizing our undergraduates, e.g., what do they like, do they still read books (Professor Nickerson)
  
• Teaching and Learning would be very interested (Professor Gentile)
  
• have set up on-line assessment for my courses; the response rate is very low running between 5%/10% (Professor Ellison)
  
• could establish coercive policies that would increase response rate, e.g. no grade without an evaluation (Professor Gentile)
  
• what does the Committee consider its scope of interest? Has it been successful? (Professor Granger)
  
• tries to improve teaching in a variety of ways, e.g, raises awareness of teaching as a factor in promotion and tenure and suggests appropriate ways to document it, doesn't evaluate teaching per se, rather suggests appropriate assessment criteria; Committee has been successful in getting programs to improve teaching in place but has no basis on which to claim success in having actually improved teaching (Professor Gentile)
  
• creation of the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources is a major success of the Committee (Professor Noble)
  
• Teaching and Learning Committee has worked with a number of other Senate and administrative committees, indicating its centrality (Professor Cohen)
  

Professor Zambon, who will chair the Facilities Planning Committee next year, reported on the 2001 and 2002 recommendations of Vice Provost Sullivan's Classroom Steering Committee:

• some $900K has been spent this past year on the Committee's 2001 recommendations for such classroom improvements as: a general clearing out of classroom detritus, swipe card lock installations in Fillmore 170, 322 and 355, additional video cabinets installations, equipping 6 medium classrooms with educational technology, replacing and upgrading some ed. tech. equipment, beginning a pilot study of faculty preference for marker-boards, installation of additional chalkboards in Fronczak 454, Norton 218 and Baldy 101, re-orienting Fronczak 454, addition of a lecturn, a desk, and a chair in 135 centrally scheduled classrooms, and using students to check classrooms for problems
  
• 2002 recommendations have been prioritized; the first priority is to maintain classrooms and educational technology, viz., planning for replacement of the sound baffles in 6 Knox classrooms and Diefendorf 146 and 148; installing tables and chairs to accommodate laptop computers in Park 146 and 250 and Diefendorf 2, removing non-functioning demonstration benches in Diefendorf 146 and 147, replacing broken/failing IT equipment in existing IT classrooms, standardizing the IT equipment in all IT classrooms, replacing non-functioning sound systems and replacing missing metal podiums. The second priority is to equip additional classrooms in Alumni 97, 88,and 90 and Capen 262 with IT equipment. The third priority is to consolidate Fillmore 352 and 354 into a single, 60 cap classroom
  
• don't want students bringing laptop computers to class unless required to do so by the instructor (Professor Sridhar)
  
• doesn't CIT have funding for ongoing IT maintenance and replacement? (Professor Adams-Volpe)
  
• no (Professor Zambon)
  
• new metal podiums can be sharp and dangerous, and I have had several bad experiences with them (Professor Bennett)
  
• do you deal with classroom quality in the professional schools? (Professor Cohen)
  
• primarily with centrally scheduled classrooms (Professor Zambon)
  
• still having problems with burned out lights not being replaced in classrooms; what should I do? (Professor Noble)
  
• call "71"; facilities staff are very frustrated that the cleaning staff don't report such problems (Professor Zambon)
  
• deans must be responsible for keeping their schools' classroom space properly maintained (President Greiner)
  
• Facilities Planning Committee might consider a resolution on tracking classroom problems (Professor Cohen)
  
• use MyUB to publicize how to deal with facilities problems (Professor Sridhar)
  

Item 4: Report of the President

The President spoke off the record.

Following an executive session, there being no old/new business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilyn McMann Kramer
Secretary of Faculty Senate


Present: Chair: M. Cohen
Secretary: M. Kramer
Arts & Sciences: W. Baumer, J. Bono
Dental Medicine: J. Zambon
Engineering & Applied Sciences: R. Sridhar
Graduate School of Education: L. Malave
Health Related Professions: G. Farkas
Informatics: J. Ellison
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: C. Granger, B. Noble
SUNY Senators: J. Adams-Volpe, H. Durand, P. Nickerson
University Libraries: J. Hopkins
University Officers
W. Greiner, President

Guests: V. Doyno, Dept. of English
K. Grant, Vice Provost
R. Gentile, Chair, Teaching and Learning Committee
H. Bennett, Chair, Committee on Information and Library Resources
W. Coles, Chair, Professional Staff Senate
S. Weutcher, Reporter
W. Hepfer, Secretary Elect

Excused: Architecture & Planning: R. Shibley
Arts & Sciences: C. Fourtner
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: A. El Solh

Absent: Arts & Sciences: M. Churchill
Management: J. Boot
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: S. Spurgeon
Nursing: E. Perese
SUNY Senators: J. Boot

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