FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of September 14, 2005
(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 14, 2005, in 567 Capen Hall to consider the following agenda:

1. Report of the Chair
2. Report of the President/Provost
3. Discussion of the draft of the faculty code of conduct
4. Report of the President of the Undergraduate Student Association – D. Yador
5. Old/New business
6. Executive Session (if needed)
7. Adjournment

Item 1: Report of the Chair

Chair Nickerson reported:

• The Faculty Senate (FS) and Professional Staff Senate (PSS) plaques that used to hang on the wall of 567 Capen, i.e., our meeting room, will be relocated outside the room, likely near the elevator. The new notices around Capen 567 present accomplishments of the faculty and be rotated periodically. Faculty from distinguished ranks will also be featured and rotated.
• Several SUNY senators and governance leaders will travel to Albany tomorrow for a SUNY Senate planning meeting.
• The UB Council met on Monday. President Simpson reported that 102 faculty members (a net gain of 50) have been appointed in the past academic year. There has been a net gain of 300 undergraduates and a 3% decrease in the number of graduate students.
• Of the 10 programmatic areas identified in UB2020, two white papers have been distributed, and one on bioinformatics is ongoing.
• Four vacancies in Student Affairs will be filled temporarily with student affairs professionals from institutions damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
• The new freshman class averaged 1185 SAT scores and are the most geographically diverse – 29 states, 34 countries. They represent a 74% increase in out-of-state students and an 11.3% increase from underrepresented groups.
• Mission Review II is coming to UB on October 17th. SUNY is taking a more strategic approach looking at student outcomes.
• Audrey Olmstead, interim vice-president for advancement, reported $28 million from fundraising – a 20% increase over last year. A committee is working on guidelines for recognition of gifts, including naming rights.
• Vice President Jorge José discussed strategies for increasing research, intellectual property, and its commercial applications. We want to catalyze research by writing more proposals, encouraging interdisciplinary research, and developing multi-investigator proposals.
• FSEC has received a proposal for reorganization of the Art & Art History department. We’ll seek input from the College of Arts & Sciences Policy Committee before we act on it.

Item 2: Report of the President/Provost

None

Item 3: Discussion of the draft of the faculty code of conduct

Members of the ad hoc committee that drafted a faculty code of conduct over the summer were: Barbara Burke (EDAAA), George D’Elia (Informatics), Lucinda Finley (Law/Faculty Affairs), Jeannette Ludwig (CAS), Martha McCluskey (Law), Peter Nickerson (FS/Medicine), and Samuel Schack (CAS).

Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Finley said the committee didn’t want to “reinvent the wheel,” so they collected and reviewed statements of ethical principles from a variety of other institutions and organizations. The ones they drew most heavily from were the University of California and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

The draft document presented for today’s discussion was divided into three sections: Section 1, “UB Principles of Community,” had short statements on how UB should “foster the best possible learning, scholarly, and working environment” by being: Purposeful, Open, Diverse, Principled, Respectful, Just, and Accountable.

Section 2, “Ethical Principles,” featured several AAUP statements to describe expectations of faculty members in their various roles as scholars, teachers, colleagues, supervisors, and citizens of the university and community.

Section 3, “Expectations for the highest standards of behavior for Faculty with examples of proper and improper conduct,” is just that. It clarifies some of the preceding points by providing examples of proper/improper faculty conduct in their roles as scholars, teachers, and colleagues. It does not attempt to be a complete list of potential cases, however, because it’s impossible to anticipate every possible situation. It prefaces the examples with, “Conduct which departs from the ethical principles in section 2 is unacceptable.”

Questions & comments:

• Mentoring should be mentioned since it’s an important method of demonstrating proper professional conduct. (Brazeau)
• Creative disciplines should be mentioned. (Rittner)
• Faculty members who own private businesses where students may be employed might be liable in circumstances that aren’t addressed in the code. Perhaps that should be added. (Takeuchi)
• What will happen when someone violates the code? (Booth)
• The code will become UB policy, so there could be various levels of action, such as working with a person to correct a situation or, possibly, some form of discipline. (Finley)

Item 4: Report of the President of the Undergraduate Student Association (SA) – Dela Yador

SA President Dela Yador said the organization is working on a faculty/student integration project, including an ice cream social, so students can get to know faculty members outside the classroom. They are also working with Dean of Students Barbara Ricotta to develop a better working relationship with UB administration.

The SA continues to sponsor an online book exchange and online teacher evaluations. Their $2.8 million budget, which is mainly from student fees, is used to sponsor speakers and musical/comedy events, as well as advocacy projects such as adding 400 lockers for commuter students. The lockers, which are located near the SA offices in the Student Union, were aimed at stimulating interest and involvement in SA.

There is a new campus television station (Channel 49) to promote SA activities and events. They are hoping to have a Web site where faculty will post syllabi operational by the spring semester. This will help students to save money by shopping for cheaper textbooks online.

Item 5: Old/New business

None

Item 6: Executive Session

There was an executive session

Item 9: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Will Hepfer
Secretary of the Faculty Senate

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

Chair: P. 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 (P), J. Jensen (A)
Informatics: J. Ellison (A)
Law: T. Miller (A)
Management: W. Lin (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: J. Evans (A), L. Harris (A), J. Hassett (P)
Nursing: P. Wooldridge (A)
Pharmacy: G. Brazeau (P)
Public Health & Health Professions: vacant
Social Work: Barbara Rittner (P)
SUNY Senators: W. Baumer (P), W. Coles (P), H. Durand (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries: HA Booth (P)
University Officers: S. Tripathi

Guests: M. Cochrane (Reporter), G. DeLia (FCC Cmte.), L. Finley (Fac. Affairs), L. Labinski (Prof. Staff Senate), J. Ludwig (FCC Cmte.), L. Meister (Student Assn.), J. Xu (Grad. Student Assn.)

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