UB Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Executive Committee

Minutes of September 17, 2008

(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, September 17, 2008, in the Jeannette Martin Room of Capen Hall (567) to discuss the following:

Approval of the minutes of April 23 and 30, 2008
Report of the Chair
Report(s) of the President/Provost
University Honors College update ---

Michael Ryan, Dean of Undergraduate Studies

Kip Herreid, Director of Honors Program

Donald McGuire, Interim Administrative Director

5. Dennis Black, Vice President for Student Affairs and Gerald Schoenle, Chief of Police will present an update on the recent situations that have occurred on the South Campus, how they are working with the surrounding community and any other pertinent information that would be useful.

Old/New Business
Executive Session (necessary)
Adjournment

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of April 23 and 30, 2008

The minutes were unanimously approved.

Item 2: Report of the Chair

1. The Athletics & Recreation Committee met with Warde Manuel, Marcus Hutchins (Director of Recreational Services), and Paul Vecchio this past Monday morning

2. Financial Management Advisory Group will begin soliciting input from all over UB via a variety of sources: microsite due to be up & running for people’s convenience as of tomorrow AM.

3. There will be an abbreviated meeting next week (2-3) first, because there is not much on the agenda and secondly, because of the President’s 3^rd Annual address to the community [Asbury Hall, 341 Delaware], the Advisory Group will meet 3-5 in this room.

4. The SUNY Board of Trustees has forwarded to Gov. David A. Paterson the names of three candidates to become the next chancellor of the state university system, but how close the state is to filling the post remained unclear yesterday as the panel's chairman offered confusing and sometimes contradictory assessments of the search. (Newsday.com, Sep 17, 2008)

5. The chair talked to Robin Sullivan and Millie this morning about the redesign of the FS website; the present one will not need to be taken down. They will work on constructing a new one, with some additional features:

More professional appearance
Easier and immediate accessibility
The usual categories (minutes, documents, committee membership, etc)
But also info on upcoming discussions (“Next Week in the FS”)
Calendar & upcoming events
News/notices
Suggestion input capability to a new FS e-mail
A link to a discussion forum of some type
Easy modifiability (posting new documents, re-organizing, etc.)

Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

John Simpson stated that although what shapes his thinking these days is certainly the budget, the business of the university does go on:

1/ this morning, the department of Biomedical Engineering officially opened, a new department started through the work of the provost and the deans of Engineering and Medicine. The President emphasized that the fact that the Oishei Foundation gave 3 million dollars to support the start-up cost of this program underscores the collaboration between the university and a community foundation.

2/ On Monday morning, the President hosted the Amherst Chamber of Commerce, so as to meet people and supporters who will call their legislators and send telegrams to the governor about SUNY & the budget, and who recognize the importance of the University to the economy of the region.

3/ Tomorrow afternoon, the President will spend some time with Jack Quinn, president of Erie community college to facilitate--in light of the tremendous numbers of student transfers--the interface between the two institutions.

4/ The President also announced that he would be giving an address to the city next Wed morning in a way that is different from what he has done in the past.

During the Q & A that followed the President’s report, faculty inquired about the new department that was started at UB. Chair Hoeing asked whether faculty members would be changing departments to join the new program. Provost Tripathi responded that a chair needed to be hired first before such decisions could be made but that there would be lots of faculty with an affiliation to the department. In response to a question by Janiece Kiedrowski (Professional Staff Senate), the Provost stated that the program would probably be using existing space rather than be given a new building. Gayle Brazeau expressed concerns about the challenges of sitting students in courses such as Biology that are already at capacity or above capacity. Michael Ryan agreed that the impact in terms of delivery of the science courses needed to be properly planned to accommodate the students properly. He said that while some of these students may have opted to come to UB anyway, the hope is to attract students who would not have come otherwise. Stanley Bruckenstein inquired whether there was an attendant curriculum at the undergraduate level.

The Provost reported that the Board of Trustees met yesterday but nothing new had emerged about the budget. Tripathi then encouraged faculty to give feed through the website and indicated that the SUNY Board of Trustees meeting was available online at the SUNY.edu site (live broadcasts and Archived ones available). Peter Bradford said that the Finance Administration committee meeting last Thursday was the most informative meeting of the two since hard numbers were actually offered and discussed.

Item 4: University Honors College update ---

Michael Ryan, Dean of Undergraduate Studies

Kip Herreid, Academic Director of Honors Program

Don McGuire, Director of Advising Services, Interim Director in the University Honors College

Representatives of the UB Honors College appeared before the FSEC to update senators on the status of the college. Michael Ryan, dean of Undergraduate Studies, offered a history of the College from its inception in 1993 as one of nation’s first Honors’ tutorials to its development into an Honors College in October 2007. Ryan emphasized that the College enhances the intellectual climate of the institution and that its reputation underpins the University’s commitment to academic excellence. Last summer, Josie Capuana who had been with the Honors program since its inception, retired after 28 years, and Don McGuire agreed to serve in the role of Interim Administrative Director.

Ryan reminded the senators that the switch from an Honors Program to an Honors College in October 2007 entailed a change from a two-year to a four-year experience. In addition, the expansion includes the choice of 6 honors “experiences” (including an honors thesis, internship, upper-level courses and studying abroad) in addition to the honors seminar course students already had to take. Clyde “Kip” Herreid, academic director of the Honors College, said that this change has substantially increased workload and advisement responsibilities. He also spoke to the challenge of trying to deal with the problems that have emerged as a result of Josie Capuana’s retirement and the budgetary crisis. John Simpson interjected to inquire how exactly the budget crisis affected the hiring of a new director. Kip Herreid answered that the problem arose in relation to an internal search. “There are outstanding people at UB who have an in-depth understanding of the institution and its history,” he explained, but they cannot be recruited because of the freeze. This creates an additional burden on the other assistants.

Don McGuire, interim director of the Honors College, offered a breakdown of the numbers of undergraduates involved in the overall College: out of 1050 in the Honors College, the larger shareholder is--not surprisingly--CAS with 375. The second most is the school of Engineering and Applied Sciences with 203, then Pharmacy with 102 and the biomedical sciences which 120. Don McGuire then spoke about how impressed he had been with the colloquium students have to attend in their first year. 335 first year students attend one of four colloquia that are each broken down into groups that are then assigned to a variety of community service projects such as the community West Side Habitat for Humanity, or the local Americorps Operations.

Michael Ryan explained that historically, financial scholarship and participation in the Honors program was coupled: to receive the scholarship, students had to meet the requirements of the Honors program. About two years ago, these were only decoupled. There was therefore a potential that students may decide to take their scholarship without participating in the Honors program but virtually all students see the advantages of the Honors College and decide to partake of them.

Kip Herreid concluded his presentation by reporting that an anonymous donor had promised the Honors College $100,000 by to establish an “honors lounge” for students to get together, hold tutorial sessions and meet with faculty. The gift is contingent, however, upon the lounge being ready by July 2009 and upon its being contiguous to the College’s current space for obvious reasons. Because of the ongoing master planning process, however, there is concern that the project may not be completed on time for the money to be allocated to the College. If the cash is not used by July 1, 2009, another college will receive it, Herreid added.

Professor Paschalis Alexandridis asked about the degree to which the Undergraduate Academies and the Honors College have common goals and are interacting or overlapping in any way. Herreid confirmed that the Academies are doing things that the Honors College has been doing for years and that the people involved in the Academies have been on the Honors Council. A large number of students are part of both, Herreid added. There are no programmatic interactions at this moment, he said, “but there is no reason to believe there won’t be in light of the crossfertilization that is there.” Gayle Brazeau asked 1/ whether in light of the mission to attract academically talented students, the 325 that came were the kind of students we wanted? 2/ what typed of assessment and feed are we getting from expanded honors program? Herreid explained that the College has been very successful from the beginning in its recruitment efforts, since it has a very high percentage yield of students that it goes after. UB’s major competitors are Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Duke. Within the SUNY system, Geneseo and Binghampton are the two main competitors for the small college experience. 25% of students to whom offers are made choose to come to UB. If they visit campus, the yield goes up to well over 50%. For the competition for the higher honors students (students with 1470 SAT eligible for free rides through Presidential scholarships), UB gets 50% of those which is amazing considering where they are going when they don’t come here, Herreid said. In terms of assessment, there is no formal one in place for watching what is happening but a large number of students are now taking charge of their career goals sooner than they would otherwise, he said.

Peter Bradford asked about the possibility, for transfer students, of joining the program. Herreid answered that the advanced honors program takes in students at the end of their sophomore year (3.5 average) but there is no money attached. A number of students invited to join decline because they have enough on their plate. 200 of the 1000 students involved in the Honors College join through the advanced Honors Program, but a good number don’t finish because they cannot do the honors thesis. Currently, the program is trying to decide whether students should not be allowed entry at the end of their freshman year instead.

Item 5: Update on the recent situations that have occurred on the South Campus

Dennis Black, Vice President for Student Affairs

Gerald Schoenle, Chief of Police

The speakers delivered an update on how they are working with the surrounding community to address the recent violent events on South campus. Gerald Schoenle, Chief of Police, said that despite the two incidents of sexual assault, incidences of violent crime on South campus have gone down since last year. The two sexual assaults on Aug 31 and Sept 6, he added, didn’t “fit the typical profile of a college sexual assault ... by date rape.”

Schoenle went on to discuss the safety measures that are being put into place on the South Campus to deter crime, including a new lighting system, emergency telephone and security cameras. He explained that an outside security consultant had been brought in to make a security assessment on South Campus and that all existing lighting should be replaced and enhanced by early October, 19 state-of-the-art blue light phones as well as security cameras will be strategically placed. The same consultant is looking into the need for cameras inside buildings and the possibility of having card access instead of keys. In addition, patrols on the South Campus were increased, Schoenle said.

Sherry Pomeroy (Nursing) emphasized the importance of publicizing services such as the late-night shuttle service operated by the Anti-Rape Task Force. She stated that her female nursing students were particularly anxious about walking across the South campus to go catch buses after evening classes.

Stanley Bruckenstein suggested that signs such as “SMILE! You are on camera” may be particularly useful to help alert people to the fact that the area is under surveillance. Marilyn McMann Kramer noted that as a member of the Public Safety Committee, she could testify firsthand to the amount of effort and energy the staff working on student life issues bring to their job.

Item 6: New/old Business

The chair brought up the problem of students with -to- classes at distant spots on campus, e.g. Ellicot and the spine. The suggestion that students be forbidden to enroll in these classes was shut down by the senators.

Item 7: Executive Session (if necessary) n/a

Item 8: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:52 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:
Robert Adelman (P)
Sampson Blair (A)
Stanley Bruckenstein (P)
Stephen Dyson (A)

Dental Medicine:
Thomas Mang (P)

Educational Opportunity Center:
TBA

Engineering & Applied Sciences:
Paschalis Alexandridis (P)
Sargur Srihari (P)

Graduate School of Education:
TBA

School of Law:
Mark Bartholomew (P)

Management:
Hodan Isse (P)

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

Nursing:
Sherry Pomeroy (P)

Pharmacy:
Gayle Brazeau (P)

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

Social Work:
Robert Keefe (P)

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

Parliamentarian:
William H. Baumer (P)

University Libraries:
Dorothy Tao (A)

Guests:
Satish Tripathi (Provost)
Peter Nickerson (School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences)
Janiece Kiedrowski (Professional Staff Senate)
Kevin Fryling (The Reporter)
Andreas Daum (VPUE)
Michael Ryan (VPUE)
Don McGuire (Honors College)
Kip Herreid (Honors College)

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