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Faculty Senate Executive Committee

Minutes of November 19, 2008

(unapproved)

 

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008, in the Jeannette Martin Room of Capen Hall (567) to discuss the following:

1. Report of the Chair
2. Report of the President/Provost
3. Report of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies – Michael Ryan
4. Old/New business: Open Access vs. Traditional publishing and dissertation embargos
5. Executive Session (if needed)
6. Adjournment

Item 1: Report of the Chair

Website more than 70,000 hits from every state and 170 countries

New criteria has been added to the new Master Plan principle:
aesthetic appeal!

We must get the community behind us

new charge to grading committee to revise the repeat policy for our students;
students have been abusing this and it has drastic consequences.

SUNY Chancellor resignation effective 31 dec this year. No info available on

general education task force in the process of being assembled; invitations
have gone out

UB Faculty Senate Outstanding Service Award given to Gayle Brazeau in recognition of her involvement and commitment

Item 2: Report of the President/Provost

The provost reported on the SUNY Board of Trustees meeting he attended in Albany on Tuesday and at which he was asked to make comments. Trustees approved the appointment of 7 new Distinguished Professors, Tripathi said, 6 of them from UB. They also approved a $310 tuition increase for the upcoming Spring semester and $620 for the whole academic year. These are higher amounts than those the governor proposed, Tripathi said, and “it was assumed in this meeting that the money would go to the campuses.” The Trustees also discussed resolutions about leasing and renting things on campus as well as the possibility of post-audits rather than “pre-approval of many of the things that we do on this campus.”

“There’s definitely a concern that a tuition increase would basically offset any new cuts that might come,” said Tripathi, “which is the same thing as taking it away.” Instead, the state should invest in “UB’s plan for the future” because it can provide the foundation for building a robust regional and state economy.

Item 3: Report of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies – Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan, vice provost and dean for undergraduate education, reported on two issues:

A. the new incoming freshman class

B. the financial aid fiasco

A. Ryan reported about this semester’s incoming freshman class:

There are 3154 freshman enrolled. There were 3250 targeted but UB is over on transfers so the enrollment is on track.

The academic profile of this cohort = the most academically accomplished in UB’s history. Despite an overall national decline in SAT scores, he said, the average freshman SAT score for incoming students at UB has risen from 1137 to 1199. More than 60 points is a “remarkable achievement,” he added.

In addition, the total number of incoming out-of-state students has risen from 2 percent to more than 7 percent in the past 10 years.

Total incoming international student enrollment has also risen to 7 percent, a number that is still relatively small and which UB is working intensively to increase.

Dean Ryan commented that “this is remarkable progress in relatively short time. The quality of the faculty and our programs is attracting better students.” John Simpson asked how many other colleges have had a change of that magnitude. “Very few,” said Ryan. He added that in the SUNY system, Stonybrook and Binghampton experienced positive trends but not as dramatic as UB’s. Gayle Brazeau asked about the specific schools the most accomplished students in the incoming class were selecting? “What programs are they headed for?” Ryan responded that although he did not bring that data along, he would be happy to share it at a later date. He also explained that of a total of 20,000 applicants, UB accepts about ½. “The yield is about 33%.”

B. Financial Aid: Dean Ryan then discussed the error that resulted in two groups of students, including some student veterans, to be over-awarded financial aid in the form of loans and federal grants. The miscalculation was discovered in August during a voluntary Standards of Excellence review performed by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. It became clear that in calculating a student’s maximum eligible amount for federal financial aid, student income from veteran’s benefits, stipends and room and board had not been taken into account. After these were factored in, “an adjustment had to be made to their financial aid packages,” Ryan said, and as a result of this adjustment and in accordance with federal requirements, more than 130 students (64 student veterans and 70 residence assistants) were asked to return the aid that was overpaid to them. Of those students, Ryan continued, outstanding balances of $19,000 remain for 11 veterans, and $14,000 for 11 residence assistants. Unfortunately, Ryan said, some of these students have not responded to the university’s attempts to contact them for repayment, and this despite the fact that UB has developed very “forgiving” plans for repayment.

Ryan explained that the money owed to UB does not actually return to UB, since the financial aid in question is not UB funding but federal money. It has therefore to be returned to the government. In other words, the repayment has nothing to do with the current budget crisis, he said.

Chair Hoeing said that he had been bothered by the fact that it seemed like there was a hard and fast deadline for these students to repay money. But that was in fact not the case. Gayle Brazeau asked about the steps that had been taken to prevent this from happening again.

 

Item 4: Old New Business: Dissertation embargoes

Dr. Ho began by outlining the draft of the embargo policy: “While theses and dissertations submitted to the Graduate School as a requirement of the student’s degree program must be submitted in digital format,” students may request, Ho said, a hold (up to a year) or “embargo” on the release of the document. The thesis/dissertation will be held by ProQuest for that embargo period, and will only be released for publishing and cataloguing after the embargo period ends.

Bill Baumer raised the issue of the time of the meeting and the FSEC senators discussed moving the time to 3-5pm for reasons having to do with parking availability.

Item 5: Executive Session (if necessary)

Item 6: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:44 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carine Mardorossian, Secretary of the Faculty Senate

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