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

1. Approval of the minutes of November 16, 2005
2. Report of the Chair
3. Report of the President/Provost
4. Report of the Affirmative Action Committee - M. Rhodes
5. Report of the Grading Committee re course resignation date - W. Baumer
6. Discussion of standard UB calendars - W. Baumer
7. Old/New business
8. Adjournment

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of November 16, 2005

The minutes were approved as distributed.


Item 2: Report of the Chair

Chair Nickerson's report included:

• Acting Chancellor Ryan will be here on January 18th and attend a combined meeting of the Faculty Senate and Profession Staff Senate. It will be held in the Center for Tomorrow, which can provide seating for 350-400.
• The University Club is expected to continue when the spring semester resumes.
• The Governance Committee met recently and worked on revisions for policies and procedures for evaluating deans. The provost will attend an upcoming meeting.

Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

None


Item 4: Report of the Affirmative Action Committee - Mattie Rhodes

Professor Rhodes is chair of the FS Affirmative Action Committee (AAC). She said that diversity is essential, but the rationale for it extends beyond equal opportunity and equity. Diversity is necessary to allow our students to compete in a global market, and a diverse faculty is important to provide a quality education to students. However, diversification of faculty has not kept pace with the student population.

According to October 2004 statistics, of 1,514 on the faculty at that time, there were 52 Black, 37 Hispanic, 220 Asian, and 11 Native American. Approximately 30 % were female.

The Committee has been working on a recruitment and retention guide that will provide guidance and assistance for search committees, and also incorporate best practices from UB and other institutions. A draft version has been reviewed by Vice Provost Lucinda Finley, but additional comments and suggestions are welcome.

UB's Minority Faculty & Staff Association (MFSA) has been helpful to job candidates by providing information about UB and the Buffalo-Niagara region. Their welcome packet for new employees provides information about local shopping centers, social/recreation opportunities, and places of worship.

Mentoring is a strong point of emphasis in the recruitment/retention guide. Recommendations are that a mentor should be:

• from the mentee's department unless there are exceptional circumstances.
• mutually agreed-upon with the mentee.
• knowledgeable about promotion standards and procedures.
• willing to devote time and energy.

• The guidelines sound like a good strategy for retaining all junior faculty. (Schack)
• A guidebook will be helpful, but a strong mentoring program is essential. The School of Engineering & Applied Sciences has one-on-one mentoring so senior faculty members help new faculty throughout the tenure process. (Basaran)
• How many minorities apply for positions at UB? (Dayton)
• It's a diminishing set of numbers. We'd like to know why it's so small to start with. (Burke)
• The AAC encourages departments to consider our own graduate students as potential candidates for faculty positions at UB. (Rhodes)
• We need to increase the number of minority and female graduate students so there will be more potential hires. Currently there are hardly any minority candidates in the pipeline for Engineering faculty positions. (Basaran)
• UB's Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program aims to prepare first-generation college students for doctoral-level pursuits. Although it's not limited to minority students, many of the participants are from underrepresented populations. Many students from other schools get exposed to UB when they attend a summer conference that we've hosted for many years. (Durand)
• The statistics on minority faculty at UB are disappointing, and we sould all strive to help improve these numbers. Administrative leadership has a responsibility to support such endeavors, but it's ultimately the faculty who hire the faculty. We all need to do everything we can to recruit and retain a diverse faculty for this institution to have value. (Simpson)
• We're being contradictory when we recommend not overburdening junior faculty with committee responsibilities and then say it's important to have minorities on search committees. It's mathematically impossible to have it both ways. There's a misapprehension that only minorities care about diversity, and this is wrong. (Schack)
• All universities are competing for diverse faculty. We could increase our numbers dramatically if we were willing to sacrifice quality, but we shouldn't even consider that. (Faran)
• The AAC isn't suggesting that we compromise on quality. We shouldn't hire anyone simply because they're a minority candidate. We want the best candidates, because quality is essential for all hires. (Johnson-Cooper)