The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, September 26, 2007, in 120 Commons to discuss the following agenda:

1. Approval of the minutes of September 5, 2007
2. Report of the Chair
3. Report of the President/Provost
4. Presentation on UB Clean, Mike Dupre, Associate Vice President for University Facilities
5. Presentation on UB Green and the Task Force on the Environment, Walter Simpson, UB's Energy officer
6. Old / New Business
7. Adjournment

 Item 1: Approval of the minutes of September 5, 2007

 The minutes of September 5, 2007 were unanimously approved.

 Item 2: Report of the Chair

The chair reported that:

1. A joint meeting of the Academic Planning and Budget Priorities Committees has been set for October 18. Since the chair will be attending a Graduate School Executive Committee meeting at the same time, Peter Nickerson is to report on the meeting.

2. The UB Council met a week ago Monday; the chair was recovering from the flu and could not attend. From the materials distributed, he reported on the following items:

•  Ilia Nossov, new student representative on the Council, raised a number of issues of concerns to students, among them:

•  Overcapacity in student housing

•  Overpricing of Campus Dining , and the absence of a middle meal;

•  Why there is only one Health Insurance provider for students, and the need for a Health Center on North Campus

•  Overpricing of textbooks

•  Insufficient parking

 •  Provost Tripathi delivered a presentation on a (p)review of the opening academic year, highlighting:

•  The UG Academies, Honors College, and Discovery Seminary program

•  The class of 2011 as the most academically talented in UB history

•  Significant rise in applications to the Schools of Dental Medicine, Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Law

•  New faculty hires (63 this year)

•  President Simpson delivered his report on:

•  The Commission on Higher Education

•  The UB Believers Initiative

•  The Berger Commission—he has been named to Chair a meeting that will direct the future of the Kaleida / ECMC merger

•  Karen Arenson's series of interviews at UB for a NY Times article

•  JBS will have an article published in Inside Higher Education about educational access to college, and it takes a back seat to the issue of financial access

3. Senate Meeting for October 9:

•  The chair explained that he had canceled one FSEC meeting and scheduled an October 9 Senate meeting instead to accommodate SUNY Provost Risa Palm. Risa Palm cancelled again

•  Instead, Lucinda Finley accepted the Chair's invitation to present on the TLC at the Oct 9 meeting; this is a great opportunity for us to offer our ideas and input for the continuing development of the new Teaching and Learning Center—she wants this before proceeding further.

4. Newest 3 members of the President's Review Board are:

•  Paschalis Alexandridis (Chem/Biol. Engineering) repl. Andrei Reinhorn

•  Marcus Bursik (Geology), repl. Michael Detty

•  Mulchand Patel (Biochemistry) repl. John Shlegel

5. The Graduate School Executive Committee met on Thurs., Sept 20, and discussed the following issues:

•  The ongoing Comprehensive Program Reviews. Scheduled for this Fall are the Biotechnology BS and MS programs, Comparative Literature, Communications, and Rehabilitation Science. Slated for the Spring 2008 semester are Biophysics (undergrad only), Engineering (graduate only in conjunction with ABET accreditation), and Communicative Disorders and Sciences.

•  Graduate enrollment—shortfall of about 300 (primarily because of a smaller incoming class)

•  SUNY-wide Professional Science Masters initiative

•  10-12 campuses expressed genuine interest, others are in wait-and-see mode

•  Additional 15 cr. Hrs.—goal is the development of an additional credential rather than trying to cram a new degree through the system

•  Student Systems transformation project

•  Status report on the relatively new OPS [Office of Postdoctoral Scholars] by Marilyn Morris

•  UB joined the National Postdoctoral Association

•  Formed its own PA on May 3; is the recipient of a grant for a NPA team visit to be held here late October

•  Seminars and workshops—a couple by our own Gayle Brazeau

•  Among the plans for the near future:

•  Developing orientation/ socialization of new postdocs

•  Launching a research symposium/series of research seminars

•  Developing a Responsible Conduct of research program

6. Budget Priorities Committee -- met this past Monday

•  VP Willis and Associate VP Sullivan were present and explained our multi-year campus needs analysis – what we asked for, modeling assumptions

•  Distributed a working timeline for budget planning and enactment

•  Sample, detailed layout of [CAS] large and small-scale needs, costs involved, and stage of project

•  OCT meeting -- will review the priorities and faculty will provide criticism and input (phase of active engagement)

7. Announcement: John Simpson will deliver his 2 nd Annual Community Address on Tues, Oct 16, 8 am at Kleinhans Music Hall (the general public is invited)… and of course the address to the Voting Faculty is next week Oct 2 at 2pm in CFT (not FSEC meeting next week)

8. We will have an executive session today (time permitting) for committee business.

 Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

President John Simpson mentioned the piece he recently wrote and published in an electronic journal called Inside Higher Education . His point in the article was that very often in the political and higher education arena, people talk about the affordability of education, a topic that should certainly not to be ignored, but that a larger conversation needs to be engaged. Indeed, ½ of the people who graduate from high school are not prepared to go to a university or college. A lot more, 30% or so, do not even graduate. In other words, when we talk about access, the conversation should not just be about how much it costs but whether, even when one can afford it, one is ready to take advantage of the opportunity. This piece generated all kinds of interesting comments only one of which addressed that fundamental point. The rest strayed off into whether or not the President used a statistical data, whether IQ mattered, issues of privilege, etc.

2. The Provost and the president charged about a year ago an international education task force to put together a faculty group that will look at what we do in International education both as an importing and exporting institution and to advise the President on what ought to be done. Indeed, we have a lot more international students than out of state ones right now; 10% of UB's students are sent to some sort of international and educational experience (4 times the national average). The Committee is composed of people who are committed to international education in one way or another either by themselves participating in some kind of curriculum that is supportive of International Education, or they teach courses in Singapore. The President needs some perspective on the following two questions: he asked if it is our sense that this kind of direction for the future of our students is a good thing? i.e. organize in a systematic way study at UB by students from other countries a good thing? Likewise is having “native” students studying abroad is a good thing? The Committee made a host of recommendations. A number dealt with resource, administrative issues but a larger number dealt with curricular, faculty issue. Would it be appropriate to globalize, internationalize general undergraduate education?

 Claude Welch reported that a curricular review of the sort was done 20 years ago: it dealt with American Pluralism, World Civilization, but the required source requirements have not been themselves assessed.

Barbara commented that it was important but difficult to recruit international students here because of financial reasons.

Joe argued that UB is in a great position to compete internationally than: we are in fact better regarded in the rest of the world than in the US. In the last 8 years, there has been an increasing isolation in the US. It is increasingly difficult to bring foreign scholars to the US. We are better positioned than a lot of universities that are more highly ranked than us to compete internationally. We ought to make extra effort to expand on that.

The chair agreed that international education is crucial if we are to combat provincialism.

Item 4a: Presentation on UB Clean

Mike Dupre, Associate Vice President for University Facilities

 Among the top 10 reasons why somebody picks a certain institution, aesthetic appearance is #3.

The Mission of UB Clean is to engage and empower people to keep a clean campus and create a welcoming environment for all to enjoy; for students to take social responsibility working with Student Affairs.

On 9/29, UB organized a clean-up of the Linda Yalem race course and surrounding area

On 10/13 there was Family weekend sponsored

Several years ago, the Faculty Senate asked that classrooms be cleaner. Mike Dupre suggested that faculty require of students that they clean up after themselves if they are allowed to bring food to the classroom. This is about taking social responsibility. Student groups are coming forth to do several activities such as clean up the area free of litter. Dupre suggested that UB could have $500 scholarships available to student clubs if they take some sort of ownership (could be as easy as picking up litter). He emphasized the importance of increasing awareness and/or promoting conservation of natural and outdoor spaces on campus.

 Marketing

+Bus signs: 24 interior and 4 exterior signs will be placed on various inter- and intra-campus buses and shuttles for 2007/2008 school year, e.g. UB Clean It's in Your Reach

Help Wanted ad, asking for 30,000 volunteers to keep the campus clean

 What can faculty do to get people on board? Turn off lights, call someone if lights are on an automated control system.

Gayle Brazeau said that more trees should be planted on campus and that the dead trees on our major walkways should to be replaced. In response to her question, Mike Dupree commented that UB had a landscaping master plan and a concept plan done in the mid 1990s that included extensive surveying, and the #1 issue people want is more trees. Unfortunately, there are areas on this campus where the trees are not doing well. There are problems with survival rates in those areas. Part of the current comprehensive master plan process is to try and solve that issue.

 Claude Welch said that Home Depot has American Elms for $120 and that it was important to look for trees that have shallow roots. He also suggested that faculty could maybe list the importance of keeping a clean campus as part of the requirements on their syllabi.

The issue of the cleanliness of classrooms was also raised. Mike Dupre explained that cleaning has been the bane of his existence for quite a while. In the 1990s, the University decided it would save money by contract cleaning which, according to Dupre, was a mistake. Cleaning was approached for maximum savings to accommodate budget cuts. Until this changed last January, most of our buildings (75%) were cleaned under contract, i.e. the staff that worked for those contract cleaners were making $7.50/hour with no benefits, were put on third shift and given the master key to a building. We still have that actually, so no type of quality assurance can be expected from a program like that. About two years ago, Mike Dupre presented 4 alternate scenarios: the one that was agreed on was to put people back on payroll with a benefit package. UB bought the services of a large custodial company because it had cleaning down to an art form with training programs etc. We are now in transition with 30% of buildings still under the old regime. UB is transitioning slowly because 1/ it has to come up with more money (an extra $1 million) 2/ if the contracting business is performing fairly well, it would be bad business partner on our part to cancel that contract too early unless we have real cause because they made investments they have to amortize in equipment over multiple years. Those issues combined make it necessary to transition slowly but customer surveys are indicating that there is already a significant return even though we have only been at it 8 months. To fully implement it, it will take longer than that. Mike Dupre also explained that we are experiencing a turn over rate of 200% to 300% that also contributes to the difficulty of training staff.

It was recommended that UB be represented at the SUNY Energy Sustainability Conference in November.

Item 4b: Presentation on UB Green and the President's Task Force on the Environment

Walter Simpson, UB's Energy Officer

 Walter Simpson provided an overview of how to go from clean to green. The obvious benefits of the program is certainly a cleaner environment but also energy conservation that saves substantial amounts of money. There is also a public relations image building that spills over into attracting good faculty and students and people wanting to stay. To sum up, the benefits are:

- Cleaner environment

- Fiscal responsibility: sometimes more costly, sometimes saves money

- Academic excellence

- Public Service

- PR, Image Building: demonstrating that it helps recruit students and faculty

UB is regarded as a leader in energy conservation, environmental performance, and for effective outreach and education (we are outshining Columbia, Harvard, and Yale!) but the competition is getting stiffer. To stay in the top echelon, the University needs to be advancing the program in a very aggressive way. In contrast to Harvard's Green Campus Initiative that has 19 people on staff, UB only has 2 to 3. Walter Simpson warned that UB is going to be blown off the map if we don't figure ways for further staffing and doing more.

Nevertheless, UB is still in high demand and Walter Simpson has been attending many regional conferences and given presentations in New York (CUNY), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Colorado. Lots of campuses have sent delegations to UB as well. The CUNY system was launching a Green Campus program 2 years ago, and Walter Simpson was able to speak to all the chief business officers for all the campuses there.

The Environmental Task Force (of which Claude Welch is a member) is comprised of students, faculty, and staff (40 members) who are busy advancing the environmental program at the university, doing environmental awareness, proposing policies to the administration. It has been around since 1990 and has various green partners on campus (the Faculty Senate could be one). BCC Network (Building Conversation and Context) = essentially the idea that in every department and office there is one environmental liaison that relates to the program, that reports back when the cleaners mix the garbage and recycling, etc. so the program can extend to all the corners of the university and not be something that appears on a poster or in a newspaper article every now and then. There is an Environment Society Institute, a faculty organization, headed up by Alan Rabideau in Environmental Engineering as well as very high-powered student groups with great leadership and lots of people joining, Engineers for a Sustainable World. They are excited because for the first time students are part of the design process of the new Engineering buildings to make them as green as possible. They are collaborating with the UB Environmental Network (comprised mostly of liberal arts students)

Walter Simpson then listed all the various things the program does: guest lectures; environmental library; work with students; provide support to the other green campus promise movers; organize energy and green design training workshops, conferences, public lectures; sponsoring Tours of Solar Homes and Green Buildings, etc.

Green Partners: program formalized a couple of years ago

School of Architecture and Planning

Art Department: students from all different artistic disciplines creating artwork to celebrate the environment

Chemistry Department to reduce the operation of fume

Environment Society Institute

Computing and Information Technology

Faculty Student Association

CIT Green Partner

+ Reduced the amount of printing each student gets for free

+ Early adopter of 100% post consumer recycled paper: 70% of paper on campus now is

+ Computer energy saving program

Public computer labs and cybraries: turning off computers especially in the summer

“Do it in the dark” campaign

Departmental nodes next

+ Environmental Friendly Products Purchasing Committee

+ Support for Recycled paper purchasing

+ Energy Star products only

FSA Green Partner

+ Energy efficient, Energy Star vending machines: vending machines on the campus used $50 000 in electricity a year. UB was one of the first campuses to specify only energy star vending machines

+ Day-lit Ellicott dining room

+ Participating in composting program: through the cafeteria pre-consumer waste

 Residence Halls and Apartments

+ Program where incandescent bulbs can be exchanged for compact fluorescent lights that use 1/3 as much electricity

+ Reinvigorating recycling program

+ Recycled carpet

+ Move out recycling/reuse especially when students move out at the end of the year: clothing is sent to shelters, etc.

Areas of Environmental Achievement

Energy conservation (Walter Simpson has been working on it since 1982 when he arrived at UB, and there was a program in place before he got to UB! UB is unusual because has never lost enthusiasm for it year after year)

Recycling

Green purchasing

Green power

Green building design

AFV vehicles

Green spaces

Energy and Environmental policies

Environmental awareness

In March, President Simpson signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment: 400 colleges and Universities across the country have committed to planning for and achieving climate neutrality. President Simpson's idea is that we will be among the leaders.

Energy Conservation:

Operations

In house and capital ECMs:

Comprehensive energy projects

Energy policies

Energy awareness

Mid-1990s project managed by Walter Simpson: UB has become a real proselytizer when it comes to programs that pay for themselves. In Residence Hall buildings, there was a 17 million dollar project that paid back in 4 years in terms of energy savings and cost the university nothing: we borrowed money to make it happen and the debt was paid by energy savings. We can do 10 or 15 years worth of conservation in 3 or 4 by taking this route. We hired a company to work with us. 1997 finished project: $50 million cumulative positive cash flow financial pro forma. Money we did not have to spend but which benefited other programs at the university because we have to pay our utility bills and if we had to pay $50 million more in energy expenses it would come out of someone else's programs

South Campus

UB is embarked on a 11.9 million Comprehensive Project that will result in 20% energy use reduction: again self-financing.

Renovation of Mackay Steam Power plant, which was running entirely on coal

Constructed 1931, now running on clean natural energy efficient gas

Energy Conservation: How are we doing?

We can always do better! We know it.

Active program since late 1970s: $10 million in annual savings, over 100 million in cumulative savings.

North campus: probably 40% energy reduction as a result of conservation; Main Street campus a bit less.

There is an Executive Order that governor Pataki in 2001 called Executive Order 111 that was renewed by Spitzer when he came into office on January 1 st . This executive order calls on all state agencies to reduce the amount of energy in existing building, design buildings that are at least 20% more efficient, only buy the energy star products, purchase and expand green power purchasing (UB is one of the leaders in green power purchasing (12 million of windpower a year but we are not in compliance even though we are ahead of everyone else); expand AFV fleet: we have 30 or 40 natural gas vehicles

UB generates about 3000 tons of garbage (Solid Waste) a year on campus; we need to reduce and recycle as much as we can.

Recycling program: problem with the mixing up of recycling and trash; recyclables are contaminated by the food people discard in the same container.

Office Recycling

Public area recycling

Other recycling

Recycles

Office paper, newspaper, cardboard, glass plastic and metal bevergage containers, computer and monitors

Recycling How are we doing?

35% recycling rate, i.e. 35% of 3000 tons is going into recycling

Goal is 50% or better (E.O 142)

The best schools recycle 60% (Cornell, we need to match that)

Green purchasing

100% post-consumer content recycled paper (a policy is needed: the Faculty Senate could support the idea that there would be a university policy that says UB only buys 100% post-consumer recycled paper: same cost, same quality)

Other green products

Use SWAP instead of buying new

All stationeries are now 100% recycled.

14 trailor truckloads of paper used every year at UB

Green Power: we need to do a lot more; started an on site renewable generation with the PV system on Norton Hall; we get lots of great press for this work in renewable energy. Green power costs a bit more but it boosts that industry and we get a lot of good publicity.

 Steel Winds Opportunity

20MW wind farm

Developer BQ Energy

Bethlehem Steel Brownfields site

Lackawanna NY: Could a UB long-term contract to buy wind energy help build the next wind farm in NY?

73.5 KW PV Array on Norton Hall

73 100 KWH / yr, biggest array in WNY but only generates 6% of the energy used in Norton Hall

Green Design

Creekside Apartments Community Center – 1 st LEED rated Green building in WNY

LEED (Leadership in Energy and environmental Design) silver= it is not as green as it should be but greener than it would otherwise have been

The Task Force put out High performance building guidelines.

Acheson Hall Renovation

Energy intensive lab building

20% more efficient building could save $150,000 a year times 50 years lifetime the building is going to be around. The premium of first cost is easily paid back over the lifetime of the building

Opportunity for LEED Gold or platinum

Walter Simpson praised the New Engineering Building which he believes will probably turn out to be LEED gold or platinum.

The whole building is intended to be a teaching tool for Engineering and not just a place to go

Great Statement for UB

Involvement for students.

Excitement on the part of students and faculty alike.

How Green can you get?

Produce more energy than use it

Green vehicles: AFV fleet of 32 vehicles with 20 more on order

CNG refueling station

Hydrogen vehicle testing program

Biodiesel trucks and buses: Our diesel trucks are running on bio diesel

Imagine a green solution to campus commuting : 120 billion miles of commuting by students, faculty and staff every year; a lot of environmental impact, a real conundrum

Green spaces

Campus beautification

Natural regeneration areas: stopped cutting grass, more wildlife, natural succession happening much more slowly than expected.

We have some protected areas, we lost some.

Pesticide free lawns: except in the plain fields

Letchworth woods: sacrosanct place, still protected, remains untouched but we lost a few trees to insect infestation

Environmental awareness program : Connection with Academic Excellence

- Cost savings benefit academic programs because the money would have to come from other sources to pay utility bills

- Various kinds of academic enrichment occur as a result, doing projects with students

In 1995, Walter Simpson and Claude Welch served as the faculty members during a course for 20 environmental studies students who did an environmental study of the campus. To a person, they all said this was the best course they had had at UB. They had to do an analysis, find where the opportunities are for becoming more environmentally responsible, study pesticides, do a passive cooling study with architecture and engineering students

- Ecoliteracy of graduates

- Alumni Arena: Students are designing a solar hot water system to heat the pools

1998: one day's worth of garbage was dumped in front of the Student Union (6 feet high, size of a football field). In one day 40 students went through and sorted it in recyclables and non recyclables, and reached the conclusion that UB could easily recycle almost 50% of its trash.

The “greener shade of blue” program leading up to Al Gore last Spring.

 Climate Neutrality and Environmental Sustainability

•  Supposed to become more part of the curriculum and more part of the student experience

•  Areas of research are supposed to reinforce it as well

How to keep Climate Neutrality?

•  Reduce the amount of energy used: natural gas is all fossil fuel, electricity is at least ½ fossil fuel.

•  We need greener more efficient green building

•  Switching to renewable energy from non fossil fuel sources, solar energy, etc.

Climate Pledge

Within the next two months, UB will establish a process for planning climate neutrality. Bob Shibley has been assigned the job of putting together a committee or committees that will address this. He is doing the Master Plan and there is some overlap, since environmental sustainability is part of the Master Plan.

 UB Green and the Environmental Task Force is about to release the UB Climate Action Report which will be shared with the Faculty Senate: it has the first university greenhouse gas emission inventory. Looks at how we are spewing carbon monoxide into the air and has strategies for reducing those emissions. The Task Force wants to engage the campus community in a dialogue about climate change starting this semester and next.

Walter Simpson emphasized that he would love to see the Environment Society Institute sustain itself and to witness UB develop a graduate program in sustainability. The first such program was established last year at Arizona State University. The president at ASU is the national leader of this climate pledge and is implementing sustainability from the top down (we are hopefully going in two directions here).

SUNY has just completed a sustainability policy and it is a question of how and if it gets implemented. It has a lot of good things in it but unless there is a lot of attention paid to it and a lot of pushing, it won't get implemented. It has an academic component, a research aspect; it is a good policy. Unfortunately, there is a lot of great intentions but the following through is not always there.

In response to a question, Walter Simpson explained that old computers put out for disposal are collected and sent to an electronic recycle. He also addressed the issue of waste heat and how to re-use it (for instance, refrigeration equipment that dump hot air outside, or overabundant solar energy in the summer that should ideally be stored in reservoirs for the winter).

Walter Simpson asked that anyone contact him with suggestions, questions, etc.

 Item 5: Committee Reviews

The chair reported that the Academic Planning Committee is meeting this Friday afternoon, and they are looking for any issues they should be discussing over the next semester and over the next year. He requested that faculty forward ideas to him via email over the next two days.

The chair reminded us that on 9 October, Lucinda Finley will be presenting on the Teaching & Learning Center . This is a good opportunity to give her input into what we think the new director should do, what direction we want, what ideas we want for workshops, symposia, etc. for this new Center.

The chair stated that the Faculty Tenure & Privileges Committee is currently headless. He asked what exactly the faculty senate would like the committee to discuss concerning promotion and tenure. He concluded by requesting additional agenda items for the next FSEC meeting.

Item 6: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:58 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carine Mardorossian, Secretary of the Faculty Senate

Secretary: Carine Mardorossian

Architecture & Planning: G. Scott Danford

Arts & Sciences: Melvyn Churchill

Joseph Woelfel

Engineering & Applied Sciences: Stella Batalama

Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: James Springate

Nursing Cynthia Curran

Pharmacy: Gayle Brazeau

Social Work: Barbara Rittner

SUNY Senators: William H. Baumer

Henry J. Durand

Marilyn McMann Kramer

University Libraries Dorothy Tao

Parlamentarian William H. Baumer

Ex-officio Peter A. Nickerson

Guests: Provost Satish Tripathi

CAS/PSC Claude Welch

EDAAA: David Bray

Barbara Burke

Graduate Student Association Rachel Dwyer

Undergraduate Student Association Jayme Wortley

Rezwanul Islam

Professional Staff Senate Janiece Kiedrowski

The Spectrum : Cheng Cheong

The Reporter Mary Cochrane

University Facilities Mike Dupre

UB Green & Task Force on the Environment Walter Simpson

Absent: Management: Hodan Isse

School of Public Health & Health Professions Peter Horvath

Graduate School of Education Thomas Schroeder

Arts & Sciences: Stanley Bruckenstein

Kenneth Takeuchi

Graduate School of Education: Thomas Schroeder

Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: James Hassett

William Fiden

Undergraduate Student Association Peter Grollitsch

Excused Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: Merril Dayton

SUNY Senator Peter Bradford