The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11, 2004, in 567 Capen Hall to consider the following agenda:
Approval of the minutes of January 21 and 28, 2004
Report of the Chair
Report of the President/Provost
Update on classrooms – J. Zambon
Access by faculty to student photographs – N. Kaars
6. Old/New business
7. Executive session (if needed)
8. Adjournment

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of January 21 and 28, 2004

Both sets of minutes were approved as distributed.

Item 2: Report of the Chair

Chair Nickerson reported:
The Teaching & Learning Committee, in collaboration with the Center for Teaching & Learning Resources, will present a program, “Student Perspectives on Teaching & Learning,” on Friday.
The UB Alumni Association board of directors met and discussed new incentives. Associate Vice President Robert Davies will update us at next week’s meeting.
Legal issues affecting faculty were interesting topics at the recent SUNY Senate meeting. We’ll discuss them at the March 2nd Faculty Senate (FS) meeting.

Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

Interim Provost Genco said that SUNY has asked for three-year enrollment projections. Vice Provost for Enrollment & Planning Sean Sullivan has responded to this short-notice request, and FSEC will hear more about it at an upcoming meeting.

Item 4: Update on classrooms – Joseph Zambon

Professor Zambon, chair of the FS Facilities Planning Committee, distributed the 30-page FS Facilities Report, which included the results of the spring 2003 “Faculty Survey on Instructional Facilities.” The main points included:
Classroom maintenance continues to be a problem. Much dissatisfaction concerned dirty classrooms, broken chairs, poor lighting, inadequate heating/cooling, lack of chalk/erasers, and filthy chalkboards.
There was general satisfaction with the quality of classroom technology, and the prompt service when there are problems with equipment.
The condition and scheduling of student laboratories was rated fairly high.
The number of classrooms was regarded as a serious problem because there aren’t enough to meet the needs of some departments. Some courses or sections can’t be offered because there aren’t enough classrooms. Giving exams in crowded classrooms is problematic.
Classroom space needs to be increased. There are sixty fewer classrooms now than in past years because many were converted into administrative space. It’s unclear how the space that’s freed up when the Libraries storage annex is built will be allocated. The SUNY chancellor has testified to the legislature that we need more faculty and more classrooms.

Questions & comments:
Many undergraduate chemistry sections can’t be seated due to lack of classroom space. Has there been any evidence of scheduling rooms that aren’t being used? (Churchill)
There was concern that this might happen, but students hired to monitor classroom usage and conditions have not reported finding many booked rooms empty. Since classroom utilization traditionally drops off for Friday afternoons, the Facilities Committee recommends scheduling single session events during that time. (Zambon)
The Libraries storage facility isn’t going to free up space for adding classrooms. It’s mainly going to provide a modest amount of space for new books in stacks that are currently overcrowded. It will also allow some space to be redesigned for improving library services, but it won’t help the classroom shortage. (Adams-Volpe)
Some departments have their own classroom space that’s not controlled by central scheduling. Perhaps it should be made available to other departments. (Boot)
Rooms controlled by departments are sometimes the only venues available for special events. When the Mathematics Department brought in a distinguished speaker, there were no classrooms available for his presentation except for a small room in the department. This prevented the event from being advertised to a wider audience who would have been interested in the presentation. (Schack)
Some units with their own classroom space have sharing arrangements with other units. The Medical and Dental schools do this. But it’s more than an access issue. The quality of department-controlled rooms differs from poor for some to very nice for others. (Zambon)
Some departments are prevented from increasing enrollment because there’s no room for additional class sections. (Nickerson per memo from Geography Dept.)
The Chancellor’s testimony noted this situation. Another problem that occurs involved mismatching smaller classes by scheduling them in large rooms. This usually happens when a technology classroom is required. (Zambon)
Who schedules classrooms? Are there clearly defined principles so this scarce resource can be utilized as effectively as possible? (Simpson)
Central Scheduling is responsible for assigning classrooms to classes each semester. There are well-defined protocols to be followed when requesting classrooms, but they aren’t always complied with or enforced. (Schack)
We’re stuck with the existing number of classrooms until we can get some capital money. We need to make the most of what we’ve got until more resources become available. (Simpson)
Most comments have been about how the classroom shortage affects courses, but it really interferes with many other activities as well – research, meetings, colloquia, etc. Perhaps a few classrooms could be held back to be used for special events. (Schack)
It makes sense to hold a few classrooms back because scheduling is so tight that there’s no backup for emergency cases such as if a room were to become unusable. (Brazeau)

Item 5: Access by faculty to student photographs – Nina Kaars

Senior Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Kaars said that the AAU Registrars Group did a survey in October 2002 regarding “Do you currently offer photo class lists?” Of the 36 AAU institutions responding, 39% were already doing photo class lists, and 28% were considering it.

Survey results are available on the Web at http://www.aaureg.edu/survey/results/aauphotoclasslists. Respondents recommend that consideration be given to the feelings of the broad faculty. If there’s interest in pursuing it then, numerous units and organizations will need to be involved in planning and implementation. Pertinent UB groups include CIT, Enrollment & Planning, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and the Faculty Senate.

Basic information about students is in the university directory. It is publicly accessible, and students have the option of requesting to have their listing removed. Some schools have interpreted student photographs to be directory-type information that can be removed, but others have deemed photos to be permissible under the “educational need to know” provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). If it is regarded as information required by faculty to do their jobs, then faculty are responsible for keeping it protected.

Elias Eldayrie, Associate Vice President for Information Technology, said that making photo class lists accessible to faculty is technically possible now. It could be done through MyUB.

Questions & comments:
Photo class lists would be helpful for matching student names and faces. (Baumer)
Having photos is useful for learning names faster and for being able to connect faces to e-mail messages. (Brazeau)
Some students seem to prefer anonymity. (Jensen)
Studies have shown that students who want to be anonymous have a higher failure rate. (Schack)
Has there been a survey of UB students about this? (Bruckenstein)
Students have not been surveyed here yet. (Kaars)
Retention rates are higher where schools reach out and demonstrate concern for student welfare. The photo lists would help with that. (Kaars)
There have been instances in the past when someone other than a registered student showed up to take exams. Having photos available would help to prevent this. (Grant)
Many students readily present their UB photo ID cards when exams are given because they expect to be asked for it. (Baumer)

A unanimous vote indicated approval for the Teaching & Learning Committee continuing to study this issue and then prepare a recommendation for the Senate to act on.

Item 6: Old/New business

Chair Nickerson’s report (postponed from an earlier meeting) on the SUNY Senate meeting held at SUNY-Oneonta January 30-31 included:
SUNY’s budget fared relatively well compared to other state agencies that received larger cuts.
SUNY’s All Funds budget is $7.8 billion. It has increased around 60% in the past 10 years.
NYS’s Division of the Budget asked that budget requests not be increased from last year. SUNY trustees kept the budget request the same, but asked for an additional $35 million to support enrollment growth. The chancellor has recommended a small tuition increase without an offsetting reduction in state support.
The state budget is expected to have a $2.8 billion gap in 2005/06 and a $4.3 billion gap in 2006/07. Increased revenues have been proposed from expanded gambling and by controlling pension payments and Medicaid and health care costs.
There is $92.6 million budgeted for SUNY hospitals and proposed legislation to convert them to non-profit status.
There is a capital budget with $1.8 billion for critical issues, which are mostly buildings.
A proposal recommends restructuring TAP payments to students, with a percent payable after the student graduates.
Assessment plans for all except a few SUNY campuses have been approved by GEAR (General Education Assessment Review).
The SUNY Faculty Senate passed a motion in support of continuing the dialogue about campus assessment. It was similar to the resolution passed at last week’s FS meeting. The results of the dialogue will be presented at the SUNY Senate’s spring plenary meeting.
Marti Ellerman, Senior Managing Campus Counsel, presented a list of the top legal issues affecting faculty: affirmative action, sexual harassment, academic freedom, rights of disabled students, privacy rights, post-9/11/01 security issues, computer use/intellectual property, conflicts of interest, due process in termination, free exercise of religion/establishment clause. We’ll schedule discussion of these at an upcoming meeting.
A report on SUNY efficiency recommends increasing enrollment of out-of-state students and shortening the time to graduation.
The SUNY FS Awards Committee passed a resolution listing recommended uses of distinguished ranks.
The SUNY FS Governance Committee reported on their survey of local support for faculty governance. Some campuses receive no support, and there is considerable variation among the rest. The Committee recommends at least minimal support in the form of office space and some released time for chairpersons. UB’s Faculty Senate appears to be the best supported in the SUNY system.

Item 7: Executive session (if needed)

FSEC met in executive session.

Item 8: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 4:03 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Will Hepfer
Secretary of the Faculty Senate

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

Chair: P. Nickerson (P)
Secretary: W. Hepfer (P)
Architecture & Planning: S. Danford (P)
Arts & Sciences: S. Bruckenstein (P), M. Churchill (P), R. Hoeing (E), S. Schack (P), K. Takeuchi (P)
Dental Medicine: M. Donley (P)
Education: L. Malave (P)
Engineering & Applied Sciences: J. Jensen (P), R. Mayne (P)
Informatics: F. Tutzauer (E)
Institutional/General: O. Mixon (P)
Law: L. Swartz (P)
Management: J. Boot (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: J. Hassett (P), G. Logue (A), B. Murray (A), J. Sellick (P)
Nursing: P. Wooldridge (P)
Pharmacy: G. Brazeau (P)
Public Health & Health Professions: C. Crespo (P)
Social Work: Barbara Rittner (E)
SUNY Senators: J. Adams-Volpe (P), W. Baumer (P), M. Kramer (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries: CA Fabian (P)
University officers: J. Simpson (P), R. Genco (P)

Guests: D. Budniewski (Reporter), M. Cohen (FS past-chair), E. Eldayrie (CIT), K. Grant (Academic Affairs), N. Kaars (Academic Affairs), L. Labinski (Prof. Staff Sen.), L. Stewart (EDAAA), S. Nolan-Weiss (EDAAA), J. Zambon (Facilities Planning Cmte.)