Minutes of November 16, 2005
(unapproved)
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The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16, 2005, in 567 Capen Hall to consider the following agenda:
- Report of the Chair
- Report of the President/Provost
- Printing policy - R. Lesniak
- Update on the Distance Education Committee - D. Penniman
- Old/New business
- Executive Session (if needed)
- Adjournment
Item 1: Report of the Chair
Chair Nickerson reported:
- Senators who have not attended recent meetings will be encouraged to attend or send a designated alternate to the December 6th meeting. We need a quorum.
- The FS Budget Priorities Committee met and discussed developing a budget handbook that describes how funds are handled at UB. SUNY is developing a new budget allocation procedure, and the Committee wants to understand how state funds affect UB.
- The FS Educational Programs & Policies Committee met and discussed undergraduate research at UB. In the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, there is an office that will facilitate providing mentors for undergraduates. Mentorship for the humanities is quite different than for the sciences.
Item 2: Report of the President/Provost
Provost Tripathi reported that three searches are underway: for deans in Engineering and Medicine and a vice president for Advancement. Search committees have been appointed and charged. We hope to fill these positions during the Spring Semester.
Item 3: Printing policy - R. Lesniak
Director of CIT's Academic Services Rick Lesniak provided an update on iprint@UB, the printing control system that was originally scheduled to begin this semester. Technical problems postponed the implementation, so pilot testing is now set to begin in Lockwood Library and a departmental lab in January. The full roll-out is planned for Fall 2006. The system, which will allocate 1,500 pages of printing to UB students each semester, is designed to ensure fair access to printing, improve print job turnaround, and control waste and abuse. When similar systems were introduced at other universities, printing volume dropped immediately, waste and abuse were curtailed, and user satisfaction increased significantly.
When a print job is sent to any of UB's public printers, the UB user will be given an opportunity to accept the cost of the print job, which will then be subtracted from his/her allocation. If the allocation is exhausted, additional pages can be purchased. University guests and the public will need to purchase vendor cards to pay for printing.
Although statistics show that some graduate students need to print more than undergraduates, the allocation for both will be the same because they pay the same technology fee that covers printing costs. The 1,500-page allocation per semester is estimated to be satisfactory for 95% of all students.
Item 4: Update on the Distance Education Committee - D. Penniman
School of Informatics Dean David Penniman and Professor Hank Bromley presented an interim report on the work of the Distance Education (DE) Committee. Dean Penniman is the chair, and Professor Bromley serves as a consultant, of the group appointed by the provost last summer to "explore ways in which the University could study all credit bearing courses and credit-granting programs delivered via synchronous or asynchronous channels or media outside the traditional classroom." Committee membership is representative of relevant decanal and other units.
The provost's charge also asked the committee to "prepare an inventory of current distance education practices and offerings at UB, review the pertinent literature, and provide an overview of best practices at other institutions."
The DE Committee has queried decanal units about what's being at UB, and many outside sources have been identified and studied. The collected information was used in developing a policy framework covering academic, governance/administrative, faculty, legal, student support services, technical, and cultural matters.
Modes of delivering DE courses at UB currently include: online, interactive video, streaming video, CD, and hybrid. There were 79 DE courses offered at UB during the 2005 Fall Semester - 48 were undergraduate courses and 31 were graduate level.
The committee's next tasks will be to complete data collection, summarize the results, review sample policies, and then draft a set of policies applicable to UB. Additional comments will be solicited from the UB community when the draft is ready for review.
UB's policy will ensure that "learning outcomes should remain stable and comparable to the quality of traditional classroom experience." It will also address the issues of rights to and ownership of intellectual property.
Item 5: Old/New business
A written proposal from the College of Arts & Sciences to remerge the departments of Art and Art History was considered. The merger would form a unit called the Department of Visual Studies. The practices of studio art and the academic areas of art theory, criticism, and history are closely aligned, and current globalization demands visual literacy. The proposed organization will facilitate cross-cultural and pan-national analysis, discussion, and interpretation of the meaning of images.
A motion was made and seconded to approve the proposed Department of Visual Studies. The vote in favor was unanimous.
Item 6: Executive Session
None
Item 7: Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:37 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Will Hepfer
Secretary of the Faculty Senate
ATTENDANCE (P = present; A = absent; E = excused)
Chair - P. Nickerson (P)
Secretary - W. Hepfer (P)
Architecture & Planning - GS Danford (P)
Arts & Sciences - J. Faran (P), R. Hoeing (E), SD Schack (P), D. Street (A), K. Takeuchi (P)
Dental Medicine - M. Donley (P)
Education - L. Malavé (P)
Engineering & Applied Sciences - C. Basaran (P), R. Wetherhold (P)
Informatics - J. Ellison (P)
Law - T. Miller (E)
Management - W. Lin (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences - D. Amsterdam (P), M. Dayton (P), L. Harris (A), J. Hassett (A)
Nursing - P. Wooldridge (A)
Pharmacy - K. Fiebelkorn (P)
Public Health & Health Professions - vacant
Social Work - Barbara Rittner (P)
SUNY Senators - WW. Baumer (P), W. Coles (P), H. Durand (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries - HA Booth (P)
University Officers - Provost Tripathi
Guests - M. Cochrane (Reporter), L. Labinski (Prof. Staff Senate), R. Lesniak (CIT), L. Meister (Undergrad. SA), J. Xu (Grad. SA)
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