FACULTY SENATE
Minutes of April 5, 2005
(unapproved)
The Faculty Senate (FS) met at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5, 2005, at the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:
- Approval of the minutes of February 1, 2005
- Report of the Chair
- Report of the President/Provost
- Report of the Bioinformatics Business Planning Task Force – B. Holm
- Recent developments in the School of Management – J. Thomas
- Old/New business
- Adjournment
The minutes were approved as distributed.
Item 2: Report of the Chair
Chair Nickerson’s report included:
- Today’s newspapers are reporting that Chancellor Robert King has resigned effective June 1st.
- The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) passed a resolution thanking Dr. Margaret Paroski for her excellent service as Interim Vice President for Health Affairs and Interim Dean of the School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Paroski will be the new Medical Director at Kaleida Health.
- Professor Jorge José has been hired from Northeastern University to become UB’s Vice President for Research; he’ll begin August 1st.
- CIO Voldemar Innus told the FSEC about UB’s new printing policy, which will go into effect this fall. The new system allocates approximately a ream of paper to students, faculty, and staff for printing in the libraries and public computing sites. Overages will require payment via a vendor card, so faculty should consider ways to condense materials that are posted online, e.g. putting multiple PowerPoint slides on a page.
- The UB Council met recently and appointed two new members: Mark Czarnecki, executive vice president of the M&T Investment Group, and Dr. Cynthia Ambres, president of Lifetime Health Medical Group. Jonathan Yedin is the newly elected student representative on the Council.
- The UB Council passed a resolution commending President Simpson and Provost Tripathi on their UB2020 planning initiative and supporting the implementation of the findings.
- There has been some progress on the Faculty Code of Conduct. We want to move ahead with it this semester, so we’re planning to have a discussion of a draft document at the April 27th FSEC meeting and then present it for a first reading at the full Senate meeting on May 3rd.
- A University Club was discussed by representatives from various campus groups as a result of the academic support planning process.
Item 3: Report of the President/Provost
None
Item 4: Report of the Bioinformatics Business Planning Task Force – Bruce Holm
Senior Vice Provost Bruce Holm said the Bioinformatics Task Force was created to develop a comprehensive plan for the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences. The Center was expanded and restructured in April 2004, so the task force was charged to formulate programmatic and strategic objectives for how to proceed. A plan was needed to address budgetary, governance, and operational concerns, including capitalization and commercialization.
A Leadership & Oversight Team, comprised of Provost Tripathi and Dr. Holm, who is the executive director of the Center, provided support and monitored the sub-teams’ progress on assigned objectives and timelines.
Highlights of the sub-teams’ outcomes include:
- An Executive Council constituted of Center partners will provide strategic advice and a long-range business plan for the growth and development of the Center.
- A Scientific Advisory Board consisting of national and international experts in bioinformatics and the life sciences will meet biannually to review programs, progress, and scientific strategy.
- An Economic Development Advisory Board comprised of Center representatives and community, government, and industry leaders will provide counsel on matters related to commercialization.
- Inter-related specialty laboratories working separately and sequentially on drug discovery & delivery, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, cardio-thoracic disease, and pathogenesis will facilitate the process of disease mechanism and therapy.
- The Center’s research capabilities in information acquisition, storage, and analysis will enable the development of state-of-the-art techniques, new medical treatments, and improved protocols and systems.
- The region’s emerging bio-economy provides a solid organizational base for cutting edge therapeutics and diagnostics.
Item 5: Recent developments in the School of Management – John Thomas
Dean of the School of Management John Thomas’s presentation was postponed due to time constraints.
Item 6: Old/New business
None
Item 7: Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:14 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Will Hepfer
Secretary of the Faculty Senate
ATTENDANCE (P = present; A = absent; E = excused)
Chair – P. Nickerson
Secretary – W. Hepfer
Parliamentarian – W. Baumer
Architecture & Planning – GS Danford (P), D. Hess (P)
Arts & Sciences – R. Allen-King (P), S. Bennett (P), S. Bruckenstein (A), J. Buscaglia (A M. Chen (E), M. Churchill (A), M. Detty (A), L. Dryden (A), D. Eddins (A), J. Faran (P), A. Graves (P), T. Gregg (A), R. Hoeing (P), C. Lamb (P), M. Lichtel (A), A. Markelz (A), N. Matthews (P), P. McDevitt (P), J. Mendoza (P), A. Monteiro (A), J. Pappas (A), S. Rothenberg (E), S. Schack (P), D. Street (P), K. Takeuchi (A), J-C Thill (A), T. Thurston (A), G. Timler (P), P. Vanouse (A), D. Wackeroth (P), R. Woodard (P), J. Yu (A)
Dental Medicine – P. Bradford (A), M. Donley (E), E. Pantera (A), J. Zambon (P)
Education – J. Hoot (A), X. Liu (P), L. Malave (P), T. Schroeder (P)
Engineering & Applied Sciences – A. Aref (P), C. Basaran (A), A. Bisantz (E), S. Chen (P), J. Crussides (P), J. Jensen (A), P. Lin (P), R. Wetherhold (P)
Informatics – J. Ellison (P)
Institutional General – O. Mixon (A)