FACULTY SENATE
Minutes of March 7, 2006
(unapproved)
The Faculty Senate (FS) met at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7, 2006, at the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:
- 2nd reading - Change of course resignation date - W. Baumer
- What's new in the Health Sciences - D. Dunn
- Approval of the minutes of February 7, 2006
- Report of the Chair
- Report of the President/Provost
- Report of the Faculty Senate Elections Committee - W. Hepfer
- Old/New business
- Adjournment
Item 1: 2nd reading - Change of course resignation date - W. Baumer
Professor William H. Baumer opened the floor to further discussion about the FS Grading Committee's proposed changes to UB's course resignation date policy:
"A student may unilaterally resign a course without penalty through the eleventh week of a Fall or Spring semester, and through the first two-thirds of any other academic term. Any resigned course shall be included in the student's record of study with a grade of 'R', but no credits shall be accrued and neither the grade nor the credits shall be included in computation of grade point averages; the student may again enroll in the course in any subsequent academic semester or term."
There was no further discussion, and the motion to adopt the proposal passed by unanimous vote. It will be forwarded to President Simpson for approval.
Item 2: What's new in the Health Sciences - D. Dunn
Vice President for Health Sciences David L. Dunn reported on recent developments in the schools he oversees: Dental Medicine, Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Public Health & Health Professions.
Today's very good news was an announcement that BlueCross BlueShield has given UB $5 million to research how to decrease "the epidemic of obesity" that's swept the nation. Western New York is particularly affected by heart disease-related illnesses. This funding is very gratifying to UB, especially since it's pretty uncommon for a private-sector company to bestow such a generous grant to a public health school.
The School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences has been awarded a substantial grant from Pfizer to develop a Center of Excellence in Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics at UB.
Aging and chronic diseases is one of the 10 strategic strengths identified in the UB2020 planning process. Our schools of Dental Medicine, Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Nursing, and Public Health & Health Professions are all interested in doing research in that area.
Decanal units are working on hiring and funding plans. This is quite challenging because funding cycles are so flat now. We especially need to do better in the areas that are benchmarked by NIH/NCI.
The Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences is on track for its June 13th - 16th gala opening and symposium downtown.
Questions & comments:
- What's the status of UB's Radiology Department? (Nickerson)
- Radiology is one program out of 55; it has been put on probation, but the other 54 are fully accredited and very strong. We're assessing Radiology's situation, so we can decide whether or not we should voluntarily withdraw our request for re-accreditation. Perhaps Buffalo's medical environment can't provide a suitable case volume and case mix at this time. (Dunn)
- Do you have plans for improving interdisciplinary training for health-sciences students? (Brazeau)
- UB could lead the way in that. We need to look at how we deploy health-care practitioners into Western New York just to maintain what we've got here, because the number of professionals in most health-care fields is decreasing. We need to look at different ways and different models of deploying practitioners, so, instead of individuals, perhaps there could be a whole team to work in an underserved area. This is something that the deans, department chairs, and faculty could explore in the coming year. (Dunn)
Item 3: Approval of the minutes of February 7, 2006
The minutes were approved as distributed.
Item 4: Report of the Chair
Chair Nickerson's report was distributed with the agenda. Topics included:
- The February 27th meeting of the UB Council.
- SUNY assistant provost Patty Francis's recent visit to UB regarding General Education Assessment Review (G.E.A.R.).
- The Graduate School's role in Comprehensive Program Review and coordinating the National Research Council's assessment of UB this spring.
- The FS Governance Committee's work on decanal review and procedures.
Item 5: Report of the President/Provost
None
Item 6: Report of the Faculty Senate Elections Committee - W. Hepfer
FS Elections Committee chair Will Hepfer announced that Dr. Peter Bradford is the winner of a recent election for SUNY-wide Senator from the Health Sciences. His term will be July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2009.
Professor Baumer was the only nominee for SUNY-wide Senator from the Core Campus. Procedurally, this is dealt with by calling for a motion to have the chair of the Elections Committee cast one vote for the nominee. A motion was made, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote, so Professor Baumer was re-elected to serve through June 30, 2009.
Item 7: Old/New business
Professor Baumer presented an overview of five policy revisions that the FS Grading Committee will be recommending at our April 4th meeting. The policies that will be discussed are:
- Academic Second Chance Policy
- Course Repetition Policy
- Incomplete Grade Policy
- Course Registration Period Policy
- Prompt Grade Submission Policy
Item 7: Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 2:42 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 (A)
Arts & Sciences - S. Bennett (P), R. Bobe (P), J. Buscaglia (A), J. Campbell (A), M. Churchill (P), V. Danilovic (P), L. Dryden (P), J. Faran (P), S. Gabriel (A), R. Giese (P), R. Hoeing (E), E. Juarros-Daussa (A), C. Lamb (P), M. Lo (P), A. Markelz (A), N. Matthews (P), J. Mendoza (A), S. Rothenberg (A), SD Schack (P), N. Shiode (A), L. Simms (P), D. Street (A), K. Takeuchi (P), J-C Thill (A), G. Timler (P), R. Woodard (P), J. Yu (A)
Dental Medicine - P. Bradford (P), M. Donley (E), G. Ferry (E), E. Pantera (E), J. Zambon (P)
Education - M. Kibby (A), J. Lee (A), L. Malavé (P), T. Schroeder (P)
Engineering & Applied Sciences - P. Alexandridis (P), C. Basaran (P), M. Buckley (P), G. Dargush (P), K. Lewis (P), D. Pados (A), A. Titus (P) , R. Wetherhold (A)
Informatics - J. Ellison (P)
Law - S. Ghosh (A), T. Miller (A), J. Milles (A)
Management - J. Boot (P), S. Gunn (P), W. Lin (P), M. Trivedi (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences - D. Amsterdam (P), M. Dayton (A), W. Fiden (A), E. Fine (P), W. Flynn (A), L. Harris (P), J. Hassett (A), L. Hernan (A), P. Joshi (P), T. Langan (A), V. Li (A), A. Manyon (A), N. Miele (P), R. Noble (P), A. Posner (A), J. Sauret (A), J. Sharp (P), G. Snyder (P), J. Springate (P), G. Sufrin (A), F. Velazquez (P), A. Weinstock (A), B. Weinstock-Guttman (A)
Nursing - C. Curran (P), P. Wooldridge (A)
Pharmacy - G. Brazeau (P)
Public Health & Health Professions - K. Personius (A)
Social Work - B. Rittner (A)
SUNY Senators - W. Baumer (P), HW Coles (E), H. Durand (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries - J. Adams-Volpe (P), HA Booth (E), M. Kramer (A), D. Tao (A)
Guests - M. Cochrane (Reporter), K. Lanier (EDAAA), S. Nolan-Weiss (EDAAA)