FACULTY SENATE
Minutes of March 14, 2000 - (approved)
E-MAIL: ZBFACSEN@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

The Senate met at 2:00 PM on March 14, 2000 in the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:

1. Approval of the minutes of February 15, 2000
2. Report of the Chair
3. Report of the President/Provost
4. Research Institute on Addictions - Gerald J. Connors, Director
5. Budget update - Senior Vice President Robert J. Wagner
6. First reading : Resolution from the Faculty Senate Computer Services Committee - Professor Robert Straubinger
7. Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee : Statement on the College of Arts and Sciences - Professor Susan Hamlen
8. Old/new business

Item 1: Report of the Chair

    The Chair’s written report was distributed with the agenda. The Chair verbally reported that

• the Calendar Committee has completed its first draft of the 2002-2004 academic calendar; he will accept comments and suggestions on the draft; a major change is the elimination of the Tuesday equals Monday schedule scenario

• (later in the meeting Professor Boot, who had to leave early, asked for the privilege of the floor to comment out of order on the draft calendar) look at the draft calendar carefully since there may be problems; for example, note that for the three years covered by the draft the proposed division of the weeks of Spring Semesters by Spring Break varies from 9-4 to 8-5 to 7-6 and that Fall Semesters contain a week more than Spring Semesters which may not comply with the requirements of state education laws (Professor Boot)

• the election for two SUNY Senators has concluded; the Secretary announced that Professor Nickerson was elected the Health Sciences Senator with Professor Peimer as his alternate and Dr. Durand was elected the academic core campus Senator with Professor Mollendorf as his alternate

Item 2: Research Institute on Addictions

    Dr. Connors, Director of the Research Institute on Addictions, described the history of the Institute. It was established in 1970 as part of UB by Professor Cedric Smith, in the late 1970’s it was transferred to a state agency now known as the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and was transferred to UB in November 1999. The RIA is a nationally recognized institute addressing issues related to the treatment and prevention of addictive behaviors. Currently being studied are topics such as the use of alcohol in early marriage, parenting and infant development in alcoholic families, reducing DWI recidivism, skills training for the parents of adolescent substance abusers, adolescent alcohol and drug use, the biological bases of addiction, the prevention and treatment of addictive behaviors, the association between alcohol use and compulsive gambling, and the role of heavy drinking in the transmission of hepatitis C. Funding comes predominantly from federal sources. The RIA has 170 employees, 20 of whom are senior research scientists. The RIA maintains a web site at <http://www.ria.org>.

    Professor Cedric Smith expressed his pleasure that the RIA was once again part of UB. He noted that the RIA’s research staff initially were recruited jointly by the RIA and departments and held departmental appointments. He stated that the RIA will be a real plus for UB.

Item 3: Budget Update

    Senior Vice President Wagner first gave an overview of the Governor’s budget for SUNY. The Governor’s budget includes $80 M in additional funding for SUNY (contrasted with last year’s budget which asked for no additional funding), covering this year’s and next year’s negotiated salary increases and $25 M to meet changes in enrollments, sponsored program activity and inflation. The executive budget does not recommend tuition increases or changes in the TAP. The Governor does, however, propose campus based graduate and professional tuitions. Senior Vice President Wagner believes this proposal will be vigorously debated in the Legislature.

    Senior Vice President Wagner then turned to UB’s budget. UB has been advocating for special funding: $2 M annually to support the administration of the Medical School’s Practice Plan, $1M for the UB/Roswell Park Center for Advanced Biotechnology Initiative, $7.75 M capital money and $.75 M annual funding for the New York State Center for Advanced Design and Industrial Innovation, $.45 M for the Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth. UB is also seeking legislation to authorize the sale of Bethune Hall to Buffalo, the proceeds from which would go to providing a library storage facility for SUNY institutions in Western New York.

    SUNY itself is facing two major financial challenges. The first is dealing with the arrearages of the three SUNY teaching hospitals in their annual, aggregate obligation to SUNY of $116 M. This year the hospitals are paying last year’s obligation but will be unable to also pay this year’s obligations; it is unlikely they will be able to meet next year’s obligations, leaving SUNY short $.25 B. The Governor’s budget does not propose funding for this shortfall. The situation may not be addressed by the Governor and the Legislature until after the state budget is adopted. The second financial challenge is to increase the state’s funding of community colleges by about $20 M so that the state will be providing one third of their funding.

• lacking a teaching hospital, UB’s Medical School does not receive state support comparable to the other three SUNY Medical Schools (Professor Spurgeon)
• UB has been advocating for increased funding to equalize state support of UB’s Medical School and the other SUNY Medical Schools (Senior Vice President Wagner)
• is the level of funding for graduate stipends a local matter or a topic suitable for discussion at the SUNY level? (Professor Meacham)
• at the state level graduate stipends are viewed in the context of labor agreements with the Graduate Students Union; the Presidents of the four SUNY research institutions met with Chancellor King to talk about various issues unique to them, such as research funding, faculty set-ups, and graduate student funding; Chancellor King offered no solutions but wants to continue the discussion with an eye to the SUNY budget request of 2000/2001 (Senior Vice President Wagner)
• state sets minimum funding; UB could choose to fund more generously, and some departments already do so (Professor Malone)
• explain the item on the UB State Agenda for 2000 of gender equity funding for Division 1A athletics (Professor Dryden)
• as football has been ramped up, UB’s Intercollegiate Athletics Board has pointed out with increasing emphasis the need for additional funding in UB’s intercollegiate athletics budget to create gender equity; UB received $800 K in one time money in this year’s budget from legislators who wanted to see SUNY involved in Division IA athletics, and UB is seeking a renewal of that funding (Senior Vice President Wagner)
• consider approaching gender equity by decreasing the amount of support for male athletics and directing the money saved to graduate student funding (Professor Holstun)
• as a condition of membership in the Mid American Conference an institution must participate in a range of men and women’s sports; we are at the minimum level of support required for membership in the MAC (Senior Vice President Wagner)
• loss of the ability to choose what programs we want to support is an additional price of our athletics program, as is the investment of enormous amounts of administrative time in reacting to problems in the athletics program that would get short shrift if they arose in academic programs (Professor Boot)
• UB’s experience with sports is similar to that of our AAU peers (Senior Vice President Wagner)
• at least as much administrative time is wasted on academic grievances as on the occasional athletics problem (Provost Triggle)

Item 4: Approval of the minutes of February 15, 2000

    The minutes of February 15, 2000 were approved.

Item 5: Report of the Provost

    The Provost reported on the progress of mission review. All 64 campuses have been reviewed, and 58 have received a final or provisional Memorandum of Understanding which describes a mutually agreed upon mission. The debate in SUNY over levels of enrollment has delayed UB’s receipt of even a provisional MOU. UB’s provisional and final MOU will be shared with the Faculty Senate.

    UB is developing its enrollment targets for next year. While professional numbers are relatively fixed by agreements with accrediting agencies, undergraduate numbers are subject to negotiation with SUNY. SUNY looks for numbers which are historically consistent, which are obtainable, and which reflect a concern for quality. The Provost noted that at a Board of Trustees meeting which he attended, he was subjected to rather pointed questions from the Chair of the Board relating to the quality of undergraduate education in SUNY.

    The Provost turned to the issue of graduate stipends. He doubts that there will be any SUNY wide resolution of the problem. The mission review process will make some money available to support individual campus missions, and UB has requested a permanent base budget increase of $2M for graduate stipends. If UB receives such extra funding, it will not be spread across the board but will be targeted at programs that can attract the best graduate students. There is wide variation in graduate stipends at UB since some faculty and departments supplement the minimum figure; on average, however, UB’s graduate stipends are $4/5K less than those at peer institutions.

    The Provost serves on a committee appointed by Provost Salens to look at assessing the validity of teaching in SUNY. The committee is defining an assessment process which while respecting the different educational goals and outcomes within SUNY also measures whether programs comply with reasonable tolerance to the Board of Trustees charge. Professor Meacham, who serves on the committee as a representative of the SUNY Senate, added that the committee is concerned that there be a place in the assessment process for faculty involvement. Rationales for SUNY wide assessment are to identify best practices and model programs that increase student learning across SUNY.

• the Provost may consider academic grievances a waste of time, but they are important to the grievants; non-competitive stipends will lessen the quality of graduate students we can attract and so undermine UB’s graduate program (Professor Benenson)
• agree that the level of graduate stipends may affect the quality of the graduate students we attract; with regard to grievances, meant only that grievances take time that could be spent on other things (Provost Triggle)

Item 6: First reading : Resolution from the Faculty Senate Computer Services Committee

    Professor Straubinger, a member of the Computer Services Committee, introduced the Committee’s resolution, Assessment of Computing and Technology Support for Faculty Areas of Responsibility (research, teaching, administration and service).. The resolution describes the many points at which information technology touches on the teaching and learning process and calls for a review of information technology delivery, specifically to the faculty. The review would be done by a combined administrative and Faculty Senate task force and would focus on the functioning of the nodes. The nodes now have a three year track record to assess, the philosophies of and the services offered by the nodes, and the level of faculty involvement in the nodes vary significantly.

    There were comments from the floor:

• will the review cover the difficulty of scheduling technology classrooms? (Professor Calkins)
• will poll node directors and selected faculty for issues to be covered on the survey instrument (Professor Straubinger)
• will refer the question on scheduling technology classrooms to the Facilities Planning Committee (Professor Nickerson)
• in thinking about level of support for IT we should consider diverting some of the money we spend on the fastest and latest technology to graduate stipends (Professor Faran)
• faculty membership on the IT Steering Committee has been increased to three, Professors Jameson, Eisner and Shapiro, but there has been a proliferation of committees dealing with IT; the Chief Information Officer needs to interact regularly with faculty governance (Professor Nickerson)
• Committee intends to focus on decision making and delivery issues, not source of funding issues (Professor Straubinger)
• Committee in fact believes that IT is being under-funded, rather than over-funded (Professor Wooldridge)

Item 7: Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee : Statement on the College of Arts and Sciences

    Professor Hamlen, Chair of the Budget Priorities Committee, stated that the Chair charged her Committee with providing a factual report explaining how the College of Arts & Sciences’ budget deficit occurred, what the actions of the Provost and the Dean were, what plans the CAS has for eliminating the deficit, and the Committee’s own recommendations. The purpose of the report was to give a full account of the matter from a relatively unbiased source. Once the facts and presentation of the report were approved by the Provost and the Dean of CAS, it could be disseminated within the University community.

    Professor Hamlen noted that the report has implications beyond the CAS. All the Schools, not just the CAS, are responsible for finding the revenues to cover their expenditures. In that environment it is really important that the faculty understand the budget process and help set priorities within their units.

    The Committee had access to several data sources: the Financial Realities Document, Dean Grant, the Vice Provost for Information and Planning, Sean Sullivan, and various Provostal documents on the new financial management system and other matters.

    The report recommends putting in place a process for measuring the consequences of budget decisions. For example, increasing enrollment and decreasing faculty will almost certainly impact the delivery and quality of programs. It also recommends that faculty be heavily involved in the decision making process.

    The Chair added that the Faculty Senate would not normally undertake this level of analysis of a problem within the Schools or the College; However, the governance structure of the CAS is still developing. The report should help the governance groups within the CAS to engage in meaningful dialogue.

    There were comments from the floor:

• the governance structures of the CAS are now functioning; that being the case the Faculty Senate should forward this report to the CAS Policy Committee for its own deliberations and ask the CAS Policy Committee to report to the Faculty Senate (Professor Schack)
• the report includes temporary appointments in its figure of 90 new hires, but in its figure for departing faculty, temporary appointments are not included (Professor Holstun)
• took four weeks to get figures on tenure track faculty, and figures on temporary appointments were even more difficult to get because of the churn; compare the 57 new tenure track faculty against the 65 tenure track faculty who left (Professor Hamlen)
• wish the School of Medicine could have as full a report on its financial difficulties (Professor Sulewski)
• disturbing that the CAS lacked a structure to account for how resources come in and are consumed; it is the responsibility of senior administration to ensure that there are reasonably efficient accounting structures in all the units (Professor Benenson)
• the School of Medicine’s Budget Priorities Committee in looking at the School’s financial problems (Professor Rudin)
• important for at least portions of the report to appear in the Reporter so that the University community outside of the CAS understand what happened (Professor Adams-Volpe)
• the report does not explain clearly what caused the CAS to develop a deficit; for example, it cites cost of living adjustments and discretionary salary increases which were just as applicable to other units and it documents a decrease in staffing (Professor Holstun)
• there were retirement deals which affected the CAS more than other Schools; also the CAS chose to use more expensive full-time visitors to meet demands of increased enrollments (Professor Hamlen)
• cost of living adjustments had a significant impact because of the size of the CAS budget (Dean Grant)

    Professor Schack moved (seconded) the following: "The Faculty Senate thanks the Budget Priorities Committee for its analysis of and report on the budget deficit in the College of Arts & Sciences. The Faculty Senate also directs the Chair to communicate the report to the Policy Committee of the College of Arts & Sciences for use in its discussion of the budget deficit."

• does this motion prohibit publishing the report in the Reporter? (Professor Adams-Volpe)
• my interpretation is that this meeting will be reported in the Reporter, but the document will not be made available for publication (Professor Nickerson)

    The motion passed unanimously. Professor Nickerson thanked the Budget Priorities Committee for its work.

    There being no other new/old business, the meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Marilyn McMann Kramer

Present:

Chair: P. Nickerson
Secretary: M. Kramer
Arts & Sciences: J. Holstun, J. Dugan, M. Wickert, M. Churchill, J. Faran, C. Fourtner, J. Reineck, S. Schack, W. Baumer, L. Bian, J. Campbell, W. Chang, J. DeWald, L. Dryden, J. Meacham, D. Radner, L. Vardi, G. Radford, D. Mark
Dental Medicine: M. Easley, E. Davis, L. Ortman
Education: C. Hosenfeld, T. Schroeder
Engineering: S. Ahmad, D. Benenson, D. Malone, R. Mayne, J. Mollendorf
Health Related Professions: L. Gosselin, J. Tamburlin
Information Studies: C. Jorgensen
Law: L. Swartz
Management: J. Boot, C. Pegels
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: D. Amsterdam, R. Heffner, S. Okhi, S. Rudin, R. Sands, Cedric Smith, S. Spurgeon, J. Sulewski, J. Yates
Nursing: P. Wooldridge
Pharmacy: T. Kalman
SUNY Senators: J. Adams-Volpe, J. Boot
University Libraries: A. Booth, W. Hepfer, M. Zubrow, M. Miller, S. Tejada
University Officers: D. Triggle, Provost
                                  R. Wagner, Senior Vice President

Guests:

M. McGinnis, Reporter
K. Levy, Senior Vice Provost
W. Coles, Chair, Professional Staff Senate
D. Rice, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs
P. Brooks-Bertram, Associate for Faculty Development and Public Service
K. Grant, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
R. Straubinger, Computer Services Committee
S. Hamlen, Budget Priorities Committee
G. Connors, Director, Research Institute on Addictions

Excused:

Engineering: S. Ram

Absent:

Architecture: R. Shibley
Arts & Sciences: B. Bono, S. Elder, J. Guitart, L. Kurdziek-Formato, F. Pellicone, Charles Smith, H. Sussman, S. Bruckenstein, T. Gregg, M. Ram, K. Regan, R. DesForges, E. Segal
Dental Medicine: B. Boyd, M. Neiders
Education: B. Johnstone, C. Toepfer, J. Hoot
Health Related Professions: S. Nochajski
Management: G. Hariharan, R. Ramesh
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: M. Alashari, B. Albini, S. Awner, P. Bradford, J. DeBerry, M. Dryjski, W. Flynn, V. Li, F. Loghmanee, F. Mendel, A. Michalek, C. Pruet, L. Wild
Nursing: E. Perese
Pharmacy: R. Madejski
Social Work: B. Rittner, A. Safyer
SUNY Senators: H. Durand, J. Fisher

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