FACULTY SENATE

Minutes of September 17, 2002

(approved)
E-MAIL: ZBFACSEN@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

The Faculty Senate met at 2:00 pm on September 17, 2002, in the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:

1. Approval of the minutes of May 7, 2002
   
2. Report of the Chair
   
3. Report of the President/Provost
   
4. Budget update - Provost Elizabeth Capaldi; Professor Susan Hamlen, Chair, Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee
   
5. Report of Robert Genco, Vice Provost for Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach - The Academy and Entrepreneurial Activity
   
6. Old/New business
   

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of May 7, 2002

The minutes were approved as distributed.

Item 2: Report of the Chair

The Chair welcomed new and returning senators and guests to the new academic year and provided an overview of Faculty Senate operations: we meet once a month during the academic year and discuss issues that have already been reviewed by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC). The FSEC, which meets weekly, is comprised of 25 senators representing all schools, and there's approximately one FSEC representative for every seven senators. An election is currently underway to add representation from the Institutional/General group.

There are 18 standing committees, and we'll be posting their meeting times on the Faculty Senate Web site . All except the Budget Priorities Committee are open to anyone who wants to attend.

Anyone who would like a particular issue to be addressed by the Faculty Senate should contact an FSEC member, the Chair, or Anna Kedzierski.

The process for dealing with most issues involves assignment to a standing committee for deliberation and resolution. The resolution is then discussed by FSEC and, if accepted, presented to the Faculty Senate for two readings. If it is then voted on or accepted, it is forwarded to the President with a recommendation for implementation. Although the process seems to be cumbersome, it is an effective way to participate in faculty governance.

Although UB's numerous schools have varying by-laws, the Faculty Senate By-Laws are the only ones that are recognized by SUNY administration.

The Chair then reviewed the standing committees and their charges. Lists of the committees with fuller details had been mailed out with the agenda. Anyone who wishes to serve on a Senate committee should contact the Chair for prompt consideration.

Professor Campbell asked if the problem of parking is going to be dealt with. The Chair said we'll add it to our list of concerns.

Item 3: Report of the Provost

Provost Capaldi reported that enrollment increases have added revenues that UB gets to keep, thanks to New York State's budget system. Half of the tuition funds go into a centrally allocated budget, and half stays with the unit that generated the revenue. Deans have lump sum authority to spend their money as they see fit.

Administrative reorganization contributed to $1.6 million in savings last year. Hitting enrollment targets helped to add $10.5 million in tuition revenue over the past two years. This enabled UB to cover $9.7 million in collective-bargaining-negotiated salary increases without any increase in state funds.

Since there's been no increase in the state budget, it's extremely important to generate much of our own revenue. We're looking for ways to expand credit and non-credit summer programs that will create additional monies. This will allow us to take advantage of classroom space that's often empty during the summer. Intersession is another potential time for short instruction programs. Faculty are encouraged to submit other ideas

Item 4: Budget update from the Provost and Susan Hamlen, Chair of the Budget Priorities Committee

Professor Hamlen reported that the Budget Priorities Committee, which meets monthly, is comprised of faculty from almost all units.

Departmental revenues are split 50-50 with the Provost's office, so it's easy for units to figure and plan. Deans have broad authority and autonomy to promote their programs as they see fit. Faculty are encouraged to get involved in the process by working through their departmental representative on the Budget Priorities Committee.

The committee will consider how to make TA/GA stipends more competitive this fall. They'll also discuss whether the number of part-time, non-tenured faculty is increasing, although it is not an easy number to ascertain. Deans have been asked to confirm numbers and to assess whether the quality of teaching has been compromised by using part-time instead of full-time instructors.

The committee will also provide follow-up data to a Reporter article about the budget process.

Professor Morin asked about the budget outlook, and the Provost replied that it's difficult to predict in an election year. Much will depend on how successful we are at raising revenue in summer programs. The $61 million grant UB received to develop a bioinformatics program is earmarked for a new building downtown, so it's not available for other purposes.

President Greiner complimented the Provost and the Budget Priorities Committee for improving the budget process and said that deans have been helped a lot by the much clearer process. We are increasingly revenue-driven, with an annual budget approaching $900 million, and Facilities helped a lot this past year by negotiating a deal that produced big savings on utility costs.

The President replied to Professor Gunn's question about tuition differentiation by saying it doesn't make sense for UB to have the same undergraduate tuition as all other SUNY schools. It's a difficult political issue, and we'll continue to press for differentiated tuition.

This year's state budget is likely to be tight, and next year's will probably be even worse. Unless the sagging economy turns around, we can't count on much help from New York State. This situation will focus attention on the tuition question - at least at the graduate level - again. We need to convince SUNY trustees that our graduate programs should be benchmarked against other programs nationally and priced accordingly. One size doesn't fit all.

Professor Malone asked if anything is being done to deal with the lack of classroom space. The President said that summer programs will help a bit by spreading out the teaching. He acknowledged the problem and said it's small consolation (to Professor Malone) that the situation is worse in Engineering.

Professor Brazeau asked what is being done to improve quality of life on South Campus. President Greiner said Goodyear is being rehabbed into apartments, and more apartment living quarters may follow if Goodyear is successful. Clement Hall will become a modernized dormitory. Harriman will be improved to serve as a campus center.

Academic spaces will also be improved, although major projects will have to wait for capital funding. There's also a shortage of classroom space on South Campus, and we'll have to raise much of the money needed for improvements ourselves, like Management did for its forthcoming addition on North Campus.

Item 5: Report of Robert Genco, Vice Provost for Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR) - The Academy and Entrepreneurial Activity

Vice Provost Genco discussed STOR's mission, structure, and recent accomplishments. STOR aims to promote the commercialization of UB inventions and to help with patenting, copyrighting, and licensing University discoveries. It seeks to generate economic growth in the Niagara region and New York State through the development and transfer of technology from UB to business enterprises. STOR fosters entrepreneurial culture by licensing UB technology, disclosing and patenting research, and developing start-up companies. The three main divisions are Intellectual Property, the UB Technology Incubator, and the Center for Industrial Effectiveness.

Professor Adams-Volpe asked what is UB's policy regarding ownership and revenue from patents. Dr. Genco explained that patents developed on UB's premises and times are owned by UB. If a product is licensed, the inventor will get 40% of the revenues. Similarly, copyrighted work done as part of employment at UB is owned by UB, and the creator will receive 40% of royalties.

The STOR manual of procedures is available on the Web at http://www.stor.buffalo.edu/.

Item 6: Old/New business

Vice Provost Kerry Grant explained the handouts showing the proposed academic calendar covering Fall 2004 through Fall 2006. The semesters were developed after factoring in constraints such as allowing time before classes start for orientation, and leaving time after classes end for rehabbing classrooms and housing. Laws require 15 semester weeks, but the ideal 45 class hours is seldom achievable.

Jewish holidays constrain the academic calendar, but the current UB administration is committed to observing them since a large number of our student population is affected.

Evening classes, especially Mondays, are more affected than day classes because more meet only once a week. This dilemma remains unsolved by the proposed calendars.

Extending the fall semester by a week helps, but it pushes the last day of exams very close to the holidays. Switching one day's schedule to another day was tried unsuccessfully in the past.

The proposed academic calendar will also be shared with the student and professional staff senates. FSEC voted to accept it at its September 4th meeting.

Professor Baumer made a motion that the calendar also be approved by the full Senate. Professor Hershey recommended against spending more time on it if it's not necessary, but Professor Boot urged the Faculty Senate to ponder the calendar and its pitfalls longer. He opposed the loss of contact hours and said that substituting a Tuesday schedule for cancelled Thursdays would help to remedy the problem. He also questioned the advisability of canceling classes for Jewish holidays since the State Department of Education doesn't require us to do so.

Dr. Grant reiterated UB's commitment to being a Jewish-friendly campus. He said he had expected this to be an information session, not a forum for debate, since the calendar had been scrutinized and approved by the FSEC. He was willing for the academic calendar to be subjected to further deliberation, however, if the Senate wanted to.

Professor Segal, who was on the original calendar planning committee, agreed that substituting days was a useful device for minimizing calendar discrepancies, but Professor Baumer said that it didn't work because many students ignored it, and science classes with labs got out of sequence.

The original motion had lapsed for lack of a second, but Professor Baumer's motion to approve the proposed academic calendar was resubmitted and seconded so it will come up for a second reading at the October 1st Faculty Senate meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Will Hepfer
Secretary of Faculty Senate




Present: School of Architecture: H. Steiner
Arts & Sciences: W. Baumer, H. Bennett, J. Campbell, M. Chen, M. Churchill, D. Eddins, T. Gregg, E. Hull, J. Mendoza, A. Monteiro, J. Reineck, E. Scarlett, E. Seeman, E. Segal, R. Woodard
Dental Medicine: M. Donley, L. Ortman
Education: J. Almasi, H. Bromley, R. Stein
Educational Opportunity Center: O. Mixon
Engineering: S. Braynov, J. Jensen, D. Malone, R. Mayne, R. Nagi, R. Sridhar, S. Thevanayagam
Health Related Professions: G. Farkas, C. Golyski, S. Nochajski
Informatics: F. Tutzauer
Law: L. Swartz
Management: J. Boot, S. Gunn, W. Lin
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: J. Hassett, C. Hershey, G. Logue, K. Mahran, R. Morin, B. Murray, N. Nielsen, J. Novak, F. Schimpfhauser, D. Shucard, J. Yeh
Nursing: P. McCartney
Pharmacy: G. Brazeau
SUNY Senators: J. Adams-Volpe, M. Kramer, P. Nickerson
University Libraries: S. Bartl, CA Fabian, J. Hopkins
University Officers: W. Greiner, President; E. Capaldi, Provost


Guests: W. Coles, Professional Staff Senate
R. Genco, STOR
K. Grant, VPAA
D. Longenecker, Reporter


Excused: School of Architecture: R. Shibley
SUNY Senators: H. Durand


Absent: Arts & Sciences: C. Bloom, A. Cadenhead, G. Finnegan, J. Ludwig, H. Luo, J. Pappas, A. Petrou, R. Salvi, C. Smith, V. Watrous, M. Woldenberg
Dental Medicine: D. Garlapo, J. Zambon
Engineering: TJ Mountziaris
Law: I. Marcus, R. Reis
Management: M. Trivedi
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: A. Aquilina, A. Baer, J. Canty, R. Fenstermaker, W. Fiden, B. Flynn, J. Fudyma, C. Granger, J. Izzo, T. Langan, J. Leddy, M. Paroski, G. Snyder
Nursing: E. Perese
Pharmacy: K. Boje
Social Work: S. Green, B. Rittner
University Libraries: J. Dickson

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