FACULTY SENATE
Minutes of October 9, 2001 - (approved)
E-MAIL: ZBFACSEN@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

The Senate met at 2:00 PM on October 9, 2001 in the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:

• Approval of the minutes of May 8, 2001
• Report of the Chair
• Report of the President/Provost
• The Budget Process; a document prepared by the Faculty Senate Budget Committee in collaboration with Provost Capaldi – Professor Nickerson, Interim Chair , Budget Priorities Committee
• CoursEvalÔ demonstration – Professor John Eisner
• Old/New Business

 

 

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of May 8, 2001

 The minutes of May 8, 2001 were approved.
 

Item 2: Report of the Chair

 Professor Cohen welcomed Senators and introduced himself.  He is learning a great deal about the University, which he characterized as “organized anarchy”.  He has found that there are many problems and issues around the campus, only some of which are appropriate for the Senate to consider.  He welcomes suggestions about things the Senate should be doing.
 The Chair then reported on the status of the Faculty Senate Committees:
Ø Professor Stanley Spurgeon will chair the Facilities Planning Committee ; the Committee is being asked to consider teaching facilities, appropriate classrooms, demonstration facilities, and computer networks on campus and in the clinical arena
Ø Professor Samuel Schack continues as chair of the Faculty Tenure and Privileges Committee; the Committee is being asked to consider the value of community service in promotion decisions; the Provost’s Office considers this to be a priority item; the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, the Office of Urban Affairs, and the Faculty Senate Public Service Committee are available for consultation
· revised, online version of the Tenure and Promotion Dossier Checklist <http://www.business.buffalo.edu/hrs/facultyhandbook/IIIA1.html>adds a requirement for a statement of the candidate’s philosophy of service (Professor Adams-Volpe)
· last academic year the Provost met with the Public Service Committee to discuss these issues; minutes of the meeting should be available (Professor Malone)
Ø Professor William Baumer continues as Chair of the Grading Committee
Ø Professor Helju Bennett will chair the Information and Library Resources Committee
Ø Professor John Ho will chair the Committee on Research and Creative Activity; the Committee will focus on following up on its Spring 2001 Survey of the Faculty
Ø Professor Peter Nickerson continues as Chair of the Student Life Committee; the Committee will look at issues raised by the Princeton Review ranking of UB, viz. faculty accessibility and general quality of student life; the Committee will also look at the value of Greek organizations on the quality of student life
Ø Professor Dennis Malone will chair the Governance Committee; prompted by a letter from Professor Vic Doyno, the Committee will consider process of faculty consultation required by the Policies of the Board of Trustees in the appointment of college officials and staff officers; the topic is also relevant in light of recent discussions about the possible formation of a School of Public Health
Ø Professor Troy Wood will chair the Committee on Admissions and Retention; the Committee, working with Vice Provost Sullivan, will compare UB with similar institutions, especially our sister SUNY schools, with regard to our retention rates and develop a correction mechanism if there is a problem; the Committee will also look at the composition of the undergraduate population, trends in admissions; and issues raised by the diverse grounds of our students as they engage in social and political activities
Ø Professor John Boot continues as chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility; the Committee will look at advanced standing, specifically in joint degree granting programs and the new Ph.D. programs in Physical Therapy and Pharmacy
Ø the Chair appointed faculty members selected at random from a list of recently tenured Associate Professors to the various Faculty Senate Committees; it will be interesting to see how many accept the appointment
Ø Professor Diane Christian will chair the Academic Planning Committee; the Committee will look at issues arising from the College of Arts & Sciences which may have University-wide implications and at planning for a School of Public Health
Ø Professor David Banks and Professor Gerald Rosenfeld continue as co-chairs of the Committee on Affirmative Action; the Committee will consider how the placement of the academic components of Urban Affairs under the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs will affect the University’s effort to enhance intergroup relationships and communications
Ø Professor Frank Cerny continues as chair of the Committee on Athletics and Recreation; the Committee will review extra-mural athletics on campus, assessing the nature and degree of participation of the student body in these activities and the role they play in the utilization of campus resources; the Committee will also report on the use of recreational facilities by UB faculty and staff and by non-UB users
Ø Professor Judith Hopkins continues as Chair of the Bylaws Committee; the Committee will propose amendments to the Charter to ensure that the Senate effectively and appropriately represents UB’s faculty
Ø Professor Randall Dipert will chair the Committee on Computer Services; the Committee will report on the results of the IT Satisfaction Survey done by CIT’s Director of Academic Services Richard Lesniak; the Committee will also examine whether the use of Blackboard technology raises privacy issues for both students and faculty; the Committee will also look at the availability of computer services both on and off campus
Ø Professor Ted Steegman will chair the Educational Programs and Policies Committee; the Committee will discuss trends in undergraduate education; the Committee will work with the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and the Office of Teaching and Learning Resources
Ø Professor Robert Shibley continues to chair the Public Service Committee; the Committee will examine the value of service in promotion and tenure decisions and will develop a policy on how active the faculty should be in community service
 

Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

 During her first year in office, Provost Capaldi spoke to the Senate on the academic state of the University, focusing on how to measure ourselves, identifying institutions with whom we should compare ourselves, and charting how we are improving.  She has compiled a progress report for UB <http://www.provost.buffalo.edu/reports/UBPerformanceReport.pdf>, using data from The Center at the University of Florida’s Top American Research Universities, 2001.  UB did well in the report.  The Provost discussed the various categories used by The Center.
Ø total research expenditures: the amount of sponsored research being done in an institution correlates closely with other measurements of research such as citation rates and numbers of publications; UB received increased levels of both federal and other source (corporate, state, foundations, etc.) research funding; corporate funding will be increasingly important at UB, so UB is making major improvements to technology transfer operations; Vice President Turkkan has been working to increase campus wide awareness of on-going research projects in order to encourage more collaborative work
Ø number of faculty members in the National Academies: UB’s strategy to improve in this category is to recruit really good faculty who will grow into National Academies membership
Ø faculty awards: UB does well in this measure of faculty quality and improved in the 2001 ranking
Ø number of doctoral degrees awarded, number of postdoctoral appointees: these are a measure of the amount of research at an institution; UB does well in these categoreies because of proportionally large graduate student population as compared to our undergraduate population
Ø SAT scores of entering freshmen: although The Center’s figures are a year old, the quality of entering freshmen continues to increase; this year the average SAT score went up 30 points
Ø Endowment and annual giving: UB’s endowment increased; annual giving has not been good, but the new Vice President for Development, Jennifer McDonough, is great and should improve that area
The Provost also noted the appearance of new building signage, which is attractive and helpful in way finding and upgraded cleanliness measures.  She has instituted new budget procedures based on performance indicators identified by the Deans.
 

Item 4: The Budget Process at UB

 Professor Nickerson, Interim Chair of the Budget Priorities Committee, introduced a document entitled The Budget Process at UB, co-authored by Professor Susan Hamlen, Chair of the Budget Priorities Committee, and Provost Capaldi and reviewed by Senior Vice President Wagner, explaining the new budget process at UB.  In the past, the Provost allocated money to the Deans using criteria that were not well understood by the Deans or the faculty.  Provost Capaldi has instituted a transparent process in which lump sums are given to the Deans based on unit performance as measured by indicators set by the Deans.  The document will be published in the October 18 edition of the Reporter and will be available at the Reporter’s web site <http://www.reporter.buffalo.edu/>.
 The Provost presented the document:
Ø the first principle of budget management is that all money is money, which means that UB operates under an all funds budget
Ø the second principle is that the budget allocation process should support the academic values and mission of the University; in practice this means that non-academic expenditures are justifiable only if they are for things more important than academics; for example, it is easy to justify paying for electricity, more difficult to decide how much advising to fund
Ø the third principle is that campus wide expenditures, e.g., library acquisitions, merit scholarships, and cleanliness, are paid for before the remaining money is allocated out to the academic units
Ø UB’s revenue comes from: tuition, fees, state tax support, grants and contracts, sales and services, endowment income and gifts and industry and foundations
Ø currently two thirds of UB’s revenue is targeted at academics and one third supports administrative services
Ø decanal budgets cover salaries, recruiting, supplies, some information technology, travel and equipment, and program specific costs
Ø a decanal unit begins with a base budget based on the prior year’s budget; it can generate money beyond its base through incremental expected enrollments, indirect cost recovery, or when funding is available, through performance funding
Ø incremental expected enrollments: the unit plans for increases in graduate, professional or transfer student enrollments or increases in credit hours taught, for which increments the unit is funded at half of the tuition to be generated up to the target; enrollments beyond the target are not funded until the Provost is satisfied that increase is sustainable; enrollments below the target will result in negotiations with the Provost
Ø indirect cost recovery: the unit increases sponsored research for which the decanal unit is given 12% of the overhead costs it generates; UB currently brings in only 24% of indirect costs, rather than the true cost of 54%, so the University actually incurs more costs as we do more research but does so gladly as part of its research mission
Ø performance funding: the unit increases the quality and productivity of its academic programs as measured against the top ten programs identified by the Dean
Ø increases in a unit’s budget that come from incremental enrollments and indirect cost recovery are independent of State funding and are not affected by the vagaries of the State budget
Ø the Provost retains money not allocated to the units to fund campus priorities
Ø faculty should advise their Deans so that the units follow the same budget principles of rewarding growth, research and quality
Ø the Provost still does not have clear, firm budget figures; when she does she will share them with the University community
· is bridge funding for ongoing research available from the Provost’s Office? (Professor Cohen)
· very limited bridge funding, but the Deans and Chairs should able to provide such funding
· how can faculty have input into funding decisions?(Professor Miller)
· at the Provostal level the Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee has input; units and departments should also have budget advisory committees (Provost Capaldi)
· what is the percentage of State tax funding in the all funds budget? (Professor Nickerson)
· 30 %; at the very best public research universities that percentage is smaller, e.g., University of Washington is at 6%, not because the State gives less, but because the University is very successful at getting outside funding (Provost Capaldi)
· are decanal unit benchmarks available for faculty to see? (Professor Cohen)
· available on my web page; difficult to pick measures for which it is possible to get comparable data from different institutions (Provost Capaldi)
 

Item 5: CoursEvalÔ demonstration

 The Teaching and Learning Committee has been very interested in improving the course evaluation process at UB.  Professor Gentile, Chair of the Committee, described an on-line course evaluation package developed at the School of Dental Medicine that he finds very impressive.  Having seen a demonstration of the package, the Teaching and Learning Committee recommended to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and to the Provost that CoursEval be implemented at UB for Fall semester 2002.  Trials are underway this semester and and will be continued into Spring semester.
 Professor Eisner of the School of Dental Medicine who developed CoursEval demonstrated the web-based system.
Ø the system is currently in use in several dental and medical schools, e.g., UCLA Medical School
Ø the evaluation forms incorporate UB CATS data and ask standard questions with Likert responses available, but each instructor can add questions specific to his course
Ø students are prompted to complete individual surveys for all their classes
Ø students type their comments, eliminating the difficulty of reading and transcribing handwritten comments
Ø confidentiality of student responses is ensured
Ø an instructor can access his own survey results on-line and format those results in a variety of ways; when a course is taught by mutliple instructors, an instructor can compare his results with all results for that course
Ø additional access to the surveys is limited to authorized personnel, typically department chairs, etc.
(Due to failure of the taping system, questions to the speaker were not recorded.)
 

Item 6: Old/New Business

 The Secretary reminded Senators of the Senate’s attendance requirements and stressed that the requirements would be enforced.

 There being no other old/new business, the meeting adjourned at 3:50 PM.
 
 

Respectfully submitted,

Marilyn McMann Kramer
Secretary of Faculty Senate

Present:  Chair: M. Cohen
Secretary: M. Kramer
Parliamentarian: D. Malone
Architecture: H. Steiner
Arts & Sciences: W. Baumer, B. Bono, J. Bono, A. Cadenhead, J. Campbell, M. Churchill, D. Eddins, J. Faran, T. Gregg, J. Meacham, J. Pappas, A. Petrou
Dental Medicine: B. Boyd, G. Ferry, L. Ortman, J. Zambon
Education: J. Almasi, J. Ernest, R. Gentile
Engineering & Applied Sciences: D. Malone, J. Mook, T. Mountziaris, R. Sridhar
Health Related Professions: G. Farkas, S. Nochajski
Law: L. Swartz
Management: M. Trivedi
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: E. Egan, A. El Solh, C. Granger, S. Greenberg, J. Hassett, J. Izzo, B. Miller, B. Noble, R. Noble, S. Rudin, D. Shucard, S. Spurgeon, L. Wild, P. Bradford
SUNY Senators: J. Adams-Volpe, J. Boot, P. Nickerson
University Libraries: J. Adams-Volpe, J. Dickson, W. Hepfer, J. Hopkins

University Officers:
E. Capaldi, Provost

Guests: S. Wuetcher, Reporter
J. Eisner, School of Dental Medicine
K. Levy, Senior Vice Provost
W. Coles, Chair, Professional Staff Senate
 

Excused:  Arts & Sciences: C. Fourtner
Informatics: J. Ellison
Management: W. Lin
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: P. Glick, B. Grant, A. Vlauditu
Nursing: J. Brown
 

Absent:  Architecture: R. Shibley
Arts & Sciences: H. Bennett, L. Bian, W. Chang, J. Dugan, J. Guitart, R. Hoeing, E. Kazmierczak, L. Kurdiel-Formato, H. Luo, A. Merkelz, C. Mele, D. Radner, J. Reineck, E. Scarlett, E. Segal, C. Stinger
Dental Medicine: E. De Nardin
Education: L. Malave, R. Stevenson
Engineering & Applied Sciences: W. Anderson, R. Wetherhold
Health Related Professions: S. Bennett, P. Horvath
Law: I. Marcus, E. Meidinger
Management: S. Gunn
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: W. Flynn, T. Guttuso, M. Kulaylat, T. Langan, R. Lee, R. Lifeso, C. Lundgren, K. Mahran, F. Schimpfhauser
Nursing: T. Obst, E. Perese
Pharmacy: A. Luzier
Social Work: B. Rittner, A. Safyer
SUNY Senators: H. Durand

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