FACULTY SENATE
Minutes of October 11, 2005
(unapproved)
The Faculty Senate (FS) met at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 11, 2005, at the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:
- Approval of the minutes of May 3, 2005
- Report of the Chair
- Report of the President
- The Academic State of the University – S. Tripathi
- 1st reading: Academic Integrity & Grievance Policies & Procedures – W. Baumer
- Old/New business
- Adjournment
Item 1: Approval of the minutes of May 3, 2005
The minutes were approved as distributed.
Item 2: Report of the Chair
Chair Nickerson welcomed everyone to the first full Faculty Senate meeting of the academic year. His report was distributed with today’s agenda. Highlights included:
- The UB Council met in September. President Simpson said that 109 new faculty (a net gain of 50) were appointed in the past academic year.
- SUNY representatives will be visiting UB later this month as part of the Mission Review II process.
- Interim Vice President for Advancement Audrey Olmstead has reported fundraising of $28 million, a 20 % increase over last year.
- The ad hoc FS committee on the faculty code of conduct met regularly over the summer. A draft code of conduct has been discussed by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC).
- Interim SUNY Chancellor John Ryan has been invited to come to Buffalo and interact with the Faculty Senate at the beginning of the Spring Semester.
- SUNY Central Administration and the SUNY Faculty Senate has been discussing assessing assessment: how should data be reported, and can it be subjected to the Freedom of Information process?
- During the summer, members of FSEC participated in interviewing Athletic Director finalists. Warde Manuel was subsequently hired and met recently with the FSEC and members of the FS Athletics & Recreation Committee.
- November 1st will be the annual Meeting of the Voting Faculty when President Simpson will give his State of the University address. It will be immediately followed by a meeting of the Faculty Senate, so we can have a Second Reading of the Academic Integrity & Grievance Policies & Procedures proposal.
Item 3: Report of the President/Provost
None
Item 4: The Academic State of the University – Satish Tripathi
Provost Tripathi recalled last year’s Academic State of the University address when he talked about UB’s goal to become one of the world’s leading public research institutions. Today’s talk covered some of the activities that have contributed to that goal.
The Provost acknowledged many UB faculty members who had received notable awards during the past year.
It is from our strong foundation of faculty excellence and scholarly innovation that our UB2020 strategic plan has been built. The strategic plan will lead us to national prominence.
We will add 100 or more new faculty over the next three years; 50 will be in addition to regular hires covered by decanal budgets. Eight to 10 positions will be highly visible academic appointments in areas where they can be expected to have an extraordinary impact. The additional faculty hires will be made in areas that have articulated a vision and goals in a white paper.
Deans have been working together on UB2020 to determine which areas have the greatest potential for academic advancement. Their planning will identify goals and what kinds of investments will be needed to build even greater excellence in those strength areas. UB’s new dean for research, Jorge José, will make around $1 million available to encourage significant faculty research and scholarly activity.
To achieve our ambitious institutional goals, it is critical that our graduate programs be noted for their academic rigor and excellence. There is now a 3.0 minimum GPA for admission to all UB doctoral programs. Also, UB has increased graduate assistant stipends by $2,000 to be more competitive in attracting high quality graduate students.
This semester’s freshman class is the most academically talented and geographically diverse in UB’s history. We shall use our strength as a research university to provide our students with an academically transformative undergraduate experience.
Thanks are due to all faculty for their academic engagement and continued pursuit of academic excellence.
Questions/comments:
- What’s going on with Mission Review II? (Nickerson)
- Mission Review is a periodic process that enables SUNY to develop an agreement with each campus regarding its plans and aspirations. This is the second time UB has gone through the process, and our UB2020 planning has been very useful with the responses we’ve made to SUNY’s questions. A team of representatives will visit next week for four or so hours (much shorter than the last MR). They’ll take the information we provide about how we plan to improve the quality of our education and other matters, and they’ll develop a measurable plan which will eventually become the basis for a memorandum of understanding. (Tripathi)
Item 5: 1st reading: Academic Integrity & Grievance Policies & Procedures – William H. Baumer
Professor Baumer, chair of the FS Grading Committee, presented four coordinated proposals dealing with academic integrity and grievances. The distributed draft documents were:
Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures – Undergraduate EducationThe reports are intentionally duplicative to make them as thoroughly alike as possible; they can’t be combined into one document, however, because final approval is handled by different offices.
Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures – Graduate School
Academic Grievance Policy and Procedures – Undergraduate Education
Academic Grievance Policy and Procedures – Graduate School
Academic Integrity and Grievance Policies and Other University Policies
The cover letter explains:
“The present penalties for violations of academic integrity remain, but with revised and largely identical procedures for dealing with alleged violations by undergraduates and graduates. The policies and procedures provide specifications of academic integrity and grievances, call first for informal resolution, then – as requested by faculty or students or as required by proposed penalties – hearings at the departmental, college or school, and Vice Provost or Graduate School… Departmental and college or school hearing committees may either endorse the academic dishonesty penalties proposed by the instructor or recommend no, lesser, or increased penalties. Any transcript notation for academic dishonest requires final approval by the Vice Provost or Graduate School Dean; suspension and expulsion require final approval by the President… The procedures specified at each level are effectively the same; they ensure due process and explicit notification to students and faculty of issues and outcomes.”
Professor Baumer moved that these policies and procedures, which will be revisited for a second reading at the November FS meeting, be adopted.
Questions and comments:
- It would be helpful if a chart could be provided to illustrate the processes. (Boot)
- How will the 10-day rule be applied in the case of violations close to the end of an academic year? (Adams-Volpe)
- Waivers are possible in the case of graduating seniors. (Baumer)
- Is there a limit on the time allowed between when a violation is committed and when a student can be charged? (Kramer)
- There’s no limit. Students can be charged whenever a violation is discovered. (Baumer)
- Why are students restricted to having an advisor who’s not an attorney? (Campbell)
- Grievance hearings aren’t legal proceedings, and they shouldn’t be prolonged by legal maneuvers. Attorneys can be brought in if there’s a failure of due process. (Baumer)
- If we think that a faculty member who’s a member of the bar can set aside professional strategies for a grievance hearing, then we should allow lawyers the same consideration. The statement should simply say that these are not legal proceedings. (Schack)
- It already states that. (Baumer)
- What constitutes notification of a student? Can a student avoid being notified by not opening mail? (Gunn)
- Extreme measures shouldn’t be necessary. We should be able to assume that e-mail sent to a student’s UB e-address has been read. The Grading Committee, however, will consider alternatives before the second reading. (Baumer)
Item 6: Old/New business
Professor Boot recommended consideration of a Monday-Thursday, Tuesday-Friday, Wednesday-Wednesday class schedule, with 80-minute classes three or four days apart, or 160-minute classes a week apart. This approach would benefit classroom utilization, commuting/parking, and education, since there would be seven percent more classroom time than with our current M-W-F/T-Th schedule.
Item 7: Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:18 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)
Arts & Sciences – S. Bennett (A), R. Bobe (P), J. Buscaglia (A), J. Campbell (P), L. Dryden (P), J. Faran (P), S. Gabriel (P), R. Giese (A), R. Hoeing (E), E. Juarros-Daussa (P), C. Lamb (P), A. Markelz (P), N. Matthews (P), J. Mendoza (A), S. Rothenberg (P), SD Schack (P), N. Shiode (P), L. Simms (P), D. Street (A), K. Takeuchi (P), J-C Thill (P), G. Timler (P), C. Welch (P), R. Woodard (A), J. Yu (P)
Dental Medicine – P. Bradford (P), M. Donley (E), G. Ferry (P), E. Pantera (A), J. Zambon (P)
Education –M. Kibby (A), J. Lee (P), L. Malavé (P), T. Schroeder (P)
Engineering & Applied Sciences – P. Alexandridis (P), C. Alphonce (P), C. Basaran (A), G. Dargush (P), K. Lewis (P), D. Pados (P), A. Titus (P) , R. Wetherhold (P)
Informatics – J. Ellison (A)
Law – S. Ghosh (P), T. Miller (P), J. Milles (P)
Management – J. Boot (P), S. Gunn (P), W. Lin (P), L. Sanders (A)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences – D. Amsterdam (P), M. Dayton (P), W. Fiden (P), E. Fine (P), W. Flynn (A), L. Harris (E), J. Hassett (P), L. Hernan (A), P. Joshi (P), T. Langan (A), V. Li (A), A. Manyon (A), N. Miele (A), R. Noble (P), A. Posner (P), J. Sauret (A), J. Sharp (P), G. Snyder (A), J. Springate (P), G. Sufrin (A), F. Velazquez (P), A. Weinstock (A), B. Weinstock-Guttman (A)
Nursing – C. Curran (P), P. Wooldridge (P)
Pharmacy – G. Brazeau (P)
Public Health & Health Professions – K. Personius (P)
Social Work – B. Rittner (P)
SUNY Senators – W. Baumer (P), HW Coles (P), H. Durand (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries – J. Adams-Volpe (P), HA Booth (E), M. Kramer (P), D. Tao (P)
Guests – B. Burke (EDAAA), L. Labinski (Professional Staff Senate), S. Nolan-Weiss (EDAAA), K. Saunders (VPUE), M. Thompson (Grad. Sch.), S. Wuetcher (Reporter)