FACULTY SENATE
Minutes of November 5, 2002 - (approved)
E-MAIL: ZBFACSEN@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

The Faculty Senate met at 2:00 p.m. on November 5, 2002, in the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:

1. Report of the Chair
   
2. Approval of the minutes of September 17 and October 1, 2002
   
3. University Advancement report - Jennifer McDonough
   
4. Report of the Faculty Senate Grading Committee re Web grading - William H. Baumer
   
5. Facilities Planning - Kevin Seitz
   
6. Report of the October SUNY Senate meeting at Purchase, NY - Marilyn McMann Kramer
   
7. Old/New Business
   

Item 1: Report of the Chair

The Chair reported that the proposal to create a School of Public Health and Health Professions is moving forward. The School of Medicine's faculty council has approved it in principal, so the proposal will now be sent to the Faculty Senate's Academic Planning Committee for review.

The Bioinformatics building has gotten started downtown at Virginia and Ellicott Streets. It is well situated and will represent a collaboration of all the medical facilities in that area. Jeffrey Skolnick, Executive Director of the Buffalo Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics, has been invited to update the Faculty Senate about the program in the spring.

Item 2: Approval of the minutes of September 17 and October 1, 2002

Professor Segal corrected the October 1st minutes by clarifying that his motion to amend the Academic Calendar was to even out the number of class days (not the number of weeks) in Fall semester 2004. Otherwise, the minutes were approved as distributed.

Item 3: University Advancement report - Jennifer McDonough

Jennifer McDonough, Vice President for University Advancement, talked about the mission and accomplishments of her Office. They seek to raise funds by promoting philanthropy from individuals, corporations, and foundations. The current campaign, "Generation to Generation," is UB's largest ever, and so far has raised 80% of its $250 million goal. Alumni have been the biggest contributors, accounting for $88.9 million, followed by foundations ($34M), corporations ($32M), friends of UB ($24M), and organizations ($18.8M).

Time spent asking for money represents only 20% of the Office for University Advancement's total effort. Most time is spent cultivating relationships, collaborating, stewardship (i.e. what happens after we receive a gift), keeping the database up to date, and acknowledging pledges and donations.

Generating private support through a diversified mix of funding partners will make us less reliant on state funding. Money raised will be used for academic support, student resources, and enhancing campus life.

Item 4: Report of the Faculty Senate Grading Committee re Web Grading

The Faculty Senate Grading Committee's "Web Grading Recommendations and Assessment" had been distributed with the agenda. It recommends that the Faculty Senate endorse the transition to Web grading as of Fall 2002, with the following conditions and qualifications:
1. All course instructors shall personally submit their grades via Web grading.
2. Course rosters with submitted grades shall be returned electronically to instructors upon their submission of course grades.
3. Rosters with submitted grades for all courses in their departments shall be transmitted electronically to department chairs who request this.
4. Department chairs shall be authorized to submit grades for courses in their departments only when emergency circumstances prevent course instructors from doing so.

Professor Baumer made a motion (which was seconded) that the report be accepted. He said that Web grading will save professors time, save the university resources, and reduce the number of errors. There was an 8+% error rate when paper grade-reporting forms were scanned last spring semester.

It is important that faculty members take personal responsibility for getting their grades in on time. Professor Baumer indicated, however, that he favored an amendment that would allow for a departmental recorder who would be authorized to input grades if a faculty member wanted. Professor Brazeau moved (with a second) to amend the original motion accordingly. The amendment passed.

Professor Sridhar moved (with a second) that No. 1 be amended (by dropping the word "personally") to "All course instructors shall be responsible for submitting their grades via Web grading."

Professor Baumer pointed out that a departmental recorder would have a continuing appointment; alternate graders, on the other hand, need to be designated each semester.

Professor Seeman and Professor Steiner spoke in favor of the amendment. For large classes, teaching assistants are better able to catch mistakes than the professor.

The amendment passed.

Professor Schack said that we should only concern ourselves with the transition to Web grading, and not with principles for good grading. Although the latter is a topic worthy of Senate discussion, it's not as urgent to address as the transition. He moved (with a second) that No. 4 be stricken from the proposal because department chairs already have the responsibility of ensuring that grades are submitted, but we can't anticipate every type of problem that might require intervention.

Professor Hopkins suggested that removing No. 4 might be more restrictive than keeping it. Modifying No. 4 to make it more inclusive would offer greater flexibility.

Professor Baumer said the Grading Committee wanted all faculty - including adjunct faculty - to submit grades via computer. UB expects students to use computers, so faculty should be expected to use computers too.

Professor Dickson, who serves on a UUP committee about part-time faculty, pointed out that many part-time faculty go on and off the payroll regularly, and they lose their e-mail and Internet privileges each time they go off.

Professor Campbell called No. 4 "toothless" because it doesn't define what emergency circumstances are.

Professor Baumer moved (with a second) to amend the amendment by deleting only the word "emergency" from No. 4.

Professor Schack urged everyone to vote against the amendment to the amendment, which he called "meaningless." He said we should not be deliberating university policy about who has what authority at this time.

The amendment to the amendment failed.

The amendment to delete No. 4 in its entirety passed.

Professor Baumer commented that this is the first reading of the proposal, so the Senate won't be able to vote on approving it till the December meeting. Since Web grading will become available next week, the most that we can hope to accomplish today is a straw vote.

Professor Schack wanted additional discussion before a straw vote was taken. He recommended that the system be changed so it's not necessary to name a specific instructor when a course is first listed. Many times instructors aren't hired until later, so it's misleading to enter someone else's name and Social Security Number.

Senior Assistant Vice Provost Nina Kaars clarified that a name and SSN must be entered in order to access the system, but courses can be added with "Staff" for the instructor. This will need to be changed later, because only registered instructors can open up Web grading.

This was acceptable to Professor Schack, who said he would support the proposal in the straw poll.

Ms. Kaars encouraged instructors of first-semester students to enter mid-semester grades as well as final grades.

Professor Hershey questioned whether the system was secure against hackers. Gerry Sheehan (Administrative Computing Services) explained that encryption protected against unauthorized access. He clarified that alternate graders could only enter grades after being authorized. They would then be able to access data using their own userID and password. Instructors should not share their own userID/pw with anyone.

Professor Watrous asked how the system deals with faculty who don't have or refuse to use UB-IT accounts? Professor Baumer explained that all faculty are given UB-IT accounts. The Grading Committee's expectation is that all faculty should use a computer, because UB expects all students to use computers.

The straw vote of whether the Faculty Senate approves the concept of Web-grading as amended passed affirmatively.

Item 5: Facilities Planning - Kevin Seitz

Kevin Seitz said he's relatively new to the position of Vice President for University Services, having taken over the job on July 1 when Bob Wagner retired. His responsibilities include both the Business Office and Facilities.

The number of capital projects has doubled in the past year. There are also several student apartment projects and many set-ups to accommodate new faculty hires. Design and construction priorities are being developed for projects in the queue.

Priorities are also being considered for facilities' (including classrooms) rehab projects. They are dependent on next year's budget. UB doesn't have a depreciation budget like many corporations, but money does get allocated for infrastructure renewal.

Professor Segal asked whether additional classrooms are planned for North Campus to alleviate scheduling problems? Mr. Seitz said that extra classroom space had been made available in the Ellicott complex. It caused parking problems there, however. There are no further plans to build more classrooms at this time.

Professor Watrous asked to what extent faculty had input into Facilities' priorities? Chair Cohen responded that he had discussed this with the Provost, and that the Faculty Senate Facilities Planning Committee would be getting involved in the prioritization process.

Professor Steiner asked what firms are involved when projects are commissioned out? Mr. Seitz said his office works with three firms who have been approved by the State Controller's office.

Professor Steiner suggested that Facilities should work with School of Architecture faculty. She said that their designs have been disregarded or rejected in the past. As an example, she referred to an award-winning plan for a ramp entrance to Crosby Hall that was nixed. Mr. Seitz said that the Provost's office was in charge of setting priorities for academic facilities. He'll check on the ramp plan to find out what happened to it.

Professor Chen supported the idea of working with local talent on design issues. She also asked whether it's true that most of our current construction projects are administrative rather than academic in nature? Mr. Seitz didn't think that administrative projects outnumber academic ones, but he couldn't be sure without consulting the queue. He said the list isn't finalized, so it's not available to the Senate yet.

A "Classroom Quality @ UB" Web site has phone numbers of who to contact about classroom facilities, maintenance, or equipment.

Professor Bennett asked who determines that some classrooms will be converted into administrative space. She said that's happened in Norton, Talbert, and Clemens Halls. She's also concerned about the rumored possibility that part of the Undergraduate Library might be turned into administrative offices. Mr. Seitz said those decisions are made by the Provost's office. Chair Cohen said that FSEC would raise that issue when it meets with the Provost tomorrow.

Item 6: Report of the October SUNY Senate meeting at Purchase, NY - Marilyn McMann Kramer

Professor Kramer's report was postponed till the December Faculty Senate meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15.

Respectfully submitted,

Will Hepfer
Secretary of the Faculty Senate

Present:
Chair, M. Cohen
Secretary: W. Hepfer
Parliamentarian: D. Malone
Architecture: G. S. Danford, H. Steiner
Arts & Sciences: W. Baumer, H. Bennett, C. Bloom, J. Campbell, M. Chen, M. Churchill, T. Gregg, J. Ludwig, J. Mendoza, A. Monteiro, R. Salvi, E. S. Schack, E. Seeman, E. Segal, V. Watrous
Dental Medicine: M. Donley, L. Ortman
Education: H. Bromley, R. Stein
Engineering: S. Braynov, J. Jensen, D. Malone, R. Mayne, R. Sridhar
Health Related Professions: C. Golyski, S. Nochajski
Informatics: F. Tutzauer
Law: L. Swartz
Management: S. Gunn, W. Lin
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: J. Hassett, C. Hershey, J. Leddy, K. Mahran, B. J. Novak, Murray, F. Schimpfhauser, D. Shucard
Nursing: P. McCartney
Social Work: B. Rittner
SUNY Senators: J. Adams-Volpe, M. Kramer, P. Nickerson
University Libraries: S. Bartl, J. Dickson, J. Hopkins
University Officers: Provost E. Capaldi

Guests:
S. Frederick, Student Processing Services
K. Grant, Academic Affairs
N. Kaars, Academic Affairs
D. Longenecker, Reporter
K. Seitz, University Services
G. Sheehan, Administrative Comuting Services

Excused:
Arts & Sciences: J. Bennett
Education: J. Almasi
Management: J. Boot
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: J. Canty
University Libraries: CA Fabian

Absent:
Arts & Sciences: B. Bono, S. Bruckenstein, A. Cadenhead, D. Eddins, G. Finnegan, E. Hull, H. Luo, J. Pappas, A. Petrou, J. Ringland, E. Scarlett, C. Smith, M. Sultan, M. Woldenberg, R. Woodard
Dental Medicine: D. Garlapo, J. Zambon
Education: R. Stein
Engineering: TJ Mountziaris, R. Nagi, S. Thevanayagam
Health Related Professions: G. Farkas
Institutional/General: O. Mixon
Law: I. Marcus, R. Reis
Management: M. Trivedi
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: A. Aquilina, A. Baer, R. Fenstermaker, W. Fiden, B. Flynn, J. Fudyma, C. Granger, J. Izzo, T. Langan, G. Logue, R. Morin, N. Nielsen, J. Novak, M. Paroski, G. Snyder, J. Yeh
Nursing: E. Perese
Pharmacy: K. Boje, G. Brazeau
Social Work: S. Green
SUNY Senators: H. Durand

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