The Faculty Senate (FS) met at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 2, 2003, at the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:

1. Approval of the minutes of October 14, 2003
2. Report of the Chair and presentation
3. Report of the President/Provost
4. Second reading - University Faculty Senate Resolution - W. Baumer
5. Discussion of Memorandum of Understanding in preparation for revision
6. Old/New business
7. Adjournment

Item 1: Approval of the minutes of October 14, 2003

The October 14th minutes were distributed inadvertently. They were already approved as distributed at the November 4th meeting.

Item 2: Report of the Chair and presentation

Chair Nickerson requested a moment of silence in memory of Professor Bernice Noble, our colleague and former FSEC member who passed away recently.

His written report, which was distributed with the agenda, included:
· The Professional Staff Senate Executive Committee met with Mitch Green, director of the Faculty Student Assn., about healthy dining options for staff and faculty on campus.
· The University Libraries sponsored a symposium on scholarly publishing. Issues raised included the use of electronic and open access publishing in tenure decisions. These will be addressed by FS.
· President Simpson has been invited to attend the first FS meeting next semester, February 3rd.
· Recent FS committee activity includes:
o The Academic Planning Committee has been charged to review the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in preparation for MOU2. The Committee also considered an electronic newsletter as a means of communicating with faculty.
o The Facilities Planning Committee has actively monitored changes in facilities, especially classrooms. They met and discussed several matters that had been raised by FSEC recently.
o The Grading Committee talked about undergraduate and graduate grievance procedures and academic integrity. They will suggest some changes to FSEC.

Chair Nickerson thanked President Greiner for his support of faculty governance during his 13-year presidency and presented him with a framed copy of "Resolution from the University at Buffalo Faculty Senate in recognition of Professor William R. Greiner":

WHEREAS William R. Greiner has declared his intention to retire from the Presidency of the University at Buffalo; and

WHEREAS his retirement provides an occasion to review the achievements of his leadership; and

WHEREAS these achievements include:
v significant expansion of the campus with the Student Union, the Center for the Arts, the Stadium, the Natural Sciences and Medical School complexes, the Math Building, and on-campus apartment housing;
v sizeable increases in scholarship funding;
v emergence of UB as a globalized public research university with high enrollments of international students, and a worldwide reputation for excellence;
v an increase in research capacity, productivity and funding;
v consolidation of student services and expansion of access to services via the web;
v formation of a College of Arts and Sciences;
v recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff, and students;
v a dedication to the people and the needs of Western New York, manifested in projects including community health initiatives, integration of service-learning opportunities into curricular programs, and contribution to regional planning debates;
v provision of leading-edge instructional and research technologies placing the University at the forefront of "wired campuses";
v successful influence in state and federal policy deliberations on issues confronting higher education;
v achievement of fiscal autonomy and vast expansion of private giving to the institution;
v enhancement of the visibility, prestige and stature of the University at Buffalo;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University at Buffalo applauds the distinguished service of President William R. Greiner to the University, the community, the State of New York and the nation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate expresses its thanks and admiration to President Greiner and its wishes for continued good health, prosperity, and accomplishment.

President Greiner thanked the Faculty Senate and said that he shares the credit with all UB faculty, staff, and students who made the accomplishments possible.

Item 3: Report of the President/Provost

President Greiner said that he had met with the UB Council earlier in the day and told them "The University is in good shape. I have no report."

Item 4: Second reading: University Faculty Senate Resolution - W. Baumer

SUNY Senator Baumer reviewed the rationale for the Resolution on value-added assessment (also known as system-wide assessment) that was presented for a first reading at last month's FS meeting. There was no further discussion; acceptance was moved, seconded, and passed by a unanimous vote.

Chair Nickerson then distributed "Resolution on Next Steps for an Assessment Framework," in response to a just-announced request that the Board of Trustees suspend implementation of their resolution on system-wide assessment. The Faculty Council of Community Colleges and the University Faculty Senate called instead for continuing dialogue on this issue, which will be honored.

Chancellor King asked the SUNY Faculty Senate Executive Committee to draft a new proposal, so the following Resolution has been put forth:

Be it resolved that the faculty of SUNY supports the following four-part proposal to initiate this dialogue:
1. The establishment of an assessment framework for determining the level of achievement and/or the increment of growth in learning achieved by SUNY undergraduates in the building blocks of general education.

In addition to those measures already in place in campus plans, this framework should include "externally referenced measures" of the campus's choice - either nationally or SUNY-normed. For campuses choosing a value-added approach, this framework should consist of a set of instruments administered at two points in time: close to the student's entry to the institution and at some later date when the student has completed this learning.

2. A survey instrument that will provide for an understanding of the indicators that reflect the campus academic environment.

3. An analysis of the relationship between academic assessment results and these environmental influences.

4. An indication of how individual campus plans will be folded into the GEAR approval process, including the specific criteria that GEAR will use in approving them.

Professor Swartz asked for clarification about GEAR and its role in the assessment process. Professor Baumer explained that GEAR stands for General Education Assessment Review. There are several UB courses currently involved in the process, which examines educational outcomes to determine how much students have learned.

Professor Adams-Volpe, a member of SUNY's GEAR committee, said that they're still working at implementing assessment of all Gen. Ed. courses offered at SUNY campuses. The assessment process is quite extensive, and the resolution supports the huge investments of faculty time and campus money that have already gone into Gen. Ed. course evaluations.

Professor Baumer said that this resolution is likely to be presented at the next SUNY Faculty Senate meeting, which is scheduled for the weekend prior to our next FS meeting. Anyone with comments or concerns should contact one of UB's SUNY senators prior to that meeting.

Chair Nickerson said that the resolution would be discussed further by the FSEC. The SUNY Faculty Senate is seeking input from all 64 campuses.

Item 5: Discussion of the Memorandum of Understanding (available online at http://www.provost.buffalo.edu - click on "publications & reports) in preparation for its revision

Chair Nickerson said it's a good idea to begin preliminary discussions on the upcoming Memorandum of Understanding (MOU2) because it will be an important document that affects our future. MOUs are signed agreements that each SUNY campus has with SUNY Central Administration about future goals in several significant areas: admission selectivity and graduation rates; faculty development; diversity of faculty, staff, and students; and assessment of general education.

UB's first MOU was signed in 2000, and President Greiner said that UB has surpassed every goal in it.

Professor Cohen commented that New York's population is growing and changing. It is projected to become the fourth largest state with an increasingly diverse populace. UB should be prepared to deal with shifting demographics.

Chair Nickerson said that UB's higher academic standards are producing more intellectually demanding students. We should do more to involve them in the UB community.

Professor Salvi asked about UB's criteria for academic selectivity. President Greiner explained that SUNY uses only SAT scores and high school averages as the basis for regular admission. Applicants are categorized in quintiles, and several years ago UB was accepting many from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quintiles. For 2003/04, we were able to attain record freshmen enrollment by accepting only from the 1st (43%), 2nd (48%), and 3rd (8%) quintiles. Next year's goal is to reach our target with admits from just the 1st and 2nd.

Professor Bisantz asked why we dropped from a 2nd tier to a 3rd tier school in a recent ranking if the University is in such good shape. Professor Nickerson said that the difference between 2nd and 3rd tier in many reputational polls is infinitesimal. President Greiner said that UB has been bouncing and forth between 2nd and third in U. S. News & World Reports's ranking for years. This shows that, for tracking purposes, there's no clear comparison from one year to the next. Also U. S. News uses a variety of factors that are skewed toward matters of more importance to private schools than public institutions, e.g., fundraising and alumni support. Public schools will usually rank higher in rankings, but our recent record enrollment seems to indicate that many people don't pay a lot of attention to those lists.

Professor Brazeau said there are three main areas in which UB needs to define its role: bioinformatics; community outreach on issues such as health care, social issues, and job development for new technologies; and athletic programs.

Professor Adams-Volpe said that UB should consider whether it's an institutional priority to move undergraduates into UB graduate programs. We also need to decide whether some of the smaller programs should be merged into larger departments.

Professor Fabian suggested the UB consider promoting blended degrees, e.g. BA/MA or BA/MFA, that are popular at other institutions.

Professor Baumer expressed concern about whether the graduation rate should be a factor in campus assessment. Using graduation rate as a measure of achievement places undesirable pressure on instructors not to fail students, even when a student deserves to flunk.

Professor Baumer also noted that all SUNY campuses are at or near full capacity for the number of available classrooms and laboratory space. Increasing enrollment isn't a reasonable goal because there will be no capital improvement funds to build new facilities.

Professor Adams-Volpe said that one reason UB doesn't do better in rankings is that SUNY Central reports the data for all campuses. President Greiner agreed and said that UB would fare better if we could provide our own data. It would be more accurate, and SUNY's role should be to verify it.

Professor Fabian said that she has been gathering data that indicates how much faculty have progressed in their use of educational technology. She is also compiling data for a report about how several aspects of UB's academic programs have changed.

Professor Christian asked whether it's possible for her to solicit input via e-mail or a ListServ from the entire faculty for the Academic Planning Committee to consider. She would like to hear from more than just faculty senators. Professor Fabian suggested that faculty senators should contact their constituencies for more comments about topics that were discussed today.

Professor Adams-Volpe asked whether there's a specified format that the MOU needs to follow. If so, that would be helpful for soliciting comments on particular points.

Chair Nickerson said that today's conversation was a good start in preparing for MOU2. There will surely be many more discussions about some of the issues raised today.

Item 6: Old/New business

None

Item 7: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:32 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 - B. Ott (P)
Arts & Sciences - C. Bloom (A), S. Bruckenstein (A), J. Buscaglia (A), J. Campbell (A), M. Chen (A), M. Churchill (P), D. Eddins (P), T. Gregg (P), R. Hoeing (E), E. Hull (P), M. Lichter (A), J. Ludwig (P), N. Matthews (P), P. McDevitt (P), J. Mendoza (P), A. Monteiro (P), J. Pappas (A), A. Petrou (A), R. Salvi (P), S. Schack (A), C. Smith (A), K. Takeuchi (P), J-C Thill (A), T. Thurston (A), D. Wackeroth (P), V. Watrous (P), M. Wolderberg (A), R. Woodard (P)
Dental Medicine - P. Bradford (P), M. Donley (A), J. Zambon (A)
Education - K. Bilica (P), J. Hoot (P), X. Liu (P), L. Malave (A)
Engineering & Applied Sciences - A. Bisantz (P), S. Braynov (P), S. Chen (A), J. Jensen (P), R. Mayne (A), R. Nagi (P), A. Reinhorn (A), S. Thevanayagam (A)
Informatics - F. Tutzauer (P)
Institutional General - O. Mixon (A)
Law - I. Marcus (A), R. Reis (A), L. Swartz (P)
Management - J. Boot (P), S. Gunn (P), C. Pegels (A), N. Suresh (A)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences - D. Amsterdam (P), F. Baddoura (P), J. Canty (A), C. Cohan (P), M. Dryjski (A), J. Evans (A), W. Fiden (A), B. Flynn (A), J. Gibbs (A), H. Hameer (A), J. Hassett (A), C. Hershey (P), J. Leddy (P), F. Loghmanee (A), G. Logue (A), F. Morin (A), B. Murray (E), N. Nielsen (A), J. Novak (A), J. Sellick (P), R. Stephan (P), J. Yeh (A)
Nursing - P. McCartney (A), P. Wooldridge (A)
Pharmacy - K. Boje (A), G. Brazeau (P)
Public Health & Health Professions - C. Crespo (A), G. Farkas (P), S. Nochajski (A)
Social Work - S. Green (A), B. Rittner (P)
SUNY Senators - J. Adams-Volpe (P), W. Baumer (P), M. Kramer (P), P. Nickerson (P)
University Libraries - S. Bartl (P), CA Fabian (P), J. Hopkins (P), C. Tysick (P)

Guests - D. Budniewski (Reporter), D. Christian (Academic Planning Cmte.), L. Labinski (Prof. Staff Senate), S. Nolan-Weiss (EDAAA)

© Copyright University at Buffalo Faculty Senate | UB Home | Accessibility | Legal Notices | Website Acknowledgements