College Senate Bulletin
| Bulletin 10 5 November 1999 | |
| Contents |
| Page | Topic |
| | Call for Nominations |
| 186 | Supported Professorships |
| 186 | Harter Mentoring Award, President's Advising Award, O'Brien Teaching Award |
| 186-187 | Announcements |
| | Budget Presentation at Next College Senate Meeting |
| | Congratulations to Senate Small Grant Awardees |
| | Upcoming Committee Meeting |
| 187-188 | Message from Chair |
| | Be Sure to Vote! |
| | Report on University Faculty Senate Meeting (14-16 October) |
| | Presidential Approval |
| | Minutes |
| 188-193 | Executive Committee (29 October) |
| 193-194 | FAC Subcommittee on Student Evaluations (26 October) |
| 194-196 | Student Affairs Committee (26 October) |
| 196-200 | Graduate Academic Affairs Committee (26 October) |
| 201-253 | Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (26 October) |
Vote for FPC and NomCom members!
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Correspondence: Becky L. Glass, Department of Sociology, Sturges 122C
E-mail: senate@geneseo.edu Phone: 245-5336
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CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
Nominations are now being accepted for two supported professorships:
Lockhart Professor and
Geneseo Foundation Professor
Deadline for nominations is Monday, November 15
See Bulletin p. 149 for details.
_________________________________________Nominations are now being accepted for:
Harter Mentoring AwardPresident's Advising Award
President's Award for Excellence in Part-time Teaching
Deadline for nominations is Wednesday, December15
See Bulletin p. 164-165 for details.
Letters of nomination for all the above awards should be addressed to the Campus Awards Selection Committee, c/o the Provost's Office, Erwin 205. Nominees will be contacted and told what supporting documentation to provide.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Budget Presentation at College Senate Meeting
At the November 16 College Senate Meeting, Pres. Dahl will present the current budget situation.
All are invited to attend at 4:00 pm in Newton 204.
Congratulations to the Senate Small Grant Awardees
Steve Derne', Associate Professor of Sociology, for "Preparing Camera-Ready Copy of Movies, Masculinity and Modernity: Transliteration Software."
Ren Vasiliev, Associate Professor of Geography, for "Civic Art and Changing Landscapes Photographs."
Upcoming Committee Meeting
Undergraduate Curriculum Committee will meet Tues, Nov. 7, at 4:00 pm in Sturges 209.
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MESSAGES FROM THE CHAIR
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Be Sure to Vote!
Ballots for electing members to the Committee on Nominations and the Faculty Personnel Committee were distributed Nov. 1 and 2, and should be returned to department secretaries by November 10.
If you have not received your ballots yet, please let the Senate Chair know immediately!
Please follow the directions on the ballots. If your ballot is collected without a signature envelope, it cannot be counted.
To help inform your voting decisions, there are summaries of the duties of the Nominations Committee and the Faculty Personnel Committee on pp. 182-183 of the Bulletin, and on the senate website in the Oct. 29 Bulletin.
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University Faculty Senate Report
The following documents from the October 14-16 University Faculty Senate Plenary Meeting have been placed on file in Milne:
- Two resolutions adopted at the Plenary Meeting about General Education
- Correspondence of Joe Flynn, UFS President, on Old Westbury and other issues
- Memoranda from Provost Salins on "Procedures for Review of SUNY GenEd Requirements," and "Policy Guidelines on the Consideration of Graduate Programs"
- President's Report (J. Flynn)
- Standing Committee Reports of UFS
- Report on a meeting of the Chairs of History re General Education
- Announcement of panel discussion on General Education
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President Dahl informed the Senate Chair that he approves the recommendations resulting from the College Senate actions on October 19, 1999.
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Minutes of the Senate Executive Committee
October 29, 1999
Present: B. Glass, C. Leary, J. Ballard, M. Mohan, A. Gridley, N. Schiavetti, B. Gohlman, J. Bushnell, T. Bazzett, E. Crosby, K. Cylke, C. Dahl, B. Dixon.
Call To Order: Chair B. Glass called the meeting to order at 2:50 pm.
Adoption of Agenda: The agenda was moved, seconded, and approved as printed.
President’s Report (C. Dahl):
- There is no additional news on the budget. The Board of Trustees had not adopted a financial plan for the campuses as of their October meeting. It remains unclear whether the governor's office will find the 32.2 million dollars needed for raises that are already in employee’s paychecks, and there is still a $77 million shortfall from the SUNY hospitals’ revenues from last year that will need to be made up. These problems may not affect this year’s budget, but they may have serious repercussions for the following and subsequent years. A budget strategy is needed to deal with the combined effects of last year’s and this year’s budget problems. President Dahl will present a budget report at the next Senate Meeting, including spending guides for the departments based on projections from data supplied by the Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance. Before then, President Dahl plans to circulate a report on implementation of the recommendations by last year’s budget planning committee.
- An accreditation team from the Middle States Association will conduct its official visit to Geneseo in Fall 2001. The college is now beginning the process of preparing the self-study report for the visit. We must take a comprehensive look at all our programs and operations in preparation for the visit, and many tasks are required to complete a successful reaccreditation process. Paul Schact (English) and Tom Greenfield (Dean of the College) have been appointed to chair the Self-Study Committee. They and their colleagues on the committee have already begun to work and will be calling upon members of all segments of the college community to assist in the self-study process. An initial visit from the Middle States liaison will occur in February.
- The SUNY Provost reported that the BOT will probably pass on the budget at their next meeting.
- A national expert spoke to the Provosts about assessment issues. This talk was in the context of discussions of the new General Education requirements. Most campuses are struggling with issues of how to implement the requirements, particularly in the domains of American History and Foreign Languages. Much communication between leaders of different campuses has focused on seeking different ways to meet the guidelines.
- The system-level General Education Advisory Committee will review all General Education proposals from the individual campuses. The Provosts’ Advisory Group recommended that four of the five academic VPs on the original advisory group should serve on the new committee.
- A state-wide task force on program review may make some changes in system level procedures, but these probably will not have negative effects on Geneseo.
- The state-wide task force on assessment is just beginning to meet. It appears that the push will be for almost all assessment to be campus-based, rather than based on nationally standardized tests. As recommended by the expert speaker, assessment devices should be designed by the people who are going to use them.
- Fall Elections: The ballots for Fall elections will be distributed on Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 1-2), and they will be picked up from department offices on Nov. 10th. Ballots will be counted on Monday, Nov. 15, 1999, and the outcome reported to Senate on the 16th.
- The Nominating Committee has reviewed the procedures used in preparing for the election to Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC). B. Glass would like the Executive Committee to review the process after the election is complete. A question has come from a department with two people on the current ballot. Since only one could be elected to the FPC, the department would like for one of the nominees to withdraw from the election.
- B. Glass distributed a copy of the "Resolution to Students" that is distributed to all campus student organizations at the beginning of the Fall semester, and she reviewed the history of its development. The resolution was the outcome of concerns raised by the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) in the 1992-93 school year. These concerns apparently were based on pledging activities among some Greek organizations. The SAC wanted to make rules about such things as hours of sleep and study opportunities. However, the Vice-President in charge of student and campus life noted that specific rules targeting some student groups but not others were not acceptable. Therefore, the SAC drafted a resolution with more general wording that was intended to be applicable to all student organizations. Recent concerns have surfaced about whether the tone of the resolution is somewhat patronizing. B. Glass would like to turn over the discussion of the resolution to SAC to determine whether to continue sending this version of the resolution, to re-word the resolution, or to discontinue sending the resolution. A. Gridley opened discussion of the resolution at the Oct. 6 Student Association meeting; some of the students suggested that the resolution might be better if re-worded to suggest guidelines for a "well-rounded student."
- B. Glass has received a letter from a faculty member raising questions about the meanings of some statements in the Constitution about the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC). B. Glass will provide more information about these concerns, but she requested some discussion of how to address the concerns. The problem is that FAC is very busy this year with two other major topics. If an in-depth evaluation of the language in the Constitution is needed, should we appoint an ad hoc committee to investigate? Any changes in the Constitution will ultimately require a constitutional amendment.
- Executive Committee will not meet on the next scheduled date (November 12, 1999) because of a conflict in B. Glass’ schedule. A meeting may be scheduled, if needed, for November 19th.
In the discussion that followed, all agreed that it was too late to withdraw officially from the election, given that the ballots have already been printed and are ready for distribution on Monday. The person who wishes to withdraw could send out an informal request that others not vote for them.
In the discussion that followed, C. Dahl noted that the document seems to have both positive and negative aspects. The positive aspect is that it supports the view that student organizations in a liberal arts college are places where students learn through participation (as in Senate, public service organizations, and cultural/ethnic groups). A. Gridley noted that members of the Student Association did not find the document particularly representative of the college’s mission statement regarding development of the well "integrated" student. A. Gridley will bring up the topic again at the next caucus to determine whether student senators would like to help devise a new resolution. N. Schiavetti suggested that a re-wording of the document with a more positive tone could include an indication that important time-management skills can be learned by students who assume responsibility for organizing their time for involvement in both classes and extracurricular activities. A. Gridley interjected an apology for the minutes of last Wednesday’s Student Association meeting, which misrepresented her comments about the focus of the next Executive Committee meeting.
In discussion, B. Gohlman noted that some of the concerns may involve bringing practice and policy in line with each other (by changing either the policy or the practices). Only the policy changes would require constitutional amendments. T. Bazzett suggested that Executive Committee could examine the concerns, when more information is made available, and could then decide whether to act, to send the discussion to FAC, or to appoint an ad hoc committee. N. Schiavetti agreed that Executive Committee should examine the issues and propose constitutional amendments if they appear to involve only editorial or wording changes; however, if substantive policy changes are needed, the usual procedures should be used (discussions by FAC and Policy committees, first and second readings in Senate). It was agreed that B. Glass will provide additional information to the members of the Executive Committee and the issue will be on the agenda for the next Executive committee meeting.
Treasurer’s Report (M. Mohan):
The College Senate Fund Campaign has received $325.00 from 15 donors. The allocations of the total include $270.00 to the General Senate Fund, and $55.00 to the Roark Fund.
University Faculty Senator’s Report (M. Mohan reporting for J. Bulsys): A summary of the 123rd Plenary Meeting of the University Faculty Senate was presented at the College Senate Meeting on October 19, 1999. J. Bulsys has submitted several official documents from the Plenary Meeting to B. Glass, Geneseo College Senate Chair, for the local archives. [Ed. Note: See p. 187 of this Bulletin]
Central Council (A. Gridley):
The Student Senator WebPage and e-mail addresses are now working. The addresses are:
www.geneseo.edu/~senators and senators@geneseo.edu
Faculty Affairs Committee (N. Schiavetti):
Subcommittees are meeting and have begun the process of gathering information and interviewing pertinent individuals. The Provost came on Tuesday to talk to the Evaluation Committee, and many others will be interviewed at future meetings.
Graduate Academic Affairs (J. Bushnell): GAC met and discussed graduate proposals that will be presented at the next Senate meeting. These include proposals from the Communicative Disorders and Sciences Department and from the History Department.
Policy Committee (B. Gohlman): The Policy Committee will meet soon.
Student Affairs (E. Crosby): Subcommittees are working on several issues:
- Lighting on campus.
- Developing alternative activities on campus that are alcohol-free.
- E. Crosby asked whether there was a listserver for contacting all students.
C. Dahl noted that the Annual Safety Walk held by the Personal Safety Committee has been helpful in identifying locations needing additional lighting, as well as other lighting concerns. Partially as a result of the work of this committee, the maintenance department has initiated a rotating system of light bulb replacements. In addition, more blue light telephones have been installed.
Undergraduate Curriculum (T. Bazzett): Grouping the curriculum proposals at the last Senate meeting appeared to work well. UCC will use the same procedure at the next meeting.
New Business:
1) A. Gridley raised a concern about the apparent brevity and incompleteness of some committee or subcommittee minutes. These minutes sometimes seem abbreviated, without a description of the discussion involved. A. Gridley noted that such incompleteness may make it difficult in the future to determine the basis for any decisions made by a committee. She suggested that it is also difficult for a committee chair to take notes while running a meeting, and that it may be useful for committees to assign minute-taking duties to a different person at each meeting.
T. Bazzett noted that UCC assigns minute-taking in this way, but the content and style of the minutes often varies greatly as a result. J. Bushnell stated that Senate work-study students used to be assigned to help take minutes in UCC, because that committee often had more business to conduct each year. K. Cylke noted that this arrangement can work well, but depends on the experience of the work-study students. B. Glass noted that the students this year could handle the assignment. T. Bazzett cautioned that sometimes students don’t quite understand the issues involved in the discussion, and their minutes may reflect this misunderstanding. K. Cylke pointed out that minutes should reflect what was done rather than what was said. Others agreed, noting that the minutes should not be word-for-word transcript. A. Gridley indicated that her concern was more focused on subcommittees than on standing committees. B. Glass added that subcommittees are presently providing minutes of their meetings so that the Bulletin will not suddenly include a motion for a resolution, with no history of the discussion. B. Glass suggested that the new clerical assistant for the Senate may be able to help with the minute-taking for the UCC.
Unfinished Business:
T. Bazzett returned to the earlier discussion about persons who wish to withdraw from an FPC election. He raised the concern that the person withdrawing might also recommend votes for other nominee. All agreed that nominees for positions on FPC do not usually "campaign" for these positions. Someone who wished to withdraw could send a notice to that effect, but, in the opinion of the Executive Committee, should not name or endorse others.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 3:58 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan C. Ballard
Secretary of the College Senate