Senate Minutes

University Senate
Minutes of May 7, 2007

I.  Approval of agenda – approved

II.  Approval of minutes from April 9th, 2007

III.  Provost’s Report (R. McGrath)

  • In the aftermath of the incident at Virginia Tech, Stony Brook has mechanisms in place to track distressed/disruptive students.  A group comprised of Mark Aronoff (Associate Provost), Peter Baigent (VP for Students Affairs) and Anne Byrnes (Director of the Counseling Center) will be meeting with departments to inform faculty, staff and TA’s of the many resources on campus to assist troubled students
  • Provost Office and Students Affairs websites include an advisory notice for faculty and staff
  • This will be Provost McGrath’s last time addressing the Senate

IV.  President’s Report (S. Kenny)

  • Encourages all to attend the Commencement Ceremony this May
  • Significant faculty hires this year (72)
  • We are behind our peers in terms of what we pay our TA’s.  We continue to work with SUNY.  SUNY needs to deal with the cost of living differential between here and other parts of NYS
  • Stony Brook hopes to increase Graduate Student Stipends by $2,000

There was a question about the implications of increased enrollment and lack of infrastructure to accommodate students.

S. Kenny:  the 25,000 students include students from Southampton.  We anticipate in the next five years that the Southampton campus will be comprised of approximately 2,000 students.  We have a problem with Residence Halls this fall and we are looking for alternate sites for some of the students

V.  Report on Marine Sciences Name Change (G. Marker)
           

  • MSRC’s proposal is to rename it to The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Proposal was sent to the Senate Executive Committee.  Senate EC decided it could not act on the proposal without more documentation since the center has never been vetted as a school.  Before decision could be made, CAPRA was asked to look at the proposal
  • CAPRA had two meetings with the Provost and the Dean for MSRC regarding what documentation was needed in order to come up with an appropriate assessment
  • Capra was sent the 1997 External Review, a much fuller statement on the proposal to rename MSRC as a school as well as the rationale.
  • Capra had asked for a timeline of all of the elements of MSRC’s curriculum that has changed over the years because their premise was that it had already made the transition de facto from a research center to a school.  It was already delivering a full curriculum and  the curriculum has already gone through governance
  • Capra was also given and organizational chart for before and after the name change
  • The committee came to the conclusion that Marine Sciences is largely updating their name to fit the mission they were already carrying out.  Every piece of the Curriculum has been approved by governance primarily though the curriculum committees.  Therefore, the Committee unanimously agreed that they have no objections to the name change
  • Capra has one suggestion.  They should expand on the statement of what they are going to do differently to pursue public visibility to raise funds and to attract undergraduates that they have not done so already.
  • Paul Lombardi made a motion to accept the Report on the Marine Sciences Name Change.  All senators present voted in the affirmative.

VI.  Report on 11th Senate Survey (R. Kelly)

  • The Administrative Review Committee did an excellent job.  There is a diverse membership from both East and West campus
  • There were 180 questions which took about 20 minutes to answer
  • Most important was the comments field in the survey.  More than 1/3 of the people filled out the survey.  The comments were indicative of the survey findings and most were substantial.
  • In some cases, scores were not published where there was a change in administration or where the response threshold was below 25
  • Provided comparison with results from 2003 survey
  • There were 743 responses.  There was an excellent response/distribution rate among faculty/staff.  Overall response rate was 37% between 2003 and 2006 survey

Largest areas of concern:

  • School of Social Welfare.  Scores were not published since there were only 12 responses.  Most comments were negative about the environment in the School.
  • Melville and branch Libraries.  Basically the same concerns as in 2003 survey.  Scored 1.46 which faired better than in 2003 (slightly over 1)
  • Maintenance.  Scored at 1.68.  This is low considering that grounds maintenance was included in this category.  There were a number of comments on how impossible it is to park on East Campus and also on the enormous traffic jam at around 5:00 p.m. when leaving the Administration Garage (poorly timed traffic lights)
  • University Administration
    • Extent in which administration is in touch with everyday life on campus
    • Extent to which administration involves appropriate Faculty and Staff in decisions that affect them

Follow-up measures on areas of concern will be to build a smaller detailed survey and to talk with administrators.  The Administrative Review Committee does not make recommendations to the Administration.

VII.  Report on 146th SUNY Faculty Senate Plenary Session in Brockport (K. Gillespie)

  • Report from SUNY Faculty Senate President:  Initiatives to increase diversity; energy and environment, research advancement, teacher ed programs, internationalizing curriculum, and establishing a service corps for retirees.  Norman Goodman was also recognized for setting a high standard of service to SUNY Faculty Senate
  • Report from Kim Cline, Vice Chancellor Finance and Business:  Good news regarding SUNY budget.  Enacted budget for 07-08 is 5.8% higher than 06-07.  SUNY will hope for $2,500 more per student to support public higher education
  • Report from SUNY Provost Risa Palm:  Discussed commissions on higher education of 1960, 1985 and 1995 and announced that a new commission is being charged.  Provost Palm is the contact person and welcomes suggestions and email regarding the commission. For a list of charges see attached report. 
  • Provost Palm discussed the Spellings Commission report and indicated that she is strongly opposed to the recommendations.
  • Three Resolutions were adopted with a fourth not yet passed.

Provost McGrath made comments on Distinguished Professorships.  He found it troublesome that SUNY Faculty Senate decided that it should be the policy of SUNY that an individual cannot have more than one Distinguished Professor title.  He challenged the idea that someone who by their very good innovative and inspired teaching happens to be a Distinguished Teaching Professor, cannot become a Sr. Distinguished Professor.  At the very least the individual should have the right to choose which one he/she wants.  Second point  is that Provost McGrath believes is ill advised is that we have an exceedingly distinguished, successful professor and colleague of ours on this campus who by any reasonable measure has earned the right to become a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, but by present rule, he may not have that title because he happens to have an administrative stipend.  Provost McGrath encourages our SUNY representatives on the SUNY Faculty Senate that the next time any discussions like this come up (in his view) is that you should argue against them.  If you want to take this to a logical extreme, it means that no chair should be able to be a Distinguished Teaching Professor because they are receiving a chair’s stipend.

Ram Srivastav and Kane Gillespie understood that there is a 10-year span required in between the time you get one Distinguished Professor title and another.  Kane believes that there is discussion to lower that span to three-years.

VII.  Senate President’s Report (B. Lane)

  • Norman Goodman is resting at home and is getting better
  • The Coordinating Council has met and has great membership and the committees are operating very well
  • Please visit our new website (thanks to Aimee De Chambeau, who did a wonderful job setting up the website).  It contains links to the committees as well as links to committee briefs, minutes of meetings, archives, etc. 
  • Please attend commencement.  It makes a difference to the students. 

Meeting adjourned.

Minutes submitted by,

Laurie Theobalt
Senate Secretary