Arts and Sciences Senate
November 23, 2009
I. Approval of agenda: approved.
II. Approval of minutes from October 19, 2009: Approved.
III. Deans Report (N. Squires)
IV. Report on IFEZ/Stony Brook Songdo (B. Lindquist)
Aimee De Chambeau: How can faculty and students become involved in the current planning process so that we can help ensure that SBU students and faculty can make the most effective use of the Korean campus?
Bent Lindquist: We have had three planning committee Task Forces working on the development: 1) an Academic TF; 2) a TF for a behind the scenes academic operations with respect to building a model of an operating campus (how do you admit, orient, bill, etc.) and 3) a TF on HR/Procurement. The way that faculty and students can become involved would be through the Academic TF. We have reached a point of planning where we are now down to the levels of individual departments.
1. Budgeting process. A financial plan has to be acceptable to the President. This financial plan requires support from the Korean Government. The Korean Government has just sent us a signal on Friday that they would be willing to underwrite our losses there with a loan for as long as we need it.
2. To ensure that we have an adequate number of programs there to make a viable offering. Because we want this to be a research campus and because the Korean Government is intensely interested in the IT world, we have been working with them to establish programs in Computer Science, Information Systems and Electrical and Computer Engineering. We are also interested in Business and Tech Systems Management programs because we do have initial programs over there with other universities.
Hugh Silverman: What would you expect an A&S Department to provide you in terms of information?
Brent Lindquist: What we are interested in doing is having our programs also presented over in South Korea. This would be an internal departmental Task Force that would ask themselves if they could deliver our program over there, in what form we would deliver it, and what resources would we deliver.” A lot of the discussions that are beginning to form in the departments who have been involved in this so far is can we be inventive in our program delivery and can we ensure that what we feel is an American experience and encapsulating of the American higher education form – can we deliver it over in South Korea.
Some ideas being tossed around:
Paul Gootenberg: It sounds to me from what you are talking about is very similar to some of the dilemmas we have been facing with Southampton. I think you really have a hard battle ahead of you in terms of recruiting faculty in A&S Departments. The reason is most of the faculty are against this from what I hear from my colleagues. They feel that this is not a good time for Stony Brook to be involved in very complicated and new expansion abroad. A lot of people in A&S feel that in the last decade we have neglected the core institution here. Our Library is a disaster, which has been officially declared so by the external review committee. Our department faculties are decimated. We have a lot of rebuilding to do here. The reality is why we are dispersing our administrative and creative energies at Stony Brook on something when we should be focusing our energies here at home.
Brent Lindquist: I can’t answer all of those issues but I can give a slightly different perspective on it. Starting a new branch campus is incredibly expensive and one of the largest expenses is the capital construction. We simply do not and never will have in any foreseeable future the resources to set up an overseas campus without an international partner. We have been presented with an opportunity. We have an overseas partner with extremely strong alumni connections who are giving us this opportunity. Chancellor Zimpher has hired a VP for International Academics, Mitch Levinthal. SUNY is definitely thinking of expanding SUNY’s international outreach.
Michael Schwartz: What is the planning structure and the basic ideas for allowing this campus to actually present a SB curriculum which would allow them to get an SB Degree. If the Planning is to be involved down to the departments, than that broader question needs to have some other planning structure and needs to involve the people who would be asked to deliver those courses.
Brent Lindquist: I went to the Undergraduate Council and asked for their assistance and I was met with a mixed reaction and so it is not clear that the Undergraduate Council will engage in that. In which case I need suggestions.
Norman Goodman (member of the Undergrad Council): The reaction was that it was not clear that there had been sufficient planning to how the DEC would be met. It wasn’t that they were not involved in it. They can’t be involved because they are not administrators, they are faculty. Faculty are there to advise and consult and to give their expertise.
Brent Lindquist: We are going to need faculty involvement in planning how to deliver DEC.
Aimee DeChambeau: The motivation for Korea was because it was an opportunity that came about to do something that we can’t normally do on our own. In terms of involvement, so far you have an academic task force and other task forces looking at different components. If individuals want to be involved in one way or another, either in building or having critical input, then you start at your department and funnel up through your department to the task force.
Brent Lindquist: It has to be at the level of departments or programs. We are struggling with how to arrange it for the DEC. The departments that are involved in this realize they can’t offer the same richness of offerings in each DEC category here that we can in Songdo. We recognize that we have to offer all DEC categories so we can work together to ensure that those DEC categories are delivered over the course of the program. They have worked out an example schedule to show that it could be done.
Aimee DeChambeau: What are the other universities working on in terms of their basic Undergraduate requirements? Are we trying to figure out some way to work with them to make transferable credits?
Brent Lindquist: That is one of the options. We are the farthest ahead in the planning. NC State is next in their planning exercise and the University of Delaware has just signed their planning grant. NC State has a list of programs they plan on delivering largely in the Biomedical areas. Each of these universities has agendas and curriculums. There has been preliminary discussion of sharing Gen Ed availability.
Aimee DeChambeau: We would need to figure out some way to work with the Undergraduate Council and maybe the Curriculum Committee here and we can work with similar entities of the other universities to try to work this out.
Brent Lindquist: We plan to open in 2011. The program delivery is going to have to be the same combination that we planned for the Major delivery. We have the opportunity for faculty here to visit Korea and teach. We have the opportunity to have adjuncts there from other Korean universities to teach. We have the opportunity to enlist the alliance universities to teach in the Gen Ed.
VI. Report on Southampton (M. Pearl)
VII. President’s Report (A. deChambeau)
VIII. Old Business: No Old Business.
IX. New Business: No New Business.
Meeting Adjourned.
Submitted by:
Laurie Theobalt
Secretary