Senate Minutes
September 11, 2006I. Fred Walter, interim Presiding Officer, presided for first three agenda items. Approval of agenda: approved
II. Election of Senate President (Dr. Bernard Lane) and Secretary (Aimee de Chambeau): approved by acclimation.
III. Approval of minutes from April 3, 2006 and May 1, 2006 - Approved
Bernard Lane: Thanked everyone for the warm welcome. There is an additional item addendum. Lawrence Martin will be discussing the 2006 SEFA/United Way campaign.
Moment of silence for the victims and SB Alumni killed on 9/11/01.
Dr. Lane mentioned the University Convocation on Sept. 20th at 4:00 and encourages you to attend.
IV. President’s Report (Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny):
The September 11th Stony Brook Memorial took place on September 9th between the Psychology building and the Humanities building at the twin towers memorial archway. It took place on Sept 9th to give Stony Brook families of alumni the chance to attend memorial services in NYC on Sept. 11th.
Enrollment as well as selectivity is going up.
We did not close on Southampton before the planned August 31st target date. Long Island University asked us to postpone it so that liens on some of the buildings could be taken care of and we hope to open by the end of this month. There are some courses being taught at Southampton including Marine Sciences, Masters program in Creative Writing (which existed before and the students finishing up are finishing up with us instead LIU) as well as some HSC classes. There will be special activities beginning this month – the Center for Wine Culture will be having wine tastings etc. We received a special 10 Mil allocation for Capital improvements—the library needs to be completed and the residence halls (self-supporting) need to be fixed up. The interim Dean of Southampton will be Martin Schoonen.
Budget issues: The budget looks promising. New faculty hires are a big priority for the Chancellor. There is increased support for research faculty through the Empire Initiative and additional general faculty through the High Needs Initiative. We received approximately 17 million to increase our faculty in cluster areas.
Our 50th anniversary is coming up in 2007. We have a number of events planned and I think the theme should be “who are we and where are we going”.
The town hall meeting on the state of the hospital with Dean Richard Fine, Interim Hospital CEO Fred Sganga and Dr. William Greene will take place right after this meeting (4:30) in the SAC Auditorium.
Alan Tucker asked Dr. Kenny about the alternative energy initiative.
Dr. Kenny: There is 35 million in capital funding to build an alternative energy center with Key Span, LIPA and other corporate entities. Yacov Shamash has been working very hard with Bob Cattel of Key Span. The funding was secured by the Senate and the LI Delegation. The building will be situated at Gyrodyne.
A new supercomputer for Stony Brook is being built for the campus community in a SB/BNL collaboration which received funding from a NYS Legislature line item of $26 million. It will be the biggest supercomputer in the world that will not be classified. It will be owned by Stony Brook and housed at BNL. Stony Brook has also acquired the Seawulf Cluster, a new supercomputer which will aid faculty researchers and graduate students processing complicated calculations at high speed.
Norman Goodman asked about hiring a permanent Dean for Southampton.
Dr. Kenny: The search will not start for a year. Martin Schoonen will be Interim Dean for two years.
V. Report on SEFA/United Way Campaign (Lawrence Martin):
Approximately $250,000 was donated by Stony Brook University faculty and staff in last year’s campaign. We would like to increase the amount this year. Please speak with your colleagues about donating to the campaign this year. There are many causes you could support.
VI. Provost’s Report (B. Lindquist):
The Undergraduate College is an effort by the Provost’s Office to provide a better undergraduate experience for students. It has been positive for the students as well as for the faculty although the coterie of faculty is still too small. The Freshman 102 Seminars are the core of the Undergraduate Colleges. Senators should support the Dean’s efforts to encourage faculty to become involved in these seminars.
Winter sessions: January 2007 will be our second winter session with classes beginning January 2nd 2007 and end January 18th 2007. We had 875 students enrolled for the three-week session. We had 46 classes available. We are continuing to build the Winter Session to address unmet demand and to assist students in fulfilling graduation requirements.
Personnel changes in the Provost’s office: Brent Lindquist and Olufemi Vaughan have joined the Provost’s Office working on a variety of matters including Academic Reviews, the Provost’s Lecture Series, Distinguished Professorships, FAHSS Initiatives, etc.
Elyce Winters has returned as Assistant Provost for Academic Administration.
There will also be a national search for a new position in the Provost’s Office: Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs. The Vice Provost will focus on continuing the improvements we have made to the way we deliver undergraduate education.
VII. Report of Senate President (B. Lane):
The Executive Committee met a few times over the summer. The Standing Committees to the University Senate are critical. It is important that faculty become involved—if you are interested and if you have something to contribute, please volunteer for a position on the Senate. We want to “revamp” the Senate website to include timely information on the agenda of each Standing Committee. You don’t have to be a member of the Senate to serve on a committee. We would also include monthly Executive Committee updates.
Joan Kuchner suggested put Senate information on the Stony Brook calendar as a means of communication. People tend to look on SB Calendar for information rather than going to individual websites.
VIII. Old Business: None
IX. New Business: None
Dr. Lane closed meeting and encouraged people to attend the Town Hall meeting in the SAC ballroom right after Senate meeting. The Library Report by Chris Filstrup and the Resolution on Smoking Ban by William Dethlefs was postponed until October 9th Senate meeting because of time constraints.
Meeting adjourned at 4:25.
Respectfully submitted by
Laurie Theobalt
Secretary