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Agenda
University Senate
May 2, 2016

I. Approval of tentative agenda
II. Approval of minutes from April 4, 2016
III. President’s Report (F. Walter)
IV. Report from President Stanley (S. Stanley)
V. Report from the Provost (D. Assanis)
VI. University Senate Awards (F. Walter)
VII. Report from the New Chief Information Officer (M. Woo)
VIII. Report from Vice President for Communications and Marketing and Chief Communications Officer about the “Far Beyond” Campaign (N. Scibetta)
X. UUP Report (C. Gizzi, K. Moriarty)
XI. Old Business
XII. New Business


University Senate
Meeting
April 4, 2016

I. Approval of agenda: approved.

II. Approval of minutes from March 7, 2016: approved.

J. Sanders: I think that in your very fair presentation you underplayed the President’s attempt to intimidate faculty by intimidating their Deans and I think that should be so noted.
E. Feldman: Your comments are noted, although this wasn’t part of our discussion at the Senate meeting. The minutes should reflect what was actually said.
J. Sanders: There are allusions to the discussion but I think that is an important element that we be cognizant of because there may be other Senators who are more susceptible then some of us to being pressured through their Deans through the attempts at intimidation by President Stanley.
E. Feldman: Duly noted. The body should know that I met individually with President Stanley in order to talk about openness at Senate meetings without fear of retribution.

III. President’s Report (E. Feldman)

  • I learned of the recent unexpected death of a staff member who had only joined the University in January. I’ve asked Dallas Bauman to give an update on this employee. D. Bauman: Sara joined at the end of January as residence hall director of Hendrix College in Roth Quad having attended the University of Central Missouri where she earned her B.S. in History and having completed her Masters in counseling at Kansas State. She had over nine years of experience in higher education. She also spend several years working for AmeriCorps and was passionate about service learning. During her time here she was a member of the professional development within residential programs. She also coordinated the Environmental Studies Academy. She made quite an impact in such a short amount of time.

E. Feldman: Can I ask the Senate please to have a moment of silence in honor of the loss of Sara.

  • The May meeting will be dedicated to Senate Awards for outstanding service on a standing committee.
  • As part of our by-laws, but it’s also a part of my desire to have a closer working relationship between out twelve standing committees and the University senate, so once a year we have a retreat where all the chairs meet with the Executive Committee and we did this on Friday with Provost Assanis as the keynote speaker. We spent a hald day discussing the work of each of these committees. It was a very sophisticated exchange among the committee chairs about agenda items so that we could better coordinate the work of the standing committees with other committees as well as with the Executive Committee. It was a very productive retreat.
  • Election of Secretary/Treasurer. There is one candidate who has been nominated and that is Kathleen Monahan who is our current Secretary/Treasurer. There was a second candidate but she withdrew. Are there any other nominations from the floor? Seeing none, I’ll call for voice vote for Kathy Monahan for the two-year position of Secretary/Treasurer of the University Senate.

Vote taken: all in favor, none opposed, no abstentions. I’ll entertain a motion to accept Kathy Monahan as Secretary/Treasurer by acclimation? J. Sanders: So moved and seconded. Those in favor of accepting Kathy Monahan as Secretary/Treasurer by acclimation, signify by saying aye. All in favor, none opposed, no abstentions. Congratulations Kathy. Any comments for the body? K. Monahan: I want to thank everyone for their vote. I love being secretary/treasurer and working with our President.

IV. President’s Report (J. Greiman)

J. Sanders: Mr. President, what percentage of the meetings has the President not been here? E. Feldman: I don’t know that information. J. Sanders: Can I inquire that we check? E. Feldman: we can have that data for you either electronically or we can talk about at the May meeting.

Budget:

  • The $155 billion budget passed recently was on time and within the 2% cap that the Governor had imposed. It includes:
  • Increase in minimum wage to $15 an hour. Slower phase in on LI particularly due to the agricultural work on the east end.
  • 12 weeks of paid family leave.
  • Personal income tax cuts for households earning less than $300,000.

SUNY funding:

  • The enacted budget does not include the Governor’s proposal to extend SUNY 2020. There will be a 1-year tuition freeze for instate undergraduate students in the coming academic year which the legislature mandated. There was no new operational money provided to meet that freeze. SUNY estimated $73 Mil across the system to back up the freeze. They essentially took an $18M Investment and Performance fund that was already in the budget and redirected it to direct campus aid.
  • The legislature eliminated the tuition authority and the 2011 maintenance of effort. There is about $260M in capital funds for the system. There is competitive funding for special projects which is going to run $55M.
  • Procurement flexibility was maintained.
  • Received $75 million for a research initiative linked to the LI Research Corridor
  • Received a re-appropriation of existing capital funds to pay for classroom and lab space at the Southampton campus.
  • Critical Maintenance: $200M statewide including $27M for Stony Brook and $50M to SB Hospital and Upstate University Hospital.
  • Athletics: Received a re-appropriation of some existing capital funds for expansion of the Stadium.
  • SB/BNL: BNL received a commitment last year to fund $65M. This budget identifies where those funds will come from.

Diversity Plan: received about 120 comments since the last Senate meeting. Broadly defined-race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability. Next step is the plan itself. The plan will come out in the beginning of May and will be framed around key goals and have a detailed implementation structure.

E. Feldman: Why did they not support the Governors recommendation for SUNY 2020 and have you and Sam figured out how this is going to impact the campus in the next year?
J. Greiman: I think the why is that people generally did not want to raise tuition. We have a gap in funding and we have to figure out how to fill it in.
J. Sanders: Is there a cap to academic excellence?
J. Greiman: There is not a legislative cap.
J. Sanders: Could you say more about the athletic capital funds expansion? Seems odd given what our priorities are.
J. Greiman: Capital expansion for athletic stadium is not new money. It was an existing capital allotment that was redirected to pay for the stadium expansion.
J. Sanders: How much money are we talking about?
J. Greiman: $24.9M.
J. Sanders: For the first time in a very long time, thanks to Bernie Sander, we are seeing a good deal of enthusiasm on campuses among young people, particularly around the issue of free public education. Might it not behoove the flagship universities to encourage, organize and spark a movement of thus engaged students, to march on Albany and give them a message about SUNY campuses instead of just relying on our politicians and Presidents of Universities who seem a little ineffectual in getting the attention of the people up in Albany?
J. Greiman: Our students worked hard on this. They were up there in force. They met with legislators as individuals and as groups.
M. Bowman: You mentioned in passing about the Campus Master Plan. The University Environment Committee has been pushing for an Environmental Campus Master Plan for a decade. There is none here.
M. Whelan: Bob Megna has already met with John Robinson and Paul Siegel. Bob has pledged to get more involved with the committee.
F. Walter: The Governor controls the state. The Chancellor is appointed and serves at the pleasure of the Governor. There is no independent body that advocates for SUNY.
N. Goodman: We do not speak up enough about what the effect is on our students and on the quality of education we provide.

V. Provost’s Report (R. Reeder)

  • The Provost has put together a task force that is focused on developing and Applied Learning campus plan which is being led by Marianne Savoca and Nancy Goroff. The Applied Learning Campus Plan Part I was submitted to SUNY in January of this year. There are three other parts (V-VII) that are being addressed. At the end of the week those committees will have drafts that they will provide to the Provost and also to the University Senate, particularly Undergraduate Council and the Graduate Council for comment. The overall goal of parts V-VII is determine if we have enough resources. We are on track at the moment.
  • Graduate is on May 20th at the LaValle Stadium. The Provost will pay for the rental of Robes for all faculty that report to the Provost.
  • April 5th is the eighth annual Teaching, Learning and Technology Colloquium which will be held in the Student Activities Center.
  • April 9th is Admitted Students Day. We will be hosting about 2,500 perspective students and their family members.

E. Feldman: Can you give us an update on the Provostial search?
R. Reeder: That is not within the area of the Provost.
J. Greiman: The Committee has met and has a final job description.
E. Feldman: The Executive Committee had input into that final position description so that reflects shared governance. I thank the President’s Office for involving governance.

V. Provost’s Report (R. Reeder)

  • The Provost has put together a task force that is focused on developing and Applied Learning campus plan which is being led by Marianne Savoca and Nancy Goroff. The Applied Learning Campus Plan Part I was submitted to SUNY in January of this year. There are three other parts (V-VII) that are being addressed. At the end of the week those committees will have drafts that they will provide to the Provost and also to the University Senate, particularly Undergraduate Council and the Graduate Council for comment. The overall goal of parts V-VII is determine if we have enough resources. We are on track at the moment.
  • Graduate is on May 20th at the LaValle Stadium. The Provost will pay for the rental of Robes for all faculty that report to the Provost.
  • April 5th is the eighth annual Teaching, Learning and Technology Colloquium which will be held in the Student Activities Center.
  • April 9th is Admitted Students Day. We will be hosting about 2,500 perspective students and their family members.

E. Feldman: Can you give us an update on the Provostial search?
R. Reeder: That is not within the area of the Provost.
J. Greiman: The Committee has met and has a final job description.
E. Feldman: The Executive Committee had input into that final position description so that reflects shared governance. I thank the President’s Office for involving governance.

VI. Open Access Policy (I. Fineberg)

  • The idea of Open Access is to encourage our faculty to comply with NIH requirements and other funding requirements to publish in an open access and to develop an open access repository here at Stony Brook. The policy has been developed and discussed quite a bit in the Research Committee. We are hoping to have a proposal for the senate to look at shortly.
  • One advantage of having publications in open access settings is that research gets more exposure and with more exposure comes more citations.
  • The repository that is being developed will be collated with google scholars.

A. Tucker: Why does Stony Brook need to spend money and resources to maintain our own repository when there is so many others out there?
I. Fineberg: I think it does give us an exposure advantage as a university. It obviously gives us control in a different way. I don’t know the requirements of other repositories in terms of who can access which.
J. Sanders: Why have a Stony Brook open access repository instead of SUNY?
I. Fineberg: I don’t know specifically what the background is for that. The work we are doing is around the policy not around the repository itself.
D. Conover: This is an opportunity for our campus to show leadership. Research universities are leading the charge.
E. Feldman: This went to the Research Committee and the Library Services and Resources Committee.

VII. UUP Report (C. Gizzi and K. Moriarty)

  • One of the more important issues has to do with supporting retirees. They are facing higher costs for health insurance. This issue is a prominent part of UUP’s 2016 legislative agenda.
  • The new West Campus UUP Chapter President, Kevin Moriarty, introduced himself. He is from the Technology and Society Department and has been working at Stony Brook for 19 years.

VIII. Old Business: no old business.

IX. New Business: no new business.

Meeting Adjourned at 5pm.

Submitted by:

Laurie Cullen
Secretary