PresidentSexual Assault Prevention Training

Several students expressed concerns about the sexual assault prevention training at the last assembly meeting. Caitlin and I met with Chantelle Cleary to discuss these concerns. We have made tentative plans to hold a final makeup training session in February (information to follow, on the listserv). More importantly, we have communicated your substantive concerns to Chantelle and we will be working with her office to schedule adequate training for graduate students from this point forward. I thank you all for your input on this important subject.

Public Engagement Council

The Public Engagement Council met in October and have just come out with several working groups for which we are going to have input and membership. Our Vice President, Public Relations Director, and myself have identified potential candidates already, but if students are interested in being involved in one of these working groups, please let me know. The list of working groups and their chair follow:

- Scholarship – Phil Nasca-          Data & Assessment – Bob Bangert-Drowns & Bruce Szelest-          Institutional Engagement/Big Projects – David Rousseau & Mike Christakis-          Communications – Lee Serravillo & Karl Luntta-          Carnegie Preparation – Darrell Wheeler & Sue Faerman

Ban the Box

Please attend the Ban the Box Ted talk and panel discussion on December 2 (see the Programming report for more details). This has been a major GSA initiative and we hope to work up a resolution for the Spring SUNYSA conference on this topic. The resolution will urge SUNY to ban the box from their applications. We can only do this with student support and a huge turnout would be an important start.

Vice PresidentFollowed-up about NAGPS National Conference with attendees and they are still working on their report. It will be posted with the February meeting documents (Strategic Plan).

Began developing the RGSO Training for the Spring (Strategic Plan). Here is a brief outline of the plan:

Two RGSO Training sessions will be the same as the fall training. This is for new groups and any groups that change presidents/treasurers.

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Two RGSO Training sessions will be a more leadership training with a budget planning and niche analysis component to help us as an organization understand where our strengths and weaknesses lie within our RGSOs and sub-organizations.

Please have your president/treasurer contact me about whether they prefer to have training be the first few weeks of classes or the week before classes start in January.

RGSO Review Sub-Committee

Reviewed 1 additional request: Ed-Psych $100 for Data Blitz Event for food, drinks, and papergoods

The committee had a meeting to discuss Assembly representation and the proposal will be discussed tonight. Since the guidelines for representation are in the Constitution Article IV, Section 2 (something I forgot/overlooked when trying to put them in the Guidelines), any changes must be passed by the Assembly and then pass in the next student wide election.

NAGPS Sub-Committee (Strategic Plan) We got no feedback from anyone except from one person saying they thought the e-board

should be the decision making body. We met and discussed this possibility. The committees proposal is in the meeting documents and will be discussed late in the

meeting for a vote.

NAGPS Ourtreach (Strategic Plan) E-mailed the NAGPS Regional Chair about him attending SUNY SA in the spring and

presenting a workshop. He or another member will attend. We are also working on collaborating to grow the Northeast Region membership and

increase the number of NYS schools through a letter campaign. We jointly are working on writing a letter to send to schools in the region

Attended SUNY SA (Strategic Plan) I served as our second delegate along with Ben Mielenz instead of attending workshops,

since our president had a family emergency. There was lively discussion about many resolutions on topics such as sustainability, loans

(which Ben successfully amended to include reunifying grad and undergrad rates), and bylaws changes. Some passed while others were referred back to committee for edits and to be brought up again in the Spring.

Ben was elected to be a graduate rep and I will work to support his outreach to graduate schools to encourage their attendance. There were only 4 graduate students from 3 schools at this conference when we have 13 graduate votes in the SUNY Assembly.

I will be applying to be the SUNY SA Parliamentarian and Director of Rules. Elections for SUNY SA officers and representatives will take place at the Spring

Conference in Saratoga Springs. I encourage you too consider running for a position.

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State LAD to be held in the spring The e-board supported my proposal for us to hold a State Legislative Action Day in the

Spring. We will pick a day to have students meet with legislators and have a 1-day training the weekend before.

We will train you on the issues and how to lobby/have the meeting. The issues we plan to address: SUNY funding, the fracking pipeline that could go in in

NYS to transport natural gas, and Ban the Box. E-mail gsavp@albany.edu if you are interested.

University Libraries Student Board Report: 11-16-15Discussed the Reference Resources in the Libraries

PAWS – you can usually get a next day appointment Reference Librarians Chat Service 24/7 They want to get the word out about things and the group suggested flyers, FB, sending

information to the GSA listserv and quad directors Science Library reference is for everyone not just science questions

Discussion of changing the food policy: Current Policy: The consumption of non-alcoholic beverages in covered containers is

permitted in the University at Albany Libraries except in areas where “No Beverages Allowed” signs are posted. The consumption of snack-size food is permitted only in designated areas. Full meals, food deliveries, food parties and group meals are prohibited. 

Revised Policy (under consideration):The consumption of non-alcoholic beverages in covered containers is permitted in the University at Albany Libraries. The consumption of snack-size food is also allowed. Full meals, food deliveries, food parties and group meals are prohibited.

Food and beverages are prohibited in the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives.

They are also reviewing a report that recommends several changes to our loan periods, including eliminating the distinction between masters and PhD students. They want to get feedback from a wider group before implementing. They plan to implement a change in the loan periods by summer 2016. They are also looking into a task force to investigate longer hours during intersessions and the summer to fit better with graduate student library needs.   

TreasurerBudget as of 11/24/15

GSA ACCOUNT BALANCES & REPORT SUMMARY

Expected Revenue 2014-15 $165,000.00Carry-over from 2013-14 $122,000.89Total Expected Revenue $287,000.89Total Allocated $258,164.00

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Total Unallocated $28,836.89

Total Deposits $122,000.89Total Paid $29,488.99Adjustments: See attached Sheet $0.00Actual Account Balance $92,511.90Expected Account Balance $257,511.90

BUDGET SUMMARY

Amount AmountAllocated Paid Balance

SERVICESRoom Reservations $1,000.00 $0.00 $1,000.00RGSO Awards $40,000.00 $1,290.64 $38,709.36Grant Awards $45,000.00 $0.00 $45,000.00Contingency Budget (at 5% of projected revenue)

$8,250.00 $0.00 $8,250.00

GSA Welcome/ End Year Events $4,000.00 $337.67 $3,662.33Allocated from Previous Fiscal Year $15,814.00 $6,677.22 $9,136.78Food Pantry $5,000.00 $0.00 $5,000.00OPERATIONSContractual Goods and ServicesLiability and Theft Insurance $2,000.00 $0.00 $2,000.00Printer Contract/ Lease $17,000.00 $3,874.87 $13,125.13Non-contractual CostsPaper $5,000.00 $0.00 $5,000.00Office Supplies/Expenses $1,000.00 $593.26 $406.74Phone and Fax $100.00 $0.00 $100.00Water $1,000.00 $125.40 $874.60Officer StipendsStipend-President $4,500.00 $1,125.00 $3,375.00Stipend-Vice President $3,500.00 $875.20 $2,624.80Stipend-Treasurer $3,500.00 $875.20 $2,624.80Stipend-MCAA Chair $3,000.00 $750.00 $2,250.00Stipend-Programming Chair $3,000.00 $0.00 $3,000.00Stipend-Grants Chair $3,000.00 $750.00 $2,250.00Stipend-Lead Senator $1,000.00 $0.00 $1,000.00Stipend-Senators $1,500.00 $0.00 $1,500.00Stipend-University Council Representative $200.00 $0.00 $200.00Stipend-Assembly Speaker $500.00 $0.00 $500.00Stipend-Assembly Secretary $500.00 $0.00 $500.00Stipend-Judicial Board $2,500.00 $0.00 $2,500.00Stipend-Senate Council Representatives $3,500.00 $0.00 $3,500.00

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Administrative SupportOffice Managers $20,000.00 $4,672.81 $15,327.19Public Relation Manger $2,500.00 $0.00 $2,500.00Parliamentarian $800.00 $500.00 $300.00PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTNAGPS $16,000.00 $6,626.36 $9,373.64Strategic Plan Funding- President $6,000.00 $166.99 $5,833.01Strategic Plan Funding- MCAA Chair $3,000.00 $0.00 $3,000.00Strategic Plan Funding-Programming $13,000.00 $248.37 $12,751.63Strategic Plan Funding- Vice President $1,500.00 $0.00 $1,500.00INVESTMENTFuture Technology Purchases (Printer for Uptown)

$20,000.00 $0.00 $20,000.00

Note#1We have to create another line for Payroll Expenses. We always pay employer portion tax expenses but we never show in the report. Those expenses are material and should be separately listed. Last year, we paid around $3245 for tax expenses. I think, we should allocate around $3500. I came up this amount based on the previous expenses and current wages. Above amount is best estimates and it may vary by the end of year little bit.

Equity and Inclusion ChairNothing new to report

Programming ChairEvents in November

Two programs have been provided in the past month. The first was the Social Permaculture program with Lisa DePiano. The event went quite well with 17 participants representing Philosophy, Sustainability, and Ed Psych RGSOs as well as reps from the E-board, Senate team, Judicial board, International Student and Scholar Services, RGSO committee, Programming/public relations Committee, GSA Office staff, Office of Sustainability, the GSA Assembly, and GSEU. Niche analyses were carried out to determine each groups resources, needs, behaviors, obstacles, and yields. Those that participated indicated that the program was helpful and reflective. We plan to replicate this program in the future for RGSOs and may bring in Lisa DePiano to the diversity conference that the EI committee is planning for the Spring. Another product of the program is the development of a “mind map” of the GSA network to help us identify where collaborations can occur to meet the needs of many groups at once. Once finished, we will be adding this map to our website and continually updating it. We also plan on creating a page on the website that includes each RGSO’s information (mission/goals) to make this information easily accessible and promote collaboration between groups as well as knowledge sharing.

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The second program was the Call Congress day on November 18. We had a good amount of participation with 37 calls targeting Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Rep. Paul Tonko. 37 calls were made out of the office. 15 of those calls were to Tonko’s office, 12 to Gillibrand’s, and 10 to Schumer’s. We reached our goal of 10 calls per hour. I would like to thank everyone that participated!Upcoming Events

Wednesday, December 2 from 6-8:30pm we will be showing a Ted Talk by Brian Stevenson on mass incarceration followed by a panel discussion on the Ban the Box campaign which is an international campaign by civil rights groups and advocates for ex-offenders, aimed at persuading employers to remove from their hiring applications the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record. Pizza will be provided!Other notes

I am currently working on collaborating with the Office of Graduate Education to host a graduate finance planning seminar, which would be open to all graduate students. We might incorporate it into the spring GSA orientation. This is in the beginning stages and therefore I do not have much detail on what the program is going to look like. Topics span from budgeting, taxes, debt, compound interest, saving, investing, retirement, trainee funds etc. If there are any particular aspects of graduate student finance that you would like to hear or learn about, please email me at GSAprog@albany.edu.

Grants ChairTwo brief notes comprise the Grants report for November.

First, if you have received an award letter for Fall 2015, please email your reimbursement information to gsagrant@albany.edu.

Second, the forms for the Spring 2016 funding period will be made available on MyInvolvement by December 1st. If you are interested in applying for grant opportunities in the Spring 2016 period, please upload the appropriate files to MyInvolvement by January 31st, 2016.

Lead SenatorGreetings everyone!

So November was a pretty quiet month for the Advocacy Team and we’ll have several meetings to report on that are happening in December that will be sent out in a separate Semester-long report of all meetings from the semester once I’ve received them all, rather than waiting until February to report on business from early December.

Spring is looking to be a fair bit more busy. We are hoping that now that everyone has had a month to digest the proposed handbook for the Advocacy Team that we’ll be able to vote on it – please keep in mind that not all of the proposed changes can actually be accounted for via the handbook, several things will need to be discussed as going on the ballot for constitutional changes and a few others will need to become bylaws changes that we would hope to bring to the assembly in January and February respectively. Most of what can be passed is regarding attendance and reporting requirements – which at the end of the day are actually the most important pieces of the handbook as that actually mandates that

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these activities happen, when currently there is no written requirement in any of our governing documents.

With changing schedules there is always some upheaval in participation between Fall and Spring. We are definitely looking for a new Council Rep to sit on ULC (University Life Council), but if you’re interested in participating as a Council Rep or Senator please contact me by the first week of January – right now we’re running short on people who can step up should anyone need to step down and with changing schedules semester to semester its always good to have a few back-ups who are ready and willing!

Hanna Marie Pageau

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Senate Addendum[US] University SenateBob Beach {S/President}, Hanna Marie Pageau {LS}, Tiffany Charles {S}, Henry Curtis {S}, Nakissa Jahanbani {S}

November 16thReport

A. SUNY Senators’ Report - John Schmidt Diversity Plenary UA in the University Center Sector SUNY Excels standards Improvement funds that just went into SUNY Central – will hear back by the end of

the year Awaiting approval by SUNY Board of Trustees Shared Governance and Faculty Consultation Question from audience about what “diversity” constitutes Varies from campus to campus

o Emphasis on race and ethnicity (also emphasis by US government), but in plentary, tried to address in broadest way possible

Workshop on “information and knowledge sharing” Question regarding expansion of degrees and certificates (per SUNY Chancellor)

o Discussed by SUNY-wide Provost Cartright (pg. 2 of SUNY Advocacy and Budget Process)

o Wanted to invent certificates (because adds to numbers) o Goal: 93,000 more students, and have 21,000 more from increased retention

(and 80,000 students in online courses) No talk of more funds to go into this

Difficult already to have good relationships with students o Academic value/success – why these certificates and programs (besides

increase enrollment)?

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One hand, prepare students for jobs (and be competitive with other universities to prepare students as a short-term training need)

Western European countries, more percentage of people have a BA, but US is falling

B. Graduate Student Organization Report – Hanna Marie Pageau, Lead Senator Call Congress is November 18 Grads Have Debt Too Orientation Campus Expansion NAGPS National Conference attendance

o Won the Northeast Member School of the Year Award Leadership Summit over the Summer

C. Student Association Report – Julia A., Senator SA to join EOP to revive Perkins loan SA Fireside Chats SA Town Hall President’s Council Opening

o November 19 from 5 pm to 65 pm in University Art Museum

D. Council/Committee Chair Reports: CAA – James Mower, Chair CAFFECoR – Carol Jewell, Chair

o Not here CERS – Michael Jerison, Chair

o Nothing to add COR – Daniele Fabris, Chair CPCA – Lynn Warner, Chair

o Not here GAC – Ronald Toseland, Chair

o Two degrees pending at this Senate meeting GOV – James Collins, Chair

o In last meeting, looked at issue of administrative review and evaluation by the Senate

o Instead of suggested form of action, asks Senate members ask departments what they think about the issue of Senate evaluation (responses to jcollins@albany.edu)

LISC – David Mamorella, Chair UAC – Karen Kiorpes and Christy Smith, Co-Chairs

o Simulation course of CEHC o Etc.

ULC – Michael Jaromin, Chair o Rescheduling meeting

UPPC –Joette Stefl-Mabry, Chair o Nothing to add

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Approval of Changes in Council Memberships Approval of some undergraduate members and other new members

New Business Senate Bill 1516-01: PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A MASTER OF SCIENCE (M.S.)

PROGRAM IN COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY o Introduced by: GAC and UPPC o School of Education’s Counseling Psychology o Modeled on CAS’s Clinical Psychology program (which has embedded

Master’s) o This is a trend across the country o Not to enroll any new students o Additional resources or administrative burden: just faculty time o Would entail a capstone project (clinical data, empirical support, case study)

and the approval of two faculty members Unfeasible to add a Master’s thesis at this point, given the faculty time

(can’t add the burden of a Master’s thesis to the faculty now) Students can’t apply to national internships or get a job with a

Master’s Is this common for other universities? – yes This is not a terminal Master’s degree – 60 credits, 18 months,

comprehensive exam and no written thesis What if students left with just this Master’s – would they be

comparable to MA in other programs? – yes o Proposal passes

Senate Bill 1516-02: PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A B.A. ENGLISH/M.A. LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM

Introduced by: GAC, UAC, UPPC Charles Sheppardson, Director of Liberal Studies program Background

o Has run in the university for quite a long time o Open for students to explore any course in any department

Not particularly well-advised, students falling out of the program o Concentrated in Social Sciences and Humanities

Also focus of this program’s intellectual core Help students go on to a doctoral degree

o Liberal Studies MA programs are fastest growing in the country, scattered across universities, courses taught by irregular faculty members

o Cultivated interest across departments – Philosophy, LACS, History, Poli Sci, English, Anthropology, Music, Sociology

Interdiscplinary research on salient subjects: globalization, human rights, gender studies, etc.

Have this program serve as an engine for recruitment of international students

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o Students from China, Japan, Germany, UK, S. Korea, Taiwan, Iran, Jordan o UA been recognized by other universities

Recruit from pool of turned down Liberal Studies, PhD The present proposal to recruit undergraduates to keep for an additional year at

UAlbany Modeled on BA/MA program in English department BA English/MA Liberal Studies good prep for law school Is a similar program present at other universities? Don’t require the GRE for this program – because students apply in their Junior year

– based on GPA, writing sample, letters of recommendation Cultivated, individualized letters for recruitment Hopes faculty in other departments would do the same thing Would students only take classes in participating programs? VOTE FAILED, DUE TO LACK OF QUARUM

Future MeetingsDecember 7th

[CAA] Council on Academic AssessmentHenry Curtis {S}

October 2nd, 2015Report

Future MeetingsTBA – Once a Month; Fridays

[CoR] Council on ResearchHanna Marie Pageau {LS}, Emilia Pawlowski {CR}

November 12th, 2015Report

1. Due to a health emergency, the CoR report for November 12th will be included in the Fall Semester update that will come out as soon as all Fall reports are in.

Future MeetingsDecember 21st

[GAC] Graduate Academic CouncilTiffany Charles {S}, Rebecca Prince {CR}, Cristina Herrera {CR}

November 16th 2015 Report {RP, CH}

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1. Consideration of the minutes of the GAC meeting of October 19, 2015 (draft attached) minutes reviewed minutes approved

2. Dean’s Report – Graduate Dean Kevin Williams Reference: Graduate Stipend Committee Report -

http://www.albany.edu/academics/files/Report_of_the_Graduate_Stipend_Committee_final_draft_070615.pdf

recommendations only right now, no decisions on what will happen as a result 6-7 months project, report done in July and recently released campus wide look at the competitive stipends for graduate students students across campus met with the president and other faculty to discuss how to

address a stipend that is more competitive 8 recommendations and different priorities from different departments humanities felt at a disadvantage focus on the length of funding, some on the stipend side shifting students to grant funding adequate progress stipend can be increased by a year, longer funding minimum to 15,000 from 13,000 fields are different for competitive stipends recommendations: external funding and increase external funding students getting external funding has increased and the university wants to

improve that further some funding to put some of the recommendation into place for 2016 departments will decide later on whether extending the length of funding or

increasing stipends will take a couple of years to be at the level the University wants to be

2a. Dean’s Report – Vice Dean Jon Bartow BA/MA Policy Clarification/Correction

consider undergraduate until 12 graduate level credits are completed one event initiated the edits to the policy, complete up to 12 credits can enroll but billing will start until 12 credit is completed, go over the 12 credit the

University will bill at the graduate level language correction in the policy avoid counting student twice for graduate and undergraduate

3. Chair’s Report – Professor Ronald Toseland no report

4. Committee memberships and chairs (updated roster attached) updated list of committees chairs for all committees now

5. Committee on Curriculum & Instruction Report (forthcoming) report presented by subcommittee chair November 9th meeting reviewed the political science PhD proposal small changes, clarification of language needed approved updated proposal after languages were addressed Online learning and teaching certificate proposal: added a course to the core requirements students have more flexibility for the classes

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approved by committee approved changes by GAC committee for reports from subcommittee and

recommendations were passed by the committee 6. New Business 6a. Proposal to establish a Graduate Certificate Program in TESOL Online (previously distributed; attached afresh)

people to explain the proposal will attend meeting at 2pm, later than our meeting ends program was explained by GAC chair Dr. Toseland adding online program UAlbany would be the only one to offer online certificate program extend their eligibility for teaching certification in NYS to teach English as a second

language certification is every two years, provides a way for working teachers to get the certificate

while still working proposed to established an advanced certificate program courses are already being taught at the masters level option to make courses online for the certificate program only issue before was the field work: requiring student teaching, but it will not be

required as the eligibility is that the student has to be a certified teacher professors presenting the proposal

approved by the committee as it is authored, no need for clarification

Future MeetingsDecember 7th

[GOV] Governance CouncilCaitlin Janiszewski {CR/Proxy}

October 12thReport

1. Chair’s Report - 1- Been doing research to find more information about the charter amendments proposed / inquiring about and checking Senate documents on the website. 2- During meetings with leadership ombudsperson came up. During last meeting with Chief of Staff and Provost they had a very different concept of representation. Who leads development of College of Engineering? Who really brokers Albany law rearrangement? Who decides on strategic planning? We are told after they happen. Law school had a strategic working team, team for series of grants (excels or compact?). Faculty consultation is having a faculty member on one of these things. But our bylaws says we have rights and responsibilities and powers and that those powers are vested in us. We are responsible. So we are constantly going back for a consultation process. Dean of Engineering now hearing from us in this regard. We will continue to apprise the admin of that fact that we did not feel we had formal consultation during last strategic planning process. We are told that there will be with the next. We should see CARE stuff in context of the effort to redefine or reestablish governance. A lot of the work will come to us. If we really want a say in these things - GOV makes the nominations and/or approves them. Public engagement. We are responsible for these things. Its easier to just reach out to someone.

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But thats not part of consultation process. (We should encourage Senate team to write for the newsletter).

2. CPCA is also looking at ombudsperson proposal

3. Cynthia referred the issue of nominations to the engaged scholarship working group.

4. Committee Reports

Assessment - report from Karin - my contribution is that we are trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone but its just not feasible. We could use 2 stones if we wanted.

b. Liaison - subcommittee met - working to accomplish: clarifying role of Senate, establish who we are, what we stand for - and in doing so people will come to understand our limitations and what we can do for them. They did some research on how different universities discuss themselves on their websites. Many quote there own bylaws. thinking of doing that and connecting it to the concept of shared governance. This is in the same vein as Senators reporting back to departments. At the moment also doing a straightforward faculty handbook update. Nothing that innovative just basic. Also working on figuring out a listserv for reaching contingent faculty. hoping to develop an algorithm to always be updating that listserv. Want to expand the relationship of the senate within and outside the university. want to establish a fundraiser during holiday season for the local foodbank. I mentioned that this can be an opportunity for the Senate to weigh in on the food pantry idea.

5. Old Business:

CAA: Academic Program Review Committee - student programs like credential programs or undergraduate majors or certain graduate programs - its brief? All of this will be posted into a folder and we can decide whether to go ahead and change the language or not. Jim Mower really doesn't know how things work so Joel Bloom was asked.

UAC: Appellate Subcommittee on Academic Standing - turns out that we have been chasing a rumor. Could not find a charter proposal? Chair of that committee as well as Catherine Winchester decided to leave the UAC subcommittee on admissions and standing. We don't have to respond to this. FIND YAGELSKI'S note and make sure we revisit it.

CARE: Council on Administrative Review & Evaluation [John Schmidt, visitor] - John Smidt - story of this getting killed and then the discussion about how we would go forward and an education process to do this??? 5 year schedule for administrative evaluation. First step is the spread the word so its not done in a flash. Another step for education could be a forum or workshop or town hall...

Workshop or information sessions on sustainability as principle in UA undergraduate education: Refer to Liaison? Or should we resurrect information sessions on this topic? Go to UAC? Next steps? Try to get a gen ed or try to get an attribute assigned? Yenisel - Mary Ellen - Caitlin going to meet.

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Senate Website: What must be posted? there is a minimum specification of what we must post - minutes, schedule and agenda of meetings. Nancy Lauricella doesn't think there is a rule about posting and the question remains open. Governance can make the decision. we don't have to post the UAC subcommittee names.

5. New Business

Proposal for University Ombudsperson: UUP - ad hoc committee to ask Bret more for question and write a resolution on this. check CPCA.

nominees for engaged scholarship working group - think about this and he will email us about it. He will forward an email which describes it. As we say - we need to be involved - they will keep asking us for input. We need to develop quick mechanisms for getting people on these bodies.

Future Meetings

[LISC] Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing MeetingCathleen Green {CR}

November 23rd, 2015 Report

Summary:

Biggest agenda items were the reports from Carole Sweeton (Interim CIO, ITS) and Rebecca Mugridge (Interim Dean, Libraries). There was also a presentation on Scholars Archive, our institutional repository. The next LISC meeting is to be February 1, 2016.

ITS Report – Carole Sweeton (Interim CIO):

AV is being finished in the new Information Technology Building (ITB) ITS has filled many vacant positions over the past few months, including:

o Associate Director for Networking o Enterprise applications has hired several Solutions Specialists, specifically within

business, teaching and learning, and administration. o Database Administrator o Network Analysts and Systems Managers

Still open are positions as Help Desk Analyst, Telephone Service Center Desk, and Solutions Analyst, plus a few others…

The search for the new CIO is now in President Jones’ hands, and the announcement was originally supposed to be out by Thanksgiving, so stay posted!

ITS is getting ready to roll out OneDrive for Business groups, where faculty/students/staff can apply to share documents amongst groups

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Libraries Report – Rebecca Mugridge (Interim Dean of Libraries)

Libraries is also busy filling vacant positions, as they are down 12 positions due to retirements and people leaving

The goal is to perform 2 searches per month for the next several months, the libraries are not on the same time frame as academia to hire before semesters

In December, the searches will be for the Reference Librarian and Interactive Media Center Support Specialist position

There are two pending retirements in the collections development, one in June and one at any time, these positions are looking to be filled right away since they require experts in the field and the library does not want someone who is not an expert making decisions for too long

Report from the Student Advisory Board is that the 24/7 reference service is very popular amongst students

The Conversations in Standish are events to highlight faculty research, if you have anyone you’d like to suggest, contact Rebecca

Office of Campus Planning is looking at the main library as “swing space” for people in the old business building while it is renovated.

The proposed plan is to move books from the 3rd floor to the Science Library in closed stacks – essentially storage – which means no browsing and if you need a book, it would be next day service since someone has to go retrieve it. The books on the 3rd floor are many humanities subjects, anthropology, philosophy, music, art…etc. They are trying to come up with alternatives since many on the committee expressed need to access the materials for research.

David Mamorella, LISC chair, then asked the committee for any suggestions or questions for the Senate Executive Meetings to bring up with the Provost or President. If you have any, tell me, and I’ll pass them along to David. Several committee members brought up the fact that the votes are always towards the end of the meeting and people are leaving because its over time, so is there any way they can move voting agenda items to the beginning of the meeting when they have quorum.

Lindsay von Berkom gave an overview on Scholars Archive, which launched in October of 2014.

This is our institutional repository for papers, books, data, or presentations It is OPEN ACCESS, which gives intellectual freedom, allows for wide dissemination of

research, and often can meet government grant requirements. UAlbany feels this is a good initiative to get greater visibility of our research and

research of our institution, as well as a deeper engagement in research What is it? It is essentially a place to sore and share scholarly information and to provide

access, with the ultimate goal of moving away from expensive, private publishing companies.

You can submit your own work or you can submit your CV to the librarian and they will upload your documents for you and check copyright issues

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Interested in starting a journal? (Should we start a graduate student research journal :P) They will help you, just let them know!

I suggested they try and sell this idea more to graduate students. This presentation in particular, and the one I heard last year at a LISC meeting, was heavily targeted at faculty. I told them that graduate students are more prone to change and also tend to care more about these types issues. Rebecca Mugridge said it advice they would take seriously, and they may be interested in giving a small presentation at a GSA assembly meeting, if that’s ok.

Future Meetings

[SEC] Senate Executive Committee MeetingBob Beach {S/President}

November 30th, 2015 Report

The November 30th report will be included in the Fall Semester report that will be sent out once all reports are in. Caitlin Janiszewski attended in lieu of Bob Beach, as he had to step down as President and Kat Slye – our new President – was unavailable due to the short notice.

[UAC] Undergraduate Academic CouncilDerek Ellis {CR}

November 10th, 2015Report1. Discussion by Rick Fogarty of the submitted competency plan for Geography. Will work on some more questions for the department and send those back for feedback.

2. Discussion and approval of the change of some working in the undergraduate bulletin for the BA/MA program definitions. Nothing is changing to the program- we are just making it more clear in general (Ex. When a student has to pay grad tuition vs. undergrad tuition. It's an "all or nothing" sort of thing. You either pay full undergrad prices or full grad prices.)

3. Discussion of the submitted syllabus for the winter course from the College of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Will send back some questions including more clarification about what would happen with the travel plans in the event of a winter storm.

December 1st, 2015Report

The December 1st report will be included in the Fall Semester report that will be sent out once all reports are in.

Future Meetings

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December 1st

[ULC] University Life CouncilYueyue Wang {CR}Unknown

ULC has only met once and the Council Representative is being replaced for the Spring Semester – interested parties should contact that GSA Lead Senator and President (gsalead@albany.edu & gsapresident@albany.edu)

[UPPC] University Planning and Policy CouncilNakissa Jahanbani {S}

October 21st, 2015Report

Nakissa is still awaiting the minutes after being unable to attend due to a medical procedure.

November 24th, 2015Report

I. Overview

During this meeting, we heard:

Update on the Contingent Report Proposal of an online TESOL graduate certificate In other news:

o A discussion of public-private partnerships, with an emphasis on the ongoing affiliation with Albany Law School

o Discussion of faculty and university-wide diversity o Future plans for the East Campus and Downtown Campus o Population of the UPPC subcommittees

Unfinished business – revision of the Campus Impact Statement Form

II. Update on the Contingent Report

The Contingent Report will be sent out in the very near future. It includes provisions for a small committee to hold the Provost’s office to the recommendations set in the report. There is a recommendation to put courses taught by contingents online and for them to do two courses instead of one. A similar committee is not present in the GTA Stipends Report, however. Leanne Wirkkula (Chief of Staff in the President’s Office) and Provost James Stellar will lead this process and consult the University Senate, but this is an area that the GSA should maintain involvement.

III. Proposal of a TESOL online graduate certificate program

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In New Business, Istvan Kecskes and Christy Smith of the School of Education proposed to establish a new TESOL online graduate certificate program. A couple issues rested in first distance orientation opportunities and second enrollment numbers. They noted they were not sure of enrollment numbers because online is different from campus programs so it would be hard to predict. One person suggested that we could do this program in traditional format not just online. However, an online platform is more flexible for already certified teachers and these courses are already available online. This is a secondary certification and not a teaching certification. The Provost’s office (Peter Shea) will be working on promoting online learning, and their application did not reflect that they would work with their office for advertising. The Council made a number of recommendations and all were in favor of the proposal (with an undergraduate abstention).

IV. Other News

Public-Private Partnerships

o The affiliation with Albany Law School is ongoing. The law school’s new dean was just inaugurated. As a reminder, this will be a public-private partnership. There was discussion of possibly entering a similar partnership with Albany Medical School, which is another private institution. This is part of an overall emphasis on “cradle to career” tracks, utilizing local resources. Other possibilities include partnership with SUNY Albany’s engineering school as well as a community college program that leads to a Master’s degree. There was some disillusionment as “words get thrown around” regarding “mergers”, “affiliations”, “collaborations”, etc. without first asking ourselves what this relationship is and what it would entail.

Diversity on Campus

o A note about faculty diversity – dialogues about faculty diversity and university-wide diversity in general are ongoing with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI). There was a comment about diverse faculty searches not being advertised well?

East Campus

o Regarding East Campus revisions, Laura Schweitzer nodded towards not wanting the CNSE model occurring on this campus. There is an emphasis to reconfigure SUNY as an “applied learning school”; companies and universities need to understand each other because we work at different speeds.

Downtown Campus

o There is a focus on utilizing the downtown campus as a strategic point for public engagement. There will be some relocation of public engagement personnel to the downtown campus and synergize with Albany Promise.

UPPC Subcommittees

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o There is discussion of populating the UPPC subcommittees, the Resource Analysis and Planning Committee and the University Facilities Committee. The Council emphasized that UPPC as a whole has a certain view on these issues but the subcommittee has a different view.

V. Unfinished Business

In Unfinished Business, there is still consideration of a revision of the Campus Impact Statement Form.

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