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Minutes for January 19, 2005
A meeting of the University Senate was held at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday,
19 January 2005, in Maxwell Auditorium.
Present were: Chancellor Cantor; Senators: Aiken, Alcoff, Beran, Boroujerdi, Breese, Brown (H.), Burak, Carter, Carty, Cavanagh, Cihon, Cleary, Crowston, de Berly, Dekaney, Diaz, Donovan, Druger, Flusche, Gensemer, Gilman, Glauser, Hartmann, Himes, Hogan, Horwitz, Isik, Jensen, Karpoff, Kasowitz-Scheer, Kelly (J.), Kelly (R.), Kinsey, Kornfilt, LaGay, Lederman, Legaspi, Letterman (M.), Letterman (R.), MacInnes, Mager, Marcoccia, Martin, McKay, Mitchell, Mosher, Mulconry, Murphy, O'Rourke, Pellow, Phillips, Potter, Robertson, Salatino, Saleh, Sanford, Sauer, Scherzinger, Schiff, Sellers, Spinal, Starlight, Strudel, Tankersley, Tossing, Kurtz, Van Gulick, Vidali, Wallace, Ware (B.), Ware (E.), Webber, Wells, Wilbur, Wolf, Yao.
Presiding officer: Chancellor Nancy Cantor
On motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the minutes
of the University Senate meeting of 8 December 2004, as distributed.
The Chancellor called Prof. Patrick Cihon to make the report of the Agenda Committee. Prof. Cihon read a memorial statement in tribute to the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Eric Lawson as follows:
The University Senate and the Trustees of Syracuse University join
in paying tribute to the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Eric Lawson, who
served the Syracuse University community for many years as School of
Management faculty member and department chairman, as University
senator, as a member of the University Senate-commissioned Assembly on University Governance, member and officer of AAUP.
His death on December 15, 2004 closes a distinguished career as teacher,
scholar, labor arbitrator, and historian. He will be remembered with fondness
and gratitude by his many students, colleagues and friends at Syracuse
University, as well as by the members of his family, to whom we extend
our deepest sympathy.
Prof. Cihon made a motion that these sentiments be included in the record, and the motion carried. Cihon continued his report with announcement that he would be chairing a subcommittee to review the apportionment of Senate seats and recommend any appropriate changes in the membership. He asked that anyone willing to work on this committee contact him or the Senate Recorder.
The Chancellor called Dean Eric Spina, and asked that all non-senators leave the auditorium while the body considered the report of the Committee on Honorary Degrees. She asked members of the Agenda committee to invite them back in after the vote. The Senate then approved the names listed in the report. Dean Spina told Senate members that the committee had received very few nominations, and asked for their help in finding ways of increasing nominations for next year.
The Chancellor called Prof. Mike Olivette, who presented the report of the Committee on Curricula, which included a motion to approve new courses, course changes, program changes, and drops in the College of Arts and Sciences, School
of Education, College of Visual and Performing Arts, College of Human Services and Health Professions, School of Information Studies, as well as a new minor in Social Welfare in the College of HSHP and new certificates in Civil Society Organizations, and
Leadership in International & Non-governmental Organizations, in the College of Arts and Sciences. He said that the C.A.S. in Security Studies was being withdrawn pending further consultation with the School of Information Studies, and that a proposal adding a distance learning option to the U.C. Certificate in Organizational Leadership program was being distributed from the podium. Prof. Olivette then told senators that the following corrections should be made to the report:
p. 3: REL/PHI 660 should be REL 660/PHI 640 Continental Philosophy of
Religion
p. 6: EDI 148 should read Environmental Design Issues
p. 7: TRM 701 should read TransMedia Graduate Seminar
p. 27: PHY 215, 216 should not be deleted
The motion carried.
The Chancellor called Prof. Louise Phelps, who presented the report of the Academic Affairs committee, which included a motion as follows:
The University Senate approves a change in the name of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Manufacturing Engineering (MAME) to the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), as proposed by the department and endorsed by Dean Eric Spina.
The motion carried.
The Chancellor called on Prof. Jerry Mager to present the report of the Budget committee. Prof. Mager began by pointing out that the $4.5 M deficit projected for 2005-6 represented one half of one per cent of the overall budget, that a new Responsibility Center Management (RCM) budget model was coming and would be
a shift in focus, that there was a list of items unchanged from last year on p. 3, and
on p. 4, a brief explanation of the elimination of the athletic subsidy for fiscal 2006.
The Chancellor commented that the new RCM budgeting model would serve to untie the fate of academics from the athletics budget, and that in light of the $1.9M deficit we needed to think creatively about the different funds, to think in terms of
one-time sources. For example, she said that rather than thinking in terms of the expense of "temporary structures" for the School of Architecture, which were already budgeted, that we should think rather "we're moving downtown".
In the discussion, questions raised and comments made included:
-Would the RCM model mean that units would be able to determine their
own allocations for salaries, e.g.? [Mager referred him to Mike Wasylenko,
who was chairing a subcommittee on RCM];
-question whether graduate tuition might vary, while undergraduate tuition
remained uniform? [Mager said that some units might be able to, depending
on whether they could balance expenditures with available resources.];
-How will it be possible to put a monetary value on things that have a long-term
benefit for the institution, but not a short-term one, e.g., international education?
The Chancellor commented that the RCM was only a model, that it was not a substitute for sound management and good judgment on the part of faculty, administrators and the Budget committee. She said that they would be presenting
the specifics of the model at a future meeting.
The discussion continued, with further questions, including:
-Is the subsidy for athletics cosmetic or real, and if real, will the Athletic Dept. be charged for such things as concessions and utilities, which it could not exist without?
-a senator reminded the body that the Ad Hoc Committee on Athletics would
be reporting on the Athletic Department's financing at a future meeting, and
that despite the fact that the report said that there would no longer be a
subsidy, all reports were not yet in.
-that the sooner the Senate knew more about the RCM model the better so that
it could fulfill its role in the budget process [Prof. Mager emphasized that in each unit there needed to be structures to make sure that faculty and staff had influence on how things were done, that this was more important than knowing what the metrics were.]
The Chancellor said that she saw the Budget committee's role as that of a watchdog, monitoring the process and ensuring that good decisions were consistently made.
A motion was duly made and seconded to endorse the recommendations in the Budget committee report, and the body voted to approve it.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Teresa Gilman
University Senate Recorder
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