Minutes for March 4, 2009

A meeting of the University Senate was held at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, 4 March 2009, in Maxwell Auditorium.

Present were: Chancellor Cantor; Senators Abramvosky, Alston, Armstrong, Arnold, Bakke, Bhatia, Breese, Carter, Cihon, Cooper, Dobrowolski, Donovan, Dudczak, Estafan, Ferri, Greenberg, Hartmann, Heintz, Hensberry, Hollenback, Hurd, Judge, Keck, Kucharavy, Lee (K.), London, MacInnes, Marcoccia, McClure, Mohan, Murphy, O'Rourke, Reed-Huff, Rosa, Rubinstein, Rupert, Saleh, Schell, Schiff, Shane, Sherman, Smith (C.R.), Smith (C.J.), Spina, Srinivas, Stonecash, Strodel, Teres, Thorin, Tucker, Van Gulick, Van Hollen, Wadley, Ware (B.), Ware (E.), Wasylenko, Wolfe, Wright, Zubieta.

Presiding Officer: Chancellor Nancy Cantor

The Chancellor called the meeting to order, proposed that the minutes of the February 11th meeting be approved as written, and the body concurred. She called on Prof. Eileen Schell to present the report of the Agenda Committee.

Prof. Schell began her report with a motion to amend the published agenda, adding a report from the Honorary Degrees committee as item III, and renumbering the other items appropriately. The motion carried. She continued with a report of Agenda Committee activity, including mention of the ad hoc committee on sexual harassment/abuse of power, whose report they expected to receive in the next few weeks. Schell also reminded the body that the Academic Affairs committee would be bringing new wording of the tenure policy to the March 18th meeting for consideration, and called Prof. Harvey Teres to the podium to speak briefly about it. Prof. Teres told members that the committee had set up a blog [ http://susenate.wordpress.com ] so that they could interact with the Academic Affairs committee that way if they chose. Prof. Schell concluded her report with a reminder about filling out the survey on the Chancellor's performance from Office of Institutional Research (OIRA).

The Chancellor then asked all non-senators to wait outside the auditorium while the body debated and voted on the report of the Honorary Degrees committee, and asked members of the Agenda Committee to invite them back inside afterwards. She called Prof. Arthur Jensen to present the report, which included a motion to approve nomination of Vice President of the United States Joseph Biden for an honorary degree at the 2009 Commencement. A Senate member rose to object to the nomination based on rumors he had heard about the nominee as a student at SU Law College. The chair said that the College of Law had made the nomination and was satisfied with the Biden's qualifications. The motion carried.

The Chancellor called Prof. Chilikuri Mohan, to present the report of the Budget committee. Prof. Mohan began his report with recommendations of a 4.5% tuition increase, 37.8% discount rate, and a 3% salary increase for those faculty and staff earning $50,000 or less. He highlighted the main portions of the report, including: budget planning goals; background of the current financial situation; challenges for FY2010; endowment payout rate and how it is determined; student tuition; sponsored funding; steam costs. He finished by stressing the need for additional sources of funding.

The Chancellor gave a presentation which began with thanks to the Budget committee and the RCM committee for their hard work and dedication, and the body applauded. She referred Senate members to her e.mail message of that morning, and listed a few of the measures being taken, including:freezing operating budgets in administrative support units; replacing employees in critical positions only; multi-year plans for maintaining academic momentum in the colleges and schools. She said that SU had a good application pool of both first year students and transfers, that reflected the socio-economic diversity that SU had always prided itself on. Chancellor Cantor said that SU was trying to expand affordability to the middle class, stretching financial aid to include middle income students, and to think hard about the debt burden of lower income students, while still maintaining academic momentum. She said the 89 faculty searches across the colleges would be continued. The Chancellor finished with a reference to the new facilities and partnerships, such as newly-renovated Tolley and Slocum Halls, the Center of Excellence, Ernie Davis Hall, the new life sciences complex , which she said were central to SU's momentum and represented the fruits of partnerships which would bring strength and excitement to Syracuse.

In the discussion, the questions raised and comments made included:

• comment that due to the salary freeze a department chair could find himself in a position where he must tell his outstanding faculty that they got the same 0% raise as the mediocre faculty; he would rather be able to take a % from the salaries of the latter to give to the former;

• observation that such a move (as the above) would tend to build negativity in a unit, tearing apart the community; senator felt most faculty not getting raises did not feel unappreciated, but rather felt they should do their bit in the situation;

• suggestion that any extra left over at the end of theyear be doled out in merit increases;

• comment that it would more likely be put backin into programs in the colleges and schools;

• senator said that he would have preferred that the freeze be "feathered" or across-the-board because of problems that are likely to be encountered down the road, when we might think differently;

• Senate member asked whether there would still be funds for retention of faculty? [the provost said not for the time-being.]

Prior to adjournment, a Senate member rose to say that he felt SU was financially prudent, conservative and well-managed, pointing out that this was the responsibility of the administration, and made a motion to endorse the Budget committee's recommendations. The motion was seconded, and carried.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Teresa Gilman
University Senate Recorder

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