Arts and Sciences Senate
November 23, 2009

I.  Approval of agenda:  approved.

II.  Approval of minutes from October 19, 2009:  Approved.

III.  Deans Report (N. Squires)

• Budget update:  Estimate of SBU’s share is $8M for this fiscal year (on top of a $13M deficit due to previous funding cuts) with an anticipated growth to $12M in 2010-11.  To tackle the current deficit, the college has reduced course offerings for Spring 2010 and increased offerings in the Winter and Summer sessions to reduce impact on students.
• SUNY Flex proposal for allowing variable tuition at SUNY campuses has been approved by the Board of trustees.  Next it will be considered by the Governor’s Office.
• At the Nov. 11th University Council meeting, President Stanley initiated the strategic planning process for the campus.  He estimates it will take approximately 18 months to complete. 

IV.  Report on IFEZ/Stony Brook Songdo (B. Lindquist)

Aimee De Chambeau:  How can faculty and students become involved in the current planning process so that we can help ensure that SBU students and faculty can make the most effective use of the Korean campus?

Bent Lindquist:  We have had three planning committee Task Forces working on the development:  1)  an Academic TF; 2) a TF for a behind the scenes academic operations with respect to building a model of an operating campus (how do you admit, orient, bill, etc.) and 3) a TF on HR/Procurement.  The way that faculty and students can become involved would be through the Academic TF.  We have reached a point of planning where we are now down to the levels of individual departments. 

• In order to progress on this plan for a campus, we have three hurdles to overcome:

1.  Budgeting process.  A financial plan has to be acceptable to the President.  This financial plan requires support from the Korean Government.  The Korean Government has just sent us a signal on Friday that they would be willing to underwrite our losses there with a loan for as long as we need it.  
2.  To ensure that we have an adequate number of programs there to make a viable offering.  Because we want this to be a research campus and because the Korean Government is intensely interested in the IT world, we have been working with them to establish programs in Computer Science, Information Systems and Electrical and Computer Engineering.  We are also interested in Business and Tech Systems Management programs because we do have initial programs over there with other universities.

• Computer Science has formed a working group.  They are in principle interested in getting a program off the ground and has given us some  initial feedback as to what they need to get that program up and running .  The other three departments are each forming their Task Forces internally to figure out what they would need in terms of resources.
• We would like to have some programs from the Arts & Sciences who would be willing to get involved in this process and offer A&S and Humanities types of programs. 

Hugh Silverman: What would you expect an A&S Department to provide you in terms of information?

Brent Lindquist:  What we are interested in doing is having our programs also presented over in South Korea.  This would be an internal departmental Task Force that would ask themselves if they could deliver our program over there, in what form we would deliver it, and what resources would we deliver.”  A lot of the discussions that are beginning to form in the departments who have been involved in this so far is can we be inventive in our program delivery and can we ensure that what we feel is an American experience and encapsulating of the American higher education form – can we deliver it over in South Korea.
Some ideas being tossed around:

• Going to a quarter system so that you can have a winter quarter and a summer quarter which frees up a lot of teaching capacity from this campus to possibly go to Korea and teach.
• The idea of half semester systems.
• Hiring faculty to specifically teach in Korea.

Paul Gootenberg:  It sounds to me from what you are talking about is very similar to some of the dilemmas we have been facing with Southampton.  I think you really have a hard battle ahead of you in terms of recruiting faculty in A&S Departments.  The reason is most of the faculty are against this from what I hear from my colleagues.  They feel that this is not a good time for Stony Brook to be involved in very complicated and new expansion abroad.   A lot of people in A&S feel that in the last decade we have neglected the core institution here.  Our Library is a disaster, which has been officially declared so by the external review committee.  Our department faculties are decimated.  We have a lot of rebuilding to do here.  The reality is why we are dispersing our administrative and creative energies at Stony Brook on something when we should be focusing our energies here at home.

Brent Lindquist:  I can’t answer all of those issues but I can give a slightly different perspective on it.  Starting a new branch campus is incredibly expensive and one of the largest expenses is the capital construction.  We simply do not and never will have in any foreseeable future the resources to set up an overseas campus without an international partner.  We have been presented with an opportunity.  We have an overseas partner with extremely strong alumni connections who are giving us this opportunity.  Chancellor Zimpher has hired a VP for International Academics, Mitch Levinthal.  SUNY is definitely thinking of expanding SUNY’s international outreach.

Michael Schwartz:  What is the planning structure and the basic ideas for allowing this campus to actually present a SB curriculum which would allow them to get an SB Degree.   If the Planning is to be involved down to the departments, than that broader question needs to have some other planning structure and needs to involve the people who would be asked to deliver those courses.

Brent Lindquist:  I went to the Undergraduate Council and asked for their assistance and I was met with a mixed reaction and so it is not clear that the Undergraduate Council will engage in that.  In which case I need suggestions.

Norman Goodman (member of the Undergrad Council):  The reaction was that it was not clear that there had been sufficient planning to how the DEC would be met.  It wasn’t that they were not involved in it.  They can’t be involved because they are not administrators, they are faculty.  Faculty are there to advise and consult and to give their expertise.

Brent Lindquist:  We are going to need faculty involvement in planning how to deliver DEC.

Aimee DeChambeau:  The motivation for Korea was because it was an opportunity that came about to do something that we can’t normally do on our own.  In terms of involvement, so far you have an academic task force and other task forces looking at different components.  If individuals want to be involved in one way or another, either in building or having critical input, then you start at your department and funnel up through your department to the task force.

Brent Lindquist:  It has to be at the level of departments or programs.  We are struggling with how to arrange it for the DEC.  The departments that are involved in this realize they can’t offer the same richness of offerings in each DEC category here that we can in Songdo.  We recognize that we have to offer all DEC categories so we can work together to ensure that those DEC categories are delivered over the course of the program.  They have worked out an example schedule to show that it could be done.

Aimee DeChambeau:  What are the other universities working on in terms of their basic Undergraduate requirements?  Are we trying to figure out some way to work with them to make transferable credits?

Brent Lindquist:  That is one of the options.  We are the farthest ahead in the planning.  NC State is next in their planning exercise and the University of Delaware has just signed their planning grant.  NC State has a list of programs they plan on delivering largely in the Biomedical areas.  Each of these universities has agendas and curriculums.  There has been preliminary discussion of sharing Gen Ed availability.

Aimee DeChambeau:  We would need to figure out some way to work with the Undergraduate Council and maybe the Curriculum Committee here and we can work with similar entities of the other universities to try to work this out.

Brent Lindquist:  We plan to open in 2011.  The program delivery is going to have to be the same combination that we planned for the Major delivery.  We have the opportunity for faculty here to visit Korea and teach.  We have the opportunity to have adjuncts there from other Korean universities to teach.  We have the opportunity to enlist the alliance universities to teach in the Gen Ed.

VI.  Report on Southampton (M. Pearl)

• Discussed current and future curriculum..
• Educational mission:  Multidisciplinary, Experiential, Systems-oriented, rigorous, focused liberal arts.
• No Academic Departments.  Coursework is organized around student majors.
• Experiential learning:  On campus marine station and GIS Lab.  Southampton has field research and internships with groups like RELI and TNC.  We can create amazing experiences for students with our interdiciplinarity and links to a great research campus. 
• Hope to have extensive summer offerings.
• Emblematic course:  Sustainability of the LI Pine Barrens.  Forum:  Evolutionary biology and the practice of medicine.
• Home to one of SBU’s best-known programs, the Writing Program.  Great platform for future growth.
• MFA Program has an award-winning faculty, growing enrollment with 63 graduate students.
• Have eight Undergraduate majors with new majors in the works.
• We have a Masters of Fine Arts Program in Writing.  The success of this program demonstrates that the community of the East End of LI is interested in Masters programs.   Actively designing master’s and certificate programs in Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Science and Policy. 

VII.  President’s Report (A. deChambeau)

• Executive committee hasn’t met since last senate session. Will be meeting once in Dec. to plan Spring agenda
• Committee reports:
• CASA: Nov 19 the CASA committee met to decide 5 cases.  Three were late withdrawals from the Fall 2007 semester. CASA said YES to two and NO to one.  The other two cases were to late withdraw from a particular class or classes, and we said NO to both of these. 5 cases: 2 Yes / 3 No
• FRRC: Working on the document concerning: "Responsibilities of Tenured Faculty with Research Expectations at Stony Brook". 
  
  Once complete, FRRC would like to present this document to the Senate. / Also have begun discussions around the question of Promotion and Tenure Criteria for faculty at SBSH / Hugh Silverman & A. deChambeau attended UUP meeting where the Senior Lecturer document endorsed by the A&S Senate in the Spring was discussed.
• AJC: SBU Academic Integrity Officer invited to be part of a 6 member panel of Long Island Universities' faculty/'staff at 2010 Conference at St. Joseph's College: Honesty in the Academy / Outreach continues in the area of Faculty/Department meeting / Academic Integrity presentations are ongoing / Fall 2009 Q Course completed on Nov. 11th.
• PTC: Working on updating file templates that can be used to facilitate the creation of tenure dossiers.
• Undergrad Curriculum Committee: no report.

• The following committee seats have been filled:
• At Large senators: Steve Reiner, Journalism (5 HFA seats remain open);
• University Senate Environment Committee rep: Robert Aller, SoMAS
• University Senate Student Life Committee rep: Malcolm Bowman
• University Senate Teaching & Learning Committee reps are:
• SS) Frank Myers
• SS) Thomas Muench
• NS) Frank Fowler
• NS) Tom Hemmick
• Hum) Richard (Rick) Ricioppo
• Hum) Cynthia Davidson

VIII.  Old Business:  No Old Business.

IX.  New Business:  No New Business.

Meeting Adjourned.

Submitted by:

Laurie Theobalt
Secretary