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Arts & Sciences Senate
HomeRecordsSenate Minutes2013 2014October 21 2013

Agenda for Arts and Sciences Senate Meeting, Javits Room, 3:30 pm, October 21st, 2013

1 Approval of agenda.
2 Approval of minutes of last meeting (Sept. 30th, 2013).
3 President's Report, current Executive Committee members
4 Report from A&S Dean, Nancy Squires. Proposal for new Center for Multilingual and Intercultural
Communication.
5 Update on on-line and Massive Open On-line Courses and discussion (Chuck Powell, Eric Rabkin, Eduardo Mendieta)  Link to Provost-Senate task force on MOOCs report:
http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/provost/documents/MOOCs Task Force Report.pdf
6 Other Business.
___________________________________________________________________

A&S Senate
Meeting
October 21, 2013

I.  Approval of agenda:  approved

II.  Approval of minutes from September 30, 2013:  approved.

III.  A&S Senate President’s Report (T. Sears)

  • There have been three Faculty Club meetings at the Hilton Garden Inn.  They have been successful.  Will be finding a new name for the Club.  Send any suggestions to laurie.theobalt@stonybrook.edu.
  • Discussions are ongoing regard seamless transfer between SUNY Campuses.
  • Guidelines and a time line have been released on the assessment process at Stony Brook.
  • David Ecker, Director, Research Technologies, presented to the University Senate at its last meeting regarding new programs and support for faculty research.

IV.  CAS Report and the Proposal for new Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication (N. Squires)

  • One general summary with regard to searches is that in 2012/13, 55% of the net new hires went to the College of Arts & Sciences.  In 2013/14 it was 61%.  This may sound good but put it in context in terms of course seats that are offered, CAS does 74% of them.  If part of the goal of SUNY 20/20 is to make course enrollment smaller by hiring new faculty, then the College needs to do better.
  • Keep faculty workload equitable.
  • CAS has new websites:  www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/cas/, www.grad.stonybrook.edu/ and www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/provost/.
  • The Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication Center is proposed by Dr. Agnes He of the Department of Asian and Asian-American Studies.   The four main departments involved are European Languages, Hispanic Languages, Asian and Asian American Studies and Linguistics.  The vision of MIC at Stony Brook will emerge as a leading international center for research on multilingual repertoires in the 21st century. 
  • This will be an interdisciplinary research center where applied linguists, linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, communication scholars, education specialists and scholars of allied disciplines explore multilingual repertoires as rich resources in the context of global mobility and technological advancement.  No intention to exclude any languages.  It will broaden over time.
  • CAS is providing funding of 60K per year.  By next year there will be a physical Center.

V.  MOOCs (E. Rabkin and E. Mendieta)

Eduardo Mendieta

Some Task Force recommendations:

  • Create a permanent University-wide committee/task force that would develop an on-line education vision statement and strategy.
  • Develop four or five showcases of MOOCs.
  • Whoever is in charge of this permanent committee/task force working in the Provost’s Office be given a budget so they can begin canvassing the campus for potential creators/developers of MOOCs.
  • Whatever MOOCs the university produces, they be produced first as on-line content that would be tried out first at the university so that it would be working in tandem with enhancing on-line education.

Eric Rabkin

  • Arrived at Stony Brook after 43 years at the University of Michigan.
  • Has been on campus for two months as Associate Provost for On-line Education.
  • MOOCs are what have generated attention globally on on-line education.  We have to acknowledge them.  Fortunately, we have a live MOOC being offered by Margaret Schedel.  On-line education and distance learning are being offered in SPD and the School of Nursing.
  • Stony Brook seems poised to begin on-line education.  Harvard Business School no longer teaches Introductory Statistics.  They have decided that there is an on-line course offered by a statistician at Brigham Young which is better than any course any of the faculty can or are willing to teach.  Now students are required to take this course from Brigham Young.  If we are talking about MOOCs, we need to be talking about things that we can do better than anyone else.
  • U.S. copyright law:  If you write it, you instantly own it.  The SUNY by-laws support this law.  Unless it was explicitly done under a funding arrangement, which is what copyright laws call “work for hire, than the employer owns it.
  • Safeguard issues are technological not legal.  Use subscriptions, low resolutions pictures, etc.
  • Budget is still under discussion for support for faculty created on-line courses.
  • SUNY as a whole has decided that they would like to standardize blackboard for all 64 campuses.  They believe we should have 24/7 access.

VI.  New business:  no new business.

VII.  Old business:  no old business.

Meeting adjourned.

Submitted by:

Laurie Theobalt
Secretary

 

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