Faculty Senate begins review of provost's report on academic planning; mid-May set as deadline

The senate's Executive Committee has charged 12 of the senate's 18 standing committees with examining specific aspects of the plan and delivering formal reports on their findings to the full Faculty Senate at its meeting on April 29, said Claude Welch, chair of the senate and SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science.

Headrick met on Feb. 21 to discuss the plan with members of the senate's Academic Planning Committee, which is focusing on two issues: assessing whether the recommendations in the plan are commensurate with the goals as stated in the plan, and ensuring that faculty have input into the plan.

Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology and a member of the Academic Planning Committee, said that committee members will have to work to convince faculty members that their comments are welcome.

He noted that several colleagues have told him that they believe the specifics of the plan "are set in rapidly setting concrete.

"We have to try to dispel this notion" and instill the belief that "the dialogue is real; this is not a sham-type discussion," Nicker-son said.

Members of the committee stressed the importance of the university community looking at the report from a wide perspective, rather than from a parochial position.

"I would hope the committee would try to keep a broader view" when assessing the plan, said Catherine Cornbleth, professor of learning and instruction and associate dean in the Graduate School of Education.

Peter Horvath, assistant professor of nutrition and physiology, said he was glad the document had been published as an insert to the Reporter without an appendix because it forced people to consider issues other than those pertaining to their own particular unit.

"I think that one of the problems that we have at this university is people are so myopic and self-centered, which is natural, but they just go to their one page (on their own unit) and read what's there and forget that other departments might even be having a more critical issue," Horvath said. "That's something we have to get across."

Headrick said that with the plan, he's trying in some ways to "widen the perspective and also widen the discussion" so that when faculty members focus on their own units, they "consider it in the context of what else is going on" at the university.

He noted that it aids the discussion process to "put out some concrete ideasŠbecause it then produces a much more significant, focused dialogue of what the issues are.

"The message I hope that goes out is that you may have better ways of dealing with the problems as I've identified them, and the purpose of that is to elicit those reactions, not foreclose them," he said, adding that is why he wants an extensive review of his proposals before a set of concrete plans are formed and implemented.

Welch said that the senate meeting of March 11 will be devoted to a discussion with Headrick of the general principles of the plan. The meeting of April 8 will include progress reports from the standing committees, with formal reports to be delivered to the senate on April 29.

Welch said the senate meeting of May 13-the last regularly scheduled session of the academic year-will "hopefully conclude" examination of the planning document.

He urged faculty members to attend faculty- or school-specific meetings that Headrick will schedule to discuss the plan.

He also invited colleagues with comments about specific issues covered in the plan to contact the appropriate senate committee. The committees and their chairs are:

· Academic Planning, Dennis Malone, electrical and computer engineering

· Admissions and Retention, Mitchell Harwitz, economics

· Student Life, Joseph Mook, mechanical and aerospace engineering

· Budget Priorities, Peter Nickerson, pathology

· Computer Services, Michael Cowan, mathematics

· Facilities Planning, G. Scott Danford, architecture

· Information and Library Resources, Richard Lee, medicine

· Educational Programs and Policy, Michael Metzger, modern languages and literatures

· Faculty Tenure and Privileges, Margaret Acara, pharmacology and toxicology

· Public Service, Michael Frisch, history and American studies

· Research and Creative Activity, Philip Yeagle, biochemistry

· University Governance, Boris Albini, microbiology