Changing progress-toward-degree policy
FSEC to consider removing "R" grades from being counted as courses attempted

By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee received a "heads-up" at its Nov. 28 meeting from the senate's Grading Committee on a proposal it has drafted that would remove "R" grades from being counted as courses attempted but not successfully completed in determining whether students are making satisfactory progress toward a baccalaureate degree.

Under the current policy that counts "R" grades, several hundred students would be dismissed from the university, even though their grade-point average is 2.0 or better.

The Grading Committee also has re-examined the criteria for probation and good standing, setting what it hopes will be "a minimal threshold for even first-semester students," said William Baumer, professor of philosophy and committee chair.

"It's possible for students to bumble through here and never talk to anybody," said Baumer, who said he hopes the policy governing reasonable academic progress will result in failing students being referred to advisors more quickly so that a plan can be devised to help them stay in school. Students who fail in spite of the minimum standards "just don't belong here and should face automatic dismissal," he added.

Baumer said the Grading Committee hopes to bring this issue to the floor of the senate for approval at its Dec. 11 meeting—the final one of the semester—just in time to have the new minimum standards published in the Spring 2002 undergraduate catalog.

In other business, Jeannette Molina, associate director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources (CTLR), updated the FSEC on the activities of the center, just three months into its existence. The center's first workshop on instructional methods designed to increase student participation and comprehension of course materials was held Nov. 9 and attended by 120 faculty members and teaching assistants. The center also held a workshop on Nov. 30 on developing an effective syllabus that was attended by more than 60 faculty members.

Molina acknowledged the senate's role, particularly that of the Teaching and Learning Committee, in pushing to have the center created. The center's predecessor, the Office of Teaching Effectiveness, was dismantled in the early 90s, and since that time, very little attention had been paid to teaching effectiveness on campus until now.

Robert Shibley, professor of architecture and director of the Urban Design Program, said he is excited by the progress the center has made, and hopes that it can educate SUNY central administration about the importance of engaged scholarship and service learning as an element in teaching effectiveness.

However, John Boot, professor and chair of the Department of Management Science and Systems, said he hopes the focus of the center won't just be on "making the good better yet, but on making the miserable tolerable."

"I don't agree that our major problems are not the highlighting of our brilliancy, but that we spend so much time hiding our inadequacies," he added.

Molina countered that the center was not about remediation and ferreting out poor instructors for referral, although, she noted, some instructors have sought help and have been referred to the center, while others seek out the center's resources on their own.

Also at the meeting, Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology, reported the Budget Priorities Committee's concern that part-time faculty members do not have a representative voice on the Faculty Senate, since only full-time faculty members are allowed to be voting members.

Currently, the only organization that speaks to the concerns of part-timers is United University Professions, the union representing SUNY faculty and professional staff.

In order to assess the use of part-time faculty at UB, Nickerson said, a study of each of the decanal units would have to be done and some agreement reached on what constitutes "part-time" employment since the use of part-timers varies among units. Some part-timers are hired on a fee-for-service basis, while others are hired to teach more than one course and receive benefits, he said.

Jeff Dutton, assistant vice provost for institutional analysis, said UB had 1,236 full-time and 482 part-time faculty members in 2001, and that the ratio of part-time to full-time faculty has remained fairly stable from the early to mid-1990s up to the present time.

However, FSEC members agreed, the trend nationally is to hire more part-timers as a cost-saving measure.

Boot, president of the Buffalo Center Chapter of UUP, reported that the union and the Office of the Provost are interested in getting hard data on the use of part-timers and improving their working conditions. In any case, for part-timers to be represented on the Faculty Senate, the by-laws would have to be changed, he said.

On another topic, Michael Cohen, senate chair, informed his colleagues that he had written letters to truant senators who have more than two unexcused absences, asking them to provide reasons for their absences or risk being excused from the senate.

Cohen also announced that Russell Bessette, director of the New York State Office of Science and Technology (NYSTAR), will speak about funding opportunities at the Senate's Feb. 12 meeting. In his position, Bessette is responsible for facilitating the creation of funding matches between industry and the SUNY campuses that are geared toward economic development.

In other businesses, the FSEC added Ollie Mixon, a representative of the Educational Opportunity Center, to the senate's roster, and Eris F. Perese, clinical associate professor, has replaced Gail Brown, associate professor, as the senator representing the School of Nursing. Perese also will serve as the school's FSEC representative.