The specific resolutions were brought forward by Governance Committee Chair Victor Doyno, at the Senate's April 9 meeting, after the Senate returned an omnibus report containing the recommendations, last month. The Senate had not agreed on the parliamentary procedure for debating the lengthy report during its March meeting; instead, requesting that the committee draft distinct resolutions for each recommendation.

Among the changes approved by the Senate, most without debate, were new "minimum content guidelines" for academic (unit) articles of governance, along with a Senate committee to review those articles, and several proposals to link ideas of faculty governance and university administration. One resolution requested that the Faculty Senate chair be appointed to "decision making presidential and provostal groups," while another pledged to appoint "relevant administrators" to Faculty Senate committees. Another resolution urged that the provost and senior vice president meet annually with the Faculty Senate to assure faculty representation on "administrative and programmatic" committees.

The Faculty Senate also reconstituted itself somewhat, moving elections for campus senators, SUNY senators and Senate officers backward in time from the spring to fall semester, requiring that all Senate committees be filled and put to work at the first meeting of the Senate each August and calling for by-law amendments that would make the vice provosts of Graduate and Undergraduate Education non-voting members of the Senate. Recently, the Senate amended its by-laws to make the university's various deans ex-officio, non-voting members.

The Senate also voted to increase the pay for Faculty Senate chair from $3,000 to nearly $8,000 and the pay for secretary from $1,000 to roughly $4,000. The pay increases were modified from earlier proposals which could have resulted in stipends of $20,000 or more, Doyno explained. The resolution stipulates that the stipend for chair be "10 percent of the University at Buffalo average (salary) for a full professor," as calculated by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), with the secretary receiving five percent of that figure. Currently, the average UB full professor earns $78,900, according to AAUP.

The only proposed resolution which was not passed was returned to the Governance Committee for further consideration. That resolution would have established ground rules for Senate intervention in academic units whose governance structure "broke down."

In other business, Faculty Senate Chair Claude Welch reported on a proposal to name Arts & Letters Dean Kerry Grant Interim Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences while he remains at Arts & Letters. Welch said the potential appointment was aimed at achieving "enhanced Arts & Letters and Social Sciences collaboration."

Welch was joined by other Senators in opposing the plan. Claiming there was too little faculty consultation regarding the interim appointment, Welch pledged to remain "committed to collegiality" and promised "full, open discussion" of the proposal. Some faculty members believe the joint appointment could be a prelude to eventual merger of the two faculties. Current Social Sciences Dean Ross MacKinnon will depart this summer to become Dean of Arts & Sciences at the University of Connecticut.

Provost Thomas Headrick later explained that he has consulted with faculty from Arts & President William Greiner briefly ad dressed the Senate, calling for fewer Senate resolutions but greater "deliberate dialogue" between faculty and administration. "The Senate has a heavy focus on resolutions," he said, "but that shouldn't be the only way-maybe not even the dominant way-we communicate." Last fall, the Faculty Senate released a 50-page compendium of almost 100 resolutions it has passed during the last decade.

Discussing recent budget developments in Albany, Greiner noted that although the legislature is a way from enacting a state budget, he thinks that "TAP will get fixed pretty well" and that SUNY will receive at least some restoration. The recent drop in applications, including a "severe drop" in transfer applications, and supportive editorials across the state have prompted new concern on the part of the trustees about SUNY's quality, Greiner observed.

He also referred to a recent report drafted by community college presi dents statewide. The "Community College Initiative" was to be the community college equivalent of Rethinking SUNY, explained Greiner. However, when their report to the trustees called for designating community colleges as the "experts in lower division instruction" and the "preferred point of access to SUNY," it created "a tremendous stir," Greiner said.

"The report would essentially see us relegated to upper division work only," Greiner continued. "It proposed to assign the EOPs (Educational Opportunity Centers) to the community colleges and would make them responsible for all high school interaction," such as advanced placement instruction. The report has been submitted to the Chancellor and will be considered when the community college "mission" is reassessed sometime in the future, Greiner said.