University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor

A group of future UB undergraduates would get the chance to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) for free, according to an assessment proposal discussed during the Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting yesterday.

As part of its general education assessment plan called for by the SUNY trustees, UB would offer the opportunity to take the exam—an entrance requirement for many accredited graduate programs—to a sampling of students in their junior year. SUNY would pay the costs of testing the students.

The test results would be one way of measuring student progress in mathematics, written education and critical thinking, according to Michael E. Ryan, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, who discussed the plan at the meeting, along with Carol L. Tutzauer, director for assessment, and Peter S. Gold, associate dean for general education, College of Arts and Sciences.

Tutzauer said that UB is the only institution she knows of that would be offering the GRE to a sample group of students, or 20 percent of "first-year, first-time incoming students who persist to junior year.

"The sentiment was that the Graduate Record Examination—for its analytical writing, its quantitative and verbal components, and it has lots of reasoning throughout—would probably be best here for our purposes," Tutzauer said. "Our idea would be to give them the opportunity to take the GRE at SUNY expense, which we think would be beneficial for them since a large number of our students do go on for graduate study."

Tutzauer noted another aspect of the UB plan that makes it unique compared to other SUNY institutions is that rather than assessing 20 percent of the students every three years, "it was our feeling that the information would be more valuable if we took that 20 percent and stretched it out over three years so that we had data on each individual year.

"We would then have an ongoing stream of information so that we would be better able to pick up improvements or problems within our general education programs," she said.

During discussion of the plan, several senators made suggestions regarding the exam. Powhatan J. Wooldridge, associate research professor of nursing, wondered if the GRE also should be given to some of the students as freshmen, "on their entry, so that one could actually see what improvement there is" during their years at UB.

James M. Hassett Jr., professor of surgery, cautioned that students not planning to go on to graduate school may not be motivated to do their best when taking the exam.

"If I'm not looking to go forward, what would entice me to try and perform well?" he asked.

Tutzauer replied that students would be motivated by the fact that their GRE scores "will be good for several years and they might decide later to go to grad school."

Leslie Meister, student affairs director for the undergraduate Student Association, agreed, saying students who choose to take the GRE "will do well because it counts."

Others, including Maureen P. Donley, clinical associate professor of restorative dentistry, suggested giving students test runs of the exam in their freshmen and sophomore years, then the actual GRE in their junior year.

But Harold Dumke from The Spectrum student newspaper noted that "to give a student three tries at a GRE before they take the actual one would possibly be only gauging their improvement based on taking the GRE several times and wouldn't be reflective of a student's improvement at UB at all."

When asked what other SUNY institutions will be doing for their assessments, Tutzauer said that most, including UB, will be administering a national survey of student engagement. But she added other traditional methods of assessment, including collecting portfolios of student work, can be more time-consuming and less effective.

William H. Baumer, professor of philosophy, advised that the team "Stick with the GRE, keep it simple, keep it straightforward, stick to what we have to do because anything more than that, we're talking expense.

"You want to talk about reviewing folders? I know the kind of time it takes me to grade research essays at the end of the semester. You want me to rate a hundred folders? I expect another two weeks of salary. And I don't expect it at the cheap summer session rates; I expect it at my usual consulting rates," Baumer said.

In other business, Faculty Senate Chair Peter A. Nickerson, professor of pathology, asked senators for ideas on how to avoid lack of a quorum at full senate meetings for voting items. Current bylaws require that half of the senate membership, plus one senator, constitutes a quorum. While there are some 100 senators, at a recent meeting only 20 or so members were present when a vote needed to be taken.

Baumer said that any reduction in the number required for a quorum would be "a gross mistake," and suggested that voting take place via "a ballot by electronic mail or by mail of the membership with the requirement that for an action to pass, it must receive an absolute majority of the senate, not of the votes cast."

However, Samuel D. Schack, chair of the Department of Mathematics, objected to absentee voting in general.

"I don't like systems which invite people who didn't participate in the discussion, who perhaps didn't even listen to it, who may not have therefore have acquainted themselves in any way with what the issue is, to vote," Schack said.

He, in turn, suggested that actionable items be placed first on the meeting agendas—when more members are present—with other, less crucial items, such as the approval of previous meeting minutes, occurring at the end of meetings.

Other suggestions included enforcing the bylaws more strictly and dropping senators who don't attend meetings; changing the day the meetings are held from Tuesday to Wednesday; encouraging current senators to do a more thorough job of designating alternates who would attend meetings when they cannot; and reducing the size of the Faculty Senate.

Nickerson said he will rework future meeting agendas to ensure votes take place at the beginning of the meetings, and will continue contacting members who have missed meetings to ask them to provide alternates to attend in their place.