President’s report

Trevor Sears

October 22, 2012

Abstract

Summary of some issues discussed recently at Senate Executive Committee meetings and various other issues for Oct 22nd A&S Senate meeting.

1. Cluster Hire Program 
Five cluster proposals were selected for funding this year after extensive review. At the University Senate meeting earlier this month, the Provost promised more details will be forthcoming soon. The successful awardees have been notified, as have at least some of the leaders of the unsuccessful proposals. In no particular order, the successful proposals are in the areas of A Photon Sciences Institute, Bio-molecular Imaging, Smart Energy Technologies, Political Economy, and SOMAS Coastal Studies and Engineering.

2. University Senate Meeting

Report from Barbara Chernow on facilities master plan. Ten year plan (2013-23) includes 1.5×106 sq.ft. new academic space, 580,000 sq. ft. renovated space, and similar amounts of new residence space. This will all accommodate the projected 3000 increase in students over the time. Details are available on the Facilities web site. Recent upgrades to student life include free transport for students of Suffolk County buses, coming soon is an on-campus bike sharing program for students. The new Recreation Center is due to open on Oct. 19th.

Provost’s distinguished lecturer awards. The recipients for the 2012 awards have been publically announced and are available on the Provost’s web site. Deadline for nomination materials for the 2013 awards is January 31, 2013.

Changes to the General Education Curriculum.  We are presently in a period of approximately
one month planned for comments that will be funneled through Scott Sutherland, the Undergraduate Council and A&S Senate Curriculum Committee. At the time of the meeting, the process was still on a schedule to be rolled out for students beginning in the 2013 academic year. I encourage everyone to study the proposal and provide comments to Scott as soon as possible. There are still some substantive issues under active discussion.

3. Meeting with University President  

The Senate executive committee met with President Stanley October 8th. Various issues were discussed:

New learning/teaching styles; more on-line learning is probable in the future. The Provost is taking the lead on strategies and a committee to investigate the options has been formed. There is some urgency in that he (President Stanley) would like to have a University-wide approach.

The University strategic plan is exemplified by the recent cluster hire process. There will not be a hard and fast list of priorities but an evolving set of areas of focus generated by a combination of faculty, department, college and administration input.

The University continues to explore ways to make the Southampton Campus viable. The recently announced cooperation agreement between Stony Brook and Southampton hospitals is an example of one way to strengthen services via the Stony Brook connection. The connection between Marine Sciences at Southampton and SOMAS here is another area of active program development.

Progress is being made on the Gyrodyne issue. Meetings between Stony Brook and SUNY administrations are on-going. The President would like to see at least some of the maintenance money restored, but this requires SUNY-wide choices. He is hoping to come to a satisfactory agreement with SUNY. An appeal to State Legislators remains as a back up plan.

In the new SUNY resource allocation model it currently looks as if Stony Brook will come out pretty much even.

4. Meeting with VPR, Ben Hsiao, October 15th

TA and RA stipends: The VPR agreed that he will recommend the University sets a recommended minimum amount for RA stipends for future grant proposals.

The Research Foundation has implemented a single sign-in portal for principal investigators. Will permit access to multiple different systems, e.g. COEUS, COI, ... COEUS will eventually be replaced as it will soon be no longer supported. Possible replacement systems are under study, but COEUS will continue for some years.

IDC redistribution is a facet of the new University Budget Model. Various scenarios are under
study by the Budget Office. More money will come back to the College and Department level organizations, but they will be responsible for things like start-up funds and retention issues in the future.