Arts and Sciences Senate
Minutes
April 28th, 2008

I.  Approval of Agenda:  approved

II.  Approval of Minutes from March 24, 2008 – approved

III.  Report of the College of Arts and Sciences – Dean Staros
           

• Budget numbers can change.
• Faculty obligations (salaries) for Fall will be $5.3 Mil. (not including adjuncts or graduate students.  Staff obligations for Fall will be $9.6 Mil.  This does not include adjuncts, pool for raises on promotions, phones, copying, etc. 
• Savings:  fellowships, offsets, number of faculty who are joint BNL (on the books as FT faculty and BNL reimburses half of salaries) members ($2.5 Mil); Presidential cluster ($3.3 Mil); known salary savings (retirements, etc. $2 Mil); established additional salary savings ($300,000); promotion and retention pool ($362,549); permanent base reduction ($71,176).
• Down to approximately $54 Mil of net salary obligations.
• If you take the net salary obligations, the 576 TA/GA lines that come from the Graduate School through the College to Departments (this becomes part of our base budget) and OTPS ($1 Mil) this would give us core obligations of approximately $64 Mil for the College.
• Provostial commitments for 08/09 are approx. $64.2 Mil.  Cost to run College approx. $68 Mil.  If we take extended obligations, we have a shortfall of $2.2 Mil.
• Deans are charged with not running a deficit.
• Memo sent to Chairs emphasizing faculty members to pull their own weight.

IV.  Report from Academic Judiciary Committee (Kate Klein; GSO Rep on AJC):

• The biggest offense is internet plagiarism.
• Ms. Klein explained Student Academic Standing charts and steps in processing a case (see Report).
• Q-course is given to students accused and found guilty.
• Planning outreach programs.
• Safe Assign is used (a plagiarism detection tool on Blackboard).
• Wanda Moore, the Academic Integrity Officer, attended “The Center for Academic Integrity International Conference”.  She concluded that Stony Brook has met and in many areas exceeded in implementing strategies for addressing educational needs and best practices for student development in areas of Academic Integrity.

V.  Report on Committee on Academic Standing and Appeals (D. Hildenbrand)

• There have been no reports filed since the Fall of 2007.  Thanked Donna DiDonato’s staff  for compiling reports from the last eight semesters
• Students who appeal their case are encouraged to submit additional documentation to support their petition.
• On average, they received approximately fifty appeals per week.

VI.  Proposed Amendment to the PTC Guidelines (J. Davila)

• PTC requests three changes to the guidelines because lack of clarity regarding what is expected for teaching observations and the consequent inconsistencies in what is included across the files.
• The PTC is suggesting three changes to the current guidelines (see Letter from PTC).
• Dr. Davila proceeded to read the changes.
• Dr. Davidson called for a vote:  13 for, 0 against and 1 abstention.  Motion passed.

VII.  Discussion of Revisions to the Constitution and By-Laws—Third Reading and Vote (R. Ben-Zvi)

• Only one person contacted Ruth regarding any corrections:  A. 3. should read “The Arts and Sciences Senate shall (not hall)”.
• Dr. Davidson called for a vote:  19 for, 0 against, 0 abstentions.  Motion passed.

VIII.  President’s Report (C. Davidson)

• Elections will soon be on Solar.  Please vote.  Still need Vice President and Secretary.
• It is important that we have leadership for the A&S Senate.  There is value in becoming involved in governance.
• This was Dr. Davidson’s last meeting.  She thanked everyone and enjoyed her tenure as President.  Introduced Ruth Ben-Zvi as the next President of the A&S Senate.

IX.  Old Business:  none.

X.  New Business:  none

Meeting adjourned 4:35.

Submitted by:

Laurie Theobalt, Secretary