A&S Senate
Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2012

I.  Approval of agenda:  approved.

II.  Approval of minutes from November 21, 2011:  approved.

III.  President’s Report (E. Mendieta)

• Shared reflections about what he has learned during the last decade being in the A&S Senate.
• Nominations are coming up in the next few weeks.  Urge faculty members to volunteer for open positions on standing committees or as at-large senators.
• Has met with Dean Squires about the Senior Lecturer Title Award.  Have not yet heard back from the Provost on the status of the award files submitted last fall.
• Met with Fred Walter (Pres., University Senate) and Dean Squires about the Shared Services resolutions.
• Drafted a response to the “Branding Initiative”.
• The Provost will present a report at the April meeting.
• Visited the HSC Senate to talk about our Senates.

IV.  Announcement of winners of the Distinguished Travel Award that GSO and the Graduate School awarded.  (S. Trujillo)

• There were 22 applicants for the fall call.  Chose 8 recipients.
• The award is worth up to $1,500.
• Provides travel money for graduate students to national and international conferences and performances to highlight their work.

• Listed the names of students who received the travel award.

IV.  Academic Judiciary Report (P. Bremer)

• Thanked Wanda Moore and Diane West for their work compiling the data for the report.
• The number of accusations has gone up over the years. 
• The internet has opened up the door to a lot of plagiarism.
• Safe assign has helped in catching academic dishonesty.
• Plagiarism in Bio Labs was way up. 
• Slightly more transfer students accused.
• If you do need to make an accusation, there is an online form on the AJC website.
• If a student is either found guilty or pleads guilty to academic dishonesty, they get penalized grade wise and then they have to take the Q-Course (a 10 week course held during campus life time).
• Motion made to accept report:  All in favor.

V.  Presentation by FRRP on “Non-salaried and Courtesy Appointments” (H. Silverman)

• In the Fall the FRRP presented its fall report. 
• This is the second part of a two part project.  The first part was accepted and approved (Guidelines for Cross-Departmental Secondary Academic Appointments) and can be found on the Provost’s and the FRRP websites.
• This part has to do with Non-Salaried/Courtesy appointments.
• The purpose of this document was to come up with terminology that can be used across-the-board.
• One of the difficulties that has come up is the term “adjunct” that is used in two completely different ways on campus.

• A suggestion was made to add sponsoring faculty to the form.
• Vote to accept:  all in favor, none opposed, no abstentions.

VI.  Discussion of re-naming of the A&S Senate (E. Mendieta)

• It was felt that the current name was being confused with the CAS Deans Office.
• Three names were suggested:  Arts, Humanities and Sciences Senate, Sciences, Arts and Humanities Senate and Humanities, Arts and Sciences Senate.

• Discussion from the floor.  Majority felt it was not necessary to change the current name.
• Motion made to leave the name as is:  All in favor, none opposed, 3 abstentions.

Library PTC issue:  Dr. Walter explained the problem with the Library PTC.  The committee has become dysfunctional and they are having a hard time reaching a quorum.  Best course of action would be to abolish the committee and move the cases to the Promotion and Tenure Committee.  Librarians are constituents of the A&S Senate.   This will be taken to the University Senate for a vote.

VII.  School of Journalism Report (H. Schneider)

• SOJ launched in 2006.  There are 249 undergraduate majors and 58 minors (only one at the time in the SUNY System).  Graduated 102 students.
• Began a Master’s program in Journalism this year with concentrations in health, science, the environment, technology and medicine.  Nine students enrolled.
• Mission not to just train journalists but to train news consumers and communicators, in this case, science and health communicators.
• Journalism students are required to earn 127 credits to graduate (47 credits in journalism).
• Launched Journalism Without Walls.  Students have been to China, Russia and Cuba.
• More than 7,500 students took News Literacy in the past 5 years.  Now being taught at 29 Universities.  Satisfies DEC B or G.
• Center for Communicating Science launched in 2009.  Trains scientists to be better communicators.  Nine graduate students enrolled in M.S. program.  Fifty-six non-journalism graduate students enrolled.  New course (will be an elective) approved in the School of Medicine for fall 2013.  National Outreach – workshops across the country.
• Brought in almost 4 Mil. in the last five years in funding from various sources.
• Undergoing a curriculum review after five years.  Will be seeking accreditation in 2013-2014.

VIII.  Old business:  no old business.

IX.  New business:  no new business.

Meeting adjourned.

Submitted by:

Laurie Theobalt
Secretary