Arts and Sciences Senate Agenda
October 21, 2014

3:30-3:35 
Approve Agenda
Approve Minutes from September 
President’s Report

3:35-4:00 Trevor Sears
                Discuss changes to PTC 
                Discuss changes to descriptions
                Vote

4:00-4:15 Dorit Kaufman
     Present changes the academic home of      
       the Educational Leadership program 
       (EDL)
   Discuss changes
   Vote
                
4:15-4:55 Dean’s Report 
4:15 New PTC Timeline / Discussion
4:30 College Strategic Plan/ 
        Discussion
4:45 Curriculum flow in CAS

4:55 New Business?

_______________________________________________________________________

A&S Senate
Meeting 
September 23, 2014

I.  Approval of agenda:  approved.

II.  Approval of minutes from April 2014:  approved.

III.  A&S Senate President’s Report (M. Schedel)

• Thanked Dr. Trevor Sears for his work on the senate as President.
• Would like to make the senate reports/presentations to be more of a discussion. 
• There will be a certain amount of time for each presentation.
• There are still many vacancies on the senate and on the committees.

IV.  CAS Deans Report (S. Kopp)

• Exciting to see this level of engagement of the faculty even before coming to Stony Brook.
• There are lots of ways to interact with departments.
• Looking forward to working with the Senate.
• We have a special role as a public research university.  Our identity outside of the university is not clear.  We need to articulate a clear identity and vision for the College.
• Learning about the college budget.  Have a budget of approximately $80 Mil.  We have an approximate deficit of $4 Mil.  The expenses outpace the allocation allotment from the State.  Do not know all of the details yet.  The College took a lot of the revenues from departments (e.g. summer monies) to keep the books balanced.  Would like to stop this practice.  That kind of money is very important for the departments to undertake things like graduate fellowships, conference travel and other kinds of research support.
• There has not been a merit procedure in a while. Need to look at that and its effect on retention.
• Working with the Chairs particularly in how to plan better for courses in subsequent years.  When enrollments are shifting and the needs of various courses are shifting, we have to proactively plan.  If we don’t have a plan, it ends up costing us money.   Have not done as much in prioritizing courses as would like to see happen.  As much as I would like to see elected courses or specialty courses happen, I would ensure that core classes become a first priority.
• Came into contact with a few Promotion and Tenure cases.  Feel it could be aided by a clearer calendar with a time-line.
• Working with chairs on departmental governance.  Departments do not have concrete by-laws that govern their departments.  There has to be clear delineation of what are the roles of different forms of faculty in their departments.  Asking Chairs help in faculty excellence.
• Enrollment in college has dropped particularly in the humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences.
• Trying to build a sense of community with undergraduates.  Intend to email graduates in the future.

V.  Promotion and Tenure Revamp Proposal (M. White and T. Sears)

• The PTC is currently overworked.  Unable to get to cases from January.  Received a lot of new appointments.
• Junior cases take the most time. 
• Had to meet over the summer to finish cases.
• Would like to create two subcommittees basically doubling the size.
• The changes were read to the senate.
• There was a question on adding a Librarian.  Norm Goodman suggested a friendly amendment:

 
A 3)  When a file comes from the Library  then an ad-hoc library member comes in.
B – add IV.  A library member.

Margaret Schedel would like to do an email vote in two weeks.

Michael White would like to start recruiting now and then vote at the next meeting.

Vote to let the PTC to start recruiting:  all in favor, none opposed.

VI.  New business:  Is it appropriate for this body to discuss the new limit on student employment?  No, it should go to the University Senate.

University wide electronic tenure file model?  Get someone for DoIT to show how to do this.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:50 p.m.

Submitted by:
Laurie Cullen
Secretary