The Faculty Senate Executive Committee has decided to stay out of the discussion surrounding a proposal to move the undergraduate music-education program from the Department of Music to the Graduate School of Education unless explicitly asked to intervene by the music-department faculty.

Faculty Senate Chair Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology, told senators at the committee's Aug. 27 meeting that the proposed changes in the program and removal of some part-time faculty members have prompted charges of violations of the music department's governance procedures and bylaws.

Nickerson said that while he agrees that "bylaws are extremely important to the faculty because they state the way in which the business of a unit is to be conducted," with regard to the current situation in the music department, "there first needs to be an attempt to deal with these issues at the department level and then at the level of the Faculty of Arts and Letters."

He concluded that there has not yet been an attempt to do so at the arts-and-letters level, and that no one from the music-department faculty or administration has requested to meet with the Faculty Senate.

Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, maintained, "We should not insert ourselves unless we've been asked (by department faculty). No one on the faculty has even filed a grievance for the senate to consider," he said.

Terry Gates, associate professor of music and immediate past chair of the music department, said he raised the issue of bylaws violations with Nickerson "in order to give him one side of the issue," but suggested that a mechanism be developed whereby faculty with such concerns could call upon the senate to offer counsel and intervention.

Boris Albini, professor of microbiology and chair of the senate's Governance Committee, agreed that early, formal interaction in such cases could "avoid feelings of desperation that send people to the newspaper" for resolution.

Victor Doyno, professor of English, agreed, but noted that since no formal concerns had been raised by department faculty, the senate is without recourse in the matter. Moreover, it was not clear that the alleged bylaws violations had actually occurred, he added.

FSEC members suggested that the "good offices of the senate executive committee" be made available to the dean of arts and letters, the chair of the music department and the music faculty should they wish assistance with the issue, which senators acknowledged is a difficult one, given the crossover and contradiction that exist among faculty and departmental by-laws, state labor law and the union contract.

At the meeting, the first of the academic year, senators also received a report from Gates, chair of the Budget Priorities Committee, outlining the committee's agenda for the year.

Gates said the committee wants to increase communication among administration, faculty and staff around several budget-related issues. Budget Priorities subcommittees, Gates said, will monitor three "developments-in-progress" at the university's administrative level.

They are:

- The Academic Information System, or AIS, a program designed to "reveal our operations to us, and develop information of importance to the academic operation and educational purposes of the institution"

- Incentives and rewards, "ways," said Gates, "to put wheels under some of the budget-development processes that are going on"

- Responsibility-Centered Management, or RCM, a management system emphasized by the UB administration that Gates said "will reach deeper and broader into the institution to account for what we do."

The FSEC also received an update on the 1997-98 state budget from Senior Vice President Robert J. Wagner.

Wagner called the final budget a "stand-still" budget that includes no tuition increase, but does increase the technology fee by $25, and restores most funding cuts.

He said that the new UB budget, which should be in place in about a month, calls for no base-level reduction in expenditures.

He warned, however, that the university's stream of super-revenue for 1997-98Ñincome the university generates and is allowed to retain above and beyond state budget allocationsÑ"has changed downward" to zero. He also acknowledged that while the university's innovative utility project produced the single largest energy savings of any American university, UB will start repaying in the current budget year the loan that was taken out to put the program into place.

In other matters:

- Nickerson announced a meeting of the voting faculty on Sept. 23 and noted that the first meeting of the full Faculty Senate has been moved from Oct. 15 to Oct. 8 to accommodate the university convocation. An orientation on governance for new senators will be held Sept. 7.

- Discussion was entertained, but there were no objections to a proposal from Mark Karwan, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, to change the name of the Department of Civil Engineering to Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering to reflect the nature of the department.

- Names of FSEC members who nominated themselves to serve on committees related to the new College of Arts and Sciences were collected and will be forwarded to the provost.