Faculty Senate amends its charter
Action expands authority to include graduate and professional education

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

The Faculty Senate Tuesday amended its charter to give it more specific authority over graduate and professional education, a move that supporters say will help prevent "mischief" by the university administration.

Senators approved the charter change, which drops all distinctions between undergraduate-, graduate- and professional-degree programs when outlining the senate's authority, despite a report from the Bylaws Committee that took "no stand" on the issue. Bylaws Committee Chair Judith Hopkins, technical services research analysis officer for the University Libraries, said the charter already gave the senate the right to review and make proposals concerning degree requirements and curricula for graduate and professional programs.

But William George, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who first proposed last December that the charter be revised to give the senate more specific authority over graduate education, persisted, giving senators three reasons for doing so. He said the body has been chartered to oversee graduate education through the bylaws of the Voting Faculty, no other democratically elected body is overseeing graduate and professional education, and because "it needs to be done."

"We have witnessed already the problems we have to deal with because we have not exercised our responsibilities," he said, alluding to recent controversy springing from the merger of the Department of Statistics with the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, as well as the ongoing debate over the faculty's input into the mission-review process. "The only assurance a faculty or school has that its own internal governance and procedures will be followed in decision-making is that the senate is watching and that administrators will be called to explain their actions."

He told his colleagues that it is crucial that they act on the issue now, as the university plans for the 21st century.

"We have an opportunity to define the senate of the future, and perhaps with it the role the faculty will play in the decisions about the future of the university," he said, noting that the provost has made it clear that "big changes are going to occur. The question is whether we're going to participate in those changes. We can, of course, duck-we have a history of doing that. We can take our chances with the practices which have so frustrated us in the past. Or we can seize the moment, and control our own destiny."

Samuel Schack, professor of mathematics, agreed with George that this resolution was "an important moment for the senate to start exercising all its responsibilities."

It does not mean that the senate will start "meddling" in such "minutiae" as whether two or three languages are required for a doctoral degree in mathematics, he said.

Moreover, the bylaws of the Voting Faculty give primary jurisdiction to the academic units.

However, he said, he does see the possibility that, despite new authority, the senate will continue "to ignore all the problems going on around here and then, afterwards, insist that somebody misbehaved.

"The strongest insurance you have against mischief is that somebody is watching." The senate frequently complains about "mischief done" (by the administration) because "we haven't watched. This is a resolution that says 'put it in the charter that we will start watching.' Let's do that."

Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science, complimented George on his objective: "making faculty governance real."

The Faculty Senate already has the power, responsibility and obligation to oversee graduate and professional programs, Welch said. But the body should proceed slowly "doing what we can do already" to avoid ruffling (jurisdictional) concerns," he advised.

"My sense is that the powers are there, they need to be exercised-that's the way to avoid mischief. The opportunity we have is here and present for us to take," he said.

In other business, the senate:

- Approved a proposal that would limit to 18 the number of credits students pursuing bachelor's degrees can earn through tutorial coursework, or independent study.

Senators rejected a provision of the proposal that would limit to 12 the number of letter-graded (A, B, C, D) credits earned through tutorial coursework that could count toward graduation.

- Unanimously approved a resolution recognizing former SUNY Trustee Arnold Gardner for his "superlative service and accomplishment in support of this great public university and this campus." Gardner, who served as a SUNY trustee for 19 years, is now a member of the Board of Regents.

- Heard a first reading of an "alert" warning faculty members of the perils involved in engaging in consensual relationships with their students. The senate will vote on the issue, which has been floundering around the senate for two years, at its last meeting of the semester May 11.