Speaking at the first meeting of the Faculty Senate Tuesday, Oct. 24, Headrick told faculty members that speculation in Albany is that state tax support of SUNY, which was cut 20 percent this year, will be cut by about 20 percent again. That would bring the state's contribution to SUNY from $916 million two years ago to about $600 million next year, Headrick said. At least a portion of that would almost certainly be made up by increased tuition revenues, he added.

A week earlier, in an unprecedented move, the SUNY Board of Trustees, meeting in Albany, rejected Chancellor Thomas Bartlett's proposed budget request, thus refusing to send it on to the governor. Such budget requests normally meet with routine approval by the trustees, although they have little impact on the ultimate state budget. However, led by new Pataki appointees, the trustees voted 9-6 to block the $1.5 billion proposal, containing an increase of just 1.1 percent.

Headrick pointed to the surprising vote of the trustees against the SUNY budget as indicative of things to come. "However, we are going to fight this with all the weapons at our command," Headrick pledged.

He said the state legislature was looking for clear direction from SUNY, but had not yet seen it. "A clear, long-term strategy will govern how we make out in the short term," he explained.

"We are going to have to change in some measure what we do," Headrick said, "including changes in our culture-faculty must be willing to make changes. We will do all we can to avoid retrenchment, but it is a two-way street." Headrick said he welcomed input from the faculty and would work to maintain regular communications with the entire university community, beginning with an occasional column in the Reporter.

Modern Languages Professor Michael Metzger pressed Headrick on whether his plans would impact matters governed by the faculty union's collective bargaining agreement, but Headrick declined to elaborate.

Geography Professor Charles Ebert suggested that faculty earning more than $65,000 should accept a four-year salary freeze in order to stave off excessive tuition increases. However, Headrick responded, tongue in cheek, that given the current state of contract negotiations, "a freeze could be a moot point."

Responding to a further suggestion by Ebert that savings could be realized by "cutting duplication in administration," Headrick pointed out that UB ranks 28th out of 29 comparable AAU institutions in administrative cost. "We are already nearly dead last in administrative expenses no matter how you cut it," he said, adding that past cuts have normally fallen heavily on the administrative side of the university "in the interest of preserving academic programs."

Admissions Director Kevin Durkin reported to Senators that the overall enrollment at UB this year grew slightly and that women now comprise the largest portion of that student body ever.

The admissions office processed 22,254 applications in 1995, up slightly from 1994, and enrolled 5,126 new students, 578 more than in 1994, according to Durkin. The increase in the size of the freshman class to meet overall enrollment targets accounted for most of the increase, he said. However, it also resulted in a class with slightly lower mean high school averages, class ranks and combined SAT scores than the previous year, Durkin said.

In other action, two resolutions, one revising the charter and by-laws of the Faculty Senate and another delineating a policy for faculty participation in student recruitment efforts, received their first readings, making them eligible for action at the November meeting.

Although debate traditionally occurs at the second reading of resolutions, several Senators were already lining up in opposition to a proposed by-laws change which would, for the first time, make the chair of the Faculty Senate eligible to run for re-election. Currently, the Faculty Senate chair is elected to a two-year term in the spring of even numbered years by the full voting faculty and may not seek successive terms.

Management Professor John Boot said that, "Although such a proposal may seem rather democratic, actually, it is not. I don't think it would serve the university community well." Boot asked for an informal "sense of the Senate" show of hands on the proposal, but was ruled out of order by Faculty Senate Chair Claude Welch. Lockwood Library Director Judith Adams urged her colleagues to "consider carefully a four-year term." Senators also unanimously approved a resolution thanking Peter Nickerson for his service as Faculty Senate chair from 1993-95.