The motion, offered for a first reading by John Boot, professor and chair of the Department of Management Science and Systems, asks the senate to censure the administration for not following UB and SUNY procedures regarding the abolition of degree-granting programs, for its "brazen disregard" of faculty input via established faculty governance councils, and for the "actual steps taken (dismantling of the statistics department), which will come to haunt us in the education of our students, in the advancement of the sciences of statistics, in competitiveness of our grant proposals across the spectrum of health sciences and core campus areas, and in our ability to meet the needs of New York State and wider constituencies for trained statisticians."

The motion by Boot came on the heels of a plea by Irwin Guttman, chair of the former Department of Statistics, asking senators to pass a motion of censure "to try to send a signal that the administration cannot fail to understand: that they are accountable."

The motion, Guttman said, would state that "what you (the administration) did, that is, demolish statistics, is wrong, and, importantly, what you did not do, that is, follow established procedure of faculty governance, as has been the case in other instances."

Statistics had been a free-standing department within the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics until 1988, when it moved as a department into the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. On Sept. 1 of this year, the department was incorporated as a biostatistics unit within SPM.

In remarks to the senate, Boot noted his motion "zeroes in directly on the lack of faculty consultation" regarding the decisions made about the statistics department.

The decision to fold statistics into SPM was made de facto in 1995, and the decision to deactivate the doctoral program in statistics already has been implemented, he said.

Moreover, both decisions were made without any input from the faculty, via Faculty Senate governance channels, despite ample time-since 1995-to solicit such input, he said.

And the decisions were not based "on anything involving peer review, cost-benefit analysis, university and systemwide repercussions, or the rules and regulations which pertain to the abolition of degree-granting programs, both UB rules and SUNY rules," he added.

Boot praised the work of Guttman, noting that he was a stellar scholar and had been a "competent and constructive chairman" of the department.

He also introduced a resolution for a first reading, accepted by the senate, stating that "any and all aspersions cast on Dr. Guttman's tenure as department chair from 1993-98 are an outrageous assault on the truth."

Both of Boot's resolutions will be considered for a second reading-and final senate action-at the body's next meeting in January.

Earlier in the meeting, Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science and chair of the senate's Academic Planning Committee, had submitted to the senate a report on the statistics situation compiled by his committee which deplored the lack of faculty consultation in the decision-making process.

Committee members are "deeply concerned about the two-way nature of dialogue about the future," Welch reported. While faculty have the responsibility to engage in meaningful discussions, in which the possibility of suspending or even eliminating programs "is not ruled off the table," administrators, too, must engage in that process, he said.

"They must recognize that they may not be persuasive to all, that 'talk takes time,' and that the best health of the university not only involves making difficult decisions, but also requires extensive attention to effective governance," Welch said. "The decisions on statistics involved far less of the serious, informed, open dialogue they should have received, at several points."

William George, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, described the statistics situation as "a colossal history of mismanagement over a period of 25 years.

"I don't know what we can do about that except to insist that the administration in the future follow our bylaws," he said.

The charter of the Faculty Senate states that "The Senate shall review, prior to adoption, all proposals regarding the formation, reorganization or dissolution of academic units."

He introduced a motion, approved by the senate, to accept the Academic Planning Committee's report and to instruct senate Chair Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology, to communicate to the administration the senate's "extreme displeasure" that the proper procedures regarding faculty consultation as outlined in the Faculty Senate charter were not followed.

Provost Thomas E. Headrick, speaking to the full senate for the last time as provost, declined to comment on Guttman's remarks, but noted that the university community "was well aware of these plans (to merge statistics with SPM) for over two years time."

If the issue was not "properly discussed or brought before the Senate, I will take responsibility for that as appropriate," Headrick said.

He also told senators that he believes that more of the decision-making authority-both for financial and academic matters-should be shifted from the Provost's Office to the schools, and within the schools to the departments, "where the real faculty involvement in decision-making ought to occur."

He said he has been working to redefine the role of the Provost's Office as one in which the office identifies projects that are of academic importance to the university but that are not being pursued, and to act as an advocate for those projects.

Conversely, the office also should identify those projects that are no longer useful and suggest ways for the university to drop out of them.

In other action at Tuesday's meeting, the senate:

- Approved a resolution asking President William R. Greiner to sign the Talloires Declaration and to ask the appropriate university groups to undertake or continue the actions listed in it. The 10 actions outlined in the declaration include such items as establishing institutional recycling and energy-conservation policies, and developing curricula, research initiatives and outreach activities to support an environmentally sustainable future.

- Referred to the Bylaws Committee a proposal by George to insert into the Faculty Senate charter a statement outlining the senate's responsibilities for graduate and professional education. The statement would be a direct parallel to the statement in the charter outlining the body's responsibilities for undergraduate education.

In introducing the proposal, George noted that while most of the members of the faculty are engaged primarily in graduate and professional education, most of the senate's business concerns undergraduate education. With the formation of the College of Arts and Sciences to better address undergraduate education, the senate now can "turn its attention to being a senate for the whole university," George said.

The proposal asks that the Bylaws Committee report back to the senate in March.