Policy to be implemented
Grade-replacement moves to top of list of CIT priorities

By MARA MCGINNIS
Reporter Assistant Editor

The implementation of the grade-replacement policy that was put into effect this semester now has been moved to top of the priorities list for Computing and Information Technology, according to a report by Voldemar Innus, senior associate vice president for university services, to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee last week.

Innus said there will be a "partially computer-based manual process" to accommodate the new policy for courses taken in Fall 1999.

"This approach is beneficial because we are sure that it is going to raise some idiosyncratic situations that we haven't thought of as the policy is being implemented and will help in the development of the computer-based system," said Innus.

"The expectation is that the computerized process will be fully implemented in Spring 2000 so that courses retaken in the spring could be handled in an automated fashion."

The new grading policy, which has been published in the most recent undergraduate catalogue, allows students to repeat courses in which they receive a grade of C plus or lower. The grade earned the second time the course is taken is the one that counts toward the student's grade-point average, regardless of whether that is the higher mark.

President William R. Greiner had told the FSEC early this semester that because of more pressing obligations in CIT-specifically Y2K and Access99-virtually all other projects would be moved back to the spring.

Innus explained that the reason the project was delayed was because "there were still a lot of planning discussions going on between undergraduate education and CIT in interpreting the policy."

"As of Oct. 7, all of the remaining details and understanding of what was to be implemented were resolved and we had a meeting with the provost in which the provost confirmed that this would be the top new priority in terms of projects."

Innus added that CIT will be handling only currently enrolled students and records dating back to 1984.

In other business, Claude E. Welch, Jr., SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science and chair of the senate's Academic Planning Committee, updated FSEC members on the recent meeting at UB with five interlocutors from Albany, headed by SUNY Provost Peter Salins, to discuss the SUNY-wide mission review.

"Presumably, this campus-based discussion of mission is intended in some ways to further differentiate the campuses, but also to understand better what the major concerns are or the strengths and weaknesses of each campus," said Welch.

Seven administrators and five faculty members met with the interlocutors, according to Welch. He reported that the interlocutors were particularly interested in four areas: undergraduate program in terms of missions, retention, student life and selectivity; research and graduate education; health sciences, and broader, general-education issues.

Welch told the FSEC that among the "dialogue points" posed by the interlocutors was the question: If UB had $5-$10 million more in annual appropriations from the state, how would the university spend it? Welch said that Provost David Triggle replied that he would spend 70 percent of the money on various computing initiatives and 30 percent on enhanced graduate stipends.

In response to another dialogue point, Triggle proposed hiring 140 faculty members by 2003, the cost of which would come from revenue from increased enrollment, according to Welch's report.

All of the dialogue points raised by the interlocutors, as well as Triggle's detailed responses, can be viewed online at http://www.provost.buffalo.edu/StrategicPlanningDocuments/1999_Mission_Review/BriefingBook.htm.