Address any questions or comments on the content of this update to the Faculty Senate Chair at a Senate meeting or via email at faculty-senate@buffalo.edu. Suggestions of items to include in future Updates are welcome.
This is the final FS Update for fall 2025. I will be back in touch in late January 2026. Best wishes for a happy New Year.
This update focuses on five issues of concern to faculty:
During yesterday's senate meeting, a senator reported that a UB student’s partner, who is in the US on an F2 visa, has been detained by ICE. After the meeting, I reached out to the Vice Provost for International Education, Nojin Kwak, who told me that his office has been working with the student as they try to get their partner released from custody. The student has hired an immigration attorney and has received some emergency financial assistance from International Student Services. The student may welcome additional assistance from faculty. If you would be willing to help, let me know and I will pass along any information I receive about opportunities to contribute to the student’s legal or other expenses.
Yesterday’s senate meeting also featured first readings of three resolutions, which will be given second readings at our February 17 meeting, at which time they may be amended and voted on. Your senators can send you the draft resolutions if you want to read them. I will just mention one of the three: the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility drafted a resolution that calls on UB to develop a new policy on recording faculty meetings, to include such matters as publicizing the fact that a recording will be made, making provisions to opt out of the recording or have some meetings or parts of meetings not be recorded, and establishing rules for disposing of recordings. If you have thoughts on these issues, please contact your unit’s senators.
I attended all three open listening sessions chaired by the search firm. Members of the search committee also attended. The mix of faculty and staff and student participants varied by campus, but the major concerns expressed overlapped: support for research; student services; commitment to shared governance and transparency in decision making, particularly around budget issues; continued emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as work with international partners; awareness of our responsibility to be a good neighbor to Buffalo communities, etc.
I very much enjoyed listening to the comments and came away believing that UB needs more cross-disciplinary and cross-campus conversations about our mission among faculty, staff, and students. My hope is that the Faculty Senate can do more to promote such sessions in future. I welcome your thoughts on this.
Frank Scannapieco, Chair of the Faculty Senate Library Committee, reported that Lockwood Library will be emptied beginning in summer 2026 to prepare for a major renovation with support from SUNY. The building may be closed for four years beginning in late spring 2027. The librarians will work out of Baldy Hall offices, and the books will be delivered to campus from the Annex. The Libraries do not expect their ability to provide materials to faculty and students to be impaired during the renovation, but student study space on North Campus will decrease. Efforts are being made to identify additional space for that purpose. After the renovations, some of the Lockwood space will be devoted to classrooms and other academic purposes. There will be many fewer books on shelves. The collection of physical books is being "weeded” according to a set of principles designed by the Libraries to ensure that accessibility to resources will not be reduced. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Frank and/or me.
around faculty assigning textbooks and other teaching materials for which they receive royalties or fees. The Policy Review Group (PRG) will soon consider recommending the adoption of such a policy. The draft policy will be made available for comment from the university community for 30 days before it is finalized. If you are interested in this issue, please make a note to monitor the 30-Day Review page of the UB Policy Library. Weekly UUP emails also call attention to draft policies undergoing 30-day reviews, so consider signing up for those if you haven’t already.
The SUNY University Faculty Senate (UFS) president, Bruce Simon, has collaborated on an Open Letter to Governor Hochul in regard to the state budget for 2026-2027. You can view it at the link above and sign it, if you like, via the link at the end of the letter.
The SUNY University Faculty Senate Committee on Graduate Programs and Research has opened a survey related to AI use for faculty and another for graduate students. If relevant to your work, please consider taking it and forwarding the link to the graduate student survey to your students:
"Perceptions and Usage of AI in Research or Creative Activities" A research study to evaluate and understand faculty researchers’ experiences and perceptions of using AI for a variety of tasks while conducting, analyzing, and reporting research or creative activities.
Faculty link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/33F37G8
Graduate Student link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3339MWD