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.
Happy New Year of the Horse! 马年大吉！
This update focuses on six topics:
Please mark your calendars for Shared Governance Day, March 3, 3 – 4:30, via Zoom (the link will be sent out closer to the date). The event is being organized this year by the Professional Staff Senate and features a town hall conversation with SUNY University Faculty Senate President Bruce Simon, SUNY Faculty Council of Community Colleges President Candice Vacin, and SUNY Student Assembly President Luca Rallis (a Stony Brook student). You can propose questions to be included in the Town Hall via this link.
At its meeting on Feb 17, among other business the Senate passed a resolution calling on UB to create a policy regulating the recording of faculty meetings and endorsed four SUNY Faculty Senate Resolutions. It heard first readings of a resolution from the Academic Policies and Grading Committee concerning policies on departmental honors, resolutions from the Tenure, Promotion and Privileges Committee concerning adjustments in regard to the service sections of the tenure and promotion dossier and calling for greater transparency on clinical faculty promotion procedures, and resolutions from the Bylaws Committee clarifying our governance documents. All of the resolutions presented for first readings have been made available via One Drive to senators, who can share them with constituents in their unit, if requested to. Senators can also add comments and questions to the text of the resolutions before they are considered and voted on at our March 31 meeting. We hope that this encourages deeper engagement with the resolutions and amendments that will improve them.
Each academic unit is conducting or has already conducted elections for new or returning faculty senators to serve two-year terms beginning July 1. If you are interested in serving as a senator and have not heard about your unit’s elections, reach out to your unit’s governance body or dean’s office. Faculty Senate Secretary Turquessa Francis can let you know if your unit has reported on its elections yet.
In a few weeks the Senate will send out a survey soliciting your ideas on issues the Senate should take up. The survey will also invite you to volunteer to serve on one of our committees, which play essential roles in improving UB and ensuring that faculty viewpoints are considered when the administration makes decisions and policies. Please do consider volunteering. Committees set their agendas in conversation with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and set their meeting times according to the availability of their members.
Chief Information Officer Heath Tuttle announced to the committee that a new system will soon be put in place that should streamline the process of granting permission for faculty to have administrative privileges on their UB-owned computers. His office will publicize this soon, with a clear explanation of what the new system will and won’t allow. UB also plans to invest soon in new software that will facilitate transformation of pdfs into accessible documents. Again, an announcement about this should come out soon.
CATT’s Instructional Innovation Team offers many faculty development opportunities related to Generative AI, including one-on-one sessions with an AI Learning Designer, departmental trainings, a drop-in AI and Accessibility Lab held every Wednesday from 11:30 am – 2:30 pm in the AI Institute, room 215 Lockwood. CATT has recently redesigned the AI section of its website, and it now provides more resources than ever on teaching with Generative AI. Please visit the AI at UB website. This website is meant to serve as a repository for all of UB’s AI teaching resources, and other departments are encouraged to connect their sites, if they wish to do so.
University Facilities presents two presentations by its architectural consultants on their work for the UB community and the public.
All lectures take place at 5:30 p.m. in 403 Hayes Hall. No RSVP is required.