Guydosh's Report on 
The SUNY University Faculty Senate
Spring 2004 Meeting

As Plattsburgh State's University Faculty Senator, I recently represented our Plattsburgh campus at the Spring 2004 plenary meeting of the University Faculty Senate at the Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. The University Senate's mission is to represent the voice of SUNY Faculty state-wide. It is composed of faculty representatives from each of the State University campuses and is organized much as our own local Faculty Senate. 

After the customary welcome by local dignitaries, University Faculty Senate President Joe Hildreth presented a report on recent issues and topics.  Among those:  Chancellor Robert King has proposed a yearly tuition increase which would be linked to the Higher Education Price Index.  Discussions are beginning on a new funding formula to replace the current Budget Allocation Process, which is working poorly in these current times of diminishing State support.  Fourteen of fifteen campuses which offer teacher education programs have completed changes required for SUNY's New Visions in Teacher Education initiative.  The Faculty Development Task Force is completing a report on best practices.  Chancellor King's strong request to the University Faculty Senate to develop a set of policies and procedures concerning academic integrity among the Faculty has been passed onto one of the UFS standing committees.  

Former journalist Garrick Utley has been selected to be president of SUNY's new Levin Institute (of International Relations and Commerce).  A search for a Provost is now underway.  Utley commented on his vision for the new campus, which will begin by "borrowing faculty and courses" from other campuses.  The Institute is to operate on grant money after its initial $3 million start-up allocation for the current year.  In my perception, Utley seemed more acquainted with the ways of academe than I would have expected; however, it is evident that he will have opportunity to learn even more as he struggles to build an academic institution from scratch.

Chancellor Robert King spoke briefly (at lunch in an area with poor acoustics) saying that the University is continuing to thrive.  He claimed that, counting continuing education students, SUNY now has about 1.5 million students.  SAT percentile scores, research grant money, and philanthropy are all on the increase.  King mentioned again that the BAP method is under revision, in order to "more strategically allocate resources" within the University.  Some faculty present asked King to consider more exactly how his plan to fix a student's tuition level when a student first enters SUNY would actually operate in practice when applied to students who enter and then transfer within the system.  (King had apparently not yet considered that possibility in detail.)  The Chancellor also made several remarks concerning the system-wide assessment resolution about to be considered by the Senate.