MINUTES OF THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIXTH PLENARY SESSION

OF THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE

OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

November 24, 1998

Chair Sohmer called the session to order at 6:30 p.m. in the Harold Proshansky Auditorium of the Graduate School and University Center. Present were Senators from the following campuses: Baruch: Hill and Otte. BMCC: Friedman, Price, Vozick, and Young. Bronx CC: Fuld. Brooklyn: Bell, Jacobson, Shapiro, and Tobey. CCNY: Chenzira, Connorton, Crain, Grossman, and Sohmer. CSI: Cooper S. Levine, Petratos, and Yousef. CUNY Law School: James. Graduate School: Baumrin, Rothman, King, and Alternate Burr. Hostos CC: Canate, and Cardona. Hunter: Kurzman, Matthews, Neville, and Steinberg. John Jay: Bohigian, Clark, Davenport, Kaplowitz, and Rodriguez. Kingsborough CC: Galvin, Goodkin, O’Malley and Alternate Hesse. LaGuardia CC: Beaky, Gallagher, Mettler, and Reitano. Lehman: Bullaro, Feinerman, Knobloch, Mineka, and Nathanson. Medgar Evers: Harris-Hastick. NYC Technical: Cermele, Derany, Donoghue, Norton, Walter, and Alternate Hounion. Queens: Brady, Cairns, Diamond, Franco, Frisz, Kulkarni, and Savage. Queensborough CC: Barbanel, Dahbany-Miraglia, Gellman, and Greenbaum. York: Cooper A, Doss, and Odenyo. Professors McCall, Richter, and Sherrill were excused. Governance Leaders present: Cooper (York), Feinerman (Lehman), Fuld (Bronx CC), Kaplowitz (John Jay), Kurzman (Hunter), Levine (CSI), and Perlstein (BMCC). The Parliamentarian was Professor Cardona (Hostos CC). Executive Director Phipps and Administrative Assistant Pasela were present.

I. Approval of the Agenda: Items III. b., Report of the Interim Chancellor and III.d., Report concerning the New Proficiency Exam, were both deleted due to the speakers’ illness. The agenda was adopted as amended.

II. Approval of the Minutes of September 1998: The Minutes were amended to include the attendance of Professor Reitano (LaGuardia) and then approved.

III. Reports: [Since the majority of business at this session was approval of resolutions, Reports are briefly summarized below. There will be no Reports & Deliberations section this month.]

a. Chair (oral and written): Chair Sohmer opened his report with notes on the activities of the Committee on Public Higher Education, a group being revived from previously troubled days at CUNY in an attempt to influence public opinion through the dissemination of facts.

Trustees attending the Brooklyn Borough Hearing were presented with a report on workload at NYC Technical College. A reduction from 27 to 18 was proposed by the new President. Serious discussion continues.

There had been a monthly Board meeting the previous night. The search for a President at QCC was raised and discussed, over the reluctance of Chair Paolucci. Since the President at QCC seems neither to have resigned or been dismissed, the matter was awkward.

He had written a lengthy letter to the Chair about the current ineffective procedures in the search for a Chancellor. The search terminated last spring when the committee, not unanimously, forwarded three names to the Board. Chair Paolucci said the names had to be cleared with the Governor and the Mayor. They have both refused to do so, and the search is now in stasis. Yesterday’s meeting was filmed by CUNY-TV and will be seen on Channel 75 unedited.

Chair Sohmer requested Professor Levine, Chair of the Budget Advisory Committee, to report on the CUNY Budget Request. Professor Levine noted contractual increases, inflation, and a 5% increase for real growth. The Budget Request also presents a five-year plan and a large section on academic matters, containing ideas that are excellent proposals and worthy of discussion. Professor Levine suggested waiting for the Governor’s reaction before detailed discussion of the proposals.

Chair Sohmer reported on action taken by the Board on the Proficiency Exam. The exam, written by CUNY faculty, now needs norming and validation. Yesterday’s resolution affirmed three things: the exam will be used for going beyond the 45^th to 60^th credit, as a graduation requirement for all community college degrees, and for all transfer students. Further, the Chancellor is charged to form an implementation committee. It is not clear whether faculty will be included on the committee. This policy will apply to students entering in September 1999 and will affect students in 2000 or 2001 depending on how you count.

Unclear items in the policy include how many times a student may take the exam. Several weeks ago the answer was no more than twice. Then the answer was they may fail it twice, meaning three attempts. Yesterday, national norms for professional and certifying exams that have no limit were discussed – there is no clear answer. The other question is what happens with students during the repeat process? The presidents voiced real concern for their students, but no time frame for resolving these questions was discussed.

The Chair responded to the following questions: [Note questions and answers are paraphrased and not exact quotes.]

Professor Levine (Engineering Science and Physics, CSI) asked on behalf of the Budget Advisory Committee whether discussion has occurred about using the test scores as a performance evaluator for budgetary purposes? / Not in public. There has been no hint of using the test to gauge faculty performance.

Professor Frisz (Student Personnel, Queens) inquired about discussion on special preparation or review sessions to prepare students for this exam. / The Board answers all questions like this by saying they will be addressed locally and not centrally controlled.

Professor S. Cooper (History, CSI) commented on the need for faculty to volunteer their classes, particularly in English, to participate in the sampling this semester. This test came from the initiative of the Discipline Councils and our colleagues, she said.

Professor Crain (Psychology, CCNY) asked about the Senate’s formulating some guidelines for the number of times that the test may be taken, and factoring in grade point average as an indicator of overall performance. He was particularly concerned that this test become an educational opportunity rather than a barrier. / We are urging that implementation committee include a fair number of knowledgeable faculty in this respect.

Professor A. Cooper (English, York) stressed faculty involvement at the campus level when this policy comes from 80^th Street and is interpreted by campus administrators.

Professor Reitano (History, LaGuardia) noted concern about the vague structure of the implementation committee. She remarked that the Vice Chancellor refers to a committee of four but a broader-based structure seemed more appropriate. Can the Senate formally request this? / Chair Sohmer agreed that the composition of the committee should go beyond English faculty and noted that the Executive Committee will be putting this forward next week.

1. Faculty Members of Board of Trustees Committees (written and predistributed.)

 

IV. Resolutions

1. On the Mayor’s Task Force: The Executive Committee proposed the following resolution, which was approved unanimously.

RESOLUTION ON MAYOR’S TASK FORCE

WHEREAS, the Mayor’s Task Force on CUNY has asserted that its investigation and conclusions will be objective and based on verifiable data and research, and

WHEREAS, skepticism exists about the objectivity of the Task Force, and

WHEREAS, the Task Force has announced that its recommendations would be derived from the information collected by, and reports composed by, RAND Education and PricewaterhouseCoopers,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the University Faculty Senate request that Benno Schmidt, the chair of the Task Force, publicly commit himself to releasing the RAND Education and PricewaterhouseCoopers reports (including appendixes, if any) no later than the time of the release of the Task Force Report.

2. On Financial Aid for Graduate Students: The Executive Committee moved the following resolutions which were approved without dissent.

TWO RESOLUTIONS ON FINANCIAL AID FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

WHEREAS, the CUNY Graduate School is one of the University’s stellar constituencies, and

WHEREAS, CUNY is at a competitive disadvantage with other graduate schools because of the limited annual financial support it offers its doctoral students,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the University Faculty Senate request that the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees make the development of multi-year support for graduate students a high priority.

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WHEREAS, legislative financial support enables students from SEEK, HEOP, and EOP to pursue graduate studies at SUNY,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that CUNY request the same Legislative financial support in the form of tuition waivers and stipends for CUNY students who are graduates of SEEK, HEOP, and EOP that SUNY has won for students engaging in post-baccalaureate programs.

V. New Business: Three resolutions were brought as new business.

1. Resolution to Honor Professor William Crain: Professor O’Malley presented the following resolution on behalf of the Executive Committee. It was adopted unanimously, without dissent, and with much applause.

 

RESOLUTION TO HONOR PROFESSOR WILLIAM CRAIN

WHEREAS, William Crain, Professor in the Department of Psychology at City College and member of the University Faculty Senate, has been a staunch supporter of open admissions and access, and

WHEREAS, Professor Crain has been an advocate of the public’s right to know about deliberations preceding the recommendations and decisions of the Board of Trustees, and

WHEREAS, to ensure open meetings of the Board of Trustees, as required by law, Professor Crain independently, at his own initiative and expense, has instituted a successful lawsuit against the Board of Trustees, and

WHEREAS, this law suit to guarantee open meetings has staved off the draconian alterations in admissions at the senior colleges so that students who wish to attend senior colleges can have the necessary academic support, and

WHEREAS, Professor Crain’s actions epitomize what a citizen can do both to deter harm and to defend the community,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the University Faculty Senate express its appreciation to Professor Crain for his foresight, resolve, and actions to ensure that the public have information and that students have justice.

2. Resolution Calling for the Mayor’s Task Force to Hold Public Hearings: The resolution was presented jointly by the Community College Caucus and the Executive Committee. It was adopted unanimously.

 

RESOLUTION CALLING FOR MAYOR’S TASK FORCE

TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARINGS

WHEREAS, the charge of the Mayor's Advisory Task Force on the City University

of New York, created by Executive Order on May 6, 1998, presumes the desirability of finding "the best means of arranging for third-parties to provide remediation services to ensure that prospective CUNY students can perform college level work prior to their admission to CUNY," and

WHEREAS, the members of said Task Force are affiliated with the privatization of education or are political appointees,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the University Faculty Senate express its professional concern about the ability of the Task Force to conduct an objective study of CUNY; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that, in the interests of promoting objectivity, the University Faculty Senate urge the Task Force to hold open hearings for faculty, students, and other interested parties.

3. Resolution of Support for President Lattin: The resolution was moved by Chair Sohmer. After discussion and the deletion of one Whereas, it was adopted by voice vote with a few nays.

RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT LATTIN

 Whereas, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Anne A. Paolucci, has criticized the President of Brooklyn College for his analysis of certain issues in public higher education in a Commencement address, and

Whereas, President Lattin did not even mention the CUNY Board of Trustees but was addressing State policy, and

Whereas, the terms of her criticism are that Presidents of CUNY colleges are expected to advocate and support in their public roles the policies of the Board of Trustees and the political decisions of the Governor, and

Whereas, Presidents, no less than faculty and students of the University, are entitled to exercise their academic freedom and their Constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression,

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the University Faculty Senate APPLAUDS Dr. Vernon Lattin, President of Brooklyn College, for his forthrightness in expressing his concerns about the direction that public higher education is taking, and

Be It Further Resolved, that the University Faculty Senate REJECTS Dr. Paolucci's characterization of Presidential duties as automatically including public support of Board and State policy, and

Be It Finally Resolved, that the two foregoing conclusions be transmitted to all the recipients of the Board Chairperson's letter of November 19, 1998 to President Vernon Lattin.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:25 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

William Phipps, Executive Director