College Council Meeting Minutes October 27, 2022

1. Welcome and Call to Order: College Council Chair, James McMahon called the meeting to order via Zoom Video Conference at 2:07 p.m. McMahon introduced and welcomed the newest member of the College Council – Tara FitzGibbons, a SUNY Oswego alumna who currently serves as business manager at FitzGibbons Agency LLC, a local and independent full-service insurance agency in Oswego, N.Y.

2. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting: James McMahon asked for a motion to approve the minutes from the May 24, 2022 College Council meeting. Darlene Baker made a motion to approve; Richard Farfaglia seconded. All were in favor. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved by the Council.

3. Alumni Report: Alumna Jennifer Janes reported that the Alumni and Engagement office played a larger role this year in the Welcome Week Events where they welcomed more than 1,000 new and transfer students to SUNY Oswego. The college held its second annual Founders Weekend at the end of September into early October. More than five hundred students, faculty and staff participated in many different events. A highlight of the weekend was the 1861 Giving Challenge, with 931 donors contributingmore than $112,000, which unlocked the challenge gift of an additional $100,000 from alumni Jeff and Ginger Sorensen. Janes recapped Reunion 2022 and encouraged College Council members to mark their calendars for Reunion 2023: June 8 – 11.

4. Faculty Report: Faculty Assembly Chair Elizabeth Dunne Schmitt gave a report that detailed the following.

• Curriculum Development: The Undergraduate Curriculum Council (UCC) approved 15 new undergraduate courses/course revisions.
  
  
• Program Revisions: Accreditor-based recommended revisions to programs in Art & Design are working their way through approval, including a new minor in actuarial studies.
  
  
• SUNY Oswego has adopted a new online system/software, Curriculog, which will help with timely routing of new courses and programs, version consistency and archiving.
  
  
• Faculty is actively calling for nominations for the review of academic officers: Dean of Extended Learning, Director of the Library, Dean of Graduate Studies, and the Provost are currently up in the rotation for review. Faculty also held elections for new faculty members to serve on the Presidential Search Committee.
  
  
• SUNY Oswego Archivist Zachary Vickery is helping Faculty Assembly update their archives in the Penfield collections.
  
  
• The following outside reports were produced to educate faculty representatives:
• Update on Starfish Early Alert on 9/12
• Curriculog Presentation on 9/26
• Presentation by University Policy, the Behavioral Intervention Team and the Bias Prevention and Response Team on 10/10 iv. Academic Affairs update on 10/10
• Graduate Studies update on 10/24
• Third party applications and the Digital Learning Environment (DLE) on 10/24

Schmitt concluded her report by sharing that there have been requests coming in from students and faculty to consider the names of the residence halls that exist on the west side of campus: Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga and Oneida halls. According to Schmitt, most of our halls and buildings are named after people, and these are named after nations. Many have asked whether or not it's time to re-examine whether that is appropriate, and whether we should consider different names. Schmitt believes that we'll probably see this discussion making it to the floor of Faculty Assembly and the Student Association as well, and then ultimately to the College Council.

Brian McGrath pointed out that these halls also have the names of counties located in Central, Upstate and Western New York. Vice President Kathleen Kerr added that in consultation with CDIO Kendra Cadogan, staff in the Triandiflou Institute looked through the archives and discovered that in 1963 these residence halls were named after and in honor of the nations. Our archivist at SUNY Oswego continues to research the history of the naming of these residence halls.

5. Student Association (SA) Report: SA President Tom Ehrhard shared the report of the Student Association, highlighting what has been accomplished this fall (2022):

• Partnership with Shining Waters and the Sustainability Office

• Started a Club outreach program and established “drop-in” hours

• SA directors are making themselves known to clubs and organizations to foster communication, especially ALANA and media organizations

• SA Directors helped to attend and plan events and activities, particularly working with Kae Jimenez and the LGBTQ+ Fair, and Brooke Ginger on HEERF funding

• Sitting on relevant committees to further cooperation with students, faculty, organizations, and the community

• SA Senate is finally up and running and committees are filled

• SA Bylaws have been analyzed and main issues identified

• Working with Campus Rec for a campus wide event in the spring 2023

• SA participated in the Vote Oswego program to get the word out and get more students registered to vote

Ehrhard also spoke on the future plans SA has for the remainder of the 2022-2023 academic year. This includes improving transparency through greater interactions with clubs and organizations; working with Rice Creek and the Sustainability Office for programming and sustainability initiatives such as Earth Week; raising awareness of men’s mental health awareness month and improving mental health access for students; seeking input from students on heating/cooling on campus, construction projects, and the impact of Micron; and working to change SA’s director of finance post to a professional position.

6. Campus Update: Vice President of Administration and Finance Victoria Furlong provided the fall 2022 campus update on behalf of Officer in Charge Mary C. Toale.
Vice President Furlong briefed the members of the College Council on the status of SUNY Oswego’s Fall 2022 Enrollment. She also provided several university updates, including the New York State 2022-2023 budget, SUNY Oswego’s 2022-2023 budget, the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), SUNY Oswego COVID-19 related expenses, new hires and current searches, the latest on capital construction projects, and various campus updates and initiatives.

In her update, Furlong highlighted the new SUNY funding earmarked for full-time faculty ($53 million) and for strategic investments in enrollment ($60 million) across SUNY in 2022-2023. From these system-wide funds, SUNY Oswego will receive $500,000 for four new full-time faculty and $500,000 for strategic investments to positively affect enrollment efforts (yield, retention and recruitment).

Additional discussion ensued about SUNY Oswego’s recent diverse hires and the university’s continued efforts to recruit, attract and hire a more diverse workforce. Furlong also shared with the College Council that SUNY Oswego recently received official reaccreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. She emphasized the university’s commitment and focus on its institutional priorities of student success, inclusive community, academic and creative excellence, partnerships, and sustainable institution.

The College Council was briefed on the new Wall Street Café (in Rich Hall) that will be student-run beginning in spring 2023. The Dean of the School of Business is working with the university’s Auxiliary Services and alumnus Ed Alberts to support and develop a living-learning laboratory for students to operate this on-campus, entrepreneurial operation.

Further discussion followed on SUNY Oswego receiving university designation, which will go into effect January 2023. We will promote to our campus community and the general public sometime during the first two weeks of January.

7. Executive Session: Chair James McMahon asked for a motion for the College Council to go into Executive Session. Brian McGrath made a motion; Tara FitzGibbons seconded. All were in favor. The College Council moved into Executive Session at 3:25 p.m.

8. Old Business: Upon returning to the meeting after Executive Session, there was no old business to discuss.

9. New Business: Tara Fitzgibbons asked about facility fees for the community. Discussion ensued about student fees and community fees at SUNY Oswego and the university’s stance to charge community partners the appropriate at-cost, inexpensive facility fees (Lee Hall, Swetman Gym, Marano Campus Center, Romney Hall, fitness centers, etc.) to ensure that the operating expenses to run these facilities are not all passed on to the students.

Chair James McMahon entertained a motion to adjourn. Richard Farfaglia made a motion; Darlene Baker seconded. All were in favor and the meeting was adjourned at 3:47 p.m.