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Student Affairs Committee (SAC) Minutes, September 11, 1998
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Minutes
Student Affairs Committee
Saratoga Springs, NY
September 11, 1998
10:30 AM to 3:50 PM
Present: Mary Klinger and Kimberly Kociencki (Co-Chairs), Tai Arnold, Nadia Carey, Clark Everling, John Farrell, David Gechlik, Justin Giordano, Elaine Handley, Maureen Kravec, Rae Rohfeld, Amy Ruth Tobol, Maureen Winney, Cindy Zaky
Absent: Myra Bloom, Patricia Haase, Bob Farrell, Laurie Casey, Hector Luis Rodriquez, Carolyn Barnett
Kim suggested a change in the meeting agenda to add subcommittee meetings during lunch, with reports back at the end of that time period.
Maureen Winney moved that we accept the February, May, and July, 1998 minutes. Cindy Zaky seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.
College meeting schedules: At the July meeting, SAC agreed to recommend that after 1999 the All College Conference be moved to Monday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Friday and the governance retreat be moved to Monday-Tuesday. Mary asked for discussion so that our recommendation could be as strong as possible. SAC agreed that the purpose of the change is to encourage more students to attend because they could travel on week ends and therefore lose fewer work days. Further discussion occurred on increasing student involvement. Kim said we need a firm alternate system. Members also thought adding to the minutes the names of those absent, as well as those present, could be helpful.
Mary commented that ASA and SAC often fail to interact. She wondered whether we could ask ASA presidents to help increase student participation. Maureen Winney pointed out that last spring letters went to the ASAs requesting that they suggest representatives to their center directors. Tai asked whether the letters could be stronger and say that it is ASA's responsibility to appoint a student representative to represent center students. Also, the letter should ask for alternates. The members clarified that SAC meetings are open.
Elaine moved, and Clark seconded, the recommendation on scheduling meetings, which was approved unanimously. Mary and Kim will forward the recommendation about meeting schedules.
Technology: Rae reported that she and Evelyn Ting (CLT) will meet with Jeremy Jones of the Empire State College Foundation to discuss the possibility of low-interest loans for students whose finances impede their ability to buy a computer. Maureen Winney suggested the request be for no-interest loans. There was some discussion about seeing what other schools do about computers access. There was also discussion about the variation among Empire State College units in computer availability and the need to try to equalize access among the units.
Other areas the technology committee is interested in include identifying or producing information pieces for students and publicizing existing College resources, such as the virtual library and the new staff person to help students use electronic learning resources. The emerging Virtual Student Center, demonstrated later in the meeting, is another resource that can be of great benefit to student life.
Writing: Elaine reported The Writer's Complex recently added three book reviews on learning disabilities. She suggested possibly linking these reviews to something in the Virtual Student Center when the latter is ready. The Writer's Complex is producing a new brochure which can also serve as a flyer to post on student bulletin boards. She also said that MathTalk, a quantitative counterpart to The Writer's Complex, is coming soon.
Honors Society: Committee members wanted to achieve closure on this issue. Mary observed that both the honors society and an alternative, the honors project, have been controversial and opposed by many faculty. On the other hand, many students have been interested in having an opportunity for honors, often as a way of enhancing graduate school applications. Members discussed how to make the honors project available in a way that would be a student-initiated option. An idea discussed was establishing a college-wide committee of interested faculty to develop guidelines and be resource people for honors projects. SAC would have to recommend this to APLPC.
Maureen Kravec brought up the idea of recognizing student service to the institution through designated awards. Maureen Winney said that alumni organization gives outstanding alumni awards for service, and an award for students could be added to this. Elaine mentioned that FORUM East gives its own awards at graduation. She also suggested we find out what other distance learning schools do.
Cindy moved that SAC recommend to APLPC the adoption of an honors project as an option for students. To implement this option, a faculty committee should be formed to design the program and identify faculty resources. Kim seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously. Maureen Winney will draft the recommendation to APLPC.
Justin moved that the College develop service awards for students. Cindy seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously. Tai will draft a memo to the administration.
Nadia expanded on her comments regarding the benefits that having chapters of national honor societies in different disciplines would have for students. The group discussed other ways of providing networking and information-sharing opportunities for students within specific disciplinary or professional concentrations. Tai suggested SAC might want to build into its agenda discussions on how to develop co-curricular activities in the College. Cindy mentioned that her ASA is trying to organize groups of people in similar areas to come together for lectures and other activities. Maureen Kravec noted that Many Waters is an example of a yearly publication where people can share their work. Elaine suggested that SAC ask area of study convenors to put a discussion of cocurricular activities on their agendas at the October area of studies meeting. At the group's request, she agreed to raise the issue during the up-coming convenors meeting.
Participants agreed to terminate the Honors Program Subcommittee. After the area of studies meeting, SAC may want to establish a Subcommittee on Co-Curricular Activities.
After lunch, the subcommittees gave brief reports.
-Key issues of the Technology Subcommittee are: a) facilitating access to technology, b) expansion of faculty discussion and use of computers, and c) providing resources to help students use computers for interaction and learning resources.
-The Writing Subcommittee decided to develop a curriculum that can be taken to different locales for short residencies, starting with a one-day pilot and looking toward a three-day study. Maureen K. indicated it may be piloted at Fort Drum and/or in Watertown.
-The group discussing disabilities issues (not a formal subcommittee) reported on a new book by Dave DuBois and Nancy Gadbow , Learning Disabilities, Learning Styles and Learning Strategies. Mary also reported that some faculty at the Genesee Valley Center are writing pieces on how students with disabilities can work with mentors and other issues of disability.
Mary mentioned that the GVC is having ASA sponsor sessions on public issues of significance to students such as the Lifelong Education Tax Credit and other changes in the tax law. This seems like the kind of service for students that SAC wants to encourage.
Virtual Student Center: Evelyn Ting, director of CLT, presented this funded project which is in the early stages of development. Its purpose is to provide access for students to the World Wide Web for information, interaction and individual access to records. She surveyed the "construction site" and led a discussion of possibilities for ASA and SAC pages. The group suggested that ASA pages include: 1) a calendar of events, 2) contact information, 3) an annual agenda (committees, projects, etc.), 4) a conversation area, and 5) links to Empire State College and alumni house. The SAC page could include the same components as well as information about what SAC is and does. There was considerable interest in developing conversation areas, but Evelyn pointed out the challenge of starting and keeping conversations going. Kim talked about starting with new students and making sure they know about the sites available and are encouraged to use them. Ideas about the SAC page should go to Mary or Kim.
After the Virtual Student Center demonstration, announcements and discussions of other business items occurred.
The SUNY card is coming, but Empire State College is in the last group to get them. This is an access card that can serve as a library card, a bank card, a key, etc.
Affirmative action is yielding little diversity in faculty searches. Someone asked whether the College advertises in the Affirmative Action Register which goes free to readers. Another member observed that new graduates are generally looking for jobs in their academic disciplines, and sometimes Empire State College faculty ads sound more like advising positions. It is important that ads say "full-time, tenure track faculty position".
Meeting times: The group decided to change conference call times from 6:30 to 5:30 p.m. to avoid overlapping with study groups. In addition, instead of having all conference calls on Mondays, SAC will alternate Monday and Tuesday meetings. The new meeting schedule for the year is:
October 19, 1998 - Conference Call - 5:30 p.m.
December 1, 1998 - Conference Call - 5:30 p.m.
January 25, 1999 - Conference Call - 5:30 p.m.
March 2, 1999 - Conference Call - 5:30 p.m.
March 24-26, 1999 - All College Conference, Saratoga Springs
April 26, 1999 - Conference Call - 5:30 p.m.
June 15, 1999 - Conference Call - 5:30 p.m.
July 6-7, 1999 - Administrative/Governance Retreat
Meetings are expected to last one hour. The meeting notices and agendas will go to people in hard copy as well as by e-mail.
Communication: Mary noted that faculty and students report to their respective constituencies, but some representatives are absent from meetings and, therefore, cannot report. She indicated SAC will use ASA newsletters to report to students and post minutes of SAC meetings on the web.
Alumni participation in orientations was discussed, and greater efforts will be made to have at least one alumni representative at all orientations.
New issues for SAC: Kim reviewed past minutes to identify issues that had been discussed in the past. One was health care, and SAC might want to give further attention to this, especially to making group health insurance available. Maureen Winney will gather more information on this.
The issue of career counseling came up, and Amy said she was interested in this. She will explore what SAC could do and will head a new committee if others are interested. Members should tell her what they think would be helpful.
The meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m..
Respectfully submitted,
Rae Rohfeld 
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