University Programs & Awards Committee

University Programs & Awards Committee

SUNY University Faculty Senate

Plenary Meeting

April 2010

SUNY New Paltz

Conversations in the Disciplines:

The Committee developed and used ‘in-house’ review guidelines to aid us in the evaluation of this round of CID proposals. The Committee met April 16, 2010, by teleconference to select the awardees. We were able to fund 7 proposals for a total of $30,000.
A teleconference was used this year rather than our usual in-person meeting because we only received 9 applications, many fewer than in previous years. We believe that fewer proposals may have been due to an earlier than usual deadline. We advanced the deadline in response to requests from applicants for an earlier award notification so that conference planning could be initiated earlier. To increase the application pool for next round, two rather than the usual one call for proposals will go out to campuses. Notices to campuses will go out on October 4, 2010, then again on January 10, 2011. The deadline will be March 11, 2011, and the Committee will try to meet by mid-April.
Again, the Committee wishes to express gratitude to Dr. Kulathur Rajasethupathy of Brockport for having created and continuing to host the website for the CID grants program. This has saved the System considerable time and money as paper copies are no longer made and mailed. We remain concerned that little progress has been made to transfer the website to the SUNY System, and urge UFS President O’Brien to continue efforts in this regard.

Chancellor’s Excellence Awards:

The Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence process ran smoothly this year. We received 216 nominations from the SUNY campuses and 213 were approved and moved forward to the Chancellor for review and approval. The number of nominations received this year from the campuses was slightly lower than the previous academic year (234).
The change to the eligibility guidelines that now states that nominees must have completed three academic years of full-time appointment out of the five years prior to the year of nomination was well-received by the campuses. As a result, campuses were able to nominate individuals that would have otherwise not been eligible due to being on leave for a semester for reasons such as, maternity, sabbatical, etc.
It is anticipated that all awards packages for academic year 2009-2010 (recipient’s letter, certificate and medallion) will be mailed to the campus presidents no later than April 21, 2010 for distribution to their recipients.

Since their inception, the Excellence Awards have only been for full-time tenured or tenure-track instructional faculty. Some campuses have expressed the desire to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of part-time or qualified academic rank faculty (e.g., adjunct, visiting, research, clinical professors, among others). The Committee continues to encourage the creation of campus-based awards to recognize excellence for individuals not covered by the existing Excellence Awards. To help in this regard, the Committee has assembled a document detailing awards guidelines that some campuses have created to recognize part-time or qualified academic rank faculty. This document is attached. Unfortunately the response rate from campuses was low. Still, it is hoped that the information provided may help campuses develop their own guidelines.

Distinguished Faculty Ranks:

For the fall 2009 review cycle, 8 Distinguished Professor nominees were recommended by the University Provost for promotion; they were approved at the November Board of Trustees meeting.
For the spring 2010 review cycle, still in process, 7 Distinguished Professor, 9 Distinguished Service Professor, and 14 Distinguished Teaching Professor nominations were received. It is anticipated that all evaluations of these nominations will be completed by the end of April 2010. Those recommended by the University Provost for promotions in rank will be forwarded for approval by the Board of Trustees at their May 2010 meeting.
Of note is that this is the first year using the revised guidelines and the newly constituted DTP and DSP Advisory Councils, mirroring the already existing DP Advisory Council. Both of these new advisory councils have met and participants felt that the new evaluation process worked very well. Members made several suggestions for advancing and streamlining future meetings.
Also, this is the first time since 2008 that a dinner honoring new Distinguished Faculty will be held. Two are planned (May 3rd in Albany and May 6th in Syracuse) because of the number of new promotions (76 to be exact) since the last dinner. The interval between the 2008 and 2010 dinners is linked to the gap between permanent chancellors.

Website Presence:

The Awards Committee liaisons and members still desire to have several data bases archived on either the UFS or Chancellor’s website, as appropriate. These include Chancellor’s awardees, distinguished rank faculty, CID awardees, and recipients of Honorary Degrees. It would be beneficial to have these archives searchable by campus, type of recognition, name of recipient, and year of conferral.

Members & Liaisons: