November Meeting Snapshot

SUNYLA Snapshot for November 16, 2011 at FIT

The early morning portion of the meeting was devoted to an open discussion regarding the Distinguished Librarian Rank and the role of Librarians in faculty governance and other campus wide roles.

Dan Harms from Cortland reported that his campus discovered a mistake/miscommunication originating from SUNY Provost Office in the August memo that was sent out to campuses seeking nominations for Distinguished Faculty ranks. Although ranks for Professorship, Service Professorship and Teaching Professorship were listed, the memo neglected to mention the Librarianship category. SUNYLA President, April Davies will be sending a formal letter to the SUNY Provost with a gentle reminder to include all ranks in next year’s memo.

SUNY Maritime delegate, Kimmy Szeto, reported that during the recent presidential search on his campus, the faculty body made the decision that library department faculty were not eligible to represent the faculty on the presidential search committee. This decision was based on the language found in the Board of Trustees guidelines for conducting a presidential search.

President April Davies sent an official letter to the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries responding to their preliminary recommendations to the New York State Board of Regents (see Creating the Future: A 2020 Vision and Plan).

1st VP Rosanne Humes has been working to ensure that all delegates are on the SUNLA Council email list serve. Work on the Delegate Toolkit has continued. The SUNY-Related Acronyms and Organizations has been updated. She asks that members review and let her know if there are any additions or corrections that need to be made.

2nd VP Conference Chair Sarah Morehouse reported that the call for proposals is almost ready to be sent out. The theme for this year is Fashioning the Future of Libraries. The conference will be held June 6-8 at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She’s still working on the “bring your own linens” issue since the dorms do not provide linens for guests. The keynote speaker will (likely) be Mary Madden; however, this was not entirely confirmed at the time of the council meeting. For more information on the conference and to find out how to get involved, visit the following website.  http://sunyla2012.wordpress.com/

Remember CIT Conference is happening at SUNY Stonybrook, May 29-June 1, and the 3T’s Conference will be held in Albany, March 16th.

Next council meeting will be on March 15th in the Albany area, possibly at Empire State College in Saratoga Springs. Stay tuned.