The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met Wednesday to discuss workstation standardization as well as on undergraduate education.
Workstation standardization is an issue that deals with the outdating of computers. One of the goals of this FSEC meeting was to ensure that faculty and staff have needed IT desktop resources.
During the meeting, a proposal was drawn that would allow new computers to be bought every four years in order to keep the technology updated. UB would have leverage power in buying the computers and could save money by making large purchases.
Dr. Peter Nickerson, UB faculty senate chair, believes that the problem with outdated computers is a top priority at UB.
"We need to keep up to date here. The problem we have is expense," he said. "We need to make the expenses predictable as possible."
Following the proposal on computer technology, the Senate discussed the Freshman Seminar Discovery Program, which offers a small-class experience aimed at first year students.
The Seminars provides students with the opportunity to interact with a distinguished faculty member on a current topic in a faculty member's field. According to Michael E. Ryan, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, the program's goal is to introduce students to an intellectual setting and encourage exploration of their interests.
For the undecided major, these seminars can be particularly helpful, and can spark interest in a field, Ryan explained.
"The Discovery Seminar Program encompasses the undergraduate academies which are the scholarly communities comprised of faculty, students and staff having similar interests," he said.
"Civic engagement" and "research exploration" are two new seminars for fall 2007. Seminars from this past fall included "language myths" and "nanostructured materials, devices and applications."
The hope is that the Discovery Seminar Program will become an initiative to help separate UB from other colleges, according to Ryan. The semester-long seminars, which are conducted in small groups of 15 students, meet every week for 50 minutes.
"The concept is that these (academies) are mechanisms for us to provide a transparent focus of some of the great things we offer students such as study abroad, internships," he said.
All students are encouraged to join, but the target of the program is freshman and sophomore students.
Students receive one credit for being registered in the seminar but also the opportunity to engage with faculty members in small class size. They get to avoid enormous lecture halls that characterize freshman introductory classes, according to Nickerson.
"We want to make the undergraduate program distinctive, and to make research applicable to undergraduate life," Nickerson said. "The seminar is a different way of talking. We don't talk at someone in the seminars, but rather engage in discussions."
