Faculty representatives discussed concrete steps toward UB 2020's campus improvements as well as changes to University policies regarding Campus Cash, textbook royalties and the registration schedule during Tuesday's general meeting session.
Peter Nickerson, director of the pathology graduate program at the UB Medical School, reported on the Faculty Student Association's (FSA) efforts to make Campus Cash more widely accepted.
"The FSA has expanded Campus Cash to a variety of local vendors, not only on campus but also around UB," Nickerson said. "Tops has come onboard and now accepts Campus Cash. Wegmans does not, but we are still negotiating with other vendors."
Satish Tripathi, UB provost, delivered a brief speech about the ethical concerns that surround textbook royalties.
"During my conference in California, we discussed the issue of conflict of interest; the fiasco around student loans and third party kickbacks," Tripathi said. "Another conflict of interest is faculty members receiving royalties on their own books, which they require their students to purchase."
To explain how this conflict of interest applies to UB, Tripathi pointed out the mandatory lab manual requirement for many University science courses. He stated that faculty members could be perceived as "profiteers" because they often coauthor and receive royalties on these manuals.
"If we allow alternative but equivalent versions and give students a choice, that would make it more palatable," Tripathi said. "Some schools do not allow their professors to make royalties from their books. For other schools, the royalty money goes to a scholarship fund for the students."
John Simpson, UB president, disagreed with Tripathi's assessment. He argued that the professors deserve compensation for their work and that it is ethical for a professor to promote his or her own textbook.
"It strikes me as bizarre that this royalty issue is a conflict of interest. Many of our faculty publish seminal works that are the standard texts in their disciplines. They have every right to use their own books for their classes." Simpson said. "I think the policy should be that professors should receive royalty for their books - period."
Proposed changes to registration procedures were also discussed. Kara Saunders, assistant vice provost of undergraduate education, advocated for greater flexibility in drop/add dates.
"As opposed to now when we have one drop/add date for all students, we can have drop/add dates tailored for different groups, different schools, different majors. This may better suit the unique circumstances of each group," Saunders said.
Saunders presented a slideshow depicting an updated administrative system that will facilitate the implementation of the proposed policy changes. At the core of the system is a massive yet-to-be-determined software program that will unify the plethora of incomplete and often redundant databases that exist now.
Saunders currently oversees a three-phase project to develop this software.
"The student system is the IT behind the scenes to answer the undergraduate, graduate, faculty and professional needs of the University," Saunders said. "In our project, we are trying to find a new student system to integrate everything into one common database."
Saunders said that she anticipates that the software upgrade will realize one aspect of the UB 2020 strategic vision: transforming operations. This project, she said, will address some weak points in UB's information and database systems.
"Right now, we have a lack of flexibility, limits to functionality, a lack of integration and no room for future growth," she said. "The new software will unify the fragmented databases from different departments. Information will be captured once and shared with everyone."
According to Saunders, her project team has already identified 3,700 qualities and characteristics that the computer program must possess.
Three companies, SunGard Banner, SAP and Oracle PeopleSoft have offered to develop the software and are slated to demonstrate their prototypes to UB officials in late September and early October. Contract negotiations will begin in December, and UB will also hire an integration firm to ease the technological transition.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
