BILL NUMBER: S6342A
SPONSOR: STAVISKY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to including a faculty or
staff member on the board of trustees of community colleges
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This legislation expands the Board of Trustees for community colleges to
include an eleventh, ex-officio, non-voting member who shall be elected
by and from among the faculty and staff of the college.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill amends subdivision 1 of section 6306 of the educa-
tion law to expand, from ten to eleven, the number of community college
trustees. The amendment provides that the eleventh member shall be
elected by and from among the faculty and staff of the college as an
ex-officio and non-voting member.
Section 2 of the bill contains the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
SUNY community colleges are currently administered by a separate Board
of Trustees composed of ten members, five appointed by the local legis-
lative body or board, or other appropriate governing agency; four by the
governor and one member elected by and from among the students at the
college. There is no faculty or staff representation on any of the
boards. Consequently, faculty input is often limited to a few minutes
during the "public comment', period of trustee meetings. Since the
faculty and staff interact with the students daily, they are keenly
aware of what is going at their institutions and what policy decisions
may or may not be working. This legislation seeks to give faculty/staff
a voice, albeit a non-voting one, on their boards of trustees.
The SUNY Board of Trustees was recently expanded to include the Presi-
dent of the University Faculty Senate as a non-voting, ex-officio
member. The inclusion of a faculty member has resulted in a collabora-
tive improvement between the trustees, administrators, and faculty, all
in furtherance of the SUNY mission. Including community college
faculty/staff on their boards will yield the same results.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S6342: 6306 education law, 6306(1) education law