The Daily Bulletin Archive

From the Provost
In the past year, faculty and staff in Buffalo State’s teacher preparation programs were invited to participate in a dialogue regarding the unit’s institution-wide governance and operational structure. A report (Recommendations for Restructuring the Teacher Education Unit at Buffalo State) was prepared and released in February. Following review of the report’s recommendations and with extensive consultation, the following will be effective for the Buffalo State Teacher Education Unit as of September 1, 2011:

1. Leadership for the Teacher Education Unit will be vested in the Council of Deans at Buffalo State. The Council of Deans consists of the provost and the six deans (Arts and Humanities, Education, Graduate School, Natural and Social Sciences, Professions, University College). This action establishes a structure to ensure that “all deans should take increased responsibility for teacher education in order to continue to validate teacher education as central to the mission of Buffalo State.” Almost 93 percent of participants in the review survey strongly agreed or agreed with this statement. This arrangement also reflects the distributed nature of teacher preparation programs across all four academic schools. Acting as unit head, the Council of Deans will create operational processes to provide the required attention to institution-wide teacher education issues and affirm that expectations of external accrediting and regulatory entities are met.
    
2. Campus offices responsible for institution-wide teacher preparation initiatives will receive oversight and guidance from the Council of Deans. This action is in keeping with recommendations in the report. Institution-wide units are the Teacher Certification Office, the NCATE/CAEP Accreditation Office, the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education (CEURE), and the Teacher Education Council (TEC). Monthly meetings are scheduled with the leadership of the above units and the Council of Deans to consider and address institution-wide teacher education matters. Operational protocols and guidelines for the interaction of institution-wide teacher education units with the Council of Deans will evolve with subsequent dialogue.
    
3. Decisions that must be made before the full development and understanding of the operational procedures described above, or decisions that are needed to address items outside the span of this organizational structure for institution-wide teacher education, will automatically default to the provost.

The efforts of all who participated in the review of teacher education are greatly appreciated. My sincere gratitude is extended to John Siskar, Paul Theobald, Jill Gradwell, and Kevin Railey for leadership to the effort. I look forward to implementation of this new governance and organizational model to continue to advance the richness, responsiveness, and quality of Buffalo State’s teacher preparation programs.