Minutes of the University Faculty Meeting

March 15, 2005

Broun Hall Auditorium

3 p.m

 

Submitted by Patricia Duffy

 

Willie Larkin called the meting to order at 3:00 pm

 

Approval of Minutes: 

A motion was made by Jim Gravois and seconded by Conner Bailey to approve the minutes of the September 14, 2004, faculty meeting.  The motion passed by voice vote without opposition.  

 

A motion was made by Conner Bailey and seconded by William Sauser to approve the minutes of the special called university faculty meeting, November 30, 2004.

The motion was passed by voice vote without opposition.

 

Announcements:

 

President’s Office:  Dr. Ed Richardson, Interim President

President Richardson expressed his optimism for the future of Auburn University because of the excellent faculty.  He noted that our problems with SACS did not come from our academic programs, and that the faculty has been remarkably successful despite the turmoil.  He commended the faculty. 

 

On the matter of the Provost search, President Richardson said that reviews of the applications have taken place.  He has met with faculty leaders, deans, vice presidents, and representatives of the Diversity Leadership Council.  By March 16th he expects to have finalists and anticipates that there will be three finalists.  He hopes to schedule the presentations of the candidates to the university community for sometime in the next week.  He anticipates the new provost will serve until the next president decides to conduct a search.  The new provost will have a full complement of responsibilities for the period of time.  The new provost will begin to serve immediately following the offer, but this position requires Board of Trustee approval.  President Richardson will poll the Board to check for unusual opposition.   Confirmation of the provost candidate should take place at the April 22 Board of Trustees meeting. 

 

Three dean searches are in progress:  Library, Liberal Arts, and Education.   He believes we are on target to fill the three positions by the end of the semester. 

 

Regarding SACS, President Richardson stated there were three responses to be submitted.  The first is a progress report on the presidential search.  The standard is that the Board of Trustees is prepared to start the search process.   The deadline for the report to SACS is September 22.  The second concerns the conflict of interest issue.  The report is not officially submitted to SACS yet.  Two external reviewers have confirmed Auburn's standards are acceptable.  The final issue is the presidential evaluation.  President Richardson believes it will be finished in late April to early May.    

 

Questions:

Larry Gerber asked if President Richardson had forwarded the report from the ad hoc Senate committee on the presidential search progress to the Board. 

 

President Richardson said that the report was slated to be in the Board folders on April 17th, but that he would send it forward this week. 

 

Cindy Brunner asked about the presidential evaluation process.

 

President Richardson said that the Board of Trustees would use Association of Governing Boards standards for the evaluation.  He was not sure the evaluation would be completed by the April 22nd meeting, but he believes there would be progress.   He anticipates the Board's Executive Committee will meet with him about the items in the evaluation.

 

Cindy Brunner asked if the Board would consult with other groups before completing the evaluation. 

 

President Richardson noted that evaluations for his previous jobs usually involved people who had knowledge of his performance.  He will recommend to the Board of Trustees that they seek input from relevant groups.

 

Richard Penaskovic asked about the Paul Davis article saying some trustees want to remove "interim" from President Richardson's title. 

 

President Richardson thinks there will be a move, as a courtesy, to remove "interim" from his title when the search for the next president starts. 

 

Conner Bailey suggested that removing interim from the title might best take place once a successful search has been concluded.

 

President Richardson said this was a good suggestion and he would recommend this course to the Board of Trustees.

 

Next President Richardson commented on the legislative effort and said that all university presidents including junior college presidents initially approved our plan.  Two have since dropped out, and President Richardson said there might be more defections over time. 

 

President Richardson discussed two major points in the initiative.  The first involves a line item for salary increases, which has never before been included in the budget.  President Richardson believes this line item is critically important because it sets a precedent that higher education will not be overlooked on salary increases.  The second point involves what President Richardson called "Supplemental Allocations."  Higher education was the only institution in education that did not get a full allocation for health benefits last year, which cost us about 2.5 million dollars.  The Supplemental would allow us to make it up. 

 

If we hold onto these funds, this will be the best budget for higher education in the past two decades.  But President Richardson said that to sustain this progress in the future higher education must stay together.   He commended Chancellor Portera from the University of Alabama.   Auburn and Alabama share one office in Montgomery, which reduces the cost of operation and brings us together in the planning process.

 

One other item was mentioned:  Auburn is working as hard as possible to expand its presence in Washington. 

 

He provided a short update on his initiatives.  He is optimistic about the Gulf Shores initiative and the research park initiative. Mike Moriarty represents the President's office on the research park initiative.  On airport governance, we will have some recommendations from a consulting firm.   Don Large is heading this initiative. 

 

President Richardson also mentioned that the strategic plan will be added as another item on the agenda at the April 22nd board meeting.  Bill Sauser is  working on it.  It will provide a focus for trustee planning in future and identify priorities for legislative efforts. 

The plan would also be helpful in identifying some of the qualities needed in the new president.  The goal is to finish it by the end of the calendar year, with all groups involved.

 

President Richardson expects the June 17the Board meeting to have a heavy agenda.  Committee meetings may be held on June 16th if the June 17th agenda requires a full day.  At the June meeting, President Richardson anticipates recommendations in the areas of Agriculture, AU-AUM, and academic review.  Also, this meeting is the time for electing trustee officers and appointing members to committees.   Also at this meeting will be the release of the second conflict of interest statements.

 

On diversity, President Richardson said we now have a plan and that Willie Larkin and others submitted a second plan.  President Richardson will meet with groups to understand their priorities.   He will make diversity a major piece for the strategic plan. 

 

On construction and space utilization, President Richardson commented that the university has no plan.  John Mouton is working on this issue.  Key questions are how much space and what type of space do academic programs need?   Some standards in these areas need to be set, possibly by next fall. 

 

President Richardson believes we need another parking deck. 

 

President Richardson will also explore with the Board of Trustees this spring, possibly in April, whether freshmen should live on campus.  If we think they should live on campus, either we must reserve current space for freshman or build new dorms or some combination. 

 

North Auburn plan:  The university has 3500 acres in north Auburn and we need to develop a plan for it.

 

More comments:  Student enrollment is strong for next year.  President Richardson hopes that we are in a more positive, more trusting environment.  He thanks the faculty for their commitment.

 

Cindy Brunner asked who would be responsible for developing the North Auburn plan.

 

President Richardson said that a number of academic areas will participate and that John Mouton will bring the groups together.  At this point, it is a concept only. 

 

John Mouton spoke and said we can't grow until we have infrastructure and without a plan, we cannot have an infrastructure.  He mentioned that a large part of the land is watershed for fisheries, which must be protected.  Sasaki Associates has been brought in and user groups will participate in plan development.

 

Richard Penaskovic asked about payoffs to people who have been fired. 

 

President Richardson said that there are unwritten precedents in the way Auburn has given gave settlements, which need examination.  He noted that administrators serve at pleasure of President.  He told the faculty that the Dean of Agriculture is on administrative leave. 

 

Rik Blumenthal asked about the posting of conflict of interest reports.  President Richardson clarified what reports are available. 

 

Rik Blumenthal mentioned that we used to have a committee on space allocation and suggested having it again. 

 

President Richardson agreed that a committee would be helpful. 

 

Werner Bergen asked about both the Agriculture reorganization and what has happened to the dean. 

 

President Richardson said that with respect to the dean, due process proceedings must unfold.   The university is doing the best it can in terms of assigning day-to-day operations. 

 

Conner Bailey asked how Dean Weiss's absence is affecting the plans for restructuring the College of Agriculture. 

 

President Richardson said that John Jensen is trying to bring groups together but that we have a void in dean's office and we will have to work through this.

 

Herb Rotfeld asked who is in charge of the parking committee.  He has noted a reduction in spaces for bicycles and motorcycles. 

 

President Richardson referred the question to John Mouton who said that we are behind the curve in planning.   On April 21 we will have a strategy for property and facilities, which will be put on the web. 

 

Tom Williams asked about plan to close central campus to traffic and the placement of the new parking deck.   

 

John Mouton responded that the location for the new parking deck was selected because of the large number of faculty in COSAM and Haley Center. 

 

Willie D. Larkin announced election results.  Richard Penaskovic is the Chair-Elect and Kathryn Flynn is the Secretary-Elect.

 

The presentation of AAUP Academic Freedom Award was made by Ruth Crocker, AAUP Award Committee Chair.  Gary Mullen received the award.

 

Farewell address was made by out-going Senate Chair Willie D. Larkin,  “Lessons Learned, Observations Made, and Challenges for the Future”followed by remarks from incoming Senate Chair Conner Bailey.

 

There was no new Business:

 

Conner Bailey adjourned the meeting at  4:20 pm.