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: