Minutes of the Senate Meeting
April 8, 2008
Broun Auditorium
Submitted by Sue Barry
Present: Robert Locy, Kathryn Flynn, Sue Barry, Dennis DeVries, David Cicci, Don Large, Debbie Shaw, Royrickers Cook, Drew Clark, John Heilman, Bonnie MacEwan, Ronald Clark, Winfred Foster, Norbert Wilson, Sondra Parmer, Charles Mitchell, Barbara Kemppainen, Charlene LeBleu, Christopher McNulty, Anthony Moss, Rik Blumenthal, Larry Crowley, Brigitta Brunner, Alvin Sek See Lim, Carol Centrallo, Suhyun Suh, John Saye, James Witte, James Goldstein, Claire Crutchley, Michel Raby, Larry Teeter, Jim Sanders, Mark Fischman, David Carter, Raymond Kessler, Robert Bulfin, Edith Davidson, Constance Hendricks, Jim Wright, Daniel Parson, Salisa Westrick, Bernie Olin, James Shelley, Francis Robicheaux, Changhoon Jung, Robert Voitle, Peggy Shippen, Jon Segars, Carole Zugazaga, Gwen ThomasScott Phillips, R.D. Montgomery
Absent sending a substitute: Fran Kochen (Ivan Watts), Todd Storey, (Mary Folmer), Charles Mitchell (Jacob Dane), Dan Gropper (Roger Garrison), Chris Arnold (Jan Morgan), Andrew Wohrley (Paula Sullenger, Steve Stuckwisch (Darrel Henderson), Claire Zizza (Doug White), Don-Terry Veal, (Mary Folmer), Tom Williams (David Duwel)
Absent no substitute: Dan Bennett, Overton Jenda, Johnny Green, Stewart Schneller, Robert Gross, John Hung, Garry Martin, Jim Bradley, Werner Bergen, Paul Swamidass, Timothy McDonald, Anoop Sattineni, Ronald Neuman, Laura Plexico, Scotte Hodel, Robert Huettel, Allen Davis, Thomas Smith, Casey Cegielski, Bart Prorok, Howard Goldstein, Dan Svyantek, Randy Tillery
Bob Locy called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the March 4, Senate Meeting were approved by voice vote without opposition.
Remarks/Announcements from the President’s office:
Dr. Gogue reported that 1) Provost Search is beginning this week, 2)Graduate Dean candidates have been interviewed and one is returning for a final interview, 3) VP for Research candidates have come to campus and decision should be next week.
He is spending a great deal of time in Montgomery, but discussion of the budget has not yet begun. There will be little word until budget discussions begin on April 14th.
He also apologized for numerous tornado watches that were posted on AU Alert. He said that it was his idea that more information was better than less. For example, if a faculty member is somewhere in the field with a group of students and this person is not aware of a possible tornado, serious problems could occur for the group. However he wanted the Senate to debate the issue because he had heard from many faculty and students that they didn’t like the idea.
There were no questions for Dr. Gogue.
Remarks/Announcements from Senate Chair
Bob Locy reminded the Senate that Dr. Gogue’s Installation Ceremony will be held April 24th at 4:00 pm on Cater Hall lawn. It will be an informal affair and all of Auburn and AUM faculty, staff and students are invited to attend. All groups will have someone participating in the program. He also reported that the Ombudsman Resolution which the Senate passed in January has been approved. The Executive Committee is creating a search committee and hopes to fill the position soon.
Bob also informed the Senate that the Rules Committee has begun their task of filling positions on Senate and University Committees for 2008-09, and he asked Senators to talk with their faculty about the importance of committee work to the process of shared governance and to inform their departments that volunteers are still needed. In the same vein, he reminded all Senate Committee Chairs that their reports are due to the Executive Committee now and that the Executive Committee is looking for suggestions for making committees more effective.
Action Item:
Bob Locy reported that the AU Alert Resolution had been brought to the Steering Committee as an Action Item on today’s agenda, and he invited Chance Corbett to address this resolution.
Chance Corbett reported that when AU Alert was set up it was decided to disseminate weather information, such as tornado watches. The thought was that even if an approaching storm may be four to five hours away, it may affect an athletic event or students in the field, and it was thought that this information should go out early. However, last Friday the AU Alert was set off twice. He was aware that the frequency of watches in our area may result in overuse of the system. However, since severe storms can cause serious problems in our area and since sirens don’t go off for watches, there was the idea that this would be useful information. On the other hand, warnings indicate the sighting of a tornado in the near vicinity. He reiterated that the alerts were issued in response to President Gogue’s request. Also an investigation of the policies from 30 other universities indicated a wide range of solutions to the problem although in general alerts were not set off during watches.
Questions and Remarks
Rik Blumenthal (Chemistry) said that he signed up and listed his phones – office, home, cell, and text messages as well as email, but that when all these go off at the same time it is overload.
Chance Corbett reminded everyone that they can go to AUAlert@auburn.edu to modify the numbers/ addresses where they want to be notified.
David Carter (History) was concerned that people would remove themselves from the system if there are too many alerts.
Chance Corbett responded that they had had some emails that were both angry and complimentary and that this is a work in progress.
Claire Crutchley (Finance) asked if they could break down the number of alerts to maybe just email as one level with another level for cell phones etc.
Chance Corbett responded that this was possible with the system we currently have.
Tony Moss (Biological Sciences) remarked that tornado warnings mean that the storm is eminent with a very short amount of time to respond. He asked if they could gauge when the possibility of a warning is more likely.
Chance Corbett responded that warnings can be too late. He said that they do monitor with state-of-the-art equipment to track storms, but they can come in quite fast out of the west.
Francis Robicheaux (Physics) stated that there must be someone studying how many times you can warn people before they drop out of a system like this one.
Chance Corbett said that is why we are asking for feedback because we can wear it out. Also, all students will soon have to be in the system.
Larry Crowley (Civil Engineering) Is it possible to have options for setting the level of warnings? If we want less, can the system be set for greater sensitivity because many don’t know the differences between watches and warnings?
Richard Penaskovic (Philosophy) Is it possible to define better the difference between warnings and watches?
Bob called for the motion to accept the AU Alert Resolution and it was seconded. The motion passed on a voice vote with only a few nays.
Information items:
Calendar Committee Report – Academic Year 2010-2011 and Summer calendars 2009 & 2010 (Stan Reeves, Chair)
Stan reported that his committee has developed a plan for generating calendars in order to simplify the process. He also presented the few changes in the summer calendars, specifically the mini-semesters. These seem to have been an annoyance for some time. Their first recommendation was to remove extended mini-terms for 2009 and 2010 because after talking with departments that use mini-terms, it appeared that solutions could be determined within the unit. In both calendars, school starts on a Thursday with one holiday for Independence Day holiday, and commencement is on a Monday. In reference to the academic year calendar, Stan pointed out that classes all meet an equal number of days. There are five days for finals and no Saturday exams and a couple of days to process grades.
Questions and Remarks
James Goldstein (English) reported that the core classes have a complaint about the short time, 48 hours, to grade writing, and he wondered if the committee could make any adjustments for this problem.
Stan Reeves said that they will look into it.
Tony Moss (Biological Sciences) mentioned that the time from end of spring and the beginning of summer classes as well as the time between summer and fall is very short. Previously in the quarter system there was more time to get away and do field work. Also it is hard to get labs set up.
Bob Locy (President) reminded everyone that this will be back for a vote next month. Therefore, he went on with a report from Linda Glaze, Chair of the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee.
Core Curriculum Oversight Committee Report (Linda Glaze, Chair)
Linda gave a power point presentation for her annual report and briefly presented some details from the Student Learning Outcomes that are currently online for faculty perusal. She pointed out that the document is a stretch in terms of what we want students to achieve.
Questions and Remarks
Tony Moss (Biological Sciences) asked, “Do you have any proposed means of testing this when students leave the university?”
Linda Glaze replied that this will be the next step, but there are some questions to ask. Are we looking at every student? Are we looking at samples?
Richard Penaskovic (Philosophy) asked if the committee has looked at other universities where they have determined outcomes?
Linda Glaze replied that they have looked at other universities.
Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics Report (Gary Waters, Chair)
Gary Waters complimented Marcia Boosinger, the previous chair, for her excellent work. He also praised Dr. Gogue, our President, for his participation as well as the easy access they have had to Jay Jacobs, our Athletic Director. He mentioned that they are always looking for volunteers to serve on subcommittees. Gary called our attention to the Academic Report based on the graduation rate for students with scholarships. Both at the federal level and at the NCAA level they look at a 6 year timeline. At the federal level they don’t take transfers into account, but the NCAA does, and this accounts for the NCAA’s higher graduation rate for Auburn University. Every SEC school must have a plan for checking unexcused absences, and ours are defined in the Tiger Cub. The penalty structure was also explained.
Questions and Remarks
Conner Bailey (Rural Sociology) pointed out that there was no information for specific teams.
Gary Waters reported that we have 16 sports and 3 were rated under 50% at the federal level. Baseball and Basketball need to improve their APR rate. However, when the NCAA article came out the APR for our football team was high.
Tony Moss (Biological Sciences) asked, “How are federal rates calculated differently?”
Gary Waters reiterated that the NCAA makes adjustments for transfer rates whereas the Federal report doesn’t.
Amendments to the University Senate Constitution Article 2, Section 3, and Article 3, Section 3e – (Bob Locy, President, University Senate)
Bob reported that we had some housekeeping work to do. First he proposed that we amend Article 3, Section 3e to include the immediate past chair of the Senate as a member of the Steering Committee. Second, he proposed that we amend Article 2 Section 3 to include the Chair of the Administrative and Professional Assembly to the ex-officio members of the Senate.
Questions and Remarks
Rik Blumenthal (Chemistry) noted that as he read through Article 3 Section 3e that he noticed that the minutes for the Steering Committee meetings shall be given to each member of the Senate and discussed at the meeting of the Senate following their distribution.
Conner Bailey suggested that the Steering Committee could post these minutes on the Senate website.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
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