Minutes of the Senate Meeting
June 10, 2008
Broun Auditorium
3:00 p.m.
Approved
Present: Robert Locy, Sue Barry, Kathryn Flynn, David Cicci, Royrickers Cook, Stewart Schneller, Drew Clark, John Heilman, Bonnie MacEwan, Lindsey Stevenson, Todd Storey, Ron Clark, Winfred Foster, Norbert Wilson, Charles, Mitchell, Werner Bergen, Barbara Kemppainen, Tony Moss, Brigitta Brunner, Laura Plexico, Alvin Sek See Lin, Carol Centrallo, Suhhyn Suh, John Saye, Dan Gropper, James Witte, James Goldstein, Robin Huettel, Claire Crutchley, Jim Saunders, David Carter, Raymond Kessler, Thomas Smith, Andrew Wohrley, Edith Davidson, Steve Stuckwisch, Howard Goldstein, Claire Zizza, Don-Terry Veal, Jim Wright, Daniel Parson, Salisa Westrick, Bernie Olin, James Shelley, Changhoon Jung, Dan Svyantek, Jon Segars, Tom Williams, Carole Zugazaga, Gwen Thomas, R.D. Montgomery
Absent sending a substitute: Debbie Shaw (Susan Barnes), Overton Jenda (Donna Solie), Fran Kochan, (Ivan Watts), Christopher McNulty (Barry Fleming), Rik Blumenthal (Evert Duin), Scott Hodel (Michael Baginski), Michel Raby (John Mazaheri), Constance Hendricks (Kim Raines), Scott Phillips (Chris Qualls)
Absent no substitute: Dennis DeVries, Dan Bennett, Johnny Green, Lauren Hayes, Valerie Morns-Riggins, Robert Gross, John Hung, Gary Martin, Jim Bradley, Sondra Parmer, Charlene Le Bleu, Paul Swamidass, Timothy McDonald, Anoop Sattineni, Ronald Neuman, Larry Crowley, Allen Davis, Larry Teeter, Mark Fischman, Chris Arnold, Robert Bulfin, Casey Cegielski, Bart Prorok, Francis Robicheaux, Robert Voitle, Peggy Shippen, Randy Tillery
Bob Locy called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the May 6th, Senate meeting were approved by voice vote without opposition.
Remarks/Announcements from the President
After Dr. Gogue expressed surprise to find the Auburn University Senate meeting during the summer months, he made several brief comments.
There were no comments after Dr. Gogue’s remarks.
Remarks/Announcements from Senate Chair
Bob Locy (President) reported that the search committee for the Ombudsperson is currently meeting and reviewing the field of applicants. Their goal is to have someone selected by August 15th. Their task will not be easy as they will have to sort out the best three from the current slate of five applicants.
Bob attended the COIA (Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics) meeting on May 31st & June 1st in Athens, Georgia. This alliance of 56 Division 1A university faculty senates is dedicated to improving academics and intercollegiate athletics in conjunction with the NCAA and with the Knight Commission which has the charge of improving academics in intercollegiate athletics. Those interested can google the organization for more information, and we will attach the minutes of the COIA meeting to our Senate minutes. The hope is for Faculty Senates to play a more influential role in the interaction between academics and athletics. With the short tenure of university presidents (3 ½ years) in division 1A schools, the NCAA is looking for longer term leadership to come from Faculty Senates.
At this point, Bob invited Dr. Schneller to talk about the Provost Search
Stew Schneller (Dean, COSAM) informed the Senate that the Search Committee for a Provost has decided on a firm to conduct the search. After receiving four proposals, two firms were invited to campus for interviews, and Funk & Associates of Dallas, Texas was chosen because the committee felt that they could meet the January 1st deadline. Bill Funk, President of the group, has already been on campus to help finalize the position description for the advertisement that will appear in The Chronicle of Higher Education and other comparable outlets. The timeline they developed is seeking applications and nominations by mid August with on-site interviews by mid September and campus interviews in mid October.
Bob thanked Stew and announced the first action item.
Action Items
Senate Committee Nominees 2008-2009 – Sue Barry, Secretary
Sue presented a partial list of senate committee nominees and moved that the Senate approve the list. There was no discussion and the motion passed on a voice vote.
Resolution Commending Bob McGinnis – Bob Locy, Chair
Bob congratulated Bob McGinnis on his retirement and praised his service to Auburn University for the past six years. The motion to accept the resolution passed on a voice vote with no discussion.
Bob McGinnis (Vice President of Development) thanked Bob for the resolution and moved on to his remarks concerning the Faculty Staff Campaign.
Information Item - Report on Auburn University & Faculty Staff Campaign – Bob McGinnis, Vice President for Development
Bob reported that the year before the campaign started in 2006, we had only 9% of the faculty and staff at Auburn University making a gift. The first year of the campaign this percentage increased to 43%, then to 55%, and this year participation reached 60%. The organizational structure included 90 volunteers from faculty and staff headed up by Dwight Wolf, from the College of Vet Medicine, Lane Sauser from the College of Agriculture, and Virgil Stark from the College of Athletics. Their efforts focused more on the percentage of participation and not so much on the number of dollars collected. We did succeed in increasing overall participation with seven of the 14 schools and colleges having more than 50% participation and with four of the remaining units on campus having 100% participation. The closest SEC school has less than ½ the percentage rating that we have here at Auburn. He also suggested that we have many potential donors out there who could make 25, 50 or even 100 million dollar pledges. What we need are big ideas because donors give to big ideas. These kinds of ideas do exist in the Strategic Plan. For example, donors of large sums are almost always looking for the interdisciplinary impact of the big ideas which must address local, state, national, and international issues that have philanthropic appeal. Bob closed his remarks by thanking the faculty for their resolution of appreciation.
Information Item – Strategic Plan Update – John Heilman, Provost
John gave a brief overview of the strategic plan in which he mentioned the six overarching ideas that are addressed in the plan as well as an abbreviated history of the planning process. He pointed out a few of the accompanying initiatives for each of the six strategic priorities. For example, he mentioned increasing selectivity in the admissions process and strengthening teaching and learning in order to elevate undergraduate education. Funded-research is also a high priority for improving graduate studies along with expanding graduate programs that bring in extramural funding. John emphasized that distance learning will have a place of importance in order to increase our extension and outreach capabilities and their impact. Another aspect of our outreach will be to develop and build a community of learners (K-16) within the State of Alabama. We have to strengthen recruitment and provide incentives and professional development for faculty and staff, and finally, we have to establish a tradition of annual giving. In terms of action steps to implement these priorities, John pointed out that the Board of Trustees is particularly interested in the actions we have taken to increase selectivity by increasing the average ACT score of freshman to 26.5 and by improving the honors college model. Finally, he said that we need to keep in mind that this is a living document to be reviewed and revised on an annual basis.
Questions and Remarks
Richard Penaskovic (Philosophy – not a Senator) put forward a big idea concerning the need for undergraduate students to improve their writing and communication skills. He suggested a writing house with a faculty lounge where students and faculty could spend time sharing ideas on how to improve writing and communication skills. He wondered why if there were 92 million for a basketball arena, we couldn’t find 20 to 25 million for a writing house.
John Heilman responded that something like this would take time. We already have a task force working on the Writing Initiative. How to make it happen would be the question for a task force.
Claire Crutchley (Finance) expressed concern about the priority of unfunded research which is also important.
John understood Claire’s concerns, but suggested that the second priority really related to building foundations for a stronger funded research enterprise. For example, in an earlier version of the plan there was a statement that explicitly referred to expanding graduate and research disciplines, and his response to that was, “Do you mean to segregate research disciplines from non-research disciplines?” Basically, the second priority refers to building graduate education and research.
David Carter (History) was going to ask about the place of graduate education in the plan, but he felt his question had already been answered.
Bob Locy (Chair) explained that the overview of the State Articulation Agreement to be presented by Dr. Glaze was intended to be an extension of our discussion concerning the Auburn Seamless Admissions program.
Information Item – Statewide Articulation and General Studies Program – Linda Glaze (Associate Provost, Undergraduate Studies)
Linda reported on the history of the Alabama articulation agreement, the composition of the Alabama Articulation and General Studies Committee (AGSC) and the four basic charges to AGSC:
Their partner organization called STARS (Statewide Transfer Articulation Reporting System) is housed at Troy State University, and it is the mechanism that transfers information across the state and that students use to solicit transfer guides. Linda explained in great detail the guidelines for general education courses (templates for Areas I-IV) that are taught at the freshman and sophomore levelsl, and the role and responsibilities of the General Studies Academic Committees (GSAC). This committee is charged to review discipline specific guidelines, review and make recommendations for approval of new courses, periodically review approved courses, and review discipline templates. The Transfer Agreement was amended in 2005 and guarantees transferability of course work among institutions of higher education. Linda explained that the agreement guarantees transferability of course work to another institution, but it doesn’t guarantee acceptance to that institution. One important aspect of transferability is that we must transfer grades in the same manner from all institutions. For example, if we transfer “D” grades from one institution than we must do the same for all institutions. Also, rules must be the same for native students of an institution as they are for transfer students. If for example, a major such as Spanish requires a “C” for their majors here, then they can’t transfer in a grade of less than a “C” for a Spanish major. All students must be able to finish the degree they originally designate within 120 hours even if they are transfer-in students. However, if they switch degrees, that is another matter. Linda suggested that if anyone wanted more information on the articulation agreement that it would be a good idea to go the site which is lodged at Troy State and check the specific guidelines for any given discipline.
Questions and Remarks
Richard Penaskovic (Philosophy – not a Senator) asked if the transfer agreement covers AP courses from high schools, and if so, does each university decide on the score they will accept? How does that work?
Linda Glaze (Associate Provost) responded that the receiving institution determines the AP level that is accepted.
Bob Locy (Chair) was concerned as to what a faculty member might do to change something in the agreement. For example, a student who transfers into Auburn University from a junior college who wants a degree in one of our Biological Sciences needs to have two semesters of chemistry in their first two years; so if that student were to attend a junior college for two years and did not take chemistry, the student would already be six hours behind. To whose attention do we take such a problem?
Linda responded that if the problem originated here at Auburn, he should take it to the Dean’s office in his college, but if it is something on the Troy Site, which is the AGSC website, the matter would have to go through the discipline committees on the Troy website, and Auburn University has representatives on each of those committees which he could contact.
Before adjournment, a senator took the floor to present new business.
New Business – (Username IDs and Passwords) Gwen Thomas (Senator -Polymer and Textiles)
Gwen stated that she wanted to present an item that affects a large number of our faculty and staff as well as students, and that issue is changing one’s user ID in the Banner System. She said that she had requested a change from OIT and that she was told that it couldn’t be done. However, when she changed her name in December, Lee County changed it, the State of Alabama changed it on her driver’s license, and the Federal Government changed it on her social security card. Therefore, she had gone back to check on the frequency of this kind of request, and she found that when students marry, they have the same problem. This seemed strange to her since this kind of change can be made quickly at the federal level, and they have a user base of three million. Interestingly, they can do it in seconds. Therefore, Gwen suggested that if other larger groups can do this easily, we should be able to perform the same services here at Auburn University. Therefore, she wanted to know why we can’t.
Questions and Remarks
Bob Locy (Chair)asked Gwen what she would like the Senate to do?
Gwen responded that perhaps the problem should go to the Academic Computer Committee first, and if they can’t do anything, take it above them.
John Heilman (Provost) suggested that Bob could look into this issue and he agreed to do so.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:25