Minutes of the University Senate Meeting
14 July 2009
3:00 p.m.
Broun Hall Auditorium
Submitted by
Dennis DeVries, Secretary
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(for a complete transcription of the meeting, go to https://auburn.edu/administration/governance/senate/website/transcripts/TrScrpt2008-2009/transcript_07_14_09.html)
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Present: Kathryn Flynn, Claire Crutchley, Dennis Devries, Russ Muntifering, Robert Locy, R. Lee Evans, Anne-Katrin Gramberg, John Mason, Mary Ellen Mazey, Bonnie MacEwan, April Staton, Andrew McLelland, Winfred Foster, Norbert Wilson, Sondra Parmer, Werner Bergen, Barbara Kemppainen, Michael Clay, Christopher McNulty, Paul Swamidass, Anthony Moss, Yifen Wang, Paul Holley, Ronald Neuman, Rik Blumenthal, Larry Crowley, Brigitta Brunner, Laura Plexico, Sanjeev Baskiyar, Carol Centrallo, Michael Stern, James Goldstein, Keven Yost, Allen Davis, Larry Teeter, Mark Fischman, Raymond Kessler, Shea Tillman, Andrew Wohrley, Steve Stuckwisch, Bart Prorok, Howard Goldstein, Constance Hendricks, Claire Zizza, Jim Wright, Daniel Parson, Jan Kavookjian, Mike Bozack, Robert Voitle, Chris Correia, Emily Myers, M. Scott Phillips
Absent, sending a substitute: Amit Mitra (for Paul Bobrowski), Calvin Johnson (for Timothy Boosinger), Griffin Bruns (for Jacob Watkins), Valerie Morns-Riggins (for Judy Woodrow), Charles Eick (for John Saye), Stuart Wentworth (for Michael Baginski), Pamela Paine (for John Mazaheri), Herbert Jack Rotfeld (for Edith Davidson), James Shelley (for Guy Rohrbaugh), Rebecca Curtis (for Peggy Shippen), Patton K. Pickens (for Jon Segars)
Absent, no substitute: Larry Benefield, Richard Brinker, Barbara Witt, Jeff McNeil, James Winfield, Larry Crowley, Joe Molnar, Bill Hames, Ruth Crocker, Charles Mitchell, James Witte, Robin Huettel, Jim Saunders, David Carter, Ellen Abell, Robert Bulfin, Casey Cegielski, Don-Terry Veal, Bernie Olin, Changhoon Jung, Scott Lewis, Del Epperson, Gwen Thomas, R.D. Montgomery
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Call to Order:
Kathryn Flynn called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
The minutes of the 9 June 2009 University Senate meeting were approved without change.
Remarks and Announcements:
Kathryn Flynn (Faculty Chair) invited Mary Ellen Mazey, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, to present comments from the President's office.
Dr. Mazey had several items to mention.
--Dr. Mazey noted Dr. Gogue's regrets for not being able to attend.
--There are a number of searches underway.
--There have been four candidates on campus for the Dean of Nursing position
--There are 9 candidates for the Associate Provost position. Russ Muntifering is chair of this search committee and there will be interviews and open forums scheduled in the near future.
--Two candidates for the writing program administrator position will be on campus the week of 27 July.
--The Writing Center will be named for Jack Miller and will be moving to the Library Learning Commons.
--The Honors College will be moving to the Cater Center by fall semester.
--Relative to the International Skills Task Force, an implementation group will be appointed that will be chaired by the Chair of the Foreign Language Department.
--Relative to the Distance Education Task Force, work is underway on a model that will be acceptable to everyone.
--The General Education Task Force-- there is a resolution to be considered later today, and we will be certain to follow the Alabama Articulation Agreement.
--The Graduation Rate Task Force will be folded into the Enrollment Management Council.
--The upper administration is working with the faculty governance on revising the faculty handbook. A group of changes will be taken to the Board of Trustees in March.
--Relative to the budget: there is currently a $39 million shortfall, and we are trying to use two fiscal years to achieve those cuts. The tuition increase will cover $10 million. We will try to cover the remainder in FY10 and FY 11. They have worked with the deans to cut their FY10 budgets by $5.7 million in permanent cuts, hopefully mostly through vacancies, which relates to approximately 125 positions. Now the concern is that those one-time cuts could become permanent. Other universities are using their stimulus dollars to backstop cuts, and we may look to do this here. It would mean termed appointments because we only have those stimulus dollars for 2 years.
--Another issue has been how to improve annual evaluations and the tenure and promotion process. There will be a ½ day retreat with the department chairs/heads, deans, and the University P&T committee in August. Will start at the department level and build up.
--Relative to facilities, the deans have submitted up to 10 ranked projects and the facilities group has assessed those approx. 100 projects and a group from the Provost's office (including the Senate Chair) will prioritize them.
--Finally, we work to implement the University Strategic Plan. We continue to work to enact it, and there will be approximately 30 goals for this coming year.
Questions for Dr. Mazey: There were no questions.
Comments from the Chair:
--This is the final Senate meeting for the 2008-2009 academic year, so 1/3 of the Senators will be rotating off. Dr. Flynn thanked those whose terms are ending.
--There are a number of issues we will be working on in the coming months.
--We will be revisiting the length of the academic calendar at the September Senate meeting.
--We will be looking to a number of committees to implement the task force recommendations.
--We will be looking at faculty handbook changes, some of which may be related to task force recommendations.
--We will be looking at the retroactive withdrawal policy.
--We will be getting a report from the Administrator Evaluation Committee.
--We will be getting a report from the Teaching Evaluation Committee.
--We will be getting a report from the Ombudsman after the first year of service.
--She encouraged everyone to bring any items of interest to the Senate.
Action Items:
Approval of Senate Committee Nominees (Dennis DeVries, Senate Secretary)
--On behalf of the Senate Rules Committee, Dennis DeVries (Senate Secretary) brought a slate of nominees for 19 Senate committees and moved for their approval. No second was required. There were no questions. The motion was passed unanimously by voice vote.
Resolution to change the name, membership and charge of the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee (Kathryn Flynn, Senate Chair)
--Background for this resolution was provided with the agenda, as well as in an email last week.
--The resolution was read
Questions/Discussion concerning the resolution:
--Mike Stern (Economics) noted that in the current structure Economics would be included under #7 (social sciences), but in the new structure, they would not be represented. He moved for consideration of an amendment to the motion (seconded by Emily Myers, Sociology) to include Economics.
Discussion of amendment:
--Larry Crowley (Civil Engineering) noted that it was unusual for a department to report directly to the Provost and expressed concern about writing it in and potential have to change it later.
--Tony Moss (Biological Sciences) said that this would single out one department to have specific representation while others with core responsibility will not have representation.
--Mike Stern (Economics) said that Mathematics is already singled out so the amendment does not set precedent of singling out a department.
--The amendment was not approved by a voice vote.
Questions/Discussion concerning the resolution:
--James Shelley (substitute, Philosophy) stated that this was a bad time of year to decide on the resolution when faculty are not around. At least 2/3 of the faculty are gone. He would like to table the motion until the September Senate meeting.
--The motion to table was seconded by Rick Blumenthal (Chemistry/Biochemistry).
--Herb Rotfeld (substitute, Marketing) raised a point of order as to whether this was a motion
to table or a motion to postpone.
--James Shelley (substitute, Philosophy) said it was ok with him to have this as a motion to postpone.
--The motion to postpone consideration of the resolution until the September Senate meeting was passed by a voice vote.
Information Items:
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer position update (Mary Ellen Mazey, Provost and VP for Academic Affairs):
--There are a number of instructors teaching a lot of our courses, but there is a limit of their employment to 5 years.
--The purpose is for term appointments.
--The description is in the handout that was linked to the agenda.
Questions for Dr. Mazey:
--James Goldstein (English) said that the word "faculty" is not used-- are these non-Tenure Track positions? Dr. Mazey responded that they were.
--James Goldstein (English) asked a follow-up question-- Do we have any idea of the need for these positions? Could we use a number lower than 25%? Dr. Mazey responded that in terms of funding there could be up to 60, but may be more as instructors that would want to be converted.
--Tony Moss (Biological Sciences) said that he had a number of questions. Would coordinators be reclassified? Dr. Mazey sand she thought that they are currently staff, and we would need to look at this and work on it.
--Tony Moss asked if people coming in would enter the state retirement system. Dr. Mazey responded yes.
--Tony Moss asked if they were employed for more than 7 years if they would be tenured. Dr. Mazey responded no.
--Ric Blumenthal (Chemistry/Biochem) stated that he was concerned that we are making second class faculty with no tenure, and potentially lower salary. He also noted that he raised this concern the last time we discussed this.
--Mike Stern (Economics) stated that many universities have these positions, and they have a contract with more security than non-tenure track faculty.
--Norbert Wilson (Ag Econ/Rural Soc) asked if the 50% was counting all faculty (tenure track, non-tenure track, lecturer, etc.). Dr. Mazey responded she expected that it was counting all of the faculty.
--Norbert Wilson (Ag Econ/Rural Soc) then asked about promotion being on a department basis versus a college wide basis. Dr. Mazey responded that these are details to be worked out.
--Becky Curtis (Special Ed/Rehab/Counceling Psy) asked if these would be for graduate and undergraduate. Dr. Mazey responded only undergraduate.
--Becky Curtis (Special Ed/Rehab/Counceling Psy) then asked about moving between positions. Dr. Mazey responded that these positions were not a way to keep someone who did not get tenured.
--Herb Rotfeld (substitute, Marketing) asked if the faculty numbers would be counting part time faculty. Dr. Mazey responded that part time faculty would not be counted.
--Calvin Johnson (Vet Med) asked about whether time as a lecturer would count as time in service for promotion and tenure. Dr. Mazey responded that it would not.
--Carl Bachman (Sociology, not a Senator), a member of the non-tenure track instructors committee, asked how will people be dismissed and would we expect them to have professional development as we do for tenure track faculty. Dr. Mazey said we would have to work out those details.
Information on the Fringe Benefit Rate (Marcie Smith, Assoc VP Business & Finance, and George Flowers, Dean, Graduate School):
--link to pdf presentation
Questions re the Fringe Benefit Rate Report:
--Barbara Kemppainen (Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, not a Senator) asked if you are putting $20,000 in a grant proposal for a graduate student. George Flowers answered yes. She then followed up with how it could sometimes be new money and sometimes not. George Flowers answered that it depends on whether the budget is capped for the grant or not. If it is not, then new money comes into the university.
--Becky Hurst (Special Education, Rehabilitation, Counseling/School Psychology, not a senator) asked about capped student fellowships. George Flowers responded that he is aware of some that have changed over the years. We could develop a policy to continue providing support for these. He did not believe that fellowships and scholarships would be included.
--Bruce Smith (Chair, Senate Faculty Research Committee) asked about getting the full tuition in a contract or grant- how would that mesh? George Flowers yielded to Dustin Halberson (Heron Consulting), who said that other universities set a rate and get into problems when you try to charge different rates to federal projects. If it is not a federal grant, there are no problems.
--Larry Teeter (Forestry/Wildlife) asked why isn't it just 5% going to the graduate school rather than passing money back and forth. George Flowers responded that this was getting 20% back to the department. Larry Teeter followed up by asking what if the program's policies didn't allow tuition to be charged. George Flowers responded that he assumes that we cannot do that. John Mason (Vice President for Research) added that this is the typical practice to recoop the money.
--Ric Blumenthal (Chemistry/Biochemistry) asked if we could have two lists of agencies that deal with the bottom line money versus those that don't? Dustin Halberson responded that most federal agencies will allow this to be added, and right now Auburn is subsidizing federal governing and consistency is an issue.
--Tony Moss (Biological Sciences) said he was concerned with siphoning off money to tuition that wasn't there before and is concerned with the competitiveness of grants that do versus those that do not include tuition. Dustin Halberson responded that he hears what Tony is saying about competitiveness, but other institutions are doing this and doesn't think this should affect competitiveness. He thinks we should recover as much of our costs as possible. Tony Moss responded that his faculty are on record as being very concerned about this. Dustin Halberson noted that the goal is to make Auburn University as good and efficient as possible.
--Bruce Smith (Chair, Senate Faculty Research Committee) asked about putting this directly in to F&A versus direct costs. Dustin Halberson responded that there were problems with that.
--Bob Locy (Past Chair) said that every grant he has gotten has had a ceiling cap so there is no new money. It may be new from George Flower's perspective, but not new to Auburn University. It is taxing the competitiveness of our grants.
--Bruce Smith (Chair, Senate Faculty Research Committee) asked about the jump in fringe benefit rate; this hurts us all by taking a bigger proportion of my grant and that money will no longer be available for the research. (Much of the discussion was lost here without a microphone).
--Bill Daniels (Fisheries/Allied Aquacultures, not a Senator) said that it is a great idea for fellowships for all assistants, this increases the competitiveness and ability to match. But is research subsidizing teaching? And could this lead to reduced numbers of students? George Flowers responded that this is not subsidizing teaching, we can use out-of-state tuition as match. John Mason noted that further discussion is needed.
--Tony Moss asked about differentiating between contracts and grants.
Unfinished Business:
There was no unfinished business.
New Business:
There was no new business.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:55 PM.