Minutes of the University Senate Meeting
8 February 2011
3:00 p.m.
Broun Hall Auditorium
Submitted by
Larry Crowley, Secretary-Elect
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A complete transcription of the meeting is available.
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Present: Claire Crutchley, Ann Beth Presley, Larry Crowley, Betty Lou Whitford, R. Lee Evans, Chuck Savrda, Timothy Boosinger, George Flowers, Mary Ellen Mazey, Bonnie MacEwan, Joel Hunter, David Hennessey, Andrew Wohrley, Robin Jaffe, Nedret Billor, James Wright, Andrew McLelland, Winfred Foster, Norbert Wilson, James Bannon, Werner Bergen, Jocelyn Zanzot, Gary Wagoner, Paul Swamidass, Anthony Moss, Yifen Wang, Paul Holley, Ronald Neuman, Eduardus Duin, Robert Agne, Daniel Phillips, Sanjeev Baskiyar, Wi-Suk Kwon, James Witte, James Goldstein, Xing Ping Hu, Keven Yost, Rusty Wright, John Mazaheri, Larry Teeter, David King, Ruth Crocker, Fenny Dane, Ellen Abell, Shea Tillman, Jerry Davis, Jared Russell, Pambanisha King, Bill Sauser, Herb Rotfeld, Tin-Yau Tam, Bart Prorok, Doug Rosener, Stuart Pope, Suresh Matthews, Monica DeTure, Forrest Smith, Jan Kavookjian, Wesley Lindsey, Guy Rohrbaugh, Mike Bozack, Chris Correia, Annette Kluck, Richard Hoerner, Richard Fox, Emily Myers, Heather May, Ralph Henderson
Absent, sending a substitute: Emmett Winn (for Russ Muntifering), Amit Mitra (for Bill Hardgrave), Barbara Wilder (for Gregg Newschwander), Ann Knipschild (for Anne-Katrin Gramberg), Dennis Shannon (for Scott McElroy), Robert Kemppainen (for Barbara Kemppainen), Bonnie White (for Charles Eick), Charles Hendrix (for Vicky van Santen), Gerry Cryski (for Steven Brown), Gwyneth Thomas (for Yasser Gowayed), Patrick Bass (for Joe Fetsch)
Absent, no substitute: Kathryn Flynn, William Batchelor, Kurt Sasser, Nidhi Sehgal, Prabhakar Clement, Michael Stern, Michael Baginski, Shelly McKee
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Call to Order:
--Claire Crutchley called the meeting to order, and a quorum was confirmed.
-- Minutes from the January 18, 2010 meeting were accepted as posted without change.
Remarks and Announcements:
Dr. Gogue (Office of the President) presented several items.
-- David Harris, a senior in chemical engineering at Auburn, has been awarded the prestigious Gates-Cambridge Scholarship to work on his master’s degree at Cambridge.
-- Dr. Rochon, new president at Tuskegee University, has extended his interest in seeing Auburn and Tuskegee working together where appropriate. We are inviting him and others from Tuskegee to visit us here, and we will visit at Tuskegee as well.
-- State will hold its Legislative Budget Hearings this week in Montgomery. All the Universities in the state will give presentations and primarily respond to questions from the new legislature.
--Governor Bentley attended and spoke at the Board of Trustees meeting last Friday. The major item of business was Drew Clark’s presentation of the NSEE (National Survey of Student Engagement) data for Auburn, which have been changing in the positive direction.
-- Auburn has been receiving an unusually large number of student applications. Dr. Large and others will meet tomorrow to see how we will respond to this situation. We are currently operating under our same assumption where the freshman class should be between 4,000-4,100.
Comments from the Chair:
-- QEP Committee, chaired by Sushil Bhavnani, is asking for feedback through responding to an online survey on what is most important to enhance student learning at Auburn.
--Ad Hoc P&T Committee is examining the promotion and tenure process and has developed a set of recommendations. A forum will be held at the R.B. Draughon Library to discuss these recommendations one week from today on Tuesday, February 15 at 3 pm. A link to the draft proposal will be sent to all faculty. This item will be brought to the March Senate meeting for information only, and then in April for a vote.
--Faculty Handbook Review committee is editing the handbook (except for chapter dealing with promotion and tenure) to make it a policy document by pulling non-policy related information out of the handbook and placing it elsewhere. A draft of the edited handbook will likely come to the March Senate meeting for information purposes.
--University is creating a policy database. Initially, the Faculty Handbook will be inserted, as it is currently written, into the database as a single policy. In the future, as changes are made to the faculty handbook, each revised policy will go into the database separately.
--Committee sign-up website is now open and linked to the senate website. Rules Committee will staff all committees during the Spring and asks that all sign-ups be made by March 7th. Russ Muntifering sent specific committee needs by a separate email.
-- Spring Faculty Meeting will be held on March 8th. Online voting for new Senate Officers will be open 5 days prior to the meeting and will remain open from March 3-7th. Faculty will be sent an e-mail message when voting opens. Candidates for Chair-Elect are Constance Hendricks (Nursing) and William Sauser (Management). For Secretary-Elect, the candidates are Michael Baginski (Electrical & Computer Engineering) and Robin Jaffe (Theatre).
Action Items:
-- Larry Crowley (Secretary-Elect) presented the role of the Senate Rules Committee, its makeup, and the requirements for election to this committee. Candidate nominations are made in this meeting and elections are held during the March Senate meeting at which three new members will be elected. Chair then opened the floor for nominations. Wi-Suk Kwon, Senator from Consumer nominated James Witte from Educational FLP. Werner Bergen, Senator from Animal Science nominated Fenny Dane from Horticulture. Paul Holley, Senator from Building Science nominated Shea Tillman, Industrial Design. No other nominations were received from the floor.
-- DeWayne Searcy (School of Accountancy), Chair of Academic Standards Committee, presented a modification of the Undergraduate Distance Learning and Stuart Pope (Nursing) motioned to adopt and after some discussion. The proposal passed by a vote of 42 yes, 20 no.
--Robert Kemppainen, Chair of the Library Committee, presented a resolution on funding for AU Libraries and Ellen Abell (Human Development & Family Studies) motioned for adoption. The resolution passed by a vote of 63 yes, 4 no. Pdf of presentation
--Robin Jaffe (Theater), Chair of the Calendar and Schedules Committee presented a proposed revision to the 2012-2013 and moved for adoption which was passed by a vote of 48 yes, 2 no. The 2013-2014 proposed calendar was presented and moved by Robin Jaffe. The proposal was passed by a vote of 64 yes, 1 no.
Information items:
-- Kevin Phelps, Chair of the Teaching Effectiveness Committee presented an update on the committee activities in regards to online student evaluation of Instruction/Courses.
-- Drew Clark, Director of Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, presented an update on recent results from the National Survey of Student Engagement for Auburn.
Unfinished business:
None
New business:
None
The meeting was adjourned at 4:15pm