Minutes of the University Senate Meeting
1 May 2012
3:00 p.m.
Broun Hall Auditorium
Submitted by
Larry Crowley, Secretary
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A complete transcription of the meeting is available
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Present: Ann Beth Presley, Bill Sauser, Larry Crowley, Robin Jaffe, Claire Crutchley, Gregg Newschwander, Betty Lou Whitford, R. Lee Evans, Chuck Savrda, Calvin Johnson, Ann-Katrin Gramberg, Timothy Boosinger, Glenn Hughes, Andrew Wohrley, Michael Baginski, Robert Cochran, Winfred Foster, Norbert Wilson, Sondra Parmer, Scott McElroy, Dean Schwartz, Gary Wagoner, Paul Swamidass, Sushil Adhikari, Steve Duke, Eduardus Duin, Prabhakar Clement, Robert Agne, Sanjeev Baskiyar, Jada Kohlmeier, Michael Stern, James Witte, Thomas Baginski, James Goldstein, Harris Hollans, Rusty Wright, Adrienne Angelo, Larry Teeter, David King, Ruth Crocker, Fenny Dane, Ellen Abell, Jared Russell, Pambanisha King Whaley, Peter Stanwick, Herb Rotfeld, Tin-Yau Tam, Stuart Pope, Vicky van Santen, Brent Fox, Wesley Lindsey, Guy Rohrbaugh, Mike Bozack, Yasser Gowayed, Jill Meyer, Joe Fetsch, Scott Copeland, Richard Fox, Emily Myers, Chase Bringardner, and Ralph Henderson
Absent, sending a substitute: Paul Patterson (for William Batchelor), Norman Godwin (for Bill Hardgrave), Marcia Boosinger (for Bonnie MacEwan), Lane Sauser (for James Bannon), Shu-Wen Tzeng (for Jerrod Windham), and Sean Gallagher (for Jerry Davis)
Absent, no substitute: George Flowers, Owen Parrish, Nakeisha Janigan, Seth Humphrey, Laura Plexico, Nedret Billor, Werner Bergen, Jocelyn Zanzot, Bob Locy, Mark (James) Taylor, Daniel Phillips, Wi-Suk Kwon, Xing Ping Hu, Bart Prorok, Doug Rosener, Suresh Mathews, John Freeze, Forrest Smith, Steven Brown, Shelly McKee, and Lewis Barker.
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Call to Order:
-- Ann Beth Presley called the meeting to order, confirmed a quorum was present, and reviewed the rules of the senate.
-- Minutes from the March 6, 2012 meeting were accepted as posted without change (not at this time but later during this meeting.)
-- Dr. Presley invited Dr. Gogue to provide his remarks.
Remarks and Announcements:
Dr. Gogue (Office of the President) shared the following:
1. Chris Roberts was named the dean of engineering with a start date of July 1st.
2. We are in the final stages of the Provost search with two candidates. One candidate interviewed last week and the other will interviewed earlier this week. Will meet with the search and screen committee on May 8th and will keep you informed.
3. International graduate students coming to Auburn have been having difficulty finding housing due to move-in later than registration dates. To alleviate this problem, the university has requested proposals and committed to the use of existing apartments in the community assuming that graduate students will come in and take those rooms. If it works well during this trial phase we will expand the number of rooms in the future.
4. A Board of Trustee meeting was held a couple of weeks ago along with a 3 to 4 hour financial workshop for the board. All seven items on the board agenda dealing with academics were approved. One of these items was an 8% increase in tuition.
5. Six graduation ceremonies will be held in the next few days with two each day on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. AUM will have two on the following Saturday.
At the close of Dr. Gogue’s remarks, he offered to respond to any questions that might be asked, but there were none.
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, offered the following remarks:
During the June 5th meeting of the senate we will vote on nominees for membership on senate committees. Reminded senators to send a substitute if they will be unable to attend. There is no scheduled July senate meeting and the August meeting will be held after classes begin.
Dr. Presley moved to the first action item on the agenda, a motion to adopt the revised Phase II Faculty Handbook, to be introduced by Sue Barry.
Action Items:
-- In introducing the motion, Sue Barry, Chair of the Faculty Handbook Committee, indicated some changes have been made to the posted version in order to address comments from those participating in the survey, incorporate two changed policies recently approved by the Senate, and reflect minor editing changes to the handbook language. These changes have been enumerated on a list accompanying the agenda. Some comments made by those participating in the review will be deferred to the Phase III handbook because they sought to change existing policies.
Sue Barry stated the motion is to adopt the revised posted document (Auburn University Faculty Handbook, April 27, 2012) as the official handbook of the Auburn Faculty, replacing the May 10, 2011 Handbook now in effect.
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, stated the motion is coming from a committee and does not require a second. Then, she asked if there are questions from the floor.
Mike Stern, Senator from Economics, made a motion to separate Chapter 3 and delay its consideration from the overall handbook so that P&T policy could be reviewed carefully and feedback gotten from his faculty.
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, stated the motion was not in order at this time.
Claire Crutchley, immediate past chair, not a senator from the department of finance, stated the P&T policy of concern in Chapter 3 was that approved by the Senate in May 2011 and that it was stated at the time the revised policy would be incorporated into the Faculty Handbook.
Ruth Crocker, senator from History, introduced a subsidiary motion to the faculty handbook language [in the last sentence of Chapter 3 Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures; Section 6 Promotion and Tenure of Tenure-Track Faculty; Section 6.2 Tenure Criteria and Considerations -- location call-out added for clarity] which reads “For tenure, the candidate must demonstrate quality and potential to contribute as a productive and collegial member of the academic unit in all relevant areas.” is revised to read “For tenure, the candidate must demonstrate that he/she contributes as a productive and collegial member of the academic unit in all relevant areas.”
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, called for a second which was provided. This subsidiary motion was passed by a majority of senators (37 yes, 11 no).
James Goldstein, senator from English, introduced the first of three subsidiary motions with a brief statement reminding the senate that the Lecturer/Senior Lecturer title series was approved to address the need for instructional faculty to teach undergraduate classes. With that in mind he moved the following language be struck from the proposed Faculty Handbook under consideration for adoption [Faculty Handbook language in Chapter 3 Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures; Section 5 Non-tenure Track Faculty; Section 5.1 Guidelines for Establishing and Filling Positions in the Lecturer Title Series; Paragraph L. Graduate Faculty -- location call-out added for clarity] which reads:
“A faculty member on appointment in the Lecturer title series may be proposed, recommended, and approved for membership in the Graduate Faculty as provided in this Handbook. If an appointee in the Lecturer title series is approved for membership, the individual's participation as a member of the Graduate Faculty shall be limited to directing graduate theses and dissertations, teaching courses that he/she are qualified to teach according to accreditation guidelines, and to serving on committees appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School in proportion to their other assignments.”
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, called for a second which was provided. This subsidiary motion was passed by a majority of senators (38 yes, 11 no).
James Goldstein, senator from English, introduced the second of three subsidiary motions with a brief statement questioning why lecturers need to undergo a third year review since they have no tenure clock to be concerned with here. With that in mind, he moved the following language be struck from the proposed Faculty Handbook under consideration for adoption [last paragraph of Chapter 3 Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures; Section 5 Non-tenure Track Faculty; Section 5.1 Guidelines for Establishing and Filling Positions in the Lecturer Title Series; Paragraph E. Performance Evaluation -- location call-out added for clarity] which reads:
“Each department head/chair or unit head shall conduct a third year review of all its Lecturer faculty members according to college/school guidelines. As with the annual review, the head/chair or unit head shall request a current vita and any supporting material the head/chair or unit head or the Lecturer faculty member deems appropriate prior to the third year review. The particular focus of this review is the Lecturer faculty member's progress toward achieving promotion. The review, therefore, must address the specific departmental/college/school criteria for promotion. The head/chair or unit head shall prepare a written report covering the findings of the review.”
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, called for a second which was provided. This subsidiary motion was passed by a majority of senators (34 yes, 17 no).
James Goldstein, senator from English, introduced the second of three subsidiary motions with a brief statement that the language provided a fictitious guarantee. He moved the following language be struck from the proposed faculty handbook under consideration for adoption [first sentence of Chapter 3 Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures; Section 5 Non-tenure Track Faculty; Section 5.1 Guidelines for Establishing and Filling Positions in the Lecturer Title Series; Paragraph J. Dismissal -- location call-out added for clarity] which reads “The expectation of continuous employment provides the guarantee needed to ensure academic freedom.”
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, called for a second which was provided. This subsidiary motion was passed by a majority of senators (42 yes, 3 no).
Mike Stern, senator from Economics, asked for clarification concerning language in the middle of Section 6.2, tenure critieria, in Chapter 3 which an earlier passed motion today had potentially impacted.
Ruth Crocker, senator from History, offered a motion that the clause or sentence passed early be incorporated to make the text uniform throughout the paragraph. [Faculty Handbook language in the third sentence of Chapter 3 Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures; Section 6 Promotion and Tenure of Tenure-Track Faculty; Section 6.2 Tenure Criteria and Considerations which reads in part “… the candidate for tenure must also demonstrate potential to contribute as a productive and collegial member of the academic unit in all relevant areas.” is revised to read “…the candidate must demonstrate that he/she contributes as a productive and collegial member of the academic unit in all relevant areas.”]
Ann Beth Presley, Chair, called for a second which was provided. This subsidiary motion was passed by majority of senators (43 yes, 1 no). The vote on the main motion including the above incorporated subsidiary motions to amend was passed by a majority of senators (42 yes, 6 no).
Information Items:
-- Wesley Lindsey, chair of the Senate Library Committee presented information on the results of a survey on the library. The presentation is linked to the agenda which is available at the following.
Following the presentation a discussion took place.
Rusty Wright, senator from Fisheries, asked about the contact person at the library concerning access difficulty to ejournal subscriptions.
Paula Sullenger, head of electronic resources and serials, not a senator, said that you can always call her on these issues.
Ann Beth Presley, chair, called the next presenter which is Carl Pinkert, associate VP for Research..
-- Carl Pinkert, Associate VP for Research, presented information on Research Week and the Intramural Grant Program. The presentation is linked to the agenda which is available at the following.
The chair called for any new business.
New business:
Martha Taylor, assistant vice president for research, brought forward an item of new business related to conflict of interest. A draft “conflict of interest” policy will be posted to the senate website under News (draft of the Conflict of Interest policy) for your review and possible vote during the next senate meeting.
Unfinished business:
None
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 pm.