Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
238 Broun Hall Auditorium
3:30 P.M.
A full transcript is available for this meeting.
Attendance
Officers:
Patricia Duffy, Chair; Larry Crowley, Immediate-Past Chair; Larry Teeter, Chair-Elect; Gisela Buschle-Diller; Secretary; Laura Plexico, Secretary-Elect.
Administration:
Bill Hardgrave, Dean, College of Business; Gregg Newschwander, Dean, School of Nursing; Nicholas Giordano, Dean, COSAM; Chris Roberts, Dean, College of Engineering; Calvin Johnson, Dean, College of Vet Med.
Ex-Officio
Present:
Tim Boosinger, Provost; Bonnie MacEwan, Dean, Libraries; Leonard Towns, Graduate Student Council President; Michael Freeman, Staff Council Chair; Ashley Hamberlin, A&P Assembly Chair; Sara Wolf, Steering Committee; Emily Myers, Steering Committee; Keven Yost, Steering Committee; Michael Baginski, 2nd, Steering Committee.
Absent, sending substitute:
Jim Witte for Betty Lou Whitford, Dean, College of Education; Charles Israel for Joseph A. Aistrup, Dean, College of Liberal Arts; George Crandell for George Flowers, Dean, Graduate School.
Absent, not sending substitute:
Lee Evans, Dean, School of Pharmacy; Logan Powell, President, Student Government Association.
Senators, by Department:
Present: Robert Cochran, Accountancy; Andrew Sinclair, Aerospace Engineering; Valentina Hartaska, Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology; Paul Brown, ACES; Don Mulvaney, Animal Sciences; Dean Schwartz, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology; Cliff Defee, Aviation Management and Logistics; Mark Dougherty, Biosystems Engineering; Mark Taylor, Building Sciences; Allan David, Chemical Engineering; Eduardus Duin, Chemistry; Cliff Lange, Civil Engineering; Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; Allison Plumb, Communication Disorders; David Umphress, Computer Science and Software Engineering; Jada Kohlmeier, Curriculum and Teaching; Michael Stern, Economics; Lisa Kensler, Educational Foundations and Leadership; Thomas Baginski, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Hilary Wyss, English; Leonardo De La Fuente, Entomology and Plant Pathobiology; Jung Park, Finance; Rusty Wright, Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture; David King, Geology and Geography; Brent Fox, Health Outcomes Research and Policy; Tiffany Sippial, History; Amy Wright, Horticulture; Tom Smith, Human Development and Family Studies; Jerrod Bradley Windham, Industrial Design; Sean Gallagher, Industrial Systems and Engineering; John Quindry, Kinesiology; Gregg Schmidt, Library; Peter Stanwick, Management; James Carver, Marketing; Dmitry Glotov, Mathematics and Statistics; Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering; Matthew Hoch, Music; Constance Hendricks, Nursing; Kevin Huggins, Nutrition and Foods; Vicky van Santen, Pathobiology; Muralikrishnan Dhanasekaran, Pharmacal Sciences; Eric Marcus, Philosophy Michael Fogle, Physics; Murray Jardine, Political Science; Gwynedd Thomas, Polymer & Fiber Engineering; Tung-shi Huang, Poultry Science; Daniel Sventek, Psychology; Jill Meyer, Special Education, Rehab and Counseling; Kristina Shuler, Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work; Adrienne Wilson, Theater; Annette Smith, Veterinary Clinical Sciences.
Absent, sending substitute:
Gary Wagoner for Barb Bondy, Art; Carol Warfield for Wi-Suk Kwon, Consumer Sciences; David Bransby for Beth Guertal, Crops, Soil and Environmental Sciences; Pedro Cebollero for Traci O’Brien, Foreign Languages and Literature; Mary Ledford for Scott Copeland, ROTC Army; Kat Stofer for Paul Michael Esposito, ROTC Navy.
Absent, not sending substitute:
Rebecca O’Neal-Dagg, Architecture; Bob Locy, Biological Sciences; Latif Kalin, Forestry and Wildlife Science; Chippewa Thomas, Outreach; Wesley Lindsey, Pharmacy Practice; Jeffrey Hemmes, ROTC Air Force.
Minutes
At 3:30 P.M. Chair Patricia Duffy called the meeting to order, reminded the Senators of the rules of speaking at Senate meetings and to speak into the microphones for better recording. She then established a quorum using iclickers. There are currently 87 members of the Senate and a quorum requires therefore 44 members to be present. The minutes of the January 13, 2015 Senate meeting were approved without modifications.
Remarks and Announcements
Office of the Provost, Tim Boosinger, Provost
The Provost reported that the SACS commission approved the monitoring report and no further follow-up reports are necessary. The next review will be the standard 5-year review. He then mentioned that the national search for a new Director of Assessment is currently in the interview phase and the national search for a new Dean of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences has passed the phone interview stage and the search committee will now decide on the candidates for the on-campus interviews.
On the agenda of the Board of Trustees meeting coming Friday are 5 items that are important to the academic mission of Auburn, one being the request for architect selection for the large classroom and laboratory complex (formerly referred to as the Roosevelt Classroom Building, now in combination with the Math and Laboratory Science Building) in place of Allison and Parker Hall close to the parking deck of the stadium. The second one is a new School of Nursing in the area of Donahue, between Ham Wilson and the new VCOM Building (approval stage). The Vet School obtained some private funding for the addition of a research facility (also approval and architect selection), and finally at the College of Engineering the approval for architect selection for the Textile Building is on the agenda. In this case project initiation had already been approved. Finally the BOT will be asked to approve the establishment of the University College for interdisciplinary studies which currently is housed in what is called the “Provost College”. It will house the distance programs and the so-called completer degrees as well as others, such as cyber security and sustainability minors programs. It will also have oversight of the first year advising center for exploratory students. The Director will be Constance Relihan who is also Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies.
The Alabama Commission of Higher Education has selected Auburn University as an Alabama Green Ribbon university. Auburn is the first university in the State to receive this designation. It will be announced at Earth Day if Auburn was selected on for national recognition by the U.S. Department of Education.
Questions: none
University Senate Chair, Patricia Duffy
Patricia Duffy explained the specifics of a constitutional change that would be reflected in the wording in the Handbook (which is the University Constitution) and the number of votes (2/3 of the membership or 58 votes) needed for such constitutional change. The Parliamentarian Conner Bailey had pointed out that the addition of a Library representative to the Graduate Council actually was such a constitutional change. Luckily the necessary two-thirds vote of the Senate had been met at the January Senate meeting for this Action Item. The same would apply to the addition of a Library representative to the UCC. Again, the vote in November passed with sufficient numbers to meet the threshold.
Patricia Duffy further pointed out that the nominees for new Senate Officers will be announced soon. The election for Chair-elect and Secretary-elect will be performed electronically in the days before and announced at the Spring General Faculty meeting on March 10.
March will be a very busy month. Steering has approved a specially called (additional) Senate meeting on March 31 dedicated to the report of the ad hoc Strategic Budgeting Committee which was in the Resolution presented at the June Senate meeting of last year. Finally she passed on a reminder from Johnny Green that Auburn has a lot of veterans and that the Student Veteran Center is available for questions that faculty might have regarding veteran students in their classrooms.
Questions: none
Action Items
Constance Relihan summarized the proposed change to the course repeat policy as introduced during the January Senate meeting (p 7 of presentation; repeat course memo).
Questions:
Larry Crowley (Immediate-past Chair) repeated his concerns about unintended consequences of this changed policy. Students who do not pass the first time will try to repeat the course with a lower course load or take the course at a Community College and it will take them overall longer to graduate.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) asked again why the student’s associate academic dean has to review the student’s academic record and not someone that has the right academic credentials to make a decision considering that the courses in question include math courses and English composition. Since this related to a specific course, not curriculum, in his view the instructor of the course would be the biggest expert and the most appropriate person to give advice; it would also force this professor to be more aware that there is a troubled student in this class when allowing the student into the class, and thus perhaps take more responsibility for their performance. He wondered why policies are written to be violated.
Patricia Duffy asked if he wanted to make a motion or if it was just a comment. Michael Stern did not want to make a motion.
Constance Relihan replied that the policy was written as flexible as possible. There are a number of advising models on campus. Some rely more heavily on faculty than others. Individual Colleges can make a designation with whom they are going to consult prior to making a decision about the student.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) said that this is not what the policy says.
Since there were no further questions, Patricia Duffy called for a vote and the proposal passed.
Constance Relihan presented the proposed rewording (p13 of presentation CAP policy memo) as introduced in the January Senate meeting.
Questions: none
Patricia Duffy called for a vote; the proposal passed.
Committees on occasion need a replacement for a member that cannot serve on a specific committee for reasons of health, retirement, or other. The Senate voted that Don (Ross) Heck will be replaced by Mark Taylor to finish his term (2016) on the University Writing Committee.
Pending Action Items
Call for Nominations for Rules Committee; Presenter: Gisela Buschle-Diller, Secretary
The Rules Committee has the responsibility to provide the President with a list of faculty nominations for University Committees and the Senate for Senate committees. Nominees must be sitting Senators at the time of the election (March meeting). Nominations are made from the floor. Bios will be posted. There are 3 open slots in the Rules Committee starting August 2015.
Lisa Kensler (Senator, EFLT) nominated Jada Kohlmeier; Larry Teeter (Chair-elect) nominated Eduardus Duin and Larry Crowley (Immediate-past Chair) Dan Mackowski. There were no further nominations.
Information Items
There are some changes coming in faculty and staff tickets for athletic events. Discounts to athletic tickets are not an Athletics Department decision. The Intercollegiate Athletics Committee has collected input and brought the information to the President who has approved. Faculty and staff tickets, starting in 2015, will be real paper tickets. You will not have to share your ID when you give your ticket away. The tickets will have more value. However, there is an increased cost to these tickets dictated by the IRS since these tickets are now clearly the same tickets as the general public gets. IRS allows a 20% discount without taxing. The University could extend that discount but would then have to tax everybody below the 20% which would be quite challenging. The discount will now be 20% of the face value, but on a different type of ticket. It is a much better thing for Auburn University from a security stand-point. The extra-money will go into the General Fund, not to Athletics, and will help with paying for healthcare to keep healthcare as affordable as possible. Another key issue is that for those that have difficulty to pay for the increased price of tickets, a payment plan will be developed for up to 6 months. In 2016 there will be a change in the way priority points are assessed. It will honor more the years of ordering rather than the job status or rank. Consecutive year-to-year ordering is the key. No one will move backwards, as long as you keep ordering your tickets year after year. The highest rewards go to those that continuously order.
Questions:
Ed Youngblood (Senator, Comm. & Journalism) asked why the decision was made to go with the general tickets.
Don Large replied that the current use of the ID was one reason and the other one had to do with the IRS. For years it was argued that it is really not the same product, so it can be discounted for more than 20% but it seemed time to change this situation, but again, the product now is a lot better.
Gregg Schmidt (Senator, Library) asked whether the request to upgrade in priority is a paid upgrade.
David Benedict (Chief Officer of Athletic Operations) replied that there wouldn’t be a payment; but it would have to be requested. People would have the same seats as the previous year. Faculty and staff would use the same system (Belina(?)) as season ticket holders to choose their seats. They would be able to see which seats are available, and if they wish, could choose different seats. There will be no charge.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) asked why these tickets are discounted at all.
Don Large answered that the tickets were discounted since way before his time. Athletics then called it a privilege of purchasing. Some schools do (discount), others don’t.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) asked to confirm that Auburn is paying out of the General Fund.
Don Large replied that Athletics is given credit for that discount in assessment of their overhead charges to them. It has changed from an Athletics privilege to a benefit that now his office provides. So it changed about 20 years ago from a privilege to a benefit.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) said that he read that 67% of American adults believe that Athletics has too much influence over colleges and universities. It is not clear to him from an ethical stand-point why this entertainment (which a football game is) is provided at a discount to the faculty. The students involved in this this are often in the classrooms of that faculty. The tickets are sold with a subsidy that then can be resold for profit. It is the question whether we should be concerned about this from an ethical stand-point.
Mary Boudreaux (FAR) interjected that it is a violation to resell your tickets at a profit.
Andrew Sinclair (Senator, Aerospace Engineering) remarked that there were efforts to close the loopholes that allow tax deduction on donations related to ticket purchases and wanted to know if the University is tracking this issue.
David Benedict replied that a recent article said that athletic based donations were at the highest ever, at over 1.2 billion dollars past year. It is a significant issue which definitely needs to be tracked, although it is not a large number of people that buy season tickets.
Don Large added that you have to consider what the actual real market value of the tickets is. Taking into account the average donations in sections 1 through 5 that it takes to get a priority ticket in the sections where faculty/staff tickets are in, and comparing it to the discounted face value plus the donation, we actually pay only about 25% of the market cost. That gives a different perspective of what the real value is.
Peter Stanwick (Senator, Management) wanted to know how the lottery works for the away games and the post-season tickets.
David Benedict said that previously those tickets have been awarded based on the base points or years of purchase, but starting 2015 all individuals can request those tickets. They will then be distributed via a lottery system, simply on availability and regardless of how long people have purchased tickets. They will go to first-time buyers and people with long-term buying history alike, and not just to those with high enough total points. This will go into effect next season (2015).
Mary Boudreaux gave a detailed report on the work of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee and this year’s award winners (presentation).
Questions:
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) remarked that he had asked a question last year concerning the distribution of majors of football players. He had hoped to see data in this year’s presentation.
Mary Boudreaux replied that a distribution was not done for any discipline. Football players are found in different disciplines and they are not all clustered together.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) continued that in light of the UNC scandal it would be good to look closely at the courses and curricula high pressure sports students are taking. In a recent poll it was found that only 15% of top tier college athletes get a good education and athletes are not being provided the education that was promised. Auburn University should take a look at this.
Mary Boudreaux said that there should be no reason to worry. There is no evidence of clustering.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) suspected that there is some clustering and wanted the definition of “significant” clustering.
Mary Boudreaux replied that significant clustering would mean that the whole team is in one major.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) said that as a statistician he looks at the distribution of majors of non-student athletes and compares it to the distribution of members of the football team and if he finds statistical anomalies, it would suggest clustering. He said that his own students complained that some classes “were for football players”. He concludes there is clustering at Auburn University. Only 5.5% of athletes are majoring in Engineering.
Patricia Duffy asked if he’d like to make a specific request.
Michael Stern (Senator, Economics) repeated his request from last year to see the distribution of majors in the football team and not everything mixed together to make sure that all student athletes obtain a good education.
Michael Freeman (Staff Council Chair) requested that if these data are available, to add the extracurricular amount of time they need to prepare for their sport. It is a lot of time these students have to spend on preparation to be able to play their sports on the field, while other students may not have an opportunity because they do not play a sport. Thus there are some other factors and anomalies that need to be put into these data to make it fair against the rest of the student population.
Since there were no more questions on the above topic, Patricia Duffy ended the meeting with the comment that all full-time employees completed the IT training, a fact she had wanted to say in her opening remarks but had accidentally skipped.
New Business: Patricia Duffy, Senate Chair
None
Unfinished Business: Patricia Duffy, Senate Chair
None
Adjournment: Patricia Duffy, Senate Chair at 4:545 P.M.