Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Submitted by Gisela Buschle-Diller, secretary
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
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.
Ex-Officio
Present:
Tim Boosinger, Provost; Michael Freeman, Staff Council; Ashley Hamberlin, A&P Assembly Chair; Sara Wolf, Emily Myers, Keven Yost, Michael Baginski, J Steering Committee.
Absent, sending substitute:
Nancy Noe for Bonnie MacEwan; Dean, Libraries; Stanley Harris for Bill Hardgrave, Dean, College of Business; Paul Jungnickel for Lee Evans, Dean, School of Pharmacy; Charles A. Israel for Joseph A. Aistrup, Dean, College of Liberal Arts; Steve Duke for Chris Roberts, Dean, College of Engineering.
Absent, not sending substitute:
Logan Powell, President, Student Government Association; Leonard Towns, Graduate Student Council President.
Senators, by Department:
Present: Robert Cochran, Accountancy; Andrew Sinclair, Aerospace Engineering; Beth Guertal, Agronomy and Soils; Dale Coleman, Animal Sciences; Dean Schwartz, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology; Barb Bondy, Art; Cliff Defee, Aviation Management and Logistics; Bob Locy, Biological Sciences; Sushil Adhikari, Biosystems Engineering; Mark Taylor, Building Sciences; Allan David, Chemical Engineering; Cliff Lange, Civil Engineering; Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; Allison Plumb, Communication Disorders; Sanjeev Baskiyar, Computer Science and Software Engineering; Jada Kohlmeier, Curriculum and Teaching; 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; Traci O’Brien, Foreign Language and Literatures; Latif Kalin, Forestry and Wildlife Science; Brent Fox, Health Outcomes Research and Policy; Tiffany Sippial, History; Amy Wright, Horticulture; Jerrod Bradley Windham, Industrial Design; Sean Gallagher, Industrial 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; Wesley Lindsey, Pharmacy Practice; Michael Fogle, Physics; Gwynedd Thomas, Polymer & Fiber Engineering; Tung-shi Huang, Poultry Science; Daniel Sventek, Psychology; Jill Meyer, Special Education, Rehab and Counseling; Paul Michael Esposito, ROTC Navy; Kristina Shuler, Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work.
Absent, sending substitute:
Rusty Smith for Rebecca O’Neal-Dagg, Architecture; Sang-Eun Byun for Wi-Suk Kwon, Consumer Affairs; James Witte for Lisa Kensler, Educational Foundations and Leadership; Arata Hamawaki for Eric Marcus, Philosophy.
Absent, not sending substitute:
Valentina Hartaska, Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology; Paul Brown, ACES; Eduardus Duin, Chemistry; Michael Stern, Economics; David King, Geology and Geography; Tom Smith, Human Development and Family Studies; Chippewa Thomas, Outreach; Muralikrishnan Dhanasekaran, Pharmacal Sciences; Murray Jardine, Political Science; Jeffrey Hemmes, ROTC Air Force; Scott Copeland, ROTC Army; Annette Smith, Veterinary Clinical Sciences.
Departments with no elected senator at this meeting:
AAES; Theater.
Minutes
At 3:30 p.m., Chair Patricia Duffy called the meeting to order, reminded the Senators of the rules of speaking and to speak into the microphones for better recording. She then established a quorum. There are currently 86 members of the Senate and a quorum requires therefore 44 members to be present. The minutes of the Senate meeting of June 17, 2014 were approved without modifications.
Remarks and Announcements
Office of the President, Jay Gogue, President: Dr. Gogue welcomed everyone back and made several announcements in which faculty played key roles. First, GE Aviation has been expanding their operations in the area of Additive Manufacturing in Auburn; the Dean and various faculty members of the College of Engineering were absolutely critical in this move. Second, Baxter, a drug company that makes renal filters for kidney issues, is expanding their operations by about $300 Million, and Pharmacy faculty has been significantly involved in helping them set up their operations. Third, the President mentioned that he received a very nice letter from the University of Kentucky regarding Constance (Hendricks) of the School of Nursing who spent a semester of leave there as Senior Presidential Fellow and tremendously helped with the expansion of their Nursing program.
Three items will be taken to the BOT meeting next week: first, there will be changes at Cater Hall which is need of repair/renovation. There is exterior and interior work planned to be done over the next couple of years. Second, the approval of the 1st phase of the construction of the Central Classroom Building (Mell Commons Component with about 75,000 ft2 classroom space) will be taken to the Board with the selection of the architect and architectural schematics; and third, the guidelines for AU’s budget which will begin in Oct. 1st were approved at the last BOT meeting. Over the summer a group of people has then put together the budget. The budget basically met all the guidelines. There is some increase in compensation at the permanent level as well as at the one-time level (in Dec.) in the budget.
He further mentioned/introduced the new Vice-President for Student Services, Bobby Woodard, who started in Auburn in early August. Debbie Shaw (VP for Alumni Affairs) will retire in January 2015 and a search will be conducted shortly to fill this position.
The Southeast Conference (SEC) chose to partner with ESPN for sporting events. It will have about one thousand live sports events on that channel and allow households to watch many of the Olympic events, women’s sports, but also football and baseball and sporting events that are not usually shown on CBS and ESPN.
No questions.
Office of the Provost, Tim Boosinger, Provost: Dr. Boosinger explained briefly the findings of the COACHE survey (job satisfaction; see his presentation presentation (ppt) and encouraged everyone to go to the results posted on the Web. The participation rate was about 52%. He pointed out that Auburn’s results overall were very good, however, improvements are needed in several areas and work will be conducted to address areas of weakness (e.g., work life issues; spousal hiring; evaluation by chairs; faculty recognition, substandard performance; lacking support of mentoring female associate professors to professors).
A committee will be formed as an “implementation group” for Strategic Goal #2 and work on spousal hire/campus childcare; faculty appreciation and recognition; enhanced department head/chair training; and improved faculty evaluation. Special consideration will be given, maybe beyond a committee via an external consultant, to the issue of mentoring female associate professors.
Dr. Boosinger further mentioned that the search for the new Dean of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences will commence very soon.
No questions.
University Senate Chair, Patricia Duffy: First, Patricia Duffy introduced the new officers, the members of Steering and Rules Committees and the administrative assistant of the Senate, Laura Kloberg, and explained the tasks of Steering and Rules Committees. She further reviewed attendance and speaking rules for Senators. She asked to please limit speaking time to 4 minutes at a time to allow everyone to comment on an issue.
Dr. Duffy stated that a committee will be formed to work on faculty success in connection to COACHE survey (Dr. Boosing also commented on this committee) and mentioned further that the role of the Senate Administrator Evaluation Committee will have to be clarified in regard to the periodic evaluation of department heads/chairs.
No questions.
Action Item
The only Action Item, the Confirmation of Remaining Members of Senate Committees, was presented by Gisela Buschle-Diller, Senate Secretary. A list of nominees had been posted on the Senate website List of Nominations. The nominations were either replacements for committee members on leave or late nominations for other reasons. The vote was 57 yes : 3 no; members are approved and the appointment letters will go in the mail soon.
Pending Action Items
None
Information Items
No questions.
No questions.
New Business: Patricia Duffy, Senate Chair
None
Unfinished Business: Patricia Duffy, Senate Chair
None
Adjournment: Patricia Duffy, Senate Chair, at 4:10 p.m.