Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, January 19, 2015
238 Broun Hall Auditorium
3:30 P.M.
A full transcript is available for this meeting.

Attendance

Officers:
Larry Teeter, Chair; James Goldstein, Chair-Elect; Laura Plexico, Secretary; Xing Ping Hu, Secretary-Elect; Patricia Duffy, Immediate-Past Chair

Administration:
Bobby Woodard, VP Student Affairs; Betty Lou Whitford, Dean, College of Education; Gregg Newschwander, Dean, School of Nursing; Chris Roberts, Dean, College of Engineering; George Flowers, Dean, Graduate School

Ex-Officio
Bonnie MacEwan, Dean of Libraries; Arthur Taylor, Staff Council Chair; Sara Wolf, Steering Committee; Emily Myers, Steering Committee; Kevin Yost, Steering Committee; Lisa Kensler, Steering Committee

Absent, sending substitute:
Stanley Harris for Bill Hardgrave, Dean, College of Business; Charles Israel for Joseph Aistrup, Dean, College of Liberal Arts; Brett Walton for Walker Byrd, SGA President

Absent, not sending substitute:
Nicholas Giordano, Dean, COSAM; Calvin Johnson, Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine; Timothy R. Boosinger, Provost; India Napier, GSC President; Vic Walker, A&P Assembly Chair

Senators, by Department:
Robert Cochran, Accountancy; Michelle Worosz, Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology; Paul Brown, ACES; Don Mulvaney, Animal Sciences; Dean Schwartz [2nd], Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology; Rebecca O’Neil-Dagg, Architecture; Barb Bondy, Art; Bob Locy [2nd], Biological Sciences; Mark Dougherty, Biosystems Engineering; Doug Goodwin, Chemistry; Cliff Lange [2nd], Civil Engineering; Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; Allison Plumb, Communication Disorders; David Umphress, Computer Science & Software Engineering; Karla Teel, Consumer & Design Sciences; Melody Russell, Curriculum & Teaching; Liliana Stern, Economics; Jung Won Hur, Educational Foundations, Leadership & Technology; Hulya Kirkici, Electrical & Computer Engineering; Hilary Wyss, English
David Held, Entomology & Plant Pathology; Jung Park, Finance; Traci O’Brian, Foreign Lang & Literatures; Latif Kalin, Forestry & Wildlife Science; Ming-kuo Lee, Geology & Geography; Brent Fox [2nd], Health Outcomes and Research Policy; David Lucsko, History; Jerod Windham, Industrial Design; Sean Gallagher, Industrial and Systems Engineering; John Quindry, Kinesiology; Gregg Schmidt, Library; Peter Stanwick [2nd], Management; ; Dmitry Glotov [2nd], Mathematics and Statistics; David Crumbley, Nursing; Kevin Huggins, Nutrition, Dietetics, & Hospitality Mgmt.; Chippewa Thomas [2nd], Outreach; Vicky van Santen [2nd], Pathobiology; Spencer Durham, Pharmacy Practice; Eric Marcus, Philosophy; Michael Fogle, Physics; Cathleen Erwin, Political Science; Tung-shi Huang, Poultry Science; Daniel Svyantek [Tracy Witte], Psychology; Marilyn Cornish, Special Ed. Rehabilitation Counseling/School Psych
Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Welborn, ROTC Air Force; Maj. Roshun Steele, ROTC Army; Kristina (Kriste) Shuler, Socio/Anthro/Social Work; Adrienne Wilson, Theatre; Annette Smith [2nd], Veterinary Clinical Sciences

Absent, sending substitute:
Stephen Nichols for Anwar Ahmed, Aerospace Engineering; Daniel Wells for Amy Wright, Horticulture; James Carver, Marketing; Captain, Paul Michael Esposito, ROTC Naval

Absent, not sending substitute:
Cliff Defee, Aviation Management & Logistics; Mark Taylor [2nd], Building Sciences; Allan E. David, Chemical Engineering; Beth Guertal, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences; Muralikrishnan Dhanasekaran, Drug Discovery and Development; Rusty Wright [2nd], Fisheries & Allied Aquaculture; Tom Smith, Human Development & Family Studies; Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering; Anne Duraski for Matthew Hoch, Music

Minutes
At 3:30 PM Chair Larry Teeter called the meeting to order and reminded the Senators of the rules of speaking at Senate meetings. In addition, he asked the members of the senate to sign in in the back of the room and get a clicker.

Remarks and Announcements
Office of the Executive Vice-President, Don Large

Don Large made remarks on behalf of the president Dr. Gogue. Dr. Gogue is out of the office for medical reasons. During his remarks he stated that the legislative sessions starts Feb 2nd and we will continue to face the fact that the general fund remains under funded which makes the education trust fund a target. There will be talk on gun legislation in relation to guns on campus as well as other legislative matters.

On Feb 5th there will be a board of trustee meeting at Auburn Montgomery. During that meeting they will discuss modifications to the public safety building and proposals from academic affairs will be reviewed. The audit committee will also deliver their report.

Questions: None

University Senate Chair, Larry Teeter

The minutes of the November 17th, 2015 Senate meeting were approved without modifications.
He introduced the senate officers and then established a quorum using iclickers. There are currently 86 members of the Senate; therefore, for a quorum to be established 44 senators are required to be present. A quorum was established with 51 represented.
Questions: None

Action Items
Approval of replacement Senate committee members; Presenter, Laura Plexico, Rules Committee

The first item up for vote was a vote for new members of select Senate committees. There was no discussion and Laura Plexico called for a vote. The policy was passed with 56 votes and 100% in favor of the slate of candidates. She followed the vote with an announcement that the rules committee will need three nominations from the floor during the February meeting.

Questions:

None

Information Items
Update - Strategic Plan Faculty Success Implementation Committee; Presenter: Dr. Jared Russell, Chair

Reviewed that there are three initiatives for Spring 2016: continued implementation of COACHE recommendations, climate study for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the strategic hire initiative. Areas of concern from COACHE survey include: on campus child care, training for department heads and chairs, and a salary review. In fall 2015 the Mills consulting group was engaged by the Provost’s office to review the potential for establishing an on campus early care and education center. The Provost will continue discussion on that matter and will make recommendations to the president in spring 2016.

There is now an established Biggio Center Faculty Fellow for Transformational Leadership position. Recruitment for this three year position will begin February 2016. The fellow will support and advance the development of departmental leaders to promote the development and maintenance of productive department cultures.

The Commission on the Academic Careers of Women at Auburn University was created and they submitted a report in Fall 2015 with concerns over salary inequity. The Provost’s Office will review salaries in Spring 2016 to ensure salaries are fair and equitable.

Another major initiative is looking at the diversity, equity and inclusion climate. A climate survey will be conducted in the Spring. In the survey they will be looking at four key areas: diversity, equity and inclusiveness; recruitment and retention of diverse students and faculty; cultural competency; and respect and collegiality. Participation in the study was encouraged.

For the strategic hire initiative five strategic cluster areas were chosen as part of a “bottom up” faculty driven process. 41 searches are in progress.

Questions: None

Cuba Outreach Initiative; Presenter: Dr. Chippewa Thomas, University Outreach

In 2015, when the travel ban was lifted, there were three trips to explore future opportunities to engage with Cuba. The history and demographics of the capital Havana were reviewed. She reviewed how to travel to Cuba and activities in the area of Havana. During the initial visits to Cuba they had educational sessions and meetings with educators, key officials and professionals to discuss how Auburn can engage with Cuba. There will be four more trips to Cuba in 2016 and the faculty are encouraged to participate in those outreach trips to continue to build relations with Cuba. Interested faculty should contact Dr. Thomas for more information.

Questions: None

Active Shooter Program; Presenter: Chance Corbett, Associate Director, Emergency Management

General emergency management for the campus was reviewed. The responders to emergency calls are the EMS, police, and fire department from the city of Auburn. Employees on campus are also trained on how to respond during an emergency. After the training they are part of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). The AU ALERT system is also in place. Participation is mandatory for students and faculty are encouraged to participate.

The active shooter response training has been in place since 2009. Auburn’s program was compared to the Run, Hide, Fight training program. Auburn’s training program and the Run, Hide, Fight program are very similar and the latter has used many Auburn materials. The term lockdown was reviewed. Lockdown is the word used when you are in an active shooter situation. The traditional lockdown sequence and response pattern of persons to an emergency situation was reviewed. Auburn’s goal is to teach students and faculty to stay safe, keep the aggressor away, and notify law enforcement. There are both emergency preparedness and active shooter training sessions for faculty and students. Both faculty and student participation was encouraged.

Questions: None

This is Research symposia – 2016; Presenters: Drs. Jennifer Kerpelman and Lorraine Wolf

The student symposium will be April 12th and 13th with awards on April 18th. The faculty symposium is on Sept 15th and 16th. The window to submit abstracts for the student symposium is now open and the faculty were asked to encourage their students to submit abstracts for oral and poster presentations. The goal is to increase visibility of student research. It will be held in the student center. For the student symposium judges are needed for the student awards. They asked senators to encourage faculty to sign up to judge student presentations. www.auburn.edu/thisisresearch

The faculty symposium will be held at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center. This year there will be the addition of the creative scholars showcase.  Students are also invited and welcome to attend the faculty symposium.

Questions: None

New Business or Unfinished Business: Larry teeter, Senate Chair
None
Adjournment: Larry teeter, Senate Chair at 4:24 P.M.