Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
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: Betty Lou Whitford, Dean, College of Education; Chris Roberts, Dean, College of Engineering;

Ex-Officio: Timothy R. Boosinger, Provost; Arthur Taylor, Staff Council Chair; Sara Wolf, Steering Committee; Kevin Yost, Steering Committee;

Absent, sending substitute: Stanley Harris for Bill Hardgrave, Dean, College of Business; Francine Parker for Gregg Newschwander, Dean, School of Nursing; Charles Israel for Joseph Aistrup, Dean, College of Liberal Arts; Ashley Hamberlin for Vic Walker, A&P Assembly Chair

Absent, not sending substitute: Bobby Woodard, VP Student Affairs; Nicholas Giordano, Dean, COSAM; Calvin Johnson, Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine; George Flowers, Dean, Graduate School; Bonnie MacEwan, Dean of Libraries; Jesse Westerhouse, SGA President; Burcu Ozden, GSC President; Emily Myers, Steering Committee; Lisa Kensler, Steering Committee

Senators, by Department: Robert Cochran, Accountancy; Michelle Worosz, Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology; Paul Brown, ACES; Dean Schwartz [2nd], Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology; Rebecca O’Neil-Dagg, Architecture; Barb Bondy, Art; Mark Dougherty, Biosystems Engineering; Mark Taylor [2nd], Building Sciences; Doug Goodwin, Chemistry; Cliff Lange [2nd], Civil Engineering; Allison Plumb, Communication Disorders; 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; 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; James Carver, Marketing; Dmitry Glotov [2nd], Mathematics and Statistics; Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering; Matthew Hoch, Music; David Crumbley, Nursing; Kevin Huggins, Nutrition, Dietetics, & Hospitality Mgmt.; Vicky van Santen [2nd], Pathobiology;

Muralikrishnan Dhanasekaran, Drug Discovery and Develpoment; Spencer Durham, Pharmacy Practice; Michael Fogle, Physics; Cathleen Erwin, Political Science; Tracey Wittee, Psychology; Marilyn Cornish, Special Ed. Rehabilitation Counseling/School Psych; Jeffrey Hemmes, ROTC Air Force; Maj, Roshun Steele, Lieutenant Colonel, ROTC Army; Kristina (Kriste) Shuler, Socio/Anthro/Social Work; Annette Smith [2nd], Veterinary Clinical Sciences

Absent, sending substitute: Eldon Triggs for Anwar Ahmed, Aerospace Engineering; W. Robert Ashurst for Allan E. David, Chemical Engineering; Sarah Zohdy for Latif Kalin, Forestry & Wildlife Science; Daniel Wells for Amy Wright, Horticulture; Wendi Weimar for John Quindry, Kinesiology; Wilmer Pacheco for Tung-shi Huang, Poultry Science;

Absent, not sending substitute: Don Mulvaney, Animal Sciences; Cliff Defee, Aviation Management & Logistics; Bob Locy [2nd], Biological Sciences; Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; David Umphress, Computer Science & Software Engineering; Beth Guertal, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences; Rusty Wright [2nd], Fisheries & Allied Aquaculture; Tom Smith, Human Development & Family Studies; Gregg Schmidt, Library; Peter Stanwick [2nd], Management; Chippewa Thomas [2nd], Outreach; Eric Marcus, Philosophy; Captain, Paul Michael Esposito, ROTC Naval; Adrienne Wilson, Theatre

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. He 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 48 represented. The minutes of the March 22nd, 2016 Senate meeting were approved without modifications.

Remarks and Announcements

Office of the President, Jay Gogue, President
Last Board meeting a 3% tuition increase was approved by the board. The budget guidelines will be sent to the board in June for approval. Once approved, the budget will be put together for approval at the September board meeting.

Several searches are under way: Chief Information Officer, General Counsel Search, Vice President for Business and Finance. Hopefully bring to resolution over next several months.

Fall enrollment should be consistent with the goals that were set. Somewhere around 4400-4500 freshman will be enrolled. Looking around the country, enrollment has dropped by several million, so for our numbers to stay consistently high, it is a testament to faculty and staff.

Tomorrow (April 20th) will be the release of the climate survey. Provost will be spending time with student groups and faculty to decide what was heard and what is trying to be done in short term, medium term, and long term.

University Senate Chair, Larry Teeter
Larry Teeter first introduced the current and upcoming senate executive committee. He then introduced the administrative assistant Laura Kloberg.

Action Items
1. Modification to Schedules Adjustment policy to recognize later class withdrawal dates.
Presenter: David Held from Academic Standards
Proposed Policy Withdrawal Date presentation
The current policy for dropping a course was reviewed. The proposed policy change indicates there would be no grade penalty on or before the last business day prior to the opening of registration for the following term. Reviewed an example that can be previewed on the slides. This policy provides faculty more time to provide graded feedback and students greater time to determine whether they can make adjustments.  New policy change could potentially result in fewer course drops and more likely 4 year completion.
Questions:

James Goldstein, Chair-elect Senate: Asked that the term mid-semester be removed from the second paragraph.

The Motion was to amend the proposal was seconded and approved.

Marilyn Cornish, Special Education Rehabilitation and Counseling: Asked whether this would create difficulties for the summer term when the registration is in the Spring.

Patricia Duffy, Immediate Past Chair: Elaborated that the question was whether the deadline for the summer term has changed.

David Held: No change for the summer term. The W deadline would not change.

Sara Wolf, Steering: Asked whether summer requires more consideration. Summer students are being penalized when compared to Fall and Spring.

James Carter, Marketing: Asked if it is necessary to change by additional three-week period.  Motioned to post-pone the vote until May.

Constance Relihan, Associate Provost Undergraduate Studies: Indicated the date was motivated by the date that registration begins. She said it would be more memorable and lessen confusion over the date. With regard to the summer. Currently students have until the 24th class day to drop.

Larry Teeter, Senate Chair: Called for a second from the floor to delay the vote. There was second.

The motion to delay the amended policy was passed with 49 votes and 69% in favor of delaying the vote.

Pending Action Items

1. A proposed policy authorizing lecturer class faculty to teach graduate courses and serve on graduate student committees

Presenter: Dr. James Witte, Graduate Council
presentation-lecturer and graduate courses proposal
The current policy change was motivated by whether a lecturer should be permitted to teach Graduate courses or serve as members of Graduate committees. Reviewed concerns over lecturer faculty being used to replace tenure track faculty, that lecturers could be compelled to participate, and the fact that lecturers are being denied to the ability build their portfolio with Graduate work.

Conducted a survey of lecturers. 74 lecturers were surveyed. The results indicate that lecturers would like to serve on Graduate committees and teach Graduate courses. Detailed survey results are in the PowerPoint. Concluded that lecturers are ready and willing to participate at the Graduate level.
Reviewed the attached proposed policy above.

Questions:
Paul Brown, ACES: Asked about non-tenure track faculty, like extension specialists, that are not part of the teaching side that could also be a part of graduate committees and bring an applied component to those committees. Asked that this policy be applied to NTTF extension faculty.

James Witte: They were not included in the initial survey.

James Goldstein, Chair-elect: Indicated opposition to this proposal and asked about the institutional need. Provided history of the proposal and view of the previous provost. Fears that if it becomes routine for lecturers to teach graduate students it will lead to the erosion of tenure-track lines. Argued that full academic freedom depends on achieving tenure; the threat to tenure-track positions is a threat to academic freedom. He is not assured by the safe guards as they can be changed.

James Witte: Referenced built in safe guards in the proposal.

Hillary Wyss, English: Indicated her opposition to this policy. Reminded the floor that it is a teaching position and could exploit lecturers. Suggested that the load of lecturers would need to be changed to reflect research.

James Witte: Responded that the policy does not call for lecturers to conduct research. That they have permission to serve on a Graduate committee.

Paul Brown, ACES: Questioned whether the proposal should be looked at again with a broader lens.

Patricia Duffy, Immediate Past Chair: Stated that lecturers are the only class of faculty that are forbidden or prohibited to teach graduate classes. Other people like NTTF can teach Graduate courses and serve on Graduate committees with special permission from the Graduate school.

George Flowers, Graduate school: Confirmed what Patricia said. Elaborated that the policy was developed with the intent to put safe guards in place to protect the lecturers from being coerced or burdened. Also reviewed the intent of the policy.

Sara Wolf, Steering: Asked for clarification on how permission would be sought for committee work that is often multi-session in length.

James Witte: Once appointed they can remain appointed. Classes require approval on a semester basis.

Tracy Witte, Psychology: Asked how this policy would be reflected in promotion to the senior lecturer position.

James Witte: Stated that would be a departmental function.

2. Copyright Part 2 – A campus policy on the ‘fair use’ of copyrighted materials

Presenters: Sara Wolf, Bruce Kuerten, Jan Thornton
Presentation
final draft of Policy on Use of Copyrighted Materials
The proposed policy indicates that the University and employees should follow the law. The university needs to provide educational materials and they need to promote compliance with the federal copyright law. Stated that University employees and students should make informed decisions and keep a record of how those decisions were made. Reviewed the fair-use exception. Also discussed the use of classroom video and distance education efforts. Copyright law can be found online in Title 17 of the US code. Emphasized the need to maintain records of how copyrighted material is being used. Sanctions for noncompliance were also reviewed.

The next step will be the development of educational materials.

Questions: None

Information Items

1. A proposal for providing 9 months’ pay over 12 months

Presenters: Marcie Smith-Vice President & CFO and
Karla McCormick-Assoc. VP-HR
Developed a salary saving plan. The option for providing 9 months’ pay over 12 months can be accomplished at the Auburn University Federal Credit Union. It is a flexible and free program that gives employees control of their own money. It would a be a portion of your net pay that would be put in the credit union for salary savings. There is a calculator on self-service banner that can be used to determine how much should be saved to have an even distribution over 24 pay periods instead of 18.
Questions: None

2. Governmental Affairs at Auburn University

Presenter: Sherri Fulford, Executive Director
Reviewed that her office is part of the President’s office. Handles interactions with government on the state level. Works with all branches of state government. It covers all four divisions of Auburn: main campus, experiment station, extension system and AUM. Their role is to provide information and communicate with people in Montgomery about policy or positions that might affect Auburn University. Two primary responsibilities. First, to protect and improve Auburn’s state appropriations and education trust fund. Second, to determine the extent the university will participate in policy development and other legislative issues in Montgomery. Reviewed some of the types of bills they follow and get involved with as well as current bills that might be of interest to the faculty. General Fund budget has passed and it is 85 Million dollars short. They will continue to protect the education trust fund and its sources of revenue.
Questions: None

3. Offer letters to new cluster hires

Presenter: Sushil Adhikari, Chair Faculty Research Committee
presentation
Reviewed the proposed processes for cluster participation in the annual review, pre-tenure review and promotion and tenure reviews. See attached Proposal.
Questions: None

New Business: Larry Teeter, Senate Chair

Unfinished Business: Larry Teeter, Senate Chair

Adjournment: Larry Teeter, Senate Chair at 4:46 P.M.