Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
238 Broun Hall Auditorium
3:30 P.M.

A full transcript is available for this meeting.

Attendance

Officers:
James Goldstein, Chair; Daniel Svyantek, Chair-Elect; Xing Ping Hu, Secretary; Larry Teeter, Immediate-Past Chair

Administration
Gretchen VanValkenburg, VP, Alumni Affairs; John Mason, Research and Economic Development; Vini Nathan, Dean, College of Architecture, Design & Const.; Janaki Alavalapati, Dean, School of Forestry and Wildlife Science; June Henton, Dean, College of Human Sciences; Bobby Woodard, VP, Student Affairs

Ex-Officio
Althea Tate, Staff Council Chair; Timothy Jones, A&P Assembly Chair; Emily Myers, Steering Committee; Lisa Kensler, Steering Committee

Absent, sending substitute:
Trey Fields for Jesse Westerhouse (SGA President); Cova Arias for Paul Patterson (College of Agriculture); Nancy Noe for Bonnie MacEwan (Dean of Libraries); Elizabeth Devore for Tenchi Smith (GSC President)
Absent, not sending substitute:
Timothy Boosinger, Provost; Donald Mulvaney, Secretary-Elect; Don Large, Executive VP; Jane Difolco Parker, VP, Development; Lucretia Tripp, Steering Committee; Jared Russell, Steering Committee

Senators, by Department:
Anwar Ahmed            , Aerospace Engineering; Michelle Worosz, Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology; Dean Schwartz, Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology; Rebecca O'Neal-Dagg, Architecture; Kathryn Floyd, Art; Bob Locy, Biological Sciences; Mark Dougherty, Biosystems Engineering; Mark Taylor, Building Sciences; Allan E. David, Chemical Engineering; Doug Goodwin, Chemistry; Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; Allison Plumb, Communication Disorders; David Umphress, Computer Science & Software Engineering; Ann Beth Presley, Consumer & Design Sciences; Melody Russell, Curriculum & Teaching; Forest Smith, Drug Discovery and Development; Jung Won Hur, Educational Foundations, Leadership & Technology; Michael Baginski (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Daniel Wells, Horticulture; Mark Schall, Industrial and Systems Engineering; Gregg Schmidt, Library; Alan Walker, Management; Dora Bock, Marketing; Dmitry Glotov, Mathematics and Statistics; Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering; Matthew Hoch, Music; David Crumbley, Nursing; Michael Greene, Nutrition, Dietetics, & Hospitality Mgmt.; Chippewa Thomas, Outreach; Vicky van Santen, Pathobiology; Spencer Durham, Pharmacy Practice; Eric Marcus, Philosophy; Michael Fogle, Physics; Cathleen Erwin, Political Science; Ken Macklin, Poultry Science; Tracy Witte, Psychology; Marilyn Cornish   , Special Ed. Rehabilitation Counseling/School Psych; Jeff Welborn, Lieutenant Colonel, ROTC Air Force; Roshun Steele, Maj., ROTC Army; Captain, Willie Billingslea, ROTC Naval; Kristrina (Kriste) Shuler, Socio/Anthro/Social Work; Annette Smith, Veterinary Clinical Sciences                                                  

Absent, sending substitute:
Andrew McLelland for Robert Cochran (Accountancy), Rafay Ishfaq for Cliff Defee (Aviation Management & Logistics), Michael Stern for Liliana Stern (Economics), Hilary Wyss for James E. Ryan (English), John Murphy for David Held (Entomology & Plant Pathology), Ash Bullard for Rusty Wright (Fisheries & Allied Aquaculture), John Mazaheri for Traci O'Brian (Foreign Lang & Literatures), Kimberly Garza for Brent Fox (Health Outcomes and Research Policy), Shea Tillman for Jerod Windham (Industrial Design), Andreas Kavazis for Andreas Kavazis (Kinesiology)             
Absent, not sending substitute:
Paul Brown (ACES), Don Mulvaney (Animal Sciences), Cliff Lange (Civil Engineering), Charles Chen (Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences); Justin Benefield (Finance), Latif Kalin (Forestry & Wildlife Science), Ming-kuo Lee (Geology & Geography), David Lucsko (History), Tom Smith (Human Development & Family Studies), Adrienne Wilson (theatre)

Minutes

At 3:30 PM Chair James Goldstein called the meeting to order , reminded the Senators of the rules of speaking at Senate meetings, and asked the members of the senate to sign in in the back of the room and get a clicker. He announced the presence of 61 Senators by headcount of the total of 86 members of the Senate. A quorum requiring 44 senators was established. The chair also announced that enough senators were present to pass a constitutional amendment by the required 2/3 majority (57 votes). Last he reminded senators of the rules of attendance and the rules for speaking at the microphone.

The minutes of the June 14, 2016 Senate meeting were approved without modifications.

Remarks and Announcements

Office of the President, Jay Gogue, President

Dr. Gogue welcomed the faculty back. He talked about current issue with Campus Printing and students’ request to bring Uber back to campus. Alabama is having a special Legislative session to address two things: Medicaid funding mainly through BT settlement funds and a proposal for a lottery to help fix the state's persistent problem with funding state services.  If getting approved, 90% of the lottery will go to general fund and 10% to education trust fund. The Board of Trustees will meet in September. A recent meeting of SEC library deans announced the agreement to extend the Interlibrary Loan program among the libraries.

Questions: None

University Senate Chair, James Goldstein

James Goldstein announced the formation of three Ad Hoc Committees by the Senate leadership and Steering Committees during the summer. Three Ad Hoc Committees have been approved by the Rules. The three Ad Hoc Committees are on Competency-based Education, Annual Leave Banking for Catastrophic Leave, and Fringe Benefit Charges on Summer Salaries Paid from Extramural Grants. Chair Goldstein further reported the Chair, number of members and charge of each committee. He also made the Senate aware of ongoing efforts to reform the Retirement System of Alabama. He referred to an article published in al.com and a Face Book group “Save Our RSA," The truth behind the big money efforts to change pensions in Alabama.

He then introduced the Senate Officers, Mitchell Brown who serves as the parliamentarian for the meeting, and the administrative assistant Laura Kloberg who assists with senate meetings and makes sure the business of the senate is conducted as smoothly as possible.

Questions: None

Action Items

The first item was a vote for a slate of nine nominated replacement members for seven Senate Committees.  There was no question and discussion, so Xing Ping Hu called for a vote. The motion was passed be Senate voting (59-2) and 97% in favor of the nominees.
The link to the List of Replacement Nominees is listed in Meeting Agenda

The next item was a vote for the Resolution from Teaching Effectiveness Committee proposing the addition of designee from Office of Assessment as an ex-officio member of Teaching Effectiveness Committee. This resolution was presented by Todd Steury, the Chair of Teaching Effectiveness Committee.  There was no question and the Senate Chair called for a vote. The resolution was passed by senate voting (57-4) and 93% in favor of the proposed constitution change.
The link to the Resolution is listed in Meeting Agenda

Information Items
ADA Compliance in Canvas, presented by Trace Donald, Director of the Office of Accessibility. His presentation is entitled “Six steps to make Canvas more accessible”. The six steps are 1) selecting proper Headers, 2) bettering links, 3) describing images, 4) properly captioning Videos, 5) making Color contrast, and 6) linking various Documents.   The link to the presentation is listed in Meeting Agenda

Questions:
Ed Youngblood (Communication and Journalism): How long we don’t have to worry about video/audio restrictions?
Reply:
Trace: It is down the road, but will basically stay the same.

Unfinished Business:
James Goldstein, Senate Chair
None

New Business: James Goldstein, Senate Chair
None

Adjournment: James Goldstein, Senate Chair
Meeting adjourned 4:15 pm