Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
238 Broun Hall, 3:30 P.M.
A full transcript is available for this meeting.

Attendance Record
Senate Officers:
Michael Baginski, Chair; Nedret Billor, Chair-elect; Beverly Marshall, Secretary; Adrienne Wilson, Secretary-Elect; Daniel Svyantek, Immediate-Past Chair
Administration attending: Ralph Foster substituting for Royrickers Cook, Associate Provost and VP for Outreach; Paul Patterson, Dean College of Agriculture; Calvin Johnson, Dean College of Veterinary Medicine; Richard Hansen, Dean Harrison School of Pharmacy; Taylor Logan substituting for Gretchen Van Valkenburg, VP Alumni Affairs

Administration absent, not sending substitute: Taffye Clayton, VP & Assoc. Provost of Inclusion and Diversity; Kelli Shomaker, VP Business and Finance and CFO; Gregg Newschwander, Dean School of Nursing; George Flowers, Dean of the Graduate School;
Ex-Officio attending; Bill Hardgrave, Provost; Shali Zhang, Dean of Libraries; Nima Aliadeh, GSC President; Robert Kulick, A&P Assembly Chair; Jung Won Hur, Steering; Don Mulvaney substituting for Michael Tillson, Steering; Jared Russell, Steering; Robert Norton, Steering
Ex-Officio Absent, not sending substitute: Mary Margaret Turton, SGA President; Tammy Williams, Staff Council Chair;
Senators, by Department: 
Attending or Represented by Substitute
Lisa Miller, Accountancy; Joe Majdalani substituting for Anwar Ahmed, Aerospace Engineering; Denis Nadoluyak substituting for Valentina Hartarska, Ag Economics and Rural Sociology; Shnovia Joy Scott substituting for Molly Gregg, ACES; Jacek Wower, Animal Sciences; Chad Faradori, Anatomy Physiology and Pharmacology; Rebecca O’Neal-Dagg, Architecture; Kathryn Floyd, Art; Anthony Moss, Biological Sciences; Yi Yang, Biosystems Engineering; Mark Tatum, Building Science; Bryan Bechingham, Chemical Engineering; Doug Goodwin, Chemistry; Robert Agne substituting for Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; Mary Sandage, Communication Disorders; Saad Biaz substituting for Kai Chang, Computer Science and Software Engineering; Young A Lee, Consumer and Design Sciences;  Charles Chen, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences; Jamie Harrison, Curriculum & Teaching; Murali Dhanasekaran substituting for Forest Smith, Drug Discovery and Development; Gilad Sorek, Economics; Ellen Reames, Educational Foundations, Leadership; James E. Ryan, English; David Held, Entomology & Plant Pathology; Lee Colquit, Finance; Ash Bullard, Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture; Lourdes Betanzos substituting for Zachary Zuwiyya, Foreign Lang & Literatures; Wayde Morse, Forestry & Wildlife Science; M. Biller substituting for Haibo Zou, Geology & Geography; Kimberly Garza, Health Outcomes and Research Policy; Monique Laney, History; Daniel Wells, Horticulture; Scott Ketring, Human Development and Family Studies; Gregory Purdy substituting for Mark Schall, Industrial and Systems Engineering;
Tyler Martindale substituting for Greg Schmidt, Library; Alan Walker, Management; Dora Bock, Marketing; Dmitry Glotov, Mathematics and Statistics; Matthew Hoch, Music; David Crumbley, Nursing; Baker Ayoun, Nutrition, Dietetics, & Hospitality Mgmt; David Mixson, Outreach; Katharine Horzmann substituting for Peter Christopherson, Pathobiology; Sarah Cogle substituting for Spencer Durham, Pharmacy Practice; Eric Marcus, Philosophy; Michael Fogle, Physics; Stacey Hunt, Political Science;  Ken Macklin, Poultry Science; Tracy Witte, Psychology; Malti Tuttle, Special Ed. Rehabilitation Counseling/School Psych.; Daffny Pierce substituting for Kenneth McDonald, ROTC Air Force; Major Earl Ingram III substituting for Celina M Creech, Lieutenant Colonel, ROTC Army; Captain Willie Billingslea, ROTC Navy; Arianne Gaetano, Socio/Anthro/Social Work; Robert Cole, Veterinary Clinical Sciences.

Absent, not sending substitute: J. Bryan Anderson, Civil Engineering; Lloyd Riggs, Electrical & Computer Engineering; Carlton Lay, Industrial Design; Andreas Kavazis, Kinesiology; Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering; Shashank Rao, Systems and Technology; Robin Jaffe, Theatre;

Remarks and Announcements
Comments by University Senate Chair, Michael Baginski
Chair Michael Baginski called the meeting to order at 3:31 pm. He reminded the members of the senate or substitute for a senator to sign in in the back of the room and for substitutes to sign in by printing his/her name in the column by the senator. He also reminded the Senate about rules for speaking at Senate meetings.  

Minutes
A quorum, requiring 45 senators, with 58 senators recorded as present was established. The Chair called for the approval of the March 5, 2019 minutes. The minutes were approved by unanimous consent.
Chair Baginski addressed the Senate regarding the recent success of the men’s basketball team in making it to the Final Four. Chair Baginski recognized the officers of the University Senate.

Action Items:
Professor of Practice
Christian Dagg, College of Architecture Design and Construction, presented information on the designation of Professor of Practice, including typical fields that had this designation and an example of universities that had established such a title. He also described the potential benefits of added this title series.  Emmett Winn, Associate Provost and Professor, elaborated that the title series is non-tenure track and the entire document was reviewed by the Non-tenure Track Faculty Committee and their suggestions were incorporated. He mentioned three suggestions that he received in two different e-mails. He clarified that the intent of the title series is to “bring the most qualified individuals to Auburn to enhance the academic expertise of the unit.” One suggestion involved allowing the departmental or school faculty to review professor of practice holders regularly, perhaps at the end of their year of appointment and then maybe every two or three years. Senate Steering agreed with this suggestion and it will be included in the guidelines before they go forward. Dr. Winn then called for any questions.

Lourdes Betanzos, substitute senator for Foreign Languages and Literature, asked whether the professor of practice would also fall under the annual review of the chair of the unit.

Emmett Winn, Associate Provost and Professor, indicated that every instructional personnel at Auburn must be reviewed annually.
Emmitt Winn, with Chair Baginski’s permission, called for a vote on the addition of a Professor of Practice title series.  The vote was 66 in favor and 5 opposed. The addition of this title series passed.

Approval of Senate Committee Volunteers
Secretary Marshall presented a slate of volunteers for Senate committees. These volunteers were approved by both the Rules and Steering committees prior to their presentation to the Senate. The vote was 69 in favor and 2 opposed. Dr. Marshall thanked the senators for their vote and all those that volunteered.

Pending Action Item:

Ralph Kingston presented a proposed revision to Section 3.6.5.3C Outreach of the Policy and Procedure for Promotion and Tenure. This proposed amendment would require faculty who hold tenured or tenure-track Extension Specialist positions to have an evaluation letter from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) Director included in their dossiers. This item will be presented at the May meeting as an action item.

Information Items:
What does a FAR do? Report of Auburn’s Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics

Beverly Marshall, Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR), provided an overview of the FAR role as mandated by the NCAA. There are three primary duties of the FAR: 1) Provide oversight of the academic integrity of the athletics program, 2) Serve as an advocate for student-athlete well-being, and 3) Play a part in maintaining institutional control of the athletics program. She gave an overview of NCAA academic cases at Missouri and UNC. She summarized the types of academic monitoring she engages in to help Auburn identify any outliers that may benefit from further inquiry.

Beverly Marshall also provided federal graduation rate data for 1) the entire student body, 2) black male students, 3) student-athletes, 4) black male student-athletes. At Auburn, 77% of the entering student body stays at Auburn and graduates within 6 years. Among student-athletes that falls to 63%. Black students in the general student body population and among student-athletes fare worse by about 10 percentage points. Our federal graduation rates for student-athletes are very comparable to our NCAA peers over time but our student body is more likely to stay at Auburn and graduate.

Beverly Marshall then reported degrees earned data for Auburn student-athletes vs NCAA student-athletes. She used the NCAA methodology and Federal Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP codes) to provide the comparisons. Auburn has far more student-athletes in STEM programs but less in health professions and education. She also compared Auburn student-athlete degrees earned versus the general student body at Auburn. In general, student-athletes are more concentrated in business and less in STEM.  Finally, she showed degrees earned for NCAA D1 student-athletes versus their student bodies. The data shows that NCAA D1 student-athletes are also less likely to graduate in STEM majors but across NCAA D1 there is not as wide a gap in health professions and education as at Auburn.

Dr. Marshall explained that timing and flexibility are big issues for student-athletes.  She also said that student-athletes both nationally and at Auburn are attracted to majors that have some connection with their love of sports.

Beverly Marshall explained that the second aspect of her role as FAR is a student-athlete’s safety and well-being. She provided a list of specific things the FAR is required to do per the NCAA FAR handbook. Dr. Marshall also indicated that she sits in on exit interviews of student-athletes finishing their eligibility at Auburn, quitting their team, or transferring.

The final aspect of her role as FAR is institutional control. She reminded everyone that this is not just her responsibility. It is important that Auburn have proper policies and procedures in place and they are appropriately enforced. Finally, she made sure everyone was aware of the EthicsPoint website where employees could report anonymously. She asked if there were any questions.

Michael Stern, not a Senator, Economics,said that he had the same concerns as last year regarding the presentation – specifically a failure to break out the distribution of majors by race and gender.

Dr. Marshall reminded Dr. Stern that we were dealing with small populations.

Michael Stern, not a Senator, Economics, indicated that the university does it for general students and suggested that not doing it for student-athletes implied that it was something we did not want to talk about.

Dr. Marshall asked if Dr. Stern had a question.

Michael Stern, not a Senator, Economics, asked if it would be an NCAA violation if the President believed he would be fired over whom he appointed as FAR?

Dr. Marshall indicated that she did not believe the President feared being fired over who he appointed as FAR and that to her knowledge no NCAA violation had occurred in the appointment of the FAR.

Michael Baginski, Senate Chair:

Unfinished Business: none

New Business:  none

Declared adjournment of the meeting at 4:32 pm.