Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
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: Timothy Fair substituting for Taffye Clayton, VP & Assoc. Provost of Inclusion and Diversity; Bryan Elmore substituting for Kelli Shomaker, VP Business and Finance and CFO; Chippewa Thomas substituting for Royrickers Cook, Associate Provost and VP for Outreach; Gregg Newschwander, Dean School of Nursing; J. Mike Phillips substituting for Paul Patterson, Dean College of Agriculture; M. David Givens substituting for Calvin Johnson, Dean College of Veterinary Medicine; Paul Jungnickel substituting for Richard Hansen, Dean Harrison School of Pharmacy; Jennifer Stephens substituting for Gretchen Van Valkenburg, VP Alumni Affairs

Administration absent, not sending substitute: George Flowers, Dean of the Graduate School;

Ex-Officio attending; Emmett Winn substituting for Bill Hardgrave, Provost; Nancy Noe, Interim Dean of Libraries; Elizabeth Devore, GSC President; Robert Kulick, A&P Assembly Chair; Jung Won Hur, Steering; Michael Tillson, Steering; Jared Russell, Steering; Robert Norton, Steering

Ex-Officio Absent, not sending substitute:  Dane Block, SGA President; Tammy Williams, Staff Council Chair;
Senators, by Department: 

Attending or Represented by Substitute
Lisa Miller, Accountancy; Anwar Ahmed, Aerospace Engineering; Molly Gregg, ACES; 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; J. Bryan Anderson, Civil Engineering; Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; Mary Sandage, Communication Disorders; Kai Chang, Computer Science and Software Engineering; Young A Lee, Consumer and Design Sciences; Yucheng Feng substituting for Charles Chen, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences; Jamie Harrison, Curriculum & Teaching; Forest Smith, Drug Discovery and Development; Gilad Sorek, Economics; Ellen Reames, Educational Foundations, Leadership; Lloyd Riggs, Electrical & Computer Engineering; James E. Ryan, English; David Held, Entomology & Plant Pathology; Lee Colquit, Finance; Ash Bullard, Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture; Zachary Zuwiyya, Foreign Lang & Literatures; Wayde Morse, Forestry & Wildlife Science; Haibo Zou, Geology & Geography; Kimberly Garza, Health Outcomes and Research Policy; Monique Laney, History; Daniel Wells, Horticulture; Scott Ketring, Human Development and Family Studies; Mark Schall, Industrial and Systems Engineering; Andreas Kavazis, Kinesiology; Greg Schmidt, Library; Alan Walker, Management; Dora Bock, Marketing; Dmitry Glotov, Mathematics and Statistics; Matthew Hoch, Music; David Crumbley, Nursing; Michael Greene, Nutrition, Dietetics, & Hospitality Mgmt.; David Mixson, Outreach; Vicky van Santen substituting for Peter Christopherson, Pathobiology; Spencer Durham, Pharmacy Practice; Eric Marcus, Philosophy; Stacey Hunt, Political Science; Robert Norton substituting for Ken Macklin, Poultry Science; Tracy Witte, Psychology; Shashank Rao, Systems and Technology; Kenneth McDonald, Lieutenant Colonel, ROTC Air Force; Celina M Creech, Lieutenant Colonel, ROTC Army; Kimberly McCadden substituting for Captain Willie Billingslea, ROTC Navy;Arianne Gaetano, Socio/Anthro/Social Work; Robin Jaffe, Theatre; Robert Cole, Veterinary Clinical Sciences.

Absent, not sending substitute:  Valentina Hartarska, Ag Economics and Rural Sociology; Jacek Wower, Animal Sciences; Carlton Lay, Industrial Design; Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering; Michael Fogle, Physics; Malti Tuttle, Special Ed. Rehabilitation Counseling/School Psych.;

Remarks and Announcements
Comments by University Senate Chair, Michael Baginski
Chair Michael Baginski called the meeting to order at 3:30 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. Chair Baginski reminded the Senate about the Auburn Research Faculty Symposium on October 23 and the call for the Intramural Grants Program.

Minutes
Chair Baginski recognized the officers of the University Senate. A quorum, requiring 45 senators, with 49 senators recorded as present was established. The Senators unanimously approved the minutes for the September 11, 2018 meetings without modification.

Agenda Action Items:
Senate Vote on Members of Senate Committees 
Beverly Marshall, Secretary and Chair of the Rules Committee, presented nominees for vacancies on various committees. The Senate voted in favor 60-0.

Pending Action Item:
Faculty Handbook Amendments
Aurora Weaver, member of the Non-tenure Track Committee, presented as a pending action item an amendment to the Faculty Handbook allowing for multi-year contracts. The Steering Committee and Faculty Handbook Committee have approved this amendment. The Senate will vote on this amendment at its November meeting.

Information Items:
Tenure on Hire Guidelines
Emmett Winn presented guidelines for tenure on hire to clarify the process and to ensure consistency in the dossiers of these cases when they brought to the Promotion and Tenure Committee.  He described two situations when Auburn might want to hire someone with tenure. One involved a previously tenured faculty member.  This is the more typical case.  The second case involves the hiring of a faculty member that was untenured at their previous institution. In the latter case, the guidelines call for a dossier that closely mirrors that of an untenured faculty member here going up for tenure. In these cases, the dossier should include external letters and teaching evaluations. There were questions regarding the hiring of an assistant professor with tenure. This situation is not addressed in the guidelines.

Discussion of possible reduction in number of Senate meetings and Senate Committee voting procedure (with clicker feedback)

Beverly Marshall, Senate Secretary, asked Senators to provide feedback on three potential proposals using clickers. Proposal 1 would be to provide an orientation meeting for new members to the Senate since roughly a third of the Senate turns over each year. Forty-four voted in favor of holding a Senator orientation, while 20 voted no. When asked if this orientation could replace the current August meeting, 46 voted in favor with sixteen opposed.  Proposal 2 regarded a reduction in the number of Senate meetings. Forty-seven voted in favor of having the regular Senate meetings commence in the month of September. The Senators also overwhelmingly favored elimination of the June meeting. Among the 56 Senators voting, 52 voted in favor with only four opposed. The third and final proposal related to voting procedures for Senate Committee volunteers. She specifically referred to the approval needed for the handful of vacancies that occur after the start of fall semester. Senate voting can result in a delay of roughly three weeks in the new member joining the committee. She asked for feedback on whether the Senators would favor allowing Senate Committee changes occurring after the fall semester to be approved by Rules and then Steering only. Forty-five Senators voted in favor with twelve opposed. When asked about the use of a survey instrument, like Qualtrics, for voting on the typically long list of volunteers for committees in the spring, fifty-eight voted yes, one voted no, and there was one abstention.

Dora Bock, Senator, Marketing, raised a question regarding whether multi-year contracts would apply to the Program Champion positions in the Harbert College of Business. After clarification as to the role and types of contracts they were currently under (annual 12-month contracts), Aurora Weaver suggested that they would be covered under the amendment.

Michael Stern raised two questions. He asked about the elimination of the current University Senate and replacement with a Faculty Senate. He also asked about the ability to impeach Senate officers when they did nothing to protect a faculty member from retaliation. These items did not relate specifically to items on the agenda and hence were not questions or comments regarding the approved agenda. Chair Baginski asked Dr. Stern to sit down.

Michael Baginski, Senate Chair

Unfinished Business: none
New Business:  none
Michael Baginski, Senate Chair 
Declared adjournment of the meeting at 4:03 pm.