Senate Meeting Minutes
November12, 2019
3:30pm
Broun Hall

A full transcript of this meeting is available.
Please refer to transcript for details not included in the minutes.
Presentations are available from the Agenda for the meeting.

Attendance Record at the end of the minutes.

A quorum was established with 55 in attendance.
The meeting was called to order at 3:31 pm by Chair Nedret Billor.
Approval of the Minutes from Senate Meeting October 15, 2019-approved by unanimous voice vote.

Remarks and Announcements
Chair Billor ‘s main announcement was about the finalists for the Biggio Center position. Open forums have already taken place for two of the candidates; with two more sessions with the remaining two candidates scheduled for November 18, 9-9:45am and 2:15-3pm. Details of this search can be found on the Biggio Center’s website. Add details from the transcript?

President Gogue and Provost Hardgrave were unable to attend the meeting as they were in California attending a meeting for land grant institutions.
Question from Emmet Winn pointing out that attendance needed to be 57 to establish a quorum and wondering if there needed to be a recheck. A second tally of the attendance was taken and the actual number was 61.

Action Item:
Presenter: Adrienne Wilson, Senate Secretary

Before the vote there was a call for questions, comments.
Mike Stern, not a senator, Economics:
First point; I asked or it was discussed in this body back when the University College was moved by Administrative (fiat) with remarks why it did not need to go before the Academic Program Review Committee. It was stated, because it has nothing to do with the curriculum. And now I see that we move to remove the University College from the Curriculum Committee. So, if this move was neutral with respect to the curriculum, why does the representation of this particular curriculum need to be changed with respect to the Curriculum Committee?

Second point is; Why in the name of shared governance do we construct committees on the basis of administrative bureaucracy? If it is to represent the faculty, in this case the curriculum, why are positions on the committee not apportioned relative to the curriculum? Indeed, Liberal Arts, Business, Engineering, when you look at them the fraction of the curriculum that they have is a fraction of the students and thus the interests for the charge of this committee are vastly asymmetric to very small administrative bureaucracy that have very little curricula such as Forestry or Nursing, and so forth. Yet look at how the voting is proportioned on it. This has been a concern that I have raised in the past in the Senate in the construction. The only change that we were told that happened with University College is purely a bureaucratic change relevant to the curriculum. And that is a quote, and now we are asked to remove them from the curriculum committee.

Adrienne Wilson, Secretary: Emmett, Can you answer that?

Emmett Winn, Assoc. Provost for faculty affairs, not a senator: I believe that my colleague Dr. Stern’s second question is more a statement about how the Senate and administration interacts. Since I have only been here 20 something years, I don’t have answer how all that got started. In terms of whether or not the…why this is being offered at this point, what I can tell you is that it came forward as a recommendation from the Curriculum Committee via the chair of that committee, Norman Godwin. So, that’s the answers that I have and will be happy to speak with Dr. Stern after the meeting.

A vote was taken on the change to the Curriculum Committee to remove the University College representative from the listing in the Faculty Handbook, since the University College has been merged into the College of Liberal Arts.
The Action Item passed, 60-5.
A vote was taken on dissolving the Lectures Committee. The decision to disband the committee is based on the small grants dispensed for a limited amount of special lectures with the recommendation to allow the Provost’s office to fund the grants directly.
The Action Item did not pass, with the vote 55-8.

Information Items

Strategic Budget Initiative
Presenter: Kelli Shomaker, VP for Business and Finance, CFO
The presentation included the Guiding Principles of the Initiative with Timeline from 2013 to 2020, full implementation starting in 2017. There was also an explanation of Institutional Revenues and Expenses, with a breakdown of the University Governance involved in the plan Composition and Committees, including committee charges).
For more details see the PowerPoint Presentation posted on the Senate website.

2020 Health Benefits
Presenter: Ann Shore, Human Resources
This presentation contained an overview and update of AU Health Benefits. Highlights include:

For more details, the PowerPoint Presentation is posted on the Senate website

Discovery Tool
Presenters: Nadine Ellero and Toni Carter, Libraries
“ A Search Engine for (Almost) Everything”
This presentation was an overview of the library’s Discovery Tool, EBSCO Discovery Service chosen in 2016. The Discovery service includes the library catalog, journal articles, book chapters, and APIs for additional resources. The (old) library catalog is still available as well as subject databases.


Questions?Comments?
Tony Moss, senator, Biological Sciences: (off microphone) How well does this intergrate with Zotero or Mendeley citation Management systems that we are already using?

(someone off microphone answered)
Yes it does. Jaena (from the Libraries) says it does. Like any other EBSCO product.

Andy Whorley, Engineering Librarian, not a senator: I want to echo that these databases do work with Zotero, I use that as my main reference manager, but I also want to say that another feature of the Discovery layer is that it makes it easier to put links into Canvas so that your students can link directly to articles. I believe that if you are careful about it, it makes it available to off campus students. Keep that in mind as a feature so you don’t have to copy or scan the articles, you can link them into Canvas and you are done with it.

Discussion on Selling Alcohol in the Stadium
Presenter: Evin Beck, Associate Athletic Director, External Relations
A brief history was provided concerning this issue in the SEC Conference. A ban on alcohol was lifted May 2019. The reasons behind the decision include enhancing the fan experience (help with decline in game attendance), reducing the number of alcohol-related incidents (such as binge drinking), and to use revenues for stadium improvements. Input is being sought from key stakeholders.
Contact Evin Beck with any questions or comments.

Question
Carlos Smith, SGA: The limitations that are in the SECs policies, is one of those that alcohol cannot be sold in the student section (of the stadium) as well or is it allowed around the whole stadium?
Evin Beck, Associate Athletic Director, External Relations: There is not a rule from the SEC that says it can’t be sold in the student section. Findings of our peers  is they don’t sell it in the student section, but they do allow the of age students that want to go to a concession stand or beer stand somewhere outside of the footprint of the student section to do so.
Carlos Smith, student government: Okay. Just wondering because I guess the barricades are up for the student section; and wondering if that would be down because we don’t want to take away from the student experience and having the student section full is very important, as we saw with the last game, so, just curious about that.

The PowerPoint Presentation is posted on the Senate website via the agenda.

Unfinished Business
Jim Witte, Parliamentarian, requested to relook at the tuition revenue distribution (Strategic Budget Initiative).

New Business
None

Adjourned
By Chair Billor, 4:30pm

 

Respectfully submitted,

Adrienne Wilson
Senate Secretary

Attendance Record
Senate Officers: Nedret Billor, Chair, Adrienne Wilson, Secretary; Don Mulvaney, Secretary-Elect; Greg Schmidt, Secretary Elect; Mike Baginski, Immediate Past Chair

Administration:
Joe Hanna for Annette Ranft, Dean Harbert College of Business
Chris Roberts, Dean, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
Martha Taylor for Jim Weyhenmeyer, VP of Research
Jane Parker, VP Development
Vini Nathan, Dean, Architecture, Design and Construction
Leanne Lamke for Susan Hubbard, Dean, College of Human Sciences
Gregg Newschwander, Dean, School of Nursing
Absent:
Joe Aistrup, Dean, College of Liberal Arts
Nick Giordano, Dean, Science and Mathematics

Ex-Officio Members:
Emmett Winn for Bill Hardgrave, Provost
Shali Zhang, Dean of Libraries
Carlos Smith for Mary Margaret Turton, SGA President
Mark Bransby, A&P Assembly Chair
Jung Won Hur, Steering Committee
Michael Tillson, Steering Committee
Jared Russell, Steering Committee
Robert Norton, Steering Committee
Absent:
Nima Aliadeh, GSC President
Kim Brumbeloe, Staff Council Chair

Senators:
Lisa Miller, Accountancy
Anwar Ahmed, Aerospace Engineering
Jacek Wower, Animal Sciences
Rebecca O’Neal-Dagg, Architecture
Kathryn Floyd, Art
Anthony Moss, Biological Sciences
Yi Wang, Biosystems Engineering
Mark Tatum, Building Sciences
Doug Goodwin, Chemistry
Justin D. Marshall for J. Brian Anderson, Civil Engineering
Robert Agne, Communication and Journalism
Mary Sandage, Communication Disorders
Kai Chang, Computer Science and Software Engineering
Young-A Li for Melanie Duffey, Consumer & Design Sciences
Di Tian for David Han, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences
Jamie Harrison, Curriculum & Teaching
Gilad Sorek, Economics
Ellen Reames, Educational Foundations, Leadership &
Susan Youngblood, English
Katelyn Kesheimer for David Held, Entomology & Plant Pathology
Lee Colquitt, Finance
Wayde Morse, Forestry & Wildlife Science
Haibo Zou, Geology & Geography
Kimberly Garza, Health Outcomes Research and Policy
Monique Laney, History
Paul Bartley for Daniel Wells, Horticulture
Andreas Kavazis, Kinesiology
Andrew Whorley for George Stachokas, Library
Alan Walker, Management
Yanzhao Cao, Mathematics and Statistics
Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering
Virginia Kunzer, Music
David Crumbley, Nursing
Baker Ayoun, Nutrition, Dietetics, & Hospitality Mgmt
David Mixson, Outreach
James Gillespie for Peter Christopherson, Pathobiology
Spencer Durham, Pharmacy Practice
Michael Fogle, Physics
Robert Norton for Ken Macklin, Poultry Science
Tracy Witte, Psychology
Malti Tuttle, Special Ed. Rehab. Counseling/School Psychology
Shashank Rao, Systems and Technology
Kenneth McDonald, Lieutenant, ROTC, Air Force
Eduardo A. Christ for Calina Creech, LTC, ROTC, Army
Willie Billingslea, Captain, ROTC, Naval
Arianne Gaetano, Socio/Anthro/Social Work
Robin Jaffe, Theatre
Robert Cole, Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Absent:
Valentina Hatarska, Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
Molly Gregg, ACES
Chad Foradori, Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology
Bryan Beckingham, Chemical Engineering
Feng Li, Drug Discovery and Development
Lloyd Riggs, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Ash Bullard, Fisheries & Allied Aquaculture
Zachary Zuwiyya, Foreign Language & Literatures
Scott Ketring, Human Development & Family Studies
Carlton Lay, Industrial Design
Rich Sesek, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Jeremy Wolter, Marketing
Eric Marcus, Philosophy
Stacey Hunt, Political Science