Special Faculty Meeting: Minutes
November 10, 2020
3:30pm
Zoom Meeting
A full transcript of this meeting will be made available.
Please refer to transcript for details not included in the minutes.
Presentation slide information is available from the Agenda for the meeting.
Chair Donald Mulvaney called the meeting to order at 3:30pm. The chair thanked attendees and introduced the officers of the University Faculty and then invited the Secretary to give instructions to attendees for the meeting proceedings.
Instructions from the Secretary – Greg Schmidt, Faculty Secretary.
The Secretary informed attendees that the special meeting was called to discuss the recommendations presented in the document prepared by the AU Chapter of the AAUP. He noted that the meeting will be conducted in the Zoom Meeting format and asked attendees to follow the rules of procedure when desiring to speak and making motions from the floor. He indicated who is eligible to vote in a faculty meeting as opposed to a senate meeting and described the voting process. Attendees were asked to maintain decorum and stay muted until recognized by the chair to speak.
Remarks – Don Mulvaney, Chair
Chair Mulvaney noted that today’s meeting was in conflict with a ceremony on campus and that neither the President not the Provost could attend. The chair then read prepared remarks from the Provost. The remarks centered on issues raised at the general faculty meeting of October 27, 2020 and the recommendations in the AU Chapter of the AAUP document. The remarks discussed the work done to establish a safe campus environment and how the work informs Spring semester planning. The remarks also noted efforts to maintain shared governance with faculty staff, and students and the decision to resume in-person instruction in the Spring. In closing, the provost’s remarks closed by thanking attendees for their participation and guidance in planning the weeks and months ahead.
AAUP Recommendations – Matthew Hoch, President-elect, AU Chapter of the AAUP.
The president-elect briefly presented a general overview of the document and listed the seven recommendations of the AAUP.
Discussion - The Chair open the floor to remarks at 3:45pm
Tracy Witte – expressed 50%-room-capacity concerns for large classrooms using an example of a fixed-seat 300 person classroom. Asked for university guidance on modalities.
Vanessa Falcao – expressed large classroom concerns and the safety issues surrounding large numbers of students entering and exiting classrooms.
Carolyn Fitzgerald (speaking out of turn without recognition) – Stated that the concern isn’t safety but is about making money.
Scott Ketring – Asked on behalf of his department if there will be widespread testing for students returning in the spring.
Mike Stern – Expressed concern over classroom sizes and the up-to-50% capacity guidelines. The guidelines are arbitrary, do not follow CDC guidelines, and do not work for large classrooms. Stern contrasted the guidelines with the decision to limit football stadium attendance below 50%.
Taneisha Albert – Expressed that while the Provost claims is there is no pressure on faculty decisions on modalities, there is in fact a mandate for in-person classes and full-time instruction.
Sam Sommers – Expressed concern that AU has published spring semester plans prior to this special meeting. Expressed concern that the plans were published with no faculty input.
Shashank Rao – Expressed concerns over classroom size limits for laboratory settings. Lab class space is so limited that, full-time in-person instruction cannot be done safely.
Carolyn Fitzgerald (speaking out of turn without recognition) – Expressed that faculty are being asked to waste their time making plans.
Ashley Ludewig – Expressed concern that no administration representatives are here to answer questions. Asked faculty leadership for guidance on the reason for this meeting.
Carolyn Fitzgerald (speaking out of turn without recognition, was muted by meeting hosts)
Todd Steury – Advised Carolyn Fitzgerald of the rules for speaking and asked that she follow the same rules as everyone else and raise her hand and wait to speak. Then invited Don Mulvaney to give advice to Ashley Ludewig.
Don Mulvaney – Reminded attendees of the information item and the action item for the meeting agenda. The information item will be used to gather concerns and present them to leadership.
Matthew Hoch – The action item invites discussion on the AAUP recommendations followed by a vote.
Thomas Burch – Expressed concern that older faculty are at greater risk of COVID death than that of students and that safety plans should be oriented toward those most vulnerable.
Paris Strom – Contrasted the decision, because of safety concerns, to limit service learning for college of education students to the decision to favor in-person classes on campus. Continued to express problems with the graduate student tuition waiver only being applicable to in-person classes.
Don Mulvaney – (responding to Paris Strom) – Committed to bringing the concern on graduate student waivers forward to administration.
Lindsey Tan – Expressed that faculty feel unsafe health-wise and in their ability to speak out. Untenured faculty and overloaded faculty feel unable to speak out against the in-person mandate. Asked that Auburn follow evidenced-based-decision-making principles over budgetary or political concerns. Expressed concern that teaching faculty may feel forced to leave University service out of concerns for health and safety of themselves and their families.
Matthew Hoch – Said that the recommendations will be brought to a vote but wanted everyone to have an opportunity to speak.
Mike Stern – noted that the provost has expressed a willingness to expand the schedule and chop class sizes, but stated that nothing has been done in that regard. He contrasted the Provost’s expressed willingness to have a conversation with Dr. Stern’s department on spring schedule planning against the fact that in two weeks, no conversation has happened. Dr. Stern objected to the chair reading the Provost’s remarks at the beginning of the meeting. He expressed that the correct option for the meeting proceedings is to have a no confidence vote in the Provost.
Susan Youngblood – Spoke in support of prior attendee comments and noted that her request for a blended modality was made over a month prior and no response had yet been made. Dr. youngblood continued to note that Auburn’s Sentinel Testing program has never achieved their minimum testing goal. She closed in support of the AAUP recommendations.
Jennifer Brooks – Called the question on the AAUP Recommendations.
Herb Rotfeld – noted that there is no motion on the floor.
Don Mulvaney - If you want to put the recommendations in the form of a motion and Toto or in singular fashion we can vote on them individually.
Di Samek – Moved for a vote on the AAUP Recommendations.
Jennifer Brooks – Seconded the motion
Donald Mulvaney - A motion has been made to adopt the recommendations of the AAUP document. The motion is open for additional discussion.
Ralph Kingston – expressed a preference to vote on the seven recommendations individually rather than in toto.
Sam Sommers – Asked what the outcome of a vote in favor of the AAUP recommendations would mean.
Mathew Hoch – A vote in favor is a statement of solidarity by the faculty.
Carolyn Fitzgerald – Requested a restatement of the recommendations prior to the vote. The statements were then posted in the chat box.
Vote on the AAUP Recommendations (all 7 as a whole) – 4:25pm
Yes – 304
No – 23
Abstain – 27
The motion passed.
Information Item: Compilation of Issues related to faculty and covid-19 preparedness for spring 2021 – Presenter, Todd Steury, Chair-elect
Chair-elect Steury presented a list of faculty concerns that have been expressed to the Executive Committee and during the general faculty meetings. Dr. Steury noted that the issues listed are those not addressed in the AU AAUP document and that these issues have already been a part of the discussion between the Executive Committee and AU administration. He invited attendees to discuss the document and its recommendations and to make motions for other recommendations. Steury added that, per senate rules, motions can be made, but unless they are directly related to the AAUP document, the motions cannot be voted on at this meeting. He closed by promising to present the document to administration.
Mike Stern – Asked if the chair-elect if he was not allowed to make a motion.
Todd Steury – You are allowed to make a motion, but his understanding is that the motion would be voted on at the next faculty meeting. He invited Herb Rotfeld to give parliamentary advice on this assessment.
Herb Rotfeld – Motions related to the agenda can be made. Motions unrelated to the agenda must wait until the next meeting to be voted on. Motions must be related to your report can be seconded, debated and voted on, otherwise they must wait until the next meeting. Don Mulvaney, faculty chair concurred with this assessment, citing article 4, section 3. Ralph Kingston, secretary-elect added that per the constitution, a motion must be directly related to qualify for debate and voting. Steury then recognized Mike Stern.
Mike Stern – Made motion of no confidence on the Provost, noting that the calling of the meeting was consistent with a lack of confidence in the provost.
Don Mulvaney, Faculty Chair – Ruled motion out of order. After dialog with Herb Rotfeld, it was clarified that the motion was not out of order, but that it was not directly related to the agenda and therefore not eligible for discussion and vote.
Tracy Witte – Seconded the motion.
Don Mulvaney – Not allowed.
Mike Stern – Expressed no confidence in Chair Don Mulvaney
Tracy Witte – Seconded the motion.
Dialog between Don Mulvaney and Mike Stern - Don Mulvaney challenged the relevance of the motion(s) to which Mike Stern responded that the chair had failed to represent the faculty on their concerns and the meeting would not be happening if faculty had confidence in the Chair or the Provost. Dialog continued regarding the purpose of the meeting, the role of the chair in communicating faculty concerns, and the responsiveness of administration to those concerns. Stern argued that his motion of no confidence in the Provost was directly related to the agenda of this special meeting and that these sorts of motions are quashed in the Senate setting.
Carolyn Fitzgerald (speaking out of order without recognition) Called for respect and peace among faculty rather than attacks. She related the arguments in the meeting to the national political rancor then began speaking on her family and classes. (she was then muted for speaking out of order)
Taneshia Albert (speaking out of order without recognition) Asked why the motion on the Provost has been ruled unrelated to the agenda?
Mike Baginski (speaking out of order without recognition) Asked to be recognized by the chair. The chair then recognized Dr. Baginski who stated a concern that the Provost was not at the meeting and was unable to defend himself. Baginski was also concerned with the incorrect assumption that the executive committee has not communicated concerns to administration. What the administration does with the communications is the issue.
Ashley Ludewig (speaking out of order without recognition)- Asked Chair Mulvaney to explain his decision that the motion was not in order. Don Mulvaney answered that the item is not on the agenda and the motion is not germane to the discussion of collecting and expressing faculty views about spring semester.
Mike Stern (speaking out of order without recognition) – Disagreed with the ruling and argued that concerns over the Provost performance is relevant to spring semester.
Robin Jaffe – Asked for a point of order and ruling from the Parliamentarian on the chair’s decision. The chair noted that the parliamentarian was not present.
Jennifer Brooks – Asked for clarification that the motion, which was seconded, was to be voted on at the next meeting. Chair Mulvaney confirmed that is the case.
Alan Seals – Asked for conformation the Mike Sterns motion would be discussed at the next meeting. Don Mulvaney confirmed it would be on the agenda of the next meeting of the faculty, which would be the spring meeting. Seals then inquired about another called special meeting after Thanksgiving, to which the chair advised on the handbook protocol for calling a meeting; a petition of 50 faculty submitted to the executive committee.
Lei Huang – Expressed concerns over testing and student self-reporting. Todd Steury answers that reporting is a concern of faculty and has been reported to Lady Cox of the Covid resource Center. Resource Center believes the numbers are accurate and will give an answer. Steury promised to give the concerns to Cox for a response.
Carolyn Fitzgerald (speaking out of order without recognition) – agreed with Huang on the importance of information. Tspoke on Chinese students, graduate students, age of students, elementary education, online education, college students, independent study, homework, parents and education, IT staff, attacking one another, Trump, politicization of dialog, bullying, etc. (she was again muted for speaking without recognition). Chair-elect Steury asked Fitzgerald to respect order, raise her hand, and wait her turn to speak.
Lindsey Tan – Asked for the allowance for parents who are teaching their children at home to be continued in the spring. Asked the policy to be reassessed.
Michael Baginski – Asked for calm.
Sam Sommers – Referenced a 10/30/2020 email from Secretary Schmidt regarding the special session and purpose of the session to discuss topics related to COVID-19 and spring semester. Asked for consideration of this for the no confidence motion. Chair Mulvaney stood by his interpretation.
Joanna Sztube-Solinska – As a virologist, expressed shock and disappointment at the administrations approach to risk. She then noted student mask-wearing inside buildings is not uniform, criticized the testing process at the university, and compared Auburn’s approach to other universities.
Anoop Sattineni – Sattineni referred to a previous time when a motion of no confidence was made against the Board of Trustees and then against President William Walker. Said that the motions damaged recruiting faculty and graduate students and current faculty should consider this. Then asked what will happen to our planning when the COVID spike hits Auburn. Chair-elect Steury relied that the executive committee continues to press administration on the indicators that would necessitate a change of plans for modalities.
Todd Shipman – Has anyone made an assessment on ventilation and airflow in buildings? Chair Mulvaney noted that facilities is assessing all classrooms, installing and upgrading filters, and changing settings to increase air exchanges and fresh air introduction. Dan King will be speaking to the senate on this topic.
Christopher Lepczyk – Asked for data on how many faculty have gotten sick or have passed away. Noted that faculty and graduate students are worried about coming back to campus after November 30. Asked that the document presented to administration include a call for clear data on campus cases.
Don Mulvaney – Stated that classroom transmission of COVID has not been reported.
Joanna Sztuba-Solinska (speaking out of order without recognition) – Criticized testing on campus and the ability of AU to determine where infections occur.
Don Mulvaney – Dr. Fred Kam has indicated that testing and sentinel testing will increase in the spring, but mandatory testing faces legal hurdles. Administration is looking into stronger encouragement and incentives to participate in testing.
Taneisha Albert (speaking out of order without recognition) – Vulnerable faculty are not on campus, so any numbers being reported now are not relevant to how the virus spread will impact Auburn classrooms in the spring.
Carolyn Fitzgerald (speaking out of order without recognition) – concurred with the previous speaker.
Todd Steury – Again reminded those speaking out of order to respect those who are following the rules and waiting to speak.
Anthony Moore – Expressed concerns on sentinel testing, the small pool of volunteers, and people ignoring being selected for testing. Moore has been selected for testing three times. Steury responded that changes in sentinel testing will happen for the spring, including a larger pool from which people are selected, more incentives for participation, and possible sanctions for refusing to be tested. Nothing has been finalized
Chris Newland – Spoke on mild incentives planned for sentinel testing participation including gift cards. Asked why students who refuse sentinel testing are still allowed on campus through GuideSafe. Steury responded that that is one thing the administration is considering. He then raised a concern over the seemingly small current pool of volunteers for sentinel testing, noting it is unrepresentative of the student body. Mulvaney responded that changes are coming to make the pool more robust.
Thomas Burch – Burch serves on the buildings task force and commented that Chair Mulvaney’s remarks on building ventilation were correct.
Luke Oeding – Referred to the motion of no confidence that was made and advised against this “nuclear option” stating that the repercussions of such a motion will endure for years. Expressed trust that the administration is balancing risk and the financial health of the university. Asked for better communication from the administration.
Tracy Witte – Made motion to have vote of no confidence in the university’s spring semester COVID plan. Noted that such a motion is directly related to this meeting.
Lindsey Tan – Seconded the motion
Todd Steury – Acknowledged motion and second. Opened the floor for discussion of the motion.
Discussion on relevance of the motion: Herb Rotfeld – Speaking on the relevance of the motion to the agenda, stated that if it is related to the AAUP document is would be relevant. Otherwise it is unrelated. This assessment is advisory to the chair. Sam Somers – Cited the email announcing the special meeting and argued that the motion is related to the stated purpose of the meeting to discuss COVID-19 preparedness for spring 2021. Lindsey Tan – Argued that the motion is related to the AAUP document. Herb Rotfeld – Asked to be recognized by the chair to contribute to the discussion.
Ralph Kingston – Discussed the intended outcome of this meeting. Kingston noted that the executive committee intends to create a document of recommendations and to present it to the senate for a vote.
Tony Moss (speaking out of order without recognition) – concurred with Ralph Kingston and urged moving forward in a positive manner. Moss urged that faculty give an amended set of constructive suggestions to the administration rather than pass a motion of no confidence.
Herb Rotfeld – Speaking as a faculty member, urged a pragmatic approach rather than voting no confidence. A pragmatic approach would be to make a motion asking administration to implement the AAUP recommendations as much as possible for spring semester. Such a motion would be directly relevant to the meeting and would add a call for implementation to the statement.
Todd Steury – Called for comments from the floor and allowed for speakers to unmute themselves. He urged order.
James Witte – Agreed with Herb Rotfeld’s comments. Witte argued that now is not the time for a no confidence vote and urged other avenues to engage with administration constructively. Witte said that older faculty can take care of themselves during COVID.
Joanna Sztuba-Solinska – responded to Witte that faculty have health concerns not only for themselves but for members of their families.
Ben Fagan – The administration published and released a plan for the spring prior to this meeting happening. This does not seem to have been done in good faith with the faculty.
Todd Steury – Questioned the wisdom of voting no confidence in a plan that is constantly evolving. Much of the planning, such as sentinel testing, remains unresolved.
Don Mulvaney – Offered parliamentary advice stating that the originator of the motion, of they agreed with Herb Rotfeld, could withdraw their motion and clear the floor for this different motion.
Tracy Witte – Withdrew motion of no confidence and made a motion to call for implementation of the AU AAUP recommendations for spring semester.
Susan youngblood – Seconded the motion
Todd Steury – Recognized motion and second, then opened the floor for discussion.
Don Mulvaney – clarified with Herb Rotfeld and Tracy Witte that the call was to implement the recommendations as much as possible by spring semester.
Carolyn Fitzgerald – Expressed support for the motion.
Chris Newland – Asked if the motion included the phrase “as much as possible” and if so, asked that the phrase be struck from the motion.
Tracy Witte – Also asked that “as much as possible” be struck from the motion.
Taneshia Albert – Asked that the motion be clear that is it “for the spring semester”
Todd Steury - asked that someone specifically state the wording of the motion. Lindsey Tan placed the motion into the chat box stating “To Implement the AAUP guidance by the start of the spring 2021 semester.” After brief discussion the wording was changed to “To Implement the AAUP recommendations for the start of the spring 2021 semester.”
Anthony Moore – Expressed concern that implementation happen in time enough to be useful.
VOTE “To Implement the AAUP recommendations for the start of the spring 2021 semester.”
YES – 189
NO – 12
ABSTAIN – 14
Motion Passes.
Kathleen Bell – Expressed concern for the lack of an exemption for having to teach music in in-person classrooms, wind instruments in particular. COVID related lung damage could impact the long-term careers of wind professionals. She has made a request to not teach in-person, but has not heard back.
Rich Sesek – Called into question the claim of no known classroom transmission of COVID. Claims Auburn is not looking for the evidence, so of course nothing will be found. Expressed no confidence in sentinel testing data.
Lisa Kensler – Asked for more outdoor spaces for teaching and the technology to support it. Asked for an evidence-based trigger for faculty to use as an option when deciding when to return to online-teaching.
Susan Youngblood – We need more teeth in the mask mandate on campus. Asked for tickets and fines to be imposed for those who do not comply. Asked for information on the sentinel testing pools to understand participation by faculty, staff, and students. Don Mulvaney stated that HIPAA compliant data is being strategized.
Kevin Coonrod – As the university ombudsperson spoke on the common ground found in the meeting, especially the desire for safety and the desire for shared governance.
Robin Jaffe – Regarding the motion put forward by Mike Stern, asked where it stood. Don Mulvaney confirmed that it will happen at the next meeting.
Julie Nelson – Asked about the plan for testing students when the return for spring semester. The Executive committee confirmed that there are no plans for return testing of students for spring.
Todd Steury – spoke on the purpose of sentinel testing and that it is not a measure of campus safety or personal safety. It is done to determine prevalence of the virus in those tested.
Kathy Gerken – Asked that administration express what is being done at the College of Veterinary Medicine about safety and the individuals unrelated to the university who come on to campus for veterinary services. Asked for university guidance for the various elements of veterinary practice on campus.
Todd Steury - Confirmed Gerken’s request for guidance.
Adjournment
Todd Steury – Motioned to end the meeting.
Nedret Billor - Seconded the motion.
Motion Passed. Meeting was adjourned at 5:48pm.