Minutes
Senate Meeting: January 24, 2023
3:30 p.m. via Zoom Meeting

A Panopto recording for this meeting is available.
Please refer to recording 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 51 Senators. 


The Chair welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. The Chair gave attendees an overview of the basic procedures for the Zoom meeting format and then began the meeting. The members of the Senate Executive Committee and the Senate Steering Committee. 


The chair asked for questions or clarifications of the minutes.
Prior to approval of the minutes Luke Oeding suggested instead of having a detailed written account of the meeting, that the secretary write basic facts, since more details can be found in the recording and transcripts. The chair asked Luke if he is making a motion. Luke said that it was not a motion but an objection. The objection was noted.
With no objections to the minutes for November 15, 2022, the minutes were approved with no corrections.


Action Items
Vote on the Motion to Form an Ad Hoc Committee to Develop Proposal for Rank Above Professor
Presenter: Mark Carpenter, Chair
The Chair reminded the senate members that there was a motion made by Zach Schulz and seconded by Anthony Moss to create an ad hoc committee for Rank above Professor.
Todd Stuey gave history about the motion being considered. After Todd spoke, the chair asked for senators to vote for the motion being presented. There were 41 yes, 22 no, and 3 abstain. The motion carried with 66 people voting.

Remarks and Announcements on University Matters
University Senate Chair: Mark Carpenter

President: Chris Roberts spoke on the university budget and his visits to various departments on campus. He shared information about the freshman enrollment for the Fall class of 2023. He shared that the BOT would meet February 3, 2023, at the Montgomery campus. The president made mention that the School Hospitality Management was named the HAUTS Schultz school of Hospitality Management, the approval of the Education Bldg. to move forward and hopefully to move forward later with the new STEM Building.

Interim-Provost: Vini Nathan spoke to senate on the following. The placement of the students in the College of nursing, a new proposal to be presented for a Bachelor of Science in Public Health which is being put forward by the college of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Nathan gave updates on Dean searchers – Pharmacy, Engineering, and Business.

Dr. Nathan made the following announcement: Dr. Robert Boyd will become Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, Dr Emmett Winn will be Associate Vice President for Administrative Effectiveness, Dr. Norman Godwin Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, and Dr. Julie Huff Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiative and communications.

Information Items
Rules Committee Volunteers Process
Presenter: Octavia Tripp, Senate Secretary
Octavia Tripp provided information about the Committee Volunteer Process. The rules committee will look at the list of individuals volunteering and meet in the following week to start the beginning of the approval process.

Announcement of Senate Officer-Elect Nominees
Presenter: Don Mulvaney, Chair of the Senate Officer Nominations Committee and Senate Past Chair. In the following pdf, Officer-elect nominees (pdf) can be viewed.

Auburn Reaffirmation Update
Presenter: Dr. Mark DeGoti, SACSCOC Liaison presented a presentation on Auburn Reaffirmation Program from the listed PowerPoint, SACSCOC presentation (pdf). The presentation explained in full what Auburn Reaffirmation is and what to expect when SACSCOC visit. Further detailed information can be found the pdf presentation listed above.

Annual Report on the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics
Presenter: Beverly Marshall, Chair of Intercollegiate Athletics and FAR gave the final report on Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, CIA presentation (pdf).After the report Dr. Beverly Marshall received several questions by Dr. Michael Stern.

New Business: 
Mark Carpenter, Senate Chair asked if there was any new business to address.
Dr. Brian Anderson asked questions concerning Chat GPT and writing issues on campus. To address the question regarding Chat GPT, Asim Ali shared guidelines on Chat GPT. The general advice to take a more constructive approach and that AI is going to be a growing part of our professional lives. Asim continued by saying one needs to help students to use it in a constructive way. It should be used as a tool. Engage experts on campus and have everyone to be part of the discussion of AI and Chat GPT. Several faculty expressed an interest in being part of a working committee to further address the topic. 

Mark Carpenter, Senate Chair
With no further discussion of new business, the meeting adjourned at 5:05pm

Respectfully submitted,
L. Octavia Tripp
Senate Secretary

Attendance Senate Mtg - January 24, 2023

Senate Officers
Mark Carpenter                                Chair
Lisa Kensler                                      Chair-elect
Lucretia (Octavia) Tripp                    Secretary
Linda Gibson-Young                          Secretary-elect
Dan Svyantek Immediate Past-Chair

Administration
Kelli Shomaker                                  VP for Bus & Fin & CFO
Arthur Appel sub for
Paul Patterson                                  Dean, College of Agriculture
Bobby Woodard                               SVP for Student Affairs
Jared Russell sub for
Jeffrey Fairbrother                           Dean, College of Education
Todd Steury sub for
Janaki Alavalapati                             Dean, College of Forestry, Wildlife, and the Environment
Greg Newschwander                        Dean, College of Nursing
Calvin Johnson                                  Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine
Absent without substitute:
George Flowers                    Dean, Graduate School
James Weyhenmeyer          VP Research

Ex-Officio Members
Vini Nathan                                       Interim Provost
Shali Zhang                                       Dean of Libraries
Makeda Nurradin                             GSC President
Evelyn Hunter                                   Steering Committee
Danilea Werner                                Steering Committee
Robert Cochran                                Steering Committee
Robert Norton                                  Steering Committee
Absent without substitute:
Jake Haston                          SGA President
Ashley Reid                           Staff Council Chair
Clint Lovelace                       A&P Assembly Chair

Senators by Departments
Elizabeth (Lisa) Miller                       Accountancy
Roy Hartfield                                    Aerospace Engineering
Valentina Hartarska                          Ag Economics & Rural Sociology [missed Sept. Oct. Nov.-explained in Jan]
Mary (Molly) Gregg                          ACES
Jacek Wower                                    Animal Sciences
Vinicia Biancardi                               Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology
Kevin Moore                                     Architecture
Lauren Woods                                  Art
Anthony Moss                                  Biological Sciences
David Blersch                                   Biosystems Engineering
Mark Tatum                                     Building Sciences
Regina Gramling                               Business Analytics and Information Systems
Bryan Beckingham                           Chemical Engineering
Wei Zhan                                          Chemistry
J. Brian Anderson                             Civil Engineering
Kevin Smith                                      Communication and Journalism
Peter Weber                                    Consumer & Design Sciences
David Han                                         Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences
Christine (Chris) Schnittka                Curriculum & Teaching
Murali Dhanasekaran              Drug Discovery and Development
Liliana Stern                                     Economics
Andrew Pendola                               Educational Foundations, Leadership & Technology
Michael Baginski                               Electrical & Computer Engineering
Susan Youngblood sub for
Sunny Stalter-Pace                           English
Joseph Stover sub for
Damion McIntosh                            Finance
Zhaofei (Joseph) Fan                        Forestry, Wildlife, and the Environment
David King                                        Geology & Geography
Kimberly Garza                                 Health Outcomes Research and Policy
Zachary Schulz                                  History
Elina Coneva                                     Horticulture
Clark Danderson                               Hospitality Mgmt.
Diana Samek                                    Human Development & Family Studies
Ben Bush                                          Industrial Design
Rich Sesek                                        Industrial and Systems Engineering
Kasia Leousis                                    Library
Liesl Wesson                                    Management and Entrepreneurship
Luke Oeding sub for
Hans Werner van Wyk                                                     Mathematics and Statistics
Sabit Adanur                                                        Mechanical Engineering
Chris Martin                                     Nursing
Kevin Huggins                                   Nutritional Sciences
David Mixson                                    Outreach
Lena McDowell                                Pharmacy Practice
Jennifer Lockhart                              Philosophy
Luca Guazzotto                                Physics
Peter White                                      Political Science
Alejandro A. Lazarte                         Psychology
Rebecca Curtis                                 Special Ed. Rehab. Counseling/School Psych
Gregory Spray sub for
Laura Plexico                                    Speech Language and Hearing Sciences
David Strickland                                Supply Chain Management (new)
LTC, Laura Fryar                               ROTC Army
Janice Clifford                                   Socio/Anthro/Social Work
Adrienne Wilson                               Theatre
Robert Cole                                      Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Zachary Zuwiyya                               World Lang & Literatures
Absent without substitute:
James Birdsong                    Aviation
Shehenaz Shaik                     Computer Science & Software Engineering
John Beckmann                    Entomology & Plant Pathology
Nathan Whelan                    Fisheries & Allied Aquaculture
Christopher (Brooks) Mobley           Kinesiology
Jeremy Wolter                     Marketing
Lee Johnson                          Music
Peter Christopherson           Pathobiology
Amit Morey                          Poultry Science
LTC, Michael Quinn              ROTC Air Force
Captain, Matthew Roberts                                ROTC Naval