Minutes
AU Senate
April 16, 2024

Meeting called to order by AU Senate Chair, Dr. Lisa Kensler at 3:30 p.m.
All senators in attendance reminded to participate in Canvas quorum poll (this is equivalent to the sign-in sheet during in-person meetings).

AGENDA
Vote1 to identify quorum. A quorum was established with 73 respondents.
Provost Nathan identified Final Candidates for “Phi Beta Kappa” changed to “Dean” Approval of the Senate Meeting Minutes from March 19, 2024 by unanimous consent.

Remarks and Announcements
University Senate Chair: Lisa Kensler wanted to correct and clarify the vote record from March Meeting. When calculating the votes, we mistakenly included abstention votes in the vote calculations. This is not consistent with Robert’s Rules of Order Revised. We should have omitted both the guests and the abstentions. The correct calculations are as follows for vote 1: Shall we consider the proclamation vote? A total of 809 people participated, with 119 guests and 46 abstentions; 205 faculty voted yes to considering the proclamation motion and 439 faculty voted no to considering the proclamation motion. Correctly, calculated, the no votes sustained the objection with 68% of the vote (surpassing the 66% or 2/3 threshold). We erred in the meeting by reporting the no votes as 64%, less than the required 2/3. Because of this error, we proceeded with debate on the motion. Following debate, the main proclamation motion failed with 541 no votes to 103 yes votes. Eighty-four percent of faculty present in the faculty meeting 84% present voted in opposition to the proclamation.

President: Chris Roberts: 1) Recognized works of Dan King who will be retiring AU and expressed gratitude for service. 2) Board of Trustee Meeting outcomes highlighted 3) Recent acquisition of new research laboratory capacity (23,000 sq feet) in Auburn. 4) The AU Agriculture Experimental Station property changes and expansion addressed. 5) AU Advancement Market value endowment is now estimated as $1.156B as of March 31 (comprised of foundation and university portfolio values) Advancement goal for fiscal year $175M ($107M so far). Nice work stewarding donors. One example is the George Petrie event recently held with 375 attendees at the Hotel & Conference Center. 6) Welcoming 6000 freshmen students in August 2024 (53% women, 47% men). 7) SB129 law signed, and small group meetings held on campus (300 people through April 2024).

Provost: Vini Nathan: Dr. Jennifer Mueller-Phillips approved as Dean for Raymond James Harbert College of Business. Dean Ross and Harrison College of Pharmacy applauded with recent #29 in nation announcement in US News & World Report. P&T process completed and announced recently in AU News (celebration event in Fall). SB129 Working Group addressed Dr. Robert Boyd will lead efforts.

Action Items
Vote re: Faculty Handbook Changes (required 2/3 votes of Senate- 59+ votes)
Presenter: Mitchell Brown

1. College P&T Committees (pdf) Discussion of one substantive change. Friendly amendment via motion made to tweak language 1- strike parenthetical in last paragraph as creates contradiction 2- use word reviewing instead of receiving (Motion: David Miller, 2nd Roy Hartfield). Motion to recommit the changes to Faculty Handbook Committee (Luca Guazzotto, 2nd Chris Martin).

Vote on Motion to send to committee. We hold strong reservations about the proposed changes in the handbook regarding the P&T process. We therefore move to recommit the motion on the handbook changes back to the Faculty Handbook Committee.
YES 53, No 8, Abstain 7. Motion passes.

2. Administrator Hiring Guidelines (pdf) Faculty Handbook Committee asking to withdraw motion pertaining to Administrator Hiring Guidelines (2nd Luca Guazzotto). Rationale: Since last meeting the Office of General Council and the Office of Board of Trustees, identified a 2021 Policy that supersedes this policy request, and this policy would be in violation of the 2021 policy. Chair and Senate approved with unanimous consent.

Vote re: Motion made by Roy Hartfield
Presenter: Roy Hartfield
Whereas salary disparities are compounded when not corrected, the Senate hereby requests that the administration and Board of Trustees reconsider the 2-year calendar proposed by the president to conduct a study before correcting the salary imbalances of especially the past two raise cycles.

Discussion of one change. Friendly amendment via motion made to adjust language from reconsider to shorten the 2-year calendar (Motion: David Miller, 2nd Rebecca Riggs).

amended:
Whereas salary disparities are compounded when not corrected, the Senate hereby requests that the administration and Board of Trustees shorten the 2-year calendar proposed by the president to conduct a study before correcting the salary imbalances of especially the past two raise cycles.

Discussion on timeline, then moved to vote. YES 39, No 18, Abstain 6. Motion passes.

Vote re: Senate Committee Membership (Nominations from Rules Committee)
Presenter: Linda Gibson-Young Moved to vote. YES 56, No 1, Abstain 1. Passes
Nominees for Senate Committees (pdf)

Committee Reports

Faculty Salaries and Welfare, Tuition Benefits
Presenters: John Beckmann & Matthew Hoch
Survey Results re:Tuition Benefits (pdf)
FSW Dependant Undergraduate Tuition Benefits (pdf)

Proposal for Teaching Professor Series (replacing Lecturer Series)
Presenters: Ash Curtiss & Rachel Prado, Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee
Draft - Teaching Faculty Proposal (pdf)
Teaching Professor Title Series presentation (pdf)

Information Item
Employee Mental Health Resources;
Presenter: Ann Shore, Executive Director, Payroll and Employee Benefits
presentation (pdf)

New Business
NONE

Adjournment
Lisa Kensler, Senate Chair Senate at 5:03 PM

Meeting Attendance – 16 April 2024
Senate Officers
Lisa Kensler, Chair
Lori Eckhardt, Chair-elect
Linda Gibson-Young, Secretary
Jaena Alabi, Secretary-elect
Mark Carpenter, Immediate Past-Chair

Administration
Kelli Shomaker, VP for Bus & Fin & CFO
Paul Patterson, Dean, College of Agriculture
Maria Witte sub for George Flowers, Dean, Graduate School
Bobby Woodard, SVP for Student Affairs
Mario Eden Dean, College of Engineering
Allen Landers Sub for Ed Thomas, Dean, COSAM
Joffrey Gaymon, VP Enrollment Mgmt.
Calvin Johnson, Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine

Ex-Officio Members
Vini Nathan, Provost
Shali Zhang, Dean of Libraries
Jack Hilton, SGA President
Esther Akinrinda, GSC President
Kimberly McCadden, Staff Council Chair
Robert Cochran, Steering Committee
J Brian Anderson, Steering Committee

Senators by Departments
Xu (Joyce) Cheng, Accountancy
Roy Hartfield, Aerospace Engineering
Mary (Molly) Gregg, ACES
Valentina Hartarska, Ag Economics & Rural Sociology
Vinicia Biancardi, Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology
Kevin Moore, Architecture
Lauren Woods, Art
Rebecca Baumann sub for James Birdsong, Aviation
Rebecca Riggs, Biological Sciences
David Blersch, Biosystems Engineering
Jeff Kim, Building Sciences
Regina Gramling, Business Analytics and Information Systems
Elizabeth Lipke, Chemical Engineering
Wei Zhan, Chemistry
Kevin Smith, Communication and Journalism
Sanjeev Baskiyar, Computer Science & Software Engineering
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
Sunny Stalter-Pace, English
John Beckmann, Entomology & Plant Pathology
David Cicero, Finance
Nathan Whelan, Fisheries & Allied Aquaculture
Robert Gitzen Forestry, Wildlife, and the Environment
David King, Geosciences
Jan Kavookjian, Health Outcomes Research and Policy
Zachary Schulz, History
Elina Coneva, Horticulture
Clark Danderson, Hospitality Mgmt.
Diana Samek, Human Development & Family Studies
David Smith, Industrial Design
Rich Sesek, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Christopher (Brooks) Mobley, Kinesiology
Kasia Leousis, Libraries
Liesl Wesson, Management and Entrepreneurship
Jeremy Wolter, Marketing
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
David Miller, Philosophy
Luca Guazzotto, Physics
Jonathan (Jon) Fisk, Political Science
Alejandro A. Lazarte, Psychology
Latifat Cabirou, Special Ed. Rehab. Counseling/School Psych
Gregory Spray, Speech Language and Hearing Sciences
David Strickland, Supply Chain Management
LTC Michael Quinn, ROTC Air Force
LTC Laura Fryar, ROTC Army
Captain Michael Witherspoon, ROTC Naval
Danilea Werner, Socio/Anthro/Social Work
Adrienne Wilson, Theatre and Dance
Robert Cole, Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Kerri Munoz, World Lang & Literatures

Absent without substitute:
Jason Hicks, Dean, College of Liberal Arts
Josh Henderson, A&P Assembly Chair
Evelyn Hunter, Steering Committee
Jacek Wower, Animal Sciences
Joel Hayworth, Civil Engineering
Ann Presley, Consumer & Design Sciences
Lee Johnson, Music
Peter Christopherson, Pathobiology
Amit Morey, Poultry Science