Minutes
Auburn University Steering Committee
Thursday, January 8, 2015
206 Samford Hall
Submitted by Laura Plexico, Secretary-Elect

Present: Chair Patricia Duffy, Chair-Elect Larry Teeter, Immediate Past Chair Larry Crowley, Secretary-Elect Laura Plexico, Timothy Boosinger, Emily Myers, Mike Baginski, Sara Wolf, Emmett Winn, Constance Relihan, Keven Yost

Absent: Secretary Gisela Buschle-Diller

The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m.

The first business following approval of the January 4th minutes was a discussion of the agenda for the January 2015 Senate meeting. At the January Senate meeting Dr. Boosinger will make remarks about completion of IT training, cluster highering and future construction on Mell. Following review of the January agenda the tentative February agenda was reviewed. During the February meeting a pending action item will include putting forward nominees for the rules committee.

The next item of business was discussion of the minutes and concerns from the NTTF committee. After reviewing the minutes it was decided that Emmett Winn will look into current University policy and concerns over eligibility of Auburn instructors who are promoted to Lecturers to receive salary increases and one-time pay supplements. The NTTF also put forward interest in Lecturers being hired with multi-year contracts instead of year to year. Dr. Boosinger indicated that this an option and can be approved by the provosts office if there is strategic reasoning for offering a multi-year contract. Concern about NTTF’s eligibility for service was also discussed. NTTF are eligible for service. However, those designated as A&P are not eligible. After reviewing the remainder of the survey results Dr. Boosinger indicated that Julie Huff will be asked to merge NTTF survey results with COACHE survey results.

Next the Senate calendar was discussed. With the elimination of the July meeting and addition of the August meeting scheduling of Steering and the Senate meetings has been challenging. Further, attendance and the agenda for August meetings has been light. To address this problem Patricia Duffy suggested 1) reducing the number of meetings and eliminating the August meeting or 2) possibly adding back the July meeting and eliminating the August meeting. There was also discussion of having the meetings at the end of the month. Consensus at Steering was to suggest to the rules committee that the number of meetings should be reduced and the August meeting should be eliminated. Steering’s suggestion will be brought to Rules for consideration.  If an August meeting is needed, one can be called by Steering.

After discussing the Senate calendar problems, ideas for the remaining 2014-2015 Senate meetings were reviewed. One possibility is that the strategic budget committee will present its full results during the April meeting and possibly give a brief overview in the March meeting. Another possibility is that a special called meeting be held in late March. Handbook changes may be brought forward during the March meeting. Presentations on faculty vitality and women faculty concerns was proposed as well as possibly having Diane Boyd give a presentation on teaching technology.

With regard to other business, Mike Baginski asked Steering and administration whether there has been any consideration  to possibly having a one-time fee for purchasing tickets to all athletic events at one time (i.e., a reduced rate for bundling athletic tickets).

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:45.