Auburn University Steering Committee
Minutes
Thursday, January 22, 2015
206 Samford Hall

Present: Patricia Duffy (Chair), Larry Teeter (Chair-Elect), Larry Crowley (Immediate-Past Chair), Gisela Buschle-Diller (Secretary),  Laura Plexico (Secretary-Elect), Emily Myers, Keven Yost, Mike Baginski, Julie Huff, Tim Boosinger, Mary Boudreaux, Don Large, Brian Keeter, David Benedict
Absent: Sara Wolf

The minutes of the Steering Committee meeting from January 8, 2015, were approved with correction of two spelling errors.

The Senate meeting on January, 13 was briefly discussed. Two-thirds positive votes of all senators (58 votes) are required for a constitutional change to take effect. The addition of the Library representative to the Graduate Council and UCC are constitutional changes.  Both received more than 58 votes and thus were approved by the Senate, but will need to go to the Board for final approval.

The agenda for the Senate meeting on February 3rd, 2015, has been drafted.  The two proposals from Academic Standards Committee presented by Constance Relihan at the January meeting will become Action Items (Course repeat policy and wording of the introduction to the CAP policy). The Academic Calendar Committee, chaired by Robin Jaffe, will report at the March Senate meeting. As Pending Action Item, nominations for the Rules Committee will be presented.
As Information Items the Athletics Department will give an update. Mary Boudreaux will give the report of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee. Brian Keeter will present the changes that are to be expected regarding football tickets price and priority. 

Revisions to the Faculty Handbook regarding Performance Evaluation will most likely be a Pending Action Item on the March Senate agenda. Patricia Duffy has been in contact with James Goldstein as the Chair of this committee. Other items on the tentative March Senate agenda are the Academic Calendar (as Action Item) and the vote for new Rules Committee members.

The next item of business was a discussion whether to call for a Special Senate meeting on Tuesday, March 31 for the presentation of the Strategic Budget Committee. This additional meeting might be necessary since there might be a considerable interest among the faculty on the findings of this report and the agendas of the regular Senate meetings are already fairly packed. The Steering Committee voted to hold this special meeting as required. The meeting will be publically announced at least 30 days ahead of time.

As a follow-up on NTTF Committee concerns, Patricia Duffy reported that NTTF can participate and volunteer for committees.  The other expressed concerns were addressed by the Provost's office.

Finally, Julie Huff gave a summary of the COACHE survey results for Non-Tenure Track Faculty. It was found that the results are very similar to those of Tenure Track faculty and overall rather positive.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM.