Auburn University Steering Committee
Minutes
Thursday, April 23, 2015
206 Samford Hall

Present: Patricia Duffy (Chair), Larry Teeter (Chair-Elect), Gisela Buschle-Diller (Secretary),  Laura Plexico (Secretary-elect), Sara Wolf, Mike Baginski, Emily Myers, Keven Yost, George Flowers, Jordan Roberts, Teresa Gore, Xing Fang, Diane Boyd, Michael Stern, James Goldstein,  Constance Relihan, Emmett Winn,
Absent: Larry Crowley (Immediate-Past Chair)

The minutes of the Steering Committee meeting from April 9, 2015, were approved without modifications.

The first item of discussion was the proposal brought forward by the Graduate Council to grant lecturers graduate status so that they may serve on graduate committees besides teaching. The proposal had been discussed in February during an Execute Committee meeting and was sent to the Non-Tenure-Track Committee for evaluation of the actual need that would call for a change in the Faculty Handbook. Teresa Gore reported on the work of her Committee and that the Committee came to the conclusion to request no change.  After discussion, the item was deferred to the next Steering meeting for reasons of time constraints.

The next item was a preview of Diane Boyd’s presentation on the recent work of the Biggio Center which will be one of the Information Items on the May Senate meeting agenda. Then, Xing Fang as the Chair of Academic Standards Committee presented the Policy on Academic Credit for Military Service and Training which will be a Pending Action Item. A brief discussion followed on the number of total credit hours that can be awarded (10 credit hours) and the definition of the term “low-level vocational/technical”. The policy will be voted on during the June Senate meeting.

Patricia Duffy brought forward a draft policy on the maximum total allowed absences in courses. Students that are absent for a very large number of classes, excused or not, eventually reach a point where they can no longer make up the missed material. There is no university-wide consensus that constitutes a reasonable number of absences. The draft policy suggests that instructors could choose to set a lower limit of overall absences that corresponds to the number of class meetings during the census period for the term (withdrawal without receiving a “W”). To set a limit would be optional. The policy draft is being moved to the Academic Standards Committee.

Michael Stern revisited the issue of clustering of athletes in certain majors. He had brought this issue forward during the February Senate meeting. After some discussion, the item was postponed to the next Steering Committee meeting when the Provost is expected to be present.

Patricia Duffy mentioned a concern of a faculty member in regard to reimbursement under the Flexible Spending Plan. Larry Teeter said it seems there have been some changes with the documentation of receipts. It might be necessary to clarify the procedure. The item might become an Information Item at a Senate meeting in early fall.

Sara Wolf brought up a problem of tuition waivers for graduate distance courses for GTAs and other employees while waivers are available for face-to-face courses. Emmett Winn said that this is not an academic policy but a business decision (distance courses are paid at market value) and each College can decide how to handle scholarships concerning these courses.  Executive will include this as an item at our next meeting with Dr. Gogue.

The last item of discussion was a draft memo to the Director of Parking Services to request a number of parking spots distributed across campus for after-hours and weekends for faculty and professional staff.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:25 PM.