Auburn University Steering Committee
Minutes
Thursday, June 4, 2015, 3:30 p.m.
206 Samford Hall

Present: Patricia Duffy (Chair), Larry Crowley (Immediate-Past Chair), Gisela Buschle-Diller (Secretary),  Laura Plexico (Secretary-elect), Sara Wolf, Emily Myers, Keven Yost,  Mike Baginski, Constance Relihan, Haven Hart, Sharon Roberts
Absent: Larry Teeter (Chair-Elect), Tim Boosinger (or Emmett Winn)

The minutes of the Steering Committee meeting from May 21, 2015, were approved without modification.

Haven Hart, Director of Student Conduct, gave an overview of the support services that are available for students. A presentation to the Senate is planned for the June Senate meeting as an Information Item. Faculty can either call the Student Conduct Office or file a concern on-line (new). Student Affairs can get involved in cases of student’s behavior or other concerns. The suggestion was made to link the on-line reporting to AU Access as a place where faculty most likely would look for it.

Margaret Marshall had sent forward a proposal to add a permanent representative or designee from the Graduate School to Steering. Sharon Roberts attended in place of Margaret Marshall to answer any questions. This item is proposed to directly go onto the Agenda of the June Senate meeting as an Action Item as likely noncontroversial. However, since it would involve a constitutional change, a two-third majority vote of all Senators (58 votes) is necessary for it to go in effect.

Consolidation of Handbook changes were briefly discussed and whether or not they need a Senate vote.  It was determined that the changes were not substantive and that a vote of the Senate was not needed for these to go into place.

Other potential Information Items for the June 16 meeting include an update on Interdisciplinary University Studies by Kathryn Flynn and a report of the Teaching Effectiveness Committee by Don Mulvaney as the Chair of this Committee. Neither one of the presenters was able to attend the Steering Committee meeting.

A concern was brought up by Patricia Duffy related to questions of Non-Tenure Track faculty that would like to, for example, volunteer for committees or receive messages through the Faculty listserve, but are not being included since there is no clear category for NTT faculty. NTT faculty work, for example, in various centers or clinical positions and are not necessarily associated with a department. They do not have a representation on the Senate either. It was decided that these issues should be included in the charge for the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee during the next academic year.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10.