Minutes
Auburn University Steering Committee
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
013 Samford Hall
Submitted by Laura Plexico, Secretary-Elect

Present: Chair Patricia Duffy, Chair-Elect Larry Teeter, Secretary-Elect Laura Plexico, Emily Myers, Kevin Yost, Mike Baginski, Sara Wolf, Tim Boosinger

Absent: Immediate Past Chair Larry Crowley, Secretary Gisela Buschle-Diller

The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m. The minutes of the June 6, 2014 Steering Committee meeting were approved.

The first business following approval of the minutes was a discussion of items for upcoming senate meeting. A motion for approval for additional senate committee nominees will come from Rules. Constance Relihan will provide information to the senate on Revised SLO measures from Core Curriculum and General Education. Assessment of SLO 5 has proven to be difficult to accomplish in general education courses. While critical thinking is acknowledged as an important outcome, it is broadly covered through other outcomes and it is being proposed that its competency is best determined in the specific disciplines. It is currently assessed in Mathematics and the recommendation is for SLO 5 to be eliminated. Per Constance Relihan, there appear to be no curricular implications for elimination of SLO 5. Revisions to SLOs 2, 3, 8, and 10 are also being proposed. Revisions suggested are to streamline and enable better assessment of existing SLOs.

It was decided at this meeting that this year's request for faculty representatives to administrator reviews, other than chairs and deans, would be honored.  Senate representatives for the department head and chair evaluations are in the process of being determined.  

Potential items for the upcoming September 16 Meeting were discussed. Michael Baginski asked whether there will be in changes in parking occurring this Fall with the approaching football season. He questioned whether there are any changes to the times lots must be emptied by on Friday’s preceding a football game. Timothy Boosinger was not aware of any changes, but said he would follow up. A question was raised by Sara Wolf about whether a 12 month pay option would be possible for 9 month employees. Patricia Duffy also reported that AUM has raised the same question. This question will need to be addressed by Don Large. While the University does not currently offer this option, faculty could set up payroll deduction to put a percentage of their salary in a savings account during the fall and spring, and then transfer these funds to their checking account in the summer.

Other items for upcoming meetings suggested by Laura Plexico included Dr Gouge making comments about the Universities contributions and expectation from the new SEC network, a report on the Coache survey results, and a report on the course evaluation system from the Teaching Effectiveness Committee. Timothy Boosinger said he will make some general remarks on the Coache survey results and inform faculty on actions that are beginning to take place to explore the few items that need exploring or attention.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:00.