Auburn University Steering Committee
Minutes
Thursday, August 21, 2014
206 Samford Hall

Present: Patricia Duffy (Chair), Larry Crowley (Immediate-Past Chair), Larry Teeter (Chair-Elect), Gisela Buschle-Diller (Secretary), Sara Wolf, Emily Myers, Keven Yost, Mike Baginski, Drew Clark, Constance Relihan, Emmett Winn

Absent: Laura Plexico (Secretary-Elect)

The minutes of the August 5 steering meeting were approved with minor corrections (spelling).  

The agenda for the August 26 Senate meeting was briefly discussed. It was agreed that during her remarks Patricia Duffy will spell out the speaking and attendance rules during Senate meetings: Senators speak first; maximum speaking time 4 min to give everyone a chance to comment; expectation to attend all Senate meetings of the year. In case of 3 absences without substitute the Department should hold an election to appoint a new Senator.  

The charges of the following Senate Committees were discussed:

The Academic Program Review Committee will need to focus on which programs actually need to go through the review process and formulate better guidelines. Programs that are “merged” or “deleted” definitely have to go through the review process. It is, however, not entirely clear what is meant with “restructuring” of a program and whether such program will need to be reviewed. An obvious example for restructuring of a program would be the move from one college/school to another (e.g., Aviation Management in the past). Patricia Duffy suggested to form a small ad hoc committee which would develop general guidelines concerning which changes within a program will trigger a review. The question was then posed which options count as programs (minors do not count; thus, redundant minors can be deleted without review, but certificates and interdisciplinary programs count as majors).

There was discussion about the GPA requirement of 2.25 for students wanting to participate in Study Abroad programs and the question of whether exceptions should ever be allowed.  Emmett Winn reported that students with lower GPA have created lots of problems and shown bad behavior in the past and therefore negatively impacted the image of Auburn University.

Academic Standards will be asked to review the current "CAP" policy and evaluate whether, as in the prevailing interpretation of the current policy document, students who are on academic warning can be restricted from transferring into majors that do not have an approved CAP.

The Competitive Research Grant Committee will probably reconfigure their strategy of how they are evaluating proposals. Instead of everyone reviewing all incoming proposals, subject area panels might be created. This is more an information item than a charge.

Other: Emily Myers suggested looking into the possibility of creating a recovery center as a safe place for students with an addiction. Other universities (e.g., Texas Tech) already have such centers that are not only staffed with some professionals, but also offer a place for the students to hang out in times of heightened stress and vulnerability. A recovery center will have space requirements. The former Bruno’s Building is full and no option, besides being off-campus. Emmett Winn will contact Eric Smith. From a committee standpoint of view, the Campus Health and Wellness Committee might be able to look into the issue.

As a side aspect it was brought up that faculty should be reminded about on-campus available counseling services and assistance for students in distress. Doug Hankes could be asked to give a short presentation during the General Faculty meeting. The facility is now housed in the Student Medical Clinic. Faculty should not attempt to counsel the students themselves (malpractice or worse), but instead contact the psychological help line.

The issue of copyright was brought up by Sara Wolf, especially as it relates to distance education courses and material in on-line delivered content. Emmett Winn states that faculty owns their content as do students own their work. Patents, research and similar are handled by the Technology Transfer Department. The issue related to teaching could be brought up to the Teaching Effectiveness Committee and presented as an information item by Don Mulvaney as the chair at a Senate meeting.

The agenda for next month’s Senate meeting was briefly discussed. Drew Clark will make a presentation on this semester’s student numbers and GPAs. Nanette Chadwick will present on the sustainability minor in October following Mike Kensler’s presentation on sustainability issues in the September meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.