Auburn University Steering Committee
Minutes
Thursday, October 2, 2014
206 Samford Hall

Present: Patricia Duffy (Chair), Larry Teeter (Chair-Elect), Larry Crowley (Immediate-Past Chair), Gisela Buschle-Diller (Secretary), Laura Plexico (Secretary-Elect), Sara Wolf, Emily Myers, Keven Yost, Mike Baginski, Constance Relihan, Mary Boudreaux, John Liu, Art Chappelka, Doug Hankes, Rich McGlynn, Emmett Winn

The minutes of the Steering Committee meeting from September 18, 2014, were approved with a minor modification.

The agenda for the Senate meeting on October 7 was considered as set.

The next item of discussion was the General Faculty meeting on October 28. The agenda at this point contains an overview of Counseling Services for students available on campus, given by Doug Hankes, Director of Student Counseling Services. Further, John Liu, VP and Assoc. Provost for Research, and Art Chappelka, Chair of the Faculty Research Committee, will present this year’s changes to the Internal Grant Program (IGP) and remind everyone of the approaching deadline. The specifics of the revised IGP have already been announced. Also, Dr. Boosinger will give an update on the Strategic Plan.

Mary Boudreaux and Rich McGlynn came to Steering to discuss concerns raised by the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics about NCAA restructuring. The Coalition is an alliance of faculty senates of Division IA schools. The concerns raised by this group relate to possible consequences of autonomy and the membership of the NCAA new legislative council, which reserves only 5% of the representation for Faculty Athletic Representatives.  Many of the issues related to autonomy are still being worked out. The Senate will look to invite representatives from athletics to a meeting in the spring to provide additional information. Mary Boudreaux indicated she didn't have a problem with the composition of the new legislative council.

Patricia Duffy recommended two charges for the Faculty Salaries and Welfare Committee. First, the Committee will be tasked to investigate the possibility for distribution of the 9 month salary over a pay period of 12 months based on a reoccurring request. Second, the Committee will be asked to look into privileges of emeritus professors and the ease of their availability also following a recent request for clarification.

Next, Patricia Duffy gave an overview of the ad hoc copyright policy working group. The list of the proposed members will be sent to the Rules Committee for approval.

The Administrator Evaluation Committee had forwarded a proposal that a simplification of the administrator evaluations. Mike Baginski shared a brief overview of past administrator evaluation procedures. The Steering Committee decided to invite the current Chair of the Committee, Yasser Gowayed, and Mike Baginski as a previous chair as well as Emmett Winn to the next Executive Committee meeting for more background information and discussion.

The discussion on proposed changes to the Faculty Handbook was postponed due to time constraints.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:20.