Auburn University Steering Committee
Minutes
Thursday, February 18, 2016, 3:30 p.m.
206 Samford Hall

Present: Larry Teeter (Chair), Laura Plexico (Secretary), Xing Ping Hu (Secretary-Elect), Emmett Winn, Sara Wolf, Keven Yost, Patricia Duffy (Immediate-Past Chair), Timothy Boosinger, Drew Clark, James Goldstein (Chair-Elect)

Absent: Lisa Kensler, Emily Myers

The first item of business was approval of the February 4, 2016 steering minutes.

Following approval of the minutes, there was discussion of whether we should be including representatives of AP & Staff in the Administrator Evaluation process. They are represented on the committee, but not in the review of the data. Their inclusion would require a change in the guidelines not in the policy. It was decided that we should check with the two groups and determine whether adding them to the review cohort is something they wish.

Following, James asked why only full-time faculty are involved in the evaluation process? Steering discussed whether part-time faculty could answer the questions posed in the evaluation process and the impact their inclusion could have on the data.

Laura then asked why the goals generated by administrators during the five-year administrator evaluation process are not shared with faculty prior to the evaluation. Whether the goals should or should not be shared is not in the current policy or guidelines for the review. Emmett pointed out that the survey does not line up with the goals and the goal of the review is to receive feedback that is uninfluenced by other sources of information.

Next the boilerplate wording on job applications was discussed. James brought forward some boilerplate text used during the application process for tenure-track positions. There was some question about the appropriateness of the content and wording. Emmett said he would follow-up and investigate the origin and purpose of the language used.  

Larry asked the Faculty Welfare and Benefits Committee to look into an annual leave sharing policy. The Faculty Welfare and Benefits Committee was not interested in putting together a policy on annual leave sharing. Larry asked whether it would be appropriate to put together an ad hoc committee on annual leave sharing. Steering agreed that an ad hoc committee should be put together to look into developing a policy further.

Updates on Copyright (part 2) was provided by Sara Wolf. The policy indicates that you need to follow the law and, if asked, a faculty member must be able to provide justification for the use of copyrighted material. The policy may be ready to present at the April or May meeting.

With regards to other business, Patricia asked about whether a cap could be placed on the number of transfer students placed in a particular class? This came about from a recent email exchange. The request for a cap will be passed on to the provost and appropriate dean to review and discuss.

Then, Sara asked whether a student applying for a program can be asked whether or not they are a University employee. The answer was yes, but employees can only take vacant seats within a course. She expressed that there is concern that the unit would be penalized with the new budget model and receive less funds for students who are employees and receiving a tuition waiver.  This discussion led to clarification about why this is not the case.

Adjourned 4:50