Steering Minutes
206 Samford Hall 3:30 p.m.
October 29, 2015

Present: Larry Teeter, James Goldstein, Patricia Duffy, Xing Ping Hu, Emmett Winn, Timothy Boosinger, Emily Myers, Sara Wolf, Lisa Kensler, Keven Yost, Yasser Gowayed

Absent: Laura Plexico

The first item of business was approval of the October 1, 2015 minutes.

Yasser Gowayed reviewed his presentation on proposed Evaluation Survey for Evaluation of AU Administrator, concerning #7 of Provost’s Administrator Review Guidelines. The proposed survey procedure and questionnaire are a result of about one-year effort of his committee, and are intended to be used for the evaluation of deans and department chairs/heads only. The survey is to be utilized as part of the annual review of administrators by their direct supervisors. There are about 14 deans and 75 chairs in Auburn University. The proposal was approved with changes of two words and will be presented to the Senate at the November 17, 2015 meeting, and implemented in February 2016.

Discussion was carried out about the Undergrad Certificate Program (UCP) proposal. The proposal is a pending action item before the Senate; after presentation as an information item at the October meeting, questions arose when presented to the Academic Affairs Committee. An undergraduate Certificate is an integrated group of courses that is designed to have a focused academic topic or competency as its subject area.  The UCP is not a mandatory program but to participate, the academic unit must be approved through the regular curricular process as specified by the proposal. The proposal has answers to issued concerns, and should be moved for vote by Senate.

Next item discussed was the Non-Tenure Track Faculty (NTTF) policy proposal for Lecturers being allowed to teach graduate courses and serve on committees. The proposal is receiving further review by the Graduate Council.

2015 – 2016 Senate meeting calendar was approved.

Following was a review of draft agenda items for the General Faculty Meeting on November 17, 2015. The meeting will include, tentatively, voting on certificates and handbook revisions.  The information items will include presentations by Yasser Gowayed on Survey for Evaluation of AU Administrators; Bliss Bailey on OIT security policy; and Dan King on Spring campus construction.  A presentation by Chance Corbett on active shooter events will be delayed until the January Senate meeting.

There was some discussion of the procedures for curriculum approval and the role of the University Curriculum Committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 pm.