Minutes of Senate Steering Committee
January 31, 2019
 3:30 p.m.
Samford 206

Present:   Michael Baginski (Chair), Beverly Marshall (Secretary), Nedret Billor (Chair-Elect), Adrienne Wilson (Secretary-Elect), Emmett Winn (Associate Provost), Robert (Bob) Norton, Jared Russell, and Jung Won Hur
Absent: Dan Svyantek (Immediate-Past Chair) and Michael Tillson
Chairman Baginski called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm. The committee was provided with an agenda via email prior to the meeting.

Agenda items:

• The minutes from the Steering meeting on January 10, 2019 were unanimously approved.
• James O’Connor, VP, Chief Information Officer, provided the status of OIT Priority I projects, OIT funded projects, and the information technology strategic plan. Questions and discussion regarding plagiarism software took place. Jim elaborated on some of the software out there including TurnItIn. Generally, many of these return a variety of flags that upon further investigation are not actual cases of plagiarism so they are continuing to look at alternatives. Members of the Steering Committee indicated that many faculty want something that will help them monitor for plagiarism.
• Beverly Marshall discussed whether the Faculty Handbook amendment to add an enrollment component to the Retention Committee should be tabled so that other options could be explored with the new VP of Enrollment. Members of the committee agreed that for the time being the amendment should be tabled.
• The Nominations Committee was not at the Steering meeting but should have 2 Senate Chair and 2 Senate Secretary candidates by Tuesday, February 5 if not earlier.
• Michael Baginski indicated that there would be more information about parking presented at the Senate meeting.
• The Senate Agenda for the February 5, 2019 meeting was approved.

The agenda for the Senate meeting for 2/5/2019 includes one action item. Ralph Kingston will present for vote the faculty handbook amendment regarding Senate meetings. There are also two information items. A Technology Project Status Update by Jim O’Connor, Vice President Information Technology and Chief Information Officer and the announcement of the Slate of Candidates for 2019-2020 Senate Officers. The meeting was adjourned at 4:27 PM.
Prepared by:  Beverly B. Marshall, Secretary, AU Senate