Steering Minutes
May 16, 2019
206 Samford Hall


Present:   Michael Baginski (Chair), Beverly Marshall (Secretary), Nedret Billor (Chair-Elect), Adrienne Wilson (Secretary-Elect), Dan Svyantek (Immediate-Past Chair), Bill Hardgrave (Provost), Emmett Winn (Associate Provost), Jung Won Hur, Robert (Bob) Norton,
Absent: 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:

  1. The minutes of the April 25 Steering Meeting were approved by unanimous consent.
  2. Emmett Winn shared the Professor of Practice title series as amended. The document has been approved by President Leath. He asked the committee if they thought the changes warranted its reintroduction as a new document to the Senate.  The Steering Committee voted unanimously that the amended document be introduced as an information item but that it was not necessary that it be reintroduced for Senate voting since the Senate has already passed the addition of the title series and there are no substantive changes.
  3. Gina Bailey, Contracts and Grants Accounting, provided an overview and demonstration of a new Grant listing tool. This tool pulls information together in one searchable report that previously would have required a good deal of effort to obtain. Bob Norton asked about security issues surrounding information access on sensitive grants. Gina Bailey indicated that was a good question and said that the information shown is actually already available in other documents the tool is pulling from. She said that they would follow up to make sure that any critical confidential information, like wording in a title, is authorized.
  4. Mike Phillips, Associate Dean, Extension, presented the new Extension Title Series. He indicated that presently the new title series would impact less than ten faculty. The promotion track is being developed to blend the existing research title series and the clinical title series by creating three titles: Assistant Extension Professor, Associate Extension Professor, and Extension Professor. He went through the process to this point including review by the College of Agriculture, Provost’s Office, Provost’s Council, and the Non-tenure Track Faculty Committee.  Changes were made at every step of the process.
  5. Beverly Marshall, Secretary, presented a summary of the University Makeup Policy. She provided some examples of violations to this policy that she had come across.  Provost Hardgrave asked her to send him a copy of her presentation so that he could use it to remind members of the Provost Council.
  6. Beverly Marshall, Secretary, provided a list of volunteers for Senate and University Committees, previously approved by the Rules Committee. The Steering Committee unanimously approved the lists of volunteers.
  7. Beverly Marshall, Secretary, provided a preliminary draft of her initial review of committee accomplishments and service comparison for those committees already providing their annual reports. She will continue to update the list as reports come in. The summary will serve several important purposes. The summary will increase transparency of key accomplishments of committees. We plan to distribute the summary to department heads via their deans in an effort to improve appreciation of service on these committees in faculty annual evaluations. Finally, many ask about time commitments of various committees prior to volunteering and the summary can be helpful in providing that information.
  8. The Committee unanimously approved the Agenda for the May 21 Senate meeting.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Beverly B. Marshall, Secretary, AU Senate