Steering Committee Meeting
August 18, 2020
3:30pm
zoom meeting

Present: Don Mulvaney (Chair), Greg Schmidt (Secretary), Nedret Billor (Immediate Past Chair), Todd Steury (Chair elect), Ralph Kingston (Secretary elect) Bob Norton, Bob Cochran, Cheryl Seals, Emmett Winn, Michael Tillson Absent: Bill Hardgrave 

Chair Mulvaney called the meeting to order at 3:35pm

Approval of Steering Committee Minutes, 06/09/2020:
Approved by vote; 10 Aye, 0 Nay

Action Item: Approval of Senate Committee Volunteers for terms beginning July 2020. Presenter, Greg Schmidt, Secretary-elect and Chair of the Rules Committee Schmidt presented the names of replacement candidates approved by the Rules Committee for terms beginning in July 2020. The names presented today represent replacements for committee members who left their appointments prior to the end of their terms. Approved by vote; 10 Aye, 0 Nay

Chair Remarks on Planned Senate Agenda:
President Jay Gogue and VP Ronald Burgess plan to make remarks at the August 25, 2020 Senate meeting. Today’s steering meeting has two informational items to hear, There is one deferred informational item (Auburn’s Next QEP – Dr. Normal Godwin) to consider for placement on the Senate agenda.

Information Item:

GuideSafe platform (symptom tracker, passport, contact tracer)
Presenter: Tim Jones, Assoc Director, Auburn University Office of Information Technology– Jones presented the Guidesafe app and the HealthCheck platform, two elements of the A Healthier U initiative. Healthcheck is a web-based health-data-entry platform for all AU student, faculty, staff, and contractors to perform daily prior to coing to campus. Jones demonstrated the ways to access Healthcheck plans to also demonstrate the daily survey process at the Senate meeting. Jones also explained the smartphone-based Guidesafe mobile app and how it tracks and notifies users of COVID-19 exposures.

Questions from Steering included:

• How do students and staff without smartphones participate? Jones explained that the Healthcheck function is a web-based, rather than smartphone-based interface, and AU has worked to make sure web-access is available to all faculty, staff, and students.

• How will AU handle someone’s failure to take the daily survey? Jones explained the notification process for missed healthchecks.

• How will COVID-19 testing be handled for those notified of potential exposure or those who are told to not come to campus?

Information Item: COVID-19 Ops Command Center and Faculty Guide FAQ – The COVID Resource Center
Presenters: Lady Cox, Assistant VP for Student Affairs and Bob Norton, Poultry Science Cox and Norton Presented slides detailing the purpose, composition, and work of the AU COVID-19 Resource Center. The Center involves 3 main teams; the COVID Resource Team, COVID-19 Liaisons, and Call Center Volunteers. Cox noted that the Center has answered over 9000 emails and discussed they types of questions and comments they have received. Cox also discussed ongoing projects including a COVID Self Reporting form the sharing of in-depth guides for handling COVID-19 Cases on campus. The presentation closed with notes on data gathering objectives and a plan to communicate COVID case data via a dedicated website.

Questions from Steering included:

• How quick are COVID testing results? Most on-campus testing returns results within 2 hours.

• How detailed will exposure notifications be? Will they say where exposures occur? Yes. Notifications will include locations.

• Will an entire class be notified if someone self-reports a positive test, or just those proximate? We will notify the entire class.

• Who will be sentinel tested? Faculty, staff, and students will be included in sentinel testing

• What is the testing capacity of the AU Medical Clinic? 200-250 per day

• Will COVID-19 data gathered on students be reported as local to Auburn and Lee County, or will the positive results be listed as the student’s hometowns or counties? Testing data is reported by the testing site. If a student is tested in Lee County it is reported as Lee County.

Discussion of Senate Agenda:

Chair Mulvaney suggested that the two COVID-19 items be placed on the August Senate Agenda and that, expecting a Q&A periods following remarks and COVID items, we defer the QEP presentation until September. Steering Committee members concurred with this suggestion.

Approval of Agenda for Senate Meeting, 8/25/2020: Approved by voice vote. 

Other business:

Secretary-elect Ralph Kingston brought up the topic of standing Senate Committees and overlap between their charges and that of ad hoc committees formed by AU Administration. A case in point is the Senate Retention Committee and the ad hoc Enrollment and Retention group. Kingston argued that standing committees should be the primary actors for the issues they are charged to address. Kingston suggested the formation of a new Senate committee on Diversity and Inclusion. He also suggested that Steering consider the Retention Committee charge and rename it to the Enrollment and Retention Committee. Kingston volunteered to spearhead this effort and get it placed on the Senate agenda. Steering members were supportive of this initiative.

Chair Mulvaney adjourned the meeting at 5:05pm

Respectfully Submitted,
Greg Schmidt Secretary, University Senate