Minutes
Senate Steering Meeting
April 12, 2022, 3:30 p.m.
Via Zoom

Present: Todd Steury (Chair), Donald Mulvaney (Immediate Past Chair), Ralph Kingston (Secretary), Mark Carpenter (Chair elect), L. Octavia Tripp (Secretary elect), Danilea Werner, Robert Norton, Robert Cochran, Cheryl Seals, Laura Kloberg (Administrative Assistant).

Not present: Vini Nathan.

Guests: Karen Battye, Linda Gibson-Young, Ali Krzton

Senate Chair Todd Steury called the meeting to order at 3.32pm.

Approval of Steering Minutes from March 8, 2022:
Hearing no objections, approved by unanimous consent.

Discussion and approval of Senate Agenda for April 19, 2022, at 3:30 pm

Action item: Changes to the 2022-2023 Calendar to accommodate Juneteenth Holiday, presented by Karen Battye

Karen Battye (Chair, Calendar and Schedules Committee) presented proposed changes to the academic calendar for 2022. These are necessary to accommodate the Juneteenth national holiday.

Pending Action item: University Research Data Policy, presented by Linda Gibson-Young and Ali Krzton

Linda Gibson-Young (Chair, Faculty Research Committee) and Ali Krzton (Data Management Librarian and committee member) reminded Steering members of the history of the policy. 

Gibson-Young outlined how it had been revised since it was presented to Senate in January 2022.  She reminded the members that Grant Garber had, in the interim, presented on the question of the ownership of research data to Senate in March.  Gibson-Young underlined that having it in place would mean that all researchers could reference it when making funding applications.
Having shared a detailed explanation of the content of the policy, Linda Gibson-Young and Ali Krzton responded to questions from the committee members.  There was robust discussion of the ownership of self-funded research and of faculty concerns as to the breadth of the definition of “data.” Separately, Linda Gibson-Young and Ali Krzton agreed to ask the Research Committee to consider adding a note that some data providers may require ownership be retained by the researcher. Overall, there was agreement in the committee as to the importance of putting the policy in place in terms of making successful federal-funding applications as well as helping researchers steward their data. Linda Gibson-Young agreed to send a final version of the policy to the Senate Secretary and Senate administrative assistant on Thursday afternoon.  The committee asked Ralph Kingston to flag the policy explicitly in his emails to senators notifying them of the April 19 meeting.

Action item: Vote on Senate Committee Members, presented by Ralph Kingston

Ralph Kingston presented nominations of faculty members to serve in Senate committees for three-year terms starting in August 2022.

Chair Steury added that the Rules Committee had discussed presenting the list as a single voting item in the meeting but offering to senators that they could make a motion to vote on the nominees individually if they wished. If senators voted to request this option, there would be a check box for every nominee in the canvas vote.  The members of the Steering Committee discussed the mechanics of how this would operate.

Action item: Vote on Changes to FHB related to composition of DEI committee

If passed, this action item will add a representative of the Libraries faculty to the DEI committee. Chair Steury noted that this is an amendment of the Senate Constitution and would therefore require 2/3s of senators to vote in favor. Ralph Kingston agreed to make senators aware of the importance of attending and voting.

Information item: Update on SACSCOC reaccreditation, previously presented by Mark DeGoti

Chair Steury reminded the committee members that this presentation had been made at a previous Steering meeting (February 15, 2022).

The committee voted unanimously to approve the agenda as amended.

Unfinished or New Business

Mark Carpenter shared an update on the work of the ad hoc PTR audit committee. It is securing some final data but would be ready to deliver recommendations very soon.

Adjournment – Chair Steury adjourned the meeting at 4.31pm.