Transcript Senate Meeting
November 13, 2018
Due to a full room of people the meeting was delayed in starting by about 15 minutes to open up the wall between rooms 238 and 239 so that all could be seated comfortably.
Michael Baginski, Chair: Welcome to the November 13 meeting of the University Senate. This is our forth meeting of the 2018–19 academic year.
If you are a senator or a substitute for a senator, please be sure you sign in onto the sheet at the top of the room. Be sure you have your clicker, because we have two action items today. Second, we need to establish a quorum. We have 87 Senators in the Senate and we need 45 for a quorum. Please press A on your clicker to show you are present.
Let the record show that we have 57 present to start the meeting, so a quorum is established. I now call the meeting to order.
I would like to remind you of some basic procedures for the Senate meeting for senators and guests. Let me explain the Senate rules about speaking. The rules of the Senate require that senators or substitute senators be allowed to speak first and then after they are done guests are welcome to speak. If you’d like to speak about an issue or ask a question, please go to the microphone on either side aisle. When it is your turn, state your name and whether or not you are a senator and the unit you represent.
The agenda today was set by the Senate Steering Committee and posted on the Web site in advance, it’s now up on the screen.
The first order of business is to approve the minutes for the meeting of October 9, 2018. Those minutes have been posted on the Senate Web site. Are there any additions, changes, or corrections to the minutes?
From the senate body: Yes.
[Microphone batteries died. Pass the microphone from the far aisle to the center.]
Greg Schmidt, senator, Libraries: I don’t feel the minutes captured the tense strain at the end of the last Senate meeting between the chair and the faculty member from economics. I felt the minutes don’t quite match the transcript. I could go on or I could leave it at that.
Michael Baginski, Chair: What would you like to add?
Greg Schmidt, senator, Libraries: In that tense exchange, those that were here remember, the chair told the economics professor to go on and then when he went on he was told to only speak on the topics at hand or to sit down and stop yacking. That is not in the minutes.
Michael Baginski, Chair: I was just trying to get around to make sure he made a motion or something to that nature; you can’t have a free forum conversation. He is coming up right now behind you.
Greg Schmidt, senator, Libraries: Thank you.
Mike Stern, substitute senator, Economics: If we want an accurate rendition, first of all I’d like to know, approval of the minutes is listed after remarks and not before them. It’s an action item in the agenda, so I’m not sure why we are doing it in advance, but beside that point, I asked your permission to address before I spoke about the information item that Ms. Marshall and yourself presented because you did not open the floor, as normal for discussion at the time of the information item. You then recognized me to do so. I made commentary, two items that were directly germane to Beverly’s presentation. In terms of my opinion of reforms of the Senate that she was talking about that had been surveyed. So, those are what my responses would have been, so they were perfectly germane. You did not interrupt me at that point. I then addressed your information item about the schedule, or the agenda for the fall faculty meeting, which does not appear in the minutes that were published here. There was a third item I addressed, specifically it was about the failure of the president and the provost to be on the agenda of the fall Faculty Meeting, okay. Specifically, I know that is the one that doesn’t appear here in the minutes, and it is after that point I was asked to step away from the microphone or make a motion prior to my time expiring from having been recognized to engage in discussions. So that is my impression of an accurate description of what occurred of what appears in these minutes. And the minutes are also out of order because Dora who…I wasn’t the first one who asked questions after you moved to unfinished business, Dora and mine were post you (the chair) and not between Beverly and yourself. So, there are clearly I think some problems with the minutes that have been produced.
Michael Baginski, Chair: Okay. I think we can talk about this afterward, without objection. Alright? [5:33]
Alright, I guess we can’t approve the minutes per se.
The next thing I want to do, and I think that is why everybody is here. I am going to make a few remarks and then I am going to let President Leath say what he’s come here to say.
First, I would like to thank President Leath in advance for coming to the senate today and presenting the long awaited "State of Auburn University" message. I know that a lot of time and effort has gone into developing the Strategic Plan by both the faculty and the administration. I'm sure everyone is just as curious as I am about how it will unfold.
Now I would now like to introduce the officers of the Senate, before the speech, and our administrative assistant.
Dan Svyantek is the immediate past chair, Nedret Billor is the chair-elect, Dr. Beverly Marshal is the secretary this year, and Adrienne Wilson is the secretary-elect: Herb Rotfeld is our Parliamentarian. Finally, our administrative assistant, who we couldn’t do any of this without, is Laura Kloberg.
Are there any questions?
And now, without further ado, Dr. Steven Leath. (applause) [7:21]
Dr. Steven Leath, Auburn University President: Good afternoon folks.
Thank you, Michael, for the opportunity to speak. Great crowd here. You are either interested in hearing me speak or interested in the Faculty Handbook amendment (laughter), and we will get to that, so you will be in suspense for a little while, probably for about 25-30 minutes.
I think this is a little different, at least in recent times for the president to address this large a group as to the future of the university going forward, so I appreciate everybody’s time in being here today to listen to what I have to say. There will be a lot of things that I don’t address in the 30 minutes or so, but within the limits of time I am going to stay and field some questions. So, if there are specific things you want me to address or want to mine down in more detail, I’ll do my best to answer those questions in keeping with my style of the last 18 months I will try to be as forthright in addressing questions as I can. Fortunately, there are a lot of other administrators here so if it gets really granular, there will be an opportunity, and this is a forewarning for some folks that I might call on them for help.
I want to thank Senate Leadership, the inclusive group that was just introduced for their leadership and their commitment to the university. As I stand here after 18 months and think about our faculty and students and our mission going forward, your leadership is integral to moving forward. So thank you on behalf of everyone in Samford Hall. [9:10]
To our faculty leaders here today, I appreciate you allowing me to use your time to talk about the State of the University. You are all busy, incredibly busy, so I appreciate your time and your interest. The faculty in general are really the core of our land-grant mission or the core of this university. The faculty success is Auburn’s success and your efforts have help us bring us to where we are today. So, the extension of that is where are we going to go next will rely heavily upon you.
I also want to thank the students, staff and members of our community who are with us. Each of you is a valued component of this university, and your hard work and talents support us in every endeavor I plan to talk about today. So, a special thanks to you.
It is my honor and privilege for me to stand in front of this many members of the Auburn Family and talk about the university, and the collective excellence of this university. I can stand here after 18 months of studying this university and say, “I don’t think our university has never been stronger.” The state of the university though is probably not an accurate description of what I am going to talk about. What I’m really going to talk about is the future of the university, and that is what you’re most interested in hearing about. I think that the university is on the move in a good positive direction. So, what I want to discuss is how we are going to maintain that momentum, how we are going to maximize that momentum and really accomplish greater things over the next few years. [10:43]
Now, I mentioned 18 months. Janet and I have been at Auburn for nearly 18 months now, long enough to see many of the cultural aspects of this university and long enough to see the signs of progress that are going across the university.
It may not seem to, you in a complex organization like this, but I think things are moving at a quicker pace, I think there is a greater sense of urgency on campus. I like to think it’s due to a renewed shared commitment to our land-grant mission, and that is really good. Whether it’s a doubling-down on our instruction mission, whether it’s enhancement of our research and scholarship mission, we are working hard to develop practical solutions to incredible problems in society and I am really, really pleased to see it.
Back in March, to back up for a little bit, I articulated a vision for Auburn, a vision that is ambitious, and one that requires us to strengthen our commitment to better serving the state of Alabama. Which is a worthwhile endeavor. We indicated that our goal is for Auburn to become a world-class academic, research and service university in the true spirit of our land-grant heritage, and to become an undisputed go-to destination for the best students, the best faculty, the best staff, the best development partners that we could find. The ones that are really driven to make meaningful impacts, whether it’s here or when they leave here. I am not changing from that overall vision. What we are going to do is get a little deeper down into it.
So, as a university, we have set our sights on something greater. Fortunately, we are entering this new era for Auburn from a position of strength. The university is coming from a period of successful leadership under Dr. Gogue. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge what he had done for many, many years to get us to this point. But now, we need to capture the momentum going forward and at a faster pace and get more things accomplished.
I want to back up a little bit. I think everybody in academia is a student of history. If we reflect on the land-grant history. I do this not so much to educate you but to let you know my perspective on this. When I think about Justin Morrill who was a congressman and later a senator from Vermont, pushing for the legislation for this new approach to education and new approach to the government’s role in education, it was a pretty radical idea at the time. To take education and make it not just for the privileged few but to make it for others. As the son of a blacksmith, Morrill knew firsthand the importance of a practical education, one that focused on bringing practical solutions to provide the workforce the skills to fuel the modern economy. Land-grant universities have broadened their focus to include more than just agriculture and mechanical arts, but the fundamental idea of educating more and more students, giving more access to affordable education to build economic opportunities to society, that part has not changed since 1862. So, you need to know, as president I put a lot of that value on our educational mission, I put a lot of value on economic development mission, I put a tremendous amount of value on serving the citizens as an institution.
Way back then, students were a central part of the mission. We’ve got the extension outreach mission, the research mission, but our academic mission, our student mission is first and foremost. And I think it still is and that’s where I want to start today is with the students.
For us to fulfill our mission, we must seize opportunities to expand our reach. It’s how we will harness our forward momentum. Our students are our institution’s best ambassadors; They are the people that go out and contribute to society and make a true difference in the world. They serve the greater good. And as many faculty and staff that are here, they don’t compare in numbers to the graduates that we send forth.
Here are a few quick facts about our student body:
Applications were up by 21 percent last year. The demand for the Auburn experience remains high. But data also tell the story of opportunities we can seize. As an Alabama land-grant university, we can seize the opportunity to reach more students in our state, to make an impact at home. Something we have not done as well as we could have.
What opportunities am I talking about? Let me give you more context.
You have to understand for my management style or leadership perspective I think that better decisions are made when more voices and perspectives are heard, and that’s why Auburn should prepare students to be citizens of the world. And this requires an education that mimics the real world. We need a more diverse student body. Diversity and inclusion should not just be considered a goal. Rather, it should be considered a value essential to the success of our students and our university. I don’t think we can have our students be successful or the university be fully successful unless it’s an essential value of this institution.
So, a couple more things on perspective ‘til I get to the main point on this. Demographers say we are only five to six years away from a noticeable decrease in the number of high school graduates here in the Southeast. So, when it comes to crafting enrollment goals, we must be mindful and strategic.
One thing we are going to have to do and I will put a priority on is: we must more fully seize opportunities that exist with dual enrollment, transfer and nontraditional students. We cannot do this in our current form. To do this, we are overhauling our student recruitment efforts, including the way we market Auburn to prospective students. We’re being more intentional about the way we create academic opportunities, making sure they’re inclusive and meet the needs of all types of students. This includes exploring more partnerships with two-year schools and expanding our online programs. These efforts will ensure we continue to recruit, enroll and retain the special caliber of student we want at Auburn. After all, by engaging with our students, we are recruiting and building relationships with our future alumni.
An opportunity to gain diverse perspectives and better serve our state is in front of us. This gets me back to my point about what we need to do to give our students the best experience they need.
The truth of the matter is African American enrollment has been stagnant. We have made no real improvements in that area. In response, the Offices of Inclusion and Diversity and Enrollment Services are strategically developing and implementing programs to strengthen the pipeline into Auburn for both in-state and out-of-state students. Through a series of recruitment-based efforts, we are exploring a tailored approach to reinforcing our brand among multicultural, diverse and first-generation prospective students. One of the ways to do this is to increase access for Pell-grant eligible and first-generation students. One of the big barriers to making this place more welcoming, not just accessible, but affordable to a bigger part of our population is to deal with the financial aspects. So we are going to make a major effort to really make this place truly accessible and we have to do that by making it affordable by making some changes in the way we do things.
Related to that. As we look at our campus and what it might look like in the future, our Critical Conversations series has helped spark a very important dialogue on campus, and I am really proud of that. But we must not let our efforts stop when the speakers leave campus. We must all seize opportunities to be welcoming and have a diverse student body, so you will see some different approaches to financial aid recruiting materials as we move into this next era of recruiting students with a diminishing high school population.
The Auburn student experience is our institution’s crown jewel. We consistently earn high rankings and garner praise for our unparalleled student experience. Year after year, studies show that our students are satisfied with their choice after their first year at Auburn. Our research also shows that they remain satisfied with their choice after graduation. We need to make sure that stays at the forefront as we start these efforts anew.
That’s not to say that we aren’t facing challenges in regard to students. For example, we cannot accommodate every incoming freshman student who wants to live on campus. To tackle this problem, Dr. Woodard and the Student Affairs team have proposed an option that would potentially replace the Hill with new residences in the northwest part of campus. Their holistic plan would replace more than 1500 beds with new, modern residences and would allow to house all of our freshmen on campus. So, this is a n action item we plan to move on with some haste. If their proposal is approved, we could free up the space currently occupied by the Hill, which would help us accommodate future university growth. We’re considering the best way to serve our students, and this very promising plan is still under evaluation.
So this is a neat plan and Bobby and his team should be commended for this, where is Bobby? Thanks Bobby, we will continue to develop this. We need leaders like that thinking about how we can do things. So this will be one of our primary focus issues.
Another issue we face, one that is a hot topic for everyone in this room, is parking. The demand for parking for students, faculty and staff is at an all-time high. Due to growth and progress on campus, spaces are limited. I’ve tasked Chief Operating Officer Gen. Ron Burgess with commissioning a study to determine the best approaches to solve this challenge in the long-term. I’m pleased to report that process is underway. For the first time in a long time you will see parking going up right now next to the hotel. So Ron, thanks for doing this for us.
We have had issues on campus and adjacent to campus that have impacted our students’ safety. My job and all of our jobs is to keep the students safe. We are actively addressing our students’ security, and our efforts range from equipping every Tiger Transit bus with cameras (video feeds that are live), to recruiting former FBI supervisory special agent Kelvin King to lead our campus safety efforts. This adds a level of training and expertise that we’ve not seen before. I am not going to say much on that, but you may ask me about that after the session if you want, but I want you to know that safety is on our minds and it is a focus and we are actually doing stuff to move it forward.
So, you’ve heard me talk about efficiencies and aspirational goals. For us to carry our important momentum forward, we must continue to set aspirational goals. We must identify ways to streamline our operations that will increase our efficiencies. And we must build an operational model that advances student success. These efforts are critical to providing the best student experience in higher education, and ensuring that while here, our students are transformed from inquisitive scholars to engaged citizens.
To help accomplish our goals, we are constructing an operational model to better serve our students. We recently restructured the Division of Student Affairs to provide a more holistic approach to advancing student success through one integrated Division. This includes the transition of units like housing, career services and academic support services to Student Affairs, so from Camp War Eagle, to graduation, to the time they launch their careers, our students are surrounded by tools designed to help them succeed. This is a model similar to what Auburn used many years ago with maybe a few more units.
And faculty are fundamental to our students’ success. You, our faculty, remain at the core of our land-grant mission. You drive Auburn innovation by fulfilling the instruction pillar of our mission. For us to bolster the student experience, elevate our research enterprise and raise our national profile, we must ensure we can recruit and retain faculty members who, along with those in this room, will make up the best faculty in academia. We have an obligation as administrators to recruit and retain the very best faculty members we can. We need to make this the best faculty in academia. We take that charge, the Provost and I, very seriously.
It’s essential that we (top administration) demonstrate to faculty how much they are valued, whether they’ve just joined the university, or they’ve been at Auburn for decades. I enjoy learning about your work, and I’m always ready to discover ways our shared governance can continue to make Auburn an even better university, which is why I try to attend most meetings with the Senate. There’s always room for improvement, and here are a few ways we’re working to strengthen the connection with faculty. I need input if we are going to get this right and we are going to make sure this is the place where top faculty want to come and want to stay.
To that end I have started some new things. [27:28] This semester, I began hosting informal faculty lunches. I asked deans and chairs to provide names of faculty, so when I have lunch there’s a faculty member from every college on campus, there’s no agenda. They come from all ranks, all disciplines. It is totally unstructured dialogue, which I think surprised some of the people that came. But this is a way that I can get input on faculty initiatives. It is incredibly helpful for me to get first hand data from faculty on what’s in front of you right now. What are your concerns, what are the good things, what do you want more of, what do you want less of?…
It has been 10 years now since I sat in your chairs. I try to keep as current as I can, but these lunches are one way and are very helpful. So if you get an opportunity to come, based on the complexity of your schedule, please do. I am already looking forward to continuing this new tradition. It is helpful for me and a great way for faculty to advance their ideas without any filters all the way to the president. I try to take notes and turn the actionable items into something as quickly as I can. [28:39]
Related to this faculty situation, as you know, we are focused on hiring 500 tenure-track faculty, plus additional faculty. This is a huge hiring push. Lots of interviews, lots of startups, lots of space, but we are going to add research-active faculty to enhance our scholarship mission. And in some cases, we will strategically hire full-time teaching faculty to better serve our students. We will hire in disciplines where need is great and demand is strong. We are going to slice this faculty hiring a few different ways. So I want to displace all these rumors that all these people will just be in the labs, for example, all areas of the university all areas scholarship will be touched and we will also put emphasis where we need great faculty on the teaching side. This will not diminish the great student experience here. In fact, I think it will foster even greater student experience and that is something that the Provost and I are very sensitive to and we are paying attention to so, I want to make sure you hear that. We are well on our way to having the first 100 on board by the end of the semester. So those of you who might be wondering is stuff happening, yes, it is happening. So, the first 20% should be on board by the end of the semester which is really exciting.
As we try to recruit the best faculty to come here, I don’t think it’s any secret to most of you that many of these perspective faculty have spouses and partners with independent careers. Sometimes in academia, sometimes outside of academia. To make Auburn more attractive to these prospective faculty members, we are developing a true Dual Career Services program to assist in partner hiring and onboarding. This new initiative helps place spouses or partners in a position at Auburn or other area employers, and it helps build a new network of contacts to help acclimate them to the community. As an added bonus, it will bolster our efforts to build a more diverse faculty. We already have agreements in place with local partners, and I’m pleased to say we will be announcing those agreements soon. A number of you have brought this up with me and this is one example where faculty have come directly to me, the Provost and I have discussed this and we will work with Taffy and others to make this a reality. Hopefully you will be pleased when this all rolls out in the very near future.
Another thing I heard at the faculty lunch is the value we place on faculty engagement, which some faculty felt is too limited and are probably right. We should enable you to share your expertise with our community and, just as importantly, reward you for doing so. We are trying to elevate this engagement, this outreach in the faculty portfolio as we go forward. This will largely be faculty driven and it will circle around and push the faculty to look at this perspective, but we want the faculty to seize every opportunity to fully engage and transfer their knowledge and make us good citizens in the community and the state.
As a land-grant university, a research university, our charge is to pursue groundbreaking discoveries that hold the promise to prosper the human condition. Many of the best things that happen at Auburn start with research and scholarship. It is the spark behind our drive to become a world-renowned land-grant university, and it drives economic prosperity in the communities we serve. Not only will Auburn benefit greatly but more importantly society will benefit if we can really drive research and scholarship forward. And the economy of the state will go forward at the same time, there are so many reasons to do this.
Right now, Auburn scientists and scholars are working not only on campus, but across Alabama and around the world. We have a presence around the globe, from East Alabama to East Africa, which is pretty exciting. Our research and outreach efforts go where the tough problems exist, so we can effectively and efficiently unearth long-term solutions, meet real-life challenges and offer opportunity. We can do this by crossing disciplines, transcending cultures and spanning continents, Auburn researchers can develop, refine and apply their knowledge and make huge impacts. We are going to put a lot of effort and a lot of resources behind that.
To realize our full potential as a land-grant university, we must drive innovation and discovery and do it at a higher level than we’ve done before. To fuel our ambitious, strategic initiatives in scholarship and research, we must invest. It will cost in start-ups and space, and we understand that, and the Provost and I are fully prepared for that endeavor. Our emphasis on research will serve to augment classroom teaching and experience. It will not, as some have worried, diminish the student experience it will enhance it.
That is why, in June, we announced the PAIR initiative, which invests $5 million in seed money to fund 11 interdisciplinary research programs on campus. We’ve created a lot of enthusiasm and created a lot of good science, a lot of good scholarship and that will eventually translate into a lot of good things and go back to the classroom.
This fall, we welcomed 25 top-tier PhD scholars through the Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship program. They’re partnering with you in both established and emerging areas of research. Over the next three years, the program will grow to include 99 highly recruited, highly capable PhD students to help us grow our programs and add impact in our research. I think you will see more and more of these programs, we are on the move, we are going to be ambitious, and we are going to take innovative scholarship to a new level.
To do all this, I will go back and say, for the third time, we must continue to invest in our research and scholarship. Our advancements will sustain and elevate our reputation as trusted, go-to partner for solutions. Many of the best things happening at Auburn begin with research, with the spark of an idea fueled by the desire to discover. It’s what powers our drive to achieve Carnegie R1 designation, and it’s the catalyst for economic opportunity in our state. Auburn research is on the move, and our ambitious and innovative scholars are taking us to new heights.
Today’s world moves at a rapid pace, and our economy is knowledge-based, which makes our research enterprise incredibly attractive to industry partners. We must look for and seize every opportunity to leverage the power of Auburn’s academic discovery.
We don’t have all the resources. We are fortunate that we are not as resource challenged as some schools, but we don’t have all the resources.We’ve go to dial in to our partnerships with industry to a whole new level. We can’t address many of society’s big problems alone. And even if we have the cool ideas, we’re not really good at the implementation or the making of widgets, and we probably shouldn’t be. We’ve got partners that can help our research see fruition and make a difference in people’s lives. This will also create jobs and keep jobs here.
We need to attract new funding through our partnerships and bring new industries to the state. It will help our reputation, it will fund our research and it will increase our impact. But the reality is that we have not been as partner friendly as we should be, we are too complicated, we don’t have an easy front door to industry, we have about 10 back doors. So, we are goin to work hard to streamline, and this has already started and have made a lot of progress and give credit to those on campus, we are going to streamline ourselves and make ourselves the best partnership university there is so people are lining up to work with Auburn as opposed to other folks.
An example or two to show that it is working.
Our recent partnership with Boeing is an excellent example of an opportunity seized. Boeing funds student interns who work at our Huntsville research center. It is unlike any intern partnership that we have ever done. [37:09] Boeing gave us the money in terms of a grant rather than employing these kids as their interns. So we put them at the Huntsville Research Center, we got the grant money, we paid them. Those students could work up at Huntsville, when summer ended they could come back to campus and continue to work in those internships. So, they got the hands-on learning needed, they go the detail partnership with an outside partner, they got a look at career opportunities and we got the money directly to us. That shows a lot of trust in Auburn by Boeing. That’s the way we need to be doing more or these partnerships.
We’ve also joined forces with NASA to employ 3-D printers to build components for the next generation of spacecraft, which will support our country’s mission of a human return to the moon. Auburn will have an integral role in that with this partnership with NASA.
And our Delta partnership, we are going to dedicate a Delta building on Friday. We are one of eight colleges offering the Delta Propel Pilot Career Path Program. More and more big companies are limiting their partnerships and we are hearing that all over. So here is an example where Delta is going from many partners to just 8. We are fortunate to be one and this pilot career path program is where each student will be matched with a Delta pilot as a mentor. They will go through the program here at Auburn, they will have a mentor, they will have a defined path and an accelerated timeline to become a Delta pilot, and will have a great job when they are done.
But if we weren’t willing to be flexible and work with our partners in new and different ways we would not be one of those 8. So, I still need ideas, the new VPR will need ideas, and we need ideas on how to be a better partnership university so bring those ideas to us. We recognize that not all segments need the same thing in partnerships.
I also want to say one of the key things to doing this partnership thing right is to add value to our partners. Too many universities and to some extent us in the past haven’t been sensitive enough to our partners. We need to make sure that we add value back to our partners if we are really going to grow partnerships and be successful in these endeavors. So we are going to increase and expand our role as a partnership university.
As an example, you’ve heard these other examples of Delta and Boeing and NASA, but there’s probably no better example than our Research Park right now. Heightened sense of excitement and a heightened sense of urgency never before, we will be able to cooperate with a broader range of organizations than ever before. We made some bold ambitious bids to bring partners in there recently, but this will give partners easy access to our students to our faculty, and give our faculty easy access to our partners, so you are going to see an incredible push at the Research Park. We are working with the City to create an Arts and Innovation District to differentiate our Park, where you will see a performing arts center and art museum and other amenities coupled in. So, we will have our scientists and engineers in the same proximity as our most creative minds. I hope that will really attract people in a way in which we are different that everybody else.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about our most important partner and that’s the citizenship of the state of Alabama. And we reach them through outreach and extension. [40:29] And we should all be proud of that.
We talk about front doors to the university, But Outreach and Extension are really our biggest and best front doors to this university. They distribute our innovations. When we do science and leave it on the shelf, in some ways we haven’t done much. We need to go out and make a difference in people’s lives. If you think of what we are doing in Extension right now and how the world is changing…typical example many of our ag students don’t come from ag backgrounds anymore and many farmers now are first generation farmers. Extension saw this before other states Extension Services saw it and put in a free farming basics course for new farmers, so we can grow that ag side of the community. It sounds simple when you hear it from me, but it was a revolutionary idea and I commend Extension for a groundbreaking approach on this thing
Auburn’s Extension efforts are also nimble and responsive to what’s needed. After Hurricane Michael ripped through the Florida Panhandle and Alabama’s Wiregrass region last month, our researchers joined forces with Extension to respond to the very real and immediate need close to home. Auburn experts were on the ground, assessing the estimated $204 million in direct damage and $307 million in agricultural losses. A wealth of recovery information was accessible online, ranging from safety tips for those involved in cleanup and debris removal, to sources of financial assistance for farmers impacted by the storm.
We will continue to invest in Extension and Outreach because it makes such a difference. For those of you that think of traditional Ag Extension, it’s there, but sometimes we overlook Outreach here and we shouldn’t. Dr. Cook’s work and his team’s work is hugely critical. [42:07] they reach over 20 thousand people in this state in a year through our outreach efforts. Whether it’s classroom type programs, college readiness, school partnerships, many, many different ways.
I want to make sure as we grow our scholarship and grow our national reputation we don’t lose the student experience, nor do we lose our willingness ability and capability to serve this state and the citizens of the state. So, when you look and see something, we’ve got a great interdisciplinary team working on obesity, which is a problem faced by more than a third of our state’s population. That comes out of Outreach. You look at our Rural Studio program. We have a new program with Fannie Mae on the 20K Initiative to look at affordable housing, outreach has a huge role there. That’s not going to be diminished as we move toward research.
I am not asking you to do more with less, we are going to do more with more, because we are going to raise resources to do this.
We are committed to improving the quality of life in our state, and our resources and combined talents can make a huge difference here in Alabama. So, I said we are going to do this more with more. So, you probably question that, which you should be.
But as you know, we recently completed a tremendously successful fundraising campaign, raising more than $1.2 billion — an amount unprecedented in Auburn history. Now I say we, but really you folks did, because I was only here for the last 18 months. It is unprecedented in the history of this state to raise that much money. Our efforts aren’t done, in fact they are gaining momentum in some ways. Our donors have seen the incredible impact Because This is Auburn campaign. They know what their monies can do and they know that they can make a difference.
So I’ve been traveling to donors throughout the state, throughout the region to demonstrate the impact of their gifts and others gifts on our programs here. We are generating a lot of excitement again, even at the end of a big campaign the excitement and enthusiasm for Auburn is there. It’s really inspiring when you go and meet with people that are willing to help us in this way. We can’t be successful without them. The neat thing is we can be way more successful with them.
Over the past few weeks, I joined Jane Parker for events in Huntsville, Birmingham, Washington, DC, and other areas where we have a high concentration of donors. The Auburn message was well received, we laid out a vision and a plan for them for Auburn. I am excited about the conversations that are going on. The opportunities to generate funds for what you folks do and what you need. This is great.
In addition to the fortune we have with great generous donors we are fortunate to have the backing and support of our state. I know there were years here when things were pretty lean and there were a lot of cuts.
But we had a good and successful legislative session in Montgomery this year, which took a lot of hard work but it’s making a long-term difference in our budgets. Our alumni represent us well in Montgomery, and we’re proud to count our governor and lieutenant governor as Auburn alums. I think it’s the first time it’s happened in this state, isn’t it CJ? So, that’s pretty cool. We’re seeing more interest and passion in our success than ever before. But if I look at the donor’s money, the state’s money, all the money that we get in, we’ve got to be more efficient, we’ve got to be more nimble, we’ve got to think about our decisions, we’ve got to ask the right questions. The big question to ask is, “What is the right thing to do for Auburn? And what is the right thing to do for the state of Alabama?”
So, in our big decisions I am going to ask those things and when we are going to spend other people’s money we are going to ask those things. So, that leads us to how are we going to spend and allocate our money?
We’ve operated for a number of years here and basically with an unconstrained budget model. Which is not really a good responsible way to budget. This model was developed to describe and support operations at a static moment in time in Auburn’s history. When you think back when the model was conceived and formed versus where we are at now, and more importantly where we are going to go, it’s really not the right model for the future.
Competition for resources continues to rise we are going to lay out new priorities for the university through the strategic plan, so we have to think about how we allocate our money. Units this year still receive more funding than in previous years. So, don’t be alarmed, but we don’t live in an unconstrained world. We must modernize our budget and budget process, especially if we want to achieve our goals of elevating the student experience, research, discovery and scholarly activity. Moving forward, budget development guidelines will point us to a unified goal of year-round planning and analysis, strategic prioritization and efficient stewardship of resources. They will be developed in conjunction with our forthcoming strategic plan. After budgets are submitted, they will be discussed and defended. This ensures the process is more inclusive and transparent.
We’ve also asked units to identify areas of opportunity to become more efficient. While we’ve asked central units to identify the 5 percent of their budget that could be streamlined. I don’t want you to look at this as a potential cut, I want you to look at this as an opportunity to think strategically where you really want to put your money. If you get good ideas if you’re faculty or staff get good ideas, how are you going to fund them? So, you need to be thinking, what would you reallocate for a really good idea? How would you free up resources for a new idea? This is an exercise we ought to take very seriously. [48:44]
Now, to that end I am going to talk about another way to improve our efficiency, it’s an easy way and I want everyone to pay attention to because this is a big deal for me. We are all on the same Auburn team, and we are all working as a team toward shared goals. We have way too many silos on this campus and we also have sometimes a lack of communication and sometimes a lack of collaboration. I want people here to be collaborators not competitors. We cannot tolerate the later, so, we need a culture of facilitation and we need people who find solutions; financers who answer their colleagues by saying “let me see how we can do that.” I will no longer accept no as an answer. That needs to go through the entire campus. We really need to work collaboratively as a team for Auburn and make sure that message goes far and wide. [49:48]
This is an easy way to gain efficiency and gain success. I’ve encouraged faculty and staff to come to me with problems where they feel like they are siloed or not getting help. I am glad to help solve those on a one to one basis, but I look forward to the day when I don’t get any of those. When we are running in a true collaborative fashion helping each other, make no mistake, everyone in senior administration is paying attention to this. We really want to work together as a team and facilitate things.
The more efficient we become, and the more streamlined we function, the more resources we have available for the programs we provide that serve our students, our communities and our world. I think Brian edited out my remarks, but I was going to say, so I am still going to say it Brian; we don’t have any programs in Samford Hall. The more resources we can accumulate through efficiency streamlining, they go back to the faculty, they go back to the students they are repurposed for you.
Ron and I and Bill don’t need money in Samford Hall. So, don’t look at this as a negative this is a positive. The more efficient we can be, the more we can work together, the more we can find solutions, the more resources you folks have because they are all going to go right back out and I am committed to that.
This brings me to kind of toward the end, our strategy for the future and how we become the best university we can be. To make the most of our forward motion it needs to be directed. We’ve got two great faculty members, Drs. Beth Guertal and Bruce Tatarchuk, from AG and Engineering respectively who’ve been asked and charged with developing a strategic plan for this university. I got a little push back when I started this to put faculty in charge, but I have been rewarded by a great strategic planning process lead by the faculty in an incredibly inclusive process. The strategic planning committee they formed had been great. There has been incredible leadership. The have been hundreds of people engaged in this process and we are well on our way to setting up some goals and values to move this university forward.
So, where we are at now, we are at the in-depth situation on that analysis of all the data. We had, I believe, 14 listening sessions across this state, numerous ones on campus, we had at least one out of state, we’ve looked at all kinds of scenario planning, they have interviewed all of the Trustees individually, they have interviewed senior leadership, they have interviewed a number of people. They got input from students, faculty, staff, alums…we are trying to figure out how we shape Auburn to be who we want to be, what we want to be 10, 20 years from now.
This is critical. This is where our priorities are going to come from folks and our budget is going to align with the priorities. Over the next few months the drafts will start coming out and we will put meat on the bones. When these big buckets are done in February and we know what our overall goals are, I will task all the senior administrators to put metrics behind these goals to know exactly what we have to do, how to hold ourselves accountable and how the institution will really achieve the stature and impact we want to have. This will be a living document, it will an action plan and it will have metrics behind it.
So, again, it is not just a plan that goes on the shelf. Every year when we go through budget planning, budget allocation, resource allocation, this plan will be front and center. It will be a pledge that we will live by our Auburn values, our traditions, but go forward with a new set of priorities.
As we go forward with this I expect everyone to really focus on our land-grant mission and think about education, extension, outreach, and our research and scholarship. We need to a sense of urgency to continue with a fresh set of eyes, we need faculty at lunches, staff where ever they meet me to give us ideas, give us feedback. This is a shared governance project in every shape of the words and I expect it and hope you get that from every member of the senior leadership team.
Our efforts take time and investment. It takes passion, imagination and creativity. It’s what’s required of us as a great university that’s striving to be greater, and we enthusiastically embrace this challenge. We have a lot of good ideas in Samford Hall, we have a lot of smart people in Samford Hall, but we don’t have all the good ideas and we certainly don’t have all the smart people. We need you folks to speak up and give us input.
If we are going to define what it means to be a forward-thinking, life-enhancing land-grant university is, and the picture next to that is Auburn; we need everybody to pull together. And that is how we achieve Auburn excellence.
With that I will say thank you. I will entertain any comments or questions or concerns that you might have, if that’s alright, Michael?
(applause)[54:49]
Peter Christopherson, senator, Pathobiology: I will try to make this short because I like what you said about everybody pulling together. But with us, especially the people I’ve interacted with, I have a supervisor position and I think some people feel like with the silo-ing they have a lot on their plate. I will say it like this, “too few people have too much to do.” Just asking, not trying to be critical, Do you have any ideas how we smooth that out and get everybody rolling? Some of those people, when you say “don’t say no” they get kind of fidgety.
Dr. Steven Leath, Auburn University President: Well, there are a lot of great people on this campus, but to be perfectly frank, I don’t think we’ve been as straight forward with all of our employees as we should be as to what is expected of them. And then linked performance to salary and promotion and these things. We’ve asked Kelli Shomaker, and Kelli’s right here, to take a serious look at human resources as it reports up through her and overhauling that division and including all our performance appraisal documents that are widely disliked on campus. So, we have heard this, we are sensitive to it and have already started the process, but I would say anyone that has ideas, bring them to any one of us whether it’s me, Bobby, Bill, Ron, especially Kelli because it’s her division and we will work pretty aggressively on this.
Other questions or concerns.
Mike Stern, senator, Economics: I’m an economist. It’s been a long time since I heard someone say we are going to increase efficiency by getting rid of competition. That’s of course not in accordance typically, maybe you mean something else by competition than I do, but normally that’s not, so, could you clarify a little bit by what you mean by get rid of competition?
Dr. Steven Leath, Auburn University President: Yeah, I appreciate the question because that needs some clarification. I am talking about internal competition, like in a family. In my family I expect my 2 sons to work together for the common good of the family. If they go compete with someone external for sports or other areas, that’s fine, or for a job, but I don’t think you should be competing with a support person in your department. I don’t necessarily think you should be competing with a faculty right next to you. I heard a story at one of the faculty lunches where a faculty member was going to write a grant, she really didn’t know how to do it, she reached out to a faculty member in another department who helped her, and it turns out the newbe got the grant, the experienced person didn’t. That’s what I’m talking about, about collaboration rather than competition. Those 2 faculty members worked collaboratively hoping both would get the grant, yet one did. The more senior person could have said no, I am going to be competitive with you, I am not going to help ya. I don’t want to see that. That’s what I am trying to make clear. [58:10]
Mike Stern, senator, Economics: Okay, because one of the things we talked about in developing our RCM Budgeting Model, if I understand you correctly, you want to move away from toward more central planning, which is also not something an economist would associate with enhancement and efficiency. But we were sold on RCM because it would enhance competition between revenue producing units and so forth, it would set the right incentives so that we would have a competitive environment rather than engaging in political machinations to get a bigger allocation from a central planning element. So, that’s what I am hearing as well. Is it your intention to move away from RCM Budgeting?
Dr. Steven Leath, Auburn University President: It’s my intention to overhaul it because in fact the thing you don’t like, and fear is exactly what we are doing under the RCM. For example, you can submit a budget to me or the Provost that’s 20 or 30 million dollars short and expect the Robin Hood type RCM to make you whole through our mission enhancement fund. That’s really not the way it should be, we should put more value on research, scholarship, clinical work, so people really have a true budget that they can justify and stand behind. Right now we are in the situation you’re in without some realignments.
Mike Stern, senator, Economics: One other question, you say we are on the move to success and so forth. I’d be interested in you, as president, where you think you have failed thus far and what you would do different?
Dr. Steven Leath, Auburn University President: Well, I don’t think I’ve failed yet, but…you work 7 days a week. I think one time recently, I think Tammy had me scheduled 16 nights in a row. But the truth Michael is no matter how much you do in this job there’s always more you could do to advance this university. So, would I already like to be an R1? Absolutely, would I have liked to hire more faculty, absolutely, we’ve got an increase from the legislature this year. CJ and I are thrilled but we’d like it to be bigger…so, there’s always things you wish you could do more of and do better. But, I think by and large the university is moving in the right direction.
Any other questions before we move on to Faculty Handbook adjustments?
Alright, are we all set, MIke, if I give back the podium? Thank you folks. (applause)
[1:00:52]
Michael Baginski, Chair: Thank you President Leath.
Now Aurora Weaver will present the multi-year contract amendment, if she’s here. There you are.
Aurora Weaver, member of Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee: Hello everyone.
Last meeting that I attended on October 9, I presented the proposed amendment that we had put forth and presented to the Faculty Handbook Committee, who went through and made some modifications to the amendments that were proposed after the review we did of the feedback we got from the non-tenure track faculty members and looking at the COACHE survey. This went ahead and was approved through the faculty executive board and the amendment changes were approved by the Faculty Handbook Committee.
To review those changes, it’s a revision, an amendment to the Handbook sections 3.5.1, 3.5.2, and 3.5.3 that would allow the department or academic unit to offer a multi-year contracts, up to 3 years only, for well qualified individuals…[1:03:24]
Herbert Jack Rotfeld, parliamentarian: (off microphone) Excuse me. I think everybody here has reading literacy among their talents, please don’t read everything to us.
Aurora Weaver, member of Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee: Okay. Well this was information presented at the last meeting and so if you are all informed on the options that are available to you that you can contact your dean if somebody meets the requirements and obtain approval from them and pending all of the modifications that are stipulated in the Handbook.
With that, moving forward it is applying to lecture titles series, research title series, and clinical title series only at this point, to clarify because there was some confusion last time. Moving forward, this is an action item. Are there any questions about the amendment that has been approved by the Faculty Handbook Committee? (no questions.)
Michael Baginski, Chair: (You can do this as well as I, directed to Dr. Weaver who declines the invitation.)
If you have your clickers, we are going to vote on this now. If you are for it vote A and against it vote B.
A=54, B=2.
(Question from the floor: is it enough votes to pass? Doesn’t it need 58 votes for a Constitutional Change? Some more conversation about this reviewing of the results. It is decided to take another vote.)
Make sure that your clicker is on. I know it is late in the day, and Bill Hardgrave can vote. Let’s try it again. Make sure your clicker is on, we are getting new clickers too, some of these are questionable.
A=62, B=2.
Now, it passes.
Michael Baginski, Chair:
This concludes our formal agenda for today.
Is there any unfinished business? Pause
Ed Youngblood, senator, Communication and Journalism: I’m wondering about the discussion at the start of the meeting about the transcript and agenda issue is going to be addressed? I was wondering if you could discuss what the plans are for that?
Michael Baginski, Chair: What we will do is submit the minutes for approval at the next Senate meeting after Dr. Stern provides his written suggestions and comments to the Secretary of the Senate, (Dr. Beverly Marshall). This will hopefully correct the substance of the comments in rulings on the order by the chair.
Is there any new business? …. Hearing none, the meeting is adjourned. [1:08:25]