Auburn University Senate Minutes
September
5, 2000
Broun
Hall Auditorium
Absent: I. Thompson, S. Taylor, L. Frobish, G. Mullen, D. Norris, J.
Harris, S. Bannon, R. Eaves, R. Jenkins, M. El-Halwagi, B. Bowman, R. Broughton,
R. Crocker, G. M. Watkins, J. Facteau, R. Paxton, B. Brawner, R. Kenworthy, C.
Hageman, D. Large, J. Ferguson, J. Jahera, L. Benefield, J. Heilman, S.
Schneller, T. Boosinger.
Absent
(Substitute): D. Pascoe (P.
Grandjean), CPT C. Hageman (Lt. Beusclel), LTC C. Buchanan (M. Simpson), J.
Bannon (J. Owen), L. Waters (B. Hardy).
The
meeting was called to order at 3:00 p.m.
The
minutes for the previous meeting were approved as posted. They can be found on
the Senate web page at https://auburn.edu/administration/governance/senate/schedule.html.
Announcements:
A. Provost William Walker
Provost
Walker began by acknowledging the contributions of Professor Joseph Stephenson,
who passed away several weeks ago very surprisingly. Stephenson had contributed 33 years to Auburn University and was
beloved by his family, colleagues, and many alumni who knew him.
Provost
Walker extended to all faculty and staff of this institution congratulations
for all they have done for making the semester transition a successful
occurrence. The faculty has done a
marvelous job of completely redoing, rewriting, and reconfiguring the various
program curricula over which they have responsibility.
The
staff is to be congratulated, particularly the academic advisors, having done a
tremendous job interacting with young people not so fortunate as to graduate
before the transition. The advisors
were faced with the task of convincing these young people that they needed to
sign up for at least 15 hours in a semester, which had not been the norm in the
quarter system. Our freshman class is
right at 15 hours; interestingly, the average drops off as you go from the
freshman to the senior years. John
Fletcher asserts that these numbers are much better than at many other SEC
institutions.
The
question of the cost of the semester transition is not one that is easily
answered, particularly because most costs would have been here anyway. However, the determined cost from the period
beginning April 1, 1997 to the end of the current month (3 ˝ years), the
personnel cost (salaries, benefits, student wages, temporary employment
services) is a little over $506,000. The operating expenses were almost $170,000;
these included some consultants brought in to offer advice for space planning,
statistics. The greatest cost was the
classroom and information technology improvements, now found all over the
campus. Auburn University spent a
little over $1.4 million on information technology improvements, the grand
total coming to $2,115,815, approximately.
The money was well spent; the information technology and classroom
improvements were things we have needed for some time. Our university is much better today than it
was three and a half years ago.
The
enrollment information for comparison purposes is based on data from October 5,
1999 to September 5, 2000, as provided by Dr. Fletcher. Total undergraduate and graduate enrollment
as of September 5, 2000 is 21,864. This is broken down into 19,080
undergraduates and 2784 graduate students.
Total enrollment is down 256 students from October 5 of last year. That is a decrease of 1.6%. The largest decline is at the undergraduate
level: 247 fewer undergraduate students than last year. This occurs primarily because our senior
class has 642 fewer students than last year.
Students close to graduation last year did exactly what we expected them
to do: did what they had to do to graduate before the semester transition.
We
have all heard about the large freshman class here at Auburn University this
year. We have 3,876 new freshman, but
the total freshman class has 5,706 students.
So we have 3,876 new students coming in as freshman this year, 174 more
than last year. We also have 1394
transfer students, an increase of 42 students.
Again, overall enrollment is down, but freshman enrollment is up. Our student recruiters will be working to
bring in a group of students this time next year to keep enrollment numbers
around where they are now, perhaps increasing slightly.
The
Board of Trustees met last Thursday.
The meeting began with new board member Jack Miller’s comments
concerning the drought situation in the state of Alabama. Miller raised this question: What can Auburn
University do, with all of the technology we have available, to help the
citizens of this state, particularly the agricultural industry? Provost Walker and Miller discussed the
matter and Provost Walker suggested that it is possible to desalinate seawater
for irrigation purposes, but the cost is very high. Miller commented that somehow the technology and knowledge
available at Auburn be used to help this situation. Provost Walker encouraged faculty to begin thinking along these
lines, particularly because we owe something to the citizenry of the state of
Alabama and weather conditions are becoming increasingly problematic.
The
board appointed Gwin Nance as Chancellor of AUM. She had been serving as interim chancellor. The decision was in
concurrence and with the recommendation of the faculty.
The
board formally recognized Professor Sam Mockbee for his selection as a
MacArthur fellow in recognition of his work with the Rural Studio.
Dr.
Don Large presented a budget overview.
No questions were raised by the board about the budget, so it is assumed
that it was approved even though there was no formal vote taken. The vote will be taken at the September
meeting later this month. Provost
Walker has no problem with sending out the letters to faculty and staff telling
them what recommended raises they will receive, those being contingent on the
trustees approving the budget.
The
board approved an aircraft replacement policy.
This is an issue motivated by safety considerations. We have two fleets of aircraft, one used by
students for flight training, the other used by University as an air
carrier. It is available for anyone
(President, Vice-presidents, Deans, Department Heads, Faculty) who wants to use
it. One of the aircraft is over 20
years old and a policy has been needed to ensure replacement of aircraft at
regular intervals.
The
board approved a cooperative Master’s degree program in Sociology between
Auburn University and Auburn University in Montgomery.
The
board approved a site for the student union, essentially west of Broun
Hall. They also approved the schematics
for a weight training facility, the poultry science building, and the 3-D art
studio. The art studio is currently
housed in Biggin Hall, but needs to be moved because of dust and environmental
problems.
They
approved the naming of the Pharmacy building after W.W. Walker, Jr.
A
number of searches are underway:
First,
a search is underway for a Vice President of Student Affairs. The search committee has done an excellent
job; Provost Walker will be making a recommendation to President Muse within a
couple of weeks.
A
search for the Dean of business will begin soon. Dean Alderman stepped down
effective August 15; the interim dean of business is Dr. John Jahera. The search committee for the permanent dean
is currently being formed. Each
department of the college of business has submitted two names of which Provost
Walker will select one in order to form a search committee. This committee will also include staff,
students, and alumni. Dean Larry Benefield from the College of Engineering will
chair that search.
Provost
Walker has appointed Richard Burnett as the interim Director of Information
Technology. Mr. Jim Stone retired at
the beginning of August. The process
for selecting an interim director was essentially the same as the process for
selecting the interim dean of business.
Provost Walker instructed Burnett that his first and most important part
of business is to develop a customer orientation for central operation. He calls upon the faculty and staff to help
do this.
Provost
Walker will be appointing a Director of the SACS re-accreditation. The senate search committee appointed will
be giving a recommendation tomorrow (September 6). He will be appointing
someone soon. He will also be appointing a Director of Assessment, which will
be a permanent position lasting beyond the 3-year SACS re-accreditation
process. Linda Glaze will be setting up a search for the Director of Assessment.
Lastly,
Tom Smith has agreed to serve as interim Head of the Department of Music upon
the death of Dr. Joseph Stephenson.
Michael
Mercer (Journalism): Do you have any idea of how many students have been
affected financially by the transition and were reflected in enrollment
figures? I encountered some students
last week who were in class but whose names were not on the roll, indicating
they were not in school, possibly because of a financial situation?
Dr.
Walker: I have been tracking very carefully the enrollment in core
courses. There is access to core
courses. We dropped over a thousand
schedules because one of the conditions of the semester transition was that the
students must pay their bills on time.
Dr. Large, Dr. Fletcher, and others, and I met and decided to drop the
schedules of those students who had not paid their bills when due because it
was not fair to hold those classes when other students who had paid needed
access to those classes. If they paid
they could re-register. According to
John Fletcher, we probably have some students who are still not registered but
are attending classes.
Welcome
in particular to all the new Senators just coming on board this Fall. A notice is on the overhead of the General
Faculty meeting which will be in Broun Hall Auditorium at 3:00 p.m. next
Tuesday, September 12, 2000. If any
problems were encountered receiving the electronic agenda for this week please
let Dr. Gladden or Mary Boudreaux (Senate Secretary) know after the meeting.
There
should not be another Thursday night football game for several years.
The
handbook committee will begin working on improving access to the faculty
handbook on the web, possibly making it searchable.
We
can look forward to seeing Dr. Michael Watkins at the front of the Senate more
regularly. The program review committee
is continuing to work on guidelines for regularly reviewing academic programs.
We
had a grievance committee report earlier this year. Dr. Gary Mullen has agreed to continue working with the grievance
committee to bring some of those recommendations forward for Senate discussion
and review.
A
City of Auburn event may be of interest to those on the Auburn campus. There have been some newspaper stories in
the Opelika-Auburn news related to growth in the Auburn area. If anyone has interest in that there is a
City of Auburn growth forum September 9 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the Auburn University
Hotel and Conference Center. It is open to the general public. There will be presentations by panel members
followed by an open discussion. Panel
members are Larry Watts, head of the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission,
former campus planner for UAB; Steve Doyle, a reporter for the Huntsville Times
having reported on the growth of Huntsville and Madison; Bob Mount, a retired
faculty member from Auburn University and newspaper columnist who advocates
slowing growth; tentatively Connie Cooper, former National President of the
National Planning Association, involved in SmartGrowth. There also will be city
maps as well as a proposed growth-boundary plan. To view this plan go the website www.auburnalabama.org.
Committee
reports:
A. Faculty welfare: update on child care issue – Dr. Effie
Albrecht-Piliouni
An
outline and details of this report were included in the handout accompanying
this week’s agenda.
Jimmy
Samford, in his last letter to the Auburn family which appeared in the June
2000 Auburn Update, encouraged the faculty to give the board of trustees our
“feedback, ideas, and suggestions on how we can continue to make Auburn an
ever-greater institution of higher learning.”
This feedback derives from this work of the University committees.
One
of the central areas of concern is the care of the children of Auburn
University faculty and staff. On March 14, 2000 the faculty welfare committee
presented the possibility of having an on-campus daycare facility. Lynne Hammond gave a presentation to the
Senate about the Employers Child Care Alliance at the February meeting (to see
information on the Employers Child Care Alliance go to:
http://nccic.org/ccpartnerships/profiles/ecca.htm
).
The
Faculty Welfare committee analyzed the information given to them and realized
that there were 2 needs that were not met by the Alliance. One is care for newborns when both parents
are employed. The second area of
concern is emergencies. When the child
is sick the day care will not keep them.
In a recent meeting with Ms. Hammond I was informed that there is a
leave available for the care of sick children and it falls under the Family
Emergency Leave. Probably this should
be communicated to the Departments so that faculty and staff are aware of this.
Ms.
Piggott mentioned that in Winter 2000 a survey
was distributed randomly to Auburn University employees expected to
identify child care use not being met by the Alliance. The results were supposed to come out in
Spring term, however, our committee did not think the survey would represent
the employees needs if it was distributed randomly. The survey reached employees who were not parents or who did not
intend to be parents but did not reach employees who are already parents. I met with Ms. Hammond a few hours before
this meeting and she said that she had the results of this survey. I will give you briefly some of the results
of that survey. All Alliance employers
were given surveys but not all Alliance employees. Two thirds of the responses
came from Auburn; they are based on only 263 completed surveys. Over half of
those that completed the survey thought care was good; however, average waiting
time for placement of a child is 12 months. This is not a great help to
parents. Fifty percent said they changed providers once a year; 29% changed
providers twice a year. In both cases
changes occurred because of poor quality of childcare.
Based
on the survey results, the top three needs for childcare are care for mildly
ill children, temporary emergency care, and summer holiday care for 10 to 14
year olds. The effects of these needs:
36% of parents said they will not accept a job or accept a promotion because of
child care limitations, 22% changed employers, 24% considered leaving the
work-force completely, and 34% considered reducing their hours or quitting for
a while.
Please
communicate information about the Alliance to your departments. Ms. Piggott
repeatedly stressed that unless there are certain needs identified by
employees, the Alliance cannot take any action.
Ms.
Piggott, director of Employers Child Care Alliance, can be contacted by phone,
fax, or mail with the numbers and addresses on the handout accompanying today’s
agenda.
The
Academic Standards committee voted on two proposals, one submitted by the
College of Human Sciences, the second submitted by John Fletcher. Each proposal was included in the copy of
the agenda for today’s meeting.
Both
proposals were approved by voice without dissent.
Approval of newly appointed Senate committee members – Dr. Bruce Gladden
Attached
to this week’s agenda is a list of members appointed to Senate committees in
2000. Minor corrections:
·
The faculty grievance committee members were elected as is
required by the faculty handbook
·
Tony Guarino will be replacing Edie Miller
To See Newly Appointed and Elected Senate Committee
Members
There
was a motion to approve the new members of Senate committees.
The
motion was passed by voice without dissent.
The
meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.