Auburn University Senate Meeting

October 8, 2002

3:00 p.m.

Members Absent: Paula Sullenger, Secretary-Elect, Jim Bradley, Immediate Past Chair; Ted W. Tyson, Ag Engineering; David Bransby, Agronomy & Soils; Dennis DeVries, Fisheries & Allied Aquaculture; Ken Tilt, Horticulture; James Kaminsky, Educational Foundations, Leadership, & Technology; David Pascoe, Health & Human Performance; Karen Rabren, Rehabilitation & Special Education; Richard Good, Music; Narendra Singh, Biological Sciences; Bill Hames, Geology & Geography; Scott Fuller, Building Sciences; Thomas A. Smith, Human Development/Family Studies; Jack DeRuiter, Pharmacal Sciences; Jesse LaPrade, Cooperative Extension Service; Ltc. John Salvetti, Army ROTC; Cpt. Ted McMurtrie, Navy ROTC; Don Large, VP for Business/Finance; Dean June Henton, College of Human Sciences; Interim Dean Rebekah Pindzola, College of Liberal Arts; Interim Dean John Jahera, College of Business; Shari Downer, University Librarian; Heath Henderson, SGA President; John Asmuth, A&P Assembly; William Gale, Steering Committee.

The meeting was called to order by

The minutes of the September 03, 2002 meeting have been posted on the web.

Announcements from the President’s Office:

President William F. Walker:

SENATE COMMENTS

OCTOBER 8, 2002

Provost Search Committee formed. Committee consists of 15 (I think) faculty members, 3 VPs, 1 dean, 1 undergraduate student, one graduate student, a representative of IT, and a Board of Trustees member for a total membership of 23. It is a diverse committee made up of some of our finest scholars and I am confident they will do an outstanding job. Now attempting to find a time when everyone can meet and I can give the committee its charge.

I understand that Professor Keenan Grennell will speak later on issues of diversity. I would like to preempt his remarks somewhat by noting two important items; first, on Wednesday, October 23 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, the Diversity Leadership Council will hold a Town Hall Meeting devoted to “Discussions on Diversity.” It will take place in Telfair Peet Theatre and should provide a wonderful opportunity for the community to experience needed growth in this important area. I would just add that the Diversity Leadership Council has been working tirelessly to prepare a plan for community diversity initiatives and I look forward to receiving that plan within the next several weeks.

Second, Professor Norbert Lechner from the Building Science Department has reminded me to call your attention to the production entitled “Strange Fruit; The Story of An Alabama Lynching” now showing in Telfair Peet Theatre. In Professor Lechner’s words, this play is an excellent vehicle to sensitize our students and faculty to the realities of prejudice and violence. The play examines the destructiveness of hatred and racial intolerance. It was written and directed by Dyann Robinson, former faculty member and current Scholar in Residence at Auburn.

At its September 27 meeting, the Board of Trustees passed the FY 03 budget of $557.8M. The outlook, funding wise, for the state for this as well as next fiscal year is not particularly bright. One issue we will face in next year’s budget is that our institutional contribution to state retirement may go from 6 to 9%. This would amount to an increase in our institutional contribution of $7-8M. Now, if proration is indicated in the current fiscal year, the so-called rainy day fund should help keep the state afloat. However, once those funds are expended, the state could encounter serious financial difficulties. Such difficulties could well arise in the ’04 fiscal year (Oct 2003–Sept 2004). However, I think it is important to keep all this in proper perspective, because these problems are not restricted to Alabama. Institutions in Virginia have been told to expect up to 15% budget reductions. Severe cuts have also taken place in Iowa and North Carolina as well as numerous other states. I do not think there is any question that we are seeing and will be experiencing the results of the downturn in the economy that is sweeping the globe.

(Don gave me an article out of the Wall Street Journal a while ago and it’s a point that I had not thought of — perhaps some of you had — that this is all actually something that began with the Reagan policies of putting more and more of the power into the hands of the states. This took place during the 80s, during the Reagan administration, and of course states took on more power with respect to policies in the areas that they were funding and the things that have happened is that as the economy has gotten worse, then states are having to make decisions as to what programs can and cannot be funded. The Journal listed some 38 states that were having difficult financial times. It seems to me that the one common theme of all this is as state legislators and state elected officials began to make decisions as to what’s going to be cut, higher education seems to be coming up on the short end of that deal time and time again.)

Fortunately, Auburn is comparatively well positioned to weather some economic storms (and I say that with some hesitancy because we don’t want to tempt the gods). We have continuing proration reserves as well as one-time reserves that hopefully will enable us to handle financial crises with minimum impact on departmental operations.

One financial issue that I need to mention has just been brought to my attention. Frankly, I had intended to leave the renovation of Samford Hall to my successor. However, recent discoveries have provided convincing evidence that we need to move ahead with that project. I estimate the cost to be on the order of $15M. I do not see the state providing such funding. Therefore, we will have to approach the private sector for this support. I certainly believe that is doable. I have asked Dr. Curtis to get the project on the agenda for the next meeting of the Board of Trustees.

You might be interested in a few facts regarding our current enrollment figures. We have 19,603 undergraduates, 743 professional, and 2930 graduate students for a total fall enrollment of 23,276 students. This includes 4184 new freshmen and 1298 new transfer students. The average ACT score for entering freshmen is 23.8, up from 23.5 last year. The average high school GPA for entering freshmen is 3.44, also up from last year. So it looks as if our more selective admissions policies are yielding more highly qualified students.

Vice President Moriarity informs me that even though we have not yet closed the books on fiscal 2002 grants and contracts, it looks as though we just experienced another record year for AU-sponsored research. He is predicting that we will have conducted in excess of $58M in sponsored research.

Finally, Vice President Wilson and his staff have conducted two workshops for faculty engaged in outreach activities and who are considering tenure and/or promotion this year. He is considering additional workshops this year, so please be attentive to forthcoming announcements.

I’ll be happy to try to answer questions at this time.

Gary Mullen, Entomology & Plant Pathology: Could you comment on the nature of the renovations of Sanford Hall.

President Walker: My feeling is probably they will take it back to the basic old structure that it was; the ceilings have been lowered, they will probably move those; redo all the plumbing and electrical — it’s the plumbing and electrical that are problemmatic as well as the termites. It will … we will just have to wait and see what an architect would come up with. The basic structure of the building is somewhat suspect because of infestation of termites, but we’ve also discovered some terrible plumbing problems that in fact could be safety issues.

Connor Bailey, Steering Committee: Dr. Walker, a year ago you agreed with me on something. It had to do with the Athletic Department and the contributions that we might expect from the Athletic Department with the budget. The Athletic Department is self-funded, as you know, and it is a very fine athletic program. But the Athletic program does not contribute financially what it could and should provide this university. You have something called the “General Administrative Component” and this cost covers some portion of your time that is spent on athletic-related matters, as well as a share of the costs of the Bursar’s Office, and a whole long list of other administrative functions. The General Administrative Component is 6.4% of the budget. The athletic budget in round figures is $30 million. I don’t know how much the Athletic Department contributed this year in support of the administrative handling of the Athletic Department. Last year, it was 1.4% of their revenue.If the proportions this year are about the same, then we’re talking about an additional 5% of the 30 million dollars. A year ago, you thought that was a probably a pretty good idea, that we might be able to capture some of these funds. The Athletic Department well-funded, the facilities are top-notch, something that we in the academic side of the house aspire to. Can you tell me please, what progress has been made in this matter.

President Walker: Yes. I don’t mind agreeing with you Connor, from time to time. It is a good idea. But what I’ve discovered is that there is, in fact, money passing back and forth between Athletics and the University. I don’t fully understand all of that. For example, Game Day clean-up, things like that. Actually, we’re paying for some of that. And you would think that perhaps Athletics would need to pay for that. And then as I was talking to Don about this earlier, the fact of the matter is that Athletics is also paying $6 million a year for scholarships for students. I don’t mean the extra scholarships that they contribute for their own … for the athletes. Those are all students on scholarship or many of those students are on scholarship. I’m not quite sure how to calculate that in to the thing you’re talking about. Which doesn’t mean that we should not look at it. I think we should. What I’ve instructed Don to do is try to put this on a simple basis of here’s how much we’re putting into Athletics, here’s how much Athletics is sending back to the campus and how closely do we want that to balance out. Don, you might want to say something about that.

Don Large, VP for Business/Finance: Thank you, Dr. Walker. What I am in the process of doing is gathering information from the SEC and to have that in the next week or two; I’m trying to make sure that I and all of us understand within the Conference, if you will, that the Athletics competes what it’s peers are doing. So far, I’m finding it all across-the-board, but hopefully we’ll have apples and apples; we’ve got some institutions that fund the Olympic sports whereas basically football funds it here. We’ve got student activity fees running back and forth, we’ve got different ways that they treat scholarships as to out-of-state versus in-state; some allow anyone that comes in to pay in-state rates where we charge out-of-state as well to Athletics. So I’m trying to get my hands around that.

Dr. Curtis just gave me last week her very good summary that I’ve never had before of precise costs of Game Day activities that the General Fund currently picks up and it’s probably in the order of $400,000 or $500,000 in costs. There is one type of cost that we experienced this year was paving and some of those things just getting ready and I’ve amortized over some period of time. I’ve also got Terry Wendell working to give me his best estimates of the cost of the ticket discounts — the faculty and other employees discounts which we buy half-priced tickets — and to give me his cost first of all just on what’s the half price cost if you will, or loss of revenues to them by offering that benefit or privilege or whatever it’s referenced as. I know that Terry will argue that there’s an opportunity cost as well. If you didn’t have that they could sell them at a greater face value. So I’m trying to gather that information. I don’t have a good argument on your General Administrative. It does seem to have some merit and lacking any better basis at this point, it seems like a reasonable point to start. I’d also need to start that on all auxiliaries, not just Athletics which will be possibly interesting to our campus dining and housing and bookstore and some of those that will have to come up with that. I wouldn’t think it would … if it’s a good theory, it needs to be applied to all. I’ve got Bob Ritenbaugh who’s Director of Auxiliaries giving me a analysis there.

All this is leading to the fact that we’re starting the Budget Advisory process with the Committee within the next couple of months and I will have all that data; I intend to lay it all out and this I promise you, this budget cycle we will have decided how we’re going to address this. Dr. Walker has made it clear that he wants it all out on the table and we’ll reach agreement. Some may agree with what we do, some may not, but we’ll have a basis for our relationships and how we charge one another and our expectations. That will be included in the budget process and then we will be happy to share it with the body. That’s the process and this time next year you won’t have to ask that question because it will be resolved.

Connor Bailey: Housing doesn’t have codes and contracts so I think probably there’s a reason to differentiate Housing and Food Services from the Football . . ., the Committee discussed that. If we’re going to talk about the discounted tickets that we buy, we also ought to talk about the discounted interest rate that Athletics pays having the good name and character of the University backing their (unable to understand) . . .

Don Large: Well, we’ll do our best, Connor. There are probably many more issues on both sides that need to be factored in. The first thing, the basic theory is an auxiliary and revenue and general administrative costs are what we’re trying to address, not necessarily the revenue sources. A revenue source is a revenue source; the cost of the general and administrative treatment of that is probably not necessarily linked to the revenue source, the cost attached to the revenue dollars. But we will look at that; I would be most happy and matter of fact, we’ll send you a note when we get to that point and be happy … I think you came and shared with the Committee this past year any thoughts and I intend to invite David Housel and Terry and … let’s kind of get this behind us once and for all one way or the other.

President Walker: Let me just mention one other thing if I may. This Saturday at 9:00 at the Dixon Hotel and Conference Center we’ll be having the meeting of the Allen Group. That’s the Auburn Legislative Action Network, some people that contact legislators on issues of importance to the University and we’ll be giving an award to one of our legislators, Mr. Richard Lindsey, who Chairs the House Appropriations Committee. It was through Representative Lindsey’s efforts this past year that the College of Agriculture received an extra $700,000 continuing funds. I had set a goal to increase the continuing funding for that College by about $10,000,000 and during these difficult time, Representative Lindsey came through. Particularly those of you from Agriculture, I think it would be particularly appropriate for you to share with Representative Lindsey your gratitude, since you’re going to be the ones that benefit from this grant. Are there other questions?

Judy Sheppard, Steering Committee: I understand that we’re moving forward with the Trustee Nominating Committee. Do we know what the agenda is?

President Walker: The Committee members as I recall are: Don Logan, Olin Brown, Andy Hornsby, Monty Lower, and Jimmy Sanford. I know of no agenda. Don Logan is the Chair of it. I’m not sure if I’m going.

Barbara Struempler, Chair, University Senate: Just as a side note, last Thursday the Senate leaders were getting ready to meet with President Walker and we had about five minutes and they had brought out some of the pipes. So we went down in the dungeon of Sanford to look at some of the electrical problems and the pipes and they’re pretty gross and messy. Another kind of unusual story is this summer when the Rules Committee — we meet in a conference room up in Sanford — and this summer we walked in there, the members of the Rules Committee, and on the window sill — you know, it’s a nice big window sill — but there were about a couple of hundred bugs. We were trying to decide if they were termites or flying ants, because I’ve never really seen a live termite. I’ve never seen a couple of hundred in one place, I’ll put it like that. And sure enough, they were termites. So you just have a problem with them up there. A very visible problem, I might add.

My announcements today will be as short. You’ll notice that on the Senate Agenda there’s a new section that we’re going to try today. It’s entitled “Discussion and Debate.” Time permitting at the Senate meetings, we’ll have a open forum about some of the current issues of the University. The purpose of the forums is to just hear faculty’s comments and concerns on some of the issues that are important to the University. We hope that we’ll have some good dialogs, some open communication; it will enhance the tolerance and diversity and respect for others on our campus. Today’s topic is “Diversity Issues at Auburn University.” We thought this would be an appropriate topic for two reasons: (1) it’s the anniversary of the Halloween incidents that happened last year on our campus, and (2) with Dr. Grennell talking to us today about some of the multicultural issues that we would couple these together. If you have any other topics that you’d like to see on the agenda, email them to Renée Middleton, the Secretary of the Senate, and she’ll give us a list and we’ll kind of see how they fit in, time permitting.

The Senate leaders have been busy this year; we don’t have a lot to report. One of the things that the Executive Committee did is we prepared a letter, the Executive Committee you can see up there, we prepared a letter and we sent it to the members of the Trustee Selection Committee, and that’s the second group down there. Essentially what the letter did is that it summarized documents that are published by the AGB and other affiliates regarding how Trustees should be selected. We summarized a lot of those documents and then we added some issues that we felt were pertinent to the University, to our University. There were three attachments that we added to our letter. The first one was an individual profile and we encouraged the Nominating Committee to have the individual Trustee complete the individual profile. We also attached a tally sheet so that the Nominating Committee could tally all the comments of the individual’s comments and find out … give a snapshot of where the Trustee Board is today and as people come in and out, where the strengths and weaknesses are so it gives a good bird’s eye view. A third article that was attached was some qualifications for nominating committees that are used by the State of Minnesota and they were very detailed and lengthy. This letter went out, maybe two weeks ago. It went to all of the individuals including the Governor and also Mr. Riley. We look forward to seeing some kind of response. I will attach all of the documents, the letter plus the three attachments, to these brief announcements that I send out later in the week. For those of you who really want to look at it in more depth, it will be there. But it’s a little lengthy to talk about it here. I should say that Secretary-Elect Paula Sullenger did a lot of the work on this in pulling together the documents and everything else. So, we thank Paula.

Again as Judy announced or as she said, there is a Nominating Committee meeting on Friday, there — it’s in the President’s Conference Room in Sanford; it’s at 3:00. I will be out of town so John Mouton, Chair-Elect, will represent the Senate at that meeting.

Just one last announcement. At the Fall meeting of the University Faculty which we held about a month ago, I called for nominations, faculty nominations, for two committees on the Board of Trustees. One Committee is the Student Affairs Committee. The faculty member that’s been appointed to that Committee is Dr. Mary Rudisill in Health and Human Performance. And the second Committee is the Advancement Committee. Professor D. K. Ruth from Architecture, Design and Construction was nominated to serve on that Committee.

Are there any announcements from the floor? Dr. Spencer.

Samia Spencer, Foreign Languages: I’d like to invite you, your colleagues and your students to attend a very exciting event that’s going to be forthcoming on November 21 on campus at the Dixon Hotel and Conference Center. It’s on “Women and Politics. We are focusing on challenges that are best understood if we look at it from a global perspective. It’s probably the largest public event that we ever held on campus. It’s sponsored by two governments: France and Canada. It’s sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation and by 26 units within Auburn University. So we’re very grateful for that. We think we have something kind of unique not only for the University and the State, but the country as a whole. We are getting women, political women, and scholars that study the issue because this is a worldwide problem to look at how other countries have addressed it. While we have made progress in other areas, this is one area the United States is ranked 52 among other nations whereas countries like our neighbor to the north, Canada, is among the top 5 in the world. How did they remedy the problem? How did they address it? Other countries have passed laws, like France, with mixed results. Not very much results. On the other hand, countries of Islamic culture like Pakistan and like Turkey have been able to put a women in a very high positions similar to the U.S. White House. We haven’t been able to do that. It’s going to be a long time yet. So, how did they do it? And we think of women in those countries not having their full rights. We also look at Africa. In Africa, we think women don’t have their full rights in Africa and yet, in Washington, there are 15 women ambassadors. Of the 15, 7 come from African nations. How did they do it? So I think that very interesting aspect that we can learn from this event. I invite you all to come. I think it’s a wonderful experience for our students. The people they will see will be people they will read about in the history books, and that they can read about right now. So I’m very pleased. We thank all the departments, all the colleges, all the units, Dr. Walker, Dr. Large, Dr. Pritchett. We’ve had a lot of support. Dr. Wilson has given the vision of this event. I hope you will all come.

Barbara Struempler: Any other comments or announcements from the floor? Yes. Are you Mr. Bobo?

Mr. Bobo: Yes, ma’am.

Barbara Struempler: This is the Vice President of the SGA and Chair of the Senate and he has a very brief announcement.

Mr. Bobo: I just got out of a Micro-economics class so I’m still kind of waking up right now. I also feel like I’m on a firing range — I’ve never been in a room with so many faculty before. My name is Steven Bolo, like Dr. Struempler said, and I’m the President of the Student Senate and the SGA Vice President. Just real quick, I want to introduce a project that will start this year. Following the events of Halloween last year, when I took office I wanted to come up with a project that would unite this campus. What we’ve come up with, during research at Vanderbilt University and Clothen University as a project. The Habitat for Humanity will work with us on we will be building a house on campus and then moving it to a permanent location. Basically, it’s for an Auburn family; the house is designed by Auburn students and CADC Department — I’m sure some of the professors are in here that know about what they’ve done in the past and it’s supposed to be student-led and student-funded. We’re trying to get faculty involved and I spoke to Dr. Struempler yesterday about this. We’re kind of poor college students but we’re trying to use every resource we can. We’re getting everyone involved, attorneys, sororities. I’ve spoken with alumni, I’ve spoken with Board members. We’re trying to get everybody on the Board on this project. The project was supposed to start October 26 on Saturday and finish on homecoming, but we’ve run into a few problems with the Habitat people. They’re a little bit understaffed right now but the project will go on in this academic year, hopefully within three weeks. My challenge to you as the faculty is to help students to help raise this money and to come help us build it. We have to raise about $35,000 — $30,000 will build the house and $5,000 to move the house to a permanent location. I wish I could say that oh, I can pay for it out of my pocket but I can’t. So, what I’m trying to do is to challenge the faculty to raise as much money as the students raise and hopefully, I think y’all can do that. I’ll be getting in contact with Dr. Struempler more on details. Right now we have an account set up at the Bursar’s Office. Make checks payable to I wish I could say Steven Bolo, but Auburn University SGA right now. And so that’s how we’re running the money. If there are any questions, my phone number is 844-3275 and Dr. Struempler also, that’s how you get in touch with us. Thank you.

Barbara Struempler: And if you get too much money, what will the SGA do with it?

Stephen Bobo: Too much money? Well, Barb, you probably … too much money. If God gets behind it, this project will carry on from year to year so the money will sit in the account and be put forth toward the next house.

Barbara Struempler:You’re going to plead on their pay raises, as I remember correctly.

Stephen Bobo: I mentioned yesterday to Dr. Struempler that y’all did get a pay raise and the Board.

Barbara Struempler: I told him not to use that tactic, but anyway, we had to slip it in there. Thank you Steven, and we’ll try to help you out on that. We’ll get you some information that you can use. If everyone at the University, between students and maybe A&P, staff, and everyone else, if you would each give $1, wouldn’t that be $30,000? About? Close to? Anyway.

The next item is the SACS reaccreditation process which will be given by Gene Clothiaux. Gene is the co-director of the SACS Reaffirmation Process. He really is a professor in Chemistry, Physics, excuse me, and I knew him first at Chair of the Senate, how many years ago? Okay. That was bad, huh. Thank you for coming.

Gene Clothiaux: Let me begin by reviewing a little bit of the SACS reaccreditation process as we’ve been working with it through the years. It all began April 27, 2000 when Dr. Muse got a letter from Dr. James Rogers who is the Executive Director of the Commission on College at SACS saying that the University needed to begin preparing its Institutional Self-Study in preparation for a visit in the year 2003. Now 2003 is approaching. Dr. Walker as Provost at that time, asked Linda Glaze and myself to direct the SACS Reaffirmation/Reaccreditation and we agreed to do that. In December of that … that started October 1, 2000 by the way. In December of that year we had a letter from Dr. Gerald Lord who is an Associate Executive Director at SACS looking to make an appointment to come and visit Auburn and address the Steering Committee of the SACS Self-Study. He was due to come in February; he got the flu and didn’t make it. He finally came at the beginning of April. He came on a day that the Senate was meeting and he addressed the Senate as some of you who may have been here at the time may remember. Prior to that time, I had set up a series of chairs with the various committees. We decided on seven committees that were needed to cover the criteria for accreditation, the standard criteria for accreditation having said we were not going to do the alternative approach. I asked each of the chairs of those committees to also serve on the Steering Committee. And the Steering Committee which was finally structured looked something like this (I don’t know if you can see it). There’s myself and Dr. Glaze, Dr. Ed Howell who chaired the Institutional Purpose Committee, Dr. Mary Beaudreaux the Institutional Effectiveness Committee, Dr. Bruce Gladden the Educational Programs Committee, Dr. Larry Gerber the Faculty Committee, Dr. Rau Zieze had the Educational Support Services Committee, Ms. Yvonne Kozlowski did the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee and primarily I asked her to do it because she had served on the NCAA Accreditation Committee a few years before. And Dr. Wayne Alderman who had been Dean of the School of Business and was back in the Department of Accounting to serve as the chair of the Administrative Services Committee. Mr. Sam Walder from Planning and Analysis, Mr. William Wade from OIT, Dr. Isabelle Thompson had been the editor 10 years before and agreed to serve as editor again. She has done a tremendous job on this Self-Study Report that we put on the web. Mr. James Sanford agreed to serve on the Committee, came to the Committee meeting with Dr. Lord, the Steering Committee and then was unable to attend thereafter and Mr. Earlon McWhorter took his place and has attended every meeting of the Steering Committee since April or May of 2001. He has done tremendous work.

We started … the Committees really started their studies in the late summer of 2001 and pretty much completed everything by May of 2002 except for the Institutional Effectiveness Committee. The Steering Committee started meeting in May and started reviewing all of the reports of all of these Committees and we were making changes and making suggestions and looking for more information. We finally got it all put together in a first draft. I put that draft on the web last Thursday. I then went to my office and called it up and couldn’t get it. I called OIT and said, “What’s going on? What do I have to do?” I came to find out that I had to have a Windows domain password. The password I had did not work. So they gave me a Windows domain password and you have to use your Groupwise ID. Everybody on the campus has a Groupwise address. It’s in the Auburn University telephone directory. Faculty, staff and students are all in there and you all have a Groupwise ID — that’s the global ID that you need to use when you are trying to access the report. When you call it up, you get something that looks like the following, these three blocks that show up. Global ID, a password, and then domain. The domain is Auburn. To get access, you should call OIT at 4944 and ask them for a password. And I would ask you to make a note of this and pass it on to your departments because apparently a lot of people can’t access it. My email has been jammed with people calling and saying I can’t get it unless I keep repeating or try this. The other thing, it turns out, that I found out since then is that you must have Internet Explorer. Netscape will not work. So you either have to get to a computer where you have Internet Explorer or else you call 4944 and ask to have Internet Explorer put on your computer by OIT. Apparently they can do it directly over the line. I also wrote your … you can call … you can go to the web at Auburn.edu login help. I haven’t looked at that and I’m not sure what all is there, but it will help you to get in this. What you have to understand is that this document is behind a firewall which is why you need all of these passwords and things. It is a draft document; we don’t want it out in the public. But we want the entire University community to have access to it, to read whatever parts they want, and then to send back comments. We’re not asking for a rewrite, we’re asking for comments. Things that you in your areas would know more about maybe than members of the Steering Committee. That’s what we really would like. To have that kind of feedback.

I have xeroxed here a couple of pages from the web itself to show you what it looks like. There are six sections in this. By the way, if you want to see what the criteria are like, you can access that directly. It’s something that’s been on the web for a year and a half. You go to the home page, you go to administration, you go to the Office of the Provost, and there you click on “SACS Reaccreditation.” It will bring up a list of files that you can click on. There is one in there which says “SACS.” You click on it and it will bring up SACS and then you have to search around to find where to get the criteria for the accreditation. But there are six sections in there. And what we are doing in this document, and it’s on the web, is that each section we are putting a page that looks a bit like this. This is not the whole page. We have a photograph from a building on campus and there is no athletic facility shown. The Library, the President’s Home, Sanford Hall, several other buildings on campus, Comer Hall, ???, the Aerospace Engineering Building, what have you. And then you go to the document itself and this is one of the pages in there. You’ll see there are these little orange squares off on the side; those are what are called the “must” statements in the criteria. These are the things that we have to address. SACS requires it. They’re easy to find because you just look for an orange square on the side. But we have labeled the sections and subsections of sub-subsections off to the right and we have given a page number at the bottom by section — 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and then we go on to 2-1, 2-2, and so on. Now I want to point out that this last summer in June, early in June, we received a letter from Dr. Rogers where he has changed the Associate Executive Director who the SACS liaison to Auburn from Dr. Gerald Lord to Dr. Jack Allen. Dr. Allen was the SACS liaison here ten years ago, so he is familiar with Auburn from that time and hopefully that will improve what will go on with the accreditation. The visiting team is going to be here Monday, March 31, 2003 through Thursday, April 3 at noon. We have set them up at the Hilton Garden Inn near the interstate at Exit 57. We originally had put them or planned to put them in the AU Hotel and there was an objection from Dr. Allen saying he wanted to be further away from the campus. We had to find a place further away that was nice so they ended up there. We both have been satisfied with that.

Now I’d like to point out that when we started this reaffirmation, we said that we would evaluate the University at it appeared or as it was as of January, 2001 on. The visiting team is looking at what the University is doing at the time that they are here and what it has done in the immediate past. As a result, the letter of complaint from the JAC that went to SAC and the subsequent handling in the courts are not part of this report. Now if it turns out, and as you probably already know, the judge has already … the attorney who’s coming in may look at Section 1.4, ??? dealing with the Board of Trustees. He may look at Section 5.5, dealing with Intercollegiate Athletics and that he may deal with Section 6.1 which again deals with the Board and the Administration. What we have in the report is what is going on at the University as of January-February, 2001. If you’re looking for anything having to do with the court case there, you won’t find anything because there isn’t anything. How will this impact this report? We don’t know and so we haven’t concerned ourselves with it. If it does, we’ll deal with it at that time. If it doesn’t but it can be dealt with separately, it will be dealt with separately and hopefully the visiting team will look at us and give their recommendations and go on.

Now in the Self-Study, you will see that there are recommendations and there are suggestions. Recommendations are those things that were made by the various committees and by the Steering Committee and those “must” statements that we are not compliance with, a recommendation is given. Suggestions were given where the Committees felt that the University could improve itself with the suggestions. There are about, I don’t know, about 15 recommendations and 70 or 80 suggestions. So this is how you have to look on recommendations and suggestions.

Now I have extended the time that I’ll leave this on the web. Originally, my idea was to leave it there to the 25th of October which is two weeks from this Friday. We’ll extend it until the end of the month. And the hope is that everybody will be able to access it and will be able to look at it and if you have comments, please send them to me. I said at the beginning of the Self-Study Report that you can get me at ejc@auburn.edu. Do not use my Groupwise address — I won’t get it. I come through electro in the Physics Department. This is how I get my email. Very simple. At ejc@auburn.edu.

I’m going to pull out, before the time is up, I’m going to pull out all of the recommendations and the suggestions. I will take those with Linda to Fix-it Committee. Now the Fix-it Committee is Dr. Walker, Dr. Large, and Dr. Pritchett and the two of us. And those recommendations that can be fixed, hopefully we’ll fix them. And then we’ll deal with the suggestions . . .

Now, we are permitted to send an Addendum to SACS or a Follow-up Report before they get here. In that Follow-up Report presumably, the lawyer from Columbus will have been here, he has sixty days in which to do his investigation, 30 days for AU response . . . that deals with the court case.

That’s pretty much it. I don’t know if any one of you have questions, but I’d like to try to answer them. Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

Dr. Barbara Struempler: That’s a big job. Thank you for all of your service to the University. The next item is to have Dr. Grennell come up. He is the Interim Assistant Provost for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and he will be giving us an update on the Office of Multicultural Affairs. So, welcome. How long have you been in this position?

Dr. Keenan Grennell, Interim Assistant Provost for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs: August 1.

Dr. Barbara Struempler: August 1. Welcome.

Dr. Grennell: Good afternoon. The first order of business is that I would like to thank very strongly the Senate Faculty leadership for inviting me here today to speak with you all. But I’d like to do some housekeeping just to make sure that I don’t leave with this mike attached to me after my presentation. Two years ago, I was at the University of California at Riverside teaching a leadership class and took a small break and went into the bathroom with the mike still attached to me. Someone called me on my cell phone and we had discussed a very serious financial matter about which I had a bill that I had a problem with and as I went back to my workshop, several of my students were taking up a collection which they all insist went to the payment of that bill. So, if you want to take up a collection for me today, that is fine.

I had some, I guess, some problem with trying to decide how I was going tackle this presentation today. I didn’t know it was going to be that great speech — I was looking forward to doing that — or if it was going to be sort of an informal, bring you up to day in terms of where we are as it relates to diversity and multiculturalism here at Auburn University. So, I kind of decided to make it mixed with a combination of both and just perhaps have somewhat of an update as it relates to what the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs is all about because I think that what has happened over the years is that that Office has actually been absent from being mainstream and a central piece in terms of leading the effort toward diversity and multiculturalism here on campus. So, if you’re looking for a quick sound bite, what is our Office really about? We’re a unit dedicated to creating an all-inclusive multicultural university campus. Now that says a lot, but I want to let you know today that there are four very dedicated people here at Auburn University, along with myself, that take that charge extremely serious. It’s not something we talk about in Committee format, it is not something that we read about in the AU News and then get charged up about, it’s something that we’re responsible for dealing with each and every day, not Monday through Friday, but in my case, 24 hours a day now. This is a wonderful staff. I feel that I have the best team of the best unit here on campus. And I’m just very excited about the people who do not work for me but work with me.

Well, what does this team actually do? I had a long time to think about this and I want to kind of just lay it out to you. First, I think if you really pay any attention to our program, we are responsible for all of the racial and ethnic celebrations that take place almost every month. Case in point — this month is Hispanic Heritage Month. We are seriously trying to program for Hispanics here on campus. One of the things that we decided to do was to try to organize the Hispanic effort here on campus because we found that there was very little programming that was done in that particular area. I’ve had very serious faculty support and assistance from Dr. Tony Madrigal who is the former chair of the Foreign Languages Department. He has assisted me, along with the Dean of the Library, with bringing a very unique exhibit to the Library that’s in the Archives Section. And I please invite you to go visit that exhibit. It is entitled “The Hispanic Influence on the American Independence.” This is a very unique exhibit. It is owned by Dr. Garcia who is from Columbus, Georgia. He’s Cuban and he’s a part of Columbus State University. So I please invite you to go visit that exhibit. And for those of you who like to celebrate and dance and eat fine food, Friday night is La Fiesta Night. That will be a fantastic celebration in terms of Hispanic culture. But the thing that I’m excited about the most is tomorrow from 11:45 to 1:00 in Foy 213, a former student of mine, in fact he was in my first Master’s of Public Administration Theory course back in the fall of 1993, Dr. Wilson Travino who is from, to my knowledge, the first Hispanic to graduate from Auburn University with a Ph.D. in Political Science. Wilson is going to have a talk with those you who will attend and he is going to talk about his experiences here at Auburn University as a Hispanic student in the doctoral program, but most importantly, Wilson is going to talk about how to make this campus all inclusive and especially for Hispanic students. Then we also have Native American Festival which is November. We have African American History Month which is February. And we have Asian/Pacific Month which is April and May.

Now, what are some things which are on the horizon? I shared with several groups and individuals that on January 20, 2003 we’re going to have the First Annual Henry Harris Memorial Basketball Classic. This classic will be in tribute to the first African American basketball scholarship athlete here at Auburn University. He is now deceased, but what is so exciting about this initiative is that it’s not just a game in which we … a Classic in which we are going to invite eight area high schools which are comprised of 16 teams, this is a way to invite individuals in terms of students and their parents who would not come to Auburn otherwise under normal student recruitment trip scenarios. Things are going to kick off around 9:00 that morning and conclude perhaps around 10:00 that night. We’re very excited about that. Now one of the things that we use as a model for that particular program is our existing National Youth Sports Program that’s housed out at the Athletic Department. It is a way to use athletics and sports to attract kids towards academics and we think that this is a unique program that we are going to initiate here coming very soon.

Speaking of conferences, we are very proud to say that we are going to sponsor out of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs a Middle East Policy Council workshop. This council workshop will be sometime in March and it will teach the Auburn University community about the Arab world and Islam. One of the things that I’m very excited about is that a young lady from Bangladesh who decided to volunteer her time in the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs has recently been seen on CNN. As a fact, she was a part of a live talk show dealing with the reading of the Koran at the University of North Carolina by its incoming freshman class. She is extremely energetic, articulate, and I’m very excited about the energy that she is going to bring to our Office and our efforts.

What else is the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs involved in? Well, in case you didn’t know, we have a Minority Peer Mentoring Program designed to ensure that minority students entering Auburn this fall come back next fall as sophomores. That … if you don’t have a good feel for that, that means that we want to make sure that we don’t leave any minority student behind in terms of their academic success and achievement toward making sure that they are going to remain here with us so they can receive their degree. Now we are working very closely also with the Vice President for Student Affairs to assist in the recruitment of people of color to our campus. Several weeks ago I had an opportunity to attend a Recruitment Fair at the Civic Center in Montgomery. I can assure you that Auburn University is still a very, very sought after institution of higher learning. I would like to say that at least 90% of the students and their parents who attended that Fair stopped by the Auburn University tables that were assembled that night and expressed their desire to attend Auburn. I was very excited about that. And I also, Wes, I want you to know I have a huge appreciation for the hard work that your people do because it take a lot to stand up on your feet for three straight hours and talk to parents and students. As well as John, you too should be commended for the work that you are doing.

Now, financial and logistically, we support other diversity and multicultural initiatives here on campus. First, the Women’s Studies Program. Just last week Dr. Patricia Arrendondo, who is a scholar at Arizona State University who specialized in multicultural counseling was a guest lecturer on our campus last week and for those of you who missed her lecture, you missed a very fine talk. Also, the leadership of the Women’s Studies Program is to be commended for their leadership. However, I want to commend you though on the fine choice that you made because she was a 100% gem. Also, I want to let you know that we are one of those 26 sponsors that Dr. Samia Spencer was talking in terms of the International Conference on Women in Politics to be held here on the campus in November.

Well, enough of some of the things that we sponsor. What are some of the new initiatives that you can look for in the future? This is the most difficult part because there are a lot of things that are taking place right now here on this campus and in this community in the name of diversity and multiculturalism. But, from the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs we are partnering with the College of Liberal Arts as well as the Vice President’s Office of University Outreach to start and launch an Africana Studies Program. This Program will have both a curriculum as well as research and a student and faculty exchange component. We have also formed a Consortium for Students Involved in Engagement. What does that mean? That means we have partnered with the Partners in Community Service Program, the Office of Student Outreach, and the Student Activation of Student Affairs, and my office which is the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. If you were to put three concentric circles together that basically means that we are combining the efforts of Service Learning, Volunteerism and Diversity. That will be a way to assess the impact that we are having not just here among our students and faculty at Auburn University, but what type of impact we are having throughout the state of Alabama and perhaps even the region as it relates to those activities. One of the things that I am very excited about because as being a member of the faculty, I think that this is extremely important. One thing that we are going to look into launching is what we call the Provost’s Summer Institute on Multicultural Curriculum Transformation. That will be a summer institute, whether it is one week or two weeks, to assist a new faculty with incorporating multicultural perspectives and conscience into their teaching and courses that will provide AU students with an all-inclusive education. That is very, very important. Now this program was modeled after the Provost’s Program at Northern Illinois University and I do want to say this. By my being a graduate of that school, that has nothing to do with it, with my excitement about that particular program. I’m not going to talk long because there are just too many things that could be discussed as it relates to this Office.

But where do we go from here? There has been mentioned by the President in terms of the Diversity Leadership Council, but I encourage this campus, I encourage this campus’ leadership and most importantly I encourage the faculty that we follow through on the directions of the Diversity Leadership Council’s Strategic Plan that is being prepared. Now there’s a lot of thought that is going into that particular document and it would just be a shame if we would put it on a shelf and there are no actions whatsoever to implement the recommendations that come out of that plan. Also, building a legitimate culture that is real, that can stand up to any test. I want to let you all know, ladies and gentlemen, that we’re one year after last October, but this is not the same Auburn University that I came to in the fall of 1993. I’m very proud of the initiatives that I see that are taking place. And it is because of strong leadership. But that leadership is going to continuously need you to encourage to move in these directions because without your direct participation, we can not be the model that the President has espoused to me. I want, at some point in time, for other universities across this nation to say we want to make trips to Auburn University so we can talk about the grand things that we are doing here that they want to go back to their Diversity Leadership Councils so they can put together a strategic plan so they can begin modeling their diversity and multicultural initiatives after what we’ve put together here as a unified community. That is a desire that I see, that is a vision that I have and I am sure to tell you that I am not the only someone that feels that way. Also, each individual, personally, holds others and themselves accountable to ensure that diversity is real here on this campus. And last but not least, I am reminded of the advice of a wise old man that excellence is an art form won by training and habitation. We are what we repeatedly do; therefore, excellence is not an art form. But guess what? It’s a habit. If we treat diversity and multiculturalism in terms of habit forming, there is no telling where we will be five, ten, or fifteen years from now. The families of Alabama deserve this, the leadership of this university that’s putting these initiatives together deserve that. And guess what? The faculty here at Auburn University deserves to have not only a world class university, but one that can be here for all ages and be the proud university that I’ve come to love and appreciate so.

If, at this point in time, you want to ask some questions, I feel very comfortable answering those questions and those that I don’t feel comfortable, I’ll try to direct them to the people that I think know a little bit better in terms of entertaining those questions.

John Bolton, English: You mentioned an African Studies Program?

Keenan Grennell: Africana Studies Program.

John Bolton, English: Can you say more about that, will it be a degree?

Keenan Grennell: We are still in the exploration stages of that. What I am planning to do is just form a committee of faculty who I think have an interest in that particular program so we can begin to assess and see where we are going to go with that. Right now, it’s being proposed as a minor. That particular program is being called Africana for the simple fact that it’s sort of a gradual upgrade from that of Black Studies and African American Studies in terms of its coinage. And it also will allow for us to capture those things that are germane to not just African Americans here in North America, but also those Africans of the diaspora where there are Africans of descent in the Caribbean and South America as well as Africans on the Continent. And it will also be a tool to attract scholars of Hispanic descent because they too have an interest in this particular program. The reason that I say that is because the exhibit that is in the Library right now that’s entitled “Hispanic Influence on the American Independence,” it is found that right before we gained our independent, several Congo troops decided that they were not going to participate anymore because George Washington ran out of money. Well, I found out recently spending basically all night two Friday nights ago in Dr. Garcia’s home in that he was explaining this to me, that there were several troops that were sent from Cuba, Mexico and several other places to participate in the campaign in the southern part of North American, around Pensacola and Mississippi. And if it were not for those troops, there would not be any American independence. It just so happens that a good portion of those Hispanic troops look like me. So there’s an interest from an intellectual standpoint on my part as relates to that.

[APPLAUSE FROM THE BODY]

Discussion and Debate Forum

Barbara Struempler: I just asked him, and it might kind of kick off some of our debate and discussion that we’re going to have on diversity issues, I asked him how well Auburn University compares to some of the other southeastern region areas. What kind of comparison do we have.

Keenan Grennell: Well, I guess the numbers that I’ve actually been looking at is that of students. When we compare ourselves in terms of our students of color and especially African American students, UAB I think is 24% African American; University of Alabama is anywhere between 13 and 15% African American; Mississippi State is 19%; Old Miss is 13%; the University of Kentucky is around 6%; and Florida and Vanderbilt is probably around in the same percentile range. So, comparing ourselves to those schools outside of Florida, Vanderbilt and Kentucky, we are not doing so well as relates to recruitment of African American students. And there is a reason for that. The reason is because at Old Miss and Mississippi State, there’s an aggressive desire to make sure that those numbers are there. And they are doing all sorts of innovative things in order to increase those numbers. And I’m not talking about brining in just any student. I’m talking going after merit scholar students. Students who are scoring 27 on the ACT. But, the key here is that those students and their parents are beginning to see those schools as their first options as it relates to higher education. They are actually competing for those students with the historically Black colleges and universities within those states. I think we have the same opportunity here at Auburn in order to engage in that type of competition. Not to outdistance those institutions, but to bring people to this campus because we have opportunities here that they need to be able to take advantage of. And that’s how those initiatives are being counted.

Now, in terms of an African American Studies Program, we are perhaps the only school within the SEC that does not have a program. Outside of Florida, but at Florida they have an African Studies Program on the books. So, comparing that we can improve in those areas.

Joe Buckhalt, Counseling & Counseling Psychology: Related to that comparison, in ballpark figures, what is the budget for your department? And what are the comparisons with the budgets for similar departments in this area at other Universities?

Keenan Grennell: The best way for me to answer that question is to say that my budget is a work in progress. Again I will say that it is a work in progress. But, to really answer your question, we’re heavily under funded in terms of what we need to be doing here as it relates to diversity and multiculturalism. You know, I don’t want to throw any real figures out here, but Dr. Wilson, as part of our Diversity Leadership Council, today came back from a trip to the University of Michigan and talked about my counterpart at Michigan having a $2,000,000 discretionary budget in order to operate. So, from a regional stand point of view, I don’t know where we stand but, you know, when we look across the country, we’re not in the ball game right now. But I feel that we will gradually get there. But it’s going to have to happen if we’re going to be serious about this work.

Barbara Struempler: Well, we would like to open up the debate or just a discussion forum on diversity issues at Auburn University. Wes Williams, I hate to put you on the spot, but you were talking yesterday about some of the things that are going on with the students that you’ve been coordinating. Could you just give us a real quick summary on those? I did put him on the spot. I’m sorry.

Wes Williams: That’s all right. I don’t mind being on the spot. I think we have good things to share. One of the things that we’ve been working on is the Peace Committee. The Peace Committee is a group that started last year and is working with our minority students and working with all of our students. We’ve been doing different types of programming for our students and discussions on diversity and we’ve had dinner meetings in Cater Hall and events such as that. Also we have been doing diversity training for our incoming freshmen. This was the first year that we had a part in our Camp War Eagle where we had a diversity video that talked about our expectations here at Auburn of all students as far as accepting diversity and working with diversity and the importance of diversity. After the video there was a debriefing session where students had a chance to talk about different items and their feelings in this particular area.

We had a Freshman Convocation this year that the special topic was on diversity and we had about 1200 freshmen students turn out for this special speaker who spoke on diversity. I personally participate in the Diversity Leadership Committee. Lots of us have put a lot of time and energy into that. As the President said, our report will be forthcoming in the future. I have personally written all fraternity and sorority presidents to ask them to be very considerate this year of their themes for their different parties. Last Wednesday night, I went and spoke personally to the fraternity presidents about that topic. As Steve Bobo mentioned, I’ve been working closely with him, I had lunch with him yesterday on the Habitat for Humanity house and we think that this is a wonderful opportunity for students who are different to come together and get to know one another and become more comfortable with each another.

Those are just a few things that we’re working on and continue to work on. The Peace Committee has a new poster coming out this year of all the different activities and speakers that will be coming our way for our students. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

Barbara Struempler: Other comments? Yes.

Joe Buckhalt, Counseling & Counseling Psychology: I was interested in Dr. Grennell’s talk. I just looked at some figures for populations for the district from the 2000 census and saw that in 2000, 26% of Alabama citizens were African Americans. I think we could talk about diversity from a different perspective. I wish Dr. Spencer was here. I had a quip — I wanted to talk about getting more Egyptian Americans on campus for example. But, I think racial diversity and particularly under-representation of African Americans is very important to us. When I came to school here there was exactly one student who was African American. No faculty. No administrators. No football or basketball players. We are up to 6.8% of the student body and I don’t know about the percentages of faculty or administrators. As I look about this room, I see there is much less than 10% of people that are African American. I’m also concerned about the resegregation of public schools, elementary and secondary schools. There’s some interesting data coming out from Harvard Civil Rights Project. This is a specific problem for us. One of the things that kind of flowed from Dr. Arrendondo’s talk, think about how many students that come to school here who chances are have never had an African American teacher and may be able to get through Auburn with an undergraduate degree and graduate degree and never have an African American professor. You know, in 1962, ten years after the Brown decision, that would be problemmatic. In 2002, it’s just incomprehensible. So, you might be saying, “Well, you’re so smart and enlightened, what have you done?” I’d like to try to do more. Three things I’ve thought of, kind of half-baked ideas, I’ve asked John Fletcher a couple of years ago about the programs that other states use about looking at top percentages of actual graduates and giving them some kind of admission status to take advantage of resegregation in some ways. Another thing I was noticing in the AU Report that the Board is looking at replacing a legacy scholarship plan with a merit plan. You know, probably the largest group of African Americans we’ve had here at Auburn University work as staff. Why could we not have some sort of legacy program, admissions or scholarship for children and grandchildren of people who are presently or were in the past staff of this university? A final idea — and I’m done — Take a look at another state-supported university, Alabama State University; it’s 90% Black. We’re within 20 minutes of Tuskegee University. We’re within an hour of Alabama State University. In the interim, while we’re trying to get better representation on our campus in students and faculty, I’d like to see us have more collaborative programs with those universities, you know exchange programs or something. There are things that we can do in the interim. There are like a million and a half African American citizens of this state. In our mission statement, the first line is that we’re here to serve and give access and frankly, I think we could do a lot better job.

Keenan Grennell: I just want to let him know that — and I hope that Dr. Pritchett doesn’t mind me stating this — but tomorrow, he and I are on our way to Alabama State to meet with the Vice President for Academic Affairs to begin looking at those collaborative efforts that will bring our institutions closer. There are a lot of possibilities: student-faculty exchange scenarios and just good will in talking about the various resources that both institutions have that will serve the systems of this state. So, I do want you to know that, in terms of the leadership of this university, those things are beginning to happen.

Christa Slaton, Political Science: I’d just like to thank Keenan Grennell who’s a former colleague of mine in the Political Science Department. We participated several years ago — we came to Auburn the same year — participated doing curriculum revisions in the Political Science Department. We tried to change courses to encourage more diversity. Keenan developed a course in African American Politics, African American Political Thought, Diversity in Public Life, the same year I taught the course in Liberal Politics. The one thing I’d like to really applaud your Office for doing, Keenan, is working with the Women’s Studies Program. I look around the auditorium and I see 50% of the Senators are women. So, as we move forward with multicultural diversity, I really do like to encourage what you are doing with Women’s Studies and I’d also like to applaud your Office for being supportive of the Women’s Politics Conference on campus. I’d like to see us do more, to do that in terms of women. And in terms of students who have not had African American professors, I’m a graduate student of Political Science and I never ever had a female professor as a student. So I think we’re making some progress as Auburn in that area as well and I just hope your Office continues to work along those efforts.

Virginia O’Leary, Psychology: I just have a question. Recently in the news we’ve heard a lot around the country and indeed just to the north of us about target goals for outreach efforts on the international front. For example, I guess it was last week or the week before, that the University of Georgia system announced that they have a target goal now for the involvement of undergraduate students in international experiences for — if I remember correctly — 25% within the next few years. It was all over Georgia public radio, etc., and it was hard to miss. I think that putting out those kinds of public statements in goal relevant terms provides an extra push institutionally. I’m sure it will do this for Georgia to reach its goals with regard to international involvement and I’m wondering if there has been consideration yet on this campus for establishing parallel kinds of goals and then making them public so that there is a way to benchmark for ourselves our own success as we move forward. If that hasn’t been done, I want to urge that it is done because I think that kind of public commitment goes a long way in energizing everyone who needs to be energized in approaching those kinds of goals. There is a, in fact there’s a literature in Social Psychology that addresses the effectiveness of public commitment in actually changing both attitudes and behavior. It works. And then … that’s the comment and part of that a question. In a related fashion, I’d just be interested in whether or not to date — and I know that you have a great deal on your plate and I’m very supportive of all of the efforts that are ongoing, but there is an international piece too. I think that’s something that increasingly Auburn must be aware of as the rest of the universities around our country are. And there seems to be in the same that there is a natural connect between say Women’s Studies and other kinds of diversity efforts. Also, there is some international community and I want to make sure that we don’t overlook that.

Keenan Grennell: I want to let you know that when I talk about the Africana Studies Program and I think that there will be student-faculty exchanges, I probably should have gone into a little bit more detail because both of those are close to student-faculty exchanges. Dr. Wilson has taken the lead in terms of a South African Initiative and we’re talking about a possible student-faculty exchange with at least, Dr. Wilson if I’m not mistaken, with at least five (5) universities in South Africa with the point university being in the University of Stalenbasch.

Dr. David Wilson, Vice Provost for Outreach: Yes. (unable to hear clearly)

Barbara Struempler: Any other comments? Yes. For Renée’s sake, you must speak into the mike.

Tracey Oleinick, Theater Department: We’re doing a play called “Strange Fruit” right now. It is a Black Play. It’s about a 1917 Alabama lynching. It is about a small town in Alabama about a lynching that really happened. It was done by a visiting artist named Dyann Robinson who retired from our department last. And we’re not getting the support that we really need. It is an incredible play. It’s about an hour and a half long and afterwards we stay for discussion with psychologist and archivist. It’s a beautiful play and you really should think about coming to spend the evening with us so that if you don’t agree and you have something to say or if what you see offends you or what you see really touches you, come. Talk about it. It’s all a part of diversity to see something, to experience any part of it. It’s your change to be there.

Barbara Struempler: That runs through Friday, doesn’t it? Okay. So you have three or four more nights. Other comments? Yes.

Mike Reinke, Department of Pharmacy Practice: I’m curious to know, certainly the increase in minority enrollment is a very laudable and worthwhile goal but I’m curious to know how successful we have been relative to other SEC institutions at retention of our minority students? Have we done poorer as well? Better?

Keenan Grennell: I would like to say that in terms of SEC member schools, all schools are having problems in admitting. And I think that we are probably doing about as well as any school in terms of retention of our students. But that’s a universal problem. While I was excited about giving you the great numbers in terms of Mississippi schools, especially Mississippi State, and one of the things that my counterpart at Mississippi State indicated, we are a long way in terms of devising a strategy to retain those students. So, we are doing a lot to get them there, but in terms of retention, we’re not where we need to be. So, that was a clear signal to me that we need to have a balance in terms of our programs and our strategy. It has to be effective both to get someone here but at the same time make sure that person is academically successful. So, guess what? I am encouraging the faculty to roll up its sleeves and take the lead in the retention part because it’s really about the building of relationships. I’m here today because of a relationship of mine that I had with a White faculty member at Mississippi State when I was in graduate school. It is because of that person bringing me under his wing and deciding that I was worth his time in terms of … not mentorship but sponsorship that I am a tenured faculty member here at Auburn University. And I know that. So, I think that that’s something that all of us can look forward to, how can we build new relationships with students that normally don’t come our way.

Curtis Jolly, Rural Ag Economics: A couple of years ago we looked at retention at Auburn University and one of the things that we found were that at the high school level some of the students they usually, the students didn’t have the requisite scores to really do well in terms of pre-algebra. At the state level, some students missed the pre-algebra so they didn’t have algebra. And they took things like chemistry, course society or something like that. And so when they came to … they were already streamlined at the high school level so by the time they came to Auburn or the other institutions, they couldn’t do well. And we thought that the university level — one of the recommendations that I made — should look into it at the state level so that the students would have all the requirements when they reach here because some of the students who didn’t have their parents to fight for them, like I could send my child to do pre-algebra during the summer and pay for it, but what about the other parents who couldn’t do it. So the students could be accepted … or even if they were accepted at Auburn, they couldn’t be retained. What is being done to attack this problem at the state level?

Barbara Struempler: Other comments? Okay, hearing no other comments, the meeting stands adjourned. Thank you.

Meeting Adjourned @ 4:35 p.m.