Minutes of the Senate Meeting
September 5, 2006
3:00 p.m.
Broun Auditorium
Submitted by Kathryn Flynn

Present: Rich Penaskovic, David Cicci, Kathryn Flynn, Ann Beth Presley, Conner Bailey, Don Large, Debbie Shaw, Overton Jenda, Stewart Schneller, Drew Clark, Fran Kochan, John Heilman, Bonnie MacEwan, Roger Garrison, Gary Martin, Ronald Clark, Winfred Foster, Norbert Wilson, Sondra Parmer, Charles Mitchell, Barbara Kemppainen, Charlene LeBleu, Barry Fleming, Brian Gibson, Anthony Moss, Timothy McDonald, Rik Blumenthal, Larry Crowley, Debra Worthington, Alvin Sek See Lim, Suhyun Suh, Jon Saye, James Witte, Scotte Hodel, Jon Bolton, Robin Huettel, Claire Crutchley, Allen Davis, Michel Raby, Larry Teeter, Alice Buchanan, David Carter, Raymond Kessler, Chris Arnold, Saeed Maghsoodloo, Andrew Wohrley, Roger Wolters, Hugh Guffey, Darrel Hankerson, Richard Good, Robin Fellers, Jim Wright, Salisa Westrick, James Shelley, Francis Robicheaux, Robert Voitle, Dan Svyantek, Peggy Shippen, William Shaw, Tom Williams, Carole Zugazaga, Howard Thomas, Scott Phillips, Todd Axlund

Absent, sending a substitute: Maurita Walker (Wendy Pechman), Keith Cummins (Werner Bergen), Bernie Olin (Wesley Lindsey)

Absent, no substitute: Royrickers Cook, June Henton, Johnny Green, George Stegall, Ethan Trevino, Drew Burgering, Jack DeRuiter, Jim Bradley, Anoop Sattineni, Robert Chambers, Carol Carruth, Carol Centrallo, Thomas A. Smith, Daniel Mackowski, John Rowe, Forrest Smith, Anthony Gadzey, Randy Tillery

Rich Penaskovic called the meeting to order at 3:01 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes:  The minutes of the July 18, 2006 meeting were approved without opposition.
Remarks and Announcements:
Remarks from Senate Chair Rich Penaskovic
Rich Penaskovic noted that the Senate website is not up-to-date due to a staffing problem but that all Senators should have received the agenda and draft minutes via email.  He said that the goal is to have the website up-to-date by the October meeting.  He welcomed all new Senators and reminded everyone to sign in.  He asked that Senators try to get substitutes to attend Senate meetings if they know they will be unable to attend.  He noted that the Senate meetings provide a place for dialogue between the faculty, A&P, Staff, Administration and other members.  He reminded the faculty that this is a University Senate not a faculty senate and invited all to speak up.

Rich Penaskovic noted that the Senate Executive Committee is working with John Heilman to insert language inserting due process provisions into the PTR process posted on the Provost’s web site.  He stated that the Senate Steering Committee has not yet set a date for discussion of PTR but that it may be the main topic of the October 10 University Faculty meeting. 

Rich Penaskovic announced that the new policy on directed readings put forth by Dr. Richardson is under review by the Academic Standards Committee, the Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Council. 

Rich Penaskovic stated that approximately 28 faculty (out of a total of 1400) received sabbatical leaves between 2004-2006.  He stated that the Board wants to put more money into recruiting top students and that they must do the same thing to allow Auburn to recruit and retain faculty.  Rich Penaskovic noted that to accomplish this we must do as other universities do: offer benefits like sabbaticals.  He noted that it would be expected that there would be some requirements or expectations for people receiving sabbatical leave.

This completed the remarks made by the Chair and he opened the floor for comments or questions.  There were no questions for the Chair.

Remarks from Provost John Heilman
John Heilman stated that the overview of the Board meeting distributed by Conner Bailey was a good one.  He said that the Board wants to increase the capacity for recruiting top students and this is a good thing for Auburn. 

John Heilman stated that Academic Program Review would get underway this fall and that he is meeting with the Executive Committee on Post-Tenure Review.  He said that it would be good to have a discussion of Post-Tenure Review at the University Faculty meeting in October and noted that the process would be field tested this fall. 

John Heilman said Dr. Richardson would interview the three candidates for the Vice-President of the new Natural Resources Institute this week. 

John Heilman provided an overview of the international travel medical insurance program.  He stated that Auburn University is self-insured and that BC/BS administers the plan.  He said only full-time employees are covered and the plan is not accepted in most international locations resulting in significant out-of-pocket expenses.  The international medical insurance program helps cover health costs in international locations (medical evacuations, repatriation of remains, hospital bills, etc.).  He said this supplemental insurance, required for all AU faculty, staff and students when they go overseas, cost his office over $60,000 last year.  He noted that the cost was anticipated to reach $100,000 in the next year or so but there is no budget line for this expense.  John Heilman said that in the past all of this cost had been borne by the Provost’s office but that a decision had been made to decentralize the costs to the local units beginning in mid-August.  He said that the cost is $40 per traveler and that in most cases it would be paid by the department; students will pay the fee for themselves.

John Heilman closed his comments by thanking Steve McFarland for his excellent work in the Graduate School.  He noted that Dr. McFarland has elected to return to the faculty.

John Heilman opened the floor for questions or comments.  There were no questions or comments.

Update on the Presidential Search (Mr. Charles McCrary, Board of Trustee Member and Chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee)
Mr. Charles McCrary provided an update on the work of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee.  He noted that the Search Advisory Committee would like feedback from the faculty and staff (auburnpresident@kornferry.com).   He stated that Dr. Richardson “will not, shall not, can not” be a candidate for this position.  He noted the high regard he has for Dr. Richardson.  Mr. McCrary listed the names of the 9 members of the Search Advisory Committee (Mr. McCrary, Ms. Newton, Mr. Miller, Mr. McWhorter, Mr. Franklin, Conner Bailey, Cindy Brunner, George Stegal, and Sally Hill) and reviewed the process being used in the search.  He said that the forums held at the beginning of the search provided input as to what various groups want in the next president.  He stated that the committee is trying to find the best person for AU and is using the services of Korn/Ferry, the search consultant firm, led by Dr. Kunhle.  The consultants are receiving suggestions via email and all are welcome to submit suggestions.  Mr. McCrary noted that the position had been very widely advertised.

Mr. McCrary said that approximately 54 people have applied and that each member of the Search Advisory Committee studies the resumes of candidates on their own, but no discussion of applicants has taken place amongst the members of the committee.  He said that each committee member provides feedback to Dr. Kuhnle.  He said that Dr. Kuhnle is still talking to people and they have been receiving 2-4 additional applications per week.  The committee plans to narrow the field of applicants this way.  He stated that there is an issue of confidentiality that makes the process very difficult because applicants would be placed in an awkward position if their current employers learned they were applying for this position.  He said that the goal of the Committee is to have made a selection by the end of the calendar year.  Mr. McCrary said that the successful candidate would begin the job when their current situation allows them to.

Mr. McCrary said that the applicant pool is diverse and includes University Presidents, past university presidents, military, current and past CEOs, University VPs, Provosts, and faculty.  He said that the committee is dealing with the new open meetings law which requires that any discussion of candidates by amongst any committee members must be done in a public manner.  In order not to hurt the search or violate the, as yet un-tested, law all evaluations of applicants is being done without interaction of committee members with each other.  The goal, Mr. McCrary said, is to make a selection by the end of the year and he reiterated that Dr. Richardson will not be a candidate.

Mr. McCrary concluded his remarks by stating that removal of “Interim” from Dr. Richardson’s title will not affect the search so long as everyone understands that Dr. Richardson is not a candidate.  Mr. McCrary asked Conner Bailey to comment on anything he may have left out.

Conner Bailey requested that Mr. McCrary explain what is known and what is not known about the new Alabama open meetings law.

Mr. McCrary said that we don’t know much about this law other than that the Search Advisory Committee cannot get together in a quorum without advertising and inviting outsiders to the meeting.  He said that even lunch with other people on the committee is a problem and that phone calls seeking votes on candidates cannot take place.  He noted that the law has not yet been tested in court and that the committee does not want to violate the law or embarrass AU by providing the test case for the courts.

Conner Bailey stated that the final candidates for the position will come to campus and there will be an opportunity for people to meet and comment on the final candidates.  Mr. McCrary agreed that the final candidates would be brought to campus.  Mr. McCrary said he did not know how many finalists there would be.  Conner Bailey thanked Mr. McCrary for coming to speak to the Senate and mentioned that he had come from his vacation to attend the meeting.  Mr. McCrary opened the floor for questions or comments.

Carol Zugazaga,  Sociology, asked how many of the 54 applicants were women. 

Mr. McCrary and Conner Bailey had different recollections of the number of female candidates but agreed that the ones who have applied are strong candidates.

Mr. McCrary thanked the faculty for what it does for the University and said that he was excited about the next President.

Action Items:
Approval of Nominees for Senate Committees (Kathryn Flynn, Secretary, University Senate)

Kathryn Flynn presented 4 additional nominees for Senate Committees: Daniel Parsons (Pharmacy) Academic Program Review; Kathryn Flynn (Forestry and Wildlife Sciences) Faculty Handbook Review; Behzad Nakjavan (Architecture) Graduate Council; and Oladiran Fasina (Biosystems Engineering) Retention (to fill a term expiring in 2007).
She made a motion that the nominees be approved.  She noted that, the nominees were recommended by the Rules Committee, and the motion required no second.  The slate of nominees was approved without dissent.

 

The Banner System (Don Large, Executive Vice-President)
Don Large, Executive Vice-President provided a power point presentation on the new Banner system and its implementation.  He noted that Banner is here to stay.  He said a new accounting system was put into place because the software used by the old system was becoming obsolete, the company (SunGard) that developed Banner provided financial incentives to AU, and many people with financial knowledge on campus were close to retirement.  He wanted to capture their expertise during the transition.  He noted that Banner is the predominant software being implemented at other universities and that it will allow Auburn to end the use of social security numbers for identification purposes and provide an integrated database.

Don Large noted that this was the first big change in the financial system in about 26 years.  He said that, despite lots of problems, he was pleased overall with what has been accomplished.  He noted that the Human Resource system had just recently coverted to Banner with only minor problems.  He introduced several members of his staff (Fred Bobo, Banner Project Head; Karen Chastonay, the SunGard representative; Marcie Smith, Assoc. VP for Business and Finance; Shawn Asmuth, Director of Payment and Procurement) and said that he was proud of the job his staff has done.  He said there are 80-100 people around campus who are working on the transition while still doing their regular full-time jobs.  He mentioned that the leaders for other areas are: Melissa Morris, Finance; Michael Miller, Human Resources; Nick Backscheider, Students; and Michelle Hart, Financial Aid. 

Don Large said that he and John Heilman are visiting all of the units on campus to meet faculty, department heads, and staff to learn what people are doing.  He noted that this had been the best experience he and the Provost have had in a long time.  Don Large noted that he has seen the most concern over the Financial part of Banner.  He said that they are trying to get up to speed.  Marcie Smith, from Business and Finance, reminded everyone that there are two options: Banner Admin and Banner Self Service.  She said that Banner Admin, that provides project-to-date balances, is very robust and people are beginning to enjoy working with its features.  She said that it is probably more useful day-to-day than Banner Self-Service that is really more for quick transaction approvals.

Don Large noted that the University is putting something into place that is complex while still running the old system and this is a large undertaking.  He stated that problems would be dealt with by changing procedures, not the system because changing the system would make future upgrades more difficult.  He said that the goal is to make the work flow more electronic; reduce the use of paper, and provide more rapid processing.  He said that the disadvantage to the system is that data entry is more cumbersome in the financial area but he believes the advantages will outweigh this disadvantage.  He said the system is different and, even though it can give more information, the learning curve is steep.  He also said that the transition is really a two-year process.  He said that they are willing to do individual training if necessary to help people work through problems.  He said that the University is on its way to a system that will provide for its needs for the next 10 years or so.

Don Large opened the floor for questions and comments.

Rik Blumenthal, Chemistry and Biochemistry, asked if research grant information would be available on Banner Self-Serve.  He said that he cannot find a link to his grants and was told he must use Banner Admin.  He wants to be able to monitor his grants. 

Marcie Smith, Business and Finance, said that Banner Admin is the place to go for Contracts and Grants.  She said that Banner Self-Serve provides information on the fiscal year only but that Banner Admin would give to-date information.  She stated that there had been some training and there would be more faculty training.

Francis Robicheaux, Physics, asked who we should contact if we have problems with some feature of Banner.

Fred Bobo, Project Manager, said that there is a method for sending questions to the financial offices.  He said you should go to “AU Access” and on the Finance Page you will find “Banner Feedback” and you can submit questions there and get a timely response.  He said you also can call the Contracts and Grants office.

Francis Robicheaux said that the Banner Feedback box does not come up without clicking. 

Fred Bobo said that it should be on the Finance page.

Raymond Kessler, Horticulture, said that there were people who might need someone to walk them through the process over the phone. 

Don Large stated that they would do this if necessary but, of course, preferred group training because of personnel limitations.  He said that his office will do what it takes to get people up-to-speed on Banner.

Tony Moss, Biological Sciences, stated that student accounts don’t catch up and the financial aid goes to the University rather than the student.  Tony Moss said this appears to be a timing issue. 

Fred Bobo said that student information is still in PLUS, not Banner, so this is not a Banner issue.  He said that the student should talk to the Student Financial Services office.  He also mentioned that University charges are deducted from Financial Aid first and that this is University policy.

David Carter, History, said that it might be better to rename “Banner Feedback” to better reflect the fact that you can use it to seek help (tech help or questions) rather than simply a place for making suggestions.

Don Large said that this was a good idea and Fred Bobo said that this change could be made.

Conner Bailey, Immediate Past-Chair,  asked when the financial postings on grants would be caught up. 

Marcie Smith said that the accounts have been updated through June but that July has not yet been closed out so indirect costs and ICRA have not been posted yet.  She anticipated that this would be completed by the end of next week bringing us up to date on posting.

Don Large said that one of the problems has been that everything had to be done in FRS-Plus and Banner because Human Resources is not yet using Banner.  This meant that both FRS and Banner accounts had to be created so that payroll could be completed for the last 6-9 months.

Don Large said the transition had been a challenge for everyone but he and his staff are committed to getting it right;  they will do more training (both group and individual) and over the next year he expects to see an increase in the ease of use.
Rich Penaskovic thanked Don Large and his staff for the presentation and for their work on the Banner transition.

What Administrators, Faculty and Staff Need to Know About Complying with NCAA Policies (Rich McGlynn and Bernard Hill, Athletic Department)
Rich Penaskovic invited Marcia Boosinger, Faculty Athletic Representative and Chair, Intercollegiate Athletic Committee, to come forward to introduce Bernard Hill and Rich McGlynn, two new compliance officers at AU.

Marcia Boosinger said that Bernard Hill graduated from AU in 1997 with a B.A. in Health and Exercise Programs.  He received a M.S. degree in Athletics Administration in 2000 and then worked at Stetson University as a compliance officer before returning to AU.  Rich McGlynn attended Florida Southern College and obtained his law degree from Seton Hall before going to work for the NCAA where he was Associate Director for Membership Services and worked with student athlete re-instatement.  They have both been at AU for 3 weeks.

Rich McGlynn and Bernard Hill used a power point presentation to explain what they do in the Office of Compliance.  They reported that the NY Times article on the directed readings courses had helped them get up to speed very rapidly.  They asked to present this information to the Senate because they want to make sure that faculty know that they are held to the same standards as the head football coach when it comes to interactions with athletes.  They assume that we have no prior training and are willing to come talk to people on campus.

They emphasized that rules change and it is better to call and ask questions before you act when it comes to athletes.  They stated that infractions hurt everyone.  It is their job to ensure that student athletes, coaches and staff adhere to all NCAA rules. 

Bernard Hill and Rich McGlynn opened the floor for comments and questions.

Alice Buchanan, Health and Human Performance, asked why practice had been scheduled at a time during which many classes meet (Tuesday/Thursday, 9-11). 

They replied that they would find out why that time was selected.  They stated that a survey had been completed before the time selection was made but they were not sure who was surveyed. 

Rik Blumenthal, Chemistry and Biochemistry, said that he keeps several calculators for students who forget their own calculators to use during exams.  After listening to the presentation he wants to know if it ok for him to let athletes use these calculators?

They said that this would be ok because the calculator is being loaned, not given, to the students.

Scott Phillips, Theatre, said that he uses WebCT for exams and that if students have technical problems he allows them to take the test in his office.   He also said that if students miss an exam he has them write a paper rather than administering a make-up exam.  He said that the exception to this is if they miss the test for an athletic event he gives them a specially scheduled exam.

Bernard Hill and Rich McGlynn told him it was ok for them to use his computer because it is a requirement of the class that exams be taken on the computer.  They said that if the special exam policy would apply to anyone who missed a test because of any institutionally excused absence then this was ok.

James Shelley, Philosophy, asked if it is ok to notify the athletic department if a student athlete is struggling and needs a tutor. 

Rich McGlynn and Bernard Hill said that this would be the right thing to do.

Rich Penaskovic thanked them for making this presentation to the Senate.  He then asked if there was any unfinished business.  There was no unfinished business.  There was no new business. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:39 p.m.