Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Haley Center 2370
3:30 p.m.

Attendance:

Officers
Chair Larry Crowley; Chair-Elect Patricia Duffy; Secretary Judy Sheppard; Secretary-Elect Gisela Buschle-Diller; Immediate Past Chair William Sauser.

Ex-Officio
Present:
John Mason, Vice President for Research; Joseph Aistrup, Dean, College of Liberal Arts; Nicholas Giordano, Dean, COSAM; Chris Roberts, Dean, College of Engineering; June Henton, Dean, College of Human Sciences; George Flowers, Dean, Graduate School; Tim Boosinger, Provost; Bryan Elmore, A&P Assembly Chair; Don Mulvaney, Larry Teeter, Laura Plexico, Mike Baginiski, Steering Committee.

Absent, sending substitute
Dwayne Brown for Vice President of Alumni Affairs, Debbie Shaw; Nancy Noe for Bonnie McEwan, Dean, Libraries;

Absent, not sending substitute
Executive Vice President Don Large; Vice President for Development, Jane Parker; Logan Powell, President, Student Government Association; Leonard Towns, Graduate Student Council President; Jennifer Richardson, Staff Council Chair.

Senators, by department:

Present: Robert Cochran, Accountancy; Valentina Hartaski, Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology; James Bannon, AAES; Paul Brown, ACES; Beth Guertal, Agronomy and Soils; Dale Coleman, Animal Sciences; Dean Schwartz, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology; Rebecca O’Neal-Dagg, Architecture; Barb Bondy, Art; Cliff Defee, Aviation Management and Logistics; Bob Locy, Biological Sciences; Sushil Adhikari, Biosystems Engineering; Mark Taylor, Building Science; Allan David, Chemical Engineering; Eduardus Duin, Chemistry; Cliff Lange, Civil Engineering; Robert Agne, Communication and Journalism; Daniel Phillips, Communication Disorders; Sanjeev Baskiyar, Computer Science and Software Engineering; Wi-Suk Kwon, Consumer Affairs; Jada Kohlmeier, Curriculum and Teaching; Michael Stern, Economics; Lisa Kensler, Educational Foundations and Leadership; Thomas Baginski, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Hilary Wyss, English; Leonardo De La Fuente, Entomology and Plant Pathobiology; Rusty Wright, Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture; Gary Hepp, Forestry and Wildlife Science; David King, Geology and Geography; Brent Fox, Health Outcomes Research and Policy; Amy Wright, Horticulture; Ellen Abell, Human Development and Family Studies; Jerrod Bradley Windham, Industrial Design; Sean Gallagher, Industrial Engineering; Leah Robinson, Kinesiology; Pam Whaley, Library; Peter Stanwick, Management; Dmitry Glotov, Mathematics and Statistics; Dong-Joo Kim, Mechanical Engineering; Matthew Hoch, Music; Kevin Huggins, Nutrition and Foods; Chippewa Thomas, Outreach; Muralikrishnan Dhanasekaran, Pharmical Sciences; Wesley Lindsey, Pharmacy Practice; Guy Rohrbaugh, Philosophy; Murray Jardine, Political Science; Gwynedd Thomas, Polymer/Fiber Engineering;Tung-shi Huang, Poultry Science; Daniel Sventek, Psychology; Jill Meyer, Special Education, Rehab and Counseling; Emily Myers, Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work; Annette Smith, Veterinary Clinical Sciences.

Absent, sending substitute:
Roy Hartfield for Andrew Sinclair, Aerospace Engineering; Beverly Marshall for Harris Hollans, Finance; Lourdes Betanos for Adrienne Angelo, Foreign Language and Literatures; Charles Hendricks for Vicky van Santen, Pathobiology;

Absent, not sending substitute:
Tiffany Sippial, History; James Carter, Marketing; Iris Mullins, Nursing; Mike Bozack, Physics; Jeffrey Hemmes, ROTC Air Force; Scott Copeland, ROTC Army; Paul Michael Esposito, ROTC Navy; Chase Bringardner, Theatre.

At 3:30 p.m., Chair Larry Crowley called the meeting to order, explained the rules of the Senate and established a quorum. The minutes were approved.

President Jay Gogue previewed the University Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, June 27. Among items to be discussed are: The College of Liberal Arts will hire an architect to renovate Pebble Hill/the Caroline Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, to be paid for by external development sources; the School of Forestry will participate in establishing a “hunting for the disabled” program; a distance B.S. degree in accountancy will be established; the non-thesis option for the master’s degree in natural resource management in Forestry will be removed; Rehabilitation Counseling will be renamed by accreditation agency to include “hospital” or “clinic” in its title.

He also discussed the budget to be presented in September. It includes $20 million in new funds -- $12 million from tuition, $5.8 million of reallocation; $1.9 new moneys from the state; $14 million for promotion and salaries; deferred maintenance (which is now between $8 million-$10 million; it used to be at $20 million).

He thanked the outgoing Senate leadership, “Larry and his crew.”

The Provost told the Senate that this is the end of the first year of the five-year Strategic Plan process. These strategies include enhancing student success, faculty vitality, research, outreach, and optimization of resources. He said the last year has made great progress with good systems now in place and weaknesses identified. A tentative budget model is being put forward to base funding on an incentive-based method; the current budget model relies too much on historical allocations and is not easily adjusted. He endorsed an upcoming resolution to establish an ad hoc committee and said it was a good time for a faculty committee to examine the work so far and to see how we might pull together to make AU a better place. He then thanked the Senate for an interesting year.

Chair-elect Patricia Duffy then presented a resolution from the Steering Committee.

Resolution to Form an Ad Hoc Senate Committee on Strategic Budgeting
WHEREAS, Auburn University has set a strategic priority to focus resources on institutional mission and priorities; and
WHEREAS, to this end, the University retained the Huron Consulting Group to assist in the development of a new budget model for Auburn University; and


WHEREAS, the proposed budget model has been presented both in university-wide open forums and in meetings with the deans and faculties of each school and college as well as with representatives of the University’s central support units and auxiliaries; and
WHEREAS, considering the scope and impact of adopting a new budget model and the importance of shared governance, the Steering Committee of the University Senate and senior administrative officers of the University are desirous of formal faculty input on the proposed strategic budgeting model before making a final commitment to its implementation;


THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the University Senate shall authorize the Senate Rules Committee to appoint an ad hoc committee on Strategic Budgeting; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this committee shall include a representative with faculty rank from each academic school and college as well as a representative with faculty rank from the University Libraries; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Rules Committee, in consultation with the senior administrative officers of the University, shall also invite representatives from the central administration or other units to serve as full voting members on this committee as needed for the task; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the charge of this committee will be to present a report to the University Senate by the end of March, 2015, with an analysis of the proposed budget model as well as of viable alternative budget models, if any, that will focus resources on institutional mission and priorities, along with its recommendations for the strategic budgeting initiative at Auburn University; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the University Senate recommends that no actions be taken to implement the proposed budget model or an alternative strategic budgeting model until this committee has submitted its report and the University Senate has had an opportunity to consider it.

Discussion of the resolution:

Senator Wesley Lindsey, Pharmacy Practice, asked why the resolution was presented as an action item instead of as a pending action item.

Dr. Crowley replied that the Steering Committee felt the issue was time-sensitive.

Beverly Marshall, as substituting for Senator Harris Hollans of Finance, said that she served as the faculty representative to the Board of Trustees finance committee and on the committee considering the Huron budget model. She said she supported the move to that budget model, but that there will be a year-long transition and saw no need for an additional year of study.

Sen. Michael Stern of Economics said the resolution would not actually give the faculty more voice in the budget decision because of the many administrators to be appointed to the committee and the disparate number of faculty in particular colleges. He didn’t see the value of the ad hoc committee as constituted.

Sen. Rusty Wright of Fisheries said his faculty is in favor of the resolution, but asked for a friendly amendment so that the resolution would specify “free-standing schools.” It was accepted.

Dr. Crowley then called for a vote. The resolution passed 41 to 26 for the resolution.

The next item of business was a presentation by Andrew Gillespie, associate provost for international programs. One of the office’s most prominent programs is Study Abroad. About 1,100 students participate in 170 programs a year, and only a few departments don’t offer study abroad programs for their majors. But most of these students travel to western Europe, and the office hopes to diversify those destinations. Most international graduate students come from the far East and Asia, and there are efforts to diversify that pool as well. Partnerships with such organizations as the Global Academy, establishment of offices and institutes overseas, efforts by the Faculty Research Council to increase faculty travel and research overseas, and grants out of the Provost’s office are other initiatives meant to increase and diversify AU’s overseas presence. About 1,800 faculty traveled out of country last year.

The English as a Second Language program is also a major initiative that reaches into departments and colleges goes into different departments to help graduate students become teaching assistants and to tutor both students and scholars.

Lastly, Dr. Gillespie discussed the drive for a data base that would allow the office to calculate or track the purpose of faculty travel and break that out between professional society meetings, research collaborations, academic connections to give the office a sense of where the faculty are going and why.

There were no questions.

Dr. Crowley then introduced Mark Armstrong, who is the director of Camp War Eagle and is in the office of the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies.

Dr. Armstrong identified four major programs in his office: Camp War Eagle, SOS (Successfully Orienting Students), First Year Seminars and Learning Communities.

Camp War Eagle is a two-day program informing incoming freshmen and their parents about academics, social and personal success. The first day introduces students to the university’s expectations of student conduct and safe behavior, and parents are separately informed about financial and administrative issues like tuition, dining services and Tiger Cards. The second day combines parents and students to hear from deans and associate deans; then students are required to meet without parents with advisors to learn to register, navigate course offerings, etc., while parents hear various speakers on their own.

SOS is a program for students transferring from other institutions and focuses more on navigating the campus. The First Year Seminar program offers 1-2 hour courses that identify those students who may struggle with time management and other skills and is linked to the early alert system and other retention efforts. The Learning Community program joins 25 students with similar interests who may move through the same courses together and even live in the same residence halls.

Dr. Armstrong noted that the Steering Committee had asked him to present the Senate with this information, particularly in answer to the question of how faculty could help. He suggested offering to teach a first-year seminar, get involved in a Learning Community or attend Camp War Eagle sessions to get involved with students when they initially arrive on campus.

There were no questions.

There was no unfinished business, but Dr. Crowley presented as new business thanks to Bill Sauser, who had finished his term as Immediate Past Chair, and Judy Sheppard, who had finished her term as Secretary. He welcomed Chair-Elect Larry Teeter and Secretary-Elect Laura Plexico, and, then becoming Immediate Past Chair, handed the Senate gavel to new Chair Patricia Duffy.

Duffy banged the gavel and adjourned the meeting at 4:23 p.m.