Minutes of the Auburn University Senate Meeting
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
238 Broun Hall
3:30 P.M.
A full transcript is available for this meeting.
Attendance Record
Senate Officers:
Michael Baginski, Chair; Nedret Billor, Chair-elect; Beverly Marshall, Secretary; Adrienne Wilson, Secretary-Elect; Daniel Svyantek, Immediate-Past Chair
Administration attending: Taffye Clayton, VP & Assoc. Provost of Inclusion and Diversity; Kelli Shomaker, VP Business and Finance and CFO; Royrickers Cook, Associate Provost and VP for Outreach; Gregg Newschwander, Dean School of Nursing; Paul Patterson, Dean College of Agriculture; Maria Witte substituting for George Flowers, Dean of the Graduate School; Calvin Johnson, Dean College of Veterinary Medicine; Richard Hansen, Dean Harrison School of Pharmacy; Gretchen Van Valkenburg, VP Alumni Affairs
Administration absent, not sending substitute: None
Ex-Officio attending; Bill Hardgrave, Provost; Nancy Noe, Interim Dean of Libraries; Schyler Burney Daney substituting for Dane Block, SGA President; Elizabeth Devore, GSC President; Tammy Williams, Staff Council Chair; Robert Kulick, A&P Assembly Chair; Jared Russell, Steering; Robert Norton, Steering
Ex-Officio Absent, not sending substitute: Jung Won Hur, Steering; Michael Tillson, Steering;
Senators, by Department:
Attending or Represented by Substitute
Lisa Miller, Accountancy; Anwar Ahmed, Aerospace Engineering; Denis Nadolnyak substituting for Valentina Hartarska, Ag Economics and Rural Sociology; Molly Gregg, ACES; Jacek Wower, Animal Sciences; Chad Faradori, Anatomy Physiology and Pharmacology; Rebecca O’Neal-Dagg, Architecture; Kathryn Floyd, Art; Anthony Moss, Biological Sciences; Yi Yang, Biosystems Engineering; Bryan Bechingham, Chemical Engineering; Doug Goodwin, Chemistry; J. Bryan Anderson, Civil Engineering; Ed Youngblood, Communication and Journalism; Mary Sandage, Communication Disorders; Kai Chang, Computer Science and Software Engineering; Charles Chen, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences; Jamie Harrison, Curriculum & Teaching; Michael Stern substituting for Gilad Sorek, Economics; Ellen Reames, Educational Foundations, Leadership; Lloyd Riggs, Electrical & Computer Engineering; James E. Ryan, English; Lee Colquit, Finance; Ash Bullard, Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture; Zachary Zuwiyya, Foreign Lang & Literatures; Wayde Morse, Forestry & Wildlife Science; Haibo Zou, Geology & Geography; Jingjing Qian substituting for Kimberly Garza, Health Outcomes and Research Policy; Matt Malezqcki substituting for Monique Laney, History; Daniel Wells, Horticulture; Scott Ketring, Human Development and Family Studies; Mark Schall, Industrial and Systems Engineering; Andreas Kavazis, Kinesiology; Greg Schmidt, Library; Dora Bock, Marketing; Dmitry Glotov, Mathematics and Statistics; Daniel Mackowski, Mechanical Engineering; Virginia Kunzer substituting for Matthew Hoch, Music; David Crumbley, Nursing; Michael Greene, Nutrition, Dietetics, & Hospitality Mgmt.; David Mixson, Outreach; Peter Christopherson, Pathobiology; Spencer Durham, Pharmacy Practice; Eric Marcus, Philosophy; Michael Fogle, Physics; Stacey Hunt, Political Science; Robert Norton substituting for Ken Macklin, Poultry Science; Tracy Witte, Psychology; Suzanne Woods-Groves substituting for Malti Tuttle, Special Ed. Rehabilitation Counseling/School Psych.; Shashank Rao, Systems and Technology; substitute for Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Welborn, ROTC Air Force; Celina M Creech, Lieutenant Colonel, ROTC Army; Arianne Gaetano, Socio/Anthro/Social Work; Robin Jaffe, Theatre;
Absent, not sending substitute: Mark Tatum, Building Science; Young A Lee, Consumer and Design Sciences; Forest Smith, Drug Discovery and Development; David Held, Entomology & Plant Pathology; Alan Walker, Management; Carlton Lay, Industrial Design; Captain Willie Billingslea, ROTC Navy; Robert Cole, Veterinary Clinical Sciences.
Remarks and Announcements
Comments by University Senate Chair, Michael Baginski
Chair Michael Baginski called the meeting to order at 3:36 pm. The delay was due to the overwhelming attendance at the meeting, which required opening up the adjacent classroom. He reminded the members of the senate or substitute for a senator to sign in in the back of the room and for substitutes to sign in by printing his/her name in the column by the senator. He also reminded the Senate about rules for speaking at Senate meetings.
Minutes
A quorum, requiring 45 senators, with 57 senators recorded as present was established. The Chair called for the approval of the October 9, 2018 minutes. At this point, Greg Schmidt, Senator for Libraries, indicated that the minutes did not properly reflect the tone of the exchange between Chair Baginski and Dr. Stern at the meeting. Michael Stern, Economics, then came to the microphone and indicated that the question by Dr. Dora Bock was not in the correct place in the minutes. He went on to say the minutes did not include his question about why neither the President nor the Provost attended the meeting and were not on the agenda for the general faculty meeting. Since there were suggested corrections to the minutes, Chair Baginski did not call for approval of the October 9, 2018 minutes.
Chair Baginski recognized the officers of the University Senate.
Information Items:
Auburn On the Move: The State of the University
President Steven Leath gave his “State of the University: Auburn on the Move” address as part of a University Senate meeting. The cornerstone to his presentation was rooted in the ways Auburn is heightening its already strong student experience – which Leath called the “crown jewel” of Auburn.
“Year after year, studies show that our students are satisfied with their choice after their first year at Auburn,” Leath said. “Our research also shows that they remain satisfied with their choice after graduation.”
With such success also comes challenges, the president said, and he detailed ways in which Auburn will address greater access to on-campus living spaces, limited parking and further enhancing campus safety. Leath said options are currently being examined for some potential new living spaces on campus, and possible parking improvements are also being studied. Security, he said, remains a key focus with several initiatives already having been enacted, most recently with Auburn’s recruitment of former FBI supervisory special agent Kelvin King to lead its campus safety initiatives.
“These efforts are critical to providing the best student experience in higher education, and ensuring that while here, our students are transformed from inquisitive scholars to engaged citizens,” he said.
Leath noted Auburn’s enrollment at 30,400 for the fall – the largest in the institution’s history – and that applications were up by 21 percent for the past year. He said Auburn educates more students from Alabama than any other university, with 60 percent of Auburn undergraduates being in-state students. Leath added that Auburn is committed to growing diversity and inclusion efforts and that Auburn will seize greater student access opportunities, to include dual enrollment, transfer and nontraditional students.
Along with the student experience, Leath focused on the expertise of Auburn’s faculty, saying the university’s professors are at the core of Auburn’s land-grant mission. He said a key focus will be in elevating the work and expertise of Auburn’s faculty to the national platform, growing awareness of their life-saving research and outreach. “You are doing exceptional work at Auburn, and we want to ensure we seize every opportunity to tell your story,” he said to faculty in the room.
That work involves interdisciplinary discovery with Auburn’s scholars conducting meaningful research in such areas as additive manufacturing, cyber security, health and environmental sciences and scalable and renewable energy. The president said elevating such life-saving research is a key initiative for Auburn now and in the future. In June, the university furthered that effort with the announcement of its PAIR (Presidential Awards for Interdisciplinary Research) initiative, which invested $5 million in seed money to 11 interdisciplinary research teams. This fall, Auburn also welcomed 25 top-tier scholars through the Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship program.
“Our research and outreach efforts go where the tough problems exist, so we can effectively and efficiently unearth long-term solutions, meet real-life challenges and offer opportunity,” Leath said, adding that the university’s plan is to grow such work with the hiring of 500 tenure-track, research- and scholarship-focused faculty by 2022. “We will hire in disciplines where need is great and demand is strong,” he said.
Leath likewise pointed out the great work of the Alabama Cooperative Extension among farmers and recent efforts in documenting crop loss in the Gulf following Hurricane Michael. Involving outreach, he mentioned the success of Auburn’s Rural Studio program, which aims to increase access to home ownership in underserved rural Alabama communities, and the life-saving work of the Obesity Working Group. He said outreach efforts also are taking place through new school partnerships in Alabama’s most underserved areas to assist with school performance and college readiness. “We reach more than 20,000 people each year through Outreach’s continuing education initiatives,” he said.
The president then spoke about how Auburn is growing vital business partnerships with the likes of Boeing, NASA and Delta, saying “The investments we’re making today will allow us to collaborate with a broader range of organizations tomorrow.”
The president closed his address with a focus to the future, mentioning that Auburn is currently in the process of developing a strategic plan that will look 20 to 30 years out into the future. “Our efforts take time and investment,” Leath said. “They take passion, imagination and creativity. It’s what’s required of us as a great university that’s striving to be greater, and we enthusiastically embrace this challenge.”
Peter Christopherson, Senator - Plant Pathology, asked with these new initiatives how to smooth out time since faculty are very busy. President Leath responded that as a university we have not always been straightforward with our employees about what is expected of them and linking performance to salary and promotion. President Leath indicated he is sensitive to this and that they will work aggressively on improving the performance appraisal process.
Michael Stern, Economics, indicated that the idea of cooperation is not consistent with a budget model that creates internal competition. President Leath indicated that the budget model needed to realignment to put more focus on research, scholarship and clinical work. Dr. Stern went on to ask President Leath where he had failed. President Leath indicated that no matter how much you worked there was always more you could do and that he would like to see Auburn do more and do it better.
Action Item:
Faculty Handbook Amendments
Aurora Weaver, member of the Non-tenure Track Committee, presented as an action item an amendment to the Faculty Handbook allowing for multi-year contracts. The Steering Committee and Faculty Handbook Committee have approved this amendment and it was presented as a pending action item at the October meeting. Chair Baginski called for a vote to approve the amendment. The amendment was approved with 63 Senators voting yes and only 1 no vote recorded.
Michael Baginski, Senate Chair
Unfinished Business: none
New Business: none
Michael Baginski, Senate Chair
Declared adjournment of the meeting at 4:46 pm.