Minutes of the Steering Committee Meeting
27 April 2009
3:30 p.m. 208 Samford Hall
(by Dennis DeVries, Secretary)

Attended:  Kathryn Flynn, Emmett Winn, Claire Crutchley, Ruth Crocker, Bob Locy, Dennis DeVries, Russ Muntifering, Mary Ellen Mazey, Larry Crowley

Absent: Bill Hames, Joe Molnar

--The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m.  

--The minutes from the 30 March 2009 Steering Committee meeting were not available, so their approval will be postponed until the next Steering Committee meeting.

--We discussed the agenda for the 5 May 2009 University Senate meeting.  The only action item will be to vote on Rules Committee nominees.  We concluded that the consulting policy was not yet ready for a Senate meeting, and we need to meet with the chair of the Faculty Welfare Committee (Roy Hartfield) to discuss this further.  We need to get some discussion about the Distance Education Task Force, so that needs to be brought to the 5 May meeting as an information item.  Also, the International Skills Task Force needs to be brought as an information item.  Finally, we can have the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee annual report as an information item. 

--Service Learning will be brought to the June Senate meeting. 

--We discussed who will oversee charges to committees from task force reports.  There will be some variation in how this will occur among task forces.  We just need to make sure that someone is overseeing the process to make sure that we keep making progress. 

--We discussed the current international situation relative to swine flu, and in particular, the Auburn Crisis Management Team’s discussion of it.  In a broader sense, we may want to think about how potential interruptions to academic schedules through a variety of pathways could influence Auburn. 

--We discussed the potential for future calendar considerations due to final exam time conflicts this year, and problems associated with having all of the record keeping work at the end of fall semester during holiday break, and before classes start after the new year. 

--We discussed the need for additional discussion at our next Steering Committee meeting relative to spousal hiring policies/accommodation issues. 

-- Meeting was adjourned at 4:49.