Minutes of Senate Steering Committee
June 7, 2018, 3:35-4:07
Samford 206

Present:   Dan Svyantek (Chair), Donald Mulvaney (Secretary), Michael Baginski (Chair-Elect), Beverly Marshall (Secretary-Elect), Emmett Winn (Associate Provost), Michael Tillson, Lucretia Tripp, Jared Russell, James Goldstein (Immediate-Past Chair), and Lisa Kensler
Absent: Bill Hardgrave (Provost)

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Svyantek at 3:35 pm and an agenda with attachments was provided. As a first item of business, the Steering minutes from May 10 were approved.
Agenda items:

• Chairman Svyantek called attention to previous discussion about Extension Specialists merged into academic departments reporting that Emmett verified their faculty status. A document from section 3.3.2, Kinds of Appointments, was provided.
• Chairman Svyantek called on Don Mulvaney to research an issue brought forward via email from Dennis Devries about Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution regarding composition of elected senators from the Cooperative Extension System who are not included in academic units.  Since recent changes have been made to bring Extension Specialists into academic units potentially not leaving any faculty within ACES that are not in academic units.
• Immediate Past-Chairman Goldstein discussed a report document that actually addresses a topic initiated within the past couple of years out of a concern that units may or may not have documentation of procedural guidelines used in the unit.  James had solicited by-laws from departments across campus and then drafted a report.  He stressed that it is not presented as policy but merely to encourage units to consider the utility of creating such documents for organizational purposes. The report document includes an introduction, rationale for bylaws, findings, and recommendations for departments to consider. The document will be presented to the Senate as a Pending Action item.
• Chairman-elect Baginski made a comment on upcoming parking actions and an email distribution list to include additional members from Steering.

The agenda for the Senate meeting for 6/12/2018 includes retiring remarks from Chairman Svyantek and voting by senators on Rules Committee recommendations to fill vacancies of various Senate and University committees.  Also on the agenda is a pending action item for Departmental By-laws Recommendation. The Agenda was approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:07 PM.

Prepared by:  D. Mulvaney, Secretary, AU Senate