Minutes of Senate Steering Committee
September 14, 2017, 3:30-4:45
Samford 206

Present:   Dan Svyantek (Chair), Donald Mulvaney (Secretary), James Goldstein (Immediate-Past Chair), Michael Baginski (Chair-Elect), Beverly Marshal (Secretary-Elect), Emmett Winn (Associate Vice-Provost), Lisa Kensler, Michael Tillerson and Lucretia Tripp

Absent: Jared Russell

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Svyantek at 3:30 pm and an agenda was provided.

The Steering minutes from August 17, 2017 were approved with no modification.

Information about the Cybersecurity and Faculty vulnerability, protection and incidences was presented by Jim O’Conner, Chief Information Officer, and this will be presented at Senate as an informational item.
Amanda Malone, Director, Provost Budget Services, previewed a Senate presentation for updates to streamline the Professional Improvement Leave protocols starting in the October 1, 2017.

As a Pending Action Item, Constance Relihan, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies, provided an overview of the revised Student Learning Outcomes and their assessments within the General Education requirements.  Also discussed were strategies to embed SLO’s into courses.

A Senate Action Item to be presented by Past-chair Goldstein will be the request by Dr. Relihan for a vote on the composition of the University Curriculum Committee to include representatives from the University College and Honors College.

An additional information item involved suggestion for the make-up day caused by Hurricane IRMA’s disruption of classes.  Monday, Sept. 11 classes should be made up on Saturday, September 23. Tuesday, Sept 12 classes (8-11am starting times) should be made up on Saturday, October21.  Any class meeting on the make-up day should be held at its regularly scheduled time and in its assigned classroom. It is at the discretion of the faculty member to determine whether it is necessary to hold a make-up class session or if the pedagogical goals of the course may be met through another method. If a faculty member does wish to hold make up classes on the designated Saturdays, he or she should confirm the intention with the department chair/head to ensure that the classroom will be unlocked.

Another Senate Action item to be presented by Don Mulvaney is the following committee members as approved by Rules:
·        University Writing Committee -  John Kush, Forestry and Emory Serviss, Harbert College of Business
·        Academics Standards Committee – Terry Brandebourg (Animal Sciences) term ending 2020
·        Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee – Grey Parks (Animal Sciences)
·        Faculty Handbook Committee – Beth Guertal (Crops, Soil and Environmental Science)

The agenda for the Senate meeting on September 19 which includes remarks from Provost Boosinger, action item voting on nominees for vacancies on select committee and the above mentioned information items was discussed and unanimously approved for publication on the web site.

Chairman Svyantek made a few announcements about Senate Committees having vacancies, the results of the Rules recommendation process to identify Senate generated candidates for Faculty Athletic Representative which were Dr’s Pascoe, Carvalho and Russell.  These were forwarded to President Leath.
Old business mentioned by the Chair included the status of a review of departmental P&T guidelines, pending Parking Survey to assess after hours parking concerns, time intervals between classes, and a committee study of providing timely student feedback.

Emmett Winn reported on enrollment figures for fall and commented on need to be aware of increasing numbers of transfer students and future need to address needs of these students.     
The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 PM.

Prepared by:  D. Mulvaney, Secretary, AU Senate