Transcript Gneral Faculty Meeting
March 10, 2015
Patricia Duffy chair: Good afternoon, I am Patricia Duffy, Chair of the University Senate.
The minutes have been up on the Web for a while. Are there any changes or corrections to the minutes?
Hearing none, could I have a motion to accept the minutes? Thank you Constance. A second? Connor. All in favor of accepting the minutes say aye. Opposed like sign. There is no opposition to the minutes.
Just a couple of short housekeeping announcements right before we start. We have microphones placed at the sides of the auditorium. If you would like to make a comment or ask a question, please go to one of the microphones and state your name , then we will be able to capture that for the transcript.
The first order of business after approval of the minutes is remarks from our President, Dr. Jay Gogue.
Thank you Dr. Gogue. [1:20]
Dr. Gogue, President: Thank you. I just have a couple of things I want to share with you today. I guess almost on a monthly basis some group somewhere does an evaluation or a ranking of their top ten of whatever it is. I know that those of us in the academy don’t pay a great deal of attention to those. Our Board members look at all of those and some of our constituents look at all of those and I would just share with you that almost literally on a monthly basis you’re going to see either quality or value or cost or mid-career salaries or some indicator of quality of an institution in which Auburn is usually ranked in the top whatever, top 50 publics is common. For online courses, engineering, business, and education usually rank in the top ten at the graduate level in terms of online types of courses. Even in the financial areas when Don has meetings with Moody’s and Standard & Poor, almost everyone of those Auburn has either raised its bond rating over the last few years or it maintains is. There is only a handful of schools that has the same bond rating that Auburn has. So it sort of makes you feel good when you see that.
Freshman class last year as you well know is larger than we expected. I think we expected 4,000 and ended up with 4.600 students, so it was larger. [2:51] The draw number was more than we thought. This year according to Wayne Aldron, you are up about 20% additional in terms of applications. I don’t know what the final numbers will be but about 20% more applications than a year ago. So some indication that the name Auburn is attracting quite a few students. One of the things I am proudest of that I had nothing to do with that faculty really lead this is the number of our students that are receiving prestigious scholars. Some of the scholarships that occurred in the past year is we have one partial scholar, one Truman Scholar, we have 2 Truman Scholar finalists that we are waiting to hear, we have 5 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellows, we have one Goldwater Scholar, we have 3 Fulbright Scholars, we have 6 Fulbright Scholar finalists that are waiting to hear, we have one Phi Kappa Phi National Fellowship winner, we have 3 NCAA Post Graduate Fellowship winners this year, we have one Clinton Global Hunger Leadership award winner, and we have one German Academic Exchange Service Research in Science and Engineering award winner, we have had several Rhodes Scholar finalists this year, Gates-Cambridge this year. I would just simply say to all of you, if you look back ten years ago we were lucky if we had any student at all and we might have one. So it’s been a lot of work by a lot of people. I give Paul Harris and the Honors College but particularly the faculty for buying in and trying to work with these students to see the successes that they’ve had. [4:35]
We are in the second year of a five year strategic planning effort. The Provost talks about it almost every other Senate meeting, but there are a couple of elements in this one that I think are particularly important and I hope over the next couple of years we can decide how to address these. We’ve got the issue of spousal an partner hiring. Auburn has had sort of a soft policy, yea if it will work or somebody can make it work, but that’s not really quite what we need in today’s world. So we’re hopeful that we will reach some closure on that.
There is a survey and some interest on childcare on campus. Maybe we are at the stage where that becomes and issue that we need to address. Flexibility in work load is repeatedly brought up to the COACHE survey and particularly how to…female academic careers, how do we adjust and take more into account than we have historically. Lot of emphasis on expanded or enhanced training of department heads and department chairs. [5;40] From all that I hear we have made good progress in the first year and a half. I believe that it is next Monday we have a full review, a couple of hours, of every element of the plan. We will be able to report that to the Senate later next month.
The Via College of Osteopathic Medicine will open this fall, they will admit about 150 medical students. There is a lot of interest, a fair amount of interaction with faculty relative to research related programs. We get word of certain faculty that have retired that have gone to work at VCOM and are excited about their programs, Larry Witt was one of the more recent ones that we are excited to see that degree of quality be within that medical school.
The research expenditures for the university are up about 10% this year, that’s a good number in a very tight budget year. We haven’t seen much growth since the recession. But a 10% growth is a good number. The area of research also includes economic development. I think you’ve seen the articles in the paper and we discussed them before but Baxter International, which is the company which makes the filters for people with kidney issues, we were out there a couple of weeks ago and our College of Pharmacy and our College of Engineering have been very active with that company. Their production determines whether or not 200 people every day continue to live. So it is a fascinating facility to go through and see the work that they are doing.
The other one has to do with GE Aviation and the additive manufacturing that is underway at that site.
In terms of facilities on campus, to me there have been a couple in the last 2 Board meetings that I think really deserve some attention. All 3 elements of the Central Classroom facility have been approved and they are at some stage (of planning). I mentioned last week at the Senate, I think this summer we start with the disruption of Mell Street in which people will not be able to traverse Mell Street because of the first phase of the Central Classroom facility.
The nursing facility has been approved, the plan is underway for that. Rehab to the textile building within the College of Engineering through a great gift that the college was able to receive. And also a new research facility out at the College of Veterinary Medicine was approved. So several new academic facilities.
The budget is still in shortfall situation, we are still about 100 million dollars below of what we had in 2007-8 in that period. We received a note today from Wayne Alderman that compared all the state cuts within the Southeast Conference schools. Louisiana was number one, South Carolina number two, and we came in number three (in the nation) I just want you to know that we are at about 38% still in terms of loss of ongoing state money over what we had.
Final thing I’ll mention is once again I think I have been able to share this for 8 years, every resolution that has come through the Senate that has gone to the Provost, President, and the Board has been approved. So once again I believe that at least it’s been a good faith effort by everybody and the whole concept of shared governance is for us to try to do the right thing and bring forth to the Board the things that are appropriate for this campus.
Appreciate all of you being here, be happy to respond to questions. [9:41]
Patricia Duffy, chair: The Provost said that he does not have any remarks because Dr. Gogue had covered a lot of the material.
So the next item on the agenda is remarks from me. Before I do that I wanted to make a short announcement. All of the current officers and those who are elected to the new office please stay a little bit after the meeting for photos. So don’t leave before you get your picture taken. [10:16]
My term continues until the end of June, but this is my second and last address to the university faculty. I’d like to start by recognizing the Senate Executive Committee. Gisela Buschle-Diller is our secretary, Larry Crowley is our immediate past chair and he serves a faculty representative to the Board of Trustees, Larry Teeter, the chair-elect was here a minute ago but he got called out on an emergency so he isn’t here. Laura Plexico is our secretary-elect. All of these folks put in a lot of hours each week to make sure the business of the Senate and the university faculty gets conducted on time. In addition to serving on the Executive Committee they are also on Steering and the Rules Committee as well. Connor Bailey is our parliamentarian and in addition to attending these meetings I frequently ask him questions about processes for the Senate between meetings to seek his advice. Laura Kloberg is our excellent administrative assistant. You see her here at our meetings, but she is also busy between meetings making sure the Web site works and is updated, the correspondence goes out, and that the Rules Committee functions properly. Ten years ago when I was secretary of the Senate, Laura Kloberg was not working for us, so I have the comparative experience to attest to what a great support she is for the Senate. Thank you Laura.
2015 marks my 30th year at Auburn. In that time I have served on a lot of committees. These were Senate Committees, University Committees, and College and Department Committees. In 2004–2005 I was the Senate Secretary and this year I am serving as Senate Chair. I have served 3 times on Senate Rules Committee, once as an elected member, and twice because I was a Senate Officer. So in addition to serving on committees I’ve had the opportunity to work on filling committees with other volunteers. I have also served several times over the years on committees to nominate Senate Officers.
There have been times during my tenure at Auburn where the relationship between faculty and the Central Administration was not something you would characterize as terribly congenial. Currently we enjoy a good working relationship with the Administration, which makes it possible for our committees to enact changes and enhance the quality of education for students and productivity for faculty. There is an environment of respect and cooperation that makes the dream of shared governance a reality on this campus. Dr. Gogue, Dr. Boosinger, thank you both and thanks also to the many members of your cabinets and offices for their constant willingness to talk with us.
Somewhat ironically it seems that it is more difficult now when times are good and our influence is stronger to get volunteers. There may be a tendency when conflict levels are low for busy people to decide that spending their time on Committee service might not be a top priority. But my message today is that without volunteers for committees, shared governance can’t function no matter how good the will of people at the top. We need volunteers to support shared governance.
Today we are announcing the winner of the Glenn Howze Academic Freedom Award and we are also announcing the new Senate officers. I knew Glenn Howze very well, he was a member of my department and a good friend. Glenn encouraged me, and many others, to participate in the Senate and on various committees. I’ve never regretted it. Although service takes time I have gotten a lot out of the experience. I have learned a lot about how the university functions and I have been able to have influence on policies that affect faculty and students. I have met interesting people many of whom became my friends. So when you see the announcement for volunteers coming from Gisela Buschle-Diller, or when a member of the Rules Committee sends you a personal invitation to be on a committee, or when it’s time to elect a new senator from your department, why not say yes to the opportunity? I believe you will find the experience rewarding.
Those are all of my remarks. Are there any questions for me before we move to the rest of agenda?
Our fist information item is a presentation of the 2015 Glenn Howze Academic Freedom Award. Bob Locy, president of Auburn University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors will present the award. [14:26]
Bob Locy, president of Auburn University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors: Before I present the award I have one other little chore I’d like to do. This concerns the fact that as Patricia has alluded to, the relationship between the faculty and the administration of Auburn hasn’t always been hospitable, but among the things that have happened in the past year is that there was a nice dinner and honoring evening associated with all of the past AAUP presidents and officers and all of the University Senate Officers gathering at the President’s house. On behalf of the AAUP I just like to extend to Dr. Gogue the most sincere thank you for that opportunity. Even just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. It was a very pleasant evening.
With that thank you out of the way, the award for today, the Glenn Howze Academic Freedom Award, the honoree that we are honoring has been in Senate Leadership for the past 5 consecutive years; serving consecutive terms as the secretary-elect, secretary, chair-elect, chair, and immediate past chair, and of course as serving as advisor to the Board of Trustees. During his term of service the awardee has been tireless in advocacy for academic freedom, shared governance, and faculty welfare. [16:30] Among the accomplishments that they list, or that they worked to implement a more effective and efficient procedure for faculty self nomination to the Rules Committee, making the Rules Committee work more efficient and effective, allowing for broader participation in shared governance, they’ve continued work begun by other earlier Senate officers to revise and upgrade the Faculty Handbook, to clarify and simplify many of the university policies. They work to ensure that all the proposed academic program revisions be considered by appropriate faculty bodies as per the Faculty Handbook, they’ve served as the chair of the Faculty Vitality Committee of the most recent strategic planning effort of the university. And they’ve tirelessly worked to make certain the planned budget model revisions were currently undertaken, be conducted in a transparent and open manor and that future impact of any chosen model be presented clearly to all of the faculty. For this outstanding service to the faculty of Auburn University and to the university as a whole it’s my pleasure to present the 2015 Glenn Howze Award to Dr. Larry Crowley from the Department of Civil Engineering. (applause)
Dr. Larry Crowley, the 2015 Glenn Howze Award recipient, and IPC: I want to say thank you, I want to say that this is quite an honor. I looked at the list of the award yesterday and the challenging situation that Glenn had back many years ago. I can say with confidence that’s not like that now. We have great leadership in all aspects and I am encouraged about the future of Auburn and I think things are getting better all the time. I appreciate Dr. Gogue, Dr. Boosinger, and Don Large you were mentioned in that address as being someone who helped Glenn back in the day and I appreciate this very much. Thank you. (applause)
Patriciaia Duffy, chair: Our next information item is a report from the Ombudsman’s Office. Dr. Kevin Coonrod will present.
C. Kevin Coonrod, Ombudsperson: Thank you Dr. Duffy. [19:25] Please let me know if I am not broadcasting.
Good afternoon everyone. It was not quite a year and a half ago I stood before the Faculty Senate and was all fresh faced and decided to become the next university ombudsperson and since then some of the fresh facedness has subsided and has turned over into seasoning. So I have my feet underneath me a lot more than I did a year and a half ago. I had a good enjoyable and challenging year last year and I look forward to many more good, fun, and challenging years. And the reason I had a good time was that the Ombuds Office was set up very well from its inception. I understand that there were a lot of people that were involved in getting the office going. A vote to establish it in the first place and hiring Dr. Jim Wohl from the Veterinarian School to be the first ombudsperson. He developed the Ombuds Office excellently. He and I are both members of the International Ombuds Association and he had established this office under the four principles of independence, neutrality, confidentiality, and informality and I have maintain the office under those same pillars as the next ombuds.
I’ll run through those very quickly and talk about what the ombuds does and does not do, and then I’ll go through some figures of what all the office was doing last year. [20:51] So independence is one of the strong pillars. The Ombuds Office is not part of the University hierarchy. It’s kind of out there floating around, but it has no supervisor telling it what to do, looking over its shoulders, telling it how to manage cases and that sort of thing. It is not part of the Administration. Often times, I or the Office are confused or misidentified as being part of the administration. The Ombuds has no authority, we do not make decisions, we don’t set policy. We are here to help. So as an independent person I do get paid by the university and I can be terminated by the President (of the university), to that extent I operate independently of any office within the university.
I am also neutral. This means that I don’t advocate for any person, I don’t advocate for the university. I can advocate for fair process if I see manifest unjustice going on. Normally the way I have been doing that is helping people prepare themselves to approach situations in which perhaps they were not treated fairly according to process and policy. That’s been a good way to informally go about doing my job. [22:15]
Confidentiality is the third pillar, this means essentially that I will not relay to anybody else things that an office visitor says to me, unless they give me permission to or if in my judgment I’ve heard something that constitutes a threat of imminent and serious harm to person or property. I am very grateful that last year one of the improvements to the Office…we put a sound mitigation system in. What that consists of is that we’ve got white noise in the ceilings of every single room of the office suite and we’ve got transducers up against the wall that vibrate, they will break up the sound waves of people’s voices. We have my office, an outer office, and we have a mediation room and we have gone in and tested these and we’ve screamed at the top of our lungs and when you scream, you can be heard, but you can’t be understood. So those fixtures have been a very nice addition to the office and I think it is a good statement that confidentiality is very important to us.
I have recently become a member of the Alabama Court Mediator Roster. And that’s not so that I can go off and mediate cases, but there is a statute under Alabama law that provides for confidentiality for mediators. So should I ever be called into court to testify, I would resist such a call, I would go to the judge and say I promised confidentiality. I have legal arguments prepared in case that happens and being a member of that mediator roster I hope will strengthen my argument that the Alabama State Confidentiality Statute will apply to me as I fight against an order compelling me to testify in court.
Then finally informal, as I said before I have no authority, I work behind the scenes, I don’t tell people what to do, I have no authority to fire somebody. A lot of people come to me and say I’m mad at somebody, I want to get the fired. What I try to do is say well why are you mad at them and what can we do to try to repair this? Rather than trying to be destructive I try to take a bad situation for somebody and help them make it productive. [24:24]
So my functions are generally 3-fold, one is conflict resolution, I would say that’s most of what I do; I am a trained mediator. I would say that about 80% of the people that come into my office, and I call them office visitors, come in and we sit down and talk about the situation and brainstorm ways that they might be able to attack their particular problem well and I will help them gain some skills going in and talking with a person with which they are having troubles. Sometimes we will get the other person involved. Everything that goes through my office is on a voluntary basis, so that second person we call that person a responder. I will approach them and say would you like my assistance? Some of you may be getting a letter from me in the future and when you do please don’t assume that this is anything that you need to get defensive over, this is not an aggressive letter, it is an offer of assistance from me and I give everybody that comes to my office, an initiatorthat first office visitor, or a responder–the person I might go to, the same promise of confidentiality, independence, informality, and neutrality. So I am there to help everybody. I think usually if one person has a situation that they think is a problem, it’s probably a problem for the other person too. So this is an opportunity to work with an objective third party to perhaps work through that problem. Most people responded well to those, some people have been a little defensive. I ask people please don’t be defensive if you get a letter like that, it is an offer of help and at no charge.
I also give policy advice and trend reports. Conflict resolution, always doesn’t happen this way but we got everybody mad at each other and they sit down and talk it through and they figure out this brilliant idea that solves the problem for everybody and when it does it is quite glorious. And usually if they just stick to the part where they are sitting down and talking and haven’t resolved their thing, the fact that they are sitting down and talking helps them in the future. The relationship is enhanced because of that. [26:37]
I also give policy advice and probably most of the people here know university policy better than me. I have studied a lot over the last year and a half. So I know a great deal now. I know that there is a lot more for me to learn. I have had the great benefit of going to people within the university when I’ve had questions and running things past them that is information that my office visitors have communicated. I am very grateful to that, many of you are here in this room and I thank you for that help and not just for me but for the office visitor. Ultimately they are the ones gaining that information. Often it isn’t what they want to hear. The accurate information is what’s important and that is where they can make good decisions even though it’s not something they want to hear at least they know that perhaps there’s another way to go about their problem that might work well for them. So thank you for that assistance. [27:32]
Finally I have my ear to the ground, I am listening. A lot of people come to me with things on their mind. If I get a lot of people coming to me about a certain policy or department or particular individual I can go to the administration or perhaps a supervisor or a dean with a trend report, and the idea of a trend report is that I can relate facts that I’ve heard in a neutral manner, and I like to say that there is anonymity in a crowd. A lot of people come to me and say, “I don’t want to be identified,” but this is a problem. So if I get enough of those then that is something I can put together and say here is a crowd of people that have voiced this same type of concern, I try to triangulate that but for other indicia that we corroborate what they are saying.
So those are what I do do What I don’t do; I am not a decision maker, I am not a judge, I don’t’ decide who is right or wrong, I am completely non-judgmental in my role as ombuds. I don’t set policy or give legal advice. I have found the law for people. I found pamphlets that discuss laws and I refer people off to people that can give legal advice, I don’t give the advice myself. As an independent body within this university I am not an agent of the university. Often times people will come to me and talk to me and because I also offer confidentiality those things they tell me I can’t relay on to the university, so it makes no sense that I would be an agent of notice to the university over and above the fact that I am not an agent of notice of the university. I don’t participate in grievances or other formal processes, so I will not testify at a grievance hearing. A grievance committee calls me and says, Hey, we know you are involved in this will you think”…my response to that is I can’t say whether or not I know the person you are referring to. So I don’t attend grievances as a support person at all and should I get subpoenaed to testify in court I will fight that subpoena and it would come down to the judge ordering me to testify or not.
I don’t offer therapy and I don’t advocate for any party to a conflict. As I said before that I am neutral. Fair process is something that I can look at though. What I try to do is be multi-partial, supportive and very encouraging. If I’ve got 2 or 3 people who are mad at each other at a table, I try to help them all elevate themselves and have found that is a pretty good way of coming to a resolution of whatever their issues might be.
So just to kind of run through some numbers from last year, I just recently revamped the database. The old database used to count the number of files and it would only count the person who walked in and initiated a file. I revamped it so it will include all office visitors, and that’s the people that initiate that come in and say I have this problem but it also includes the responders. And that’s the people that I write these letters to and if they want to they can get involved in a conflict resolution process. Sometimes there will 2, 3, or even 4 initiators. So those are all now counted in the statistics. Office visitors, initiators and responders total 183 people last year. I made 19 informational queries of people where I am trying to understand how the university works, what a policy means and how the policy normally gets applied.
[31:22]
This is kind of a survey of very broadly of issues that are brought to me. Evaluative relationships are by far the largest one. That can be supervisor/supervisee, a dean or a chair and a faculty member, could be a professor and a student. So that’s the most that I have going on a peer and colleague relationships, people that aren’t getting along well. Career progression and development, are people being denied tenure or could be past-over so the writing is on the wall that they are being asked to leave, and could be an A&P or Staff employee either not ascending the ladder or being terminated. Then Values, Ethics, and Standards is a pretty big section too.
Demographics, 57% female and 34% male. Race and ethnicity, I pretty much track the demographics of the university as a whole; African-American at 8%, Caucasian at 87%. This is I think a telling figure, faculty is made of 34% of the office visitors, A&P people 33%, I’d like to see more staff members and I am working with the Facilities people to outreach there. Students, graduates and undergraduates only comprise 17%, in fact I only saw 25 students and I will talk about that a little bit more later. There is some good news there. Of those the 48 members of the faculty that I saw, 33 were tenured and 15 were non tenured. I’ve done a lot of work with deans and department heads who’ve come to me and they’ve got situations and they just want some help working through ways that they might deal with these things. So we are just working as far as communication goes, helping these folks to understand what the other person might be feeling or going through and helping them brainstorm ways that can be productive to go through and deal with the situation that they might have going on in their department.
Students I said, 23 students, 12 undergraduates and 11 graduate last year. The Ombuds Office was not opened up to students until March of 2013. So last academic year was the first full year in which the office was open to students. I have seen 40 student so far this year, the next academic year. We are not quite half way through this year and I seen not quite twice as many students from last year. I would say also that out of the 183 total office visitors I saw last year, I have seen 143 this year. So the word’s out, the Ombuds has almonds and snickers bars and milky ways and apples and Starbuck’s coffee, so come on in and if you have an issue we will talk about it. It seems to be getting used more this year than it did last year and I am encouraged by that.
A&P 46 visitors, 29 female, 17 male, then staff I’d like to see that rise up. Then Pre and Post-Dispute. Post-dispute, the bright line, as to whether somebody has filed a grievance or not. Most of the people who come see me are not in a grievance. They might want to know if they have a grievance. They might want to know ways in which to deal with a situation to avoid that grievance. Often times that letter that I sent out offering assistance can be keys to avoid a grievance. So 5% is post-dispute, the people who come back to me and say, “I am not happy, I did not prevail in my grievance.” I can honestly do a lot of good work there, because when you go through a grievance usually there’s a winner and there’s a looser. In conflict resolution ideally, there are both winners, but maybe there are some pieces to be picked up afterwards, maybe there are some fences to be mended after the grievance works poorly for somebody and perhaps the people that were involved in all that might be able to find some common ground and figure out ways for themselves in which they can go forward that makes sense to everybody.
I am just about finishing up here. Common themes that I saw, the big 7. Respect and Treatment is a big one, that’s very general, Communication was 20% and I am encouraged by that because a lot of this communications is where people are coming in asking for help. Asking for ways in which they can deal with a situation and talk with somebody else. Fairness is big, all this breaks down into, Departmental Climate, Supervisory Effectiveness was 11%, that goes along with Evaluation and Grades, and then finally Bullying and mobbing is 9%. That’s not 9% of all the things people brought in, that is just 9% of these common themes. But anyway it is a pretty significant number.
121 times we sat down and we talked, we problem solved. I helped them help themselves and come up with a plan that they can go forth and try to resolve the problem on their own. 83 times we discussed a university policy or I have provided them with some legal information, other times I have gone off and looked into things, making some inquiries. Mediated 21 times. Upward feedback to supervisors, talking about situations that are going on in their department and hopefully brainstorming ways to help with that.
So I have been putting together a pretty good battery of seminars. I just got through putting on “Working with High Conflict People.” That was very popular and we’re going to have another one on May 20, and that’s at Human Resources, the other one was sold out at 20 people, they are opening up the other room so there will be room for 40 people for this. These aren’t just the standard people that you have trouble with at work, and we all have that, but we are talking about people that might have personality disorder traits, like narcissists or people with ? disorder, anti-social, or boarder line. So learning to see some traits and if they are present you might try some techniques. And the techniques are hard to swallow because it involves putting your ego aside and being nice to the people. But if they work then that is a good investment and if you are a supervisor what you’ve just done is make yourself a better boss by bringing the best out of your employees that you can.
“Bullying and Mobbing” will be done on April 29. And the next in fall we will be putting on a workshop on “Active Listening,” and identifying underlying interests within people. Underlying interests usually are the things that are driving the conflict. So if you can figure out what people are needing, and are not getting that might be the key to resolving whatever your conflict is. That is also a very fun one.
Then last year I continued on with something that Dr. Wohl did with Stephon Issen, who is the dean of the Negotiations College at Maxwell Air Force Base. Just fundamental negotiations strategy techniques.
So I am here to help. I think I have done some good in the last year and a half. I am having fun. And I am looking forward to some good enjoyable challenging years ahead. So are there any questions for the Ombusd today? [39:19] Thank you so much for listening today. (applause)
Patriciaia Duffy, chair: Thank you very much.
The next item is the announcement of the election results. Larry Teeter, the chair-elect, was to make this presentation, but he got called off on an emergency, so Laura Plexico, our secretary-elect, will make the announcement. Thank you Laura.
Laura Plexico, our secretary-elect: So Gisela and I pulled the votes last night and our new secretary-elect will be Ping Hu, and our new chair-elect will be James Goldstein. (applause). I believe James is here today, please stand up. I don’t believe that Ping was able to join us today.
Patriciaia Duffy, chair: Just a reminder for officers new and present to please stay for pictures. Thank you. We now ask if there is any unfinished business? I don’t like to rush, so no unfinished business.
Is there any new business? Hearing none.
Announcements that I have are about the upcoming Senate meetings. We have a special called meeting on March 31 to talk about the report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Strategic Budgeting. We also have shortly after that, a week after that, that’s a very busy period of time we have the April Senate meeting. Dr. Gogue mentioned the closing of Mell St and some other related issues with parking and traffic. We will Don Andrea, Director of Parking Services, he will be at our April Senate meeting to answer your questions. Judging from the e-mails that I get sometimes, questions about parking and traffic are a big part of our set of questions. Please feel free even if you are not a senator to come to that meeting. I think the presentation will be worthwhile to give you some information on what’s coming up for the traffic.
Those are my only announcements, the upcoming Senate meetings. So if there is no new business or unfinished business we will adjourn. [41:53]