AU REPORT February 8, 1999

Veterinary facility
Veterinary Professor John Schumacher draws blood from a horse in one of the stalls in the new isolation facility at the College of Veterinary Medicine as student Shelly Aber holds the reins. The new facility enabled the college to end a period of limited accreditation.

Veterinary Medicine regains full accreditation

Auburn's College of Veterinary Medicine has regained full accreditation for all facilities and programs.

The American Veterinary Medical Association made the announcement based on its formal review of the college in December. The AVMA's seven member Council on Education spent four days evaluating all programs, buildings and equipment.

"This achievement is great news for Auburn University and our faculty, staff and students," said Timothy Boosinger, dean of the college. "Since receiving limited accreditation in 1995, we moved aggressively to regain this full accreditation which will be for the maximum seven-year period. Students will automatically qualify to take the national board exams."

The facilities problems identified in the 1995 report were addressed with the completion of a new large animal isolation unit last fall. The college had five years to correct the problem or else face probation by the AVMA.

"We didn't have a proper isolation facility for large animals because our old isolation units were obsolete, which was a significant shortcoming," Boosinger said.

AU's College of Veterinary Medicine, with more than 5,000 alumni, was established in 1892 and is one of the nation's longest-serving veterinary colleges.

"I am delighted with the decision by the AVMA to restore full accreditation to our College of Veterinary Medicine, as this college is very important to our state," President William Muse said. "I appreciate the fine work that our faculty, staff, students and alumni have done and with the support we received from the Alabama Legislature in reaching this goal."

During the past three years, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the university have invested in capital improvements, replaced essential equipment and worked toward completing deferred maintenance projects.

Boosinger said financial support for the projects came from state funds, college generated revenue, contracts and grants, student fees and private gifts from alumni and friends of the college.

"These improvements, while significant, only addressed essential current needs, not future requirements for facilities and programs," he added.
A new Large Animal Teaching Hospital is also being planned, with partial funding to come from an agricultural bond issue approved by Alabama voters last November.

"The bond issue represents an almost unprecedented investment by the state in the future of agriculture in Alabama and in Auburn University," Boosinger said. "The success of this project is due to the members and leadership of the Alabama Veterinary Medical Association and many other groups and individuals who recognize the importance of agriculture to the future of Alabama."

Panel recommends more recruiting of blacks, better communication

A special university committee has recommended extra efforts to recruit and retain black students, faculty and staff and improve communication between supervisors and staff on campus.

The African-American Concerns Committee on Jan. 28 recommended to President William Muse that AU increase scholarships for black students, provide mentoring to new black faculty and provide more training in diversity and communication to supervisors of staff employees.

The committee, which was appointed by Muse last spring, based its report on concerns expressed by black faculty, staff and students in a series of listening sessions, said Chair James L. Smith, associate director for human resources at the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

"The recommendations are based on what people across campus are telling us," said Smith. "There aren't a lot of surprises, but the committee did bring to light existing conditions, and it offered recommendations on improvements where action is needed."

Steps need to be taken if Auburn is to meet its goal of increasing diversity, he added. "We can make Auburn more responsive to African- American concerns on campus and help everybody in the process."

A more racially diverse faculty and student body will help all students prepare for life in a multiracial society and will help the university to better reflect the population of Alabama, Smith explained.
Better communication between supervisors and staff members of different races can help avoid or alleviate ill feelings and distrust in the staff ranks, he added.

Smith said more scholarships and fellowships are necessary to compete with peer institutions that provide much higher levels of financial assistance in their recruitment of black undergraduates and graduate students.

The committee also recommended that more minority student recruiters be hired and that Housing and Residence Life give freshmen top priority in housing placement to help their adjustment to campus.

Mentors were recommended for new black graduate students as well as for new black faculty. In each case, the mentor helps the new person adjust quicker and feel that he or she is a part of the community, said Smith.

Major concerns of black staff members dealt with personnel policies and procedures and communication between supervisors and employees.

Recommendations ranged from more training on diversity and communication for managers and supervisors to giving qualified in-house personnel first priority on job vacancies. The committee also recommended providing a mandatory career development program for each employee and creating financial incentives for hiring minorities in supervisory management positions.

Programs await final word on their future

AU's Program Review and Assessment Committee has voted to withhold a decision on each academic program being reviewed for possible elimination or merger until the end of the committee's work in March.

The academic programs were identified last November for possible termination or merger in a plan recently approved by the Board of Trustees. The plan was developed by the administration in an effort to redirect funds to other goals and higher priority programs.

Drew Clark, associate professor of English and chair of the committee, said the committee will make its recommendations to President Muse before the April 2 deadline, and that the committee should spend its meeting time "fact gathering."

Projected cost savings from eliminating or merging the programs would have to be made up in other areas of their respective colleges or schools if the current review results in a reversal of the decisions.

Art Chappelka, associate professor of forestry and a member of the
committee, said he was in favor of not voting until the end of the committee's work to be "fair to everyone, including the parties here today and the ones to come at the end.

"Not everyone interested is able to be here for every meeting... and the time could shed light to some of the questions from these discussions."

The vote at the Jan. 29 meeting was unanimous.

Larry Benefield, interim dean of the College of Engineering, and John Cochran, professor and head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, discussed and answered committee members' questions concerning the possible elimination of a bachelor's degree in Aviation Management.

Benefield said the issue is one of centrality to the College of Engineering's mission. While the Aviation Management program meets ACHE's viability requirements in terms of graduation of students, the program was given a low priority because it is not central to the mission of the college.

"To me, the quality issue is a difficult one to answer," Benefield said. "From a productivity matrix perspective, aviation management is not comparable to other programs in the college."

Cochran, on the other hand, said the program has an excellent reputation, outstanding faculty and large numbers of students, both in-state and out of-state.

"The centrality issue we should be talking about here is what is central to Auburn University," he said. "The program is unique to Alabama and there is no duplicate program in Georgia."

In addition, the committee met Feb. 5 to discuss the bachelor's degree in anthropology, in which there is a proposed merger with the bachelor's degree in sociology.

Future meetings of the committee will be devoted to other degree programs suggested for possible merger or eliminations. They are:
* Feb. 19: Ph.D. option in economics (elimination proposed) 1:30 p.m.
* Feb. 26: Bachelor's in geography (elimination proposed) 1:30 p.m.
* March 5: Master's in political science (elimination proposed) 1:30 p.m.
* March 12: The five academic degree programs in which the proposed action not being contested, time to be announced.
* March 19 : Final meeting, time to be announced.
All meetings will be held in the conference room at Hargis Hall.

Wilmore work
Construction workers have begun tearing away the interior of Wilmore Labs in one of the largest renovation projects in AU history. The $15 million project is updating the post-World War II engineering building for teaching and research labs to meet 21st century needs. Fencing around the building will result in temporary closing of some parking areas and temporary rerouting of traffic on Wilmore Drive, which will be one-way during part of the construction period. A temporary exit road will be cut between the L Building and Broun Hall that will connect the Foy/Tichenor parking lot with Tiger Drive.

Communications Board rescinds threat to Plainsman editor

The Board of Student Communications adopted an amendment last week to "remove the threat" from a recent resolution reprimanding Auburn Plainsman Editor Lee Davidson.

The student newspaper has drawn the ire of Student Government Association officers over the student newspaper's coverage of the AU Board of Trustees and editorial criticism of the SGA.

A five-member SGA-affiliated majority on the faculty-student board passed the original resolution on Jan. 7 and has since drawn criticism from newspapers and other media throughout the nation for what many perceived as an infringement on the student newspaper's First Amendment rights.

The amendment, adopted during a Feb. 4 meeting of the board, removed controversial language which purportedly threatened Davidson's job as Plainsman editor.

Student board member Asim Masood who helped write the original resolution, said it was not intended as a threat to the editor's job and that the amendment received the approval of his personal counsel as well as attorneys for AU and the Alabama Press Association.

Board member Jerry Brown, who heads AU's Journalism Department, said he considered the amendment insufficient. Voting against the amendment, Brown objected that even with the amendment, the resolution had "an authoritative, punitive and controlling tone" and still infringed on the newspaper's First Amendment rights.

First black student returns for Black History Month

Auburn's first black student, Harold Franklin, will return to campus on Feb. 25 to speak on the 35th anniversary of the university's desegregation.

The lecture is sponsored by the AU Libraries Diversity Committee.
Franklin was a 31-year-old insurance salesman and Air Force veteran in 1964, when he became the first black student to enroll at Auburn.

A graduate of then-Alabama State College, Franklin enrolled at Auburn to pursue a master's degree in history and political science.

At the close of the segregation era, attorneys for AU had unsuccessfully challenged Franklin's enrollment in federal court on the grounds that he was not a graduate of an accredited school since Alabama State had lost it accreditation two years earlier.

Franklin stayed at AU for one year, and left before earning a degree. He later earned a master's degree in international studies from the University of Denver.

Franklin, who has returned to Auburn to speak on other occasions, went on to teach at Tuskegee University, Alabama State and Talladega College. He is now retired.

Top high school scholars coming to AU for Merit Monday

Auburn will host its second annual Merit Monday on Feb. 15 with more than 850 of Alabama's top high school seniors scheduled to attend.

"We got such a tremendous response last year that we've decided to keep this going," said Susan Allen, coordinator of the AU scholarship office.
"We've invited all of our freshman (to-be) academic scholarship recipients and we hope that they will come and experience Auburn ‹ our campus, our community, the friendly people and, mainly, get a taste of our great academic programs."

All of the Merit Monday invitees, Allen said, are guaranteed at least $750 in annual scholarship money. About 60 percent of those have been offered full-tuition scholarships. All of the scholarships offered are for four years, renewable annually if the student maintains a 3.0 grade-point average.

"Again this year, we were able to fund these offers out of existing scholarship funds -- no extra money except that from the growth of existing endowments," said Allen. "We continue to try and streamline our scholarship awards so that the available funds are used to the maximum benefit of the greatest number of students."

Merit Monday participants will have the opportunity to meet with academic representatives of various schools and colleges and view a presentation on Auburn's Honors College.

The highlights of the day will be in the afternoon, when the students participate for one half-hour in an AU classroom and another half-hour in a laboratory.

AU setting record pace in number, size of scholarships

Through the first six months of this academic year, Auburn has awarded more scholarships and more money than for the entire 1997-98 year, according to the AU scholarship office.

Through the first six months of 1998-99, AU has awarded more than 2,767 academic scholarships totaling more than $3.3 million. In 1997-98, AU awarded 1,725 totaling about $2.7 million. Those figures reflect a 60 percent increase in the number of scholarships and a 21 percent increase in funds awarded.

"We are far ahead of last year in both scholarships and total funds," said Susan Allen, coordinator of AU's scholarship office.

The figures through January also show that AU has awarded more scholarships to minority students ‹ 248 so far this year compared to 152 in 1997-98.

Cleaning up
Scrubbing shrubs is all in the line of duty for George Whitaker, a Facilities staff member at Foy Student Union, who recently found himself cleaning up after pranksters dumped dishwasher detergent into the building's pool. The two turtles and goldfish that live in the fountain were not injured.

Wooten to head undergraduate research program

Marie Wooten, an associate professor in the Department of Zoology and Wildlife Sciences, has been named faculty coordinator for AU's new Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.

The program is a three-year pilot project that provides undergraduate students with a hands-on research experience by matching qualified students with faculty mentors.

"When people think of research, they almost always think of the College of Sciences and Mathematics or Engineering, but this is a university-wide program," Wooten said.

"It is designed to get students from all over the university involved in research, whether it is accounting, literature, science or drama."
As faculty coordinator, Wooten is responsible for logistics and overall management.

As chair of the program's student selection committee, Wooten also is responsible for matching faculty mentors with qualified applicants, meeting with the research pairs quarterly to monitor the progress of the research and for seeking external funding to supplement program costs.
She also will conduct an undergraduate student research forum where the students can discuss research philosophies with their peers.

"This program makes a positive statement about the university's commitment to its students," Wooten said. "It also makes a positive philosophical statement about research."

Five students are to be selected this month for the 1999 program. Each receives a $4,400 stipend to support his or her research.

The program is funded for five students and their mentors in the first year, 10 in the second year and 15 in the third, Wooten said. Her objective is for it to have proven itself successful enough at the end of the third year to continue with 15 students annually.

Faculty to receive information guides on semesters

Detailed information to help steer faculty through the next seven quarters until AU changes to a semester system in Fall 2000 is being distributed through the campus mail.

The semester transition Faculty Guide provides up-to-date information about the semester transition process. An eight-page, newsletter-style publication, the Faculty Guide is being distributed to AU faculty, deans, department heads and others this month.

Contents of the guide include: The semester class schedule; structure of the final summer under the quarter system; core courses and requirements; student advising and degree audit procedures; quarter to semester credit hour conversion; student appeals process; AU, AUM commonalities and differences regarding the semester transition; comparison of the quarter and semester academic calendars; and the AU calendar for summer 1999 - fall 2000.

Additional information is available at the AU Semester Transition web site: http://www.auburn.edu/semesters/

Four in College of Business receive professorships

Four new named professorships have been awarded in the College of Business, according to Dean Wayne Alderman. They are:

* Torchmark Professorship to Michael LaTour, a professor of marketing in the Department of Marketing and Transportation. The Torchmark Professorships were established by Torchmark Corporation

* Charles McKenzie Taylor Jr., Professorship to Richard Tabor, professor in the School of Accountancy. The Taylor Professorship was established through a gift from C. Mack Taylor.

* J.W. Woodruff Sr., Endowed Professorship to Charles Snyder, professor of management in the Department of Management. The Woodruff Professorship honors the memory of James Waldo Woodruff Sr.

* Privett Professorship to Lorraine Gardiner, an associate professor of management in the Department of Management. The Privett Professorships for program enhancement were established through a gift from Col. George Phillips Privett.

LaTour received his bachelor of business administration degree and the MBA from Boise State University. He received a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Mississippi in 1986. He was on the faculty at Old Dominion University before coming to AU in 1991.

Tabor received a B.S. and an MBA from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He taught at the University of Texas before coming to AU in 1985.

Snyder, who has been at Auburn since 1978, holds degrees from the University of Georgia and South Dakota State University and a Ph.D. in management from Ohio State University. He has been a consultant to several major corporations.

Gardiner, who joined the AU faculty in 1988, has a bachelor's degree from Hollins College and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

Counselors help witnesses of pool incident

Professional staff members of AU's Student Counseling Services held two discussion sessions for employees, students and others who witnessed an incident at the university aquatics center leading to the death of a swimmer last week.

Robert Mount Jr., 36, died Feb. 3 at East Alabama Medical Center. The 1990 AU graduate was pulled from the pool two days earlier in full cardiac arrest. A local pet shop owner, he was the son of Zoology Entomology Professor Emeritus Robert H. Mount Sr.

Three counselors with Student Counseling Services held two Critical Instance Stress Debriefing sessions -- one for lifeguards and another for other swimmers who were at the competition pool, said David Hodge, a staff counselor with AU's Student Success Center.

Hodge, Doug Hankes and Liza Mueller led the sessions, which are characterized as group discussions to allow those who witness a crisis to discuss it.

"This is not counseling or group therapy," he said. "It's a process where you go around the room and allow people to talk ‹ about what they saw, heard and did. Then they can talk about what they thought and if they are experiencing any physical difficulties."

"All of our sympathies are extended to the Mount family and friends," said Aquatics Director John Asmuth. "Rob came to the pool so often, all the lifeguards knew and liked him."

Lab Animal Resources moves headquarters

Administrative offices for the Lab Animal Resources program are relocating to 307 Samford Hall from the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Biological Research Facility on Mell Street.

The move includes the executive director and the secretary for the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Relocation will be complete by March 1, said Executive Director Larry Swango.

The move comes with the arrival of Michael Hart of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as director of AU's Laboratory Animal Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Three in Sciences and Mathematics win dean's awards

The College of Sciences and Mathematics has scheduled lectures by three winners of the college's Dean's Faculty Research Award.

This year's award lecturers are Philip Shevlin, Kelly Mosley professor of sciences and humanities, Dean Hoffman, professor of discrete and statistical sciences, and Raymond Henry, alumni professor of zoology.

Shevlin's lecture is set for Feb. 8, Hoffman's for Feb. 15 and Henry will speak March 1. All three lectures in the series will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Chemistry Building 151.

The awards are given annually from nominations received in the areas of biological sciences, physical sciences and discrete mathematics and statistical sciences. Each recipient presents an award lecture and receives a $1,000 honorarium and a plaque.

Shevlin was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has received approximately $1.74 million in research funding from sources outside AU.

Hoffman, who has published 72 articles in research publications, will discuss his internationally recognized research in the fields of graph and design theory. Hoffman's research as been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

Henry, the author of 51 articles in refereed journals, three invited reviews, seven invited symposium papers and four book chapters, will lecture about how animals have evolved molecular mechanisms to get rid of the carbon dioxide they produce as a byproduct of metabolism. Henry's research has been funded since 1985 by the National Science Foundation. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry.

AU expands background checks on new staff hires

Auburn has begun running background checks on prospective new employees and on employees competing for promotion outside their units.

The practice, which does not apply to faculty or to staff receiving one step promotions within their units, was announced to the Administrative and Professional Assembly on Jan. 26 and the Staff Council on Jan. 27 by Darwin Liverance, assistant vice president for human resources.

Previously, backgrou that require the handling of cash or have other needs for extra security. Some of those job categories have large numbers of black employees, and expanding the searches to cover all staff, professional and administrative positions will provide more assurance that whites and blacks are treated equally, he said.

Liverance said the background search involves checks for criminal convictions and verification of occupational and professional licenses.
The record reviews normally go back seven years but can go back to the person's 18th birthday in unusual circumstances, he added.

A blemish on a person's record, especially an old offense, will not automatically disqualify a person, but failure to truthfully answer questions on the application will do so, he said.

Driving-under-the-influence convictions, if applicable to the job, will be subject to a bonding company's decision to include the person in the university's insurance coverage, he said. Most other traffic violations do not have to be reported, under the personnel policy.

Liverance said the background checks, patterned after a system at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, are intended to protect the university community from people with a history of criminal or risky behavior that could endanger others or open the university to legal liability.

Administrative and Professional Assembly and Staff Council members objected to the administration applying the policy to their constituents when faculty are excluded. Liverance said the university had to act to protect itself from potential liability and could not wait until the faculty were in support of the policy before expanding its coverage of staff categories.

Women's Studies schedules speakers

AU's Women's Studies Program has scheduled a series of "brown bag luncheons" in February and March. All meetings are open to faculty and students, who are encouraged to bring their lunch for the noon meetings.

Elizabeth Brake of the Philosophy Department will speak on "A Feminist Approach to Death" on Thursday, Feb. 11, in Foy 203.

Other speakers are:
* Marie Francois, History Department, "Housekeeping on the Liberal Frontier: Mexico, 1880 -1910," Feb. 18, Thach 317.
* Susan Brinson, Communication Department, "Personal and Public Interests: Frieda Hennock and the FCC," Feb. 25, Thach 317.
* Susan Roberson, English Department, "Women, America, and Movement: Narratives of Relocation," March 2, Foy 203.

Class launched to teach defenses against rape

A 12-hour class designed to help female students, faculty and staff effectively prevent and defend against rape begins Feb. 23 in the Greg Pratt Room of the Student Activities Center.

The Rape Aggression Defense class teaches women a combination of awareness and prevention plus defensive techniques and is designed to help women make educated decisions when they encounter aggression.

The free program is the only course of its kind endorsed by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement.

The course will be taught by AU Department of Public Safety personnel who recently were certified to teach the class.

Detective Tara McCallum, Lt. Randy Cerovsky and officers Scott Belton and Chris Butler completed a three-day course taught by veteran police officer Larry Nadeau, the regional director of the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers. All four were required to pass written and practical exams at the culmination of the course.

McCallum says the class will be limited to about 30 women on a first come, first serve basis. The class will meet three nights -- Feb. 23, March 2 and March 9 -- from 6 p.m-10 p.m.

At the beginning of the course -- funded by AU Student Counseling Services' Sexual Assault Elimination project with a grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs -- each student will be provided with a free manual, McCallum said.

When the student completes the course, an instructor will sign her manual and her lifetime practice policy, which enables the student to go through the course again -- free of charge -- at any time anywhere the course is taught.

For more information on the RAD class, contact program coordinators McCallum or Cerovsky at 844-4158.

Saks chairman named visiting executive in Business College

Brad Martin, chairman and chief executive officer of Saks Incorporated ‹ the nation's fourth largest department store chain ‹ will be the Lowder Visiting Executive in the Auburn University College of Business on Feb. 17

At 10 a.m., Martin, 47, will speak to an MBA class on Behavioral Science Management. He will speak at 1 p.m. to a Principles of Management class.

Martin was the principal investor in a group that acquired Proffitt's, Inc. -- the predecessor to Saks -- in 1984 when the company operated five stores in the Knoxville, Tenn., area. Five years later he joined the management of Proffitt's Inc., as chairman, president and general merchandise manager of what was then a $75 million company.

Saks Incorporated today has annual revenues of more than $6 billion and operates more than 350 stores in 38 states.

A graduate of the University of Memphis, Martin holds an MBA from Vanderbilt. He lives in Memphis and Walland, Tenn., and served five terms as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

The program is funded through an endowment by Robert and Charlotte Lowder of Montgomery.

Southern historian to deliver Littleton-Franklin Lecture

Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Southern historian at the University of Florida, will deliver a Littleton-Franklin Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities at Auburn University on Feb. 23.

Wyatt-Brown, the Milbauer Professor of United States history at Florida, will speak at 4 p.m. in the Conference Center auditorium. The title of his lecture is "When Johnny Reb Came Marching Home."

In addition to the public lecture, Wyatt-Brown will speak to AU history classes and the AU Academy Lifelong Learners, said Philip Shevlin, the W. Kelly Mosley Professor of Sciences and Humanities at AU.

Wyatt-Brown is the author of Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South, Yankee Saints and Southern Sinners and The House of Percy; Honor, Melancholy and Imagination in a Southern Family.

Quilts discussed as art, black history

Nora McKeown Ezell, who practices quilting as an African-American historical artform, will read from her new book on the subject at 4 p.m. Feb. 25 at Pebble Hill.

Under sponsorship of AU's Center for the Arts and Humanities, Ezell will read from her new book, My Quilts and Me: The Diary of an American Quilter.

Ezell's pictorial quilts are a testament to her individualism, rigor and vision, says Gail Andrews Trechsel, director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. Ezell's subjects range from the history of Alabama's Civil Right activists to the retelling of Bible stories and to Birmingham cityscapes.

Ezell's work has been exhibited at the Museum of American Folk Art in New York as well as in many one-woman shows. In 1992, the artist was named a National Heritage Fellow for the National Endowment for the Arts, which recognizes people who carry on U.S. folk traditions. In 1990, she received the Alabama Folk Heritage Award, the state's highest honor for achievement in traditional arts.

Unsung Hero
Brenda Lisano, School of Pharmacy

This week's Unsung Hero is Brenda Lisano, assistant to the dean in the School of Pharmacy. She has 14 years of service to the university, the last four in the School of Pharmacy. She was asked:

I get the greatest satisfaction in my job when... "I meet the needs of the students, Dean Evans, faculty, staff and alumni."

In my job area, quality is measured by... "successful planning and coordination and the flexibility to change."

If I could change one thing about Auburn (or my job), it would be... "to, of course, have enough funding and flexibility to make the university even greater than before."

I've always wondered why... (no answer)

When people come to this campus, I want them to... "experience and understand the meaning of 'The Auburn Family.'"

In my spare time, I like to... "travel, ski, sail, read."

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, February 9
* University Senate, 3:10 p.m., Broun Hall auditorium.
Wednesday, February 10
* Littleton-Franklin Lecture, U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, 4 p.m. , AU Hotel and Conference Center auditorium.
* Chamber Music Society Concert: Lark Quartet, selections from Haydn, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. 8 p.m., Goodwin Recital Hall. Free for students; others $15; tickets at the door.
Monday, February 15 through Sunday, February 20
* AU Theatre, "Guys and Dolls," 7:30 p.m. Reservations: 844-4154.
Monday, February 15
* Sciences and Mathematics Award Lecture: Dean Hoffman, Discrete and Statistical Sciences, 3:30 p.m., Chemistry Building 151.
* York Lecturer: Michael Doyle, University of Georgia, 7:30 p.m., Conference Center.
Tuesday, February 16
* Author's Reading: Brooks Blevins, "Cattle in the Cotton Fields: A History of Cattle Raising in Alabama," 4 p.m., Pebble Hill.
Thursday, February 18
* Black History Month Speaker: Spike Lee, 7 p.m., Student Activities Bldg.
Friday, February 19
* Program Review and Assessment Committee: Ph.D. option in economics (elimination proposed), 1:30 p.m., Hargis Hall
Tuesday, February 23
* Littleton-Franklin Lecture: Bertram Wyatt-Brown, "When Johnny Reb Came Marching Home," 4 p.m., Conference Center.

Campus Views
(Editor's Note: Campus Views is a standing feature of the AU Report in which individual faculty and staff members present their personal opinions on topics of interest to the campus community.Barry Burkhart is a former chair of the University Senate and recently chaired a university task force on reorganization. Part I of this series was in the 1-25-99 AU Report.)

Forget Personalities, reform system
By Barry Burkhart, Professor, Psychology

In Part I of this essay (see 1-25-98 AU Report), the functioning of the Board of Trustees at Auburn was identified as the constant and central problem for Auburn. This assertion was supported by a historical review of Auburn's past and by personal observation of the current functioning of the board. The argument was advanced that blaming individuals for the long-standing history of board mistakes and misdeeds fails to provide a useful understanding of the board's maladaptive functioning. Instead, the processes by which board members are nominated and selected and the archaic and authoritarian structure of the board were implicated as the Gordian knots precluding even the most able of board members (of whom there have been a number) from extricating the board.

In this section of this essay, a number of reasoned and responsible reforms for the board will be outlined. Given the limitations of space, full supporting arguments will not be given for each. However, most of these suggestions were drawn directly and, at times, verbatim, from the Renden committee's report on governance and supporting arguments can be found in that document. Moreover, most of these recommendations are considered to be standard practice by authoritative sources on governing boards.

Give faculty seat at table
The first recommendation is made not because of any absolute priority, but because it can be accomplished quickly, easily, and simply by board resolution and because it would heal the breach between faculty and board more genuinely than any act available to the board. The board should appoint the respective chairs of the faculty at AU and AUM as members ex officio. The fact that both SGA presidents sit on the board ex officio while the faculty and staff have no representation is an affront to all who work for AU and AUM. With one act, the board has the power to overturn decades of alienation and disengagement from the faculty. Cooperative engagement rather than continuing adversarial estrangement; why not? The second set of recommendations require changing the constitutionally prescribed structure of the board. These archaic and provincial standards were appropriate, perhaps, for the Auburn of 100 years ago, but no longer serve the interests of the Auburn University of today. The recommended changes are clearly in line with contemporary standards and I cannot imagine that they could be opposed by anyone familiar with higher education leadership.
The recommendations are:

* The state residency requirement for trustees should be eliminated.

* The terms of trustees should be changed from the current length of 12 years to 8 years

* The number of terms a trustee can serve should be changed from the current standard of unlimited number of terms to only one term.

* The State Legislature of Alabama should establish a Board Candidate Advisory Council to develop criteria for selection of trustees, describe responsibilities and duties of trustees, identify and recruit qualified candidates, and recommend two to four candidates for each new trustee appointment. This council should include representatives from the Alumni Association, faculty, and student government. The guidelines could be patterned after those in effect in several states.

* The Senate confirmation committee should be eliminated to allow full vote by the Senate for approval of board nominees.

* No current member of the Legislature should be allowed to serve on the board.

* The Board of Trustees should recognize by formal declared policy and by supporting appropriate changes in the state constitution that its primary functions are to establish broad policy for the institution and to protect the university from external pressures. Toward these ends, the wording of Amendment No. 161, Section 1, of the constitution of Alabama should be changed from "Auburn University... shall be under the management and control of a board of trustees" to "Auburn University...shall be governed by a board of trustees." Similar and parallel changes should be made in the Board Policy and Procedures Manual.

* A conflict of interest statement, similar to those in effect at Alabama A&M and Alabama State University should be placed into Chapter 48 of the Code of Alabama, 1975, for Auburn University.

The third set of recommendations is internal to the board and requires changes only in the board policy manual. These include:

* Members of the Board of Trustees should disclose personal assets and potential conflicts of interest by filing a standard ethics form as required by other public officials in Alabama.

* The board should develop procedures for reprimanding members for misconduct, inappropriate behavior, or failure to perform responsibilities at an expected level and should develop mechanisms for removal of a member(s) from office for just cause as required by SACS.

* Members of the board should recognize that only the full board can make decisions. The board should be self-disciplining regarding individual trustees attempting to influence the President or other university administrators.

* The board should develop a formal training program to be provided to all trustees, both new and current members. Training could be in the subjects of ethics, board duties, history and philosophy of higher education, lay governance, finances, and review of academic programs.

* The board's policy manual should include a declaration of its role as "protector" of the University. Moreover, the board should include a policy definition that the other core role for the board is to develop policy, not manage the day to day affairs of the university. The board's previous involvement in targeting individual faculty because of personal philosophical differences in beliefs must be acknowledged as never appropriate and clearly outside the role of any board member. As stated by SACS, "there must be clear distinction, in writing and in practice, between the policy making functions of the governing board and the responsibility of the administration and faculty to administer and implement policy."

Encourage faculty-trustee contact
* Faculty-trustee contact should be encouraged. A semiannual meeting of the University Senate Executive Committee with the board is a possibility, as are additional informal contacts.

* Members of the Board of Trustees should be encouraged to attend regional and national meetings for governing boards as a part of their professional development. Additionally, the board should use a professional agency to review and make recommendations in the areas of board composition, qualifications and orientation of new members, and policy and procedures.

These recommendations are nothing less than what is expected by the board of all Auburn faculties, staff, and administrators. There is nothing to be feared by these changes; if specific ones are genuinely not feasible or overly burdensome, then the board should so respond to those specific ones. However, if most of these are reasonable suggestions which have the potential to solve the core problems which the board has faced, then I would expect the board to work for their implementation. Expecting less of the board is to believe that they do not love Auburn. I believe that the majority of Auburn's board members, present and past, love Auburn and wish for a better future than the past would predict. I hope, also, that all of the Auburn family, alumni, faculty, and students, would support these reforms.