Turnaround seen in funding
Survey shows statewide support for AU
AU takes lead in tag sales
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AU REPORT |
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| Headlines Turnaround seen in funding Survey shows statewide support for AU AU takes lead in tag sales |
Storm damage
Turnaround cited in AU's funding from legislature
The recently concluded annual session of the Alabama Legislature marked a sharp contrast from recent years in terms of funding for Auburn, said Buddy Mitchell, AU's director of governmental affairs.
AU received a 6 percent increase to $196.7 million for the budget year which starts Oct. 1. Of that amount, $128 million is for main campus operations and maintenance.
Conditioned from years of budget cuts and level funding under the previous governor and legislature, AU had built a 1 percent increase into its budget projections.
Mitchell attributed the turnaround to a progressive attitude toward higher
education by Gov. Don Siegelman and legislative leaders.
"Gov. Siegelman and many members of both houses listened to our needs,
and they are trying to help us address those needs," said Mitchell.
In addition to funds for the main campus, the budget includes $22.9
million for the Agricultural Experiment Station, $25.6 million for the
Cooperative Extension Service, $18.4 million for AUM and $1.8 million for
the Alabama Technology Network, of which AU is one of several partners.
The budget also includes conditional appropriations of $1 million for the School of Pharmacy External Doctor of Pharmacy Program and $3.2 million for the Alabama Agriculture Land-Grant Alliance. Conditional appropriations are subject to release by the governor when revenues exceed expenditures during a fiscal year.
One of the bright spots, Mitchell said, was the performance of freshman Rep. Mike Hubbard of Auburn. Mitchell said Hubbard immediately picked up the mantle of Auburn defender in the Alabama House that his predecessor, Pete Turnham, had worn until Turnham's retirement last year.
"Normally, it takes a while for a freshman representative to learn his way around, especially when it comes to something as complex as the budget process," said Mitchell. "But Rep. Hubbard picked it up right away. He was quick to spot the implications of anything that could help or hurt Auburn, and he was an excellent ally."
Mitchell also credited several other legislators with Auburn connections, including Senate President Pro Tem Lowell Barron of Fyffe, House Speaker Seth Hammett of Andalusia, Rep. Jack Venable of Tallassee, Senate Majority Leader Tom Butler of Huntsville and Sen. Ted Little of Auburn. They and others helped set the tone for more favorable treatment of AU and higher education in general in this year's education budget, he said.
AU custodians seek changes in work rules
In 1996, AU Custodial Services employees and supervisors began a new
work shift that began at 5 a.m. On June 21, university administrators
listened to the problems related to the shift voiced by a group of
employees, but a survey last week of custodial staffers shows not all
custodians want to change their starting time.
The work schedule change was made to ensure sufficient time to clean
classrooms before 8 a.m. classes,
Facilities Executive Director Cathy Love explained at the
June 21 meeting called to air a list of complaints from custodial staffers.
The shift change, the gathering of Custodial Services employees said,
created hardships for families with young children and raised fears for
personal safety, especially among women driving to campus in predawn
hours. Getting children ready for school or daycare did not mesh with the 5
a.m. work start time.
Love spent much of last week polling the 140 Custodial Services employees and supervisors on their work schedule preferences and other issues raised in the June 21 meeting. Friday, she reported that the polling results are "inconclusive." Love added, "Half of our employees want to start work at 6 a.m., the other half wants to continue the 5 a.m. start. I'm not persuaded there is a majority preference, but we are still examining the issue thanks to constructive, open communication between staff members and administrators."
Other points raised during the three-hour discussion June 21 attended by 42 Custodial Services and Athletic Department employees included some recent reassignments of supervisors, opportunities for advancement, pay scales, longevity and merit pay, paycheck distribution and the requirement that employees punch time clocks before and after their half-hour lunch periods.
Custodial Services employees also have been required to remain in the buildings in which they work during their two 15-minute paid rest breaks each day, and some had expressed interest in being permitted to move about more freely.
Love and the Custodial Services supervisors have agreed that supervisors will return to their previous work assignments. Love said her surveys indicated that about three-quarters of the Custodial Services employees preferred to continue using time clocks before and after lunch instead of maintaining time sheets. On the issue of where employees can take their breaks, Love said she and supervisors have agreed that employees may leave their assigned buildings, but since they are clocked-in, they must remain on campus and notify their supervisors when they leave their assigned buildings.
Although several employees argued that racial discrimination was the cause of some of the complaints listed, Debra Armstrong-Wright, executive director of affirmative action/equal employment opportunity, responded that while a number of the points raised represented substantial concerns, they were not racial. Poor communication, many participants agreed, was a recurring factor.
"This was a constructive airing of complaints," said Don Large, executive vice president, who attended the June 21 meeting. "We understand the frustration that was expressed over some of our policies and procedures. I was pleased that we were able to move quickly to eliminate a number of the problems, and I saw a strong commitment to work through the problems that may take a bit more time."
Love, Armstrong-Wright and Johnny Green, interim assistant provost for minority affairs, have agreed to continue meeting with Custodial Services and Athletic Department employees to work toward resolution of any remaining issues.
Custodial Services staffers, along with all 1,600 classified employees, are represented in university governance by the Staff Council, chaired by Patrice Benson, executive secretary in the office of minority affairs. "I am pleased that progress is finally being made to rectify some situations these employees have been encountering," Benson said.
Alabama residents give AU high marks for graduates, service
Alabama residents hold a very positive image of Auburn University and
recognize the university's contributions to the state, according to a recent
poll conducted by the Survey Research Laboratory of the AU Center for
Governmental Services.
The telephone survey, conducted in April for University Relations and AU Outreach, shows that Alabama residents give AU high ratings for its impact on the state's economy, the quality of life in Alabama and for attracting industry to local communities.
Other major findings:
* AU is well-known within the state. Two-thirds of respondents are very
or somewhat familiar with the university.
* The majority believe AU is competitive in attracting the best students
and that Auburn graduates are well prepared to compete in the job market.
* More than three-fourths of the respondents rate Auburn as one of the
best universities in the South and the nation.
* About half the respondents say their family has benefitted from
research conducted at Auburn and from AU's outreach or extension
services.
* More than three-fourths of the respondents have watched an Auburn
athletic event on television in the past year.
* More than half of the respondents have seen a television advertisement
for Auburn.
The survey also revealed that Auburn enjoys a much higher rate of support from persons who either attended AU or had an immediate family member who attended Auburn. However, support remained high among those with no direct connection to the university.
Seventy-two percent of those with family connections to Auburn agreed
that AU provides essential services to the state, while 56 percent of
those without family connections to AU felt likewise.
Less than 3 percent of those without family connections to AU and only
1.3 percent of those with such connections felt that Auburn does not
provide essential services to the state. Only 1.3 percent of those with and
7.5 percent of those without family connections had no opinion on the
question.
The CGS report notes that almost all the respondents believe the state receives a good return for its investment in Auburn. More than 90 percent agreed that Auburn graduates are well prepared to compete in the job market, Auburn helps to create jobs in Alabama and Auburn provides essential services to the state.
When asked to rate Auburn on a 10-point scale, respondents gave the
following average ratings:
* Importance to Alabama's economy: 7.54.
* Importance to the overall quality of life in Alabama: 7.35
* Importance to attracting industry to local communities: 7.06.
* Importance in providing service to local communities: 6.03
* Importance to family well-being: 5.61.
The survey questionnaire was developed in University Relations to assess
the image of AU by the people of Alabama, edited and revised by
Governmental Services and University Relations with input from AU
Outreach and administered by CGS-trained callers. The results will aid
those units in planning communication objectives and strategies.
Approximately 400 persons statewide, 18 years and older, were polled in
the random survey, which carried a statistical confidence level of 95
percent. A CGS report notes that if conducted in the same manner 100
times with other Alabamians, the results of 95 polls would be expected to
fall within plus or minus 5 percent of the current findings.
Changes coming to food services
War Eagle Food Court will remain open this summer while undergoing
changes under the new management of Sodexho Marriott. Terrell Dining Hall
will be closed for extensive renovation into a mall-style food court like
that the War Eagle facility in Foy Union.
Changes coming to food service areas on campus
Sodexho Marriott, one of the nation's largest food service providers for college campuses, assumed management of food services at Auburn under an agreement approved by the AU Board of Trustees in April.
Terrell is slated to close on July 2 for renovation as a mall-style food court and reopen by the start of fall quarter, said Call, who will continue to manage day-to-day operations on campus under a Sodexho Marriott general manager.
Summer camp participants, the usual summer clientele of Terrell, will take their meals at Take 10 after the Independence Day holiday. The Haley Center food service area and the adjoining lounge will be temporarily converted to serve and seat 300-600 summer campers per meal through the end of summer quarter.
Patrons at War Eagle Food Court in Foy Student Union may see one or two food areas at a time disrupted, but the food court will remain open throughout the summer, Call said.
The only significant construction at the War Eagle Food Court will be in the old University Club dining room, which will be converted to a Chick Fil-A restaurant, he added. The University Club dining area will be relocated to a nearby room.
A Godfather's franchise will replace the existing pizza shop in the War Eagle Food Court, and other franchises may eventually replace some of the other shops in the food court, but patrons during the summer can expect a minimum of disruption, Call said.
Major changes will be made at Terrell, which had already been scheduled
for conversion into a food court, he added. When the dining hall on south
side of campus reopens in the fall, it will feature a Chick-Fil-A, a
Godfather's Pizza with a brick oven, a Sub Connection sandwich shop and
an assortment of other eateries.
Among other pending changes, Take 10 will be renovated later in the year,
and Dow Deli will see a name change and move to Lupton Hall, where it
will house a Godfather's Pizza and a convenience store.
The north end of Terrell, which houses the new Starbucks coffee shop, is
under control of Auxiliary Enterprises and is unaffected by the
changes.
Designing women
Four architecture students from AU designed and built the
Family Resource Center in Greensboro. The students, from left,
are Nikol Shaw of San Diego; Michael Renauld and Ginger Jesser
Cunningham, both of Mobile; and Allison Bryant of Atlanta.
All-female design team builds center in Greensboro
And continuing in the groundbreaking work of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction's Rural Studio, established in Hale County in 1993, these students broke the mold in another way -- all four are women.
"We were something to talk about in town," says San Diego native Nikol
Shaw, who along with Ginger Jesser-Cunningham and Michael Renauld of
Mobile and Allison Bryant of Atlanta comprised the female foursome.
Richard Rhone, director of the FRC, agrees that the town was talking
about, and driving by to see, this women-powered construction project.
"The women said they would have gotten a whole lot done a whole lot
sooner without people stopping to ask, 'Where are the guys?'" said Rhone.
It took the students nine months to design and construct the buildings. The
project consisted of two buildings -- one red, one yellow -- with 1,285
total square feet and a brick and mortar walk covered with a vaulting
gabled roof. Based somewhat on a "dogtrot" design, the buildings are
adjacent to the FRC.
"The red building is modeled after a child advocacy center," says Shaw, adding that included are rooms for play therapy, interviews and assessing abuse. A work space, observation room and bathroom are also in the red building.
The yellow building, says Rhone, will consist of classroom space for a variety of educational programs, including parenting classes, "power" classes (designed to help adults move from welfare to work), teen "power" classes (to help break the cycle of welfare) and a class to help divorcing parents understand the effect divorce has on their young children. The building is being put to immediate use this summer with elementary school tutoring.
Bryan Bell, an AU visiting professor, who has recently been supervising the students for Rural Studio director and co-founder Samuel Mockbee, says the students have done a "...phenomenal effort here with a lot of heart and a lot of sweat, on time and on budget.
"It's a beautiful product that children and families can enjoy for years and
years," says Bell, adding, "The students did all the work."
FRC Director Rhone says he feels that since this project is located in
downtown Greensboro, and visitors to Rural Studio construction sites
won't have to go into unknown rural areas, it will be a "premier showcase"
for Auburn University Outreach.
Trustee bill dies on final day of '99 legislative session
The bill, which would have authorized a statewide referendum on an
amendment to the Alabama Constitution, was passed by the Alabama
Senate and approved by a House committee. Both actions came late in the
session, and the bill did not come to a vote in the House.
Auburn First, a coalition of Auburn alumni, has campaigned for the bill
through two consecutive legislative sessions and has indicated that it
will again seek passage in the next session.
Under the proposed constitutional amendment, the governor's role in appointing Auburn trustees would be reduced through two new committees on which Auburn alumni and AU Board members would play key roles. The proposed changes would also permit a nonresident of Alabama to be appointed to the board for the first time.
The current selection process, which is prescribed in the Alabama Constitution, authorizes the governor to appoint trustees, subject to Senate confirmation.
Jack Simms returns as Journalism head
Simms, who retired in 1992 after 18 years at AU, was asked by Heilman to return as interim head of journalism following the resignation of department head Jerry Brown, who leaves June 30 to become dean of the School of Journalism at the University of Montana http://www.umt.edu/journalism/. Simms' appointment is effective July 1.
"I am delighted that Jack Simms has agreed to serve as interim head of the Department of Journalism," Heilman said. "The department will apply for reaccreditation during the coming year and Jack has the proven experience and expertise to lead the department through this important process.
Simms, who worked 23 years with the Associated Press before coming to AU, has worked on several projects for the department since he retired. He played a key role in the preparation of the department's first application for accreditation in 1995, which culminated in the department receiving unanimous, six-year accreditation from the Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. It is one of only 100 programs nationwide to receive such status.
BellSouth gift
Minority Engineering Program director Dennis Weatherby,
seated, demonstrates software used in the program to
BellSouth's Bill McNair, left, and Tom Somerville.
BellSouth gift assists minority engineering program
Present for the June 23 presentation were Bill McNair, vice president for Interconnection Operations for BellSouth; and Tom Somerville, the company's regional director. Accepting the gift for AU were College of Engineering Dean Larry Benefield and Dennis Weatherby, director of the Minority Engineering Program.
Weatherby said 71 of 90 eligible minority engineering
students participate in the program, which includes both tutorial help and
counseling on skills specific to the success of engineering students as
well as such basic skills as social and academic survival, interaction with
professors and study habits.
AU starts new dial-up Internet service Sept.1
AU Dial, which will cost a minimum of $8 a month, will replace a free but
now defunct dial-up service that was eliminated on June 16.
The new service, which will not be sold to individuals, will be billed
monthly to university departmental accounts, says John Helms, assistant
director of telecommunications.
Two plans will be offered. Plan 1 will cost $8 per month for 15 hours of access, with additional time billed at 60 cents per hour. Plan 2 will cost $12 per month for 120 hours of access, with each additional minute costing 60 cents per hour.
Helms says both plans will offer the same local access and toll-free long distance dial-up access numbers. Toll-free access usage will be billed back to departmental accounts at the rate of 10 cents per minute.
"If you are calling from a hotel while traveling on business, with toll-free access you can avoid the expense of hotel long distance bills or the hassle of using a calling card," said Helms.
The call is toll-free from the hotel and is billed back at 10 cents a minute against your user account. Departments will not be charged an initial connection fee, said Helms. Dial-up Networking comes as part of most personal computer operating systems currently on the market, so basic configuration is straightforward, he added. All AUNet applications, which are available on CDROM and via the web, should run across an AU Dial session.
AU Dial will be owned and administered by the AU Division of Telecommunication, but some hotline support will likely be provided by the Department of University Computing, said Helms.
Hotline support to answer configuration questions and general how-to questions will only be available during business hours. As with the current university network and telephone systems, widespread outages can be reported after-hours over the Technology Hotline at 844-5555.
"While accounts will belong to individuals, AU Dial is not being sold to
individuals," said Helms. "It will be up to each department to decide who
needs access and to budget appropriate funds for those costs."
The old service was discontinued, said Helms, because it was being
operated on outdated equipment that is not Y2K-compliant. He said the old
service also did not support the use of web browsers and other graphical
tools that are popular with Internet users.
Meanwhile, CampusCWIX (formerly CampusMCI), operated by Cable & Wireless USA, Inc., of Vienna, Va., has announced that it has sold its Internet accounts to Prodigy Communications, one of the nation's leading Internet service providers.
Street patterns changing on west side of campus
With the north end of Wire Road merged with the west end of Roosevelt
Drive and rerouted around the Transportation Services hangar to Magnolia
Avenue, drivers on the old stretch of road now encounter a deadend if they
attempt to pass in front of the hangar.
Completion of the roadwork on the west side of campus clears the way for future renovation and expansion of parking areas on the west side of campus, including the parking area at Max Morris field.
Facilities' paving plans for the summer
include
improvements to the Miller/Cary Hall parking lot, AU Chapel parking lot
and the Wire Road/Simmons drive intersection.
College of Education honors 1957 Ed.D. graduate/S.C. educator
The award was presented to Hall, retired superintendent of Greenville, S.C., schools, by College of Education Dean Richard Kunkel, who described Hall as a trailblazer for education improvements in the South.
"Dr. Hall has won national acclaim and been an inspiration for students, teachers and school administrators for many years," said Kunkel. "As the holder of three degrees from the College of Education, he has brought great honor on the college and has long been a model for our students."
As superintendent of schools in Greenville, S.C., from 1970-84, Hall led the orderly integration of that city's schools and was a prominent force for education improvements throughout South Carolina.
Recognized as an education innovator while in administrative posts in Alabama, Illinois and South Carolina, Hall became a major education figure in South Carolina. He won acclaim for his long-term leadership of the Greenville school system, and the system's central administrative building was later named for him.
Hall, a Chambers County native and World War II veteran, has been a teacher, education administrator and consultant since earning a bachelor's degree from Auburn in 1948. He returned to Auburn to earn a master's degree in 1951 and was in the first class to earn a doctorate in education from Auburn in 1957.
A graduate of Valley High School, he taught and was an administrator in
schools in Chambers County from 1948-1958, and spent the next 26 years
as an education administrator in Puerto Rico, Illinois and South Carolina.
Since his retirement as a school system administrator in 1984, Hall has
served as a professor at the University of South Carolina and Furman
University and, since 1988, has been a consultant on education
management for school systems throughout the Southeast.
ACCs called front line of defense in tech diagnosis
"In many cases, the ACCs are the front line of defense and coordination relating to administrative computing issues in their units," said Miller, who is one of three DUC specialists working with the nearly 50 administrative computing coordinators across campus. Also working with the ACCs are DUC specialists Barbara Smith and Pam Beverly.
Every college and school and each administrative division has an administrative computing coordinator appointed by that unit's chief administrator. Many smaller units that depend heavily on administrative computing applications also have an ACC.
Auburn has had administrative computing coordinators in major units since the mid-1980s, and the university's reliance on them has increased in recent years in proportion to the burgeoning of administrative computing technologies on campus, Miller said.
Most coordinators are not full-time computer specialists but have a broad understanding of their units' administrative computing needs and have regular contact with DUC specialists and other computing experts.
The DUC specialists keep the ACCs posted on the latest technology developments and problem fixes through a special, secure web site as well as direct communication and periodic group briefing sessions.
"We don't expect them to be all-encompassing computing experts, but they do have a thorough understanding of administrative computing technologies and applications that enables most departments to operate more efficiently on a day-to-day basis," Miller said.
Data from the state
Department of Revenue, which reflect sales
of the tags through May 31, show AU's total receipts of about $7.3 million
leading among state colleges and universities with specialty tag
programs. The University of Alabama is second with about $6.4 million in
sales receipts.
Sales of the AU license plates account for more than 42 percent of all the
collegiate tags sold in the state since 1989.
AU also leads all other Alabama colleges and universities in sales
receipts for the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. AU receipts for
fiscal 1999 through May 31 total just more than $95,000. Alabama is
second with just over $77,000.
With the fiscal year two-thirds over, AU appears destined to lead the
state in collegiate license plate sales for the sixth consecutive year.
Since the tags became available, Auburn and Alabama have accounted for
just less than 80 percent of all collegiate license plate sales in Alabama.
Tags are available for 25 state colleges and universities -- just more
than $14 million of the $17.3 million total.
The Credit Research Center, formerly based at Purdue, researches
consumer credit issues throughout the United States.
Barth joined the AU College of Business faculty in 1990 after serving as
chief economist of the Office of Thrift Supervision. He was also
previously the chief economist of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Barth
is the author of The Great Savings and Loan Debacle and co-wrote The
Future of American Banking and The Reform of Federal Deposit Insurance.
"Millstones" might be a more apt term. These innovations, or maybe the
fact that they might be considered positive contributions, are reasons why
some courses are seen as a drain on the intellectual abilities of a
university, with some teachers holding doctorates yet almost acting anti
intellectual. And the problems are probably not just with business books,
but almost any textbook found on campus.
Some courses have students read books which are then analyzed and
discussed, while others focus on students remembering textbook "facts." A
university should focus on thinking, but textbooks are filled with lists for
students to memorize. Instead of ideas to read, these textbooks have
cartoons and color pictures; instead of writing essays, students answer
multiple-choice exams or socially loaf through group projects.
Similarly, color gets attention and can make reading more interesting.
Even the New York Times now has color pictures. But the use of color has a
danger as the style can take precedence over the substance of what the
color was intended to enhance. And therein lies a problem. Sometimes
classes get more concerned with style than substance.
Many of the questions are drawn from sometimes trivial details of
checklists and the more they are used they encourage the students to
consider lectures irrelevant. They encourage faculty to lecture without
much mental involvement in either the material or the students. After
years of classes that used this "innovation," students are likely to sit
with textbooks open and markers in hand, coloring sentences bright colors
where the instructor mentions it as important.
At a more basic level, since students are seldom told why they should
learn, they often misunderstand the importance of education or what they
might take away from the course.
A student frustrated me greatly last year. Always prepared for class, she
had top grades on pop quizzes and knew the answer when called upon. But
no matter how much I begged or cajoled, I could not get her to participate
in class discussions. She would answer my direct questions and no more.
When asked before class one day, she simply said that rarely are student
comments part of exams, so she only wanted to concentrate on what I had
to say. Based on her learning skills from other courses, class time was
when she would try to discern what she needed to know for exams. In the
end, all she wanted was credit from the class for her certification of a
degree.
In reality, a successful career requires a facile and educated mind. The
classroom experience should have more value than just the credit and
grades from exams. Faculty fail to strongly and repeatedly tell students
that the abilities to think and write clearly are more important than the
textbook's checklists.
With a primary focus on general content, style or form, the textbook
review was missing a statement of what those books mean for education.
Instead, the history revealed the evolution of textbooks as a method of
increasing the fun for students and making teaching an easier activity.
That is the concern of many faculty who see students as a customer who
"buy" our courses and degrees. And somehow, the end loser could be
students in our classes.
* * *
AU # 1 in sales of special license plates in Alabama
"Auburn continues to lead the way in collegiate license plate sales in
Alabama thanks to the generous support of all our friends and alumni,"
said Mike Jernigan, who leads the marketing effort for AU's "License to
Learn" program.
Barth named to governing board of research center
Campus Views
Textbooks take on aspects of comic books
By Herbert Rotfeld, Professor, Marketing
An historical review of textbooks highlighted supposed milestones in this
area of publishing. Any study of more than seven decades of content and
changes does provide some insight into an academic field and what faculty
of a period consider important. Yet, as with much of historical analysis,
the selection of items highlighted and general assertions also indicate the
academic philosophy and views of the reviewer. In this presentation,
lengthy and repeated mention was made of the three innovations as
important "milestones" in the textbooks: use of cartoons to present the
material, color pictures, and computerized test banks with instructor
packages.
Cartoons are read, sometimes more readily than the text. A noted leader of
the advertising business, David Ogilvy, insisted for many years that humor
harms advertising effectiveness in that people remember the joke but not
the more important brand or message. In a comparable vein, textbook
cartoons can help illustrate a point, but students might ignore the point
and remember the cartoon. Students top-of-mind recall of the most
recently read chapter often be a joke or picture instead of the point they
were trying to highlight.
I will admit to having a love-hate relationship with the now-ubiquitous
computerized text banks. As classes get larger, I use them more and more,
yet I see the dangers:
Campus Views columns are made available for the expression of
views by AU faculty and staff. Views expressed in each Campus
Views column are those of the writer and are independent of
official university policy.
Unsung Hero: Donna Saye, executive secretary, Pharmacy
What do you do in your current job? "As Dean Evans' executive
secretary, I do many different things. He is a very busy man."
What is the most rewarding part of your job? "Being a member of
the team that helps the School of Pharmacy run more smoothly."
What is the most challenging part of your job? "I am usually doing ten
things at one time."
If you weren't doing this job, what would you most likely be
doing? "I would love to have a small gourmet restaurant patterned after
Moon Valley, a restaurant in Dillard, Ga."
What makes Auburn so special? "People unite. They make things
happen. For instance, look at Hickory Dickory Park or the year-round school
issue. Auburn is safe and comfortable. The schools are exceptional. It's
just a wonderful place for children to grow up. Auburn still has that small
town feel about it, but yet we have everything we need right here."
What was your first impression of AU? "We were touched by the fact that
everyone was so friendly and helpful."
What words best describe AU as a work environment, learning
environment or just a place to be? "Caring people. Everyone on
campus is caring and helpful, including the faculty, staff and students."
What do you like to do when not at work? "Work in the yard. We are
landscaping our yard ourselves and recently added a small fish pond. I also
love to read and spend time with my husband, John who teaches in the
department of Curriculum and Teaching, and our 13-year-old daughter,
Maggie, a rising eighth grader at Drake Middle School."
What person or persons do you most admire? "It is hard to pinpoint
one person. My mother, Flora Johnson of Gainesville, Ga., and my mother
in-law, Daphne Saye of Madison, Ga. They are both just amazing women."
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Editor: Roy Summerford. Contributing editors: Bob Lowry, Janet McCoy and David Granger. University Relations Executive Director: Pete Pepinsky. The AU Report is the faculty/staff newsletter of Auburn University and is published by the Office of University Relations at Auburn University. Direct correspondence to AU Report, 23 Samford Hall, Auburn University, Ala. 36849-5109. Telephone 334/844-9999.Electronic mail: summero@mail.auburn.edu |