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AU REPORT |
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Governor asks board to delay search process
Gov. Don Siegelman, president of the AU Board of Trustees, has asked trustees to delay the search for a new AU president when the board meets later this month.
Board President Pro Tem Jimmy Samford of Opelika, who presides over the board in the absence of the governor, announced in June that the board will consider a delay of the presidential search at its next meeting. That session, a called meeting to consider budget matters, is tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m. July 23 at Dixon Conference Center.
In a June 27 letter to other trustees, Siegelman said he would like to see the search delayed until unity in the selection process is achieved among stakeholders of the university. The letter states:
"I call on you to stop the search for a new president for Auburn University unless all stakeholders are satisfied with the selection process. It seems to me that it would do Auburn little or no good to select a president until the faculty, the administration, the students, the alumni and the trustees have confidence in the selection process.
"Therefore, I am strongly urging and respectfully requesting that the
selection be halted until the aforementioned issues have been settled."
Trustee Jack Miller of Mobile, chairman of the search committee, has
identified 10 members of a 16-member committee, but three positions for
faculty representatives and one for an Alumni Association representative
remain unfilled.
Miller requested nine nominations from the University Senate, from which three faculty representatives would be selected. The faculty representative body, instead, passed a resolution asking the board to delay the search for a year.
Miller had asked Alumni Association President Robert Kloeti of Richmond, Va., to represent the association, but Kloeti deferred to the Alumni Association Board of Directors. That board meets at 9 a.m. July 21 at the Alumni Center.
State Supreme Court ruling clears AU budget path
All of Alabama education, not just higher education, will benefit from a June 29 ruling of the Alabama Supreme Court requiring state government to treat public schools and higher education equally when applying funding cuts, says interim AU President William Walker.
"Speaking for the entire Auburn family, I am grateful to the Alabama Supreme Court for its insightful decision that neither K-12 nor higher education should have a priority in state funding in times of proration," Walker said. "This is consistent with our position that education is, indeed, a single fabric."
Most four-year colleges and universities in the state had banded together to challenge in court Gov. Don Siegelman's decision, based on an attorney general's opinion, that proration should be applied more heavily to higher education than to public schools for kindergarten through grade 12. The Alabama Education Association and the Alabama Association of School Boards had advocated that approach to relieve the impact of proration on their members and had used or endorsed media advertisements attacking the state's colleges and universities for opposing it.
With the court case settled, Walker said he hopes that leaders and allies of public schools and higher education will again work together in correcting the funding problem. "It's time for all of education in Alabama to work toward a common goal of eliminating an outdated state tax system that is kept in place by an equally outdated state constitution.
"Our state leaders should look beyond the next election and envision what Alabama could become," Walker continued. "Alabamians value education and would support a new constitution and a revised tax system that would make our schools less dependent on the ups and downs of the economy. Hopefully this Supreme Court ruling will provide another push for a new direction in our state."
As a result of the court's decision, the state will reduce its funding for both K-12 and higher education institutions by 6.2 percent for the period from Oct. 1, 2000 through Sept. 30, 2001. The timing of the ruling enables the state to proceed with the sale of $110 million in bonds, which will be divided proportionately so that proration is reduced to 3.74 percent for both K-12 and higher education.
The bond issue was approved during a special session of the Legislature, but under terms of the legislation the bond sale could proceed only if the Supreme Court ruled in the case before Sept. 30, as it did.
The AU System is projected to receive $5 million from the bond issue. The bond revenue is for construction projects and is not expected to be available until after Oct. 1, but state officials have said they expect all recipients to transfer an equal amount from construction budgets or other revenue sources to this year's operating budgets.
Auburn's budget planners anticipate the net effect of proration to be a $7.7 million reduction in the AU System's original $206 million appropriation from the state for 2000-01. Of that amount, $5.1 million will come from the main campus appropriation for operations and maintenance. The other cuts, in rounded sums, are: Auburn University at Montgomery, $700,000; Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, $900,000; and Alabama Cooperative Extension System, $1 million.
AU has set aside a portion of savings from program cuts and cost-cutting measures in recent years in anticipation of eventual proration. The budget committee of the Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Thursday, July 12, at AUM's Taylor Center to examine funding issues for the current year and next year.
AU summer enrollment falls 6.4 percent
Auburn's summer enrollment fell 6.4 percent from last year ‹ a decrease that AU officials had expected after the change to semesters.
John Fletcher, AU's interim assistant vice president for enrollment management, said AU enrolled 9,822 students for the summer semester, compared to 10,495 students who attended last summer ‹ AU's last term under the quarter system.
"We had anticipated a decrease following the change to semesters," Fletcher said. "The university faces a number of challenges in offering semester courses during the shorter summer session, particularly in some of the courses that require labs. After this summer's term, we will review the summer schedule and make adjustments where necessary."
The chief challenge, Fletcher said, was squeezing in class and laboratory time for the lab classes. "Just because of the finite amount of time that you have to work with, it's a difficult thing to do," he said.
Heritage Park groundbreaking set
AU will host a groundbreaking ceremony on-site at 3 p.m. July 17 to mark
the start of development of the university's Agricultural Heritage Park.
The historical park will include the barn and part of the pasture south of
Samford Avenue and west of Donahue Drive.
The site is being developed with donor support to commemorate achievements in agriculture in which Auburn played a major role.
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Pepinsky moves to Student Affairs
Pete Pepinsky, former executive director of University Relations, has been named assistant to AU Vice President for Student Affairs Wes Williams, effective July 5.
Bob Lowry, editor of the AU News Bureau, was appointed as interim executive director of University Relations by President William Walker.
In his new position, Pepinsky will develop marketing and public relations initiatives in support of AU's student recruiting efforts. He came to Auburn in December 1993 from Clemson University, where he had been in charge of agricultural communications. He previously was public relations director at Winthrop University and held newsroom positions at newspapers in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. He holds a bachelor's degree in English from Auburn.
Lowry has led the News Bureau for 10 years. Previously, he was bureau chief of United Press International in Austin, Texas, where his responsibilities included news coverage of Texas state government.
Earlier in his career, Lowry was Alabama state government reporter for UPI and The Montgomery Advertiser and city editor of The Decatur Daily. He attended Auburn and holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Huntingdon College.
Hatch named as head of Environmental Institute
Interim Provost John Pritchett has appointed Agricultural Economics
Professor Upton Hatch as director of the AU Environmental Institute,
effective July 1.
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Established in 1996, the institute promotes, coordinates and implements research, instruction and outreach activities related to environmental studies.
Hatch, an Auburn faculty member since 1982, succeeds Howard Clonts, who retired last fall. Dennis Block, associate director of the Water Resources Research Institute, carried out administrative duties for the Environmental Institute in the interim. The WRRI is a unit of the Environmental Institute.
A researcher who has written extensively on economic and environmental aspects of water quality and aquacultural production, Hatch also worked with NASA in 1999 and 2000 on studies involving agricultural and commercial uses of satellite imaging technology. He holds degrees in economics from Dartmouth and agricultural economics from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in applied economics from the University of Minnesota.
"The Environmental Institute plays an increasingly important role in helping Auburn University achieve its land grant mission," said Pritchett. "The Institute brings together a mix of faculty capabilities in research, instruction and outreach to address an assortment of complex economic and quality-of-life issues.
"I am delighted that we have someone of Dr. Hatch's stature to provide
leadership to the Environmental Institute as these issues become even
more central to the progress of society in the near future."
Hatch said he plans to work with AU faculty, administrators and staff to
match Auburn's capabilities with the needs of private organizations,
environmentally sensitive industries and government agencies. "One of
the strengths of Auburn University is the large amount of faculty
expertise on many of the subjects that are now at the heart of
environmental discussions," Hatch added.
Recent projects coordinated by the Environmental Institute range from studies of interstate water allocations to the effects of certain forest management practices on stream water quality.
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Office seeking to clarify sponsored project roles
A new document clarifying the roles and responsibilities of those involved in sponsored projects is being finalized for dissemination to the AU community. The document is expected to be accessible on the Internet this month, says Martha Taylor, director of the Office of Sponsored Programs.
The roles and responsibilities policy, developed by a subcommittee of the Program Management Council, and reviewed by faculty and administrative stakeholders, addresses one of the nine major findings stemming from last summer's external review of AU's sponsored programs. It is part of an ongoing interdisciplinary initiative to make the sponsored programs process easier for faculty to use and navigate, said Taylor.
"Clarification of roles and responsibilities was one of nine major findings revealed by KPMG consultants in conducting their sponsored programs review," Taylor said.
"What the review showed is that how some people understand their roles and responsibilities associated with the process of conducting a sponsored project often is different from the understanding others have, which can lead to frustration for all parties."
Judd appointed to Boshell Chair in Vet Medicine
Associate Professor Robert Judd has been appointed to the interim Boshell Chair in Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at AU's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Judd, who joined the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology in 1998, has spent 13 years performing diabetes research, including three years in post doctoral work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"He has become nationally recognized in diabetes research," said Timothy Boosinger, dean of the veterinary college. "This is an exciting announcement that will shed new light on diabetes and its causes and treatments."
The Boshell Chair is funded through an endowment established six years ago by the Birmingham-based Diabetes Trust Fund in honor of its founder, Buris R. Boshell, a nationally prominent Birmingham physician.
Boshell was a 1947 AU agriculture graduate who attended the veterinary college for two years before transferring to Harvard Medical School. He served on the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center and was instrumental in establishing its Diabetes Research and Education Hospital. He also built the Boshell Diabetes and Endocrine Center in Birmingham.
Funds generated by the Boshell endowment enhance AU's diabetes research efforts and enable the pursuit of new areas of study.
Professional association honors Bernard
Nancy Bernard, director of Career Services, at AU, was recognized recently as the Outstanding Placement Professional of the Year at the annual conference of the Alabama Association of Colleges and Employers.
The award is given to a career service professional who has made outstanding contributions to the profession and to AACE.
Take-home pay may increase due to new tax law
New withholding tables that went into effect July 1 may reduce the amount of income tax withheld from faculty and staff wages, resulting in larger take-home amounts, starting this month.
The reductions in tax withholding are due to reduction in the 28 percent
and higher tax brackets. The new tables, prescribed by the U.S. Department
of Treasury, reflect changes in tax laws recently passed by Congress.
AU employees who do not want their tax withholding reduced, may file a
new W-4 form in Payroll and Benefits, citing fewer withholding
allowances on line 5 or requesting on line 6 for additional amounts to be
withheld.
Unsung Hero: Barbara Royster: Information Technology
This week's Unsung Hero is Barbara H. Royster, manager of information
technology in the Office of Information Technology. She has been at AU for
20 years and in her current job for 13 years. She was asked:
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What is the most rewarding part of your job? "I enjoy the constant challenge of learning and working with new technology. Also, I am fortunate to be working every day with a bright and dedicated team of people who are friends as well as colleagues. And, of course, seeing the results of our hard work, as people reap the benefits of technology, is tremendously rewarding."
What is the most challenging part of your job? "Exactly the same thing
that makes it rewarding makes it challenging. It is extremely challenging
to keep up with technology! You never quite feel like you've arrived."
What makes Auburn special? "The people, of course! Although I do think
that, even though Oliver Goldsmith did not know OUR Auburn, he had it
right, 'Sweet Auburn! Loveliest villageŠ'"
What was your first impression of Auburn University? "I first visited Auburn when I was a senior in high school (a long time ago!). It was the very type of environment that I thought was perfect for higher education; set in a small town with big expectations. I wanted to be a part of it and couldn't get here fast enough."
How has that impression changed? "My roots go deep with Auburn. I've
been here through the good and bad times. Relationships like that tend to
become more solid over time. Even when Auburn experiences difficult
times, as we have recently, the character of the people doesn't waver. We
all just keep on doing the best we can to keep Auburn great. That's the
way it has always been. So I was correct in my first impression."
If you were not doing this job, what would you most like to do? "Be a
downhill ski instructor in Colorado!"
What do you like to do when not at work? "Be with my family, ballroom dance with my husband, play with my golden retriever and German shepherd dog, work out at Health Plus, attend plays, needlework, garden, read, travel."
What person or persons do you most admire and why? "Besides all of the obvious people who are my friends and family, I admire people like Dr. Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University. She started life in poverty and made her way all the way to the presidency of Brown. Her story and character are a great example to us all.
What is your favorite line from the Auburn Creed and why? "'I believe in Auburn and love it.' That's a perfect summary for the Creed and my feelings for Auburn."