A special university committee has recommended extra efforts to recruit and retain black students and faculty 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 multi-racial 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. "Scholarships are very important," he said. "We have to find the money for more scholarships and then we need to let high school students know about them."

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.

Panel begins review of programs for possible closing

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 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 it 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 member's 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.

Of the 10 programs recommended by Muse for possible closure or restructuring, five -- the master's of music, master's of education in industrial design, the bachelor's and master's in trade and industrial education and the merger of the bachelor's in criminal justice into the bachelor's of criminology -- were not contested.
The committee was appointed by the Rules Committee of the University Senate in January 1998. Last November, Muse charged the committee with the review of the proposed elimination or merger of 10 academic programs at AU, part of Muse's 21st century recommendations the Board of Trustees approved on Jan. 22.

Other committee members include Yolanda Brady, associate professor of fisheries and allied aquacultures; Michael Hein, associate professor of building science; John Pritchett, dean of the Graduate School; Jack Rogers, professor of mathematics and interim dean of the Honors College; Steve Silvern, professor of curriculum and teaching; Donna Sollie, professor of human development and family studies; Kelly Alley, associate professor of anthropology; Michael Moriarty, vice president for research; and David Wilson, vice president for outreach.

Because the bachelor's degree in anthropology is one of the programs currently under review, Alley is not participating in this phase of the committee's work.