Auburn University

Administrative and Professional Assembly

A & P Assembly Meeting

Wednesday May 21, 2008

1:00 – 2:30 p.m.

Broun Hall Auditorium

Approved

I. Call to Order

April Staton, Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:03

II. Roll Call

Present:, Susan Canaan, Seth Humphrey, Mark Wilson, Katie Mantooth, Phillip Coxwell, Wiebke Kuhn, R. Greg Ruff, Regina Williams, Tammy Hollis, Elizabeth Bowersock, John Owen, Jane Hoehaver, David Hennessey, Kathy Harmon, April Staton, Maria Folmar, Margaret Smith in place of Christopher O’Gwynn, Victoria Tate in place of Barnese Adair-Wallace, Mark Dutton in place of John Folmar

Absent: Christopher O'Gwynn, Barnese Adair-Wallace, Lisa Powell-Brantly, Julie Nolen, John Folmar, Todd Storey

Estimated attendance in audience: 11

III. AU Recycling

Speaker:  Donny Addison

April introduced Donny, a recent AU graduate, who manages the AU recycling program. He provided a PowerPoint and made business cards available. He is the person to contact if the recycling dumpster in your area isn’t being serviced or if you have a recycling need.

He showed a video clip encouraging recycling on-campus with an “it’s so easy” theme. They want to make it easy to recycle.

Short term goals: manage waste more effectively, educate and promote sustainable behavior to campus, transition from single-stream collection to sorted stream. They really want to encourage students to recycle as state just passed a tax to go into effect for waste going into land fills.

Long term goals: reduce campus waste stream by 50% (at 10% now), process all recyclables on campus, improve esthetics of waste and recycling locations, set-up an organics composting program for dining halls.

Current recycling program: desk side, game day and residential life recycling programs. The next few slides shared the specifics of the desk side recycling program and future goals for the program.

Additional programs: 90 gal. roll-carts for office clean-outs, E-waste recycling, pallet collection, shredded paper (Humane Society)

Special Programs: Fall: Move-in recycling, America Recycles Day (Nov. 15); Spring: Recycle Mania (Jan – Apr), Earth Day (April 22), move-out recycling; Summer: CWE

The increase since 2005 is from 136 – 439 tons of recycling totals.  We are 5^th in success for recycling compared to other SEC schools with UK being the most successful.

They hope to build a network by having a recycling representative in each department, provide feedback on waste and recycling for departments, develop a good website detailing all services, request recycling and waste services through new Facilities Max, and provide detailed invoices for all services that are directly charged to departments. 

They have a Partnership with SP Recycling Corp. Forest park, GA, Coca-Cola and Waste Management.

For outreach, they have participated in Family Fun Day, doing presentations at local schools, Keep Auburn Beautiful committee, community recycling services and large community events, and they have donated 10 tons of shredded paper to the Humane Society.

He then offered to answer questions.

Someone from the vet school asked about packaging and coolers. Donny shared that there are potential resources but Auburn doesn’t have a facility to process them at this time. He said that he is working with OIT to encourage them to ask Dell to ship our computers in cardboard rather than Styrofoam. He encourages faculty and staff to take the time to break down boxes and separate packaging from cardboard.

Another person asked about Game Day plastic cups not getting recycled. He hopes to build back up the efforts inside the stadium, but they probably need volunteers as there has been a great deal of contamination.

Someone else shared that the Boy Scouts have a round table that meets on a regular basis in the area, and he could speak with them about volunteers.

IV. Sustainability Initiative

Speaker:  Matt Williams

April introduced Matt, and he shared that they are not a permanent office at this time, but they hope to be. He showed ads that the “greening” of America is getting more popular. He talked about a need to change the mindsets of people.

He defined Sustainability as follows: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. He said that you consider three things: environment, economy and equality/community. Matt said that this effort meets the needs of all, and he said there is support from both political parties.

The “doom and gloom” side of it is that each individual is making an impact. There are a lot more people in the world now than there were 100 years ago. He showed that we use our resources at a much greater rate than we have in the past. He said that we have 44.6 years left of liquid oil as of 2003. He went on to share several examples of change in our world.

The on-campus office works with facilities, transportation, electricity reduction, streams and waters, recycling education, educating the AU community, etc.

Matt said that the largest line item in campus budget is electricity. And he asks that we participate and help. Recycle for one, but he asks that we look at the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment and create a resolution to show our support (along with Senate and SGA) to Dr. Gogue. Most of the damage has happened since the start of WWII to now, and that is a lifetime. We can fix it in a lifetime as well.

Someone asked how we can see the wording of the Climate Commitment. He said that he can email it to anyone who is interested as well as send it to Exec Council so that it can be evaluated.

V. Approval of Minutes

Approved with spelling changes.

VI. Comments from the Chair – April Staton replaced Todd in his absence, and she shared that Todd really wanted to welcome the new members so she went through and welcomed the new members.

VII. Nominations - University Committees

The nominations committee has been working to determine and notify those individuals selected to serve on University Committees: Institutional Biosafety, Insurance and Benefits, Multicultural Affairs, Student Discipline, and Traffic Appeals.

VIII. Updates

a. Consulting Policy

April thanked Maria Folmar and Drew Burgering for their efforts to get this policy to go through. With the knowledge that the Faculty have a similar policy, we now have a policy in place on a evaluation period of one year. She encouraged us to look at the policy on line and to utilize it so we can see how it works.

b. Presidential Fellowship

April shared that this is another initiative that the Executive Committee has worked on. April encouraged us to remember that the Faculty participated in a similar program this past year, and now A&P employees have an opportunity to participate. Due to time constraints, participation will be made available to A&P members and those who have just left the Assembly to try this on a trial basis. In the future, this will be advertised much earlier so that offices can prepare for the participant to serve. The paperwork is listed on the website.

c. Childcare

April reminded everyone that this has been discussed for some time by the Welfare and Executive committees. In the past couple of weeks some initiatives have been made. The Staff Council has spearheaded the initiatives and we have aspirations to work with them as well as the Faculty Senate to try to move forward with getting a childcare facility in place in 3 to 5 years. Recognizing the constraints on funding is being considered. April, Todd Storey and David Hennessey will meet and meet with other governance groups to do additional evaluation of needs and then approach the administration. They will keep us posted on any progress.

d. A&P Assembly Retreat

The retreat is June 18 in the Lowder Building from noon to 4 p.m. April shared that Todd’s plan was to ask us to ask our constituents to give us a list of what topics they want A&P to work on this year. She challenges us to go back and ask our constituents and email Jane Hoehaver by June 4 the results so she and April can compile the information so we can work on those at the retreat. She and Jane will be sending out more information soon and encouraged everyone to attend as it is a good opportunity to make a good headway on the upcoming year.

IX. New Business

There was no new business.

X. Open Forum

April opened the floor for comments and questions will be taken from the floor.

David Hennessey shared that he received a desk reference for emergencies in the mail today and thinks that we will receive one soon. He encouraged us to mention to our constituents the importance of posting this information around or point out what a great piece it is. There is also a guideline about dealing with disruptive students that he received. Weibke Kuhn asked what it was called. David showed it and shared that the title is Emergency and safety Guidelines. Someone shared that the website has also been updated to share similar information.

XI. Adjourn

April adjourned the meeting at 2:05 p.m.