Minutes
Senate Steering Meeting
January 17, 2023
3:30 pm
Via Zoom

Senate Chair Mark Carpenter called the meeting to order at 3:33 p.m. 
Approval of Steering Minutes from November 8, 2022. The minutes were approved with no correction(s). 

Mark Carpenter (Chair) welcomed everyone and began the meeting with Interim Provost Vini Nathan.

Provost Nathan gave an update on the following:
Emmett Winn will have a new position as Associate VP, Administrative Effectiveness
Julie Huff, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Communications

Special Guests:

1. Speaker - Mark DeGoti, SACSCOC Liaison

Presented a PowerPoint on Auburn University Reaffirmation, which happens every ten years. He discussed an overview of submitted reports – the Compliance Certification Report, The Quality Enhancement Plan Report, and the On-Site Review. He then shared information about the Off-Campus instructional sites. The final results will be given in December 2023.

After the PowerPoint presentation, the Chair asked if there were any questions.

Linda Gibson-Young thanked Mark and the accreditation team for their hard work.

1. Speaker - Beverly Marshall, Outgoing Chair of Intercollegiate Athletics and FAR, shared an informational report about her work as the Faculty Athletic Representative. She explained the FAR role and introduced the new Chair and FAR, Duane Brandon, which would be included in her final annual report. Lisa Kensler asked about the time graphs included in Marshall’s report. Marshall explained the 2015 and 2016 cohort’s graduate dates, which Lisa wanted clarification on.
2. Don Mulvaney, Chair of the Senate Officer Nomination Committee, had a conflict and could not make a presentation to steering about Senate Officer Nominees. The Chair provided information about the nominees as follows:

Chairperson-elect
J. Brian Anderson – College of Engineering
Lori Eckhardt – College of Forestry, Wildlife and the Environment

Secretary-elect
Jung Won Hur – College of Education
Jaena Alabi - Library

The Chair asked for questions. Lisa Kensler asked if Don would share the faculty handbook if anyone else would like to run by submitting a petition to run. The Chair mentioned that he was not sure if Don would talk about that, but it would be okay if he did

Mark Carpenter discussed the upcoming vote on Zachary Schulz’s motion to form an ad hoc committee to finalize a detailed proposal to create a rank-above professor. The Chair made it clear that the plan would be to vote on creating a committee with a yes or no vote

The Chair then gave an overview of the agenda and asked if there were any questions.
A question was raised about volunteering for a committee.

The discussion was made about the volunteer committee replacement, of which the Rules committee would meet to review and approve the names of volunteers. The secretary stated that she was working with Laura, administrative assistant to the senate, on the names submitted and would finalize a meeting so that rules could meet and work on the task. It was suggested that the secretary (Chair of Rules) announce volunteering at the upcoming Faculty Senate meeting.

The Chair asked if there were any more questions.

No other questions or comments. The meeting adjourned at 4:36 pm.