Report from Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting

October 22, 2009

1. Meeting of 22 October 2009

Attending: Severn, Williams, Radonovich, Etzkorn, English, Gaede, Coe, Newman, Boyd, Gholston, Reeves, Seemann

The meeting was called to order at 12:45 by Faculty Senate President Letha Etzkorn.

Dr. Etzkorn mentioned the request to look into turn over in some of the colleges and the turn over of young faculty in departments. The Committee was asked to think about mentoring. Perhaps these are things the Personnel Committee should look into.

Dr. Etzkorn announced that Rich Miller resigned from the Executive Committee. The Committee has to think about what to do about this position. He is still on the Senate but not on the Executive Committee.

Dr. Williams Report:

Ø Dr. Williams thanked the Committee for the memo they sent and the opportunity to respond. He mentioned in his response that he is eager to follow up n ways to work together to meet the goals and mission of the university. He will work with the Committee or with the Senate President to follow up.

Ø He will be asking everyone to join him on October 29 to wear pink—or at least some pink. There will be a memo going out a couple of days before.

Ø The Board meets in a couple of weeks. He worked with John Severn and the Honorary Degrees and Naming Committee to nominate Kristina Johnson for an Honorary Degree and as Commencement Speaker. She is the number two person to the Secretary for Energy. She has been here before. She is in charge of the National Labs and we are trying to build relationships with key people in these positions. Dr. Severn reported she gave a great presentation when she was here before and she has an interesting career and is a cancer survivor.

Ø Dr. Williams mentioned the Alabama Roadmap and the meeting with the Governor regarding the work on the Aerospace Corridor.

Ø There are plans to visit the Smithsonian in December. Growing funding for archeology of Mayan. Working with SERVIR and Bill Saturno. Let Dr. Williams know the areas to take with him in December to strengthen and give more visibility.

Ø Question: Repeat of question posed in Senate regarding the due process put forth by the Realignment Committee referencing the Review Team and any results. Same response of referring the question to Dr. Karbhari. Dr. Karbhari reponded the Legal Counsel is studying it and we will follow due process and let you know once the have studied it and determined whether t here is nay conflict or concern for the due process already in the Handbook and the Board Manual procedures. There were rules that should have been passed that were not passed. There was a termination process by the System that is not in our documents.

Ø It was mentioned to Dr. Karbhari that access codes are not in Banner for the spring courses that went up this morning. Dr. Karbhari will check with Janet Waller.

Dr. Karbhari’s Report:

Ø Dr. Karbhari reported there are two NISPs on the agenda for the next Board Meeting the MS and PhD in Aerospace Engineering. They were submitted for the last Board Meeting but they were held up until we had a meeting with University of Alabama. There was a good meeting this week and we agreed to put forth the NISPs at this meeting. We will discuss over the next few months and put together a consortium to allow collaboration. We will move forward in this area and others. We will go forward with a BFA for LBAR as well.

Ø IT Solutions is working on a migration to G-Mail. You should be receiving emails on it. They are putting together a draft policy—we do not have a policy. IT is looking at software licensing. We have different ways to get agreements.

Ø A Review Committee will be here on November 2 and 3. On November 2 from 10:15-11:15 they will meet with the Senate Executive Committee. We will let you know the place.

Ø The Nursing Accreditation visit appears to have been successful. No concerns raised and they were pleased with what they saw.

Ø Dr. Fix and Dr. Karbhari met with Stephen Black from Impact Alabama. He is doing good work and has a New Program for AP College Ready which gives student in High AP Classes preparation for college. He takes college students and faculty to go to High Schools and tutor students. We will bring student organizations and faculty to the second meeting. Impact Alabama has money to put on the table for this program. The emphasis now is on STEM but we could add others later. Dr. Reeves has an interest if LBAR is added.

Ø Question regarding differential tuition. Response: Tuition is set by the Board. There are not differential tuitions in the institutions in Alabama.

Ø Dr. Severn asked the Committee if they are going to address SIE issues and online versions—either the Executive Committee or the Full Senate. Nursing has done the online version and had no problems. Engineering and Business tried it and did not do as well. Maybe we should stick with forms until we get better input. Math and Computer Science surveyed faculty and they want to stick with the form (paper and pencil). Personnel will look at updating the form and look at the online issues. There was some discussion of another means of teaching evaluation—perhaps peer evaluations.

Ø The Committee agreed to give Sandra Parton 5 or 10 minutes on October 29.

Ø Finance and Resources: Dr. Seemann reported the Committee met and discussed the REU Program and made general decisions about the program. He met with the Provost and talked to him about the REU funding and administrative structure and the name. Also discussed how to mate to the Honors Program and encourage summer research. The Committee is working with Harry Delugach to change the Honors Project/Thesis.

Ø Looking into money issues. Looked into and administrative position salary. Lateral transfer appointed by President no change since 2007. Salary falls between Associate Provost and Associate Professor. Flooring and Tile Company—Charity Expo—competitive bid—paid less—all legal. Space Policy position—everything legal from financial point of view. Appointment made by the President. Meeting with Ray Pinner soon to clarify. Will look at formal budgets from Dr. Williams and budgets from 3 previous years. Will request old budget published on the website along with the new one. Will keep detailed records to be followed in the future.

Ø The Committee will request to have Finance and Resources as part of the Institutional Minigrant approval process to ensure equity, etc.

Ø Personnel: Dr. Boyd reported the Committee met yesterday. They discussed what to do. The Action Item is the hiring process. Certain position recently hired and not advertised to the community. Timing—open short time. Send bill to personnel—hiring of related employees. Faculty not involved in selection process. SIEs and problems with Adjunct appointment. Turnover. Mentoring—this should be Faculty and Student Development—standards for the University.

Ø Undergraduate Scholastic Affairs: Dr. Newman reported the Committee met last week. He met with the Counselor at Bob Jones and the Counselor shared concerns with the change in the residency policy. This will be a boost to Calhoun and Auburn. Feedback from parent. Shared statistics. Met with John Maxon and Ray Pinner and shared information with them. Did a comparative analysis of the policy. We are along in this policy. Looked at freshmen classes and how they could be affected and how it affects colleges and departments. Affects Science and Liberal Arts most. Their response was the key issue is the business plan and floating a bond issue. They will not share other information until they present it to the Senate as a whole. The Committee will look at the centralized scheduling. It was requested Dr. Newman ask for a response from Ray before the Senate Meeting.

Ø Governance and Operations: Dr. Miller has resigned as Chair—who will serve as Chair of the Committee.

Ø Faculty and Student Development: Dr. Reeves had no report. She will work with Carmen Scholz on looking at concerns presented with regard to OSP and work on the standards/guidelines for the University on faculty mentoring.

Ø Undergraduate Curriculum: Dr. Coe’s had no report.

Ø The Executive Committee will meet alone on Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. to discuss bills and a letter and the agenda for the upcoming meeting.