APPROVED: APRIL 26, 2001

PRESENT:

ADSC: Sherman

LA: Stewart, Enger, Dillard, Neff, Waring, Wilkerson, Williams, Eaton

ENG: Smith, Toutanji, Gaede, Farrington

LIB: Warren

NUR: Redmon, Weed, Williamson, Cobb

SCI: Christopher, Boyd, George, Newman, Ravindran, Friedman, Pakhomov, Hillman

ABSENT WITH PROXY:

ADSC: Floyd

LBAR: Berbrier

ENGR: Shen

SCI: Baird, Miller

ABSENT WITHOUT PROXY:

ADSC: Schnell

LBAR: Whatley

ENGR: Jarem, Hampton, Hawk

NUR: Hays

SCI: Lawton, Li

0. President Joan Williamson called the meeting to order at 12:51 p.m.

1. Draft Minutes of Meeting #429 were approved. Motion by Jean Cobb, seconded by Melinda Redmon

2. The Senate Executive Committee Report was accepted.

3. President Franz’s Report:

Dr. Franz reported the Alabama Supreme Court has issued another stay on Judge McCooey’s most recent motion. We have made progress regarding next year’s budget. The legislation currently in process is approximately a 70/30 split for replacement money for K-12 and Higher Education. We still enter next year with less funding but not as much less as initially. The decision is still not made for the exact prorationing for this year’s budget.

Dr. Franz reported the progress on the projects around campus.

Dr. Franz discussed priorities of meeting the needs of the students by providing quality education and not having faculty and staff layoffs and not raising tuition by double digits.

4. Provost Radonovich’s Report:

Dr. Radonovich offered to answer any questions. There was some discussion of frozen positions and the number of frozen positions in Academic Affairs.

6. A. Senate Committee Reports:

1. Executive: Dr. Williamson reminded the Faculty Senate that next Tuesday is Honors Convocation in the Administrative Science Building at 10:00 a.m. Faculty are to assemble at 9:40 a.m. Dr. Williamson briefly discussed the Strategic Planning Initiative from the Chancellor and the Faculty Senate responses. Dr. Williamson reminded the Faculty Senate that we have mechanisms in place to review joint and shared program and we are sticking to those.

Dr. Williamson announced the PAC is doing well. We are racing Tuscaloosa to see which College wins and which division wins. Dr. Franz, Dr. Radonovich, and Dr. Williamson will cook dinner for the winner. The College of Nursing is challenging the College of Engineering.

2. Faculty and Student Development: Dr. Smith reported the Committee is still working on warning and alerts redistributions.

3. Finance and Resources: No Report.

4. Governance and Operations: Dr. Williamson reported the nomination ballots are out for the Faculty Senate Officers. The University Standing Committee requests are out.

5. Personnel: Dr. Boyd reported the Faculty Activity Report Form is up for third reading today.

6. Undergraduate Curriculum: Dr. Neff reported the Committee has met and the minutes of that will be up on the web by the end of the week.

7. Undergraduate Scholastic Affairs: No Report.

B. University Committees: No Report

C. Officer Reports:

Parliamentarian: No Report.

Ombudsperson: No Report.

President-Elect: No Report.

President: No Report.

6. Dr. Waring moved to suspend the rules to move the Sense of the Senate Resolution to the

floor now. Dr. Waring moved the resolution to the floor and explained this is a brief resolution that highlights what the deans do and why it is important to faculty. The Provost’ Office has fallen behind on evaluation processes for deans and directors. This resolution asked that the rules of the Faculty Handbook be enforces and followed. The vote was 26 in favor and 2 opposed and 1 abstention. The Sense of the Senate Resolution passed and will be forwarded to Administration.

7. Senate Bill 287: Faculty Activity Report/Self Evaluation Form

Dr. Williamson introduced the bill and explained the previous discussions and changes and that the bill is at third reading. There was some question and discussion regarding the reception of this bill at the administrative level. There was some concern expressed for the three categories verses the original five categories on the raring scale. There was some discussion regarding labels for the categories. A motion was made to vote regarding three categories or five categories. The vote was 18 for 3 categories, 5 for 5 categories and 5 abstentions.

There was some discussion regarding the purpose of the form. The purpose is primarily evaluation. Dr. Redmon called the question.

The vote was 22 in favor, 4 opposed and 2 abstentions. The bill passed at third reading and will be forwarded to Administration for action.

8. President Williamson adjourned the meeting at 1:50 p.m.