APPROVED: OCTOBER 18, 2001

PRESENT:

ADSC: Schnell, Floyd, Pendley

LA: Stewart, Bell, Enger, Early, Meister, Waring, Williams, Eaton, Berbrier

ENG: Smith, Toutanji, Fork, Gaede, Farrington, Landrum

LIB: Warren

NUR: Redmon, Reisenwitz, Williamson, Stanfield

SCI: Christopher, Johnson, Boyd, Li, Etzkorn, Ravindran, Miller, Pakhomov, Hillman

ABSENT WITH PROXY:

ADSC: Wren

LBAR: Whatley, Wilkerson

NUR: Weed

SCI: Friedman, Geary

ABSENT WITHOUT PROXY:

LBAR: Dillard

ENGR: Hawk

SCI: Baird, George

0. President James Miller called the meeting to order at 12:50 p.m.

1. Draft Minutes of Meeting #432 were approved. Motion by Melinda Redmon, seconded by Houssam Toutanji.

2. The Senate Executive Committee Report was accepted as amended. Motion by Rhonda Gaede, seconded by Melinda Redmon.

Dr. Miller reminded the Committee Chairs if they want to write down their own charges please do that and get them to Dr. Miller as soon as possible. Otherwise he will use the notes from the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and write the charges for the Committee from those notes.

3. President Franz’s Report:

Dr. Franz reported he will give an overview report of the 2001/02 budget today. He reported he distributed a detailed summary of this information to the Council of Deans and Directors this morning and he will distribute the same document to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Finance and Resources Committee of the Faculty Senate.

Dr. Franz first summarized the information about various buildings on campus. There had been some questions regarding how we could have new buildings with the budget situation and no salary increases. Dr. Franz explained that the NSSTC is funded by the Federal Government and houses a large number of NASA employees. NASA reimburses us for the occupancy. The Fitness Center is well utilized. This is a good tool for recruiting students. The student fees and external memberships are paying for the expenses of this building. One of the main objectives of the new residence hall is recruiting students. The UAH Foundation has underwritten any shortfall on operating for this building because they see the importance of it in recruiting new students. The Material Science Annex will be no expense to us but will be handled by donations. We will bring a faculty member on board in Chemistry that the Department will pick up in five years. The Library is the only building with operating cost to us but it is minimal and a very important needed addition. Dr. Franz will work on a letter to the faculty and staff with this information in it. There was a suggestion to put this in the student newspaper as well. Dr. Franz agreed this would be a good idea.

Budget: Dr. Franz gave an overview of the current budget situation. He explained we are starting ~2.9% or ~$1.4M in the hole. He explained the revenues and the expenditures. He explained there were cuts in faculty and staff positions and most of the cuts came from the staff side. He explained there are still problems with the State revenue and he does not know how that will be handled. He stated he does not want to have to go back to the units and make further cuts because that would adversely affect the quality of our programs. He stated we need to do something about faculty and staff salaries in the future.

There was some discussions regarding promotions and position changes.

There was some discussion regarding letters to students dropping them for nonpayment.

4. Provost Radonovich’s Report:

Dr. Radonovich reported a clarification on the reviews of Deans and Directors. He reported he will review two directors and one dean this year and two deans and one director next year. He reported we will be caught up with reviews for deans in a short time but it will take longer to catch up with reviews for directors.

5. A. Senate Committee Reports:

1. Executive: The report was distributed with the minutes. It was approved with one correction.

2. Faculty and Student Development: Dr. Redmon has discussed academic misconduct and the possibility of a “University Honor Code”.

3. Finance and Resources: Dr. Fork reported the Committee discussed fairness of raises at this time. He stated the Committee is waiting on some information from Dr. Franz on some items. He asked for input on issues the Committee should investigate.

4. Governance and Operations: Dr. Williams asked the Committee to meet right after the Faculty Senate meeting. The Committee will discuss the composition of the University Campus Planning Committee.

5. Personnel: Dr. Boyd reported the Committee has settled on three issues for the year: 1) Participation in the review of Deans and Directors, 2) Investigating minority faculty issue, 3) Part-time faculty conflict of interest. Dr. Lee Williams met with the Committee last week to discuss the minority faculty issue.

6. Undergraduate Curriculum: No Report.

7. Undergraduate Scholastic Affairs: Dr. Eaton reported the Committee met and discussed academic misconduct and policies and the possibility of a “University Honor Code”. Dr. Miller suggested the Undergraduate Scholastic Affairs Committee and the Faculty and Student Development Committee work together on the academic misconduct and Honor Code issues.

B. University Committees: No Report

C. Officer Reports:

Parliamentarian: No Report.

Ombudsperson: No Report.

President-Elect: No Report.

President: No Report.

Past President: Dr. Williamson announced that next week is PAC awareness week. She asked that everyone wear his or her PAC button. We are at about 25% membership. We would like to be at 33% by Christmas and 50% by the end of the academic year. She asked that anyone needing more information contact Gary Smith, a building captain, or herself.

6. Report from Mr. Gary Smith

Mr. Smith reported that the special session that just ended did not accomplish a great deal. He reported most of our work was on the defense to stop those things that needed to be stopped. The next session is scheduled for October 23. This one may be of interest to us. The Governor says no more proration next year. At the same time the individuals in the fiscal office are saying the revenues are short. The Constitution mandates a balanced budget. We need to get more revenue from somewhere. The businesses are saying no to raising taxes on businesses. This will make it an interesting session.

Bonded indebtedness has doubled since Governor Siegelman took office. This is an election year. We need to watch what happens, be diligent, and work hard. Mr. Smith reminded everyone of Howard Hawk’s speech in which he emphasized getting involved and the only way to win is to be involved. If we are not involved we lose.

Mr. Smith talked about the court order regarding “adequate and equitable funding for K-12 education” and how much money this could require.

Mr. Smith talked about the Higher Education Lobbyists Organization that he is Chairing. Some candidates are saying they will pledge no new taxes. This could be detrimental so we are telling candidates that if they pledge no new taxes we will vote against them.

Mr. Smith reported the Governor wants to look closely at the franchise tax structure. A property tax change could take months to generate revenue. We are already at the top on sales tax. We are looking for any new revenue and any new means of revenue.

7. President Miller adjourned the meeting at 1:45 p.m.