ADSC:     Floyd, Morse, Schoening Trueblood
     LA:           Crouse, Harwell, Bollinger, Buksa, Sanders, Hanks, Bliss, Haralick
     ENG:        Leonard, Chittur, Ho, Wells, Nordin, Bower, Swain,
     NUR:        Brookman, Estes, Lethbridge
     SCI:         Christy, Dimopoullos, Delugach, Hinke, Kunin, Comfort

ABSENT WITH PROXY:

     ADSC:     Porter, Lai
     LBAR:     Nelson
     SCI:         Li, Chipman

ABSENT WITHOUT PROXY:

     LBAR:     Waring, MacDougall
     ENG:        Katsinis, Shih, Frederick
     NUR:        South
     SCI:         Baird, Gregory, Zhang, Miller

1.     President Bower called the meeting to order at 12:35 p.m.
2.     Draft Minutes of Meeting #387 were approved, Motion by Craig Hanks, Seconded by Joy Haralick.

3.    Approval of Senate Executive Committee Report:  There was one correction to the Senate Executive Committee Report (the spelling of the word INTERNET).  Dr. Delugach moved to approve the report.  Dr. Leonard raised a point of question.  After some discussion Dr. Delugach withdrew his motion to approve the report.  Dr. Swain moved to approve the report, seconded by Dr. Haralick.  The vote to approve the report was 21 in favor, 0 opposed, and 6 abstentions.
The charges to the Faculty Senate Committees for 1997/98 were reviewed and discussed.  The charges were accepted with a request from Dr. Bower for items for discussion of the "Committee of the Whole".
 
4.    A.    Senate Committee Reports:
                1.     Executive:  the Senate Executive Committee submitted a written report approved by the Faculty Senate.
                2.     Faculty and Student Development:  No Report
                3.     Finance and Resources:  No Report
                4.     Governance and Operations:  No Report
                5.     Personnel:  No Report
                6.     Undergraduate Curriculum:  No Report
                7.     Undergraduate Scholastic Affairs:  No Report

        B.     University Committees
                1.     Information Services Users Advisory Committee:  Dr. Delugach reported the Committee is in the process of rewriting the charge to the Committee.  They currently have two versions written.  One version has very little change and the other is a rewrite by Carl Davis.  Dr. Delugach requested anyone with suggestions or ideas respond to Dr. Carl Davis or him.
                2.     Dr. Bower reported that the Honorary Degrees Committee met and made recommendations to President Franz.  The information from this Committee is confidential and Dr. Bower could not reveal any other information on the matter at this time.

        C.    Officer Reports:

                1.    Ombudsperson:  Kate Leonard reported she has had three different complaints against the administration regarding promotion and tenure issues.  She will meet with these individuals to discuss the matter.
                2.    President-Elect:  Dr. Delugach reported he is getting email addresses and programs used, etc. on each senator.  There is a possibility of using an HTML file for sending out the minutes and the agenda.  An electronic display at the meeting was also suggested (Dr. Delugach will work on this).
                3.     Dr. Bower reported he attended a Program Viability Meeting at A&M University.  He distributed copes of the presentation to the appropriate Committee chairs, Dr. Schroer and Dr. Delugach.  Some discussion of this report ensued.

5.        President Franz was on vacation and not available for his report

6.          Provost McManus commented on the budget.  He discussed the continued efforts in Montgomery related to our budget.  He reminded the group the definition of the increase we could receive is based on the actual base being used.  The base the Governor wants to use is different from the one the Senate and the Legislature wants.  This year’s base included monies for 5000 Technology Drive renovations that we would like Mr. Freeman to maintain as part of our base.

•  Dr. McManus reported registration is essentially complete and the numbers show about the same as last year.  There may be some fall off in the next couple of weeks.  If the numbers remain the same as last year we will still experience the shortfall.  We have accounted for that in our plans.  Dr. McManus reminded the group we are experiencing the same problems as all Alabama Schools.  It is a demographics problem.  We are trying to improve and must continue in that direction.  He  pointed out he believes the new Director of Admissions will help with these problems and issues.
•  Dr. McManus reported on some issues from the State.   One big issue being discussed is the time to degree issue.  The number of hours required to complete a degree is becoming very important to students and employers.  Students are looking for 120 hour degrees.  Dr. McManus reiterated it would be nice if we could market some 120 hour degrees.
• Dr. McManus reported on the Viability Issue.  He reported that he has given the deans a list of programs that fall into the nonviable category, and asked them for ideas of how to handle these.  He emphasized that we want to be out front with our ideas and solutions.  He reiterated that we do not want to wait and be told what we have to do to handle these.  We may need to close some programs and we may want to combine some in order to save the program.
•  Dual Registration/Dual Credit—Dr. McManus reported that we have high schools in the area that want students to register simultaneously for High School and College courses and receive credit for both.  He reported some aspects of this are scary.  We have been doing the early start program for some time.  He does not expect may high school students to be able to handle this kind of load.  Dr. McManus does not think this would be profitable for us.  He reported he has had meetings with the city and the county.  There is an agreement in the works to offer this opportunity to selected students recommended by their administrators.  The Schools and the Community Colleges see this as a money cow.  The State would fund both places for the same course.   Dr. McManus reported he will keep the faculty informed.  This has some potential problems that must be dealt with first.
• Dr. McManus reported the SSSS Task Force report has been circulated to deans.  The final report should be out next week.  Dr. McManus suggested Dr. Johnson hold a campus forum to present the information from this report to the faculty.
• This week the SIS consultant is on campus to help us with problems.  One serious problem occurred at the end of the summer term when 626 students were issued grades, and many of those students were not registered for a course this summer.  The system in going to require some changes and the consultant is working through these system problems.  He reported we are also looking at the web-based registration package.