ADSC: Floyd, Schoening

LA: Crouse, Harwell, Schenker, Bollinger, Buksa, Hutson, Hanks, Williams, Bliss, Haralick, Ellis

ENG: Leonard, Katsinis, Ho, Swain, Bower, Feikema, Frederick, Wessling

LIB: Warren

NUR: Brookman

SCI: Christy, Baird, Delugach, Richards, Kunin, Zhang, Li, Miller, Comfort

ADSC: Porter

LBAR: Waring

ENGR: Wells

NUR: Estes, Hays

SCI: Hinke

ENG: Chittur, Nordin

NUR: Lethbridge

2. Draft Minutes of Meeting #393 were unanimously approved as corrected, after a motion by Craig Hanks,

3. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee Report was approved after a motion by Joy Haralick, seconded by Hugh Comfort.

4. A. Senate Committee Reports:

1. Executive: The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be Thursday, February 5, 1998, at 12:30 p.m. in Madison Hall 110.

2. Faculty and Student Development: Dr. Swain reported that the Committee met and discussed the changes to the Judicial Code.

3. Finance and Resources: No Report.

4. Governance and Operations: No Report.

0. 5. Personnel: Dr. Schenker reported the Committee met today and approved the appointment of Dr. Dan Schenker as substitute chair. The Committee is looking at the sick leave policy. The Committee will be sending forth a draft bill. They are also looking at the Faculty Activity Form. They have discussed the draft bill that was returned to the Committee. Dr. Schenker requests your views, opinions or suggestions regarding the Faculty Activity Report. The Committee asked that the faculty make the same request in their departments. The comments and suggestions should be sent to Dr. Dan Schenker via mail or email.

2. University Committees: No Report.

3. Officer Reports:

1. Ombudsperson: No report.
2. President: Dr. Bower reported that the Sense of the Senate resolution on the Retirement funds and the "8 in’ 98" was forwarded to the Legislature and to the Board of Trustees. The Legislature is in session. Gary Smith informed Dr. Bower that there are more than 800 bills sent forward and he has 150 of them on his tracking system. One of these bills requires all state institutions to follow the semester system and the state specifies the beginning and ending dates within a four-day span. If there is a problem and the calendar does not fit within this four day span the law would have to be changed. This is out of Committee and on to the House.

5. President Franz:

• Dr. Franz reported that he attended yesterday’s meeting but could not stay the entire time. Dr. Bower distributed information that was before the Ways and Means Committee yesterday. The calculations on these handouts were done on the new basis. An increase is normally done on a percent increase on last year’s base. The percent increase was done on what it takes to make the 8% salary increase to everyone on state appropriations at a particular time. If we have more on state appropriation at that time we get more. It hurts us because we do not have as much on state appropriations later in the year. It is bad because at the beginning of the year we have more on state appropriations. Later we move many to something else. The calculations for the increase were done at a particular time when we did not have as many employees on state appropriations. Tim Parker amended the proposed budget to give more to UAH and to three or four other institutions. J. Knight proposed an amendment to keep the retirement money and put all the pork money on the table and give an across the board distribution of the appropriations. This would benefit us. Contention resulted in the meeting. It could not be resolved and the budget you have before you was passed out to the House. This was not bad but we should do better. Now we have to determine the next step. Dr. Franz reported he likes the Knight amendment. He reported he hopes to have more information by the end of the day. He reiterated we need to be unified in the message we send. We need to be unified in what we want. He will let us know what message to send. We should be in continuous contact with the legislators. He reported he expects to receive a message form Gary today or tomorrow and we can then know what message to send.
• A question was asked of whether the retirement money is permanent or temporary. Dr. Franz answered based on the models presented it should be at least quasi-permanent.
• Dr. Franz briefly explained how the contributions work and why the individual contribution does not fluctuate.
• Dr. Franz reported that he is not in favor of across the board salary increases but would be in favor of a combination of merit and across the board. He reiterated, when asked, that yes, all increase monies go to faculty and staff salary.

6. Provost McManus:

• No Report.

6. Senate Bill 262: "Amendment to Appendix B of the Faculty Handbook". (Third Reading). Dr. Schenker brought the bill to the floor. The motion was seconded by Dr. Hanks. There was some discussion regarding a two-thirds majority versus a simple majority vote for the chair. There was some discussion of why we need the bill and what weight it carries. Dr. Delugach called the question with a second from Dr. Richards.

The vote on the motions was 34 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstentions.

The vote on the bill was 27 in favor, 6 opposed and 1 abstention.

7. Senate Bill 263 "Pass/Fail Grading" (Second Reading) Dr. Hanks moved the bill to the floor and introduced it. The bill is addressing an issue of student success and student satisfaction while maintaining high standards. Dr. Hanks discussed the current policy. The bill is a revision of the current policy. Dr. Brookman seconded the motion. Friendly amendments: insert "undergraduate" in line 10. Eliminate "some" in line 15. Make "within" one word in line 13. In line 22 insert "it". In line 29 change "actual" to "regular" and remove "also".

The vote for the bill at second reading was 30 in favor, 2 opposed, and 0 abstentions. The bill passed at second reading.

8. Senate Bill 264 "Academic Action Threshold" (Second Reading). Dr. Hanks moved this bill to the floor. This bill is developed with the same motive as the last bill—student success and satisfaction. Mr. Warren seconded the motion. A friendly amendment to change "63" to "64" in line 20. There was a question of the determinant of the numbers. The Committee looked at the exceptions. There is some concern for prolonging the inevitable. It was noted this puts a greater burden on the advisors. Dr. Hanks reported that he has asked for the numbers on this issue but does not have them yet. There was a question of whether we are diluting our academic standards. It was reported that we are one of a few institutions in the state that does not have the graduated scale. The vote for the bill was 26 in favor, 6 opposed and 0 abstentions. The bill passed at second reading.
9. Sense of the Senate Resolution Concerning Amended Student Judicial Code. Dr. Swain moved this resolution to

11. President Bower adjourned the meeting at 1:55 p.m. Motion by Dr. Haralick.