Dr. Franz reported he had just come from a meeting and would be going back to his office for a conference call regarding the salary issues. He reported ACHE is presently calculating the averages based on NASULGC data. These will be non-discipline specific averages. This may not be as good for us because they will use the highest cost areas to calculate. These areas are Law, Engineering and Business. We have a disproportionate number of faculty in these areas. This will understate our problem. The other issue is that it is important to display the problem but monies should not be distributed using the same formula or based on the numbers displaying the problem. All money distributed should be put into faculty and staff salaries. Dr. Franz commended Dr. Hanks on working with the Staff Senate and including the staff in the salary issue. He emphasized that the staff are important too and the faculty and staff need to work together to accomplish the goal. Dr. Franz reported he sees the Board is very disposed to the problem and obtaining the appropriate solution.

Dr. Franz reminded the Senate of their attempts as well as some others to have some building or something named in honor of Ben Graves. A proposal was submitted to the Honorary Degrees and Naming Committee to name the North and South Loop Roads. The North Loop would be named the Ben Graves Drive and the South Loop would be named the John Wright Drive. The Board agreed. Dr. Franz was Master of Ceremony for an event on Tuesday night honoring Dr. Graves. Dr. Graves and Dr. Wright were presented a road sign and the announcement was made there to name the Loop road as Ben Graves Drive and John Wright Drive. It was very well received.

Dr. Franz was asked about his support of the Lottery. He responded his support is two-fold. He supports the lottery because it is important to the Governor and it is very good for students. In the past students were expected to graduate in four years and they did not consider going in debt for their education. Now they do not finish in four years and many go into debt to acquire the degree. Therefore the lottery will help those students and prevent them from creating great debt. Tax reform would be the ideal solution to the real problem but that is not an option at this time so the lottery is the next best thing to a step toward progressive government. The lottery will not do a great deal for UAH. There are not that many more students coming to the four-year institutions. Already most students that are going to college are staying in Alabama. There is not much elasticity. There is not a big group available to bring in. There will not be much additional revenue. Dr. Franz was asked about the possibility of freeing funds currently used for scholarships to be used to recruit outside. His response was that might be a possibility but he did not have all that information yet to know what kind of impact that might be. Dr. Franz reiterated that the lottery would mean we have to become more competitive. He also emphasized the fact that we must use the Georgia model. We must require a B average across the board with junior colleges as well as four-year institutions. He reiterated we cannot have a double standard with the four year institutions requiring a B average and the junior colleges not using that requirement. We would then have an influx of students to the junior colleges trying to keep their scholarships.

There was some discussion regarding the B average rule. Dr. Franz shared a suggestion that was made to him that the administration intends to implement because it is a very proactive and progressive approach to the scholarship and B average issue. The proposal is that if a student drops below a B then take away one-half the scholarship as opposed to taking the entire scholarship away. This applies if the student is still making progress toward the degree but has simply dropped below a B average. If the student brings the average back up then reinstate the full scholarship. Dr. Franz expressed he sees this as an excellent approach.

There was a question regarding viability and how much influence outside entities have on speaking out in favor of keeping a nonviable program. Dr. McManus addressed this question and shared there are many factors involved in making the decision regarding the viability of a program. Some of the factors included the importance of this program to the area and the community and plans for making the program viable, etc. This kind of outside support would come further down the road after other attempts and plans were exercised. There was concern expressed for the numbers used and the arbitrary choice of these numbers. Dr. McManus assured the Senate that all factors are looked at in assessing viability not just numbers.

Dr. Brookman moved, seconded by Dr. Bliss to suspend the agenda in order to consider an item not included in the agenda. Dr. Hanks announced Reva Bailey is retiring effective Spring 2000 and he would like the Senate to do a resolution recognizing her many contributions and her extensive years of service to the university. He would like someone to draft a resolution and get it done nicely to present at the next meeting. It was suggested that the resolution be developed and brought to the next meeting for review and reading. The official resolution could then be presented to Reva at a December meeting. The resolution will be reviewed at the next meeting.

Other items brought to the floor for consideration were: Consideration for extra time between classes—perhaps another 5 minutes. Students seem to have a problem with making it to their next class—especially if it is across campus with only ten minutes between the classes. Dr. Franz stated something could be modeled and brought back to the Senate for consideration. One suggestion was public transportation—a shuttle across campus. Dr. Franz responded that is a very high cost item that is not feasible at this time.

The other item brought for consideration was the fact assistantships and scholarships will not cover distance learning courses. Dr. Bliss will look into this and see what can be done.