UAH FACULTY SENATE
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.