UAH FACULTY SENATE
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.