UAH FACULTY SENATE
PRESENT:
ADSC: Schnell, Wren, Pendley
LBAR: Givens, Enger, Early, Meister, Waring, Martin, Wray, Reeves, Neuschatz, Brunsma
ENG: Toutanji, Gaede, Pollock, Tippett, Karr
LIB: Moore
NUR: Redmon
SCI: Johnson, Ng, George, Li, Etzkorn, Hillman, Ames.
ABSENT WITH PROXY:
ADSC: Floyd
ENGR: Fork
NUR: Stanfield, Williamson, Reisenwitz
SCI: Loo, Miller, Friedman, Ravindran
ABSENT WITHOUT PROXY:
LBAR: Wilkerson
ENGR: Smith, Hawk
SCI: Christopher
0. President Stephen Waring called the meeting to order at 12:50 p.m.
1. Draft Minutes of Meeting #444 were approved.
2. The Senate Executive Committee Reports were accepted.
3. President Franz’s Report:
Dr. Franz apologized for
being late and he apologized to Dr. Heaven for having to miss his
presentation. He was in a meeting of
the NSSTC Board and has to return to that meeting.
Dr. Franz reported regarding
the future funding, salaries, etc. He
reported he met with the Chancellor a few days ago to discuss issues regarding
UAH. Dr. Franz reported we do not know
who will be elected as Governor. We do
not, as a State, have anything in place for immediate relief. We got through this year but the State
shifted debts to next year. Collections
are down. There is a good chance we
will get through this year without proration because of the “Proration
Prevention Fund”. If we use this year
to do real tax reform to fix the problem, we can then put it before the people
the following year. There is hope.
Dr. Franz stated there may
not be as much interest regarding reallocation where we are concerned as the
other schools. Tuscaloosa’s salary
increase was done with one time money.
They will have to reallocate. We
have used enrollment and tuition increase.
We are skeletal. We have done
some things ahead of the curve. We have
increased enrollment and had tuition increase.
We are protecting the increase in tuition. This fall we had good retention and recruitment. Credit goes to the Faculty Senate and to the
Departments. Enrollment is up about
4.7% in credit hours and 4.3% in headcount.
He stated retention is still very important. He wants to see this
increase happen again.
Dr. Franz reported he was
sorry to see numbers published regarding percentages of salary increases. This tends to upset people. The 5.2% published for UAH was not the
average, it was the median. All faculty
and staff were lumped together. Because
we have a large number of low paid people we put the $500 plus the percentage
increase. The goal was to help the
lowest paid people.
Dr. Franz emphasized how it
is very important that everyone vote this year.
Dr. Franz reported he has
shared a skeleton plan for the Shelby Building. He would like the Executive Committee to advise him on how to
proceed with discussions—whether through the Faculty Senate or a general
Faculty meeting/discussion. He stated
we are not restricted but he needs guidelines.
Further input is welcome.
Dr. Franz reported there will
be a dedication of the Residence Hall in late October or November.
He reported the new Charger
Cage is doing great.
Dr. Franz reported he is glad
to see the increase in bikes on campus.
4. Provost Radonovich’s Report:
Dr. Radonovich
reported the Board of Trustees voted to approve the degree revocation
recommended by UAH. This was a degree
issued in 1997 from the ECE Department.
This was the first degree revocation for us and the first in the
System. In 1998 the advisor brought
evidence of plagiarism. Dr. McManus
investigated this and had the Graduate Dean investigate it. There was an analysis done and found there
was extensive plagiarism and the student did not meet the originality
requirement. The student is out of the
country. When Dr. Radonovich came on
board this was not fully dealt with. He
went to the Faculty Appeals Committee and selected members from the
Committee. An advocate for the student
was selected. Charges were brought by
the Graduate Dean. The Committee
functioned well and did a great job. The provided a unanimous recommendation that there was plagiarism
and the student had failed to meet the originality requirement. The Provost studied the material and came to
the same conclusion. Dr. Franz agreed
with the recommendation. Dr. Franz sent
a letter to the Board. The Board
approved the recommendation at the last meeting. There is a process in place to investigate and it works well. There have been two changes in the graduate
procedures to try to prevent this from happening in the future. There will be spring progress reports for all
dissertation students. There will be an
outline of the dissertation requirements as part of filing the program of
study. There may be other changes and
recommendations as a result of this. We
should have this complete by the end of the current semester.
Dr. Radonovich
reported we had an outstanding summer session.
We beat last summer by a substantial amount. All colleges will receipt rewards.
There was a question regarding the shift in the summer
session to the 10-week and two 5-week sessions. Some concern was expressed for the reduction in the number of
evening slots and the inconvenience to students this is causing. ECE and Computer Science expressed concern
for not having the same number of evening slots at the right times and
inconveniencing students who need to take the class after work or the part-time
instructor who needs to teach after work.
Dr. Radonovich explained we had a summer schedule unlike anyone else and
it caused problems for student and caused us to lose students because of the
incompatibility of the schedule. This
schedule is more like others. Dr.
Radonovich stated he would ask Dr. Johnson to call the ECE and Computer Science
Departments to work on this problem.
5. A. Senate Committee Reports:
1. Executive: The report was distributed with the minutes. The report was approved.
2. Faculty and Student
Development: Ms. Redmon deferred
until later in the meeting when she will introduce Senate Bill 293 at third
reading.
3. Finance and Resources: No
Report.
4. Governance and Operations: Dr. Reeves reported the Committee met and is investigating the Women’s Resource Center. They are also looking at Committees and the Degree Revocation Procedure.
5. Personnel: It was reported
the Committee has not met since the last meeting but they are working on items
for the next meeting, which will occur next week.
6. Undergraduate Curriculum: Dr.
Karr reported the Committee approved four courses. Two of the courses were new Geography courses in a Geography
sequence that will be housed in Political Science. This is required for Teacher Certification. There were also two Psychology Courses
approved.
7. Undergraduate Scholastic
Affairs: No Report.
B. University Committees: Dr. Gaede
reported the Bookstore Advisory Committee met.
They are preparing for the Senior Salute coming up. They have sold more books this year than
before. They have a new process where
they will pull the books for your class and hold them for you if you contact
them.
Dr. Gaede reported the Campus
Planning Committee met and discussed the preliminary plans for the discussions
and planning for the Applied Sciences Building.
Dr. Waring reported the Faculty
Appeals Committee is working on strengthening the procedures in the Graduate
Handbook as a result of the degree revocation.
C. Officer Reports:
Parliamentarian: No Report.
Ombudsperson: No Report.
President-Elect: No Report.
President: Dr. Waring reported he attended the Board of Trustees meeting. Most of it is routine business. Often important matters are reported. Dr. Waring highlighted some of the
information reported.
One report was from the
Graduate Dean. He chairs the Graduate
Education Committee for all the Graduate programs in the State. The Committee has developed a new
brochure. Four Fifths of all graduates
live and work in Alabama. Four fifths
of all applicants are from Alabama.
The System Management Production Lab became the System Management
Production Center.
UAH is discussing debt restructuring.
Bonds are being refinanced.
Dr. Waring reported he networked with fellow Faculty Senate
Presidents. Tim Heaven from UAH is here
today as a result of that. It has been
arranged for the three Faculty Senate Presidents to have lunch with the
Chancellor.
The Chancellor gave an address and outlined an ambitious agenda for the
coming year. He believes there will not
be proration for the coming year but the year following could be
difficult. His top priority is faculty
salaries. He talked about the usual
means of increasing funds. He expressed
strong support for the PAC. He is
working on a plan to achieve more efficiency in the System. He is conducting a system wide benefits package study. He proposed a system wide energy study. He talked about productivity of faculty and release time. He talked about a reallocation study in
relation to staff. He discussed the new
technology, etc. and the possibility of cutting staff cost. His goal would be a smaller staff that would
be better paid.
Dr. Waring distributed the voter’s guide for 2002. This is important information. The candidates endorsed by the PAC are
available at HEP page.
Dr. Waring reported the Finance and Resources Committee has been
looking into making a Faculty Resources Handbook available in a printed form
and on our website. Dr. Waring in
following up on this discovered there is a Committee led by Gary Smith that is
working to improve the UAH web site.
The New Web site will be like the University of Houston website.
Dr. Waring reported he has been working on getting the TGIF
reinstated. The Administration wants to
do this. We will try to bring it back
in a less frequent form.
Dr. Waring recommended we have a Faculty Member on the Calendar
Committee.
Past President: No Report.
6. Senate Bill 293: Honor Statement with Friendly Amendment
(Third Reading)
Dr. Redmon reported
Senate Bill 293 is back at third reading.
She thanked the Committee for their work. She talked with people.
It was determined the only thing most students have in common is the
application form. They talked about
orientation but not all students participate in that. They talked about web registration but that is not feasible
because it would require changes to the software and we have a clause in our
contract that will not allow us to do that.
Dr. Redmon read the changes including the friendly amendment. Dr. Redmon moved the bill to the floor
seconded by Dr. Schnell. Dr. Waring
explained the reasoning for the change and the handling of the bill. Having the information on the web will
help. The Writing Center has
information to help. Dr. Gaede made a
friendly amendment to change “with” in line 27 to “in”. There was some discussion regarding where
the forms would stay if a professor asked the student to sign these in his or
her class. It was stated the forms
should reside with the Professor. The
Application forms will reside in Student Affairs. Dr. Gaede called the question.
The vote for the bill was 32 in favor, 0 opposed, and 0
abstentions. The bill passed at third
reading and will be forwarded to the Administration for action.
7. Tim Heaven (UAB Faculty
Senate President): Dr. Heaven talked about UAB’s new
President. He stated she has previous
experience as a student and a faculty member.
He stated she is very energetic, and has a pleasant personality. They are excited about here. She has been to some meetings. They are currently looking at the health
insurance issues. They have had three
options at UAB in the past. Next year t
hey will have two options. VIVA and
Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Their BC/BS is
about $465 a month. The VIVA HMO is
more popular because it is less expensive.
They have been in business since 1995 and they are making money.
Dr.
Heaven reported they are trying to save money and they are trying to get
faculty salaries up.
He
reported Watson Brown spoke at the September meeting. They are trying to keep the football team going. They have to get support from Drummond and
Thompson.
He
reported they need to increase the graduate student population. They are trying to enhance the stipend level
to attract the best students.
They
are currently working on revising the Faculty handbook. The Faculty Affairs Committee is looking at
it and making recommendation for revisions.
The
VP for Planning and Advancement gave a report that showed the production of the
faculty and the faculty salaries. He
looked at the expenditures from the State.
We are not optimistic about state funds and we are looking to find ways
to bring money from other sources. This
may require more from the faculty so we
have to look at the productivity and enhancing it.
He
talked briefly about PAC activity. He
reported on the Blazer PAC folding into the UASPAC. He reported he had the people from the HEP speak to the Faculty
Senate.
8. President Waring adjourned the meeting at 2:05 p.m.