AU Senate Meeting

Establish a Quorum

• The attendance vote was opened and a quorum was established with 75 Senators voting present. When the vote closed at the end of the meeting, 81 Senators had responded present.

• Senate meeting minutes from June 11, 2024 were approved by unanimous consent.

Remarks and Announcements

AU Senate Chair: Lori Eckhardt

• Encouraged Senators to complete a feedback survey on the Senator Orientation held on August 14th. The Survey Link was posted in Canvas.

AU President: Christopher B. Roberts

• Introduced the latest leadership hire – Jim Carroll, Vice President for Facilities. While Carroll most recently came from the University of California, Davis, he was previously the University Architect for Auburn. In that role, he had a significant impact on the design and construction of the Mell Classroom Building and Gogue Performing Arts Center (GPAC).

• Enrollment Update:

  • Official census will be reported September 9, but preliminary data for Fall show Auburn enrolled some 6100 first-year and approximately 1300 transfer students. Graduate enrollment is 6194, which is up 87 students compared to last year. Growth occurred in master’s programs whereas PhD programs remained relatively flat compared to last year.

• Auburn has joined the Small Town and Rural Students (STARS) College Network. The network began last year with 16 schools (Stanford, Duke, Notre Dame, others) focused on trying to provide opportunities to students from rural communities. Auburn was invited to join. Membership comes with some extramural funding. The network now has 32 members.

• Board of Trustees Update:

  • Friday, September 6th will be the first meeting of the Auburn University Board of Trustees for this academic year. In this meeting, the proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budget will be presented for the Board’s final review and approval. The proposed budget will include the 4% salary pool mentioned in a previous Senate meeting. A tuition increase, and some increases in housing and dining options will also be brought before the Board. Recommendations were based on a substantive analysis of market conditions and rates charged by our peers. The Board will also consider some facilities proposals – College of Human Sciences Academic and Research Building, a project at CADC’s Rural Studio in Newbern, and the College of Engineering’s project for an advanced manufacturing and instrumentation laboratory. Also looking at renovations to some on campus housing and an expansion of the patio at the Melton Student Center, which was championed by the SGA. From Athletics, there is a multi-use expansion of the north end zone at Jordan-Hare. Also, just as an FYI – not for the September Board meeting, but there will be a plan in the future for a renovation of Comer Hall, which will be on expedited timeline because of rapid deterioration. The Board of Trustees will review and consider approval of the university’s strategic plan.

• Auburn was recently recognized by Forbes as one of the Best State Employers for 2024.

AU Provost: Vini Nathan

• Auburn takes its faculty census on the 9th of September, but this Fall, as of this morning, 128 new colleagues have joined the university in the faculty ranks.

• Update on leadership searches:

  • Relaunched the search for the Dean of the College of Nursing; CLA Dean Jason Hicks will chair search process.

• Board of Trustees’ September 6th meeting:

  • There will be one item for the Board’s consideration from the academic affairs side. It is a proposal from the College of Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Mathematics & Statistics is proposing a PhD in statistics and data science.

• Strategic Planning Update:

  • At the June Senate meeting, the strategic plan’s 5 major goals and action items were shared. Since then, the working group has fleshed out the strategic plan and built out key performance indicators (KPIs). Each of the major goals will be championed by senior leaders, who are representing the vision and aspirations of everybody but led by President Roberts. This will be presented as an information item during the Board meeting and President Roberts will present as an action item for their approval on September 6th. If it is approved, there will be a presentation to the Senate at its September 17th meeting.

• Update regarding analysis of faculty compensation, workload, and productivity:

  • The Provost’s office is leading this project and has spoken to four consultants as well as peer institutions who’ve done similar things. Consultants have shared examples of the work they have done, which has focused only on compensation and not on workload and productivity. This broader analysis will require a hybrid effort with external consultants and internal working groups as well. After the strategic plan is approved, efforts will shift to process maps and plans for the faculty compensation, workload, and productivity analysis.

• SB129 Update:

  • That law will become effective October 1st. Groups have looked at three areas affected by the law – centralized OID office, questions related to faculty and syllabi, and matters associated with HR. As of August 15th, a significant portion of those adjustments have been completed. Between now and October 1st adjustments will continue. Based on three guiding principles – amplify focus on access and affordability for our students; to create and sustain an environment where everyone feels welcomed, valued, respected, and engaged; and to be consistent with applicable law.

Chair Eckhardt announced that the requested budget presentation is on the agenda for the October Faculty Meeting. She then opened the floor to questions.

Questions

• Q. Roy Hartfield, Senator from Aerospace Engineering: Question regarding an HR policy that had previously covered staff and is now applicable to faculty as well.

  • A. President Roberts: Policy database is managed out of the General Counsel’s office and will have to look into that.

• Q. Jennifer Mueller-Phillips, Senator, Dean of the Harbert College of Business: Curious about breakdown of newly hired faculty (tenure track/nontenure-track ranks).

  • A. Provost Nathan: 128 full time faculty have joined us. 70 NTTFs (clinical, research, extension, lecturers, professors of practice, and postdocs), 54 tenure track faculty, and 4 department heads/deans (administrators but have faculty rank, too).

• Q. Michael Baginski, Senator from Electrical & Computer Engineering: Clarification about budget. Comment regarding wifi issues recently and concerns about stability. Parking seems out of control. Any concern about parking problems that have seemed to have arisen?

  • A. President Roberts: Parking is a challenge. Parking Services has implemented a number of new changes over the past couple of years. Roberts will take back concern and comments and return with some more information.

Action Items

Voting on use of Zoom for Senate meetings

Presented by Senate Chair, Lori Eckhardt.

• Motion to continue holding Senate meetings via Zoom until after the start of the 2025/2026 academic year. A new vote would be conducted at the August 2025 meeting, which would be virtual.

  • Q. Hans Werner van Wyk, Senator from Mathematics and Statistics: Has there been any investigation into software other than Zoom for these meetings (such as Teams)?

    • A. Chair Eckhardt: So far, have not investigated other tools.

  • Sara Wolf, Senator from Education Foundations, Leadership and Technology: Proposed an amendment the motion: Continue holding Senate meetings via Zoom until the June 2025 Senate Meeting. A new vote would be conducted at that meeting.

    • Seconded by Rebecca Riggs, Senator from Biological Sciences

    • Discussion:

      • Diana Samek, Senator from Human Development & Family Studies shared explanation from Ralph Kingston about timing of the vote. Senators who are leaving the Senate would be voting in June and new senators would be coming to enact the vote, so maybe wait until academic year so that the senators who are serving can vote.

      • Lisa Kensler, Immediate Past Chair: friendly amendment to change “until” to “through.” No objections were made to this change.

    • Amendment vote in Canvas:

      • Continue holding Senate meetings via Zoom through the June 2025 Senate Meeting. A new vote would be conducted at that meeting.

      • Results of vote on amendment as announced in meeting:

        • Yes 45 / No 23 / Abstain 1

        • Voting was closed just after results announced. Final tally was Yes 48 / No 25 / Abstain 1.

        • Amendment passed.

  • Motion as amended: Continue holding Senate meetings via Zoom through the June 2025 Senate Meeting. A new vote would be conducted at that meeting.

    • Result of vote on amendment as announced in meeting:

      • Yes 44 / No 8 / Abstain 2

      • Voting was closed just after results were announced. Final tally was Yes 45 / No 8 / Abstain 2.

      • Motion Passed.

Voting on nominees to Senate Committees

Presented by Jaena Alabi, Secretary.

• Download/View Nominees for Senate Committees (pdf)

  Voting Results: Yes 70 / No 1 / Abstain 2

  Nominees were approved.

Information Items

Student Counseling & Psychological Services

Presented by Joeleen Cooper-Bhatia

• Download/View Mental Health Trends & Services Presentation (pdf)

Office of Accessibility Services and Support Presentation

Presented by Barclay Bentley

• Download/View Office of Accessibility Presentation (pdf)

Unfinished or New Business

• Roy Hartfield, Senator from Aerospace Engineering made a motion: The Senate hereby implores the Administration and the Senate Leadership to adopt a University Faculty Meeting format that is compliant with Roberts Rules of Order including voting practices, and to present the proposed format to the Senate for approval before the next faculty meeting.

  • The chair declared that the motion had not been seconded before Liliana Stern, Senator from Economics, attempted to second the motion. Zachary Schulz, Senator from History, called a point of order – parliamentary inquiry that there were no grounds to second a motion that had already failed, which the Parliamentarian confirmed.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 4:58 p.m. by Senate Chair Lori Eckhardt.