AU Senate Meeting

Remarks and Announcements

AU Senate Chair: Lori Eckhardt

• The Senate website is undergoing a redesign and the executive committee is seeking input from all who use the site. Please share your feedback via this survey (survey is closed) by October 25, 2024.

• The 2024 Faculty Award winners were announced in Auburn News this morning. The Senate’s current Immediate Past Chair, Lisa Kensler, has received the President’s Award for Distinguished Faculty Leadership. Congratulations to Dr. Kensler!

AU President: Christopher B. Roberts

• There were some questions after Hurricane Helene and President Roberts wanted to share some aspects of the decision-making process for these situations. Thanks to relationships with the National Weather Service in Birmingham, the university had access to experts and up-to-date information regarding severe weather risks. President Roberts emphasized that the safety of Auburn faculty, staff, and students is always at the forefront of decision making.

• The President’s team receives monthly updates on the economic outlook for the state of Alabama. While overall the numbers look okay, two of the largest revenues in the education trust fund are combined to be about $44 million less than they were in the prior year based on individual income tax and sales. Auburn will be okay for FY25 because of rainy day funds and how those calculations are averaged, but we should be vigilant on how we increase our revenue and keep an eye on spending for FY26. Diversifying and increasing revenue streams through mission critical activities continues to be a priority.

• Total research extramural awards for FY25 was an all-time high of $344 million. This is a record for the university and the 15% increase over FY23 indicates the goal to double research output is quite feasible.

• The advancement team also had a good year moving the university forward and increasing those revenue streams. Auburn Advancement set a fundraising record by securing $220.5 million in new philanthropic commitments. This came from 29,360 donors who supported 46 different programs/new funds. This exceeded previous fundraising record by more than 8 million dollars.

• President Roberts stressed the importance of shared governance, noting that senior leadership meets regularly with various governance groups. Student Government Association (SGA) is an exceptionally run organization. Faculty, Staff, and A&P leaders recently observed SGA leadership meeting. This was an example to learn about and from one another. Likewise, the Senate leaders hosted the senate leadership from South Alabama last week, which allowed the two groups to learn from each other and share best practices.

• The new strategic plan—Grounded and Groundbreaking—was released on October 7th. Grounded and groundbreaking are two words that summarize Auburn quite well. Unit level plans and goals are being crafted now to support the strategic plan.

AU Provost: Vini Nathan

• Provost Nathan extended kudos to Dean Newschwander and all the faculty, staff, students, and alumni in the College of Nursing. Last year, the College of Nursing was ranked in the top 10% (67th of 681) of nursing programs nationally. This year the college is ranked at 54 out of 686 programs – in the top 8%. This doesn’t come without persistent excellence.

• Nathan reminded everyone that earlier today the recipients of this year’s Faculty Awards were announced. There will be a celebration later in November.

• Nathan reminded everyone that the Board of Trustees charged President Roberts at its February meeting with conducting a comprehensive analysis of faculty compensation, workload, and productivity. Nathan started conversation with four separate firms, but none are set up to do all three pieces; they are more suited to looking at compensation and looking at national, regional, and other peer metrics. Workload and productivity is localized, and a hybrid effort will be required: an external firm working on the compensation piece and one or two nested working groups working alongside them on the other two pieces of workload and productivity. There will be two levels of committees—a steering working group of about 7 folks and larger group called the advisory group of about 13 folks. The steering group will have a significant role in talking to the consultant firms and determining which one needs to be shortlisted or selected. The steering working group will be led by Norman Godwin, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, and Cathleen Erwin, Department Chair of Political Science, as co-chairs. Other members include Jeff Fairbrother, Dean of the College of Education; Allan David, Associate Dean for Research from the Ginn College of Engineering; Salisa Westrick, Department Head of Health Outcomes, Research and Policy in the Harrison College of Pharmacy (also a member of the University Budget Advisory Committee); Wes Collins, faculty member from the College of Architecture, Design and Construction (also member of the Senate Faculty Salaries and Welfare Committee); and Luke Oeding, faculty member from the College of Sciences and Mathematics (also President of the Auburn University chapter of the AAUP). Nathan will share names of the members of the larger advisory group through her monthly newsletter; there will be 13 members, one from each of the twelve colleges and one from the Libraries. Kelli Shomaker and Nathan will be ex officio of the entire effort and will be assisted by Bryan Elmore, Amanda Malone, and Matt Campbell.

• There was an update on a dean-level change. Paul Patterson, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES), will be stepping down from these roles effective January 1, 2025. There will be an internal search for an interim dean and director of AAES, which will be chaired by Mario Eden. A search advisory committee has been established. Today is the deadline for receiving internal candidates. In the next couple of weeks, a search advisory committee for the permanent dean and director position will be filled out. This national search will use the search firm Breckenridge Partners to assist with the process.

• Another dean search is also being conducted at this time. That position is for the Dean of the College of Nursing, and the search committee is being chaired by Jason Hicks, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

• Several reminders about faculty recognition and events: On October 17th, there will be an Endowed Faculty Reception. Next Tuesday, there will be a University Faculty Meeting, at which Kelli Shomaker and Nathan will provide a budget presentation as previously requested by the Senate. Next Tuesday immediately after the faculty meeting, Eileen Garvin, author of this year’s common book "The Music of Bees," will be on campus. Faculty awards were announced today and will be presented on November 19th. The deadline for Professional Improvement Leave proposals (for the academic year 2025-2026) is November 22nd. There will be 3 graduation ceremonies in December – Saturday, December 15th at 8 am, 1 pm, and 6 pm. Gerald Pouncey, a graduate of the College of Engineering, will be the speaker for all 3 ceremonies. Charles Gavin will be recognized with an honorary doctorate at the engineering ceremony that evening.

• Questions:

  • Q. Liliana Stern, Senator from Economics: We have observed some abnormal raises for administrators this summer (general counsel received a close to $60k raise), and also some faculty in my department received raises which are not explained by rank/promotion. How and why is this still happening?

    • A. Roberts indicated that he would not discuss an individual person’s raise in a public forum but noted that he was being careful in decision making and using funds strategically. He added that sometimes that involves rewarding and retaining excellent people and mentioned that the university has defined processes for raises.

    • A. Nathan noted that the Senator brought up two examples, one of which was regarding a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts. She stated that both she and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts have received an email asking that question, and that the dean has a response. Nathan asked the Senator to receive that background and response from the Dean, rather than asking her to present it at an open forum of the Senate.

Action Items

Voting on Nominees to Senate Committees

Presenter: Jaena Alabi

Nominees to Senate Committee (pdf)

• Voting Results: 64 yes / 2 no / 4 abstain. Nominee was approved.

Voting on motion to change name and description of Senate DEI Committee

Presenter: Soledad Peresin

DEI Committee's Motion (pdf)

• Peresin, chair of the DEI committee presented the motion again. The floor was opened for discussion.

  • Requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate body.

• Sunny Stalter-Pace, Senator from English, thanked the committee for its work in revising the description and charge rather than dissolving it.

• Voting Results: 63 yes / 4 no / 3 abstain. Motion passed.

Information Items

Facilities Update

Presenter: Jim Carroll, Associate Vice President Facilities Management

Facilties Update (pdf)

• Carroll narrated a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yqDjiq-HH4) that highlighted a number of recently completed or in progress construction projects on campus. Some of the projects included the Parkerson Mill Greenway, College of Education building, Plainsman Park improvements, Recreation and Wellness Center renovation, Stem + Ag Complex, Lowder Hall advising suite, Little and Teague residence hall renovations and construction of a new residence hall on the Haley Concourse, North End Zone project at the stadium, chilled water plant at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kreher Preserve and Nature Center’s new environmental education building, and a sciences lab building at AUM.

• Other Board of Trustees-approved projects include a build out of the amphitheater at the Gogue Performing Arts Center and an events center addition to the president’s house (to replace the tent structure that currently exists). There were two more updates with regard to facilities operations – a new custodial contract was signed with ABM, which resulted in slightly higher wages for staff and no decrease in service level and cleaning frequency; also, there is a service center model change where units will be charged a percentage instead of hourly fees for architectural and design services.

Business Modernization Plan

Presenter: Charles Hunt, Director of Enterprise Systems

Business Modernization Plan Presentation Slides (pdf)

• Hunt shared information about the Business Modernization Program, which was commissioned by President Roberts and mentioned in the strategic plan. It began in early 2024 and currently has no planned end date. Business modernization can include improving student experience or how students interact with systems, or optimizing business processes that are used in human resources, finance, or student administrative areas. The goal is to look for opportunities to streamline and increase efficiency in day-to-day processes. Last fall, the university engaged Deloitte consulting to conduct an overall assessment of business practices and use of technology within those practices. Some of the suggested improvements and pain points include better access to data and reporting; improved decision-making; improved student, faculty, and staff experience (including admissions process, scholarship applications, registration, financial aid, learning management, pre-employment onboarding, benefits selection, etc.); streamlined business processes; and increased efficiency.

• Hunt shared details on the program’s guiding principles and structure. From the Deloitte assessment, 23 initiatives were identified. These fall into several broad categories: ERP (Banner), Administrative Operations, Information Technology, and Cybersecurity. Notable projects currently in-flight include conducting an ERB (Banner) strategy (i.e., Can Banner meet future needs?); enhancing experience – one of the small wins is the new AU Access portal (the old portal was no longer supported), which is card-based and mobile-friendly; implementation of a new identity and access management system; modernizing the timekeeping system (in progress); and deprecating in-house-developed travel and expense system (currently evaluating options for vendor-based solution).

• Hunt encouraged people to visit the website for more detailed information: https://aub.ie/modernization and welcomed feedback at modernization@auburn.edu.

New Business

• None

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 4:38 p.m. by Senate Chair Lori Eckhardt.