06.22.21 Senate Minutes

Establish a Quorum

A quorum was established, with 53 out of 87 Senators in attendance. 46 Senators responded to the quorum poll, plus 7 among panelists who could not use the polling tool.

Don Mulvaney, Senate Chair, called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm. The Chair gave attendees an overview of the basic procedures for participating in the meeting in Zoom format, and then began the meeting.

Approval of the minutes from the Senate Meeting of May 18, 2021:
No objections or corrections were raised to the March minutes. Minutes were approved.

Remarks and Announcements:

Donald Mulvaney, Senate Chair Remarks

The Chair opened his remarks by introducing the elected officers of the Senate, the Senate Parliamentarian Al Gage and the Senate Administrative Assistant, Laura Kloberg.

The Chair then noted the ongoing work of shared governance, marking out in particular the work of the Senate Steering Committee.

Chair Mulvaney then moved to identify and recognize resilience and innovation at Auburn University during the COVID era.  The Chair recognized the Auburn University administration, including the President’s Council, for work on navigating the covid-19 crisis.

The Chair concluded his remarks by noting this was his last Senate meeting as Chair and shared how the year had confirmed for him the importance of shared governance and the challenge of maintaining it.  The challenges of the past year, he added, have proved its robustness at Auburn.  He noted some of the challenges and opportunities facing Auburn going forward and expressed hope that faculty would have input into the selection of a new President.

The Chair then invited Provost Hardgrave to make remarks.

Bill Hardgrave, Auburn University Provost Remarks

The Provost began by thanking Don Mulvaney for his service as Senate Chair for his leadership during a difficult year. He made the following announcements

• Both the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science and Mathematics are running searches for interim Deans.

• Megan Good, who leads the university’s SACSCOC accreditation process, is leaving at the end of July, and, given that we are at a critical stage of the reaffirmation process, the university will move to replace her as quickly as possible. Associate Provost Norman Godwin is looking internally within the university for a replacement.

Question: Scott Ketring (senator, HDFS): Ketring asked the Provost about the logistics of the new Juneteenth national holiday and if, going forward, the university might avoid scheduling the holiday on a Monday. There are already two holiday Mondays in the semester and a class scheduled on a Monday would meet even less frequently if Juneteenth was also celebrated on a Monday.  

Provost Hardgrave responded that he had head similar concerns from other colleges and that Ketring should reach out to the Provost’s office to find a possible solution.

Question: Susan Youngblood (senator, English): Youngblood asked about the recent reduction in the number of full-time non-tenure-track faculty.

Provost Hardgrave replied that the Provost’s office had been looking at college budgets and, in particular, comparing the growth of faculty relative to the growth of the number of credit hours being offered.  He had consulted with the Deans on why faculty numbers had grown disproportionately to the growth of credit hours.  In order to reduce the gap, some non-tenure track faculty were not renewed.

Action Items

Action Item – Voting on Nominees to serve on Senate Committees

Ralph Kingston, Senate Secretary Elect, for Greg Schmidt, Senate Secretary

Kingston presented the name of the faculty member from the College of Architecture, Design, and Construction, selected by the Rules Committee to serve the remaining open slot on the Graduate Council. This nomination represents the completion of the current Rules Committee’s work on filling vacancies on Senate Committees.  

Kingston noted that the Rules Committee for 2022-2023 will be tasked with selecting members for the new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee early in the fall.  Volunteering is open for this committee via the “Volunteering for Committees” link on the Senate website. Notice will also be sent to faculty by email.

Kingston then called for a vote on the nominee.

VOTE RESULTS:   56 total in favor, 0 opposed.

The nominee was approved.

Informational Items

Proposed Research Data Policy

Presenter: Ali Krzton, Assistant Professor, AU Libraries.

Krzton shared with the Senate a draft research data policy for comments and feedback from faculty, explaining the rationale behind developing a formal university data policy. She shared a link with the full draft of the data policy with Senate (https://aub.ie/draftdatapolicy) and asked for faculty to provide feedback either to their Senators or directly to her (alk0043@auburn.edu) to be incorporated and brought back to Senate in the fall.

Don Mulvaney (Senate chair) confirmed that having incorporated feedback from faculty, it is expected that this policy will come back as a pending action item to the Senate in the fall.

Linda Gibson-Young, Chair of the Faculty Research Committee, noted that the committee would be meeting in July to discuss the draft document and suggested that faculty could also take their feedback to members of the Faculty Research committee from their units or the Associate Dean for Research in their colleges.

Question: Roy Hartfield (substitute Senator, Aerospace Engineering) asked to what extent they had looked at the policies in other universities, and how the committee navigated between more restrictive and more liberal university policies on research data.

Krzton responded that they had sought to look at a range of policies. She noted that there was no intent that it be restrictive.

Question: Tracy Witte (senator, Psychological Sciences) advised that this policy should be integrated with other policies on campus related to research data, and in particular with IRB guidance. 

Krzton responded that the committee is working closely with the IRB.

Update on Advancement

Presenter: John Morris, Senior Vice President, Advancement

Morris provided Senators with an update from the Office of Advancement, explaining the ongoing transition to an “advancement strategy” at Auburn.  He welcomed faculty engagement, and noted the importance of building faculty stories about the great work being done at Auburn.

Update on Higher Ed Partnership

Presenter:  Gordon Stone, Executive Director of the Higher Ed. Partnership

Stone explained the ongoing work of the Higher Education Partnership in terms of ensuring that the Alabama public universities in the partnership, which includes Auburn, continue to have significant input into policy making at state level.  The Partnership represents its members’ common interests, including in terms of resource allocation.

Report on Staff Council

Presenter:  Ashley Reid, Admin Support Specialist, SC Chair-Elect

Reid presented the work of the Staff Council, which represents over 1300 staff members at Auburn, introducing senators to its organization and operation, its officers, and its participation in university shared governance.

Covid Resource Center Update

Presenter:  Dr. Robert Norton, Professor in Poultry Sciences and Faculty Rep to the Covid Resource Center.

Norton presented the current Covid numbers (new cases, vaccination rates, etc.), on campus, in the local area, in Lee County, and, finally in Alabama. Calls and emails to the CRC have decreased dramatically in recent weeks and the operation a full call center has been suspended (until mid-July). Vaccinations are widely available to everyone over 12 and appointments can be scheduled via the CRC website.

The CRC website is currently up to date in terms of guidance and policies. It will continue to evaluate the needs on campus and will assess the situation going into the fall. 

Question: Don Mulvaney (Senate Chair) asked about the potential impact of Delta and the need for boosters.

Norton said that they are monitoring the situation.  The CDC has not, as yet, made a recommendation on boosters.

Question: Yanzhao Cao (senator, Mathematics and Statistics) asked if Norton knows what percentage of AU faculty that have been vaccinated.

Norton says they have numbers for people vaccinated in Auburn, but not for those vaccinated elsewhere. Norton reiterated that faculty can now easily get vaccinated.

Question: Tracy Witte (senator, Psychological Sciences) asked about the peril of vaccination hesitancy among young adults. Is the university considering incentivizing vaccination among students?

Norton replied that the university is considering all options.  The CRC is receiving calls from those, including parents, who are expressing their desire that the university population should be vaccinated. Discussions are in progress with university leadership.

Don Mulvaney (Senate Chair) closed the discussion by thanking faculty representatives Robert Norton and Danilea Werner for their service on the covid task force and resource center.

Did You Know Corner (update on student perspectives and organizations)

Presenter:  Rett Waggoner, President AU SGA.

Waggoner presented the SGA executive goals for 2021-2022.  The goals identified by the SGA executive for the upcoming year are focused on six main areas: Diversity Equity, and Inclusion;  Mental Health and Safety; Practical Solutions (including helping students encounter with navigating and understanding university processes and interfaces); Academics (expanding resources available to students and advocating that a Grade Replacement Policy replace the current GAP process); Dining (including creating a system through which unused meal credits can be transferred to other students experiencing food insecurity); Community Engagement (including making sure students are represented in the city planning process.)

A comment in the chat from Yanzhao Chao (senator, Mathematics and Statistics) praised the focus on combating student food insecurity.

New Business 

• 1. Todd Steury (Senate Chair Elect) raised the question as to whether Senate should stay on zoom or move back in person in the fall.  In order to let the Senators decide that question, he moved that the Senate continue to use zoom in its meetings during the fall (2021).  The motion was seconded by Ralph Kingston, Senate Secretary Elect. It will appear as an action item on the August senate agenda.  

In the meantime, Steury noted that the Senate executive committee would work on establishing fixed rules for conducting meetings on zoom in line with the Senate Constitution and Robert’s Rules of Order.  Some amendment of the Senate constitution to allow for zoom meetings may be necessary.

• 2. Mitchell Brown (Professor, Political Science; outgoing President of the Auburn chapter of AAUP) shared concerns on extraordinary screening of international faculty selected by departments for hire, as well as the screening of international students.

This screening is being conducted by the Office of Audit, Compliance, and Privacy.  This office effectively has the power to overrule a faculty vote. There is no transparency in terms of what how scrutiny is being operated or the criteria being used.  Candidates for faculty positions at Auburn are not being told why their hire was not approved.

In the spirit of shared governance, transparency, and accountability, and in the interests of the reputation of Auburn University in the academic community, the AAUP asked the University Senate to look into this situation, the processes involved, and what impact they have had to date.

Don Mulvaney (Senate Chair) noted this request.

Unfinished Business

None

Adjournment

Hearing no objections, Chair Mulvaney declared the meeting adjourned at 5:03pm

Respectfully Submitted,
Ralph Kingston
Secretary-Elect, University Senate

Attendance