10.19.21 Senate Minutes

Establish a Quorum

• A quorum was established when 52 senators responded to the quorum poll via canvas.  In all, 82 senators attended the meeting.

• Approval of the minutes from the Senate Meeting of September 21, 2021:

  • Chair Steury noted that some changes had been made to the minutes as they were first published on the Senate Website.  Ralph Kingston (Senate Secretary) outlined these changes which were made to remove some ambiguity in the discussion of PTR review in the last meeting, and in particular to more accurately reflect the arguments made in that discussion by the senator from Aerospace, Roy Hartfield.  Roy Hartfield (senator, Aerospace) requested an additional edit be made to note his statement in the last meeting that, according to his knowledge, Faculty Annual Reviews have not been being audited by the university. Kingston agreed this change.

  • Hearing no objections, the minutes, with the above edits agreed, were approved by unanimous consent.

Remarks and Announcements

University Senate Chair: Todd Steury

• Chair Todd Steury addressed the meeting on the issue of decorum. He stressed that while senate is a place for difficult discussions on sometimes controversial topics, those discussions should be conducted with civility. He drew attention to guidance on decorum in Roberts Rules.  He warned those present that he would be enforcing the rule that members of the assembly should not address one another, but instead address all remarks and questions through the chair. Once a remark or question is finished, the member yields the floor and must be recognized anew by the chair.  Members of the assembly should not carry on conversations with one another.

President: Jay Gogue

President Jay Gogue shared some information related to university business and operations. 

• First, he noted that Auburn is signing a memorandum of understanding with Tuskegee University adjoining the two institutions' communications programs. He thanked the faculty in the College of Liberal Arts who had worked on this collaboration.

• He also noted the recent HR announcement that all employees at Auburn will receive a living wage of $14.50 per hour.   About 200 employees will receive a raise in salary.

• He then turned to discuss the success of efforts to raise money for needs-based scholarships in the University.  This was discussed in the September Board of Trustees meeting.  The goal was to raise 150 needs-based scholarships: that goal was achieved within three weeks.

• He then briefly mentioned President Biden’s executive order mandating that federal contractors should be vaccinated.  This will impact Auburn.  The administration is currently working on a plan to respond to this.

• He concluded by reminding faculty that this is the annual United Way campaign season. Auburn’s goal is to raise $140,000.

Provost: Bill Hardgrave

• Provost Bill Hardgrave noted that applications for new students to enter Auburn in fall 2022 have been open since August 1.  Auburn has received almost 20,000 applications, up over 150% compared to last year. 4665 early action admissions have been announced. Those admitted have an average 28.1 ACT score and a 4.15 average GPA. Admissions have exceeded expectation both in terms of quality and quantity.

• He congratulated faculty award winners and shared a link to the names of awardees: https://ocm.auburn.edu/newsroom/news_articles/2021/10/120753-faculty-awards.php?auhphdln 

• He then turned to discuss President Biden’s executive order 14042, noting, as President Gogue had done, that the administration was in the process of putting together a response to it. Those working on federal contracts will be required to be vaccinated. Provost Hardgrave noted, however, that the order’s scope is far more far reaching than that.

• Chair Steury added that faculty would have opportunity to discuss the executive order as part of the COVID agenda item set for the October 26 University Faculty meeting. 

• Sarah Cogle (senator, Pharmacy Practice) asked if one-time salary supplements were being considered for this year.  Provost Bill Hardgrave responded that one-time salary supplements would not be given this year. The decision was to give a 3% merit pool for salary increases instead.

Action Items

Voting on Changes to the Faculty Handbook; re: removal of Lectures Committee

Presenter: Todd Steury, Senate Chair

• No discussion.

• Steury noted that he and the Senate Secretary Ralph Kingston can not vote on canvas as they are enrolled as “teachers” for the canvas course.  The vote on this change requires 59 votes to pass. Steury and Kingston would vote only if the result is close.

• VOTE RESULTS: 61 total in favor, 3 opposed, 1 abstaining. The constitutional amendment was passed.

Voting on Changes to the Faculty Handbook; re: Senate Constitution and Zoom meetings

Presenter: Todd Steury, Senate Chair; Kamden Strunk, Chair, Faculty Handbook Review Committee

• Steury noted that this would allow not only Senate to meet electronically but also Senate committees.

• Scott Ketring (senator, HDFS) asked whether this amendment means that senate will meet electronically from this point on.  Steury replied that it meant that Senate could continue to meet electronically, but as long as he was chair he would let senators decide whether it would meet in person or on zoom. Senate already voted to meet on zoom until January and will vote whether to continue meeting on zoom at that point.

• No further discussion.

• VOTE RESULTS: 61 total in favor, 7 opposed, 0 abstaining. The constitutional amendment was passed.

Voting on motion to review PTR outcomes and suspend PTR until review completed

Presenter: Todd Steury, Chair

• Steury noted that this motion was made by Roy Hartfield and seconded in the last meeting.  He said that the Senate executive committee had decided in the meantime to set up an ad hoc committee to conduct the review.  The Rules Committee had established this committee: Mark Carpenter (Chair), Mitchell Brown (Political Science), Roy Hartfield (Aerospace), and Bart Prorok (Materials Engineering.)

• There is nobody currently in the PTR process so there is no reason to suspend PTR.

• Chair Steury asked if there were any objections to indefinitely postponing the motion.

• Roy Hartfield spoke to support the proposal to indefinitely postpone.

• The motion was indefinitely postponed by unanimous consent.

Voting on Changes to the Faculty Handbook; re: post-tenure review

Presenter: Kamden Strunk, Chair – Faculty Handbook Committee

• Steury noted that this was presented in the last Senate meeting. 

• Questions:

  • Scott Ketring (Senator, HDFS) asked if the purpose of the ad hoc PTR review committee just established was to review this policy. Steury clarified the ad hoc committee was set up to review past practice of PTR. These new changes are separate and intended to clarify and improve the PTR process as a whole.

  • Luke Oeding (not a senator, Mathematics and Statistics) asked if the Board of Trustees could make its own changes to PTR, as has happened recently in the University of Georgia system. President Gogue noted that changes like the one under discussion are made through Senate. From there they go the administration for approval and from there to the Board of Trustees.  Emmett Winn (Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs) spoke to underline that changes to the Faculty handbook come up through the Senate to the administration.  They begin at the faculty level. There are a small number of sections of the handbook for which the Trustees must give approval to changes, but there are large parts of the handbook where the Trustees are not involved in the approval process.

  • Roy Hartfield (senator, Aerospace) asked about delays to the approval of other changes to the faculty handbook.  Provost Hargrave responded that the Board of Trustees decided that all faculty handbook changes should be approved in a single meeting each year.  This is the June meeting of the Board of Trustees.

  • Amit Mitra (senator, Systems and Technology) asked in regard to the PTR review policy currently under discussion if it could be added that the faculty member up for PTR could be given a 30-day period to create and submit his or her development plan. Chair Steury responded he would take this suggestion to the Handbook and PTR committees.

  • Michael Stern (not a senator, Economics) noted that handbook policies passed in Senate in February have not been added to the Faculty handbook. Provost Hardgrave responded that these items have not yet been taken to the Board of Trustees for a vote. Trustees had questions about some of the items, and, in light of these, the policies are under review and revision in some cases.

  • Stern then noted that one of the policies passed by Senate but not by the Board related to the operation of Faculty Annual Reviews.  He argued that the operation of Faculty Annual Reviews is central to the question of the Post-Tenure Review process, as FARs are used to trigger PTR. As a result, the status of those changes needed to be more certain before the Senate should make a new set of related changes.

  • Kamden Strunk (chair, Faculty Handbook Review Committee) noted that while the FAR is a trigger mechanism for PTR, the two policies are not closely connected.  The changes to the PTR policy review under discussion in this meeting is to make clearer how individuals proceed through the PTR process after it has been triggered.

• There was no further discussion.

• VOTE RESULTS: 47 total in favor, 12 opposed, 8 abstaining. The policy was passed.

Voting on the nominees to Senate Committees

Presenter: Ralph Kingston, Secretary

• Ralph Kingston (Senate Secretary) presented the name of nominations made by the Rules Committee to the Academic Standards Committee and the Core Curriculum and General Education Committee.

• Kingston encouraged faculty to volunteer for university and senate committees via the volunteer database. Kingston would be sending out reminders to faculty in early spring.

• VOTE RESULTS: 64 total in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstaining. The nominees were accepted.

Information Items

None

New Business

Bruce Gladden (not a senator, Kinesiology) spoke on the university’s COVID vaccination policy.  He praised some of the positive steps the university had taken but noted that the university lacked seriousness and urgency in terms of promoting vaccination and the science of vaccines. He presented numerous examples of how the administration, Auburn’s shared governance bodies, and Auburn Athletics have not stepped up. Auburn University, in his opinion, has not been a leader in terms of promoting vaccines and compares badly to other universities in the state in terms of promoting visible, urgent, steps to increase vaccination rates. He urged the university to do better.

Adjournment

Hearing no objections, Chair Steury declared the meeting adjourned at 4:20pm.

Attendance

Senate Officers

Administration

Ex-Officio Members

Senators by Department