AU Senate Meeting

Establish a Quorum

• A quorum was established, with a final count of 63 Senators out of 69 responding to the poll.

  • It takes 45 to establish a quorum therefore there was a quorum.

• No objections or corrections were raised to the August 30, 2022, minutes. Minutes approved.

• The Chair then invited the AU Administrators to make remarks.

Remarks and Announcements

AU President: Christopher B. Roberts

• Remarks centered around the following:

  • The US News reported Auburn as ranking 97 nationally out of 1900 public and private universities.

  • Auburn ranks 42 out of Public Universities.

  • Auburn was ranked as one of the best places to work on the Forbes List Directory.

  • After the BOT meeting, the BOT approved the 2022 -2023 budget, approved AUM.

  • Shared target goal for recruiting 5,300 incoming freshmen for 2023 to have a focus strategy of increasing the number of eligible underrepresented minority students.

  • Shared that the graduate student enrollment was lower because of a lower international student enrollment.

  • BOT discussed the approval of some ongoing facility projects such as the the College of Education Building and the Ag Science complex.

  • The celebration of the Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center as well as the academic classroom and laboratory complex.

• President Roberts asked the Chair if he could address a previous question posed to him from the previous August 30, Sente Meeting regarding the knowledge of a company or vendor that was previously mentioned.

  • President Robert asked Jennifer Adams to address the matter. Jennifer Adams, the director of Public Affairs stated that a mainstream firm advised the university on a broad range of issues related to communication and this service had been used for more than three years with firm’s advice being valuable to the university.

• The President closed his remarks and returned the discussion back to the Chair.

AU Interim Provost: Vini Nathan

• Welcomed everyone and shared the following remarks:

  • SACSCOC Compliance report which was submitted September 8, 2022.

  • Information about BOT approving one action item both information items that was presented in the August 30, 2022, meeting.

  • FY23 budget October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2023, includes 550 new faculty positions that support the research enterprise, post-doctoral students and visiting scholars.

  • Update on mission and enhancement on proposals which is reinvestment into activities in the academic and nonacademic space. Six million dollars were solicited for proposals and 45 proposals have been received from seventeen units thus far. Review committees have been set up comprised of chairs, past chairs of the governance groups. This year the committee also includes two department chairs. Allocation of resources will be made in mid-October.

• The Interim Provost concluded her remarks and returned the discussion back to the chair.

Questions

The Chair asked if there were any questions.

• Kim Gaza asked the Provost about a recently updated organization chart for the units that report to the Provost Office. Kim Gaza wanted to know the rationale for organization structure. After a preview visit from SAC during the summer, Auburn University was cited on academic effectiveness and institutional effectiveness. The Interim Provost stated she looked the faculty handbook to see if there is a process how to make changes to the organization structure. At present there is no process in place. Therefore, she came up with 6 individuals representing five units in the Provost Office. Research was done on the SEC, SREB, and two-three AAU institutions to see how they had set up their Provost Offices. After much research she looked a process of change and improvement, faculty driven and best practice. Interim Provost Nathan stated that it will be refined continuedly as needed.

• Alan Seals asked a question on the policy of conducting background checks to President Roberts. He reminded everyone that he had asked the question last year in May regarding faculty surveillance of people’s social media. Alan Seals commented that University Council said that there was no awareness of this information. General Burgess commented that current employees are not screened. Alan Seals noted that he had looked at the new policy and it stated that background checks may include any written or other communication or information bearing on an individual credit, character, general reputation, personal characteristic, or mode of living.

  • President Roberts commented on the question about new hires and current employees taking a higher administrative position having to go through background checks. Much discussion was given about the statement that Ron Burgess had made about background checks that seemed different what previously said in the May senate meeting. President Roberts continued with the explanation and ask that Jammie Hammer to comment. The Chair asked if the Senator Seals if his question was answered sufficiently. Senator Seals responded yes.

• Anthony Moss asked if the BOT had made a final approval on the STEM Ag Building.

  • President Roberts said that final approval will come at the spring meeting. The project is being reviewed and the President noted that there should not be any anticipate challenges with moving forward.

• Anthony asked for clarification of the names of individuals who reviewed the Mission Enhancement funds.

  • Interim Provost Nathan answered that those names were Charles Bryn Gardner from the College of Liberal Arts and Angela Wiley from the College of Human Sciences.

• Hartfield revisited the question that Senator Alan Seals had asked about background checks and policy on policies.

  • President Roberts asked Jamie Hammer to provide clarification. Counsel Jammie Hammer agreed that President Roberts was correct in his response about policies. It was then suggested that someone from HR may be able to answer questions about policy and background checks. Much discussion went back and forth with President Roberts and Jammie Hammer to clarify what the policy states.

• Senator Hartfield stated that he still had concerns.

• After much discussion Roy Hartsfield made a motion on the policy about background checks. The motion was made, and Senator Liliana Stern seconded the motion.

  • The Chair re-stated the motion and then indicated that it will be placed on the agenda for the October Senate meeting.

The motion is given below:

• The Senate States as Follows:
  

  • Whereas the Faculty Handbook, approved by the Board of Trustees contains the governing policy language over faculty disciplinary action and dismissal,

  • Whereas, the University HR department has circulated a document dated September 7, 2022, purporting to augment the basis for disciplinary action and dismissal authority over faculty,

  • Whereas,the University HR document is expansive, arbitrary, and creates broad and ill-defined new bases for disciplinary action up to dismissal, inconsistent with the Faculty Handbook,

  • Whereas the Faculty Handbook guarantees broad protection of the First Amendment and academic freedom rights of Faculty members,

  • Whereas, the new document from September makes no mention of the academic freedoms extoled in the Faculty Handbook, makes no mention of the Faculty Handbook, and grants nearly limitless power to the administration to surveil speech of Faculty both internal and external to the University using State of Alabama resources, which undermines academic freedom. And,

  • Whereas, the University HR document was not considered by the Senate processes of Shared Governance to include consideration by the Faculty Handbook Committee or the body of the Senate as required under the terms of the Faculty Handbook.

  • WHEREFORE, THE PREMISES CONSIDERED, The Senate resolves as follows:

    1. The Senate does not recognize that the University HR document dated September 7, 2022, has been developed through legitimate processes and does not recognize its applicability to Faculty.

    2. As such, the University HR document dated September 7, 2022, as applicable to Faculty should be immediately withdrawn and discarded by the administration.

    3. Language or conditions relating to the potential basis for faculty dismissal should only be considered through the established shared governance processes as outlined in the Faculty Handbook.

    4. In the interest of following the procedures established by the Board of Trustees, and in the interest of maintaining academic freedom, all policies governing the discipline or dismissal of Faculty members should be contained within the Faculty Handbook where they are modified through the agreed upon processes of shared governance, set up by the Board of Trustees.

• For reference, the policy of interest is located at Policy on Conducting Background Checks (epub).

Information Items

• Immediate Past Chair Dan Svyantek was approved as the Immediate Past Chair to replace Todd Steury. He will be the representative to BOT.

Action Items

• A motion was passed in January 2022 for the continuation zoom meetings for the Senate meetings with a new vote scheduled for August 2022. The floor was left open to discuss the motion. After discussion it was decided to vote for zoom instead of face-to face.

  • The vote resulted in 54 Yes (90%), 4 No (7%), and 2 (3%) Abstain. The motion to conduct meetings via zoom carried. It was concluded that for 2022 – 2023 Senate meetings will carry on via zoom.

New Business

Nominating Committee

Chair Carpenter announced the committee has been formed with the following faculty:

• Don Mulvaney (Chair)

• Dean Schwartz, College of Vet Med

• Cheryl Seals, College of Engineering

• David Martin, College of Human Sciences

• Michael Baginski, College of Engineering

• Elizabeth Davis-Sramek, College of Business

Adjournment

Chair Mark Carpenter adjourned the meeting at 4:52 p.m.