04.16.24 Senate Minutes

Establish a Quorum

• Vote to identify quorum. A quorum was established with 73 respondents.

• Provost Vini Nathan identified final candidates for "Phi Beta Kappa" changed to "Dean"

• Approval of the Senate meeting minutes from March 19, 2024. Minutes approved with no corrections and unanimous consent.

Remarks and Announcements

University Senate Chair: Lisa Kensler

• Correct and clarify the vote record from March meeting.

  • When calculating the votes, we mistakenly included abstention votes in the vote calculations. This is not consistent with Robert’s Rules of Order Revised. We should have omitted both the guests and the abstentions. The correct calculations are as follows for vote 1: Shall we consider the proclamation vote? A total of 809 people participated, with 119 guests and 46 abstentions; 205 faculty voted yes to considering the proclamation motion and 439 faculty voted no to considering the proclamation motion. Correctly, calculated, the no votes sustained the objection with 68% of the vote (surpassing the 66% or 2/3 threshold). We erred in the meeting by reporting the no votes as 64%, less than the required 2/3. Because of this error, we proceeded with debate on the motion. Following debate, the main proclamation motion failed with 541 no votes to 103 yes votes. Eighty-four percent of faculty present in the faculty meeting 84% present voted in opposition to the proclamation.

President: Christopher B. Roberts

• Recognized works of Dan King, who will be retiring from AU and expressed gratitude for service.

• Board of Trustee meeting outcomes highlighted.

• Recent acquisition of new research laboratory capacity (23,000 sq feet) in Auburn.

• The AU Agriculture Experimental Station property changes and expansion were addressed.

• AU Advancement Market value endowment is now estimated as $1.156B as of March 31 (comprised of foundation and university portfolio values). Advancement goal for fiscal year $175M ($107M so far). Nice work stewarding donors. One example is the George Petrie event recently held with 375 attendees at the Hotel & Conference Center.

• Welcoming 6000 freshmen students in August 2024 (53% women, 47% men).

• SB129 law signed, and small group meetings held on campus (300 people through April 2024).

Provost: Vini Nathan

• Dr. Jennifer Mueller-Phillips approved as Dean for Raymond James Harbert College of Business.

• Dean Ross and Harrison College of Pharmacy applauded with recent #29 in nation announcement in US News & World Report.

• P&T process completed and announced recently in AU News (celebration event in Fall).

• SB129 Working Group addressed Dr. Robert Boyd will lead efforts.

Information Items

Employee Mental Health Resources

Presented by Ann Shore (Exec. Dir. Payroll and Employee Benefits)

• Download/View Employee Mental Health Resources presentation (pdf)

Action Items

Vote re: Faculty Handbook Changes (required 2/3 votes of Senate- 59+ votes) 

Presented by Mitchell Brown.

• Discussion of one substantive change. Friendly amendment via motion made to tweak language 1- strike parenthetical in last paragraph as creates contradiction 2- use word reviewing instead of receiving (Motion: David Miller, 2nd Roy Hartfield). Motion to recommit the changes to Faculty Handbook Committee (Luca Guazzotto, 2nd Chris Martin).

  • Download/View College P&T Committees (pdf)

  • Vote on Motion to send to committee. We hold strong reservations about the proposed changes in the handbook regarding the P&T process. We therefore move to recommit the motion on the handbook changes back to the Faculty Handbook Committee.
    YES 53, No 8, Abstain 7. Motion passes.

• Faculty Handbook Committee asking to withdraw motion pertaining to Administrator Hiring Guidelines (2nd Luca Guazzotto). Rationale: Since last meeting the Office of General Council and the Office of Board of Trustees, identified a 2021 Policy that supersedes this policy request, and this policy would be in violation of the 2021 policy. Chair and Senate approved with unanimous consent.

  • Download/View Administrator Hiring Guidelines (pdf)

Vote re: Motion 

Presented and made by Roy Hartfield 

Whereas salary disparities are compounded when not corrected, the Senate hereby requests that the administration and Board of Trustees reconsider the 2-year calendar proposed by the president to conduct a study before correcting the salary imbalances of especially the past two raise cycles.

• Discussion of one change. Friendly amendment via motion made to adjust language from reconsider to shorten the 2-year calendar (Motion: David Miller, 2nd Rebecca Riggs).

  • amended:

    • Whereas salary disparities are compounded when not corrected, the Senate hereby requests that the administration and Board of Trustees shorten the 2-year calendar proposed by the president to conduct a study before correcting the salary imbalances of especially the past two raise cycles.

• Discussion on timeline, then moved to vote. YES 39, No 18, Abstain 6. Motion passes.

Vote re: Senate Committee Membership (Nominations from Rules Committee)

Presented by Linda Gibson-Young, moved to vote.

• YES 56, No 1, Abstain 1. Passes

• Download/View Nominees for Senate Committees (pdf)

Committee Reports

Faculty Salaries and Welfare, Tuition Benefits 

Presented by John Beckmann and Matthew Hoch.

• Download/View Survey Results re:Tuition Benefits (pdf)

• Download/View FSW Dependant Undergraduate Tuition Benefits (pdf)

Proposal for Teaching Professor Series (replacing Lecturer Series) 

Presented by Ash Curtiss and Rachel Prado (Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee)

• Download/View Draft - Teaching Faculty Proposal (pdf)

• Download/View Teaching Professor Title Series presentation (pdf)

New Business

Lisa Kensler, Senate Chair

• None.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 5:03 p.m. by Lisa Kensler.

Attendance

Senate Officers

Administration

Ex-Officio Members

Senators by Department

Absent without substitute