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Faculty Senate Meeting May 18, 2022 Agenda/Minutes

PLENARY AGENDA
Faculty Senate
DATE/TIME: May 18, 2022 3pm
LOCATION: MCOB Room 265 ( 3:00- 5:00 p.m.)

  • Call to Order
  • Approval of Minutes
  • Approval of Agenda
  • President’s Report (In writing) (Discussion on President’s Report 10 minutes)
  • DEI Committee Chair Elections
  • Reports from Senate Committees (Discussion on Reports 20 minutes)
    -University Policies and Handbook
    -Evaluations
  • Reports from Caucus Leaders (Discussion on Reports 10 minutes)
    -Attached (if submitted)
  • Reports from University Committees (10 minutes)
    -QEP
  • New Business
    -Bylaws Revisions
    -Other
  • Adjournment 

 

PLENARY SESSION
May 18, 2022 –Zoom 3:00 pm
MINUTES

Present: Faculty and Guests

  • Adams. Jamie
  • Amare, Nicole, excused
  • Bates, Robin, excused
  • Batten, Lynn, excused
  • Beebe, Donald, excused
  • Borchert, Glen
  • Brannan, Lauren
  • Brock, Casey
  • Bunch, Jaclyn
  • Copeland, Donna
  • Davidson, Clay
  • Donaldson, Amanda, excused
  • Garand, Kendrea
  • Gregoricka, Lesley
  • Godang, Romulus
  • Hartin, Charles
  • He, Jia
  • Holden, Shelley
  • Hossain, Delwar
  • Huang, Jingshan, excused
  • Khan, Zoya
  • Lewis, Drew
  • Lin, Mike
  • Lynch, Colleen
  • Meola, David
  • Migaud, Marie
  • Min, Hosik
  • Myers, Charlene
  • Ní Chadhain, Sinéad
  • Pavelescu, Andrei
  • Pelekanos, Sharon
  • Pfleeger, Jenna
  • Raczkowski, Chris
  • Rayner, Jonathan
  • Rich, Tom
  • Richardson, Joe
  • Sayner, Sarah
  • Sehgal, Mukul
  • Shaw, Thomas
  • Shepard, Beth
  • Spencer, Edmund
  • Swofford, Jim, excused
  • Swanzy, Debra
  • Thompson, Christina
  • Turnipseed, David
  • Vandewaa, Elizabeth
  • Walker, Sean
  • Wassenaar, Christina, excused
  • Webb, Brett
  • Weber, David
  • Williams, Ashley
  • Woodmansee, Brenda

 


▪ Meeting called to order 3:02 pm
▪ Approval of Minutes for 4/20/22 Meeting: Approved 
▪ Approval of Agenda for 5/18/22 Meeting: Approved

 

Guest Speaker:

  • USA Police chief reported on the College of Humanities incident where professor & family were threatened by a student. The student was quickly arrested and is out currently on bond. Some of the things that the Chief reported were being done is that the department is looking into the possibility of future installation of panic buttons, they are upping patrols, and the investigation into the student is ongoing.
  • The chief also reports that if faculty see a crime, report it. If you suspect something, report it so they can investigate/get ahead of it. Police feel we have a safe and secure campus. He reported that the Live Safe App is one quick way to contact campus police where they can find and respond to any incident quickly.  


President’s Report: 

  • Governmental Relations:
    -The Executive Director for Governmental Relations, Mr. Nick Lawkis, has some good news regarding state and federal allocations. 
    -The College of Medicine (COM) will receive $60M federal money for building construction which is the largest federal earmark in the history of the institution. COM will also get $50M from the Governor, the most significant contribution in their history. This was the first time the South received an equal share to that of flagships (AU and UA).
    -The university secured a $7.5M earmark to renovate the old engineering laboratory and a 9% increase in O&M. Also, guidelines related to Tier 2 were modified this year. Now, faculty in that category can retire after 30 years of service.

  • Executive Director for Marketing and Communication Search
    -The search is in the process, and we will have Zoom interviews at the end of this month.

  • Provost Search
    -The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate has interviewed three of the finalists for the Provost position. The evaluation of the Executive Committee was based on interviews with the candidates and the criteria established for the Provost Leadership Statement. The Committee submitted a memo summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three Provost finalists chosen by the search committee to the President, Mr. Bonner.

  • Instructor and staff salary
    -The Academic Affairs is actively working on a raise for the instructors and staff. Nothing has been finalized yet, but they hope to announce an update in the fall.

  • Working Group to Study Research Classification
    -A working group has been formed to study the trajectory of the USA to advance from R2 to R1 institution. The group led by Drs. Harold Pardue and Sean Powers will review the current status and provide recommendations.

  • Strategic Plan
    -Sub-groups will be formed to work on various areas related to the strategic plan.

  • Enrollment
    -We have a mixed scenario in terms of enrollment in the coming years. The university will be within 2% of the total enrollment of last year’s final number, which is 14,336.
    -As we had small classes in 2019 and 2020, we will see a downward trend in total undergraduate enrollment until those classes graduate in 2023 and 2024.
    -The positive thing is that we have a larger class in 2021, and the current 2022 class looks bright.
    -The university forecasts that total enrollment will be slightly down but within 2%, and there will be an opportunity to grow total enrollment in Fall 2023.

 

DEI Chair Vote:

  • Three candidates nominated for DEI Committee chair: Zoya Kahn, Marie Migaud, & Kimberly Pettaway. A vote of the majority selected Zoya Kahn as the next DEI Committee chairperson.

 

Reports from Senate Committees:

  • University Policies and Handbook Committee
    ▪ Sabbatical Policy
    -Sinead reviewed changes to the sabbatical policy. Language changed in the policy to reflect the negative impacts sabbatical may have on faculty benefits, such as insurance, pay, and retirement. Motion seconded to bring to a vote with the policy changes approved by a majority vote.
    ▪ Textbook Policy
    -Sinead also reported changes to the Textbook policy procurement to include language that reflects the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Also, deadlines were added to include that textbook information is available at the time of registration: March 1 for May and summer terms; April 1 for fall semester; and October 1 for spring semester.
    ▪ Affiliated Research Faculty
    -Sinead reported language changes to reflect the position is uncompensated and that duties, benefits, privileges, and duration of appointment are specified by letter or appointment and subject to yearly renewal. A motion seconded to bring the policy to a vote and with the majority vote the policy was approved.

  • Evaluations Committee
    -Chris urged faculty to complete the end of the year Faculty Senate survey if they had not done so already. The survey can be found at 
    https://southalabama.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_daidTWOtRZ4JsYS?Q_DL=xcZvmXBD147jfsz_daidTWOtRZ4JsYS_MLRP_cMTcPBS1Jf3NmpU&Q_CHL=email

 

Reports from Caucus Leaders:

  • None

 

Reports from University Committees:

  • Quality Enhancement Plan
    -Dr. Lewis provided a report on the updates from the progress of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) process for the university. The QEP team has narrowed down topics and the topics have been approved by the student success team and administration.

 

New Business:

  • Bylaws Revisions 
    -Committee revising bylaws and will report any updates at the next meeting.

 

Other:

  • None

 

Meeting Adjournment: MMSA 4:43 pm

Minutes transcribed by Donna Copeland