FACULTY SENATE MEETING
AUGUST 16, 2022
NORTH LAWN HALL #1014 – 3:30-5:00 PM
APPROVED MINUTES
ATTENDING: Sheila Black, Serena Blount, Seth Bordner, Shibin Dai, Susan Dewey, Rona Donahoe, Amanda Espy-Brown, John Giggie, Brittany Gilmer, Jessica Goethals, Courtney Helfrecht, Kim Lackey, Nathan Loewen, Di Luo, Christopher Lynn, Micah McKay, Moises Molina, Alessandra Montalbano, Luke Niiler, Shanlin Pan, Matt Reynolds, Tyler Walker, Sara-Maria Sorentino, Erin Stoneking, Edith Szanto, Alexandre Tokovinine, Charlotte Wegrzynowski, Craig Armstrong, Tom Baker, Todd DeZoort, Chapman Greer, Ruth Ann Hall, Matthew Hudnall, Hasan Isomitdinov, Clay Voorhees, A. J. Bauer, Leah LeFebvre, Bharat Mehra, Cynthia Peacock, Steven Yates, Dale Dickinson, Andrea Wright, Stephanie Buckner, Joy Burnham, Nirmala Erevelles, Sara McDaniel, John Petrovic, Stephanie Anne Shelton, Nicole Swoszowski, David Walker, Xiaoyan Hong, Tonya Klein, Sushma Kotru, Sundar Krishnan, Patrick Kung, Weihua Su, Ruigang Wang, Kelly McPherson, Thomas Herwig, Charles (Ian) Crawford, Amy Ellis, Yeon Ho Shin, Jeri Zemke, Heather Elliott, Barbara Dahlbach, Kristi Acker, Michael Callihan, Rebecca Owings, Kim Parker, Carrie Turner, Robert Riter-Parliamentarian.
ABSENT: Paulo Araujo, Nikhil Bilwakesh, Spyridoula (Litsa) Cheimariou, Kim Colburn, Lyndell McDonald, Doug Bish, Sriram Aaleti, Jialai Wang, Barbara “Babs” Davis, Paul Horwitz, Dan Joyner.
ABSENT WITH ALTERNATE: Soledad Sanchez Valdez/Becky Totten, Laura Erin Watley/Ibrahim Cemen, Gregg Bell/Joy Bradley, Nelle Williams/Meenakshi Arora, Sara Whitver/Katherine Arndt, Amy Traylor/Karen Johnson.
GUESTS: Laura Braddick-Strategic Communications, Dr. James Dalton, Provost.
Provost James Dalton started the meeting with comments about student enrollment, strategic plans and goals for the University of Alabama. UA will set a record with 8,000 freshmen students enrolled. There were 7,600 enrolled in the fall of 2021. One goal is to decrease the size of classes with 45.5% of classes this year having nineteen or fewer per section.
One hundred eighty new faculty members were welcomed yesterday with a meeting and reception at the President’s Mansion.
UA’s Strategic Plan for 2022 – Advancing the Flagship: The Next Phase – has been refreshed and was released last week. The first three goals have only minor wording changes from the previous plan. The fourth goal was work/life balance and now is “Foster an environment that will aid in the recruitment, retention, growth, and support of outstanding faculty and staff.”
Work has been done on the Faculty Handbook revisions with further edits to be done.
The General Education Taskforce and core curriculum continues with adjustments on the core curriculum hours. Bama Beginnings high impact first-year experience, and a first-year course across all colleges are included in some draft ideas. Decreasing hours allows students more flexibility by including high impact courses. Double majors, switching majors and transfer students will be an additional advantage for those students. Core elements in years three and four must be completed at the University of Alabama.
This fall semester will include getting feedback, sharing information and then offering a faculty referendum sometime in October or November of 2022. There are a lot of decisions to be made: is this something UA wants to do, what foundational courses fit the core, evaluating the advanced core, and a timeframe and method to be used with a roll out date of the fall of 2025.
Provost Dalton stated that UA, regarding the Roe vs Wade ruling, will make sure health care for women is available including insurance benefits, resources and supportive policies. Further discussion included the topics of financial assistance and protection of male/female faculty and student rights.
Provost Dalton discussed UA’s rankings in the U.S. News and World Reports. Retention and graduation rates and size of classes have an impact on the rankings. Pell grant recipients have a retention rate of 74%. Overall retention rate for students is 85.6%. A program titled “Crimson Scholars” has been launched with 139 Pell Grant recipients last year with the retention rate for those staying in the program for two semesters was 94.5%. The goal is to build this program out giving every enrolled student the very best opportunity to acquire their degree. Further discussion included size of classes-benefits of smaller or larger sizes, number of students enrolled, available student housing, resources for increased enrollment, no desire to move toward larger classes incentivizing faculty members, OIRA web site list of full-time and part-time faculty, increasing the number of tenure and tenure-track faculty on campus, engaging graduate students, assessment of learning outcomes from UA’s investment, and improvement in UA’s ranking.
Roll call and quorum check by Faculty Senate Secretary, Barb Dahlbach. Minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting of April were approved with corrections.
President’s Report – (Chapman Greer) The agenda for next Faculty Senate meeting in September in 110 Bidgood will be emailed prior to that meeting.
President Greer has asked the Faculty Senate Steering Committee to identify their respective goals for 2022-23 and rank in order of priority. The major goal for the Faculty Senate at large will be establishing affordable childcare for all faculty, students and staff. A business proposal is in the process of being prepared for presentation to the Faculty Senate for consideration.
The second main issue is the General Education Reform with input, suggestions and what faculty members would like to see implemented. A faculty-wide referendum will be forthcoming this fall.
Vice President’s Report – (Matthew Hudnall) No report.
Committee Reports –
Research & Service – (Shanlin Pan & Clay Voorhees) The goal of the Research and Service Committee is to improve our RV policies and alternate maximum performances and continue to work with our developers applied to the nearby funding opportunities. There will be a stakeholder meeting to discuss matters concerning IRB submission and review. Part of that meeting will be to discuss a faculty survey. This survey will be in partnership with VP Research to develop a joint instrument and do it as a collaborative effort. This committee will be partnering with VPRED’s office to identify new opportunities to increase support for faculty research.
Student Life – (Amanda Espy-Brown & Kim Parker) The Student Life Committee will continue to work with REACH. This organization works with students who are current and former foster, homeless or orphans. This committee is in the process of identifying those students who have special needs. There is a need and a search for faculty mentors. Donations are being accepted for student apartment furnishings. A gift card drive will be forthcoming and there is an Amazon wish list available. There are about 48 students for this fall up from 32 students last year. There are an estimated 650 of these students on campus.
This committee will continue to aggressively pursue improvement in meeting mental health needs and adding counselors.
Faculty Life – (Heather Elliott & Alex Tokovinine) This committee continues their work on childcare and is working with other organizations on campus on this issue.
Work is being done allowing universities to have a fund supporting faculty, staff and students in exigent circumstances such as those impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Faculty & Senate Governance – (Jeri Zemke & Ruth Ann Hall) One of the goals for this committee is to fill committee membership vacancies. The Mediation Committee will need colleagues to nominate candidates for this position. Those can be from Social Work, CCHS, HES and Nursing. Nominations are needed for Ombudsperson, Senate Officers and Graduation Marshals.
Work will continue with revising/updating Faculty Senate documents.
IT & Strategic Communications – (Patrick Kung & Xiaoyan Hong) This committee met with OIT during the summer. There is a new web site which consolidates research computer information. Included in the report was visual simulation and workshops that will be available for training and assistance in understanding tools that are available. These will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – (Thomas Herwig & Alessandra Montalbano) This committee is in the process of educational organization of their goals.
Community & Legislative Affairs – (Joy Burnham & Steven Yates) The Community and Legislative Affairs Committee will continue to work with Dr. Samory Pruitt. On August 31 there will be a Town & Gown visit from the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. There will be continuous contact with Charlie Taylor, Legislative liaison for the University of Alabama. There will be a reception for Legislators hosted by the Steering Committee in the spring.
Steven Yates attended the STARS conference attended by 14 public university representatives in Alabama. This is the 25th year of this annual meeting and is attended by students and some legislators. It is an opportunity for one-on-one discussion and questions. The legislators are looking at streamlining the adoption process. Mental health issues were included in the discussions.
Support for the Brewer Porch Teacher Appreciation luncheon will continue.
Financial Affairs – (Todd DeZoort & Tom Baker) The primary project of this committee is the development of an updated faculty compensation analysis with as much detailed information included as possible.
Academic Affairs – (Rona Donahoe & Babs Davis) The Academic Affairs Committee is working on Faculty Handbook revision/updates and monitoring and facilitating the General Education Reform process.
The committee met on July 28 with Leslie Reid, Associate Provost. One of the issues is to clarify the area of the Mediation Committee’s responsibilities. What is their purview? The Faculty Handbook defines that as intervening in procedural violations. Other points discussed were renewable contracts and termination of those contracts.
The provost has established a new Office for Conflict Resolutions to educate faculty about available resources headed by Kyle Lever. Information is on the Faculty Senate web site. Most faculty members are not aware that the Ombudsperson would be the first step toward the resolution of conflict. The outcome of this meeting is that a flow chart is needed which will be included on the web site listing available resources for faculty and contact information and how to address/steps to take to resolve a conflict. There is a new faculty liaison, Brenda Smith, replacing Brian Fair. The Mediation and Grievance policy is in Appendix B of the Faculty Handbook.
5:00 P.M. Meeting adjourned.
Faculty Senate meeting September 20 in 110 Bidgood.